Starbounders by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson

A Sci-Fi Rollercoaster

            A spaceship crash is surely no place for a boy entering high school, unless that boy has enrolled to protect the galaxy from danger as a Starbounder with the Inter Planet Defense League or IPDL. Young Zachary Night spends one week in training before a spaceship crashes leaving him stranded on a salt planet with no water and a galactic felon. A few brushes with death later, a plot to destroy the human race is discovered and no one can stop it except Zachary. Can he do it?

            This was high-speed roller coaster through space. Interesting technologies and aliens keep the reader hooked. While humorous lines make the book a pleasure to read. I liked the surprising twists that continue the suspense throughout the book. I would definitely recommend this book to all sci-fi lovers. The book has a cliffhanger ending that leaves readers longing for a sequel. That is why I rate this with a five stars. If I could give more stars, I would!
 5 Star Favorite!

Vocabulary.com

This is a great website for improving your vocabulary for the SAT or any other purpose. The vocab challenge ensures that words tested are not too hard or too easy. There is not a time costly pretest, as the program learns from your wrong answers and adapts itself to your knowledge. As a reward for mastering words, you can earn badges, much like Khan Academy. Each badge means that the owner has a minimum number of points. I have 99,525 points and a prodigy badge. To achieve the prodigy badge, you need a minimum of 10,000 points. There are also patches for achieving various missions, like completing a whole round without a mistake. You can see all your friends’ achievements in the leaderboard.

Vocabulary.com also has a dictionary.  One of my favorite parts of the dictionary are the funny, amusing example sentences that make words memorable. The dictionary is different from the usual dictionary because you can look for lists of words. For example, a search for partsof:bicycle will come up with a list of words and their definitions, all parts of a bicycle.  Any search using the syntax partsof:<your noun here> will find the parts of that noun. The dictionary will also find words that rhyme with a specified word. Look on the left side of the screen while playing the challenge for tips on special search syntax and other help.

Another feature of Vocabulary.com is the blog and word lists. The blog has various vocab related articles that are extremely interesting. The word lists are lists of words composed from literature or the dictionary that people liked. These include lists for practicing for a spelling bee, making the lists worthwhile to read.  At any time, you can choose to designate a word from the website dictionary or a list from the list library as something you would like to include in your personal quizzes. The whole site is also ad-free for a non-irritating learning experience.