Book Reviews: 2013

Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E . Hinton was first published in 1967 by puffin books.This story occurs in the 1950's This story is told in first person observer.

The main characters are

Ponyboy Curtis: He is a 14 yr old greaser who is emotional and also very smart
Darry Curtis: He is a 20 yr old greaser who has to take care of his brothers ever since his parents died
Sodapop Curtis: he is a 16 yr old greaser who is a dropout and works at a local gas station
Cherry: A red head that is Bob's girlfriend
Bob: A soc that was killed because he tried to drown bob
Dally: A grease that is the roughest and has lived in New York for three years
Johnny: A 16 yr old kid that lives with an abusive and alcoholic

The book starts when Ponyboy is walking home from the movies and a group of socs jumped him and pretended to give a "haircut", when Darry and Sodapop come to the rescue. Later Ponyboy and Johnny go to the movies with Dally. Dally sees a girl named Sherri "Cherry" Valance and starts to mess with her Johnny steps up and tells Dally to leave her alone. Cherry and her friend Marcie invite Ponyboy and Johnny to sit next to them.Two-bit says he'll walk Cherry home and Cherry's boyfriend Bob shows up and tries to start a fight to prevent the fight Cherry goes home with Bob. Ponyboy gets home late and Darry gets mad and slaps Ponyboy. Ponyboy runs away with johnny and they go to the park. They run into Bob and his gang and they try to drown him in a fountain, but johnny stabs Bob. They think that there going to get in trouble so they run to Dally and he gives them a gun, fifty dollars, and tells them to go hide in a church.The church caught on fire and the roof collapsed Ponyboy tries to save the little kids in the church,and johnny got it hit and it broke his back. Dally comes to rescue them and, Johnny and Ponyboy ends up in the hospital but Ponyboy is okay Darry see's him and cries and Ponyboy realizes that Darry does love him. Dally robs a bank and tries to shoot the police but they shoot him. Johnny dies in the hospital. When Ponyboy gets back to school his grades drop and his English teacher tells him to write a story to make them comeback up. He decides to write about his experiences.

This book seemed to be objective because he seemed to prove no point. This book caused few emotions in me like felt sad when Ponyboy was being drowned, also when johnny broke his back. I was made aware of human nature because some people could be that terrible enough to kill or even hurt other people with knive. The characters in this story seem believable because there are people today exactly like that in the world. This book won't be out-dated because it is very interesting

Here's my animoto
http://animoto.com/play/kKmaZrqXa3Q2IvnlB9REwQ

Thursday, April 25, 2013

1984

1984 by George Orwell was first published on June 6, 1949 by Secker and Warburg, London this story occurs during the future. The story is written in first-person participant.
The Main characters are,
Winston Smith - Winston is the main character in this book and is an adulterer
O'Brien - O'Brien pretended to be a member of the brotherhood when he wasn't
Julia - Julia is a member of the junior league of the anti-sex club and is apparently 26
George Orwell appears to be Subjective because he tries to prove how communism can be a terrible form of government.

The book starts off where Winston is at his home he drinks some alcohol and he writes events from the recent past in his diary. Later on in the book Winston thinks Julia is apart of the thought police, but he feels passion, comfort, he has the feeling of love in his body. Winston also wants to find out all of one poem. Then he writes a note that says I love you and puts it in the memory hole. Finally Julia and Winston go to a secret place and mate. One day O'Brien comes and ask them would they like to join the brotherhood and they said yes. After a few days Winston get's a book by Goldstein and reads it to Julia.When Winston was strapped onto the electric table I felt sad when he was on there because I thought he was going to die.
This book is out-dated because it is hard for little kids like me to understand and has lots of big words, It also has a lot of inappropriate things. It made me aware of Geography because Oceania is Australia and Eurasia is Europe and Asia.
I made an animoto video 1984

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the flies Task one Part Three

We found positive in this novel when the boys are rescued and in the beginning were there sense of civilization pops up. We found the death of Simon most negative in the book, also the Whipping of SamnEric. Half the tribe turning into savages was negative too. When jack decided to start his own tribe is when the negativity started to form. The killing of piggy for no apparent reason was a negative attribute to the book. We think that roger is the most negative character in the book, because he was a sadist and enjoyed torturing people. Following behind roger is jack as the second most negative character. We think his negativity is when he lost being chief of the island. What also made jack mad was when Ralph yelled at him for not letting the fire go out while he was hunting and told him hunting was not as important as the fire.

