Book Review #4

A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, Condensed Version by William Shakespeare


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


While reading this book I got very confused. I’m not good with Shakespeare. I don't understand his language and quite frankly I think he was either quite drunk or quite high while writing each and every one of his plays. This plays in particular because it is about fairies and magical love flowers. Anyway, the play starts out with Theseus talking to his soon to be wife Hippolita about their wedding. Then Egeus came in to tell Theseus that his daughter Hermia isn't in love with the man he has chosen for her (Dometrious) but instead loves another man (Lysander). Theseus says that Hermia can either marry Dometrious, become a nun, or be sent to death. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to Lysander's aunt's house to get married in Athens and tell Hermia's friend Helena of the plan. Helena is madly in love with Dometrious (whom does not love her in return). Later that night in the forest, the fairy queen Titania has a young Indian boy. Her husband, Oberon, wants the little changeling boy as his henchman and argue with Titania over him. Oberon tells his frisky friend Robin Goodfellow (Puck) to go get a magic flower. Apparently, when you squeeze the flower juice into someone's eye as they sleep, they fall in love with the next person they see. Hermia and Lysander fall asleep in the woods for the night on their way to his aunt's and Helena and Dometrious follow them. Oberon sees Helena and Dometrious arguing and tells puck to put the flower juice into the male mortal's eyes. Puck puts the juice into Titania's eyes then into the male mortal's eyes. Sadly, puck put the juice in the wrong male mortal's eyes. Lysander woke to the sight of Helena and fell in love with her. Then Puck put it into Dometrious' eyes and he woke to the sight of Helena and now both men are in love with her. Hermia awakes furious and she thinks that Dometrious has done something to her Lysander. While all of this is going on, a group of village people are practicing a play to perform at Theseus' wedding. The man (Bottom) playing the lead gets turned into a donkey because puck put a spell on him. Bottom then enters on his cue and scares away his friends. He then sings and wakes the sleeping Titania. She falls madly in love with him and tells her fairies to wait on him. When they fall asleep later that night, Oberon puts more flower juice into Titania’s eyes and wakes her. She falls in love with Oberon and he gets the Indian boy. The lovers in the forest all fall asleep and puck puts juice in Lysander’s and Dometrious’ eyes and layed Hermia with Lysander and Dometrious with Helena so when they wake, they love the rightful girl. They wake and Theseus agrees to marry Helena to Dometrious and Hermia to Lysander. Bottom wakes in a field. He thinks it was all a dream. He no longer looks like a donkey and he goes to the wedding to perform the play. They all marry and see Bottom’s show and they all live happily ever after. ….I still think Shakespeare was on something…




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Book Review # 3

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Harry Potter was an orphan living with his horrid aunt, uncle, and cusin (duddley). On his 11th birthday a man comes to the house to tell harry that he is a wizard and takes him to go to school at Hogwarts. Here harry meets his two best friends (Ron & Hermione) and learns about how his parents didn't die in a car crash like his aunt and uncle have led him on to believe. Apparently, when harry was young, his parents fought against a dark force naed Lord Voldimort (an extremely powerful dark wizard). The love Harry's parents showed when fighting against the Dark Lord in order to save Harry made it so that when Voldimort tried to kill Harry that night; a peice of Voldimort attached itself to Harry leaving only a lightning bolt shaped scar on Harry's head. Now Harry is the only one who can stop him. However, Voldimort lost his body and is now forced to find someone to attach his soul to. There is something called the sorcerer's stone and if voldimort gets ahold of it, he can get his body back. Harry fights a 3-headed dog, a human/deadly chess match, and vines that will strangle you to death if you don't relax your body. When he reaches a magic merrior it shows him what his heart desires most. He wants the stone befor voldimort gets it so he can't hurt Harry or anyone else again. The merrior puts the stone in his pocket as harry turns around he sees his defense against the dark arts teacher (Quirll). Voldimort has attached himself to the back of Quirll's head. When Voldimort gets close to Harry, Harry's scare begins to cause him drastic pain. Harry fights off Quirll but sadly becoming unconcious in the end. He wakes up to the head master by his bedside in the hospital wing. The head master explains that the stone has been properly distroyed. In the end everything is ok.....for now..



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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In Harry Potter and the Camber of Secrets, Harry has already figured out some secrets that the school (Hogwarts) holds for him. However, Harry continues to learn more. In this book, Harry begins hearing whispers in the walls of the school. He runs into his friends Ron and Hermione but they have heard nothing. They then see words written in blood on the wall with the care taker's (Mr.Filtch) cat petrofied. As the year continues, more and more people become petrofied (including Hermione). Harry Finds a diary with the name Tom Riddle on it. The diary shows harry about the Chamber of Secrets and what happened the last time it was opended. It killed a mudblood (a witch/wizard with non magical parents) and now it is opened again. Harry finds out that the whispers he has been hearing have actually been snake. He can speak and understand snake (also known as Parstletoung). Harry and Ron go to the chaber of secrets only to be followed by their new (pretty boy) defense against the dark arts teacher. He tries to cast a spell to stop the boys but it backfires and makes the teacher completely goofy. Rn stays behind with him and Harry goes into the chamber. Soon after entering the chamber, Harry sees Ron's little sister Ginny's body lieing there. Suddenly a young boy (Riddle appears) Riddle explains to Harry that he is voldimort. Harry trusted the diary but it only gave him false information. A huge basalisque comes out of the chamber set to kill Harry. Harry manages to kill the snake with help from the head master's phenix (phalx) whom blinds the serphant and gives harry the sword of griffendoor. harry then distroys the diary of tom riddle by stabbing the book with the tooth of the snake. killing riddle and wakeing Ginny and setting things at the school right once again.....for now...



