Tag Archives: Film Making

MG – The Final Cut

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Markell, Denis. The Final Cut. Delacorte Press, 2022. 978-0-593-18066-2. 289 p. $16.99. Grades 5-8.

Alex Davis is ready to start 7th grade because he believes this will be his year. However, he discovers that he did not get into the super popular elective: Game Design and instead has been put into the filmmaking elective. He is devastated. The class is taught by the young, hipster teacher who wants to be called Pablo, and the class is filled with eclectic students. Alex feels like his life is doomed, but then he begins to forge friendships with this wonderful cast of characters as they work to create the best film in order to be the winners of the coveted Golden Reel Award. Yet strange things are amiss when it seems that someone is out to sabotage the competition.

THOUGHTS: A fun book! Wonderful characters who make the story all the more fun. The mystery was exciting but not scary. Sometimes we need a fun lighthearted read.  This is that book.

Mystery          Victoria Dziewulski, Plum Borough SD
Realistic Fiction

MG – Shark Summer

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Marcks, Ira. Shark Summer. Little, Brown, and Company, 2021. 978-0-316-46138-2. $24.99. 281 p. Grades 5-8.

Gayle, an ace pitcher for the local softball team and new to Martha’s Vineyard, hurts her wrist badly in a game. Her summer plans and hopes shattered, she teams up with a visiting son of a journalist, Elijah, and local girl Madison to make a film about a local legend.  With a big budget film crew on the island filming a blockbuster hit (similar to Jaws), the kids decide to focus their no budget film on the Atwood Terror legend, a story of a fishing-club owner who fed victims to a shark. Will there be some truth to this storied legend that the kids uncover?

THOUGHTS: Fans of Jaws and shark movies will enjoy this graphic novel.

Graphic Novel          Krista Fitzpatrick, Wissahickon Charter School