Some positive attributes are; when Ralph stood his ground and did not become a savage, also when the marine officer asked him who was in charge and Ralph said he was. When they find the conch the use it as the symbol as There order. Something else we found negative on the first time they tried to find and kill a pig and failed trying the first time yelling ‘kill the pig cut his throat bash him’. Another that we found interesting is that even though piggy was the smartest he was still rejected multiple times. We found some interesting facts in the book one of them was how they used science to make a lever to knock the boulder down the hill to kill Piggy. Another was when they managed to kill Simon with their bare hands and feet just because they were scared.

Lord of the Flies Task two Part one

We were asked to find ten books that can relate to Lord of the flies explaining the Good vs Evil in Humanity. We were also asked to explain why they show the Good and Evil in Humanity

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

Reason why Bad: Boo Radly tries to stab his father.

Reason why Good: Boo Radly saves Scout in gym.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

Reason why Bad: Because people have no problem with kids killing each other.

Reason why Good: Katniss volunteers for her sister.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Reason Why Bad: Smaug in The Hobbit is the epitome of evil, as he kills relentlessly and all he lives for is greed and the treasures that he cannot use.

Reason Why Good: Bilbo Baggins, as he goes with dwarves to the Lonely Mountain to recapture it

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Reason Why Good: Frodo Baggins, who, along with eight companions, embarks on a long and dangerous quest to destroy the ring.

Reason Why Bad: And, along with it, Sauron himself.

Goblin Secrets by William Alexander

Reason Why Bad: Only goblins are allowed to perform plays, because they’re not considered human.

Reason Why Good: Rownie saves his older brother

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Reason Why Bad: Harry’s parents die when he is a baby, killed by the evil wizard and primary villain, Voldemort.

Reason why Good: Harry becomes a hero and kills Voldemort even though he is a part of him

Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan

Reason Why Bad: Luke betrays his friends and goes with Cronus

Reason Why Good: Percy Jackson decides to save the camp

Gone by Michael Grant

A girl Shot fire liquid and caused the school to set on fire

Sam temple decided to organize fights against his brother Caine

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Reason why Bad: King Galbatorix has no other motivation then to bring evil to the world

Reason Why Good: Eragon Decides To help save evil

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Mr. Tumnus was diabolical and tried to kill Lucy by scheming and putting her to sleep but he had a change of heart

The Four Kids save Narnia with a turn of heart

In an interview in 1963, William Golding said of Lord of the Flies :

“I learned during World War II just how brutal people can be to each other. Not just Germans or Japanese, but everyone. I tried to point that out . . . some have said that the brutality of the novel is impossible. It’s not. Look at any newspaper . . .”

We were asked to defend or refute Golding's statement here's what we came up with .

We think that William Golding statement is true because if you do look in the newspaper there is no problem finding bad news but it’s really hard to find good news over the past century there has been nothing but terrible news so much shootings that America is thinking about banning guns from America. So many people have died from either a bullet to the chest or being blown up by a grenade. This maybe couldn’t happen if people would go to school. That’s right go to school I mean look at it this way, if there was kids learning about different religions, cultures, and races. We could know what not to do to offend someone. We also could learn how to solve problems that could lead to world peace. When we look up good words like right, well behaved, and proper describes good. When we look up the word evil words like diabolical, despicable describes evil, but looking on to those things we can all prove that both Jack and Ralph were both of those things. Jack was more nice and proper towards the beginning of the book Lord of the Flies and at the end he was more evil. Same with Ralph, but the evil thing he did was help kill Simon. Roger when he rolled the boulder to kill Piggy. Well we think that jack is evil because he was jealous of Ralph because everyone in the group said he was going to be there leader and he did a good job at it and he still hated him. We also think the people in that took part in jacks tribe were evil because they were a part of the madness that jack made happen and they were also supporting him throughout that process. We also thought that part of the story was sort of devilish because it was pertaining to a lot of deaths from multiples hatreds of people because either they did something or there just jealous. We thought it was especially when piggy died because he was pretty much helpless in that moment before his death we thought that there was nothing he could do to save himself from that death that was coming to him. And that is our summary wrap up of what we think about the good and evil in the world and in Lord of the flies by William Golding

