Book Review: Student Work

 Student 1: Making Macaroons

Book Review

To start my project, I am currently working on is about macaroons, so I choose a book called “Macarons at midnight” written by Suzanne Nelson and designed by Jennifer Rinaldi and Yaffa Jaskoll. This book was released on January 1, 2015. This book was easy to access I already owned it, so it was very helpful that I did not have to waste time at the library.

This book was an amazing read from beginning to end, it felt as if I was watching a romance movie in my mind. Elise the protagonist is upset that she had to move in with her dad since her mother and stepdad had to do a six-month work assignment in Switzerland. Her stepsister Destry had to take Elise to a valentine’s day masquerade party, unfortunately, Elise felt as if she was under Destry’s shadow and left the party because she felt terrible. As she was walking, she sees a restaurant called “Swoonful of Sugar”, Elise then saw a boy drawing, the boy noticed her, and they start talking (keep in mind Elise is wearing a custom so Raj doesn’t know how she looks like) and the owner from the bakery hands them a macaroon saying, “My lovebirds”. Elsie and Raj walk out after talking and they were about to kiss but, Elsie’s dad came and ruined the moment. Elsie does not want Raj to find out who she was until she got to know Raj, so she used her friend Viv to play her part, But Elsie’s friend Kyan likes Viv and gets jealous. Raj gets tricked into thinking Viv was the girl he met that night, but it’s actually Elsie, and Raj likes Viv, so Viv slowly starts liking Raj because she never found a guy that nice before. Elsie has a problem back home not getting along with her stepsister. Elsie thinks the best thing to do is to go back home with her mother and get over Raj. But then Viv tells her that Raj needs to know the truth, but Raj plans to ask Viv for a school dance, Elsie is like well it is over now why keep trying for a guy who does not want her, and Viv does want to go with Raj. Kyan was also upset that he is not going with Vivi, so Elise ends up going with Kyan to the dance, at the dance Raji spots Elsie and takes her out to dance. Elsie was so memorized by him. Viv comes back to the dance and ruins the moment. Elsie leaves because her stepmother goes into labor and when she walks out, she sees Raji and Viv kissing (but they were not). The next day Viv tries to explain what happen, Viv likes Kyan, and they were the ones kissing that night. Viv tells Elsie to tell Raj who she really was by going back to the spot they met and so she did. Elsie tells Raj that she was the girl that he met that night and Raj leaves because he needs to do something. Elsie was sleeping, but then Raji throws stuff at her window to get her attention and Elsie meets him outside. Raji was holding a plate of macaroons, and they both eat one. Then Raji and Elsie kiss under the moonlight.

One benefit of this book was having recipes for macarons in the book, but what did not really help me is it didn’t focus on macarons it’s more like a middle school crush between friends, but I will say this the book is actually very relatable to what I have experience.

I believe that the message the author is trying to tell us is that French pastries bring people together. France is one of the most romantic places and it makes sense that even though Elsie and Raj lived in the United States it takes one person like the Bakery owner to bring two people together and fall in love with each other by a macaroon split into two.

To wrap things up, I would rate this book five stars for its climatic story, but if you’re trying to find a book about macaroons, I wouldn’t recommend this book since it doesn’t go into detail. This book was very interesting, to be honest, I did not like reading before, but this project/book changed that.

Work Cited

Nelson, Suzanne. Macarons at Midnight. Scholastic Inc., 2018.

Student 2: The Fermi Paradox

Student 2 included her Book Review in her final Power Point Presentation. See a future Student Work: Final Project post.

Student 3: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

Student 3 was not able to find a suitable book for her research. I allowed her to conduct a second interview in lieu of the Book Review. See Student Work: Published Interview.