By: sophia.fratta July 9, 2019July 9, 2019 Book Reviews14+, 2019, dramatic writing, featured, fiction, tragedyLeave a Comment

Harmless, Harmful: A Review of Othello

They had me cornered–two adults sitting on the ground, and my friend in between them. I gave them all a bewildered look and sat heavily on the ribbed metal bench. The man asked the dreaded question. “So, where are you from?” I wanted to run away screaming, certain I would be here for hours. “Well,”…

By: sophia.fratta September 11, 2018July 3, 2019 Book Reviews13+, 2018, featured, fiction, historical fiction, survival5 Comments

A Courageous Decision: A Review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

For hundreds of years, slavery was accepted as a way of life. To see people beaten for working too slowly, sold to pay off debt, or killed in fits of anger was the ugly but unquestioned norm. Today, with slavery almost gone, it is something to speak of in somber tones and with grim faces.…

By: sophia.fratta August 14, 2018June 25, 2019 Book Reviews13+, 2018, action/adventure, fantasy, featured, fiction, survival7 Comments

Emails in Elvish: A Review of The Silmarillion

When I finished reading The Return of the King, the third book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, I gazed at it sadly and turned wistfully to the appendix at the back of the book. I quickly forgot my melancholy mood, however, when the appendix turned out to be a treasure trove of…

By: sophia.fratta November 7, 2017July 3, 2019 Book Reviews11+, 2017, action/adventure, featured, fictionLeave a Comment

The Inner Cat: A Review of Northern Lights

The house was silent. I was completely alone, nestled on the couch with my book in my hands. In the stillness, the only noise was my deep breathing and the occasional turn of a page. I was fully immersed, my eyes flicking from word to word as fast as lightning. Oh, that beautiful exhilarating silence,…

By: sophia.fratta May 9, 2017July 3, 2019 Book Reviews12+, 2017, featured, math, nonfiction, science4 Comments

Of Podcasts and Electricity: A Review of Electric Universe

As we were driving home from piano lessons one day, my mother (with my siblings’ eager consent) decided to play a podcast about the history of light, from candle wax to light bulb fixtures. The podcast cast a spell on us. As we were listening to the acknowledgments, a name of a certain book caught…

By: sophia.fratta November 8, 2016July 3, 2019 Book Reviews12+, 2016, action/adventure, crime/detective, featured, fiction, mystery1 Comment

From Simple to Sinister: A Review of And Then There Were None

I used to think that nursery rhymes were silly, simple, and annoying. They rang in my head, over and over: Little Jack Horner and Little Miss Muffet and Humpty Dumpty and Little Bo Beep. Why would I “waste my time” reading nursery rhymes? But after reading And Then There Were None, my perspective changed. I…

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Gutter Truths

By: sophia.fratta March 17, 2020April 1, 2020

Award-Winning Writing, Memoir4 Comments

Honesty. The pen doesn’t work. Outside, the rain whispers down onto the road. It murmurs through the gutters in a language I can’t understand: the rain only speaks in truth. I reach for another pen in the pencil case. The latch was open already, from when mom flicked it while examining the room this morning.…

Nothing is Terrifying

By: sophia.fratta February 4, 2020April 1, 2020

Award-Winning Writing, Short Story2020, fiction, Short Story8 Comments

The sun is gone, but the night is hot. I sit as far away from the fire pit as I can, fingers tracing patterns in the sand. It’s dry and powdery, and still a little warm. The sparks from the fire jump and fizzle. I feel the flashes of pain as they land on my…

A Fresh Perspective: A Review of The Mists of Avalon

By: sophia.fratta October 15, 2019October 15, 2019

Book Reviews14+, 2019, action/adventure, fantasy, fiction3 Comments

The legend of King Arthur and the Round Table has been told many times. Over the years, it has been rewritten as the story of an injured American trying to modernize medieval England, turned into a comedy starring shrubberies and flesh wounds, and adapted into fantastical role-playing games. This year has seen a reboot, The…

Trusting Minds: A Review of Graceling

By: sophia.fratta August 6, 2019May 18, 2019

Book Reviews13+, 2019, action/adventure, fiction, survivalLeave a Comment

“See you later!” I moved away from the group, re-playing our conversation in my head. Had it gone well? I wondered idly. Did they like talking to me, or were they only being polite? I hoped not. Maybe I was too strange, though. Or maybe I was just overthinking things. I shook my head,…

Helen

By: sophia.fratta July 2, 2019April 1, 2020

Award-Winning Writing, Flash Fiction4 Comments

She burst into the courtyard. It was quiet; the cobbles glinted in the bright moonlight. Although her feet ached from running, she did not dare take her sandals off. The streets were sticky with the blood of the wounded, even this far into Ilium. A fountain depicting Poseidon stood in the middle of the courtyard,…

Top Three Books: June 2019

By: sophia.fratta June 24, 2019July 3, 2019

Book Reviewsaction/adventureLeave a Comment

We’ve been all over this month, visiting New York, Paris, and more–including libraries and bookshops. Here are this month’s best finds: The House of Windjammer, by V. A. Richardson The heart of the house of Windjammer is in their ships. When their magnificent Star Fleet is lost on a long and fruitless journey to the Americas,…

#WisdomForFuture: A Review of A Civil Action

By: sophia.fratta June 4, 2019June 25, 2019

Book Reviews14+, 2019, legal, nonfiction1 Comment

On Friday the fifteenth of March, Greta Thunberg proclaimed another #FridaysForFuture—a day when students skipped school to protest for responsible energy usage and a cleaner, greener planet. I watched videos of thousands of students out on the streets, holding up signs and shouting things like “You’re killing our lungs!” The same day, I accompanied a…

Top Three Books: May 2019

By: sophia.fratta May 21, 2019July 2, 2019

Top Three BooksLeave a Comment

With summer just around the corner, my family and I have been planning all sorts of things to do in the next couple months—hiking, traveling, workshops, the like. But my bookshelf hasn’t been neglected, either. Here are three of May’s best:

Vines and Threads: A Review of Leviathan

By: sophia.fratta May 7, 2019July 2, 2019

Book Reviews, Top Three Books10+, 2019, alternate history, fiction, historical fiction, survival8 Comments

We sped past the pine trees, leaving only exhaust in our wake. The wooded area by the highway was lush and green, but I recognized a plant that should not have been there. The kudzu vine is invasive in my area; you see it everywhere. How could we contain it? I frowned, gazing at a…