Task three

We were asked to choose six people to stay in a fallout shelter that has enough resources for three months

From Department of Human Resources, Canberra

We, the undersigned, having given due consideration to all eligible people, submit this list and our rationale as our final decision.

Name:1) 15yr pregnant girl

Rationale:We will not be keeping #1 because she is pregnancy and she will eat more due to cravings

Name: 2) 36yr doctor

Rationale:We will be keeping #2

Name: 3)Armed Policeman

Rationale: We will not be keeping the policeman because he

is untrustworthy

Name:4)35yr violin

Rationale:We will be keeping #4

Name:5)39yr mother of two

Rationale:We will be keeping #5

Name:6)24yr law student

Rationale:We would be keeping #6 if she would split from her husband

Name:7)26yr husband with multiple personality disorder

Rationale:We will not be keeping #7 one of his personalities could be dangerous

Name:8)75yr minister

Rationale:We will be keeping #8

Name:9)65yr historian

Rationale:We will be keeping #9

Name:10)29yr Syrain

Rationale: We will be keeping #10

Signed:

Christopher A, Adkins

We did task five for extra credit

we were asked to put ourselves in a situation in court after the island

http://lofbkrport.blogspot.com/

The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson was published on January 5, 1886 by Longmans, Green & co. It was set in the Victorian era were people had very good manners and were very proper. It was wrote in third person omniscient because the term I was not used at all.

There are four main characters in the book. They are:

Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr.Hyde - A fifty year old man who is a scientist who is battling the good and evil inside him he has many friends and a friendly personality. While Mr.Hyde has a demonic and violent personality and becomes so strong that he doesn't need the potion to turn into Hyde. Dr.Jekyll soon realizes he will become Hyde forever, but in is letter he puts Mr.Edward Hyde will probably commit suicide because of his crimes.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon-Dr.Lanyon sometimes disagrees with Jekyll's scientific theories he is one of Dr. Jekyll old friends. He witnesses Mr.Hyde turning back into Dr.Jekyll he helps Mr. Utterson find out what happened to Dr. Jekyll.

Mr.Utterson- A loyal friend to Dr. Jekyll who wants to find out what is wrong with Jekyll. He is an emotionless bachelor.

Poole-Poole is Dr.Jekyll's butler he comes to Utterson in fear that his master has been murdered.

Richard Enfield tell Utterson about how he saw Mr.Hyde trample a little girl then he pays her relatives 10 pounds for the loss.Dr.Jekyll writes in his will that it will go to Mr.Hyde and Mr.Utterson fears Jekyll is being blackmailed.

Jekyll says that nobody can come into his lab anymore and he wants to see no more visitors. When Utterson's clerk tells Utterson that Mr. Hyde's handwriting looks a lot like Jekyll's except with a slight slant to the left, Dr. Lanyon dies from a shock before he dies he hands a letter to Utterson saying don't open until the death or disappearance of Dr.Jekyll, also when Utterson and Richard Enfield go walking they see Jekyll outside his laboratory but it didn't sound like Jekyll's voice though.

The two decided to break into the laboratory inside they find Mr.Hyde dead in Jekyll's clothes Utterson reads the letter and finds out that Lanyon died from seeing Mr.Hyde metamorphose into Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll took his potion and he turned into to Mr.Hyde because he wanted to turn himself free of conscience he was pleased when he first turned into Mr.Hyde but found out that he was turning into Hyde in his sleep without taking the potion.Jekyll ceased to become Hyde no longer but one night the urge gripped him to badly and after he turned into Hyde he went out and killed Sir Danvers Carew Hyde needed his potion to turn back into Jekyll so he asked for Dr.Lanyon 's help when he turned back into Jekyll Lanyon died of shock. Eventually Jekyll realized he would run out of supplies and would have to stay Hyde forever but realized that Hyde would commit suicide because of his crimes.

