FEBRUARY

Learn something interesting? Read an amazing book? Listen to an awesome Podcast that you learned something new?
Each month, you are to provide at least one recommendation in each of the following categories. You are to give a brief
synopsis of each. For the book please give the name of the book and the author. For the podcast you need to include the
name of the show then provide the actual episode you listened to and give an explanation of that episode.

NAME Book Podcast Documentary

Victoria One of Us Is Back - Karen M. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

McManus =zB_OApdxcno

This book is the third in the One of

Us Is Lying series and it follows a
group of teenagers nicknamed the
‘Murder Club’ living in the city of
Bayview. The story begins when a
billboard is hacked to show the
message: TIME FOR A NEW GAME
BAYVIEW.
This causes suspicion due to a
texting game involved with the
death of a teenager a few months
prior. Later, at a party hosted by
Nate Macauley, Phoebe Lawton
gets drugged and kidnapped. She
is then taken to a shed and found
with the word ‘practice’ written on
her arm. A few days after this
incident, Reggie Crawley, one of
Nate’s roommates disappears.
Nate and his girlfriend decide to
 look for him and find him in the
school gym lying dead on the floor
with the word ‘makes’ on his arm.
After Jake Riordan goes missing,
the ‘Murder Club’ is convinced that
he will be ‘perfect’, finishing off the
saying ‘practice makes perfect’.
They have to piece together the
clues to discover Jake’s
involvement in the situation and
discover who the kidnapper is.

I rate this book a 4/10 because it

was not very interesting and there
were way too many characters to
follow. In the ‘Murder Club’ group,
there are about 7 or 8 characters
and lots more side characters. The
way the book is written also feels
very cliche and not descriptive
enough.

Ethan

Amanda

Emily

Darren

Clair Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The art of misdirection | Apollo The Third Wave Experiment
Fahrenheit 451 is a book about Robbins | TED
censorship in a dystopian The art of misdirection | Apoll…
American landscape. Guy Montag This TED talk is begun by Apollo The Third Wave was a 1967 classroom
is a fireman, who’s job is to burn experiment led by teacher Ron Jones at
 books. Books have been outlawed, Robbins asking about what the Cubberley High School to demonstrate
and propaganda has let citizens audience would do if they could how easily people can fall into
believe that books are “evil”. After control people’s attention. He authoritarian behaviors. Jones created a
burning a new batch of books, he introduces himself as a pickpocket "movement" called The Third Wave,
heads home and meets Clarisse that studies human behaviour, then which emphasized strict discipline, unity,
McClellan, his new neighbour. shows the crowd how people can and obedience. He introduced a
They go on a walk together, obsess over things, but not quite militaristic salute and rules that
discussing Montag’s job of being a concentrate on them. He encouraged conformity and loyalty. The
fireman. At the end of their stroll, demonstrates this by asking the students quickly adopted these
she asks “Are you happy?”. crowd what the time is, with them behaviors, even forming ranks and
Montag’s exposure to this new not knowing despite often checking policing each other. Some students who
way of thinking eventually leads their phones. He comments on it as resisted were pressured to join.
him to change his way of thinking, “You can attend to something
from being distrustful of books to without being aware of it. He As the experiment progressed, the
slowly becoming more interested continues with his presentation, and group's dynamics became increasingly
in them. His attempts at trying to demonstrates his pickpocketing authoritarian, with students taking on
convert the people associated are skills with a member of the roles of power and control. Jones
unsuccessful at first. Clarrises’s audience named Joe. Even though escalated the intensity by creating a
death breaks him, and he begins the audience’s full attention is on "secret police" to enforce the rules. After
to crack, unleashing his Joe, Robbins still manages to sneak just five days, Jones ended the
flamethrower on his colleague, past their gaze and pull tricks on the experiment, revealing how easily the
Beatty. This way of thinking volunteer. He then ends the lecture students had embraced authoritarian
continues, until he quits his job continuing the question that was practices. The experiment highlighted the
and joins a literature preservation asked at the beginning. I would rate dangers of groupthink, blind obedience,
society. I would rate this book a this lecture a 7/10, as it was and the power of authority in shaping
10/10, as it was very good, the entertaining but I didn’t learn too behavior, drawing unsettling parallels to
plot was good, and the pacing was much. the rise of totalitarian regimes.
good. It also served a good role in
the case of warning people about I would rate this Documentary a 9/10, as
the dangers of censorship. it was engaging and visually pleasing to
watch, and I learned quite a lot from it.

