The Lightnng Thief

The Lightning Thief

In my opinion, Rick Riordan wrote the best novel I have read, The Lightning Thief. I selected this book because half of my Science Academy class was reading it and telling me how good the book and the whole series is. I later heard that it included Greek mythology and that's when I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and buy myself a copy of that book.

Percy Jackson is a dyslexic boy diagnosed with ADHD. He later learns that he is a demigod, half- human, and half – god (His father being Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes.) The reason he has ADHD is so he can be alert during a battle and not wear out quickly and the reason he is dyslexic is because his brain is hardwired to read Ancient Greek. He learns that his best friend is a satyr who puts sneakers on his feet to cover up his hooves. He then begins attending Camp Half Blood, where he makes friends with Annabeth, daughter of Athena. The 3 friends go on a quest to find Zeus's master lightning bolt, which has been stolen. Percy needs to do this quest because Zeus thinks that he stole it and if he doesn't find the bolt then their will be a huge war between the gods.

I believe there were many important quotes in this book but I think the one on page 229 had the most significance. Annabeth cited this quote after the 3 friends have an encounter with the god of war, Ares. She quoted "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow down to wisdom sometimes." I chose this quote because it first of all, I think it explains what kind of character Ares is in the book. And after this line is quoted, it really gets you thinking. Also this quote is related to an important scene that occurs toward the end of the book.

I decided to make a rating from 1- 20, one being a very bad book, to twenty being the best book that I ever read. The icons that I will use to show my evaluation for this book I will choose Greek-style columns. The reason why I chose this icon is because this book has to do a lot with Greek mythology, which is part of the culture of Greece. So are Greek –style columns. And now that I've explained my rating system and its icons, I will rate my book. I give this book 2222222222222222222. The reason why I gave this book 20 columns is because it is probably of the most interesting and favorite books I have ever read. It has a very rich language and it is very humorous and has a lot of cultural references, yet it still stays loyal to Greek mythology.

People who love humor in a novel should definitely read this book. I would also recommend this book to someone who would enjoy learning about the interesting subject of Greek mythology and to readers who enjoy a book with a rich language. I believe this book is mostly targeted at pre-teens and teenagers. Even though I do enjoy reading this book very much, I must give a couple of warnings. First of all, this book contains many battle scenes. These scenes are sometimes describe with a lot of violence and depicts in scene many wounded people and sometimes blood is involved. Secondly, this is one of those books that you keep on reading and you have to force yourself to put down. So beware or you just might end up reading this book for 2 hours straight (I would know!). And that pretty much wraps up everything. Enjoy!

---Ellie

English, Period 6

September 16,2009

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and other Extreme Sports

I read book called Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson. I selected this book because I read the other books in the series and I really enjoyed them. I like books that are well-written, and make you want to keep reading. This is one of those books. It is a very good book, and that's really how I selected this book.
The main characters are a group of six mutant bird-winged children on the run from a corrupted company called Itex who wants to kill them. There is Max, the group leader, Fang, the one who Max trusts the most, Iggy, who is blind, but a good addition to their "flock", the Gasman, who got his name from his digestive system problems, Nudge, the chatty 11-year-old girl, and Angel, the psycic 6 year old girl. There is also Total, the talking dog. They are on the run from a company who is trying to "expire" them, and proceed to kill off half of the world's humans, to make a "better" Earth. They fly all over the world to try to escape this company, and they meet many obsticals along the way. This book focuses mainly on survival, and some romance.
"Max, you just passed another test.". This quote is very signifigant to me, because it shows that no matter what these kids do in life, they are always being tested by somebody. No matter who they meet, that person is somehow connected to their testing. This is also signifigant because it shows that they never get a break. They can't just live as normal kids, their lives are always either in danger or in testing. It really makes you feel bad for these kids.
I think I will rate this book 3 out of 5 Q's. Q's will be the rating system for this book, because Q's are awesome. So, this book would get 3 Q's. QQQ
In conclusion, I will make a recommendation. I think this book is appropriate for all ages, actually. There is no swearing, not too much violent content, and nothing very bad. I recommend this book to anybody because, it is well written, it has a good story, and it is just a fun read. I would have to make sure they read the previous two books, though.