I think the author appears to be subjective because he is trying to get us to know about two different personalities good and evil; and prove that curiosity killed the cat because of Dr. Jekyll's experiments.There is actually a mental condition a rare one that is like Dr.Jekyll but without the potion. You have two personalities without all the changing, it is called split personality.

This book caused a few emotions in me when Dr.Lanyon died I felt kind of sad and when Jekyll put himself into a trap like he did and knew he was going to die. I felt confused when Jekyll left his will to Mr.Hyde. I was made more aware of human nature when Dr. Jekyll went through the metamorphism because once again there is a mental condition called split personality. This story was unbelievable because know scientist can just drink a potion and change into a whole new person. I especially liked Poole because he has a cool name and that he is a butler and he helps them find what was the problem and what happened to Jekyll. This story is out-dated because some of the proper words and English fancy terms were confusing and I had to read it again or look in a dictionary to find out what it meant.

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Check Out My Glog

Credits of where I got my pictures and videos

http://blogs.babble.com/babys-first-year-blog/2012/07/07/baby-and-their-personalities/

http://www.perfmanhr.com/blog/job-interview-tips/personality-and-subconscious-energy/

http://nilssmith.com/becoming-a-social-media-pastor-part-4-the-experiment/

http://www.toonbarn.com/other-cartoons/curious-george-hits-season-four/

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/why-loneliness-can-be-contagious/

http://buckley.editme.com/DrJekyllandMrHyde

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-jeremy-moore.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosejekyllhyde/2prose_jekyllhyde_charrev3.shtml

http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/14126/20120915/psy-no-1-on-itunes-in-18-countries.htm

http://radio-norwich.blogspot.com/2012/10/so-long-suicide.html

Animal Farm

Animal Farm by George Orwell was published in 1945. This book was wrote in the time period when the wartime alliance with the soviet union was at its height. This story was told in third person omniscient because the story was basically told by a narrator who hadn't said I once in the time of this story.

The main characters are

Snowball; Snowball was taught by Old Major the way of Animalism he was one of the head pigs until he was betrayed by Napoleon in charge he represented Leon Trotsky

Napoleon; Napoleon was also taught by Old Major the way of Animalism he was the head pig and he represented Joesph Stalin

Boxer; Boxer was the main horse who wouldn't stop working he represented the working class

Dogs; The dogs represented the military or security

This book seemed subjective because George Orwell was trying to get us to think on how silly communism is and how bad it can be by replacing people with animals and communism with Animalism.

The characters acted like they had a government and tried to act like they had to run there own farm.

This book caused a lot of emotions in me i felt unsure when they started Animalism. When the Battle of Cowshed happened I felt scared because I didn't want Boxer who was my favorite character to die.I felt mad when Napoleon became so idiotic and also slaying a bunch of animals for no good reason.

Boxer was my favorite character I liked his phrase saying " I will work harder" he inspired me because if people work harder we can make a change in everything. I did not like his saying "Napoleon is always right." The character I disliked the most was Napoleon and the pigs he had a terrible personality he changed the rules so he could be more like he considered his enemy the original rules were

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.

3. No animal shall wear clothes.

4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

5. No animal shall drink alcohol.

6. No animal shall kill any other animal.

7. All animals are equal.

Napoleon changed the rules to

4 No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets

5 No animal shall drink alcohol to excess

6 No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.

The main reason I don't like Napoleon is that he said he would send Boxer to a vet but he sent him to a horse slaughter company. I also didn't like it when he changed all the rules into one terrible rule and one terrible phrase

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, and Four legs good, two legs better.

