The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

T his is a hilariously told story about a boy, a self proclaimed retard, called junior. He is a Spokane Indian growing up on the reservation (the rez), a village type place for American Indians away from any white civilization (i know, pretty racist, but it is a diary). To give you a taste of what this book is like, i'll write out the first few paragraphs *Ahem*,

'Chapter 1, The Black-Eye-Of-The-Month Club

I was born with water in the brain.

Okay, so thats not exactly true. I was actually born with too much cerebral spine fluid inside my skull. But cerebral spine fluid is just like the doctors fancy way of saying brain grease. And brain grease works inside the lobes like car grease works inside an engine. It keeps things running smooth and fast. But weirdo me, I was born with too much grease inside my skull, and it all got thick and muddy and disgusting, and it only mucked up the works. My thinking and breathing and living engine slowed down and flooded.

My brain was drowning in grease.

But that makes the whole thing sound weirdo and funny, like my brain was a giant french fry, so it seems more serious and poetic and accurate to say, "I was born with water on the brain."'

It only gets funnier from their.

The plot of the story is basically the diary of a fourteen-year-old Indian living on the isolated rez and being told his whole life he is worthless and to give up like all the other people on the rez have. But he doesn't want to give up, he spends all his time drawing in hope that that will one day bring him out of the rez and into fame. He then finds his only way of escaping the rez is by going to school out of its borders. People (including his 'best friend') hate him for this but he doesn't want to give up everything he has worked for but it is pretty hard considering he is the only Indian in the school, besides from the mascot, that is.

rielly

Cell

"Cell" is a horror novel written by Stephen King. At first it seemed like a promising-enough read, however, towards the end the plot became increasingly dull and I dislike the ending in particular because it's too abrupt and inconclusive.

A comic artist from Maine named Clayton Riddell had just sold his first successful comic as well as striking a graphic novel deal and was joyfully strolling through Boston, delighted at his good fortune.However, little did he know that soon something (something terrible) would completely alter his and the rest of mankind's life forever. Suddenly,without warning, a deadly electronic signal transferred by cell phones which later becomes known as "The Pulse" was sent out to every single mobile phone. Instantaneously, all cell phone users were reduced to vicious, utterly insane,merciless, bloodthirsty, zombie-like creatures that are impervious to pain and even incapable of comprehensible speech.

Chaos and carnage reigned as the "phone-crazies" started targeting any innocent, normal people and each other as well! Clay was fortunate enough to end his first encounter with one of the mental pulse victims unharmed and teamed up with two other survivors, Alice Maxwell and Tom McCourt. In addition, Clay's also extremely concerned about the fate of his family. What if his son, Johnny, had become one those dreadful, ruthless monsters? Or his wife Sharon? Or what if they hadn't been transformed into "phone-crazies" but has been brutally murdered instead? Each day, Clay's anxiety and fear for his beloved ones grows. Their world has become a place where they have to use violence against violence. The survivors must fight to survive or else perish (or suffer some other horrible end). Although their chances are slim, death is not inevitable.

Necropolis - Anthony Horowitz

This book is by Anthony Horowitz. The 4th book and also the second last book of the Power of Five series. In this book, Matthew Freeman, the leader of the gatekeepers, finally finds the 5th gatekeeper who is the last gatekeeper, Scarlett Adams. Her father works for a company called Nightrise, which turns out to be an evil organization that is controlled by the Old Ones - the forces of evil. The Old Ones make Scarlett's father, Paul Adams, bring her to Hong Kong, where Nightrise is, to capture her because they know she is one of the 5 gatekeepers. In return, they said that they would pay Paul lots of money. Paul lures Scarlett to Hong Kong but when he asks for the money that he was told to be rewarded with, the Old Ones kill him instead.
The Old Ones plan to turn Hong Kong into a Necropolis - A city of the dead. Scarlett is therefore trapped in that dying city, where the air is poisoned, and whats worse is that there can be NO escape...
The only way to defeat the Old Ones now is for the 5 gatekeepers to get together. But with Scarlett trapped in Hong Kong, that will be impossible.
Of course the Old Ones have been tricked and defeated before, but this time they have a plan and they are in complete control.

Keep blogging over the Christmas break guys!

Well done for all your hard work this term.

Truth or Dare

Josh spends his holiday with his mother, Joanna Parker, going to his Grandmother's house. At there, he starts to experience the differences about his grandmother, why did she call him Patrick ? That's not all, when he starts to move to the attic and discovers some stuffs left by his unknown uncle Patrick, why hasn't anyone mentioned about him ? Why does his mum start writing again ? All will be cleared when you read the book.
This is the second book by Celia Rees that I read and I must admit, it's truly magnificent. When you get to it, you never want to stop. You will follow Josh putting the clues together and unlocking the dark truth that his family has been hiding for years. The pace of this book changes from slow to fast and vice versa, depending on events. This will make you tense, as you going for the final twist at the end.