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Speak

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is about a girl who has been through alot. She has a rough family life and is just trying to be normal. However she is forever haunted on the past when she is forced to see the guy who raped her, every day in school. She went to a party and he took advantage of her. In the end, she has her own getaway n a janitor's closet where she keeps her art work and "he" comes in and tries to rape her again. Luckily this time someone hears her screams for help. The entire feild hockey team comes running to her rescue. This book is a sad story about a girl just trying to survive.



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Dissapointment

Sadness, Depression, Darkness, Lonely. You think you have it all figured out..then your world comes crumbleing down around you. Why? Because you told one little lie? Because your feelings have changed? Because he/she isn't who you thought they were? Or simply just boreing? Love and Loss are a way of life. you get your hopes up that you have finally gotten it right, then it turns out to only hurt you. You fall for someone. do they know? do they feel the same? are they taken? are they gay?..what if they turn me down? what if i get my heart broken?...you need to take chances in life.. "get messy, make mistakes!"- Miss frizzle (magic school bus)..There is nothing to fear but fear itself. You can't be afraid to try something new, to open up to others, take chances. you will get hurt, but you will gain ALOT. new experiences, new feelings, and new people.

When you are in love.

When you are in love, he/she is the only one on your mind, When you are in love, he/she wants to talk to u. when you are in love he/she will call/text just to hear ur voice or say hi and that they miss you. When you are in love, people tend to say things. They will make up lies or go to extreme lenghs for no reason. But if you love them, nothing will change that. I tend to talk about love alot in my blogs, but it seams to be a subject i can easily relate to and write alot about. Sometimes, love is found in the strangest of places and may not make people very happy. But then you stop and think, what makes ME happy? and if the answer is him/her..then don't give up what makes you happy for anything in the world. Because if you do, what will you be left with? Not happiness, i'll tell you that.

Girls: If you love a guy enough, don't give up. You will come across problems in life and need to face them together. There is nothing stronger. You may find love in weird places, but it may be the strongest you have ever felt. And the truth is, guys are just as shy as girls, so they may not always make the first move. accept it.

Guys: You have been through alot. If you care about a girl, DO NOT EVER GIVE UP. if you give up, so will she. Don't. Send her cute texts just to let her know she is on your mind. Tell her to look up a song because it reminds you of her. and don't pass up any oppertunities, because it may be your last.

My Reading History

Literacy is the knowledge of reading and writing. We use literacy on a regular basis in school with doing work, driving and reading street signs, and when cooking to read or write down ingredients. I used to absolutely HATE reading. It was the one thing I NEVER wanted to do. I would try to read but could never get interested in a good book. I later found that all I needed was to find the right kind of book.
My I was not influenced to read actual books at a young age or words on a piece of paper. I was influenced to read pictures and sounds recognizing what words sound like and what they mean. I don’t remember my very first experience with reading. However I would watch TV a lot as a child and if I heard a word I was not familiar with I would ask my family what it meant. I guess you could call it imaginary reading. I remember my grandma would swing me on the swing on her front porch and sing rock-a-by baby to me. It was my favorite nursery rhyme/song. I would imagine the pictures of the rhyme in my head and see the story so I could link words to pictures of what they meant.
I attended Lenna Conrow Elementary School. I was still not interested in books at that age and did not read. I would be assigned something to read for class and I would just struggle so much with it that I didn’t want to read. We had a program called Success for All (SFA) and for the first few years they taught us to spell and read by just sounding out the words which lead to me struggling in reading and writing in the future. I cannot remember any teacher from elementary school or anything else about it. I just remember hating to read.
I attended Mary Ethel Costello Middle School. That was when I started to become interested in reading. It was fourth grade and I was introduced to The Magic Tree House series. It was about magic and mystery and it caught my attention. There weren’t too many dull moments in the books. It felt, at times, as though I was being sucked into the magical world. I read every book in the series until they made the last book at the time, Christmas in Camelot.
Now I am in high school. I have read the Twilight Series, the Harry Potter Series, the Night World Series, and many other books. Reading has become a great part of my everyday life as a high schooler. I need to read and write to drive, I need to read and write to apply for college, I need to read to get ready every morning before school. I consider myself a more literate person then I was but I believe with age and knowledge I will become more literate.
Currently I love reading. I am in the middle of the 7th book in a series called The House of Night and I still feel as though I am being pulled into the story of every book I read or as though I am watching a movie of it in my head. Literacy is important now in my life because I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now without it and I am continuing to learn about how it can be used. Literacy is like a tree; when you are young you don’t have many leaves of information but as you grow and blossom, your knowledge grows into many, many, many leaves of knowledge and it never stops.