The End of One Chapter, Beginning of Another - Ranger's Apprentice

Young Will has come a long way from being Halt's apprentice. He has grown into a mature man and Ranger, and earned a powerful name for himself. I just read the tenth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series, The Emperor of Nihon-Ja. To be honest, seeing this series end brought a tear to my eye, it was an amazing book with a

perfect ending. (Yes I know that he wrote a book after this but it wasn't originally going to be written, so I am going to count his book as the end.) It had a perfect and subtle combination of suspense, mystery, romance, and action...creating this beautiful concoction that left you at the edge of your seat. A single word can describe my reaction to this book. Wow.

Now you may think that I'm just being another fan girl/boy for this book, but it was a quite extraordinary book. If you haven't read the book you can read the summary here:

Click here for summary

The best thing I liked about this book was how there was never a part where you just wanted to speed to the good part. Every part was the good part. It kept me engaged in the reading, not wanting to drop the book. Also the amount of detail put into every aspect of the story is tremendous. Although there's a lot of detail, it doesn't feel like the book is describing every blade of grass, but it is in fact giving just as much detail. Also Flanagan has a way from going one scene to the next, because there were different stories going on at the same time, adding a greater suspense to the book. For example Flanagan ended a chapter here about Evanlyn and Alyss and the next chapter was about Will and the others, "There was no sign of the wolves. But the girls knew they were still there, still watching." (Flanagan 256) The cliffhangers! Because Flanagan incorporated this method of switching stories every few chapters, there were multiple cliffhangers in the book, adding to the excitement and suspense. Have you ever been chased by a pack of hungry wolves? It made the reader keep thinking of both sides of the stories at the same time.

Finishing up this series reminded me that I am almost done with my first year in high school. All in all I am going to miss being a carefree freshman(kinda) but am excited to see what the future awaits me. As the quote goes, "No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!" (C. JoyBell) I've closed this book and am awaiting to dive into the next.

Pendragon: The Soldiers of Halla

So about two months ago I posted a blog talking about the first book in this series. Now I have finally arrived at the last and I have to say, that this series is honestly one of my favorites. You may think it may be repetitive, Pendragon going to a territory and trying to save it, but it's not. Each and every book has its own, flare, you could say. And I was not disappointed by the last book. There is only one word of how I could describe this finale. Perfect.

Pendragon has finally learned everything about himself, and Halla. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can read the summary here: Summary or you can go read the book. What I liked most about this book was the suspense that MacHale had created, the setting of everything being lost, bu having one final chance to bring victory. He also put a great amount of detail into describing every scene in the book, painting an amazing visual in your mind, making it feel like you were right there witnessing it all.

All in all I really enjoyed this book, and would give it 10/10 stars. I recommend this book to anyone of all ages.

Ranger's Apprentice - Halt's Peril

There are many words to describe this book, but from the top of my head I can only think of five. A twelve year old's dream. Now you people above twelve may be thinking this book will not interest you at all, you may want to stick around. You might be surprised by what you here.

A brief summary in my words would be in this book three people, Halt and Will who are rangers, and Horace, who is a knight, go down to hunt a local cult that has been stealing from commoners. Ranger's are people who can blend into any of their surrounds by remaining still and donning a cloak that morphs in with the background. They are also masters of bows. Read the full summary here:

Click for summary

This book may seem for kids of younger ages, but trust me even if you're in college you would enjoy reading this book. It utilizes many things that keep you on the edge of your seat and blends together perfectly, suspense, drama, action, carefree, and even a slight bit of romance. With all these attributes in hand, it makes for a great story.

So I suggest you go out and read the first book, and if you like it you should read the rest of the series, because it just gets better and better.

Columns Post

So we were assigned to read some columns and post what they were about and all that stuff. But what I want to talk is what I didn't like in some of the columns. The first two columns were fine, in fact I really enjoyed them. How we, the underdogs, were able to rise up to the occasion and were able to beat the Russians. Also the second column reminded us of all the great moments in sports history, and how the brave people ran into the streets trying to help the marathon runners, not even knowing if another bomb was on the way.

