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.
Friday, December 8, 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
The Sister's Grimm: The Unusual Suspects
This is the second book in Michael Buckley's series. In this one, we get to know the character Puck a bit more. Now that the girls finally have a foster family, they get to go to a school on a steady basis. Daphne is excited, because she gets to have Snow White for a teacher! However, Sabrina is much less excited, because school is school, and school in this town is horrible.
The teachers are super mean (except for Snow White, because she's awesome, but I think she's only a second grade teacher). The kids are mean and tired on top of it. When the girls stumble upon Sabrina's teacher's room (Mr. Grumpner) and finds that he has been killed, and wrapped in spiderwebs, they know something is going on.
There is another mystery brewing for the Grimms to solve. There are more deaths and this book is slightly gruesome as others are attacked and killed. They find out that the principle, monstrous students at the school, and Rumplestilskin have all been doing something horrible. Rumplestiltskin has been working with the Principle to use his instrument to hypnotize the kids into digging a giant tunnel under the force field and out of the town (it is protected by magic to prevent people from escaping).
Now the Principle's son has been affected, and he doesn't want to be a part of this anymore. Sabrina was hypnotized, but is broken out of it by the principle (the pied piper) and she runs off to save everyone. They are all spiderwebbed and stuck to the ceiling. They get caved into one of the sections of the tunnel.
Sabrina tries to free everyone, but Wendel, the principle's son, is almost killed. He is revived, but it was close. Sabrina was given magic matchsticks that can take her anywhere she wants to go. She only has about three, but they use one to get out of the cave, and leave Mr. Canis, who has turned into his wolf form, to fight Rumplestilskin. The monster kids are unconscious and they have been trained by Rumplestilskin to be murderous. They are returned to their original parents: Beauty and the Beast, The spider and Little Ms. Muffet, and the Princess and the Frog. They had been tricked by Rumplestilskin into giving up their children many years ago.
Everyone is worried about Mr. Canis when the tunnels cave in. He returns later on, but not until the next book. Sabrina thinks this is all her fault. She uses the last match to find her missing parents, who have been held captive by a mysterious group called the Red Hand. She finds that a young girl (Little Red Riding Hood) who is delirious has been keeping them there under a sleeping spell, and that she also has a dragon for a pet (the Jabberwocky) who sets the building on fire. The girl runs away with Sabrina's parents. Puck comes in to the closing portal to save Sabrina. The little girl still wants Mr. Canis for a dog, and Grandmother Relda for a grandmother. She will return!
The book ends with the house burning down around them.
The teachers are super mean (except for Snow White, because she's awesome, but I think she's only a second grade teacher). The kids are mean and tired on top of it. When the girls stumble upon Sabrina's teacher's room (Mr. Grumpner) and finds that he has been killed, and wrapped in spiderwebs, they know something is going on.
There is another mystery brewing for the Grimms to solve. There are more deaths and this book is slightly gruesome as others are attacked and killed. They find out that the principle, monstrous students at the school, and Rumplestilskin have all been doing something horrible. Rumplestiltskin has been working with the Principle to use his instrument to hypnotize the kids into digging a giant tunnel under the force field and out of the town (it is protected by magic to prevent people from escaping).
Now the Principle's son has been affected, and he doesn't want to be a part of this anymore. Sabrina was hypnotized, but is broken out of it by the principle (the pied piper) and she runs off to save everyone. They are all spiderwebbed and stuck to the ceiling. They get caved into one of the sections of the tunnel.
Sabrina tries to free everyone, but Wendel, the principle's son, is almost killed. He is revived, but it was close. Sabrina was given magic matchsticks that can take her anywhere she wants to go. She only has about three, but they use one to get out of the cave, and leave Mr. Canis, who has turned into his wolf form, to fight Rumplestilskin. The monster kids are unconscious and they have been trained by Rumplestilskin to be murderous. They are returned to their original parents: Beauty and the Beast, The spider and Little Ms. Muffet, and the Princess and the Frog. They had been tricked by Rumplestilskin into giving up their children many years ago.
