Entry Number 4

In this blog post, I will talk about why I chose this book, What drew my attention to this novel, if I had any personal connections to the novel, and who I would recommend this to and why. First off, I chose this book because a lot of people were reading it. People were saying it was a pretty good book, so I read it. What drew my attention to the book were all of the awards it has gotten. If it has that many awards, it’s good, right? After reading this novel, I don’t think that there were really any personal connections that I can and could have made to this book. I would recommend this book to people who are patient. This book takes a long while before it gets to the “after” part, but in a strange way you were also on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what “after” is. I would also recommend this book to someone who likes a good suspenseful mystery book. This book is pretty mature, so I would recommend this book to someone is mature. Overall, the book wasn’t very good in my opinion. At the Climax of the book, it took a steep slope downhill and it went downhill until the end of the book.

Entry Number 3

In this blog post, I will be talking about my summer reading book Looking For Alaska. I will be talking about a section of the book that “hooks” the reader in. In other words, I will describe a part in the book that makes the reader want to read on. A part in Looking For Alaska that makes the reader want to read on is: “ The Colonel and I doubled back, wading through the creek to save time, slipped in through the back window of Room 43 and slept like babies” (Green, 133). In the book, this is what happens right after Alaska is screaming at them. Alaska is screaming at them for some reason. Miles and Chip (the Colonel) don’t know what to do, so they just let her go. This quote from Looking For Alaska hooks the audience in because of the simplicity. You would expect the author to have a much more dramatic ending to this part in the book, but it just ends with them simply going back to their dorm room 43 and sleeping like babies. This makes you wonder why the author did this, what else is there to come, and what happens after?

Entry post 2

In this blog post, we will be talking to you about the desires of each character, along with the themes that begin to appear in my book. I will also talk about the unique structure of my book. My characters have interesting desires. Miles really and truly desires Alaska. When he first meets Alaska in the book, he describes her as “the most beautiful girl in the world”. He also desires some friends from this new boarding school. He finds them thankfully. Alaska desires a lot of things. She desires her boyfriend Jake. She desires sex. She desires to know what the Great Perhaps is. She also especially desires her cigarettes. Chip desires someone to be loyal to him and the opposite. Chip strongly desires revenge if someone has done him wrong. Some themes that arouse in my book are the themes of friendship and loyalty. Throughout the book, the four friends stick together and are extremely loyal to each other. The structure of the book is too cool! The book doesn’t use chapters. It uses how many days before it happens as marks. The it I am talking about will shake all of the characters world… If you want to find out what happens, read the book.

Entry Post One

In this blog post, we will be exploring the main characters in the novel. We will also be exploring the setting of the novel, along with some connections that we can make to other things from this book. In the novel Looking for Alaska, the setting is strange for a book. The main setting is at the Culver Creek boarding school in the middle of nowhere Alabama. This affects the book because it makes the book unique. The main characters in this book are Alaska, Miles, Chip, and Takumi. Alaska is a very moody person. She is always in a different mood which makes her hard to understand. Miles is the new kid. He has social anxiety and is normally very awkward. His friends help him to express himself. Takumi is a Japanese student. He mostly just plays the “extra friend” role. He hasn’t done much to affect the plot. Some conflicts in this book could be connected to person-to-person. In the book so far, it has always been the rich kids versus the poor kids. Miles, Alaska, Chip (the Colonel) and Takumi are the poorer kids. Another conflict that happens is when Miles starts using cigarettes. This is a person-to-self conflict.

Movie Trailer for The House of Hades

The House of Hades Trailer

What to read next?

What to read next?

I am planning on reading a new book soon.  I have the book Divergent so I will probably read that.  My brother is reading that book though and he wants to make it last for the rest of the trimester so I'll probably read that book series next year.  I know that Rick Riordan is making one last book in the series.  Rick Riordan is then going to make books about Nomes Mythology.  I think this is the mythology that involves Thor and those types of gods.

I know that in Divergent that there are three factions.  I know that one is Dauntless.  They all represent different qualities that you must represent your whole life.  Divergent's are a mix of all three factions.  The government doesn't allow that because it could somehow mess up their society.  All of this information is just off of prior knowledge.  I hope to start reading Divergent soon!

The House of Hades Advertisement

Come See House of Hades Now!

