Knightly Reading at Inglewood Junior High School

Do you like books about action, adventure, and Greek myths? If you do, I suggest you read The Lightning Thief! It’s a great book about a boy named Percy who finds out that he is the son of a famous Greek god, Poseidon. He lives in New York with his mother and step-dad. Percy is not a very good student and has been sent to several different correctional schools. He has an evil teacher who ends up being an evil monster! Percy has to fight his teacher with a pen that turns into a sword that was given by one of his teachers. Percy has to escape because evil Greek monsters are after him! Percy is sent to a camp for kids who are the sons and daughters of Greek gods. They are trained to fight and they learn about the Greek gods and many other things. Percy finds out that Zeus lightning bolt was stolen and it could lead to an apocalypse. Then, he discovers that he has to recover the missing lightning bolt! It leads to many adventures, friendships, and surprising twists!

A few sentences that I like are: “I’m twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that.” I like those sentences because I think it’s pretty funny how Percy talks about himself.

This book has a lot of things about Greek mythology. It’s interesting how the author incorporated Greek mythology into a book about a kid living in modern times. Personally, I really enjoyed this book and I thought it was a very original story and it has very original characters. I would definately recommend this book to anyone!

Maximum Ride: School’s out –forever is the second book in a series of books about Maximum Ride, or Max, and how she leads her “flock” of friends. Max and her friends are winged, super strong, avian-human mutants that were created at a place that Max calls “the School”. Some of the members of the flock got other special abilities from getting mutated. For example Angel, the youngest flock member, has the ability to breathe under water and read other people’s minds.  The flock includes; Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, Fang, Max and recently, picked up in the last book, a talking dog named Total. In the beginning of this book the flock starts out flying to Washington DC when they get jumped by flying Erasers, wolf-human mutants that are created and employed by the scientists at the school. During the fight Fang gets hurt and so the flock has to go to a hospital to help him get better. At the hospital the FBI finds the flock and they send them to live with one of their leaders, Anne. As time living with Anne goes on the flock begins to adjust to the normal life and they even go to a private school there. They start to love Anne and their peaceful life at her house. Will they live peacefully and not have to worry about being attacked? To find out read the series!

What if you discovered an ancient artifact that could save you and hundreds of people from complete destruction? That is what happened to Jason. He had discovered the Dragonheart which had been lost for several years.  Although that was the most powerful artifact, it was only one of many. Jason had discovered it in a hidden cave in one of the best known places in the world.

What’s happening is that Seph and his friends Jason, Ellen, Jack, Maddie and more are surrounded by evil wizards trying to kill them. What they did was surround themselves with a magical web that would keep out anyone that has magic in them and created one gate to guard. The odds are against them since they are surrounded by almost all the wizards in the world. There is a great battle between them and the wizards with all odds against them. Then Jason discovers the Dragonheart…

Jason had never seen so much activity on the streets of Trinity, Ohio at five in the morning. I like this sentence because it describes the chaos that was going on when people where being evacuated from Trinity (the place under attack). This book connects to my life because there is a conflict after another conflict that leads up to a bigger conflict. I think this was an amazing book; it had a beautiful setting, a great story, fantastic characters, and an interesting theme. This is a great book and everyone should read it.

Is it easy being mean? It sounds like a simple question, but is it? Massie Block asks herself this everyday because she is mean, and she knows it. She just doesn’t quite know how easy it is to keep up that reputation.

This is the seventh book in the Clique series. In this book, Massie, Alicia, Dylan, Kristen, and Claire, who are ‘the clique’, receive a video from the eighth grade alpha, Skye Hamilton. Skye Hamilton is Massie’s idol because she believes that next year she will be the new eighth grade alpha. The video is of Skye who is telling them that there is a key to a secret room at OCD (which is the school the clique goes to). Skye had received the key her eighth grade year and experienced the fabulous, secret room. Now she is passing on the key to the soon-to-be eighth grade alpha which Massie knows that it has to be her. Until she figures out that a few other possible alphas received the video as well. The video said that the key was hidden under a Briarwood boy’s mattress in his room! The Clique and all the other possible alphas are now on a mission to find the key first so they can hold in their hands the secret room! –As long as they don’t tell anybody about the room and the video. This includes no discussing with Skye herself!

