Rating: 
Summary: A Great Summer Read!
Review: Kate Malone is: a senior; a straight-A math and science geek; ranked 3rd in her class; an ace long distance runner; girlfriend to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III; unwilling caretaker of her father, a minister that is a better reverend than father, and her 14 year old brother, Toby that has wicked asthma and raging hormones; emotional avoidance champion, as she has never really dealt with the sudden death of her mother from pneumonia, when Kate was just in elementary school. Kate manages her life logically, just like the order of the periodic table. She thinks she can handle it until things begin to happen like a string of chemical reactions that takes Kate's life more and more out of her control. First, her family's neighbors get burned out of their own house and move with them. She has to share her room with Teri Litch and her troublemaking but adorable 2 year0old brother. Teri is an 18 year old classmate that is big, rough, handy with power tools, and unfriendly. And on top of this, the deadline is drawing near to hear from MIT, foolishly, the only school Kate has applied to. Then some things happen that truly blows everything a part! Read Catalyst to find out what happens to Kate Malone and to possibly change the way you view the world!
Rating: 
Summary: great book!!!!!
Review: i really liked this book, it was sooo cool, it made me really care about what happened to Kate (the heroine).
Catalyst is about a high school senior who is applying to college and is also dealing with an irascible classmate and her baby brother who have moved into Kate's house due to a fire in their own. Kate who has spent her life avoiding the messy emotional side of things - she's a scientist, eventually must face her feelings when her college plans go awry and she learns a disturbing secret about her classmate.
i would recoomend Catalyst to anyone whose a teenager going through high school
i give this book 5 stars!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Catalyst
Review: Catalyst is a touching story of a high school girl with a minister father and how she learns to find the good in others while she struggles to find the good in herself. This book really connected to me and I could really relate to Kate, the protagonist, because we have a lot in common. I recommend this book to anyone that has a big heart and would enjoy a story about putting your own problems aside and reaching out to enemies. Catalyst helped me realize that anyone can change like Kate did and everything is possible. Kate changed from being afraid of ruining her reputation, to being a friendly person who makes friends with the one person she least expected, while gong through many tragedies in her life. This book moved me and helped me to look past what others appear to be, and to judge people by who they are.
-Review by Lauren
Rating:
Summary: GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Catalyst- a substance which increases the rate of a reaction. It is consumed in one step of the reaction and then regenerated later in the process. The catalyst is not used up, but provides a new, lower energy path for the reaction.
While reading the book Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson, there never seemed to be a dull moment. I was pulled into Kate?s world not being able to take my eyes off the page.
Kate Malone is an 18-year-old math and science prodigy. Kate manages her life by organizing it, as logically as the Periodic Table of Elements. But when her neighbor?s house burns down (who just happens to belong to her worst enemy), things sort of start to happen like a chemical reaction. And through all of this, Kate waits for her acceptance letter from MIT, the only college she applied to. Then when things are so terrible you would think the worse has come and nothing could happen to make it worse, something happens that blows everything apart.
In the book Catalyst there are many exciting incident, such as when she went grocery shopping at the Superfresh with Teri Litch (her neighbor, who?s house burned down). Kate and Teri seem to have a slightly different perspective on what grocery shopping is. Kate?s idea of shopping is: get grocery cart, wander through the store picking out what you need, waiting in line, paying, and leaving. Teri?s idea goes something like this: get grocery cart, walk around store grabbing everything you want, run out of store without paying, hot-wire a car and get out of there as fast as possible. And that?s exactly what Teri did.
Catalyst is a follow up to Laurie Halse Anderson?s widely popular Speak. If you like an eventful suspenseful book that isn?t filled with unrealistic x-ray vision people, but rather book with realistic people to whom you could relate, a book that will make you cry, make you laugh, make you scared, then Catalyst is the right book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible! Incredible! Incredible!
