Heroes of Olympus

          So most people in my class will be posting a blog about their column reading that we had to do, but I won't. I didn't just read the columns, I also re-read the Heroes of Olympus series.
         In this series, there are five books: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus. In this post, I will be talking about "The Blood of Olympus," because it was my favorite in the series. In this book, we continue to follow the journey of our 7 heroes that were selected to defeat the giants and the Earth Mother, Gaea. There are many great challenges in this book that they have to overcome, each one harder than the last. Another main conflict in the book is that the Greek and Roman camps have discovered each other, and are preparing for war, which would be fatal to everyone.
          I would rate this book a definite 10/10 because there is nothing wrong with this book, in my opinion. The perfect amount of conflict in this book was balanced with an also perfect amount of humor, mostly from the ever funny Leo. This also brings me to my favorite character. My favorite character in this book would definitely be Leo, because of the humor he brings to the book and also the importance of him to the story. He also makes a sacrifice that may have saved the world.
          I would recommend this book for anyone. This book can appeal to audiences of any age. You must read the beginning of the series to understand this book.

Theme Handout

Fahrenheit 451 Theme handout

Elise Wexelblatt, Grace Tang, Serena Troung, Shashank Reddy, Olivia Jounge, Elena Polasko

Theme: Individual self-expression is important.

Timeline:

• Montag is solely focused on his job and won’t listen to anyone else
• Montag meets Clarisse and sees how she expresses herself
• Montag begins to see how pointless and meaningless his life is
• He feels trapped in society and wants someone to listen to him
• Montag meets Faber and learns what expression is
• Montag begins to express himself and rebel against the government
• He finds people who will listen and he begins to express himself

Quotes:

• “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9)
• “We must all be alike. Not everyone free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.” (Bradbury 55)
• “I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if i talk long enough, it’ll make sense.” (Bradbury 78)
• “He would be Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water, and then, one day, after everything had mixed and simmered and worked away in silence, there would be neither fire nor water, but wine.” (Bradbury 99)
• “Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon.” (Bradbury 158)

How is this theme important to our understanding of the story?

This theme is important because we can see how certain individuals will risk it all to express themselves in a broken society where expression is blocked.

How does this theme connect to modern-day society?

In modern-day society, we have easy access to expressing ourselves, and that expression is an important part of our daily lives.

End of Fahrenheit 451

       Over our early spring break(except colder) I finished the book that was assigned to us back a couple weeks ago. It was called Fahrenheit 451. This book was about a man named Guy Montag. He was a fireman. In this book, firemen don't put out fires... they start them. These men are hired to find books of anyone that has any, and burn them because the books were illegal. Montag slowly becomes more and more curious as the book goes on ands starts taking books from the places he burns. He eventually gets caught, and has to burn his own house down. He runs away and finds sanctuary in a place where there are people like him...book lovers. 

        My overall rating of this book would be a 7/10. It was not bad for a book that was assigned at school. My favorite thing that Ray Bradbury did in this book was his accurate predictions of what would happen in the future. Another fireman says,"everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending." This surprised me because this book was written over 50 years ago, yet Bradbury was able to tell us what is happening in our lives right now. Everything is being shrunk down. Some of my least favorite things would be some of the boring scenes in the book. For example, there is a scene where Montag visits a friend and I don't think that  helped develop the book at all.  There were some scenes that if this wasn't a school book, I would have skipped. Also, this book lost a point because it was a school assignment. That makes everything worse. 

       I would reccomend this book to people that aren't reading for fun, but for a little more meaning, and for people that are patient enough to read boring books. If you are a kid that only reads to enjoy, or for action, don't read this. Overall it is a nice book, but not the kind I like and am used to. 

What happen to Mrs. Phelps

          I stumbled out of the house, still crying from... what? Why was I crying? The poetry was not important. Mr. Montag only had it because he had to show us how funny and useless books were.  Why did the book make me so emotional? Only my family can make me feel as sad as that poem did. Was it because the poem reminded me of Pete?

"Ignorant armies clash by night."

         Was Pete part of the ignorant army? Will he be OK? Mr. Montag seems to know everything. I sure hope he was happy after reading that poem, because I sure wasn't. Firemen shouldn't be able to bring books home. They shouldn't. No... they sure shouldn't. I think I will ask the other firemen to take away that rule. They should only burn the books, like they were made to do. These terrible books were not meant to be shared with the rest of the world. I wonder where the firehouse is. That poem was quite interesting, though. It made me curious... What did the rest of it say? I must ask Mr. Montag. I will go over there now.
          When I reached the front of his house I heard him and Millie arguing. I wonder what they were saying? I leaned a little closer and pressed my ear to the door. I suddenly realize that the door voice would tell them that I was here. I leaped back just in time. Millie opened the door and shrieked.

"What are you doing here!"

"I must speak to your husband." I tell her.

I push past her without another word. Mr. Montag is there  on the floor surrounded by books. It is my turn to shriek now.

"Mr. Montag! You are only allowed to have one book a year!"