Then there was the wedding dress column. Prince Williams was marrying Kate... Woohoo! Congratulations! But did we really need to read a whole column about a wedding dress... that hadn't even been created yet? The whole column was just speculations about how the dress might look, and who might possible be creating it. You could just wait a few months and you would get your answer.

Also the one about a party. I understand how hard working the mom was, trying to create the perfect party or her kid, but writing a column about mocking you wife in her work to me is considered rude, if not downright insulting. I understood the point of view he was trying to show, on dads not getting enough trust but the writer might have stretched it a little too far.

And lastly there was the story on dogs, man's best friend. The writer wrote about how he wanted to get a dog, and all the benefits you would have by getting one. But in the end, he still didn't get one. I found it kind of pointless in writing a story about dogs if in the end you don't even manage to get one.

These were just my opinions on the columns, and you may think differently about them. So which columns did you think were the best or the worst?

Fahrenheit 451 theme handout

This is the handout for our group project of the theme Censorship Causes Diminished Individual Thought:

Timeline:

1. Montag is a normal member of society, and comments on how Clarisse thinks too much in this censored society.
2. Beatty talks about how everything is shortened and censored so there is no room or need for thought
3. Montag realizes there is something to books, that possibly makes people happier, trying to break through the censorship.
4. Beatty attempts to rebut Montag’s realization by saying books can be used for people as well as against people.
5. Montag joins up with Faber to try and stop this censorship, but Beatty keeps trying to stop them.
6. After killing Beatty, Montag runs away where he meets a group of men, who open his mind to the world of books, thoughts and literacy.

Textual Evidence:

Part 1:

• “You think too many things,” said Montag uneasily (Bradbury 6).
• “School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophers, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about the work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?”(Bradbury 53)

Part 2:

• “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I look around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years.”(Bradbury 78).
• “‘Oh, you were scared silly,’ said Beatty, ‘for I was doing a terrible thing in using the very books you clung to, to rebut you on every hand, on every point! What traitors books can be,”(Bradbury 104).”

Part 3:

• “It’s strange, I don’t miss her, it’s strange I don’t feel much of anything,” said Montag. “Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don’t think I’ll feel sad. It isn’t right. Something must be wrong with me.” (Bradbury 148).
• “The chase is still running.”...”They’re faking. You threw them off at the river. They can’t admit it. They know they can hold their audience only so long. The show’s got to have a snap ending, quick! If they started searching the whole d*** river it might take all night. So they’re sniffing a scapegoat to end things with a bang.”(Bradbury 141)

This theme contributes to the progression of the story because it shows how Montag changes his views of the society, how he wants to change himself.

In today’s society, this theme could be seen as people trying to stop people from making their own decisions, North Korea being an example. If people can’t think for themselves, a dictator can have absolute authority.

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death

When you first pick up this book, it may seem boring to you. The typical magical universe where there are multiple dimensions. But this book is different from the rest, because only a select few can travel through these portals. These people are called (surprise!) TRAVELERS. In this first book of the 10 part series. In this book Pendragon goes with his Uncle Press, who is also a traveler, to stop Saint Dane (the bad guy) from destroying the territory of Denduron. Read the rest of the summary here:

Summary

At first, I too was skeptical about this book. My first thought was that this book would be another typical Sci-Fi book with multi universes and such. But the thing about these territories in Pendragon was that each of them were going to reach a certain turning point, and it could be pushed either to good, or destruction. Also another interesting thing about the territories is that there can be multiple for one world. For example there is First Earth, Second Earth, and Third Earth. All of these territories are moving forward at the same time. The actual character Pendragon caught my eye. When he first went to a territory, he was a rookie that didn't know much. He wasn't that much of a help, which is different from the typical protagonist. Also the villain Saint Dane was different from the regular villains because he had a calm, cool collected front even after SPOILER Pendragon and the rest stopped the destruction of Denduron, which he was trying to push the turning point towards destruction. He simply said that even though he lost then, in the future Denduron would be the first to fall, the first domino. Will he do it? Will Pendragon survive!? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF PENDRAGON! Just kidding, but I found this series very good, one of my favorites, and would recommend to everyone, even the people that don't like fantasy.