Everyone is worried about Mr. Canis when the tunnels cave in. He returns later on, but not until the next book. Sabrina thinks this is all her fault. She uses the last match to find her missing parents, who have been held captive by a mysterious group called the Red Hand. She finds that a young girl (Little Red Riding Hood) who is delirious has been keeping them there under a sleeping spell, and that she also has a dragon for a pet (the Jabberwocky) who sets the building on fire. The girl runs away with Sabrina's parents. Puck comes in to the closing portal to save Sabrina. The little girl still wants Mr. Canis for a dog, and Grandmother Relda for a grandmother. She will return!
The book ends with the house burning down around them.
The Sister's Grimm: The Fairytale Detectives
This is the first book of many in one of my favorite childhood series: The Sister's Grimm by Michael Buckley. The books are decent. I mostly like them because I can recall the moments I read certain events in the story when I was younger, and because the humor is so young and stereotypical that it's funny. Here is the plot:
Two young girls whose parents mysteriously disappeared not long ago have been taken from house to horrible house, where they have been mistreated by their foster parents. They had no other living family, so they find that they might be thrown around until they can find a proper foster family. When one woman claims to be their grandmother, Sabrina, the oldest sister, thinks that this is it for them. They have no living relatives. She must be a fraud! The woman feeds them strange food and tells them that everyone in the town is a fairytale character.
Daphne falls in love with the dog, the grandma, and her helper, Mr. Canis. Daphne doesn't want to leave. Sabrina, however, is determined that their so-called grandmother is a fake, and that they must escape as soon as possible. This lands them in some trouble. As they try to escape for the first time, they run into a winged boy who lives in the forest, and they are attacked by pixies. They are saved, and Sabrina starts to see that they weren't lying.
When a farmer's plants are mysteriously attacked, and squashed, Sabrina, Daphne, and the others must solve the mystery. They have become detectives along with their grandmother. They are the only regular humans in the whole town who know what is actually going on.
When Mr. Canis and Grandmother Relda are taken captive by a rampaging giant, it is up to Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck (the winged boy) to save them. Will they make it? (Obviously they do, because kids wouldn't be happy with an artistically unfinished novel).
Two young girls whose parents mysteriously disappeared not long ago have been taken from house to horrible house, where they have been mistreated by their foster parents. They had no other living family, so they find that they might be thrown around until they can find a proper foster family. When one woman claims to be their grandmother, Sabrina, the oldest sister, thinks that this is it for them. They have no living relatives. She must be a fraud! The woman feeds them strange food and tells them that everyone in the town is a fairytale character.
Daphne falls in love with the dog, the grandma, and her helper, Mr. Canis. Daphne doesn't want to leave. Sabrina, however, is determined that their so-called grandmother is a fake, and that they must escape as soon as possible. This lands them in some trouble. As they try to escape for the first time, they run into a winged boy who lives in the forest, and they are attacked by pixies. They are saved, and Sabrina starts to see that they weren't lying.
When a farmer's plants are mysteriously attacked, and squashed, Sabrina, Daphne, and the others must solve the mystery. They have become detectives along with their grandmother. They are the only regular humans in the whole town who know what is actually going on.
When Mr. Canis and Grandmother Relda are taken captive by a rampaging giant, it is up to Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck (the winged boy) to save them. Will they make it? (Obviously they do, because kids wouldn't be happy with an artistically unfinished novel).
Monday, September 4, 2017
The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls was absolutely fantastic. It's so well written and so surprising that it's hard to think it's a true story. It goes through ups and downs that can make you laugh and cry and change your mood about the characters constantly.
In the story, the Walls family (consisting of Rex, Rose Mary, Brian, Rex, Lori, Jeannette, and Maureen) don't have a lot of money. They travel from place to place and their father tries to do odd jobs or make money off gambling most of the time. They do what they can to keep going. When the kids are younger, they think it's wonderful, always being on the move and going on adventures. However, when they get older they start realizing just how different their lives are from a lot of the other kids. They begin digging out of trashcans for food and collecting the little money they can. Jeanette herself goes through some pretty horrible things, but she still loves her parents despite the condition of their lives. Her and her siblings go through this together. I think that's one of the reasons I liked this book. It shows a broken but still together family that loves each other, and it's beautiful.
Rex is the father. He is a gambler, smoker, and drinker. He tries to be the head of the family, but a lot of times he just drags them down, spending all their newfound money on his cigarettes and beer.
Rose Mary is the mother. She is an aspiring artist who can't drive very well at all. She sometimes acts like one of the kids, and doesn't always like taking responsibility.