He looks like a startled deer in front of headlights. He is stumbling with his words until Millie comes to save him.

"He borrowed books from all of his other firemen buddies. He is getting some kind of unhealthy obsession with books."

I explain to Mr. Montag what I feel about books and he takes a big sigh. He seems to be turning thoughts over in that big head of his.

"I guess we need to have a talk." 

He shows me some strange green device.

"I want to introduce you to a friend of mine: Faber." 

City of Bones

City of Bones

          Recently I have read only one good book. It is called City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare. I had just recently finished the first book in the series, and haven't gotten the chance to read the second book yet, which is called City of Ashes. This was a really good book about a teenage girl named Clary Fray who is normal until she witnesses a murder. Normally, people wouldn't write a fictional book about this. What makes it special though, is that the murdered guy was actually a demon, who can disguise themselves to look however they want. Nobody can see the demon and the killers, who are called Shadow Hunters because they hunt in the shadows and kill demons. Clary's world is twisted that night, and she is thrust into the world of demons, vampires, faries, werewolves, and other magical creatures. For a full summary of this book, click here.

          This is a really well written book with many plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the book. There are many different characters that are both funny and also important to the story. My favorite character would definitely be Jace. Jace is one of the shadow hunters that Clary sees that night. He is a humorous person and also important to the plot. One funny moment with Jace would be when Clary and Jace are out, and Clary mentions that there are girls looking at Jace, he responds by saying, "Of course they are, I'm stunningly attractive." Jace is also an important character in the book, and is one of the main characters. He is normally quiet about his past, but as the book goes on, we learn more and more about him. 

          I would rate this book a solid 9/10. This was a book that I really enjoyed. The only thing that wouldn't make this book a 10/10 would be the fact that there are some scenes in the book that I think are completely unnecessary. For example, there is a scene towards the end of the book in which Jace and Clary go to the greenhouse and just talk, for an entire chapter of the book. It doesn't have any value to the book, in my opinion. Other than that, I think this was one of the best books I have ever read. 
          The kind of people that would like this book would be the kind of people that enjoy mystery, violence, and fantasy. I will have to say though, that I would not recommend this book for younger kids, because there is mild suggestive behavior, and there is also a lot of swearing. Other than that, any age group can enjoy this book. There is also a movie that has been released based on this book. 

Semester 1 Reflection

        In this post, I am going to talk about all the books that I read over all these months. I am proud of the amount of reading that I have done, and that amount surpasses my goal that I set for myself. I have read about 25-35 books. I have not posted blogs on all of them, especially the series that I have read. The series that I have read, ordered by favorites, were The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, Demonata by Darran Shan, and Circue de Freak by Darran Shan. The series by Darran Shan were longer in amount in books, but each book was shorter. The Inheritance Cycle had four books, but each book was really long. I have also read other books here and there, but they were more of like a small in-between book between series. These series were quite different, but if you look closely enough, you will find that these books all have some things in common. One example would be that they all have magic involved. These series also have non-human species involved as main characters. Inheritance had dragons, Demonata had demons, and Circue de Freak had vampires. These similarities show what types of books I like to read.
           My blog posts have clearly evolved over the semester. In the beginning of the year, my posts were more like they summaries of the book instead of my opinion on those books, which was a better thing to do. Another thing that I have improved on was using specific textual details. One thing that I think I did well was that I always had some type of picture, video or link in my post to give my readers. This allows them to get a different opinion or more information on the topic.
          A goal that I have for the second semester would be to read some books outside of my comfort zone. I would like to read some non-fiction or historical fiction because they would expand my knowledge and I think it would teach me to read and understand what I am reading even when what I am reading isn't the most fun thing. Another goal would be for me to do some of the posts early, and do them voluntarily, and maybe do one every time I finish a book instead of posting according to the due dates. Lastly, I think that changing the way my post is should also be a goal for me. I do the same type of post every time, summary of the book and how I felt about it. I feel I should post sometimes while I am in the middle of the book so I can express my emotions ant things like that. Overall, I think my posts are OK, but could use some improvement.

          I'm making this post because I am supposed to have 10 blog posts right now, but I checked tonight because I have a blogging assessment tomorrow, and I wanted to check. Over the last couple of weeks, I had finished the entire Eragon series, and I really enjoyed it. I would rate it a 10/10. There are multiple groundbreaking discoveries that we make that repeatedly had me so far on the edge of my seat that I'd fall off. Paolini also placed these discoveries in such a way that it is impossible to stop reading.  
          My favorite character in the book would probably be Murtgah, the son of Morzan. I like him because he has always had a rough time growing up, but always stuck to his beliefs. Even as the story continues, as we get a um... different(trying not to spoil) perspective of him, he is always trying to find loopholes around what he has been forced to do.
          This series was really good overall, and we followed all the character's journeys on their quest to vanquish their evil king. I would recommend this series to anyone that wants adventure, mystery, and does not mind minor violence.
          If you want a nice summary, click here.