“The boy who sleeps atop the key

Is into the exact same thing as me.

He loves all creatures, big and small,

So his age doesn’t matter, not at all.

I try not to think about his “glamour-don’t” style

By focusing on his kick-butt smile.

Note to self: I’ve kissed this guy,

But I’ve kissed them all. How bad am I?

We already rode off into the sunset together,

But the next time we do, it will be forever.

Holla!”

That is the poem, that Skye Hamilton wrote, that was on the CD that the clique received. I like that phrase because that is the part of the book where all the drama and adventure begins. That is when these girls figure out about the secret room and it is when the competition begins. That was taken directly from the book on page 94 and 95.

Any teenage girl can relate to this book because it is about teenagers. This book can relate to me personally because I am a teenager that deals with this kind of stuff every day. I don’t deal with such dramatic things like looking for a key under a boy’s mattress and the people at my school are not that mean as the clique girls. But, I do deal with things like in this book to a certain extent.

I love these books. Each Clique book has new drama and new excitement. I liked this one especially because the whole book kept me on edge. Every time one of the girls went into one of the boy’s room I was thinking, “Is the key in there? Is it there?”……It was usually no! Until ______’s room, now his room was the lucky one! You’ll have to read the book to find out which boy held the key. The characters in this book are so relatable. Kristen is sporty while Dylan probably doesn’t even have the word ‘sport’ in her vocabulary. Massie and Alicia are completely confident while Claire is shy and unsure of herself. As you can see, anyone could relate to at least one of the characters. This story makes me laugh and also makes me upset when Massie is so mean to people. It makes me laugh when they crack one of their hilarious jokes though! All in all, I loved this book!

I would recommend to Lisi Harrison (the author) that Massie is not always having success and always so confident. If one time during the book she makes a mistake or gets upset, it would keep the book more realistic because not everyone is perfect! Overall, this book is fantastic and I loved reading it. Now, if you want to know who found the key and who will get the secret room, you are going to have to read the book!

In this book it is another book of twilight. And you have to read twilight to get the book. The book is about how Edward goes and his family leave forks so they don’t reveal that they are vampires because it is the summer time and if they are in the sunlight they sparkle. And Bella misses him so much she thinks she sees him ever were. And then when Jacob teaches Bella to ride a motor cycle  she falls off. And then the next day she gets a call from his father and hw said “ Jacob is to sick to go outside.” But then when Bella goes over there because he was fine the day before he is outside with his friends.  And he is with his friends and what Bella doesn’t know is that he is a ware wolf. And then she is fighting with another wear wolf and he gets mad and he turns into the wear wolf and they are trying to tell the guy to cool down. And he doesn’t and so Bella still doesn’t know that Jacob is a wear wolf and then when she goes home and Alice was their and she say that Edward thinks she is dead and so he is going to show him self in the sunlight and in front of a lot of people. And so when Bella gets their she stops him and then there is a master vampire and he says that Bella has to be turned in a vampire and Alice says she will do it. And Bella wants to become a vampire so she can pertect her self.

The book Tunnels Of Blood is about Darren Shan and Mr.Crepsley. They leave the cirque and come to the city, and later many people die. Darren suspects mr.crepsley or his other option could be that there may be another creature that is killing these people.

“The smell of blood is sickening” this quote is from Darren Shan. It means that Darren is still trying to get used to the idea that he has to drink blood, and he knows that he can’t just drink animal blood. He has to get used to the fact that he has to drink human blood if he wants to live.

My opinion for this book would be 8 out of 10 for my rating of this book. It  will keep you on the edge of your seat, guessing what is going to happen because later in the book you will keep thinking is that person going to survive till the end or not, and you keep thinking will Darren find out the answer to his question which was is it mr.crepsley that is killing these people or is there a creature they don’t know about and it is there with them? Will it be a good answer or will it put everyone in danger?

My recommendation for this book would be to read it, because it will keep you asking questions and you won’t want to close the book. It will make you want to keep reading, and since this is a series you can read the whole series, and see if Darren can ever get used to the fact that, he has to drink human blood if he wants to survive. Will there be more danger to come and will Darren and mr.crepsley be able to defeat it or will the danger defeat them and change their world as they know it?

