Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero
By Rick Riordan


When I got the book I was very excited to read it and when I did I was very satisfied after I read it. This book is like a continuation of the Camp Half-Blood series. I think that you should read the Percy Jackson books before you read this book. The Lost Hero is about a boy named Jason who's on a bus not remembering anything of his past. A girl named Piper who's supposedly his girlfriend tells him that he's on a bus with his Wilderness School classmates. A kid named Leo tells him that the Wilderness School is where children that have done bad things go. After they are attacked by wind spirits they meet Annabeth and go to Camp Half-Blood where the adventure begins.


I liked this book because it compared Greek mythology and Roman mythology and that made it very interesting. This book was also from multiple peoples views, Leo's, Piper's, and Jason's. I did like that but he made the chapter names the name of the person narrating so there were no funny chapter names. I missed that but I wouldn't want to get confused in who was narrating the story. Some people might say that they don't like the triple narrative because they want to have the same experience as the character. Other people might say that they like it being triple narrative because you know the secrets that some of the characters are keeping (if there are any).
Caution Spoilers Following!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Me as Thalia last Halloween

Me as Annabeth this Halloween

The next book being called Son of Neptune definitely tells you that Percy is at the Roman camp and we are probably going to follow Percy at the other camp. My personal opinion is that it should follow Thalia, but that would probably not happen. Another thought on the matter was that it might be new character from the Roman camp who meets Percy and it follows them.


My favorite character is Leo, I like him even though he is kind of side-kicky. He recreates Festus twice so that makes me think that if he fixes anything it'll come back even better. I also like Piper because even though she's in the Aphrodite cabin she's really a rough and tumble girl. Now Jason was my least favorite character of the trio even though he was the main character. He seemed too oh-my-gosh-I'm-a-son-of-Zeus-let's-go-fight-and-I'll-take-on-the-big-one-because-I'm-awesome-ish.

Now I hope you love this book as much as I did!
(if comments include spoilers please include a warning!)

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

A Long Walk to Water
By Linda Sue Park
Publishing: November 2010


I loved this little book even though it's not my style. I normally read fantasy and this book is realistic fiction. This book may also make you sad as you read about a young boy named Salva. He was forced to run away from his family because there is a war threatening to kill them all. At first he didn't know where he was going, but soon after he figures out that he's walking to Ethiopia from his small village in Sudan.


This book doesn't have only one story in it. The other story is about an 11 year old girl named Nya who has to make a 4 hour trip to the watering hole and back again, twice a day to get water for her family. She also lives in a small village in Sudan. But the two villages are at war. Soon the watering hole dries up and Nya and her family have to  move to a different site so Nya can get the water.


I loved this dual narrative book. I think this book would be a good sized book for a third-fourthish grader. But if a third grader read this book I think they would be sad. It's a very short read but it's a good one. When I read it I felt lucky that I didn't have to go through his life. To know what some people had to go through in their lives really helped me understand that I have a pretty great life. The sadness came from all the loss that Salva suffered over the course of the book. I think that ages 10ish and up should read this book.

P.S. there might be a surprise in the authors note...

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

In this lovable picture book, a grandfather is telling two children a bed time story. The story is about the small town of Chew'n'swollow where it rains food.

My class did a writing piece based on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs because we were studying weather in science. We were writing our own individual stories about how food falls from the sky. Mine was called Dessertville about the planet Dessertville where it only rains dessert. The main plot is that one day in Dessertville it started to rain nutrition.

This book is also a movie. Though the movie and the book are very different, I loved both of them. Some of the differences are the plot lines. In the book, it's a bedtime story the grandfather is telling the children. In the movie, the main character builds a weird machine that makes food fall from the sky.

I hope you love this picture book as much as I did!