This just in, the greatest movie of all time has just come out!  Based on Rick Riordan's Hero's of Olympus series, this movie features the seven heroic demigods; Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Piper McClain and Frank Zhang, all of them with their unique powers.  They must go and save the world!  Gaea has awakened and is threatening to destroy the Earth!  Only these demigods can figure out how to stop her!  What is Gaea, and who is helping her be awakened?

Gaea has already awakened her favorite minions, the Giants.  The Giants are an elite group of humanoid giants created souly to destroy the Gods of Olympus.  For example, Ares is the god of war.  Gaea created the giant Damasen to fight and slay Ares.  Damasen was Ares's opposite, so he was the giant of peace.  He liked peace and refused to fight Ares.  Gaea banished him to Tartarus.  Gaea created many giants to oppose the gods.

As you can see, this movie has a lot of action!  Come see this epic movie at the Regal Movie Theater in Mason Ohio!

Why You Should Read The House of Hades

Why You Should Read The House of Hades

First of all, The House of Hades is a very good book.  If you like books that have the following traits, this is the book for you: 

•  Action
• Suspense
• Romance
• Survival
• Mystery
• Mythology

These are just some of the traits that describe this book.  In my other blogs, I have described the journeys of some characters in my book.  I think that everyone should read this book because it has to do with Greek Mythology.

Greek Mythology is what the ancient Greek people believed in.  They believed in multiple gods that all represented different things.  Some gods and things they represent are this:  Zeus is the king of the gods.  He represents storms and the sky.  His animal is an Eagle.  He also represents leadership.  One other example is Poseidon.  He is the "vice king" of the gods.  He is the ruler of the sea.  His sacred animal is a horse.  He is also a leader.

Overall, this is a very good book.  It has many elements of a good book as listed as above.  If you like action and a twist of history, this is the book for you!

Who Would You Be?

Who Would You Be?

Today, I am blogging about what character I would be in the Percy Jackson/Hero's of Olympus series.  You may also decide who you would be.  Leave a comment saying who and why.  These are the character descriptions.

 

Leo Valdez:  Leo is a son of Hephaestus.  Hephaestus is the Greek god of fire and the forge.  The forge means that he can build anything that he wants if he has the resources.  Leo is special though.  Leo can summon and control fire, unlike any son of Hephaestus in over 100 years.  Leo can fix and break and rebuild anything mechanical.  He is good with his hands too.

 

Annabeth Chase:  Annabeth is a daughter of the Greek goddess Athena.  Athena is the goddess of war and wisdom.  She is goddess of architecture and intelligence.  Annabeth gets these traits from Athena.  Annabeth has only her smarts to get through her challenges and always has a plan.

 

Frank Zhang:  Frank is the son of Mars.  Mars is the Roman god of War.  Frank was blessed and cursed as a child.  His life depends on a piece of firewood.  If it burns up, he dies.  This is why he is weary towards Leo.  His blessing is amazing.  With complete concentration, Frank can turn into animal he wants to.  In the middle of war, Frank gets blessed by Mars and glows red, making him nearly invincible to any incoming fire.

 

Hazel Levesque:  Hazel is the daughter of Pluto.  Pluto is the Roman form of Hades.  Pluto is god of wealth, the dead, and riches.  Hazel had special powers.  She has a curse too, just like Frank.  She can summon minerals like gold, iron, copper, silver, and much more.  The twist is that whoever uses that summoned mineral to benefit them in any way, they will suffer and die.  She can see through any natural tunnels.  She is also a witch.  She can control the Mist.  The Mist can create allusions and make people do things that they wouldn't normally do.  Hazel has a horse, Arion, that can run across any surface with amazing speed, even water.

Piper McClain:  Piper is a daughter of Aphrodite.  Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.  Piper is not very good at any real combat skills.  She has a knife that lets her see into the future.  Her special power is that she can charm speak.  Basically, she uses her voice and looks to influence peoples' minds.  She also has a special item she got from a river god that can shoot any food you want from it.

Jason Grace:  Jason is the son of Jupiter.  Jupiter is the Roman form of Zeus.  Jupiter is god of the sky, thunder, storms, and king of the gods.  This means that Jason is a very powerful demigod.  He can control the winds which allows him to fly.  He can summon storms and cause lighting to hit things.  At Jason's full strength, he can summon massive thunderstorms.  Overall, Jason is one of the most powerful.