Lori is the oldest child. She is incredibly smart, responsible, and she is also an aspiring artist like her mother.
Then there's Jeannette. The book is from her point of view (obviously, since she wrote the book) and she's brave and she had been through a LOT. She's the only who who would believe in her father even when he was at his worst. As she grew older, her faith in him faded bit by bit, but I think she was always kind of her daddy's little girl.
Brian is the next oldest. He and Jeannette were probably the closest out of any of the siblings. They would always play together and such.
Maureen is the youngest. Jeannette didn't talk a whole lot about her, as when they moved to Welch, she always stayed over at friend's house.
They were always trying to build their Glass Castle, or their dream house basically. Their father had all the blueprints drawn out and everything.
There are so many little details in this book that are hard to explain, and so many things happened to her. There's a lot going on in the story because it was her real life! So I'm not going to list all the events that happened. You just need to read it and know that it is AMAZING. :)
In the story, the Walls family (consisting of Rex, Rose Mary, Brian, Rex, Lori, Jeannette, and Maureen) don't have a lot of money. They travel from place to place and their father tries to do odd jobs or make money off gambling most of the time. They do what they can to keep going. When the kids are younger, they think it's wonderful, always being on the move and going on adventures. However, when they get older they start realizing just how different their lives are from a lot of the other kids. They begin digging out of trashcans for food and collecting the little money they can. Jeanette herself goes through some pretty horrible things, but she still loves her parents despite the condition of their lives. Her and her siblings go through this together. I think that's one of the reasons I liked this book. It shows a broken but still together family that loves each other, and it's beautiful.
Rex is the father. He is a gambler, smoker, and drinker. He tries to be the head of the family, but a lot of times he just drags them down, spending all their newfound money on his cigarettes and beer.
Rose Mary is the mother. She is an aspiring artist who can't drive very well at all. She sometimes acts like one of the kids, and doesn't always like taking responsibility.
Lori is the oldest child. She is incredibly smart, responsible, and she is also an aspiring artist like her mother.
Then there's Jeannette. The book is from her point of view (obviously, since she wrote the book) and she's brave and she had been through a LOT. She's the only who who would believe in her father even when he was at his worst. As she grew older, her faith in him faded bit by bit, but I think she was always kind of her daddy's little girl.
Brian is the next oldest. He and Jeannette were probably the closest out of any of the siblings. They would always play together and such.
Maureen is the youngest. Jeannette didn't talk a whole lot about her, as when they moved to Welch, she always stayed over at friend's house.
They were always trying to build their Glass Castle, or their dream house basically. Their father had all the blueprints drawn out and everything.
There are so many little details in this book that are hard to explain, and so many things happened to her. There's a lot going on in the story because it was her real life! So I'm not going to list all the events that happened. You just need to read it and know that it is AMAZING. :)
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Carve the Mark
While I don't do this for every novel, I was looking at some others' peoples reviews of Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth. I noticed that many, many people talked about this book being racist. Honestly, I kind of wish stereotypes didn't even exist in the world. As someone I know recently said, "I would rather let the characters I write be awful because they are human trash, rather than their race, class, religion..." and so on. I completely agree with them. If writers didn't have to worry about stereotypes, things would be so much easier. They could simply focus on writing a good story, and that's what Roth did, in my opinion.
I'm sorry if this makes me seem ignorant, but at first, I didn't even notice that Roth had been racist. When I'm reading, I don't really think about the race of a person. I can hardly even think about what their face looks like. Typically, if the author says they have a certain hair or skin color, I may try to imagine it, but I mostly focus on the events and the emotions when I'm reading. I think that's all a person really should be paying attention to. Apparently, she portrayed someone's race poorly because they were an aggressive character. I don't know the exact details, because I didn't really pay attention to that kind of thing. Anyways, I'll say that there were a lot of horrible characters in that novel. There were ones who were probably white, and all different kinds of races. I didn't go in depth and study all the characters, but according to one blog, two of the most violent characters were white. Nobody complains about them.
I think that a reader should only despise an author's work because they killed off a good character, or because they absolutely despise the antagonist, not because they think it is racist that someone who was dark-skinned happened to be evil. What should Roth do? Just completely make all of the evil characters white or any other race but that one specifically?