My favorite genre

My favorite genre is fantasy, mixed with some twists. Why ? Because I think that fantasy books reflect on the imagination and ambitions of ourselves, fantasy brings us back to when we were kids when we kept imagining things and believing in magic, how magical of fantasy is that it reminds us that we still have our children inner-selves, no matter how old we get, sometimes inside we're still kids. In fantasy, we see other things that the real world doesn't have, the worlds in fantasy are imaginary worlds, but those worlds mirror our own and tell us about something need to be said and understood like society errors, conflicts,... In general, I like fantasy for its nature and innuendos.

where have all my bloggers gone?!

My favourite genre

my favourite genres are probably non - fiction and comedy.Non-fiction books and biographies are pretty interesting and fun to read. I also enjoys adventure novels. I don't like romance that much ( and I don't like the whole twilight series).

My Favourite Genre

I like a lot of different genres such as adventurous, fantasy and comedy. But I especially like comedy. You are entertained while you're reading. In adventurous books at some points you look for clues in a massive maze of adventure and I think it is really fun. Sometimes you can't get out of this maze and think you never will but you are getting out of there slowly through chapters by chapters. I also like fantasy because when series of "imagining" things happen and sometimes it is quite funny when you think "that's rare...". But you get to know that besides this normal life full of difficulties there can be "magically" wonderful side of it when you "travel" through the chapters of a book.

blog more!

Some great blogging , especially by Monica and Rielly, but where are the rest of you?! Come on guys, let's get reading!

My Favourite Genre

To tell the truth, I don't really have a favourite genre although I am ,in general, a person who enjoys adventure and fantasy novels which have loads of twists, suspense and plots that have you hooked until you finish reading the very last page. Though not all adventure, fantasy or "action"novels are exciting and recently, I have discovered that a mixture of different genres (e.g fantasy with a bit of romance and some humour) can be more entertaining . Biographies, autobiographies and historical fiction can also be interesting because you sometimes learn about different cultures and maybe you might get know bit about what life was like in the olden days.

My Favourite Genre

I like action and adventure which is the reason I like reading books by Anthony Horowitz. All the different series that he writes have something to do with both action and adventure.

I recommend to who ever that likes action and adventure should read Anthony Horowitz's books because he is a really good writer at this genre.

my favorite genre

my favorite genre of books are action and comedy, but sometimes romance if it is not too strong (this is the reason i do not like twilight, to much romance)

riles

the princess plot

This book is now my all-time favorite! do not let its title deceive you, it is an action novel, complete with sudden twists plus confusing politics and royal leaders, complete with acts of betrayal and lies. the characters are so well thought out and described that even though the book is in third person you can really relate to almost everyone in the novel. The book is fun to read because it tells two or more stories at once, but they all link up in the middle of the book then does it again, and that will all link up at the end of the novel. This book is about a girl called Jenna who is fourteen, she has an overprotective mother, and Jenna believes there is no excuse for it. Jenna's best friend is named Bea (short for Beatrice). The novel starts out with Bea and Jenna doing history HW outside, the history HW is a family tree, but the only person from Jenna's family she knows is her mom. you see, Jenna's mom won't give up any names, she says it is too dangerous, Jenna doesn't even know her dads name! So she makes up names, a lot of names! Then these people show up and start auditions for a major movie! at first Jenna doesn't want to go, but then get upset with her mom and finds herself walking to the audition, and she surprisingly got the part over her more attractive and slim best friend, plus 200 other girls! And even her maniac of a mother even says she can go! life is at its best for Jenna, they have to fly to someplace called Scandia, even though she had never heard of the place she was excited about actually leaving the country (she had never done that before). But once she gets there she realizes something is not right then they ask her to stay another night and her over protective mother has no trouble in saying yes? that cant be right, then Jenna hears something that NO ONE should have ever heard. Then her life is turned upside-down, not in a good way.

Okay folks- tell me your favourite genre of books and your reasons why you like it so much.

Maximum Ride : The final warning

This novel is the fourth in the maximum ride series written by James Patterson.Personally, I think that this novel is less exciting than the first three novels because the plot is dull and basically the storyline is in some ways very similar to those of the previous novels as the main characters get captured and manage to escape as they always do.

Maximum Ride (usually known simply as Max) and the flock are no ordinary kids. They're actually human/avian hybrids who are in essence humans, but with superhuman powers and the ability to fly because of their wings. They were created in a laboratory referred to as "The School" where callous and malevolent scientists working for a company named 'Itex' conducted highly illegal, gruesome and often painful experiments on innocent humans and animals alike which involved mixing the genes of different species together.