Percy Jackson:  Percy is the son of Poseidon.  Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea, rivers, floods, drought, earthquakes, and horses.  His roman form is Neptune.  Since Poseidon is the god of horses, this gives Percy an ability to understand and communicate with horses.  Percy can control mostly any kind of water, and anything that has water in it.  When he touches water, he is healed.  He can breath underwater and when he walks out of the water, his cloths are still perfectly dry, unless he doesn't want them to be.  At his full strength, he can summon a full out hurricane that can wash his enemies away. 

So who would you want to be?  I think I would want to be Percy Jackson.  I would love to control water and breath under-water.  I hope you had fun choosing who you would want to be.  Click "link" to view a more in-depth look at these characters.

  

Column Homework

Locking into the magic of Legos

Basically in this article, it describes how much good Legos can do for kids.  It lets them use their imaginations and it allows them to have fun and express their creativity.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/

The line that I think is best written is this: "With Legos, kids build sturdy little creations – which, in turn, build sturdy kids."  I really like how she uses the quote in the column.  It ties up the end of the column very well.  It also uses good syntax by rhyming.  Also, I like her writing styles at the very end of each column.  In each of her columns, she includes a cool sentence at the end.  Here are the last sentences for each example:

For better vision, kids need more time outdoors:  "'What all kids need is more training in three dimensions'," Clark says.  "'Life is not two-dimensional,'".  Both of these quotes are cool.  They both have a different message behind it.  This is why I like these columns.

Questions

How do you find all of these topics and do you personally interview the people?

Why did you choose the career that you chose?

Do you have a team of people to come up with ideas or do you do it personally?

Tartarus: Their Journey Part 3

Percy and Annabeth's Journey (Part 3)

Percy and Annabeth have always been close.  Ever since they had gone on their first quest, they have always been close and cared for each other.  Their first quest was "The Lightening Thief".  They bonded on that quest and have bonded ever so much stronger as a couple through their adventures.  They also bonded on their quest called "The Sea of Monsters". 

In Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth truly needed each other to get through the hardships of Tartarus.  They both leaned on each other for sanity and for something to fight for.  Percy and Annabeth definitely would have died in Tartarus if they didn't have each other.  Another thing that shows their love for each other is when Hera, God of women, birth, marriage and queen of the Gods, wiped Percy's memory and sent him to a Roman demigod camp, much like Camp Half-Blood, that Annabeth didn't even knew existed.  Annabeth searched the entire country for Percy.  That shows how much Annabeth loves Percy.

In Tartarus, Percy needs Annabeth and Annabeth needs Percy.  They have to face the constant pain of the environment, the monsters, and they just frankly need each other to keep each other sane.  When Percy and Annabeth were fighting arai, Annabeth needed Percy most, and he came through for her.  Arai are humans mixed with bats.  If you killed a monster (Percy and Annabeth have killed hundreds probably) and if they swear revenge on you however you killed it, that's what would happen.  When Percy or Annabeth kills an arai, however you killed a monster, you would feel their pain.  Annabeth blinded a giant before, so Annabeth got blind.  Percy put himself through a lot of pain to save her.  So, Percy and Annabeth have a strong bond because of everything they have been through.



Tarturus: Their Journey 2

Percy and Annabeth's Journey (Part 2)

Percy and Annabeth are stranded in The Pit with no way out, and home to the deadliest monsters on the face (or in the deepest part) of the Earth.  Tartarus is where monsters come back to regenerate.  If a demigod or something kills a monster, they explode into dust.  The dust travels back into Tartarus, and Tartarus regenerates their bodies.  Obviously since Percy and Annabeth are trapped in the part of the world in which monsters regenerate, of course they are going to be fighting some monsters. 

 

Annabeth fell into The Pit because her mother (Athena's) arch nemesis, Arachne.  Back in the times when Greeks ruled, Arachne was a girl that was a master weaver.  She challenged Athena to a duel and she lost.  Her punishment was that Athena turned her into a spider, and that is why children of Athena fear spiders so much.  Annabeth was fighting her when she fell into The Pit and Arachne pulled her in with her webbing and Percy dove in with her.  Percy and Annabeth first had to fight Arachne and they barely beat her.