Hannah MockingJay Is perfectionism just procrastination

 in disguise? Can you “see” images in your mind?
MockingJay is the third and last Some people can’t
book of the Hunger Games series. In this ted talk, Jon Youshaei talks
It follows Katniss Everdeen, who about perfectionism and In this short ted ed video, Adam Zeman
has survived two hunger games, procrastination. He begins with a talks about aphantasia, which is the
and has become the leading face joke on how whenever he would go inability to visualize images in one's head
for the rebellion against the to upload a video to his youtube which applies to four percent of the
Capitol. After being rescued mid channel, he would always find more population. This was first classified by a
game, she is sent to District 13, imperfections in his videos and psychologist in the 19th century, where
which had been thought to be change it, often not even uploading he deduced that visual imagery was a
destroyed, but was hidden anything. In his first year of creating spectrum, with one end being
underground. Katniss eventually videos, he only made 6. What aphantasia, and the other being
agreed to be the mockingjay, as began to take him out of his spiral hyperphantasia, where images are so
long as Peeta was rescued from of imperfections were Mozart and vivid they can be on par with reality. But
the Capitol. However, when Peeta Edison. Mozart made over 600 how does one objectively measure
was rescued, he had been pieces, although only a couple are what's going on in someone else's mind?
hijacked by the Capitol to believe widely spread while Edison made In one study, scientists used how pupils
that Katniss was evil. over 1000 inventions, some of automatically constrict to light. When
which were heavily frowned upon even just imagining bright lights, one’s
Later, Peeta had gotten more before making the lightbulb. eyes will still dilate, unless that person
control of himself, and Katniss had Although only a couple of Mozart’s doesn’t have mental imagery. The most
started training for the invasion of pieces took off, and Edison made interesting thing about aphantasia is that
the Capitol. On the mission, the 1000 pieces before getting people with it still dream with vivid
team that Katniss was with began recognition, they never gave up. Jon imagery. This is because dreams tend to
facing challenge after challenge, proceeded to ask the audience how use the lower half of the brain, while
trap after trap, all meticulously many potential masterpieces they mental imagery uses the top.
placed by the Capitol. The battle left because of one mistake. He
to overtake the Capitol was close, then talked about Monet, an This video explained aphantasia very
with both sides taking major loses, amazing artist who destroyed the well, as well as hyperphantasia. The
with one side ultimately standing equivalent of 3 million dollars video was very visually pleasing, and
champion. because of one mistake he saw on a everything was very concise, allowing me
painting. He warned everyone to to understand well. 8/10
This book was very interesting, not be like Monet, and to try to
and had an ending that I was not think in a Mozart mindset. He had a
 expecting. Overall it was a good modern example of that mindset
book, and i would rate it a 9/10 working, as after Jon began making
more videos, he blew up, with his
best videos having multiple
mistakes, audio not being synced,
blurry imaging, and more.

This was an engaging video, but

didn’t really answer the question
stated in the title. 7/10

Augus Inkheart - Cornelia Funke The Language Of Lying - Noah Zanke

Inkheart is a fascinating fantasy

novel about a little girl called
Meggie and her father Mo, the
story is about a book called
inkheart, and Mo’s magical ability
to read a book with so much
creativity and passion he can bring
it to real life, the story focuses on
Capricorn, an evil villain from the
book Inkheart who was
accidentally brought to life by Mo,
taking his wife into the book and
taking him out, Capricorn is known
in the book to cause fear and have
incredible greed for wealth,
burning all the Inkheart books so
he could never be sent back to his
own world. When Mo gets
kidnapped to summon gold out of
 books, they’ll need to find a way
to defeat Capricorn, but how?