This novel, mainly focuses on Max and the rest of the flock rising up against global warming. After being recommended for the job by Max's newly found parents, Dr.Martinez and Jeb Batchelder, Max and the flock set off on a trip to Antarctica where they work alongside a group of environmental scientists who are gathering data about global warming. Fortunately, the research scientists don't seem dangerous like the ones the flock is used to dealing with ,however, when one of the scientists turn out to be a traitor, imminent danger is once again confirmed.

As always, enemies are lurking everywhere...

Although I wouldn't really suggest you to read this novel, I do strongly recommend you to read the first book in the series. Unlike this novel, the first novel which is called "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" is much more interesting, with more suspense and some humour.

For those of you who aren't particularly fond of reading, I can assure you that the chapters are never very long and are usually action-packed.

Blood Sinister

Ellen Forrest is sick, she feels as if the life is being sucked out of her. The doctors think that she is suffering from a disease of the blood, and she has been sent to her grandmother's house to rest, but she seems to be getting worse, not better. Can it have anything to do with the diaries she has found in the attic? Diaries written in Victorian times by her great great grandmother. Diaries that describe an encounter with a handsome young Count who comes from the Land Beyond the Forest.
This book, as it says in the synopsis, it's vampire fiction. But none like Twilight (which is about "fake" vampires), this is something real, a vampire hidden in a noble man. You will follow Ellen unraveling her past great great grandmother, also Ellen. It was very easy to get into even at the very beginning, it was so interesting and mystifying. It was written with both imagination and sincerity, a tale from the supernatural. A truly remarkable story, if you like vampire stories, this is for you. I give extra credit for the magnificent detail in ‘flashback’ scenes. There were loads of twists and turns to the story that I didn't expect! You can relate to the characters and I loved how the book kept flicking backwards and forwards from the past to the present. It's quite chilling, some horror in it, so I recommended this for 13-15+ book.
WARNING: DO NOT read at night !
Khanh

Evil Star - Anthony Horowitz

This book is called Evil Star and it is by Anthony Horowitz who is my favourite author. This book is in a series called "The Power of 5". There are currently 4 books in the series and this is the 2nd book. There is a boy named Matthew Freeman in this book who is the main character, he is also an orphan. It is called "The Power of 5" because there are 5 gatekeepers who are trying to save the world from "The Old Ones" who are monsters that look like many different animals combined. Matt happens to be one of the 5 gatekeepers. All of these gatekeepers are just ordinary 14 year old children, but they each of them have their own abnormal powers. Out of these 5 gatekeepers, there are 4 boys and a girl. Together they must stop the forces of evil, but if they loose just ONE of them, they won't be able to carry on. Neither of these gatekeepers know each other but they are able to communicate in their dreams.
The Old Ones rise from the earth through "gates" that were built millions of years ago and it is the gatekeepers' job to keep them closed. In this book there is a gate that is about to open in Lima, Peru which is where Matt, travels to alongside his friend Richard Cole, a scientist, whom he met back in England.
Matt finds one of the 5 here in Peru, who is named Pedro and he is just a poor Peruvian boy living in the streets. It is a pain for Matt because Pedro can't speak Peruvian so they can only communicate in their dreams. Richard gets kidnapped in this book by the Incas so right now, it is Matt and Pedro's job to do their best to save Richard, and to find the other 3 of the 5 gatekeepers.

I highly recommend this book because I find the series very interesting.
You can also try the Alex Rider series which is also by Horowitz which includes my favourite book - Snakehead

Clement.

the other Alice

Alice is a fifteen year old girl, with two best friends (her big sister, nell, call's them the three witches), Alice has an eighteen year old sister and brother, they are twins. Alice and her family are living in their Grandpa's house to take care of it until he gets back from the Hospital, Alice's job is to look after his dog, Mabel, which is not an easy job considering that Mabel is stubborn, on a strict diet and has a Border Collie trying to get her for his own.

The Other Alice is a book where a strange girl shows up at Alice's big sisters Birthday party, Alice is alone because her 2 friends whom she was going to invite were out on a double date, so Alice lets her in, she finds out that the strange girl is called Alice too, and they supposedly met in the youth theatre. Alice had no memory of her and was quietly wondering through her memories as the other Alice warmed up to her parents. But did Alice really know this girl, and if not, why was she here, and what did she want...

I like this book because it is full of surprises and unexpected twists, it is sometimes hard to keep up, so I would recommend this book to ages 11-15.

                                        

     Rielly

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