Son of Neptune

Okay, I know probably a million people have made a review for this but this is what I think about the Son of Neptune. I think the Son of Neptune is a great book but I’m not a screaming fan girl about it. It’s, quite truly, not my favorite. I liked the Lost Hero better partially because I felt that Percy wasn’t the same in The Son of Neptune as in the earlier books. Maybe the reason is that he is older but I like the younger Percy better or at least the image I have of him from reading the earlier books. Tis brings me to who I recommend to read this. I recommend middle school age because of something I heard. It goes sort of like this: middle schoolers like reading about high schoolers because they are one level ahead. This is why the Diaries of a Wimpy Kid are so appealing to elementary aged kids. You might think it to be too mature or unidentifiable but, truly, we all like to see what’s coming next. I’m not saying that suddenly we’ll all be demigods but the age that the main characters are is just right even if it isn’t ours. This book, written by Rick Riordan and published in 2011, is mostly about Percy in the roman camp. I say it in this way because in the Lost Hero Jason was in the greek camp. Percy meets Hazel and Frank and the go on a quest to free Death. There are many other conflicts and challenges on the way and in the horizon that they face. The roman camp may be attacked, there’s a giant on the way, the greeks and romans have a feud, etc. ect. It is set mostly in the Roman camp which is in California but there are many other locations all along the quest. I do recommend this book for fantasy readers and avid readers of the Percy Jackson series but I wouldn’t say it’s the best, still. It just ties everything over. It has a fine plot and it will keep you interested with adventure and the interactions between people. The main conflict in this all is really person vs. supernatural. The demigods are fighting against Gaia. It also has person vs. person but only a little sprinkled in. Percy Jackson is 16 and has had his memory wiped and is struggling to remember his past and fight with his present friends. He is heroic and has lots of burdens of leadership but these struggles continue in the next book and intensify.  He is kind and determined and wants above almost everything to get back to his girlfriend, Annabeth. This sometimes causes problems because it is hard to choose between Annabeth and the quest. One of the themes in The Son of Neptune is forgiveness. I say this mainly because of the feud between the Romans and the Greeks. Percy has to overcome this once he figures out  that he is Greek and the Romans figure out that he is Greek. He has to work together with the Romans and trust them. First, he has to  forgive them for their past and then trust his life in theirs. Overall I enjoyed it and do recommend it but not as much as other books in the series.

Scene 3 Summary

This is a summary for scene 3. In scene three mostly it is Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste partying and being drunk. There are also SUPER loud and Maria comes down and tells them to be quiet because Malvolio will come and give them a harder sentence. Then he does and threatens that he will tell on him. In revenge Maria and the guys plan a prank where they will pretend to be Olivia and write love notes to Malvolio . This is supposed to cause extreme embarrasment.

Dramatic Irony RETURNS

As you already know Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows more than the actors or characters they are portraying. I found another example which continues on the fact that we know that Viola likes Orsino and no one knows. Lines 25-27 in Act 2 scene 4 highlight this. Viola says that her love is about Orsino’s complexion, age, ect. Viola says,  “about your years, my lord.” There is a lot of Dramatic Irony in Viola’s love for Orsino.

Dramatic Irony

Shakespeare uses many literary elements. Dramatic Irony is one of them. Dramatic Irony is where the audience knows more than the actors. This was used at the end of scene 4 in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Viola says aside or not to anyone but the audience,”whoe’re I woo, myself would be his wife.” Viola reveals here that she likes the Duke Orsino but no one else knows. She doesn’t what anyone to know.

Ode to….

Laughter

O, laughter, O, bringer of joy, spreader of happiness,

when you join us spirits soar,

you come in many types,

to grace our halls,

the guffaw, a chuckle, or the ho, ho of St. Nick,

from the beginning of time you have been there for us,

following jokes and causing hiccups,

you are universal, you are everywhere,

you start deep and then soar out,

out of our throats and more voices join,

in a lifting melody, teaming up with smiles,

the best of the best, in the pocket of life,

the horse of happiness and the carriage of elation,

only you can destroy sadness utterly and,

drive the the darkness away forever

 

Anlyization of the Poem: Grass

Grass

by Carl Sandberg

Pile the bodies hard at Austerlitz and Waterloo

Shovel them under and let me work-

I am grass; I cover all

 

And pile them high at Gettysburg

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun

 

Shovel them under and let me work

two years, ten years and the passengers ask the

conductor:

What place is this?

