The Book Nerds of Jenks High School

By: Andrew Cross

I was one of the first people to arrive at Jenks Book Club, so I just lay back and admired the large amount of food. Once everyone else arrived, which only happened to be a nice 5 other people. The president, Juan Quintero, the vice president, Sarah Downs, and the Historian and Treasurer, Esther Niang, were all present. The meeting started with the president prefacing everything with the typical “welcome to book club,” and then we got down to business. The start of the meeting consisted of the vice president reading 5 book summaries that differed completely from one another, all presenting unique stories that we could discuss the following month. After the summaries were read, we voted for which book would be read by the club this month. We then moved on to talking about the book that the club had read previously. Sequoyah nominee, Daughter of the Pirate King.

Quick Review of Daughter of the Pirate King

Daughter of the Pirate King is a book that is anything and everything but boring. Right away you are introduced to the main character who is, well, the daughter of a pirate king. Princess Alosa isn’t the stereotypical character you would usually predict a story to contain. She isn’t some random ordinary person who turns out to have some sort of power, but instead a ferocious pirate captain, heir to the kingdom built by her father. Alosa’s attitude is very sassy towards literally everything, playing a big part in the outcome of many situations that she finds herself in throughout the book.

Alosa’s main mission in this book is to acquire one of the 3 pieces of the map to the legendary Isle de Canta. This island is the home to the sirens and their fabled hoard, at least according to the legend. On orders from her father, Alosa must recover the third piece from Lord Jeskor’s ship without them knowing. Then she must return the map to him and they will sail to Isle de Canta and claim the treasure trove. This voyage takes part in the new second book, which is just as good and adventurous as the first.

Alosa struggles to find the map on the ship because of many unexpected obstacles. Surprisingly, the most complicated issue is in fact the first mate himself. Ryden was the most unexpected character Alosa had ever come across. He has a certain mysterious background but also an almost undetectable alluring charm. Alosa though, has a few secrets of her own that might give her the edge. Will she recover the map and make it out or be distracted in her mission in the most unpredictable ways?

Back to Jenks Book Club

As a whole Jenks Book Club talked about the book in as much depth as possible, covering all angles. Including characterization, setting, the unique twisting plot, and more. Then we just hung out and ate a bunch of food.

This month the book club is reading a pretty well known book, Cinder. Jenks Book Club provides a friendly, fun, family environment WITH FOOD. Read the book and join the Jenks Book Club next month on Wednesday the 6th in the library after school. See you all there!