This story takes place in a dystopian Chicago, where society is divided into five factions. These factions are each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). At the age of sixteen, teenagers must choose one of these five factions to commit themselves to for the rest of their lives. As the main character, Beatrice (Tris), struggles to find who she truly is, she finds herself making a choice between the life she’s always had with her family, and a new and exciting life. She also discovers a secret about herself that she doesn’t yet fully understand.

       Tris has always been part of Abnegation, the selfless faction, but she feels like she isn’t exactly good enough to fit into this community. She finds that it’s a challenge to be as self-sacrificing and unselfish as her family. When the time comes to make the choice between a new life and her family, however, she realizes that she doesn’t necessarily want to say goodbye to her family and the familiar life she’d leave behind. If she makes the choice to leave, she most likely will never see them again. When Tris takes the aptitude test in which the community gives her a faction recommendation, she discovers a dangerous secret—she’s Divergent— which means she doesn’t  fit into any conventional category; but she doesn’t realize the full extent of danger this label can put her in.  After choosing her faction, she faces a highly competitive initiation, and struggles to determine who her friends truly are and what being Divergent can actually mean for her. She also uncovers a plot that threatens to change society as she knows it, and how powerful her secret can actually be.

       What I enjoy most about Divergent is the suspense. There is not one boring or dull moment in the whole book, and it kept me reading and almost experiencing the feelings and emotions of the main character myself. The only thing I didn’t particularly like about the book was the ending. I think it was a little rushed and that it could have been much better if it wasn’t for that. But overall, it was a great, well-written book, and I recommend it for fans of the Hunger Games.

If you love to read, you know very well the excitement you feel when you purchase a new book. There’s something about holding it in your hands, smelling the crisp pages, and feeling each page as you turn it that’s almost as important as the content of the book. When you read, it’s not just the words that captivate you, it’s the entire experience.

However, it seems that now-a-days, everyone is insisting that books are going the way of the dinosaur, and e-readers have risen to the top. With Barnes and Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle for sale at relatively low prices, more and more people are making the switch every day. Not that there aren’t some advantages for using e-readers. Thousands and thousands of books are available for your download from pay sites, library sites, and free sites; and you never have to leave home. With a click of a mouse you can have that newly released novel you’ve been wanting instantly. It’ll be on your reading device in a couple of seconds. You don’t have to go to the bookstore, or the library, or wait 5 days to get it in the mail. I’ll admit, that sounds pretty appealing.

My parents and my sister all got Kindle’s recently, and while on vacation, there was this sci-fi book they downloaded. I read it, partly because I didn’t have anything else to read, and partly because it looked interesting. It was a great book, it really was. I enjoyed it immensely, and at the end I wished it had continued on forever. It was the very first time I had ever read a book in its electronic form, and honestly, I didn’t think much about it.

Weeks later, I was at the library. There was a book on the end cap and I picked it up because it looked like something I might enjoy reading. After skimming the paragraph on the back cover, I realized it was the same book I had read on the Kindle only a month ago! I quickly flipped through the book, looking at the font, the size, the layout of the page, and after a few moments, I realized to my dismay that I didn’t even recognize the book. It was foreign to me. How could a book that I had read so recently and loved so much be unknown in my mind?

That’s when I realized it was because I had missed out on the full experience of the book. All the comfort and emotion you find by having a physical copy of a book cannot be translated through a cold, hard computer. Every book on the Kindle is the same. It’s a page of text within a piece of machinery. Books have personalities that are portrayed through the formatting and the fonts, and each book is very unique. When you read a book, you not only get to know the characters and the story, but you get to know the book itself. It’s not so when you read things on a Kindle.

What if by the time my kids are ready to start reading and loving the wonderful things books can bring them, hard copies have become obsolete and e-readers are the only way new books are available? What if my grandkids never get to enjoy the smell of brand new printed pages and the comfort of turning a page and seeing that the story continues and the world you’ve grown to love lives on? How could I expect them to discover the same love for reading I have by looking on computers instead of paper?

