Books Middle Schoolers Love to Read

Josef

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930's Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camp looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. His dad ends up doing a suicide attempt to end up failing and going to a Cuban hospital. They got rejected by the Cuban president, so they went to the states. They got rejected by President Roosevelt, and ended up going to France. Joseph ended up dying in a concentration camp due to Nazi soldiers.

Isabel

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. She lived in Cuba With their best friend Ivan. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America. Then, her best friend died because he fell into the water on the raft and he was eaten by sharks. They didn't know what to do with Isabel's friend (Ivan) so they shot a shark and dropped Ivan into the water, forever. While they are trying to reach America, the big tanker and storm sent them off their track to America. So, they ended up in the Bahamas which they thought was Miami, Florida.

Mahmoud

In the beginning, Mahmoud is one of the few not bothered that much. But than their home was bombed because of a group of terrorists, also known as Isis. One of Mahmoud's best friend got killed by a bombing because of the Isis group. They fled and paid for a boat. It didn't come until weeks. When it came it was a very very small raft and there must have been 30 people on it. They crashed and Mahmoud and his family let another family take his baby sister so she would live. They get rescued and eventually get a home with a family who takes them under their wing.

Character Traits

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Josef

Isabel

Mahmoud

Nice, responsible, fierce, brave, and courageous.

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Brave, emotional, Courageous, responsible, caring, and superior.

Responsible, secretive, shy, regretful, and mysterious.

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Credits

Isabel-Brady S and Brady T

Mahmoud-Spencer and Josh

Josef- Bryson and Jack

Front Page-Bryson, Brady T, Brady S, Spencer, Josh, and Jack.

Character Traits-Brady S, Brady T, and Jack

"Epimetheus, are you okay?" An Athens medic, Diomedes, yelled across the battlefield to a comrade who'd just been pierced in his left shoulder by an arrow.
His response was a loud grunt resembling the word "yes" as he hurled a spear at his attacker, the spear hitting the other soldier in the chest and killing him.
Epimetheus had a spear, however, it wasn't just any spear, it was a spear enchanted by his goddess mother, Athena, goddess of warfare and wisdom, so that whenever lost, the spear would return to his grasp.
Epimetheus saw many of his comrades falling to triplet sons of Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship, who were the fourth, third, and second best in the Spartans' forces, being less than only their Spartan commander, Vuelos.
As night fell, both sides of the war were far too exhausted to continue attack and retreated back to their tents to rest for the next day. Diomedes was cleaning Epimetheus' wound and wrapping a bandage around it, while others waited in more of a hoard than a line to get their injuries healed. Because Diomedes was the last medic alive, and as sending a message to get another one would take a few days, his main goal was self-preservation. Though, his "self-preservation" was also a way of masking his cowardice.33

Any time he would flee an encounter against a Spartan soldier, he would say that it was because he needed to stay alive or else no one would. While some would call this true, he had once caused the death of an extremely gifted fighter, who just needed an arrow to be shot at a man he had been wrestling, as they had both broke their swords. Instead, Diomedes ran away and the fighter had gotten stabbed by another Spartan.
Either way, the Athenians were losing the fight and Epimetheus was not super enthusiastic about it. "Come on guys, we need to step it up!" He said to the people who were also staying in his tent.
A soldier named Neopodolemustareo shot back, rage visible on his face, "Well not all of us have a magical spear, or even a pronounceable name!" The three other people in the tent grunted in agreement.
"You don't need a magical spear to win a war!" Epimetheus replied, taking Neopodolemustareo's insult a tad too personal. "You need skill! Maybe you just don't have that. The tent was silent from then on, only disrupted by light snoring that was audible about half an hour later. As soon as the sun rose, the snoring stopped, replaced by the Spartans' shouts across the battlefield.

In disarray the Athenians rushed out of bed and grabbed a hold of their weapons, running out of their tents, still tired and confused. Disorientated, many of Athens' finest warriors met their doom in the following battle.
In contrast, Epimetheus was easily slaying several Spartans, and soon found himself battling a dirty-blonde, grisly-haired Spartan dressed in full bronze battle armor. He recognized the suit of armor as belonging to the third best fighter in the entire army of Sparta. The fighter raised his shield and Epimetheus hurled his spear towards it.
The spear instantly pierced the shield and armor, giving the third best soldier a quick but painless death. A few people on the battlefield froze, as one of their best soldiers had died in an instant.
The silence was only broke by a very tall man clad in armor made of solid gold, screaming, "You killed my brother!" He recognized this as the second best Spartan. He'd heard legends of the "Warrior in Gold".

Epimetheus killed the Warrior in Gold in a similar fashion to the first soldier. Throwing his spear through the shield and killing him. Those two encounters alone were very much changing the tide of the fight.
However, the looming threat of the strongest fighter in all of Sparta, Vuelos, was still very imminent. As Epimetheus was pondering this, Diomedes' recognizable scream echoed across the land.
Epimetheus, though already very fatigued, ran across the battle field as fast as he could. When he arrived he noticed a man dressed in full silver. He new that this had to be Vuelos. He hurled his spear at Vuelos, who raised his shield. However, the spear didn't pierce the shield.
"This shield is blessed by Ares, the glorious god of war, you fool! Nothing can penetrate this shield!" Vuelos boomed. A figure who Epimetheus recognized as Diomedes was hiding behind a nearby tree.
Epimetheus tried throwing his spear again. It once more bounced off. Epimetheus remembered what his mother had once told him: "Don't always rely on one trick." Epimetheus charged and was slammed to the ground. He tried reaching his spear around the Vuelos' shield, but it was no use and Epimetheus was prepared to die.