Movie Review:
The Right to Read

by Kadjata Bah, age 18

A new documentary film called The Right to Read adds to growing national debates about literacy and the science of reading. This timely and compelling film is streaming for free until March 9, 2023.

Directed by Jenny Mackenzie and produced by LeVar Burton, the film follows a long-time activist, a teacher, and two families as they navigate the future of education.

Kareem Weaver is an Oakland-based activist with the NAACP. He is an experienced educator, and his mission is to create a world where 95% of children can read. Working with Sabrina Causey, a rookie first grade teacher in Oakland, the two make a case for a new curriculum for their students based in the science of reading. [Read More]

Book Review: Night

by Moises A. Hernandez, age 17

Night, by Elie Wiesel, is based on his own personal experiences with his father in Nazi German concentration camps. Some may not consider the book a memoir since it does not follow the memories of Wiesel himself. However, it is clear that the testimony, story, and emotional truth from Eliezer—the book’s narrator—are primarily those of Wiesel. Even though some minor details are changed, what happens to Eliezer is what happened to Wiesel during the Holocaust.

At the start of the story, in the early 1940s, Jewish teenager Eliezer lives in the town of Sighet in the then-Hungarian region of Transylvania—known today as Sighetu Marmatiei and located in Romania. During this time, Eliezer studies the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and the Cabbala—the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible—with a teacher named Moishe the Beadle. However, his learning is interrupted when Moishe is deported for being a foreign Jew. in, led everyone on board into the woods, and murdered them according to a fixed plan. [Read More]

Book Review: It Ends With Us

by Sandy Flores-Ruiz, age 16

Colleen Hoover's It Ends with Us is a standalone romance novel. The slow burn story follows Lily Bloom, a 23-year-old college graduate, as she begins her new life in Boston where she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. After some unconventional encounters, they eventually fall in love. However, over time Lily and Ryle’s relationship becomes complicated. What will happen when Lily meets her first love again, Atlas Corrigan, who is the owner of Lily’s favorite restaurant Bib’s?

Just as her life seemed too good to be true, she found herself in a similar position as her mother had been in, an abusive relationship with Ryle. Although she always vowed to never be in a domestic violence relationship, she found herself in one and could not find a way to leave. [Read More]

Book Review: The School for Good and Evil

by Josepha Da Costa, age 17

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani is the first installment of a six book fantasy and fairytale series. This is a young adult book aimed towards middle schoolers, although anyone could give it a read.

The story follows two best friends, Sophie and Agatha, who are seemingly polar opposites. Sophie loves attention, being rewarded for good deeds and makes an effort to dress up and look beautiful at all times. Agatha, on the other hand, lives in a cemetery, loathes any color other than black and dislikes everyone, except for Sophie and her ugly cat. Good and bad. Right?

In their town of Gavalon, two children, one supposedly “perfect” and one “evil”, are kidnapped every four years. They are then whisked to the famous School for Good and Evil where they undergo training to become a popular fairytale hero or villain. Eventually the children reappear, but in the storybooks at the local village book store. No one wants to be next. No one except for Sophie that is. She has dreamt of being an adored princess wth her very own prince her whole life, and she’ll do anything to make her happily ever after come true. So, of course she plans an elaborate scheme for her and Agatha to be taken by the School Master. And it works! [Read More]