Have you ever been entered to a new world and realized there are different dimensions, and all you had to do to get there was a magical door and say the word, walk through the door and then you magically appear into a place you’ve never seen in your life? Can you imagine how hard that would be? To leave you family and friends behind and trust your “Uncle” and be with people you’ve never seen before, in order to help these “territories” not fall into the wrong hands of an evil guy, Saint Dane. Well, this is how Bobby Pendragon feels when he first enters the world of Denduron through a flume (a magical door that you can travel to any. When he first enters this mysterious world Bobby’s “uncle”, Uncle Press is capture by some Bedoowan knights and says to Bobby to stay where he is, and the “Milago people” would help him. When he arrives at the Milago huts Loor, Osa’s daughter and a “traveler” (a chosen person to save each of the ten territories/little worlds to save them from turning into chaos), attacks Bobby. Osa, also a “traveler” and the mother of Loor is protecting and giving information to Bobby about Denduron and why the Milago’s and Bedoowan’s are planning a war. Bobby learns that he must help Denduron keep peace between the two tribes. Bobby must go to the Milago people and help them defeat the Bedoowan’s from turning chaos into this territory. The Milago are like slaves to the Bedoowan they hunt up jewels and plant crops for the Bedoowan’s. This is all under command by and evil tyrant Kangan, and his highly trained knight Mallos (aka. Saint Dane). Bobby Pendragon must enter Denduron and save an incoming war between the Milago and Bedoowan that might ruin everything they have in this territory.

Saint Dane, an evil traveler wants Halla to crumble and fall. If he succeeds with Denduron then he would move on to each of the ten “territories” and let everything on it be destroyed. And if Saint Dane would succeed on letting Halla fall and crumble and then he could pick back up the pieces and create a new Halla, a vile one. That means everyone, everything, every territory/world, every living thing would crumble and die. There would be nothing but darkness left and everything would be gone. And then he could build all the territories up back again and create his own version of Halla, an evil Halla. Denduron one of the ten territories is filled with a mysterious tyrant and a strong hatred between the Milago’s and the Bedoowan’s. Bobby Pendragon at least wants one of his friends to know about Denduron and the strong disliking of the two tribes. In order for this to happen, Osa (Bobby’s caretaker for a short period of time) travels through a flume and gives Mark, Bobby’s best friend, a special ring so that way when Bobby writes letters all he has to do is send it through the ring and say Second Earth and Mark will receive the letters. Bobby writes letters to update him on what’s going on in Denduron. And Mark tells Courtney Chetwynde (Bobby Pendragon’s love life) about Bobby and Denduron. At first Courtney doesn’t believe Mark and she thinks that Bobby and Mark are playing a prank on her, but later in the story she realizes that Bobby’s not joking around and she believes Mark and the letters they receive from Bobby. As you can see, these are some reasons why I think this book is so great and why I think it’s such an amazing book.

The top of Mt. Everest….. Described as a divine, beautiful, once in a lifetime sight, or in other cases the most painful dangerous and shortest stop in the world. Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain in the world at 29,028 ft high the air is so thin you may only be able to stay near the or in the Death Zone where corpses lie frozen and buried forever on the great mountain for 18 hours before…. Death. Peak Marcello a fourteen year old boy will attempt to top the great mountain in this book and face many more challenges.

When Peak Marcello successfully tops a skyscraper (illegally) in New York, he is in for the worst. The cops meet him at the top and immediately drop him off at Juvie. As if things hadn’t got any worse a child influenced by Peak attempted climbing a skyscraper and was killed and now Peak is being sued. Unfortunately the trial doesn’t go to well and Peak is told to never come back to U.S.. Fortunately his father Josh who lives in Nepal has offered to take peak under his hands. So Peak moves to Nepal and his dad says, “you are going to scale the great Mount Everest and become the youngest man to stand 29,000 ft above the ground.

My favorite quote from the book was from Peaks mom. She said “No one climbs a mountain thinking they’re not coming back down”. I really liked this quote because it shows confidence, and sounds very majestic and wise giving the reader an Idea that peaks mom might be a climber too.