Bruce

Lorie Loot: How to Steal a Fortune - Disease, the New World, and The Mystery of Matter: “Out of Thin Air”
Judy Blundell modern pandemics - The rest is When Hennig Brand discovered the
Loot is a fun story about two long history. element phosphorus in 1669, the search
lost twins, the children of a In this episode of the rest is history, for elements began. And so, the periodic
famous jewel thief. They are Professor Kyle Harper teaches us table of over 100 elements was formed.
tasked with finding seven magical about the connections between This show explores the lives of seven
moonstones after he dies. disease and colonists from Spain prominent figures in chemistry and the
However, they must find the and other european countries. discovery of the elements.
moonstones before their 13th During the Columbian Exchange, One great leap in this discovery process
birthday to break a curse. To do diseases like smallpox decimated came from the discovery of air, or the
so, they steal from celebrities, the native population. However, different kinds of air. When Joseph Black
former cops, and even other sime diseases such as tuberculosis poured acid onto a chalky substance in
thieves! Their fantastic burglaries were present before the europeans an effort to cure kidney stones, he
are inspired by famous criminal came to the Americas. Later, the discovered that this air was “heavier”
cases in the past. In the end, they slave trade greatly promoted the than normal air, and could put out a
find a place to settle down after spread of diseases like malaria, and flame. People then realized there was a
breaking the curse and stealing in Africa, disease was a big problem. third state of matter: gas. This prompted
lots of cash as well. It is a fun In the 18th century, people began discovery of other gases such as
story with heartfelt and silly to be more optimistic about hydrogen, nitrogen, and even carbonated
moments, and I would rate it an preventing diseases, leading to water!
9/10. modern treatments today being I would give this documentary a 10/10
effective and relatively fast. for it’s creative and engaging descriptions
I would give this episode an 9/10 as of all the discoveries.
it explains the relationships between
civilizations and disease; an
advancement in civilaization will
likely bring an advancement in
disease.
Jacob The Wild Robot - Peter Brown Is Perfectionism Just Procrasti… The Most Insane Weapon You Neve…
This TED by a content creator This video talks about a top secret U.S.
This book follows a robot named named Jon Youshaei first starts with project called Sundial, which was
Roz, which after being washed up the speaker's own experience, proposed in the 1950s. This project
to an island after a ship crashed where he was struggling with aimed to create a single nuclear bomb
because of a storm holding many perfectionism, for example one that was capable of destroying human
copies of the same robot like Roz, video, he had to redo it 29 times civilization. The bomb, with an energy
now Roz as the only survivor gets because he thought it wasn't perfect equivalent of 10 billion tons of TNT, was
activated by animals at the island, enough, and sometimes he just proposed by physicist Edward Teller.
but first of all, Roz scares the entirely scrapped the video, leading Edward Teller, a key figure in developing
animals because obviously the to him only uploading 6 videos on the hydrogen bomb, wanted or believed
animals have never seen a robot his first year on youtube. But then in even larger nuclear bombs or
before. Roz decides to learn the he shows how James Gorden destructive weapons, proposing the idea
language of the animals, and changed his perspective, James of Sundial, a bomb that was only used as
somehow he then can understand Gorden, a host of a late night show, a last resort that could wipe out
what each animal is saying, but on how he had 109 different humanity. Thankfully, Sundial was
suddenly Roz gets attacked by a formats and 5700 different uploads, actually never built as many
grizzly bear, while running away but even though he had a lot of governments thought it was too much as
Roz accidentally crushes the goose flops, his videos soon became one the bomb was only used as a last resort,
eggs in a nest but all except one, of the most popular late night and that killing of all humanity was too
Roz decides to care for the egg shows. The speaker than shifts to much. The video then concludes how
after saving it and getting advice Mozart, now Mozart had over 600 humanity can still create a doomsday
from an opossum, after the egg compositions while only living for machine by stockpiling thousands of
hatches Roz names the goose around 35 years, which was way nuclear bombs, and also if humanity
“BrightBill.” Roz then helps more than a lot of other composers, would be ready or able to destroy itself
Brightbill learn to swim, and even even though many people criticized as nuclear weapons from countries such
builds a shelter for him, and with some of his compositions and even as China and the US continue to grow.
the help of Longneck, the leader some of Mozart’s composition were
of the gooses, Brightbill learns to flops, we all know Mozart became I would give this video an 8/10, I liked
fly just in time for the migration. on of the most famous composers. how the video explained project Sundial
As winter approaches, Roz has to The speaker also talked about and overall I found it very interesting.
say goodbye as Brightbill migrates Edison, Edison had over 1000
to another place, without anything inventions, many of them are flops
to do, Roz decides to send a signal but as we all know Edison invented
 for the factory who built them to the lightbulb which made him
retrieve him. After winter is over, famous. The speaker then shifts to
Brightbill returns to Roz and a different person, Monet, one of
they’re both happy, but then the the most legendary artists, with
ship comes to pick Roz up, but 2000 artworks, but he tells how
since Roz doesn’t want to leave Monet should have had more as
Brightbill, Roz decides to flee but some of his artworks he just
the ship deploys, RECOS, which scrapped as he thought it wasn't
are robots that goes to capture perfect enough. Finally, the speaker
ROZ, but with the help of Brightbill concludes on how we should all be
and the other animals, ROZ Mozart or Edison, and not Monet,
manages to kill them, but the ship and how Perfectionism might be
then explodes them, starting a Procrastination in disguise.
wildfire and capturing Roz, but
then Brightbill manages to save
Roz and the ship crashes. Roz
realizes that more ships are going
to come and if he doesn’t give in,
the other animals and Brightbill
might be harmed. He decides to
be captured/retrieved, saying his
last goodbyes to Brightbill.

