Monday, May 18, 2009

Night Book Review

This autobiographical novel tells the story of Eliezer, a teenage Jewish boy from the small Transylvanian village of Sighet. He is 17 when transported to Auschwitz, Buna, and finally Buchenwald with his father. Eliezer loses his faith, argues with God, and is sustained only by the need to care for his father. Instead of God, he is rescued by an American tank.

Book review #3

There are two identical twins, Mary Lee and Madrigal. They have lived together for 17 years until their parents separate them. Mary Lee is sent off to boarding school where she is very lonely and doesn't have any friends, while Madrigal stays at home. Madrigal goes to visit Mary Lee. They decide to go skiing. Madrigal is getting all the attention from the girls at Mary Lee's School, so they decide to swap ski suits. Madrigal is killed when the ski lift wire breaks and everyone thinks it was Mary Lee. Mary Lee then goes back home where she assumes the life of her sister. She finds out lots of terrible things about her sister's life. Mary Lee also finds out that he weekend Madrigal came to visit was supposed to be when Madrigal killed her. Finally Mary Lee can bear it no more and breaks her cover only to find out her parents already knew.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Book review 2

Well the book that i am reading is called "Night" and i thought that it was a really sad book because so of the people in the book got killed and some had to work long hours for nothing.

Favorite web based tool

well i like my blog because i can be able to go on the blog and put things on it and then people will be able to read it. I also like my gmail account because i can send messages to people that i know and they will write me back when they get it.

Interest and disturbing thought about the holocaust

Well the concentration camps are camps where prisoners are kept and tortured at the high part. The people at the concentration camps had to work for the food that they were allowed to have but sometimes they did not get any food.

Haiku

Lets pay tribute to...
Courage to be responsible;
so be responsible.

Spring Break reflection

Well my spring break was really good because i got to sleep in evcery day and then i watched TV and ate food, then i made for sure that my room was clean

Monday, April 6, 2009

Book of Shadows (Sweep, Book 1) Book Review #1

Morgan Rowlands is your average plain girl who has always felt that she has been living in the shadow of her best friend, beauty queen, Bree Warren. But then one day the gorgeous and mysterious Cal Blaire comes to Widow's Vale High. He instantly becomes one of the hottest and most popular guys there. Morgan instantly starts to fall for him as does Bree. One night Cal asks a bunch of people to a "party" which turns out to be a potential circle for the celebration of the Wiccan sabbat Mabon. At the circle something strange happens to Morgan and she starts to become a walking physcic. Slowly Morgan is drawn deeper into the beautiful and magickal world of Wicca but problems soon arrise

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

New Moon By Stephanie Meyers

New Moon is the sequel to Stephenie Meyer’s remarkably good debut novel Twilight. This novel works well enough as a stand alone but I think that you will get a better understanding of the story and maximum enjoyment from reading it if you have read Twilight first.
New Moon is always going to be compared to Twilight and people who are expecting this novel to be essentially the same as Twilight may be disappointed. Twilight had an almost dreamy, fairytale quality to the writing, which this story lacks. The Cullen family of vampires are also absent from a large proportion of New Moon, and vampire fans may keenly feel their absence. Do not let this put you off reading the book however because it is still one of the best books that I have read this year.
The story is narrated in first person by Bella and has an obvious parallel with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and I mean obvious because even Bella recognises that she is in danger of playing out history’s greatest romantic tragedy. I think keeping Romeo and Juliet in the forefront of the readers mind actually helps the author build the tension for the climax of the story because we can all see the tragedy that is waiting to happen.
The pain that Bella feels when Edward abandons her is extremely well written and is really what this story is about. Most of the things that happen to Bella in New Moon are as a result of the overwhelming loss that she is trying to bear. Her friendship with Jacob has a doomed quality to it not only because he obviously loves her while she is in love with Edward but because he is a werewolf and he naturally hates all vampires.
For fantasy fans, the story isn’t all about Bella and her emotional pain. The rogue vampires Laurent and Victoria return to Forks. They are looking for revenge against Edward but they only find Bella. The Quileute werewolves are an exciting addition to the story and it will be interesting to see how this plot line is developed in the next novel in this series.
I stayed up until the early hours of the morning reading this book because once I was caught up in the story I couldn’t stop reading. I’m sure I’m not the first person, and won’t be the last person either, to say that about this novel. New Moon is highly recommended reading.

