The Hostile Hospital

12-30-09
The Hostile Hospital (from The Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket, is a 255 paged novel. The Baudelaire orphans finally make it to a seemingly safe hospital after being chased people who keep trying to call the police. Were they finally safe from Olaf? Could they find information on their dead parents? This action-packed story will always want you to know more! I recommend to anyone who read the other seven books of the series.

The Last Olympian

Angel #25
12-29-09
The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan, is a 381 paged novel. As usual, danger occurs at New York mostly wit mythological creatures. This time the titans (they don’t respect the Gods) decided to take down Olympus (which is on the top of the Empire State Building and home to the gods). This humorous, action-packed book always wants you to keep on reading! It would be recommended to anyone who finished reading the rest of the series.

Daniel's Story

Daniel's Story, by Carol Matas, is a 131 paged novel. It talks about a child's entry and escape from a dangerous and deadly labor camp. Every thing goes awful. Families are dieing. People are growing to weak to even work or walk. With all this cruelty, will Daniel even survive?

I am David

I am David, by Anne Holm, is a 239 paged novel. It has a tale of a young boy, escaped from a labor camp living in the outside world. He doesn't know anything on the outside life! Just to make it worse, he thinks the gaurds are after him. Will he find safety or even survive this dangerous journey? Read the book to find out!

The Devil's Arithmetic

Angel 25
11-30-09
The 166 paged novel The Devil’s Arithmetic, written by Jane Yolen, is about a young girl trying to escape from a time she been mysteriously “transported” in, while getting out of a concentration camp. The characters include: Hannah, Hannah’s mother and father, Aaron (little brother), Aunt Eva, Aunt Rose, Grandpa Will, Gitl (past mother), Shmuel (past father), Yitzchak, Fayge, Esther, Shifre, Yette, and Rachel. During Passover, Hannah opened the door for the prophet Elijah (part of the tradition in that holiday) and got “transported” to the past and soon kidnapped by a concentration camp. When her friends get into grave danger, she escapes from the guard with them and then got “transported” back to her own home with more knowledge on the Holocaust. An important setting for the story would be 1942.

1942 was the most important setting in The Devil’s Arithmetic. One major reason was that Hannah wouldn’t have known how bad it was for her relatives and other people at a camp. Another big reason would be that, if Hannah never came to 1942, she would have never understood the reason of talking or remembering about the past, and would keep complaining about it. She would also have never met any of the friends she met at 1942. 1942 was a setting that was needed in the story.

The Reptile Room

Angel 25

The novel The Reptile Room (in the Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket, has 190 pages. The main characters are Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Olaf, Mr. Poe, and Dr. Montgomery. The Baudelaire orphans (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) find a great guardian, but soon they see their worst enemy, Olaf. When the orphans meet Dr. Monty they are extremely happy until Count Olaf comes, in disguise, and kills Dr. Monty. Soon they find enough evidence and convince Mr. Poe that the person in disguise was Olaf, but Olaf escaped. A good conflict for The Reptile Room is Count Olaf vs. orphans.

The major conflict was the orphans vs. Count Olaf. Olaf has tried to steal their fortune. He acts so well (through out the book/series) nobody (guardians Mr. Poe, police, ect.), but the orphans knew it was him. He even threatened the orphans with a knife. No matter what, they always meet. The main conflict that stands out in this story is the orphans vs. Count Olaf.

Point Blank

Point Blank, by Anthony Horowitz, is a 274 paged novel. A certain reluctant spy, Alex Rider, is sent to a mysterious school that has kids going bad to good quickly. The odd part is that 2 parents died and all kids are 14. What could it be? Brainwashing, threats, clones, or maybe the regular. Will Alex even live long enough to know? Read the book to find out! I recommend it to anyone!

Ps. Read Storm Breaker first.

NEWS

I read 4,078 pages!
Have a great day!!!!

The Sea of Monsters.

9-30-09
The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan, is a 279 paged novel about a young half-blood(half human-half God) trying to save his camp and his best friend. One day, a half-blood named Percy finds out his camp, camp Half-Blood, is in danger since Luke (someone who went to Krono’s side) poisoned the magical border, and that his best friend, Grover, is being held captive by a Cyclops. To make it worse, the camp director, Dionysus won’t allow Percy to go by allowing Percy’s enemy, Clarisse, to go instead. With the help of his Cyclops brother, Tyson, a friend named Annabeth, and his father, Poseidon, he saved the camp and Grover. The main theme is hope.

The theme that appears the most seems to be hope. First, when Percy thought Tyson was dead, he tried to keep on going. Time was also running out, but Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth didn’t turn back. They did lose their ship 3 times, but still found their way. I would recommend this book due to the comedy and action.

Angel #25
The story Boy of the Painted cave, by Justin Denzel, is a 158 paged book about a boy in the early man times that wants to paint, but is not a chosen one. The main characters are Tao, Volt, Graybeard and Ram. Tao, always drawing and hoping, wants to paint caves but can’t due to the clan leader, Volt and the taboos. Soon he is caught, but then he proves himself and starts following Graybeard’s (chosen one who dies due to age and sickness) foot steps.

The major conflict in the story is that Tao disobeys the clan rules. He paints in cave walls/floors. He hunts with a wolf (Ram). He even hunts in the forbidden place called Slough. These were the major taboos in the clan that he disobeys.

The Land of the Silver Apples

Angel 25
The Land of the Silver Apples, by Nancy Farmer, is a 482-paged novel about a boy and his friends trying to find his unknown sister, and help the rest of his friends and family. The boy (Jack) gets himself into situations (mostly because of magic) that actually help him, but they also cause more challenges. It has a lot of action and funny parts that make it a page-turner and fun to read as well! If you want to know if he succeeded or not, you could find this book in the Manchester Gate library!