I would rate this book a 9/10, the

plot is very well developed as well
as interesting.

Jensen

Eddie The Wild Robot Escapes - Peter

Brown

The Wild Robot Escapes takes

place after the first book, The Wild
 Robot. It takes place after Roz
voluntarily agrees to go back to
the factory, planning to get
repaired, then escape back to the
island. After getting repaired at
the factory, Roz is sent to a farm
to work on. She befriends the
animals and humans, but still
wants to return to the island. She
creates an elaborate plan,
traversing through cities and
forests, evading capture. Bright
Bill, also assists with the plan. He
uses his wings to locate Roz in the
city. At last, she is back at the
island, and reunited with the
animals.

Maggie The Life of Pi - Yann Martel NPR News Now : 02.24.2025 3PM - NPR A simple guide to chaos theory - BBC World
What would you do if you were stuck in a The NPR News Now is a podcast that Service
lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutan provides little snippets of recent news in We hear a lot about the chaos theory and the
and tiger at sea? “The Life of Pi” is a under 5 minutes, every hour, every day. In butterfly effect, but what really are they? The
fiction adventure and survival novel about this episode, I learned about what Donald chaos theory proves that Newton’s laws and
a 14 year old boy written by Yann Martel. Trump and Emmanuel Macron, the classical theory, where if the current state of an
Piscine “Pi” Patel is a young boy who is president of France, discussed about the object is known, its behavior can be predicted
exposed to and explores themes such as ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, with ease, isn't necessarily correct. The theory
spirituality, unaware that it would be a the recent common flu, and much more. consists of the idea that not everything can be
great help to him. The story mainly predicted, rather, we can only make predictions of
focuses on Pi's desperate journey out on I would rate this episode a 7.5/10 because the theory, showing that we have limited
the ocean with limited resources and a it contained lots of information, condensed knowledge of the world.
hyena, zebra, orangutan and Bengal tiger into a 5 minute long podcast. Although
as crewmates. some of the news was global, a lot of it is I would rate this video a 9/10 since I found that
only relative to the U.S which I don’t think is the content was extremely interesting to learn
I would rate this book an 8.5/10 because as important. I would recommend this about and the order was easy to follow and
the story was extremely captivating and podcast for anyone who doesn’t have a lot understand. I would recommend this video for
kept me hooked throughout most of the of time to spare and would like a quick whoever needs a basic overview of the concept
story. The only thing that kept me from update everyday. about predictions, just like how I did.
rating “The Life of Pi” a 9/10 was that
 there were a few lengthy chapters that
mainly focused on spirituality that were
kind of boring in my opinion. I would
recommend this novel for anyone who
enjoys reading about spirituality,
adventure and survival together.
Disclaimer: There are a few gory scenes
which may be uncomfortable, but that
means that the author is a good writer. :)