This book connects to me in the way Peaks attitude shows. I think that his smart, tricky, trustworthy attitude shows a-lot about himself and me. His mom always has a good sense of humor like mine because when she gets mad at me sometimes she pops jokes that are actually pretty funny.

I personally loved this book very much it has a great sense of adventure, survival, humor, and beauty. The book is also supposedly written by the fictional character in the book. It also makes me feel like I’m right there with Peak on the Great MT. Everest Gasping for air, food, and warmth. It also really interested me and pulled me in at the beginning of the book going straight for the climax.

My recommendation for this book would be especially for people who like a good adventure/ survival book that has a good sense of humor. It is also a long book with longer pages than “normal” and then I would recommend this book to “challenge” readers.

The city of Ember was built underground for the purpose of survival. The Builders predicted that the world would end, killing all life above ground. 220 years after the city was built, Emberittes realize that their food supply is depleting, but take no action.

After her Grandma goes crazy after a dream and dies, Lina Mayfleet finds the Instructions for Egress, and deciphers it along with Doon Harrow. Doon is a boy who is bent on getting out of the mold-smelling city, and is always trying to find new ways to live.  The opportunity to flee is unheard by the people, and Lina and Doon along with Lina’s little sister Poppy flee the City of Ember.

“The boat hit something and shuddered, then raced on. It felt like being swallowed, this rushing through the dark, with a river roaring like a thousand voices.”

I chose this series of sentences because I really get into thrill and action and the sentences before that always seem to “pump me up”. Books are amazing because when they describe action the detail can get pretty intense. This book can connect to me in one way. In this book solving a puzzle is one of the big things and I like to find some anything lying around this house and see if they fir together.

I would give this book a four out of five for many reasons. The setting and the plot is great. All of the setting is described to an understandable point and the plot has a nice twist. The characters did not have any depth to them, only their likes, dislikes, and mental state differ them from other characters. I would recommend this book to people who have a lot of patience for the plot to keep moving. Anyone who likes puzzles, or likes to read about what is beyond the edge of something, would be interested in this book.

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer is a book about Bella Swan who is forced to make a decision on whether or not she wants to be with Edward Cullen, her vampire boyfriend, or Jacob Black, her werewolf best friend. Bella is very confused and does not know what to do about this.

Bella Swan is the main character in Eclipse, and is very scatterbrained. She is worried about the safety of her friends and family members lives as a supposed serial killer is stalking Seattle. The killer is really an army of newborn vampires that are feeding off of the inhabitants of Seattle. When Bella was away at Alice’s (Edwards little sister) for a sleepover, a few members of the army came into her room and stole a few of her shirts to get her scent. The Cullen’s know that the army will attack soon, and so they band together with the werewolf pack. This pack includes about ten or so werewolves, including Jacob Black, Bella’s best friend. The night before the fight, Edward, Bella, and Jacob decide to camp out and wait for the fight to end. But when Jacob overhears Edward and Bella talking about engagement, he threatens to ‘sacrifice’ himself in the fight. Jacob leaves to fight,  and Seth Clearwater joins Edward and Bella instead. After the army of vampires is destroyed, Jacob receives a wedding invitation from Edward and Bella. This makes Jacob so angry and sad, and that makes Bella’s decision to become a Vampire even harder.

A favorite part of mine is when Bree – a newborn that surrendered during the fight – has to control herself around Bella.

“’How can you stand it?’ the girl groaned in a high, clear voice. ‘I want her.’ Her bright crimson irises focused on Edward, through him, beyond him to me, and her nails ripped through the hard soil again.”

I really like this paragraph because it tells me how Bella will be if she is changed into a vampire. Uncontrolled and jumpy.

I can connect this book to my life because sometimes I feel torn between one person and another, or one thing and another. Like for instance whether or not I want to watch TV or do homework.

My overall opinion of Eclipse is that it is a really good book, but you have to read the other ones in the series before you read this one. You have to read Twilight, then New Moon. And once you read those, you will really enjoy Eclipse. It is a great book filled with action, adventure, fantasy, and romance. I personally love it because it is from Bella’s perspective, and her mind is very much like mine. I hope you read this book and love it like I did.