Fahrenheit 451 Narrative

For my narrative I am going to be continuing the story in the point of view of Mrs. Bowles (the one who swore that she would never go back there):

I stumbled out of the house in a furious rage. I ran straight to home and joined my 'family'. Instantly I started to relax.
"Stupid fireman with his stupid book," I sniveled. Why did poetry hurt so much? Why did people want to hurt others like that? I watched my 'family' for a while longer, my heart beat slowing down. I felt relaxed... but why did I have this sense of dread in my heart? Why did listening to that poem arouse such emotion out of me? Never before had I cried, not even for my first divorce, or my second husband, dead! But why for this? Bawling I ran out the front door, tripped on the sidewalk and cried. Cried for all my husbands, my children, and the sad...sad poem.

Slowly I got up and went inside.
"Sleeping pills... I need sleeping pills," I murmured to my self. I took the vial, popped the cap off, and swallowed all of them. I limped upstairs and went into my bed. I put my seashells in my ears, listening to the soft music and sounds, rocking back and forth in my bed. Slowly, without thinking, I reached for the phone. I dialed some numbers,
"Hello? Fire department? I have to report something..."  After the phone call I lay in bed, with tears on my face. I didn't even know why I was crying. Something about... a poem... maybe? I didn't care. I closed my eyes, and went into a deep sleep. I never woke up again.

Lord Loss

WARNING! If you are squeamish or cringe at horror... you may want to turn away. But if you enjoy horror books, or even want to try something new, then you may want to stick around.

Honestly, I never really enjoyed horror books.. I just wasn't interested blood and gore. But then I read the book Lord Loss and it completely changed my perspective of horror. I realized that horror books are a lot more than just blood and gore, they also have a complex story line. Lord Loss instantly caught my attention. SPOILER! It starts off with Grubbs' (the main character) family being torn to shreds by demons, and Grubs barely escaping. He has to team up with his uncle Dervish to find the demons. If you want to read the rest of the summary click here:

Summary



This book caught my attention from other horror books because of one thing, the antagonist. He is described to thoroughly well, I could picture him in my mind. Lord Loss. He is the antagonist in the book who killed Grubbs' family. I really enjoyed how in depth the author, Darren Shan, went into describing the characters in the book. As you read along, it was like painting in your head, every scene perfectly described. You might say that with all that description the book would be boring, but it was not. The book was still fast paced, quickly jumping into the important parts. Also I enjoyed the ending of the book, it was a semi-cliffhanger. Some people don't like cliffhangers because they don't like to be left in the dark, but I do. It gives me something to look forward too, the next book. Fortunately for me the whole series is complete, so I won't have to wait for the next book.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It brought me a new understanding of horror, and I appreciated horror books for the first time in my life. I used to think that horror was just random violence, but I was wrong. If you're sitting here reading this blog and thinking, "What's so special? It's just a horror book." Then go out and at least try the book, you might like it.

Lord Loss Review:

Semester 1 Reflection

This first semester sure seemed to fly by. Seems just like yesterday when we walked into the school, awaiting our new high school lives. This semester in honors English, I have done a lot in both my blogs and outside of class.

I have always loved reading. Back in Intermediate school, I used to read about a new book every week. Yet, when I reached 8th grade, it seemed like my love for reading had disappeared. Possibly it was because I had much more work than before in 8th grade, but I stopped reading. I stopped going to the library, and stopped checking out new books. But this year, my love for reading has rekindled. I read about 10 new books this semester. It may not have been a lot from before, but it was definitely something. I enjoyed reading new books and series such as the Maze Runner series, the Divergent series, and the Ranger's Apprentice. I normally like fictional books, so that's what I choose when I selected my books, and I don't regret the decision. Also, the weekly blog posts also encouraged me to read more, because we had to write about what we were reading.