 

Next they have to fight some Greek vampires, or empousa.  Obviously, Percy and Annabeth defeat the empousa.  They then must make their way into Tartarus to get to the heart where the Doors of Death are waiting.  Percy and Annabeth are surrounded by monsters when Percy calls for Bob, a titan that had his memory erased, Bob falls from the sky and kills all the monsters and is now like Percy and Annabeth's body guard and guide.  He leads them through Tartarus, finding out bit by bit about who he was.  He was an evil Titan that over through the giants and their rein.  He decides to stick with them. 

Percy and Annabeth battle many minor monsters until they reach the god of Misery, Akhlys.  Percy and Annabeth must use the Death Mist to get past the monsters.  Akhlys tricks them into using it, thinking they die.  Akhlys runs off because of the looming figure right behind them, Night itself.  Nyx is one of the oldest gods.  She is literally Night and she is responsible for everything evil in the world.  Percy and Annabeth trick her by asking her which one of her children she likes most, and all of her offspring end up spraying the whole area with pure darkness.  Percy and Annabeth get to the Doors.  I wish I could tell more but I don't want to spoil it.  Next time, I will talk about how this brought the two of them together.

Tarturus: Their Journey 1

Percy and Annabeth's Journey (Part 1)

In the last book in the series, The Mark of Athena , Annabeth is fighting a huge monster.  Suddenly a pit opens up like a sinkhole in the ground.  It leads to Tarturus, I giant pit deep in the Earth.  The Greeks believe different things about it.  Some said it was a huge, endless pit that leads to nothingness.  Others say it was a huge dome.  Nobody truly knew.  Tarturus is the God of the Pit.  Greeks said that the dome of Tarturus is actually his body.  Tarturus is the Pit. 

 

Annabeth and the Monster fall into the pit.  Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon (also Annabeth's boyfriend) jumps into the pit with Annabeth.  All of the two demigod's friends, Hazel, Leo, Frank, Nico, Piper, Coach Hedge and Jason all watch in terror as they fall in and the pit closes. 

 

Annabeth and Percy fell for three whole days.  Percy had enough energy left to summon some river water and let them fall safely.  Annabeth describes Tarturus with this, "Blisters had started to form on their arms from exposure to the Tarturus air.  This whole enviroment was about as healthy as a nuclear blast zone" (Riordan, page 45). The air was acidic and they got blisters on the inside of their throats too.  The only way they would survive is if they drank from the River of Fire.  Annabeth describes the River of Fire as "cold".  Annabeth describes the Fire water tasting like this.  "She expected it to taste like gasoline.  It was so much worse...  Drinking from the River of Fire was like gulping down a ghost pepper smoothie."  Tarturus was terrible. Next time, I will talk about the enemies that Percy and Annabeth faced.

This is what Tarturus might have looked like.



Frank: The House of Hades

Frank's Personality

 

In Rick Riordan's: House of Hades Frank is a very different character.  He is a son of Ares and or Mars.  Ares in the Greek form of the war god.  Mars is the Roman form of the war god.  The setting of the novel is that two nations, the Greek Demigods and the Roman Demigods are at war.  They have been at war ever since another character, Leo, accidentally fired a harpoon spear into the Roman Camp.  By this happening, the main gods (Zeus/Jupiter, Poseidon/Neptune, Hades/Pluto, Ares/Mars etc.) are at war within themselves.  All of the gods have to choose a side and they can't. 

 

The amazing thing about Frank is that he is a special son of Ares/Mars.  He was given a blessing and a curse because of his family.  His Blessing: he can shape shift into any animal that he wants as long as it exists and he can easily focus on being that animal in his mind.  His Curse: he was given a stick at the beginning of his life.  If Frank's stick burns out, than so does he.  Frank cannot let that stick burn or else he dies.  This is a reason why Frank is so afraid of fire.

 

Frank thinks that he is an underdog in his team of seven demigods.  He thinks that he is not useful at all.  Frank feels venerable to anything or everyone because his life depends on a piece of firewood!  He feels his sole purpose is to protect his girlfriend, Hazel, one of the seven demigods on their quest.  He has just found that Hazel is injured and now he feels even more helpless.  Frank is a constantly fragile and changing character that is constantly going up and down mood-wise.   I think Frank will eventually need to do something that will require him to harm himself for other people.  I think this will be Frank's ultimate end (if he does die) because he has been feeling useless throughout the book.  He will want to feel and be needed, and this will be his downfall.