This book makes us more aware of human nature and how government sometimes works. This book has an enduring theme because it teaches us a good lesson on how government works and how terrible communism can be

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A.B.C Murders

A.B.C Murders by Agatha Christie. A.B.C Murders was published on January 6, 1936 by Collins Crime Club, London. A.B.C Murders was written in the Swing Era the era where jazz music was very popular around the world . This Story is written in first- person observer Captain Hastings refers to himself as I only occasionally.

There are eight main characters. They are,

Hercule Poirot, a retired detective who is Belgian he came out of retirement to solve this case

Captain Arthur Hastings,An Impatient man who is Poirot's old friend has a habit of pointing out the obvious

Inspector Japp, Another old friend of Poirot that is assigned to the case,

Alice Ascher, The first Victim of murder and owns a tobacco shop

ABC, An unknown murder and who uses a railway guide as a clue

Franklin Clarke, The third murdered victim's brother who agrees to help Poirot solve the case

Elizabeth Betty Barnard, The second murdered victim a young girl that worked at a cafe

Sir Carmichael Clarke, The third murdered victim a wealthy man with no children.

The story begins when Captain Hastings visits Hercule Poirot and reads him a mysterious letter saying that he will murder someone in Andover ,and it is signed ABC.Poirot thinks it just a host until the Murder actually happens and the victims name starts with the letter A.Poirot and Hastings interview people from Andover that knew Alice Ascher the victim they came to Alice's niece Mary Drower. after they interview her they went home when they went home they had found another letter saying that there will be another murder in Bexhill -on sea. The next day Elizabeth Betty Barnard was murdered.

After interviewing a couple of people they found out that Donald Fraser and he agrees to help Poirot find out who the murderer is.When Poirot gets home he finds a third letter from ABC saying that someone would be murdered in Churchill. The victim was Sir Carmichael Clarke a wealthy man who had a brother,named Franklin Clarke and a loyal servant named Thora Grey, they both join Poirot and Hastings to solve the Crime.Poirot orders a meeting with the crime solvers but he has a meeting with a man that works at a movie theater named Alexander Boundaparte Cust Hastings thinks it is the Murderer but Poirot thinks that an epileptic can't plan such a good murder.

Poirot interviews Alexander Boundaparte Cust and ask him did he do the murders and he says he did but he's not sure. After a couple of days Poirot came to his conclusion that Franklin Clarke was the murderer because he wanted to kill his brother because he wanted to inherit his wealth.He needed someone to blame it on so he used Alexander Boundaparte Cust, and needed to kill two other people to get to his brother.When Franklin Clarke agreed he pulled out a gun and put it to his head pulled the trigger and nothing happened the reason why was Poirot had hired a sneak thief to unload the gun and put it back into his pocket without being noticed.

Agatha Christie appears to be objective because I think she wrote this book because she doesn't really give a real reason to write a Mystery novel.Although in some places of the book it seems like it is subjective because Hastings accused Alexander Boundaparte Cust of being the murder when he wasn't, you can't judge a book by it's cover.

This book gave very little emotions."I felt sad when Alice Ascher died because she was a poor old woman and she hadn't done anything wrong or annoy A.B.C enough until he feel like he had to kill her.When they interviewed people after the second and third murders I felt suspicious of people like Sir Carmichael Clarke's wife, Betty Barnard's boss, but most of Alexander Boundaparte Cust i thought he was the murderer since his initials were spelled out A.B.C., and i found myself judging a book by it's cover or in this case name.When the murderer was revealed (Franklin Clarke) I was surprised it was him since he would've killed his own brother. I never thought that Franklin Clarke would murder his own brother. I also admired him in another way for being so clever, but at the same time I was mad. I also felt sorry for Mr.Cust since he had epilepsy and on top of that he was being framed for a murder. I also made more aware of the world when these murders happened I've never lived or been to the United Kingdom so this story made me more aware of what it's like there, and that there are bad people in this world and you might not know who they are. They could be your own brother ,your best friend. The characters in A.B.C Murders seemed believable i could relate to them because there are police,detectives,and the Scotland Yard in our world today. I especially liked Poirot he had a sense of humor while serious at the same time, and he never gave up on his case. This story is out-dated because they use old fancy English terms and it is harder for kids, and some adults to understand at times.