The blog post, again, rekindled my love for reading. Aside from that, we also posted about stories we were reading in class. At first, my blog posts were not the best, I'll admit it. But as I progressed along, I started picking up things that made my blog posts slowly, but surely, better. They are still not perfect or the best in the world, but they still have come a long way since I first started blogging. For example, at first all I would give is a quick summary of the book, and what it contained. But I started adding more and more voice, and my own thinking of what I thought of the book. And soon, most of my blog posts reflected what I thought of the book, not just some short summary of what I read. I also linked sources to where I find summary's or statistics, in case someone wanted to look more into the book I was blogging about. Near the end, I started stating specific evidence from the books too, justifying my thoughts of the book.

Although my blog posts and Independent reading has grown more in the last semester, it could be better. To start things off next semester I am going to use my good reads more often. I barely used this semester, but now I will keep updating my good reads with my recent books and quotes. Also, with my posts I am going to add more connections with my thoughts and the authors, by possibly putting in a video of the author or an interview that happened with author, so people can see 'both sides of the story' so to speak. Tied in with this is that I will be trying out different genres of books, not only fiction. Even though I enjoy fiction books, most likely I will also like another genre of books, who knows? And a last thing that I can greatly improve upon, is my comments. Each week I did in fact make a comment (sometimes made two) but they were all a couple days late. I am going to get into the habit of making a comment right after I publish my post, so not only my post, but my comment is on time as well.

All in all this first semester was a blast, and certainly a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be. Next semester I hope to accomplish more reading, books aside from genre. Also I want to greatly improve my blogging, connecting with the reader and expressing my own thought. 

The Kill Order

So I feel kind of awkward posting another blog from the same series, but this is the last one. We all know of what happened to Thomas and the rest of the world in the Maze Runner series. But... how did it all start? Why did it happen? Well, I'm here to tell you, after reading the prequel of the series, The Kill Order.

The Flare was released into the world 13 years before Thomas' time. It started to spread rapidly, and soon it was out of hand. A couple of brave people, Mark, Trina, Alec, and Lana, tried to stop the Flare by delivering an immune girl to the government so they can try to find a cure. If you want to read the rest of the summary click here:

Summary

I found this book interesting, but a little depressing.  The people in this book had already gone through a lot of pain, and at the end SPOILER they end up dying. Also, since we know that their effort was in vain, because we know the Flare was present even during Thomas' time. SOO basically in the end the entire story of The Kill Order was basically a waste. The only part that really seemed to matter was how the Flare was introduced. I don't think this book was really necessary. Honestly, I am done with death and destruction for a while.

If you have read The Kill Order how do you think the story was? Do you think the story was necessary?

The Death Cure

It has all come a full circle. After going through so many hardships, suffering so much, and losing friends, Thomas' story has come to an end.

After the Scorch Trials, Thomas, the gladers, and the members of group B were carried away to WICKED's headquarters, where they were all told a devastating truth. They all had the Flare. And to make matters worse, there was no cure to it, and that was WICKED's goal, to find a cure. They told them that all the kids were being used as test subjects, to record their brain patterns and try to find a cure. Also, they told them that most of them were immune to the Flare, yet some were not because they needed a control group. Newt was one of them. After hearing all this, Thomas learns that WICKED wants to cut open his brain to try and complete the cure. He and the other gladers don't trust WICKED, so they run away and counter attack and destroy WICKED. But some friends die along the way such as Teresa and Newt. At the end the gladers and other immune people, after going through a flat transporter, arrive in a wildlife paradise, where they will live out the rest of their lives as the rest of the world goes into extinction.