The Battle of the Labryinth

I Chose the book the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan for my blog. I chose this book because it is the final book of my favorite series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I wanted to chose another book in the series but this one was the best in my opinion so I chose this one.

The main character is Percy Jackson who in book 1 finds out he is a demi-God, that means either his mother of father is a god. His father is Posidon. In the third book he finds out that when he becomes 16 he will either choose to destroy or save Olympia. In this book he becomes 16 and there's a huge war between the Titans, their God, Kronos, and the Gods of Olympia. There is an amazing amount of realistic information about Greek mythology so it is a must read for anyone studying mythology.

"You are right as long as the Labyrinth is here, your enemies can use it, which is why the Labyrinth cannot continue" This is a very important quote because the enemies would use the Labyrinth to their advantage so it would have to be destroyed. The only problem is that Daedalus's life is bound to the Labyrinth. He accepted his fate and allowed the Lord of the Undead to take his soul therefore destroying the Labyrinth.

In my rating system I used Roman short swords. I chose this because Percy uses a golden short sword, riptide. This book in my opinion got a 5/5 rating.

This book is great for anyone who loves mythology, is taking Roman history, or anyone who loves a thrilling book you cant put down. This book is for 12 and up due to the violence content. All and all it is an amazing book.

Bug Park

I read the book Bug Park by James P. Hogan. I chose this book because I
am a little bit interested in bugs. When I saw the book cover I thought
it looked like it would be a good book because I like things about
robots and such. When I read the book's description on the back cover it
was saying that his idea would make him millions, so I wanted to read it
to see what the idea was.

This book was about fifteen-year-old Kevin Heber and his friend Taki and
their creation, Bug Park. Bug Park shrinks you down to around the size
of a mosquito and lets you explore this new "gigantic," usually unseen
world. In the book the two kids talk about their creation. There is also
an affair that could lead to the end of Bug Park, but these teens can't
let that happen.

Michelle Lang who was also a scientist was one of the people who got to
try out Bug Park and said "I think they could all be onto something big.
Really big." I think this quote is important because in the story they
all believe that is true, but the affair could ruin their dreams. It is
a great idea. It's a virtual world that shrinks you down to a bug so it
is like you are a bug. I would pay to do that so I believe this quote is
significant to the story.

I would rate this book 4 of 5 stars. I would because I did think it was
a great book but I believe it was a little hard to follow for me. They
used scientific words and I did not understand them some of the time.

I would recommend this book for my friends. Most likely for middle
school kids and maybe high school kids if they are at a semi-low reading
level. You should read this book if you like dramas or maybe mysteries
because this book is kind of like that I would say. If you are smart or
into science read this book because they use some high intellect words.
There are no warnings for this book. Everything in it, I would say is
kid friendly so they could read it. Must read.

-Isabelle
Period 2, Mrs. Huff

A Child Called It

John Period:4 English

September 15, 2009

A Child Called "It"

By: Dave Pelzer

The Title of this story is A Child Called "It" is written by Dave Pelzer. So after listening it from my friend talking about the book I got really intrested in the book and decided to get it and read it for myself.

There is this boy named Dave, him and his family were a very happy and loving family.His dad was a firefighter and his mom was a stay at home parent taking care of Dave and his brothers.But after his dad dedicated more of his time to his job everything changed.His mom became and alcoholic,but not only did she become alcoholic she became abusive but not only brutally beating him but mentally to.Dave would go days without eating,bathing and his mom would make him not only do house choirs but sleep in the basement with nothing to cover himself but newspaper.Whenever Dave would be hungry he would get food from the trash.But his mom would always find out for some reason and make him throw it up.

The most interesting thing Dave's mom did was called her own son "It".I think that was really disrespectful to Dave only if she would understand.The whole idea of his mom calling him it means so much in this story because it shows how Dave's life is and how he suffers to live and not stay hungry and die.