Some things are sacred.

And in a world where everything is becoming computers and technology, some things should be left alone.

(This review is by homeschool teen, Coan Payne, who, in addition to writing book reviews, also writes wonderful poetry. Be inspired: check out his blog.)

I Kissed Dating Goodbye is written mainly to teens and young adults who are unmarried, not just specifically Christians. Joshua Harris points out why dating is a bad idea. He discourages dating but doesn't tell you you absolutely can't date.

As a 16 year old who has not dated at all, this book has given me several reasons why I do not want to date. Focusing on a relationship, and being involved in a relationship at a young age, can change your priorities. Your focus can easily be taken off God and put solely on the person you are involved with. It can cause rifts between family and friends that can affect your relationships long term. He also points out that if you do decide to date then it is important not to be intimate because "the joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment". By this he means intimacy is meant for married couples only, and quotes Scripture relating to this.  

But the other day, I stumbled across a Christian song I had never heard before called "Love" by an an artist I had never heard of named Jaeson Ma. The chorus was sung by Bruno Mars so that caught my attention and I decided to listen to it and see if it was any good.

The song is really unusual for Christian music. It's written in the form of a rap song I guess, but when you listen to it, it sounds more like the guy is preaching to the beat of the music. But what really stood out about it was the lyrics. For the first time with one of these songs, I actually felt something when I listened to it beside the urge to turn it off. The whole song is about love, and how true love is God, and I think it's very inspirational. My favorite verse is the last one that goes like this:

 There is no greater love than this

Than he who lays down his life for his friends
Now are you willing to lay down your life for your friends?
You're probably willing to lay down your life for your mother
your father, or your best friends
But are you willing to lay down your life for even those that hate you?
I'm going to tell you who did that
The definition of love is Jesus Christ. He is love
The nails in his hands, the thorns in his brow
Hanging on a cross for your sin my sins
That is love he died for you and me while we still hated him
That is love
God is true love, and if you don't know this love
Now is the time to know, perfect love.

I don't know about you, but those lyrics are actually saying something, that's what makes them different. They're explaining the truths that come out of the Bible in a simple way, and then tying it all in to Jesus Christ everyone, even those who hated him. That's just so incredible. And I think it could get even those who don't know God to think, and maybe be interested in finding out more about this perfect love. All in all, it's an amazing song.

Why don't you take a listen and tell us what you think of it?

“Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday, today i-is Friday, Friday, we-we-we so excited, we so excited
We gonna have a ball today. Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards. I don't want this weekend to end.”

No, that isn’t a quote from a preschooler proudly showing that she finally knows the days of the week. Sadly, those are lyrics to “Friday”: what Ark Music Factory and the singer, Rebecca Black, hoped would be the next “big hit”, but has been repeatedly described as, “the worst song ever.” Four minutes of auto-tuned garbage that makes your brain rot and drives you to turn the crap off and listen to some Justin Bieber. Pathetic isn’t it?

And it gets worse. Check out the music video. Rebecca goes to the bus stop to “catch her bus” but then instead gets into a car driven by her thirteen year old friends (but only after she takes way too much time deciding whether she should choose the front seat or the back seat.) By the way, she never seems to make it to school. Instead, she spends the remainder of her weekend, “Partying, partying, YEAH!” with her pre-teen buddies, when they really should be at home finishing up their homework and playing board games or something.

Let’s do some background on her and this, umm, “production”: Rebecca’s mom paid Ark Music Factory, a California talent agency, to write and produce a song and a music video with her daughter. Rebecca said she hoped that this would jump-start her singing career. Both she and her mother were aware of the ridiculous lyrics. So, the video was uploaded to YouTube on March 11, 2011. It is now the 24^th. As of this moment, her music video has 43,576,329 views, and her song has sold thousands of copies on iTunes. I think the question everyone is asking has changed from, “Is this some kind of joke?” to “How the HECK is the girl getting so much attention?!?!?!?”