I found this books ending kind of sad, and confusing. All the effort that the gladers and WICKED go through... for nothing? In the end, basically the world ends except for the small group of about a hundred people. How will they survive without the help of others, and without technology? I feel like this ending was left a little incomplete, and that the author could possibly make a sequel to this series, maybe showing the story of Thomas' kids and how they travel back into the real world. What do you think?

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

I am reading the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. This book is about a 12 year old kid, who has to go trough things no child, or man, should have to go through. His entire family was killed by a group of rebels, and these rebels were killing people throughout Sierra Leone. Ishmael was taken in by a squad of soldiers fighting against the rebels, and was trained to become a deadly killing machine. For three years, Ishmael and other kids killed and killed, hopped up on drugs. But after these years, Ishmael was taken to a rehabilitation center and started a new life.

The main idea of this book was to show the struggles, and pain of war. Ishmael's entire life almost got ruined, he lost his family, he was fighting in the front lines, he could have died anytime. He showed the struggles of life in Sierra Leone as a boy soldier. Specific examples of the hardships of the war is the lose of his friends and family and he had a lack of food and resources to survive.

Summary(Link)

The number of boy soldiers that fought in the Sierra Leone war was shocking. It was 5,000-10,000 kids. Most of them died, they didn't have the luck that Ismael did when he was rescued to be rehabilitated.

Link

Also many people don't realize this, but even today children are being used to fight wars. Examples of this is that many countries use child soldiers such as: Uganda. The outside research connects to the realization that war is full of pain and struggles. In our memoir it just refers to Ishmael being recruited. However, when Chris and I researched this we discovered that must children were drugged and abducted to join these countries armies. This connects to our realization because it shows how much pain the family went through when the child was taken away and was fighting for his life. It also shows the pain and struggle of war not only affects the victim itself, but also their family.

A Long Way Gone is an interesting book, that shows a different lifestyle. It shows the struggles and problems that people faced in the past, and still do today.

Ismael Beah older:

The Scorch Trials

How would you handle it? The stress? The pressure? The pain? If you had your memory taken away, sent in a gigantic maze, battle through monsters, your best friend dying in you arms, only to be thrown into a destroyed city to battle against crazy people and the heat of the sun.

In The Scorch Trials Thomas and the remainder of his friends had just escaped from the dangerous maze, and had been thrown into a destroyed earth, where everything had been burned away, and the locals infected by a vicious virus where it drove you insane. Now they have to travel across this barren wast land, through a destroyed city with Cranks in it (people affected by the virus called the flare) only to be captured by a group of girls that had also gone through the maze trials at the same time as them. At the end of the book Thomas his friends join up with the girls in the other group to reach a point where a cure was promised for the flare

In this book Thomas has to go through many more difficulties than the maze, and throughout the entire event he is learning more about what happened to the world and why WICKED is putting them trough this. If you were in Thomas's shoes, would you trust WICKED and do what they say or would you try to find you own path?

The Maze Runner (Continued)

 This week. I continued to read The Maze Runner. I was able to finish the book, and I was shocked by its ending. Instead of a boy coming into the glade from the box, a girl arrives. And the girl and Thomas can talk to each other telepathically. While this is happening, the walls aren't closing! So every night the grievers come and take only one glader and kill him. So Thomas, with the help of Minho (a runner), he is able to solve the code of how to escape the Maze. Some of the gladers stay back at the Glade, while others follow Thomas to try and escape the Maze. The gladers are able to escape the Maze, but many die including Thomas' best friend Chuck. At the very end, the book reveals that the Maze was only the first trial, their second trial is now going to begin.

This book has so many twists and turns...I can't even keep up with it! Also, I don't undestand what is W.I.C.K.E.D. 's goal.( WICKED is the company that put the gladers in the Maze) throughout the book it kept coming back to one point, WICKED is good, which leads me to believe that WICKED will play an important role in the upcoming books. I can't wait to start reading the Scorched Trials. If you were a glader, would you follow Thomas into the Maze or try to survive in the Glade as long as possible?