Review: Usually when a book blows me away like "Speak" did, I am hesitant to read anything else by the author, as I am afraid nothing else will live up to my sky-high expectations. I took a chance reading this book, and I am so glad I did.Catalyst is the absolutely incredible story of Kate Malone, who utlimately learns there is more to life than great SAT scores. Funny and poignant, this novel guides us through all the in's and out's of Kate's life...from the loving care she takes of asthmatic brother Toby...to her spontaneous, yet also well-planned out, impersation of her long-dead mother...to the ultimate all-to-human mental battle between Good Kate vs. Bad Kate. This book will make you laugh, make you cry, make your heart soar... Laurie Halse Anderson truly has a gift for getting into the nitty gritties of her characters' heads. I only can wish that I wrote half as well as her. PS Look for a special cameo appearance from Melinda of "Speak"
Rating:
Summary: Where do I start?
Review: WOW... I don't even know where to start with this review! This has been the BEST book I have ever read in my ENTIRE life. I am not a very big reader, but I read another one of this author's books, and I wanted to read catalyst too. I am SO thrilled that I did. It is hard to explain the plot though. When someone would say, "so whats that book about?" I would fumble for an answer. It is TRULY a MUST-READ for every single person. I loved it so much, and I am sure that everyone that reads it will love it too. Laurie-Halse-Anderson has OUTDONE herself with the MOST AMAZING piece of teenage-literature! If you don't read catalyst, you will never know what you have MISSED OUT ON!
Rating:
Summary: There's More to Life Than MIT!
Review: Lots of stuff going on in Kate's life. Most of which she ignores and puts on the blinders with a straight-ahead for MIT. Watch Kate get straight A's, watch Kate run, watch Kate iron and clean and take care of her little brother. But the inside stuff, her mom's death, her dad's seeming disinterest, she pounds into the pavement in a sort of hypnosis of running. What gets Kate out of her blinders is having her old school nemesis Teri Litch and her little brother move into their house with them when their home burns down. This is a real irritation that just won't be ignored. Teri's little brother is a sweetie but Teri is, well what ever the opposite of sweetie is. Still, Teri can act out her pain and Kate just runs. Of course all these things in Kate's life begin to collide, and Kate begins to unravel. Her rejection slip from MIT is only the tip of the iceberg. When real tragedy strikes, Kate takes a real honest look at where she is, and starts to put things back in order. I liked the way she made peace with Teri.
No, it's not "Speak", but it's darn good.
Rating:
Summary: Catalyst - The Best Book I Have Ever Read
Review: This book is awesome. The words, paragraphs, and pages flow so well almost like there is no end. The plot is incrediably real and vivid. The characters Kate, Mitch, Sara, Travis, Toby, Reverend Malone, Teri, Mikey, Mrs. Litch and many more are unbelievably understandable and life - like. The story line is understandable. A high - senior breaks down after her one goal in life is destroyed and then has to managae her dwindling life. She does though recover through the enoromous support of her friends. Everyone needs to read this book. It will capture you in just the first pages and you will read the ending in a matter of a couple of days tops!
Rating:
Summary: unusually good
Review: When I first got this book, I just picked it up with a few other books I was buying. When I read the back I saw that it was about some brainiac chic who wanted to go to MIT. And well being a non-brainiac in 7th grade, it wasn't really the type of thing that I would want to read about. I was wrong though. Even though I can not relate to the main character at all except that I am a girl too. She is a reverands daughter, whose mom died, and who is a brainiac girl who wanted to get into MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Even though they say don't judge a book by it's cover, you really can with this book because the illustration shows everything practically that happens in the book.This book has jus the right amount of drama withuot it being ike a soap opra.Itisn't cheesy in that way. ou really get pulled into the book. And even though te to use the word "tear-jurker" (which byt the way I don' kow how to spell, but you get the gist) that is exactly what this book is. In case you have no idea wha this book is about or wha I am talking about(people don' usally know that one though) will tell you. It is about a brainiac minister's daughter with a dead mother. the main character,KAte wanted to go to MIT since 4th grade, she didn't tell anyone, btshe only appled to MIT, a verey hard school to get into. You ca probably guess that she doesn't get in or you can tell from the burning letter on the cover that says "we regret to inform you....yor application has been..."you still don't know what she will do about her situation. To add to her predicament, her neighbor who is her worst enemy goes and has her house burnt down so she has to move in with the main character, Kate. Kate also is an insomniac(I lied about our similarities, I am too) and she runs miles during the night wen she is stressed (i.e. most of the time) It is a very good book even iff it doesn't relate to you. You should read it.
Rating: 
Summary: way depressing
Review: an okay book but not one i would recommend. not her best work.
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