Friday, December 8, 2017

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Lupin was the teacher. Peter Pettigrew was caught and then uncaught. Lupin was a werewolf. They go back in time to save Sirius and to save Buckbeak. Harry finds out that Sirius was his godfather. Harry blew up Aunt Marge after getting angry. The dementors come and make Harry pass out. He finds out more about his father's friend and his father's childhood. Everybody thought Sirius was evil but he's not. Ron had broken his leg after being pulled in by Sirius. Snape was trying extra hard to get Sirius killed because he didn't like him. Everyone thought the trio was being brainwashed. Good book. Also very good plot. They go to Hogsmeade. He finds out about how "SIRIUS" betrayed his father but it was really Pettigrew. He meets Trewlaney. She's kind of annoying. He goes on the nightbus.

Briar Rose

The book is Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. The climax of the novel is either when Potocki finishes telling the story about her grandmother. The major and minor conflicts are solved by finding out the information. Near the end, Becca solves her conflict of not knowing her grandmother’s past by learning her story from a man in Poland. She also solves her conflict of not knowing if Stan likes her by flirting with him, and then having him kiss her. The most major thing that helped to resolve the plot was the story. Throughout the novel, all Becca wants to do is find the story of her grandmother’s past. Before her grandmother, Gemma, died, Becca had promised her she would find her “castle” and her “prince.” In the end, Becca found the “castle” which was a big grave for all of the dead, exterminated people. The main message of the novel may have been to not give up, as Becca persistently tried to find her grandmother’s story although her sisters discouraged her, and the journey wasn’t easy. However, I feel as though the theme is about how we all have a calling to know the stories of our own grandparents, and their ancestors, and their history. Several times Becca and Stan had a conversation about why they had such an urge to find these stories (Becca wanted to find Gemma’s story and Stan had a desire to find his true birth mother). After Stan found his birth mother, he didn’t even really feel like he wanted to stay around her. They were out of each other’s lives and he discovered his ancestry simply because he felt he had to do so. So I believe one of the themes of this story was how most of us have at least a little curiosity as to where we came from. This novel is very realistic. It is a realistic fiction Holocaust story. In it, Becca is trying to find the story of where Gemma came from. Later on, she gets this story from a man named Josef Potocki in Poland, who tells the story of how he and his fellow partisans saved her from Chelmno, a place where they sent dead people from Holocaust camps. At the end, there is a disclaimer from the author saying that she doesn’t know any woman who had been found alive in Chelmno, and that her book is fictional. I, however, almost have a hard time believing that it wasn’t a true story. Jane Yolen crafted this novel so well that it almost seems like a true Holocaust survivor story. It was absolutely beautiful and it had so much emotion in it for someone who didn’t even go through the Holocaust herself. Of course, she can’t put as much of that raw emotion into it since it wasn’t a personal experience but it wasn’t that far off either. All in all, I think this was a beautifully made book. However, I didn’t think that at all until I got to the part where Potocki began telling the story. For a large portion of the book, the pace is so slow. It’s all about Becca’s struggles trying to find the story, and while interesting, lacks action. For about half of the book, the scenes consist of her pouring over photographs and old things that Gemma had kept. The only interesting parts were the two-page intermissions where Gemma was telling the story. These intermissions were there to tell us Gemma’s story bit by bit. At the end of the novel, the story was completed and all the questions were answered. However, until we met Potocki the novel was very slow. There were hardly any answers. Although, this may have been a good decision on Yolen’s part, as it portrayed real life. Not everyone finds the answers right away or in conveniently placed increments, and so the revealing of the story at the end was well-timed, as long as the audience didn’t stop reading the book first. To correct my statement, the Holocaust portion of the story was not the only interesting part. Not long before that, it picked up a bit when she went to Poland, and met Magda, one of my favorite characters. I would definitely recommend this book to someone else. Although it had it’s flaws, it redeemed itself in the end, and Yolen proved herself to be an amazing author.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

This book was really good. It is also Daniel Radcliffe's favorite book. It's one of my favorite plots as well. This is how it goes, in the song, and then the plot.

Ron breaks his wand
Now Ginny's gone
And Harry's in moral danger
Tom Riddle hides a snake inside
His gigantic secret chamber

In this one, Ginny finds Tom Riddle's Journal, which she thought was normal (nobody thought to warn them bout any of this?) and talks to it. He draws her into the Chamber of Secrets that wants to get rid of all mud bloods. Ron breaks his wand. They get locked out of the platform by Dobby and have to take the flying car. They get in trouble and get hit by the whomping willow. Harry has to fight a giant snake and Hermione is paralyzed by the basilisk. She temporarily turned into stone because she did not see him all the way but Myrtle was killed that way many years ago. Harry frees Dobby by the end, and Tom Riddle's journal is destroyed therefore destroying Tom Riddle (who was just a memory by the journal's magic). Gilderoy Lockhart was the teacher, but he lost his memory by trying to erase the memory of the other kids and some people found out he was a fraud. He was fired.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I was a little late jumping on the Harry Potter train, but I don't regret it. I feel like because I'm older now, I can fully appreciate the series for the literary beauty that it is. These books are by J.K. Rowling, and this is the plot of the first book.

Harry is a boy who was the only one to survive the Avada Kedavra curse. After being slightly socially abused by his uncle, aunt, and cousin, the Dursley's. He discovers that his parents were never killed by a car crash, but rather by a powerful evil wizard, who Harry diminished to almost nothing when he was just a child. Hagrid shows up and tells Harry that he is a wizard. Harry fights a giant mountain troll with Ron and Hermione and is nervous when he goes on the platform for the first time.  He wasn't friends with Hermione at first and Ron hated her, but now they were all friends. They also help Hagrid hide a dragon on Hogwarts grounds, but they have to let him go escape to Charlie, Ron's brother, who is a dragon person. That is basically this whole book it's kind of self-explanatory. Wait! Also there was the sorcerer's stone that Voldemort was trying to get by means of the back of Quirrel's head. He was attacked. Harry passes out, and the sorcerer's stone was destroyed by Dumbledore.