If I can rate this book from 1-5 five being the highest, I would probably rate it at a 5 its really a captivating and emotional book since its based on a true story.

MY RATING:

I would recommend this book to everyone who like sad stories or even stories based on real life events.I believe this story will leave you speechless.It will make you appreciate life itself but better yet your family.I don't want to ruin the ending but you have to get this book and read it.

Bug Park

I read the book Bug Park by James P. Hogan. I chose this book because I
am a little bit interested in bugs. When I saw the book cover I thought
it looked like it would be a good book because I like things about
robots and such. When I read the book's description on the back cover it
was saying that his idea would make him millions, so I wanted to read it
to see what the idea was.

This book was about fifteen-year-old Kevin Heber and his friend Taki and
their creation, Bug Park. Bug Park shrinks you down to around the size
of a mosquito and lets you explore this new "gigantic," usually unseen
world. In the book the two kids talk about their creation. There is also
an affair that could lead to the end of Bug Park, but these teens can't
let that happen.

Michelle Lang who was also a scientist was one of the people who got to
try out Bug Park and said "I think they could all be onto something big.
Really big." I think this quote is important because in the story they
all believe that is true, but the affair could ruin their dreams. It is
a great idea. It's a virtual world that shrinks you down to a bug so it
is like you are a bug. I would pay to do that so I believe this quote is
significant to the story.

I would rate this book 4 of 5 stars. I would because I did think it was
a great book but I believe it was a little hard to follow for me. They
used scientific words and I did not understand them some of the time.

I would recommend this book for my friends. Most likely for middle
school kids and maybe high school kids if they are at a semi-low reading
level. You should read this book if you like dramas or maybe mysteries
because this book is kind of like that I would say. If you are smart or
into science read this book because they use some high intellect words.
There are no warnings for this book. Everything in it, I would say is
kid friendly so they could read it. Must read.
(:

Stop Pretending

Anna English Period 6 September 13, 2009 The title of the book I selected is Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones. I found out about this book in the 6th grade when my English teacher read it to the class. What I like about the book is the way the author wrote it because she makes everything look more realistic compared different books I've read. Another thing I like about this book is that the writing in the book is so powerful that you could really understand the perspective of the author's point of view. This is a book I could read over and over and not put down until it's finished. Plus this is a true storey based on what happened to Sonya Sones, which is cool because it would take a lot of courage to write a book like this. The book is about how the character's older sister went crazy and then slowly everything was coming apart in her life. She felt like she lost her sister who was her best friend and she thought nothing could take that from her. Slowly everything was worsening. Her family was tearing apart, and there is a feeling like you can go to no one for help or to have a normal conversation. This book is basically about how Sonya deals with life when it gets really hard and the feeling of the world being against you is very often being felt. My favorite quote was:"One day he/she was ……………… the next he/she was a stranger." I chose this quote because it relates to real life a lot. In the real world you always have to be careful of who you trust because people do change. Whether it's a back-stabbing friend or in this case (in the story) how her family changed after the mental breakdown. Then more people changed in her world. Sometimes when people change the situation can result into disaster. I would rate this book four out of five golden pens. I chose golden pens because the book is written in poems and it's a true story of what happened to the writer. The reason I didn't give the book 100% is because nothing is perfect and everything has its flaws. Even though this was an incredible book. This is a book that could be read over and over again because of the powerful text and how the book puts you in the perspective of Sonya Sones. I would recommend this book to an audience of 11 years and up because this book really shows things that can happen in life and it could freak out 5th graders and I don't think fourth graders would really understand a lot of things that are going on. This book should be read for three reasons: this book shows you how everything could change and your world could be hanging by a thread, there are many things to relate to in this book, once you start reading you don't wan to put it down. The book isn't very long but you can learn so much from just reading it. In conclusion this is a four out of fie golden pens book and I recommend this to an audience of 11+. I think everyone should really give it a chance to understand what I'm talking about.