The Maze Runner

I have started reading the book The Maze Runner. In this book, a group of kids have to survive in a clearing known as the "glade", and the glade is surrounded by walls. Every morning the walls open, and a couple people known as "the runners" run in the maze, trying to find a way to get out. But.. in the maze there are dangerous creatures known as grievers. These kids know nothing of their past besides their name. However when stung by a griever, they start to remember their past, but go insane. Thomas, the protagonist in this book, becomes the first one of all the kids to survive a night in the maze and kill a griever. This is how far I have gotten into the book.

I really like this book so far because I have never read anything like this. It is interesting how the kids didn't remember anything of their past, but have still managed to survive. Also I like the bravery and curiosity Thomas shows all the time, like asking about the maze, and he killed a griever, being the only one ever too. Plus he rushed into the maze, knowing he could die, to save his friend, which takes courage.

Hunger Games vs. Divergent

Many people have read both the Hunger Games and Divergent. These two books have many things in common, and some things not in common.

A thing in common that these two books have in common that their governments are a dystopia. In a dystopia there is an unjust government. where a person or a group of people want change in the government. Another thing in common about these two books is that the people live in separate groups, not meeting to people of the other groups. In Divergent there are the factions Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Candor, and Amity. In the Hunger Games there are the 12 (later on 13) districts. Also in these books, conflict is brewing in the governments. And not only are the plots similar in these two books, so are the people.

In the Hunger Games the main protagonist is Katniss, and in Divergent the main protagonist is Tris.  These two characters are more similar than people think. They both have to change because of the government. Also, they both have to go through pain and suffering to achieve their goals. Plus they both are strong willed, for example in the Hunger Games in the arena, Katniss never gives up. She keeps on fighting to win. While in Divergent even when Tris is at the bottom of the scoreboard she keeps on working, and keeps on fighting to make it into Dauntless. Both of these books have similarities and differences, but both of them are excellent novels.

Heroes of Olympus

This week I read a new series called The Heroes of Olympus. In this series there are a bunch if people who are the off springs of a god and a mortal (human) therefore called demigods. These demigods are both the kids of Greek and Roman gods, and each have a separate camp in the US to train new demigods, so that demons don't kill them. But, the Romans and the Greeks hate each other, but they need to combine forces with each other and the gods to save the world from the evil and powerful earth goddess, Gaea. Will they survive? Read the series to find out.

Weekly Reading

This week I started reading a new book called the last book in the Pendragon series called The Soldiers of Halla. In this book, there are people called travelers who can travel to different worlds other from Earth. There goal is to stop an evil traveler that want to destroy all the worlds, and rebuild them as his own. In this final book, the evil traveler, Saint Dane, has succeeded in his goal. Will the travelers be able to stop him now that he has power?

I liked this book a lot because it has all kinds of characteristics. There is suspense, action, and a little humor. Also there are many plot twists too, you don't know when a certain chain of events might just quickly change. I would recommend to read this book, but not only this book, the whole series.

Prompt A:
Hazel from The Fault In Our Stars  develops throughout the book by becoming more open with the world. By meeting Augustus and traveling around the world with him taught her not to always stay depressed that she has cancer, to live life to the fullest. She becomes more positive, and has a greater impact on other characters. She propels the plot forward by overcoming her problems, and trying to do new things. Like go meet her favorite author. An example from the book is when she first meets Augustus, she decides to have fun and go see a movie with him, instead of going home and staying alone like she normally does.

Augustus from The Fault In Our Stars develops throughout the book by coming in peace with death, and having fun with other people. He especially helps Hazel overcome her problems. He propels the plot by explaining to Hazel, the main character, by teaching her to have fun with her life. An example from the book is he takes Hazel to Switzerland to meet her favorite author.

The article is about the tragedy of cancer. Also it explains how Green wrote the book in the view of the people with cancer rather than to the people.

The Fault In Our Stars Article