Where are we now?

I am the grass.

Let me work.

 

This poem is a metaphor. How, you ask? Well, the metaphor is that the grass for which the poem is named after is time. The poem is saying that time or grass will heal the wounds, or cover up the past. It will cover up the wars and the battles. This was after the war so it was telling people to move on and remember the old battles that faded away into the past and that these battles too will fade away. It also uses repetition of words like pile and shovel but I think that is just to create similarity between the stanzas.

My “Ski” Trip

To ski or not to ski, that is the question. That is the story of my weekend. It all started when my parents told me that we were going on a ski trip. Obviously I was elated. Immediately I went to call my friend. Just as I had settled now and launched in to my (slightly exaggerated) plan for the weekend. Before a word had slipped through my lips my mom called back informing me that we would not be skiing due to the negative temperatures. My conversation continued and once I had hung up the plans had been altered again. The eventual result was that we were departing on Saturday to go skiing. My sister was protesting valiantly but eventually  we left. Also another change in plans was that we would not be going with our friends. This was a minor set back but we were still going skiing.

We finally got in the car and after an uneventful ride we arrived. The roads were slick with snow and we had a few close calls but we survived. We checked into the cabin and bundled up to go get dinner at the ski lodge. We climbed up the hill out of the resort painfully slowly and suddenly we stopped. The our car slid dramatically down the hill and slammed into a snow bank.

We walked to the cabin in blistering cold wind and watched TV intill bed time. Our gourmet meal consisted of eggs, girl scout cookies, and hot chocolate. In the morning the conditions had not improved and after everything we would not be skiing. On the 8th try we made it up the hill. Depressingly we drove out of the resort and slid onto the high way. That weekend was very interesting and thank god for air quotes.

Child Obesity

I recently read an article on obesity. I wasn’t really about the causes or effects. It was more about the people who got it. It was a lot of statistics and I learned a new word:socioeconomic. It’s main idea was that kids lower on the socioeconomic scale were more likely to be obese. From what I read socioeconomic basically means your social and economic rating. For instance if you were rich you would be high on the socioeconomic spectrum. The results show that as rich people are less likely to be obese the chances rise against the less fortunate.

After reading this article I would like to learn more about obesity and the causes. I would also like to know how this affects the people of Charlottesville. Is it  true that poorer kids have a higher chance of being obese? How can I help with this close to home? I think this article was very informative and well written. It provided a lot of hard facts and I enjoyed reading the percentages of different groups of people to become obese. I also learned a little about how people become obese but I would like to know more. This is yelling Genius Hour at me but I don’t know if it’s exactly what I want to do.

Newsela | For US kids, the rich get thinner and the poor get fatter

Peter and the Starcatchers

Welcome to the best reviewing blog for all books. Today we are reviewing the book Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. This amazing book was published in 2004. Wow, that’s old. Any way, this is a great fantasy book. To all you sci-fi lovers, don’t read this book! If you are a fan of Peter Pan or you love a good pirate tale this will be a great read. This book is great for all ages but it may be a little simple for 6th graders.

Though it may be simple in language the plot is intriguing. It starts of with orphans(typical fantasy beginning)  boarding a ship. Their adventures continue when they discover a chest with magical powers.  The more they realize the worse their situation seems. Then pirates attack. Shipwrecked on an island a struggle for the chest is spiced with natives to the island, giant crocodiles, and mermaids. One more thing, this great story is the prequel to Peter Pan. If you don’t know his story I suggest finding out that before reading the book.

This story mainly takes place on either a ship or an island. It is in a made-up world and there is a thing called star-stuff that is what the story revolves around because of the many parties trying to claim the chest of star-stuff. The reason being that star-stuff is extremly powerful and could spell the end of the world in the wrong hands.

The main character is Peter. He is a young boy who’s age is between 10 and 14. He is an orphan so he doesn’t know. He is the leader of a pack of boys and feels responsible for them. He is adventurous and brave. He also has a girl who he is fond of named Molly.

The theme of this story is : with great power comes great responsibility

 

Hope you enjoy.