Overall, I think the story was actually really good. If you aren't going to read this story because you have heard it is racist. Please try to read it anyways and simply focus on the story, rather than the character descriptions. You might enjoy it a lot more. I personally actually loved this book. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone with this post, but this is just my opinion. I just want people to enjoy a good book for what it is, and not worry about the races off the characters. Just read!
I'm sorry if this makes me seem ignorant, but at first, I didn't even notice that Roth had been racist. When I'm reading, I don't really think about the race of a person. I can hardly even think about what their face looks like. Typically, if the author says they have a certain hair or skin color, I may try to imagine it, but I mostly focus on the events and the emotions when I'm reading. I think that's all a person really should be paying attention to. Apparently, she portrayed someone's race poorly because they were an aggressive character. I don't know the exact details, because I didn't really pay attention to that kind of thing. Anyways, I'll say that there were a lot of horrible characters in that novel. There were ones who were probably white, and all different kinds of races. I didn't go in depth and study all the characters, but according to one blog, two of the most violent characters were white. Nobody complains about them.
I think that a reader should only despise an author's work because they killed off a good character, or because they absolutely despise the antagonist, not because they think it is racist that someone who was dark-skinned happened to be evil. What should Roth do? Just completely make all of the evil characters white or any other race but that one specifically?
Overall, I think the story was actually really good. If you aren't going to read this story because you have heard it is racist. Please try to read it anyways and simply focus on the story, rather than the character descriptions. You might enjoy it a lot more. I personally actually loved this book. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone with this post, but this is just my opinion. I just want people to enjoy a good book for what it is, and not worry about the races off the characters. Just read!
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Fire Color One
Absolutely amazing. Fire Color One by Jenny Valentine is named after this painting:
http://en.artintern.net/index.php/news/main/html/1/1933
This painting is by Yves Klein. You may not see it at first, but if you look closely, you can see the outlines of two human figures. A beautiful painting, and a beautiful book. Fire Color One is the story of Iris, a girl who has just had to move back to Europe with her mother (Hannah) and her mother's boyfriend (Lowell), due to money problems in the United States. They also moved after Iris committed arson by burning down her school. Fire is her escape. Iris is struggling with the fact that she has been separated by her friend, Thurston. Thurston was the only one who understood her and stories about how they met and what they did together are slowly revealed throughout the novel. Many years before, when Iris was two or three, Hannah left Ernest (Iris' biological father). He lived in Europe, so once they moved back there, she gave him a call.
It turns out that Ernest was actually dying of some disease. Hannah and Lowell are ecstatic, thinking that as soon as Ernest dies, they will collect his many extremely valuable paintings and become rich. Iris doesn't really care about him at first. She doesn't even remember him. She thinks she should feel sad, but can she really feel sad for someone she doesn't know? So they all go to visit Ernest. Almost immediately, Iris and Ernest have a connection and Ernest tells her many rather interesting and some unexpected stories of his life. The end of this is unexpected and wonderful. Fantastically made. I'm not sure if Valentine could have made this book much better.
http://en.artintern.net/index.php/news/main/html/1/1933
This painting is by Yves Klein. You may not see it at first, but if you look closely, you can see the outlines of two human figures. A beautiful painting, and a beautiful book. Fire Color One is the story of Iris, a girl who has just had to move back to Europe with her mother (Hannah) and her mother's boyfriend (Lowell), due to money problems in the United States. They also moved after Iris committed arson by burning down her school. Fire is her escape. Iris is struggling with the fact that she has been separated by her friend, Thurston. Thurston was the only one who understood her and stories about how they met and what they did together are slowly revealed throughout the novel. Many years before, when Iris was two or three, Hannah left Ernest (Iris' biological father). He lived in Europe, so once they moved back there, she gave him a call.
It turns out that Ernest was actually dying of some disease. Hannah and Lowell are ecstatic, thinking that as soon as Ernest dies, they will collect his many extremely valuable paintings and become rich. Iris doesn't really care about him at first. She doesn't even remember him. She thinks she should feel sad, but can she really feel sad for someone she doesn't know? So they all go to visit Ernest. Almost immediately, Iris and Ernest have a connection and Ernest tells her many rather interesting and some unexpected stories of his life. The end of this is unexpected and wonderful. Fantastically made. I'm not sure if Valentine could have made this book much better.
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