That question was answered by Lady Gaga. “I think Rebecca Black is a genius,” she said. And in a way, she is. Think about it. You hit two markets in one shot. First, you get all the “Bieber-lovers” who are so used to music that makes your ears bleed and means nothing that they actually enjoy the song. Then, you also get the people in their teens and early twenties who just love to hear about something like this so they can tear it to shreds and prove to the world through their witty criticism and commentary that this song is unbelievably horrible. And as they say, any publicity is good publicity. Do you think Rebecca Black cares the least bit that most of her hits and downloads are from people who hate the song? Why should she? They’re still hits and downloads, and she still making loads of money off of all these haters. It’s actually a pretty sad fact about our culture. When’s the last time something spread all over the world so fast because it was really, really good?

Is “Friday” really the worst song ever? No. It’s auto-tuned like crazy, the lyrics sound like something my 5-year old sister would come up with, and the music video is cheesy and makes little to no sense at some points. Honestly, it sounds like one of the many dance songs that are all over the radio by people like J-Sean and Pitbull. It could be one of those lame songs that the Disney Channel kids do but because they have such a massive marketing machine behind them, no one even questions the stupidity of the lyrics. If I had first heard of it in either one of those settings, I probably wouldn’t have even given it a second thought. And on the subject of her actual singing voice, it was so auto-tuned that you don’t even get to see what her voice sounds like.

So I guess the final question is, “Was this really all a genius plot to come up with an insanely laughable song knowing that, being the critics we are, it would be an immediate hit and both AMF and Rebecca Black would make a nice amount of money? Or was this just a girl with a dream and some song writers who really thought this song could be something and figured they’d give it a shot?

Either way, the entertainment industry is a sad state of affairs… 

As usual, I went into the library, picked a random book off the shelf, and took it home not knowing what to expect. (Well, it wasn’t really the most random book, I’ve already read 4 books by the same author. But I’d never heard of this one before, so it has some randomness to it.) Anyway, that book was So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld.

Basically, it’s about this boy named Hunter who just so happens to be a “cool-hunter” (aka a “trendsetter”), a person who goes around and steals the first appearance of a trend from the “Innovators.” One day he meets this Innovator girl and after a focus group where she opens her mouth with some new idea, Hunter and Jen are told to meet his boss Mandy on a NY street corner the next morning. Except Mandy never shows up. All they find is her cell-phone in a nearby abandoned building and then the adventure is on! They go all over the city trying to find clues to Mandy’s location, all the while realizing truths about advertising campaigns and what “cool” really is. This crazy adventure happens over the course of one weekend and it had enough action, romance, and thought provoking insight to allow me to read the book in one sitting. (Although, I am considering reading it again, just for some of the AWESOME quotes.) It was a great book.

But the thing that really got my attention in this book was what he called, “The Cool Pyramid.” Here’s an excerpt that explains it from the book.

“At the top of the pyramid there are the Innovators. The first kid to keep her wallet on a big chunky chain. The first to wear way-too big pants on purpose, etc. When you meet them, most Innovators don’t look that cool, not in the sense of fashionable, anyway. Except there’s always one thing that stands out on an Innovator. Something new.

Next level down are the Trendsetters. The Trendsetters goal is to be the secondperson in the world to catch the latest disease. Unlike the Innovators, they are cool, so when they pick up an innovation, it becomescool.

Below them are the Early Adopters. They test and tweak the trend, softening the edges. Early Adopters saw their stuff in a magazine first, not on the street.

Further down are the Consumers. The people who have to see a product on TV, placed in two movies, fifteen magazine ads, and on a giant rack in the mall before saying, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” At which point, it’s not.”