Bheem Animal Farm - George Orwell

“Animal Farm”

Ian

Jessica The Science of Why 4 - Jay The Unique Love Between Humans Fever Feels Horrible, but is Actually
Ingram and Dogs | Elias Weiss Friedman | Awesome!
TED
The Science of Why series is a This video by Kurzgesagt is about the
scientific book series on frequently This 12-minute Ted talk goes into body’s immune system and how it reacts
asked questions. In this book, Jay depth about human relationship to harmful viruses and bacteria. To start,
explains Science Facts, fables, and with dogs. The speaker, Elias the video poses a question: should you
Phenomena, like ‘Where did the Friedman, is a professional dog take medication to suppress a fever?​
Easter Island Stone Heads come photographer with over 50,000 dogs
from?’, ‘How do squirrels find the photographed. To start off, The narrator explains that fever is our
nuts they bury?, and ‘Can we be Friedman talks about the idea of way to raise our body’s temperature to
cryogenically frozen and revived ‘unconditional love’ with dogs and kill harmful viruses. The viruses do not
centuries later?’ Jay Ingram uses how they can always bring a smile adapt well to this heat and are killed by
many science facts, drawings, and to someone’s face. He also explains it. Unfortunately, our body’s cells may be
reasoning to support his evidence how different cultures treat dogs infected by the virus, which can make
and explains them all thoroughly. (eg. Places in Europe and high temperatures ‘stressful'. To cope,
Switzerland treat dogs very some cells could end up producing
Personally I really enjoy Ingram’s seriously, and in order to become a billions of heat shock proteins [HSP],
books, as his topics are fascinating breeder you need to have the which keeps the cells alive. Producing
and explained well. I would rate necessary training whereas in the too much HSP will alert our Killer T cells,
 this book a 9.7/10 for outstanding US there aren’t any rules about who then kill the malfunctioning cell to
explanations and for clear and breeding). eliminate the virus inside them.
concise answers to questions I
was curious about. I would give this video a 8/10 as the I really like this video as it goes further
speaker touches on one of my than this plain information. The video
favorite animals, with an engaging then poses a question: Why would the
topic and a great speaker. One virus not adapt to this heat?
unexpected thing was that this was The answer is that infecting healthy
more of an interview-style Ted Talk humans could be harder. The virus would
than a lecture like the ones I am adapt to the heat, making it harder to
used to seeing on Ted. kill, but it would not be able to infect a
human with normal temperature.

I highly recommend this video and will

rate it a 10/10 for going beyond the
question it poses at the start and giving
extra information. It also explains the
immune system really well, chunking the
information in a way that makes it very
easy to understand. The video keeps the
audience engaged with its graphics and
animations.

Yiming The Giver - Lois Lowry What Color Is A Mirror? - Vsauce The Next Outbreak? We’re not Ready -
The Giver is written from the point TED - Bill Gates
of view of a 11/12 year old, Jonas. In this video, Michael explains the
He lives in a dystopian society with science behind the “color” of a This ted talk spoken by Bill Gates
his mom, dad, and sister along mirror. He says that the color of an explains how if something over the next
with the rest of the people in his object is the one single color that few decades kills tens of millions of
community. This society is a that object does not absorb, and people, it is very likely to be an epidemic
futuristic one that has eliminated bounces off to your eyes instead. over nuclear war like when he was a kid.
all hatred and war of any kind, and This light that bounces off is called This is because our world has invested a
the people in their respective diffused reflection. Diffused ton in nuclear deterrence because of this
communities all are very similar so reflection bounces off in all ways, fear. In past epidemics such as the ebola,
they get along well and are very while a mirror only bounces off one we had some medical professionals in
polite to each other. In the society, direction, specular reflection, certain places, but we were too slow to
for all ages from newborn to 12 creating an image. For this reason, get these people in the affected
years old, there is an annual you cannot call it “white”. In the countries. In the next epidemic, our
ceremony which celebrates the spectrum of light, we have found failure to prepare can cause a mass
“birthdays” of every one of the that it mirrors best reflect light in burgeon of the virus all over the world.
ages. (There are no actual the 510 nm range. This range, Gates says that we have the potential to
birthdays.) Every 12 year old gets humans see as green, so technically, build a very strong and stable defense
assigned a role (a job). During the mirrors are a bit green. An example against the next epidemic, but it is just
ceremony of the twelves, Jonas, of seeing this is in a mirror tunnel, about preparing properly and investing
who had no idea what his role where two mirrors face each other more into this defense.
would be, was assigned as a and there is infinite reflection. In
receiver of memory, a highly these tunnels, the deeper it goes, I rate this video a 8.5/10 because it
renowned job. He keeps all of the the greener and darker it gets. addresses a huge issue and gives simple
community’s past memories to and concise answers to the problems. He
learn from them, and to get these I rate this video a 9/10. It is very gives examples from the past, letting us
memories, they are passed down concise and to the point so that learn from some of our mistakes.
from the previous receiver of everyone can understand it. He
memory. This person is a wise old explains the concepts very clearly,
man who tells Jonas to call him giving examples such as the “mirror
“The Giver”. tunnel”