Twilight

Well i think that twilight was a really good book and if you like the twilight series then you should go ahead and read them.Twilight is the story of Edward and Bella’s romance. Forget any vampire romance you have read before, Twilight is so unique it is almost like it’s in its own genre. The book is marketed at Young Adult readers but it has the ability to cross age barriers and will satisfy both teenagers and adults alike.
The story is told in first person from the perspective of Bella, so the reader only ever know what she knows, making Edward and his family a mystery that is slowly unravelled through out the book. Even by the end of the book I was still thirsting for more of the Cullen family back story - hopefully their characters might be developed further in future books. Bella herself is a well written and realistic character, shy and lacking in confidence, her sarcastic inner voice narrates the story for the reader.
Twilight is simply and yet beautifully written. The descriptions of Forks leave you feeling like you can almost smell the damp air and hear the rain falling on the roof.
The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and compelling. There is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope that their relationship is not doomed. The book reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive.
I have heard Twilight described as “a vampire story for people who don’t like vampire stories” and I think I would agree with that. This book really has something for everyone. Young adult readers, vampire fans or romance readers will all find Twilight to be an appealing story.
For a Young Adult novel the book is quite long but don’t let that put you off reading it because each page is to be savoured. Believe me, this is one book that you won’t want to end.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Thoughts of the End of Level Literacy exam

Well i think that the end of level literacy exam was really bad because Remove Formatting from selectionit took to long to do it and we should of just done it in one day. But i liked it because of the food that Mrs. Gillmore gave us during the break and we got to talk to our friends.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Book Review of "The Great Gatsby"

Bootlegged gin, cigarettes placed into mouths following the clicking shut of their golden cases, gowns, suits, chauffeurs. Games, double meanings, illicit affairs, fortunes made in mysterious ways, drinking to drown an awkward moment or the quiet disappointment of your life. This is the world of The Great Gastby, F. Scott Fitgerald’s 1925 masterpiece. The novel follows the young Nick Carraway as he recounts a summer in the 1920’s that he spent in New York
. It centers on his relationship with his cousin, Daisy, her husband, Tom, and how he gets drawn into the middle of Daisy’s affair with his neighbor, the mysteriously wealthy, unabashedly charming Mr. Jay Gatsby. Though at times his book comes off feeling like a tedious bore, Fitzgerald’s labors to create 1920 Long Island serve a very specific and tragic end. Early on, Nick earns the reader’s trust, and as the other characters become less honest and it becomes clear that very little they say or do is genuine, the reader can only sympathize with Nick when he begins to despise those around him. However, the payoff comes when Fitzgerald
displays the heart at the bottom of these seemingly senseless characters. Eventually, the games they play break down, making the display of true emotion--and more specifically, true desire--distinctly striking. At that point, the novel also becomes a story of consequence and ascends its prior tedium; the recklessness of these characters leads to their demise. In Gatsby, we're introduced to a doll-house. We're shown a world of glass, and though Fitzgerald makes us disgusted with what we've seen, there is something overwhelmingly tragic about watching the whole thing crumble to the ground.

Book review for Eclipse

OK, I liked "Eclipse" better than "New Moon". The pace of the story was great, we saw more Edward and more of the Cullens - which I liked. I loved learning more of the Cullens' back stories.
The build up to the battle was good and the alliance between the "good vampires" and the werewolves against the "bad vampires" led by Victoria was fun. The fight against Victoria was quite gruesome and well told. I still think the development of all the characters is somewhat weak and one-dimensional, except interestingly for Jacob - maybe because of his dual life, we get to know him better.
As for Bella, while she annoyed me less - I still don't really like her. As a heroine for teenage girls, I'm still having trouble with her low self-esteem, her neediness and the fact that she hasn't told her parents about what's going on. I don't like that so many people now know the truth about her and about Edward, including Billy (supposedly her father's best friend) and no one has told Charlie. Someone (maybe Edward?) should sit Charlie down and explain the whole thing to him.

Monday, February 16, 2009

What is Materialism?

Well i think that Materialism is the philosophical theory that regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies. In the book "The Great Gatsby", their is a lot of Materialism in it and it is about the characters in this book.