I have been reading Harry Potter since the second grade. I learn learned how to love reading in first grade. In second grade I started to read Harry Potter after seeing some other kids reading it. This was all before the movies. In fact I did not even know that movies were going to be made. I had the most ARP points in my grade at my school and I bought the Harry Potter book at my schools book fair. The bad thing about it was that some pages from the chapter that was about Harry and his friends getting pasts Fluffy the three-headed dog were missing. I had to send the book back and wait to get another one. Also that chapter was one of the questions on my ARP test! That is why I did not get a perfect score.
The Harry Potter book itself began with Dumbledore at number Four Privet Drive where Harry Potters aunt and uncle lived. They had had a strange day. When the person Rubeus Hargrid arrives on a flying motorcycle he gives Harry to Dumbledore so that Dumbledore could give Harry to his only living relatives. The next chapter jumps ten years into the future when Harry Potter is almost eleven. Strange letters start arriving at his aunt and uncles house. Too many, in fact. Finally Harry is introduced to Hagrid and he gives the same letter that his uncle would not allow Harry to open. After reading the letter and finding out what his special gift was, Harry goes on an adventure (a special school) and faces new enemies, finding new friends, and discovering how he ended up an orphan. Harry Potter is really cool because there are trolls, wizards, and witches, even a giant three headed dog named Fluffy! It is a great adventure that I have read more than ten times.
2:27 PM
Monday, June 23, 2003
Title: Circle of Magic (4) – Briar’s Book
Author: Tamora Pierce
Rating: 5+
At the beginning of the story Briar is having a dream and he knows it. He was dreaming that he was sitting in a giant oak tree in the heart of a forest with a bag full of emeralds in his lap. Suddenly the images of the tree and the bag of emeralds disappeared and two people were rushing him down a damp dark corridor. Then they throw him is a big cell and slam the door. The echoes of the door are each as loud as the first. He wakes to find that he is in a wagon and somebody is banging on the outside of the wagon. Briar sticks his head out from the wagon and tells his friend Sandry to stop the banging. When they get to Urda’s House, a place where you can get medicine the cheapest, they find out that his friend Flick is sick. They are told this by Alleypup. When you met Flick, she is covered with spots. When Rosethorn, Briar’s teacher, looks at Flick they all realize that this is a new sickness. Briar is challenged by the impact of this new disease most when his friends begin to get sick from what is now called blue pox. It is called blue pox because in turns up blue on all but the darkest person’s skin. Throughout this book Briar helps find a cure for blue pox and Tris and her teacher, Niko, try to find how the disease came to be. Briar has to face losing Flick and someone else of great important to him. Find out how Briar helps find the cure and who it is that he loses.
9:26 AM
Title: Circle of Magic (3) – Daja’s Book
Author: Tamora Pierce
Rating: 5+
At the beginning of the story Daja and her friends Sandry, Briar, and Tris, with a group of people, were riding to Gold Ridge Castle to help with the drought and the many grassfires that are threatening the area. When they get to the blacksmiths shop Daja and Tris decided to stay; Daja to work on nails, and Tris to read. While Daja is working she accidentally makes a growing iron vine! What a surprise! A Trader named Polyam comes and starts bargaining for the vine. When Daja finally gives in she gets two Gold Majas. She is allowed to help the Traders take the vine to their home. When a forest fire strikes can Daja save herself and the Trader band? Lets hope.
9:24 AM
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Title: Circle of Magic (2)- Triss Book
Author: Tamora Pierce
Rating: 5+
At the beginning of the story Tris and her friends are trapped in a bubble underground about to be crushed or cooked alive by an earthquake. When Tris wakes up and finds out it was a dream, she and her friends climb the Winding Circle walls because they are very hot and hear voices on the wind then see Bit (a very small) Island blown to bits! What could have done this? Tris and Niko go to Bit Island and use a spell to find out what happened to the island. With no luck. Soon people started to see pirates in the harbor! Will the pirates attack Winding Circle? Will they survive if they do? Lets hope they do!
8:18 AM
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Title: Cirle of Magic Sandrys Book
Author: Tamora Pierce
Rating: 5+
At the beginning of the book you are introduced to Sandry locked in a storage closet hidden by magic. She has an oil lamp that is almost out of oil, without any extra oil to refuel it! How will she get out of the coming darkness? When you are introduced to Daja she thinks that she is a ghost! But she discovers that she is covered in salt. When she looks around she sees that she is the only one of her family left alive. Is that her fate too? What is her purpose in life? Will she be saved? When you meet Briar his name is not Briar. His name is Roach and he is a thief. He is caught three times and is about to be taken away when a man takes him elsewhere. Where is he going to be taken? When you meet Tris she is being laughed at by the other girls in her dormitory. The winds rush into the dormitory and scares the other girls. Then, like always, the people send her away like the rest of her family. Where will she go now? These four children meet at the winding circle temple and become friends. They discover their magic at the discipline cottage. When disaster strikes, can Sandry weave their way out of this mess? Find out in the Circle of Magic series.