A child called Gabriel, who Jonas’s

dad takes care of for his work,
gets Jonas’s attention and he
grows emotionally attached to the
child.

At the end of the book, Gabriel

was scheduled for release from
the community for not meeting its
strict requirements. Jonas runs
away from the community along
 with Gabriel.

I rate this book a 9.6/10 because

it had a very interesting plot and
ending. It was very fun to read
and I think that anyone can read
it.

Nolan

Derek

Owen

Kaylee Heartstopper volume 3 - Alice Who smarted - What causes

Oseman freckles?
Freckles are caused by melanin
Heartstopper is a book about 2 which is a chemical that brings
grade 12 highschool boys, Charlie colour to your skin, eyes, and hair.
and Nick, who have started to It absorbs light from the sun and
date each other. Last year, Charlie protects your skin from developing a
was outed and this year, Nick sunburn. Your skin creates more
realised that he was bi. They’ve melanin when exposed to the sun
been keeping their relationship a for long periods of time, which is
secret since Nick hasn’t come out why some people develop a sun tan
yet. Charlie tells Nick to take his when in the sun for a long time. Fun
time as last year when he was fact, no one is born with freckles,
outed, he faced a lot of bullies and your skin only starts to produce
he doesn’t want Nick to go melanin 6 - 8 weeks after birth,
through that. On their grade 12 however, freckles usually develop
trip to Paris, Nick decided that it between the ages 2 - 4. Freckles
was okay if he came out. He can fade or completely go away if
wasn’t sure how to come out yet, your skin isn’t as exposed to
so Charlie decided to try and help sunlight as usual (eg. in the winter),
 and asked his friend how they but they can be reactivated if
were comfortable revealing their exposed to sunlight. Yet some
relationship (they are both girls). people’s freckles stay all year
She said to just stop hiding it and around.
let people find out for themselves.
It makes the process easier and
having a big announcement isn’t
necessary. So that’s what they did.
They were out and as of now, they
didn’t face much bullying.

Grace

Terrence Restart- Gordon Korman

Dylan Berserk - Miura Kentaro

⚠️ This is a manga series that is

safe for public reading ⚠️

very family friendly and is very

This wonderful bundle of joy,

sunshine, friendship, happiness,
loyalty, and close bonds with
others of various backgrounds
expands on a medieval - like world
full of swordsmen and the smell of
battle crawling in the air. In this
story, Gutts, an aspiring orphan
born from a corpse in a ruin of
what used to be a city, is taken in
by a band of mercenaries and
trained to fight. Eventually
overcoming his many hardships
and growing stronger and
stronger, Gutts decides to travel on
his own, as a solo mercenary.
Eventually, he meets and joins
Griffith, another young teen
aspiring for mercenary greatness
and a leader of “the band of the
hawk”, a mercenary group of teens
all left in difficult situations and
finding peace and safety in the
band of the hawk with Griffith.
The rest of the story is very
important, as it explores the
relationship between Gutts, his
girlfriend Caska, and his best
friend Griffith, and how they
continue to expand on their
deep-rooted friendship, frolicking
in flower fields and bringing down
evil all day.