Now think about that for a second. I’m thinking that I can be like 99% sure that you who are reading this are a consumer. Not an Innovator, not a Trendsetter, not even an Early Adopter! Just a plain old consumer. And you, my friend, are at the very bottom of the cool pyramid. You, who probably thinks you’re just the bomb with your artistically ripped up jeans and graphic T-shirt. Or your cut-off shorts and cowboy boots. I know I’ve even felt that way a couple times when I’ve successfully emulated an outfit that I’ve seen in about two movies, fifteen magazine ads, and on a giant rack in the mall.

Even for me, it was kind of like a slap in the face to see that idea of “what everyone is doing is cool” completely destroyed. I say “even for me” because I’ve questioned that idea to a degree before. But never that much. Never so completely that the idea of imitating that new Disney Channel style I saw yesterday already makes me feel so…un-cool.

So you could imagine I was kind of impressed by the cool pyramid.

Except…

As usual, there’s something missing.

I personally do not fit into any of those categories.

I fit in the sense that like an Innovator, my day-to-day fashion sense is in no way considered cool. But, I don’t usually experiment and try to wear my clothes in a new way either. Generally, I have more of a I-don’t-care-what-you-think-I’ll-wear-my-clothes-the-way-I-think-they-look-good kind of attitude. Which fits none of those categories. And I have a feeling that there are a lot of people out there like me that just…well…defy definition.

Still, I find the cool pyramid fascinating because it has turned my thinking about the word cool completely upside down and led me to ask the question, does cool really exist?

And the answer, at least I think, is yes. Cool exists to each individual. Lately with the insane amount of advertisements and social media we’ve been told what is and isn’t cool and it’s just easier to go with the flow than to fight against it. But everyone has their own individual sense of what is cool to them (even if they keep that a secret), which is why the non-fashionable Innovators are at the top of the pyramid. They’re not fashionable, they’re original. Or, as original as you can be in this totally unoriginal world. And just like with any good revolution, if enough people start to buck this trend or unoriginality, then more uniqueness and individuality will begin to rule again….at least for a short while.

But wait. If everyone starts being original, then won't that make being original totally unoriginal?

Wow. Enough with that. My thoughts are starting to blur together. But hey, if you’ve got a comment or an opinion on this feel free to post it below!  

These are taken from EduScraps, Scrapbooking Through History, 1900 – 1919, by Sharon Crooks. There are two other e-books in the series, covering  1920 – 1939 and 1940 – 1959. (See her other homeschooling products at her website). 

EduScraps includes informational handouts, activity pages, website suggestions, and layout ideas if you’re putting together a scrapbook. It’s all broken down by year.  I like that she covers not only major events, like wars and the Wright brothers, but less highlighted historical happenings that have proved impactful in their own right, such as the introduction of the ice cream cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair, and the invention of the popsicle in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. History is so much more fun when you don’t have to have your nose in some boring textbook.

Examples from EduScraps:

1900: Ellis Island symbols and their meanings: research and find the meaning of chalk symbols used on immigrants

1901: Discussing the similarities and differences between muckrakers of the 1900s with today’s paparazzi

1903: Crayons invented:  At  Crayola’s website, you can see what the original crayon colors were and their chronology of colors.

1905: The Yellow Fever outbreak in New Orleans is traced to mosquitoes:  research what other diseases mosquitoes are known carry.

1906: The San Francisco earthquake: research what causes earthquakes; invention of the Richter scale

1906: Kellogg invents Corn Flakes: find out what other cereals are by Kellogg, and what recipes can be made from Corn Flakes

1907: Color photography invented: examine the advantages and disadvantages of black and white vs. color photography

1908: Paper dolls are introduced: make your own paper dolls and dress them in period clothing

1911: Greenwich mean time is adopted: research everyday uses of GMT such as for email, news media, and aircraft

1913: Ford installs the first moving assembly line; improves mass production methods, reducing cost of model T: choose a project your family can complete using the assembly line to illustrate its advantages