7:37 AM
I AM BACK
Hi I am back from my trip to Bemidji Minnesota, New York, and Washington DC. My favorite part of the trip was fishing at my dads cousins cabin. Though I am sorry to say that the fish did not taste very good to me. I have read five books while on the trip and have started some of their reviews. One of my dads cousins loaned me the Circle of Magic series and two other books, Thanks Dan. Though my large vacation is over everyone still has the rest of the summer so during that time you can read, go on trips, or do anything else you want. Have a GREAT SUMMER! 7:33 AM
Sunday, June 01, 2003
Title: Pearls of Lutra
Author: Brain Jaques
Rating: 5
Once there was a king on the Island of ______. He wanted the tears of all the oceans, precious rose colored pearls from the six oceans from the world of Redwall and its talking animals. So he sent many ships to search for them. The only reasons that these bands of cosars(sp) and sea rats search for the pearls for Ublaz is 1) Ublaz has a hypnotizing stare, 2) He has a gigantic pile of timber for ship repairs in his court yard 3) He had a gigantic army or of monitors (lizards) at his side. At one point Ublaz went to far in his search the Tears of the Oceans. One of his casar captians when to the Holt of Lutra. They were a a tribe of otters that had explored all six oceans and found the pearls. Ublaz’s men massacred the tribe of otters leaving only Grath Longfetch. Will she revenge for her family and turn the tide against Ublaz? And what of the fate of the pearls? Ublaz’s men did not return with them. While they were on the shore of Mossflower, two of the vermin stole the pearls now for the second time. Were will they take the pearls? And how is the Abbey of Redwall entangled in the conflict? All of these question and many more great adventures are answered and happen in the Pearls of Lutra.
11:16 AM
Title: Man of La Mancha
Author: Dale Wasserman, Joe Darion, and Mitch Leigh
Rating: 4 stars
The screen play Man of La Mancha on Broadway starts out when a man called Cervantes and his manservant enter a dungeon known as the common room and wait for their trial in the Inquisition. The lead prisoner, know as the Governor, tell Cervantes that he must first be tried by his fellow prisoners, and if found guilty, they are stripped of their possessions. He is charge with beign an Idealist, a Bad Poet, and an Honest man. Cervantes pleaded guilty! When the governor tried to destroy his prize possession (Hint), Cervantes tells them why he pleaded guilty, for "had I said innocent, you surely would have found me guilty, since I have admitted guilt, the court is required to hear me out!" Cervantes' defense is a play he will do with the prisoners and the main character , as you will guess, is Cervantes playing the knight of thought Don Quixote. Don Quixote is a mad man that loves life and want to achieve his "quest"! I was drawn into this book by Don Quixote, who while insane was a good man. My favorite parts of the book are when Don Quixote calls the kitchen maid, Aldonza, Dulcinea. It made me think that he loved her so much that he calls her by a given name that means she is beautiful, intelligent, and charming. Aldonza thinks her life is not worth living, cruel, and worthless at any price. This is because any man she ever loved always disserted her. Don Quixote throughout the entire play teaches her life is wonderful and that she is not worthless or pathetic. Don Quixote's quest took a turn when he faced the Knight of the Mirrors, who was really just his niece's fiancé. Using mirrored shields, the Knight of the Mirrors and his men forced Don Quixote out of his madness. Tragically when his niece's fiancé forces Don Quixote of his madness it also makes him sick. When he wakes up he thinks all of his heroic adventures are just a dream. But instead we know that Don Quixote has made all of the people he has met love life. These people are some of the few, some the many people who he has changed their lives: the innkeeper, Aldonza, Sancho, the prisoners, and YOU (once you have read Man of La Mancha and seen the movie) Note: the movie is different from the book because it deletes some scenes and changes others.
11:12 AM
Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Rating: 4 stars
I like Holes because it is full of mystery and adventure. The Warden at Camp Green lake is searching for something and using the kids to get it. What could it be?! The neat thing about Stanley Yelnats is his name is surprising spelled the same way forward and backwards, a palindrome. Stanley is under a curse from his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig stealing great-great-grandfather. This curse has been pasted down though all the Yelnats family tree. Now it is on Stanley and he is now being punished for a crime he did not do. He was believed to have stolen Clyde Livingston's shoes. Now he faces the challenges of digging five feet deep and five feet wide holes on the dried Green Lake bed. After a while of digging he finds a lipstick cap and gives it to X-Ray. The Warden goes crazy, she makes everyone from every group dig around X-Ray's hole. Then Stanley's friend Zero has enough of digging and runs away. The Warden wouldn't let Stanley teach Zero how to read. So Stanley goes out to find Zero. The two of them have enough of living in the desert and decide to find what the Warden is looking for. What do you think it could be, find out when you read Holes by Louis Sachar. I read this book 30 times because it is a very, very great book. Can't wait for the movie.
11:09 AM
Title: Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe
Rating: 4
Would you ever think of being stranded on an uninhabited Island for many years? In the book Robinson Crusoe, Robinson did exactly that! On the Island his first challenge was to find something to eat. He had only a bit of powder and shot and he needed to keep it to protect himself. He tried to find some grain. When he found a container with some crumbs of seed, not enough to make bread, he empty it on the ground thinking he could use the container for water. Another big challenge was seeing if there were any large ferocious animals that he needed protection from. So he took a horn of powder and shot and set out to look for wild animals. He returns later to his camp and finds tiny sprouts growing where he dumped the seed from the cast. He takes half of the harvest of rice, wheat, and barley, and makes bread. The other half he planted a small distance away. He also planted trees to conceal his campsite. He dug a large cave in the hill behind his small forest of trees. Do you think this Island has ever been touched by humans before? That questioned was answered when Robinson was taking a walk down by the ocean and came across an abandoned campsite with human bone everywhere! Who or what could have done this? This question was asked by Robinson. A few years later Robinson had a dream of savages that came with four humans to be devoured for a feast. When the forth one was to be killed they untied him and he escaped. Was this dream fact or fiction?
Having been on an Island seven and twenty years, two months, and nineteen days Robinson Crusoe finally got to leave his small Island, leaving behind three men, from the original five that tried to betray a captain of the ship that Robison Crusoe went home in. The most important lesson I learned is that if I get ship wrecked I will use the best of my resources without wasting anything. The first things that I would do, would be to find a place for shelter and find something to eat that I could multiply.
