Holiday Reading

This week, although it may have been Christmas, I still managed to read! (And not just gift tags, either) I managed to find that Seekers series by 'Erin Hunter'. Somehow or other, at around the end of 5th grade, my friend managed to get me to borrow the first book, which she owned (It was hardcover and very nice, now that I think of it) and so I read it, because it's sort of pointless to borrow someone's book and not read it. So then it left you not knowing basically anything at all, which was extremely frustrating at the time. That probably happens a lot when you take one story and break it into six books. Anyway, I read the next and the next. Then I waited for book #4 came out, because I still didn't know what would happen, and I honestly thought I could be done once I finished book four. Then I, more or less, forgot about it while waiting for this book, Seekers: Fire in the Sky to come out. How do you forget about a book you're waiting for? I don't know. So anyway, I like to scan through the 'New' books at the library and it was there. (This book came out half a year ago) And now I am waiting for what is hopefully the last book so I really can be done!
     In this book, Fire in the Sky we find our four heroes, Lusa (black bear), Kallik (white/polar bear), Toklo (grizzly/brown bear) and Ujurak (magical transforming grizzly) in what they hope is 'The Place of Everlasting Ice'. (Aka: somewhere way up in Canada, right around the arctic circle) Anyway, this Ujurak is  leading them all to save bear-kind from the 'flat-faces/no-claws/humans' which has pretty much happened since book one. So he leads them all up north and they are currently on some frozen sea. He follows 'signs' to lead them through there, but it turns out to be a very difficult journey. Kallik has to take care and hunt for everyone, Lusa is (uncontrollably) trying to hibernate, and both she and Toklo are struggling to adapt well to the ice. They are encourages by a gigantic bear, who is really a star, who is really, as they find out, Ujurak's mother. Every bear species has their own name and story about the star/bear, but she really is just his mother. Anyway, she visits them in their dreams, and encourages everyone, except Toklo, who believes that one of them will die in the journey. They still split up because Lusa is sick and Toklo is sick of the ice, but Kallik can live and Ujurak believes he should save the bears more than anything. I will not include the ending because that would spoil it, but it is fairly happy and nothing really gets done other than the fact they still aren't done with their journey. It's frustrating.

Hope everyone had a good break so far!

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds (Overall)

     I don't really like the acronym for the title of this book, and it's much more fun to write all the way out, so that's what I did. Let me get this straight, because it seems to be confusing: I really don't think this is a depressing play. I originally thought it looked that way, but once I really read it, I realized it wasn't.
     Anyway, the ending seemed really short. I felt like it was just "Oh, I won, she killed the rabbit, and we're finally opening the shop". It was all just sort of weird, especially with the whole 'boil the skin off the cat' and all. Everything just seemed to move really fast. There's the whole frantic thing before the taxi and while it's waiting. I hate that, when the driver honks the horn over and over. It drives me crazy! What is he accomplishing by honking over and over? It annoys everyone, and it only makes them feel really rushed to get there. It's terrible!
      Next, Ruth has to make the comment to Beatrice, and she gets all crazy about it, so Ruth goes with her instead to the science fair. Then we listen to this terrible girl talk about how much she (evidently) enjoyed using the cat for her project. Then she suggested that she would use a dog another year! I can't believe she did well with that!
    Meanwhile, of course, Beatrice is going crazy back at home, but I thought it was an important and possibly sort of symbolistic when she pulled the paper down off the window or shop window. It just sort of showed everything was going to change, or that it all finally made Beatrice break, if they never did end up having the tea shop.
     That's the other thing I'm not sure about - Is it a happy ending? I think the ending is definitely one of my favorite parts of this short play, but I'm not sure whether to be happy or not. It would make me really happy if they did open up the tea shop, and she did just win the science fair, but then Beatrice did kill the rabbit. So I'm still not sure if it's happy. I guess it all goes with that theme of 'growing a flower (Tillie) out of an unhealthy environment (Her mother and sister)' So maybe it is supposed to be a sort of happy ending. It seems like it might really be happy for them after that. I also liked how she brought back again the idea of the atoms.  I liked this play a lot, actually, and, I'm not sure yet, but I think better than The Catcher in the Rye.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds Act 1

Well, I have a story to tell. I read the back of the book and thought "Oh, great." Then I read the introductions thing and thought "Oh, great." again. It was exactly the sort of story I really, really, didn't want to hear. It sounded depressing, it looked depressing, it just was saturated in depressing. I guess the saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover" really follows through, because the cover makes it look much happier than it seems. (This is my thinking after only reading a summary and an introduction). Well, I somehow imagined to myself that I only needed to read this introduction (I don't know why). Anyway, I was bored and thought I'd see what the book was like. So I read a little less than half way through the first act and decided to stop. At this point, I was really sure it was going to be very depressing and something terrible would happen. Then I looked at our assignment sheet again because I forgot the name of the website (figment.com) and I wasn't entirely sure about everything. Then I realized we had to read more than just the introduction. So I started from the beginning and read all the way to Act II. Already in the first three or so pages, I liked it better. I don't know why, but it didn't seem nearly as depressing and I actually think Beatrice is sort of funny. Not when she's trying to be funny, but just the weird things she says. Like when Tillie is trying to tell her about the experiment with radiation and she keeps saying different things about what she's saying. First she says "You better go to school" and then at the end she says "There's no way you're going to school" She just says the strangest things. Ruth is, well I don't know what Ruth is. She seems pretty sneaky, but she doesn't really like her sister. But then there' s the science fair where she comes home super excited about her doing well. I don't really like Ruth. The thing I don't like about this is that it's a play. I keep trying to think of it as a book, but it seems like I would see the whole thing differently if it was just a book. The only nice thing is that you always know who's talking, because the large names before every new speaker.

So my overall opinion is that it actually will turn out to be a better book than I thought. I still think something depressing is going to happen, the sadness ranging from being slightly sad because it happens earlier on, to very sad because it's right at the very end or something. I hope I'm wrong, though, because it seems like a nice story, and Tillie seems so nice.

I really liked the beginning because I can picture it very well. I can see her standing there, talking about atoms and herself. I also like Nanny, although I sort of feel bad for her because she seems so out of everything/why is she still alive. I have this suspicion that Beatrice is really jealous of her, first of all because she's so mean to her, and second of all, she doesn't have to do anything for herself, or others. That's exactly what Beatrice seems to want, to do absolutely nothing and worry about absolutely nothing (even if it means you're blind, deaf, and basically incapable to do anything at all). I also really liked the last few pages of Act I, it makes you think about how they live all the time, and what each person wants most. Although I really didn't want to like this book, I think I do.

Reading (In the Snow)

Well, as we all know, it snowed and is still snowing quite a bit at this very second. It was sort of strange and cool that it snowed (and stuck) on December 1! So this week I have been reading 'in the snow'. I wandered around the school library and randomly (I can't believe it, but it was actually completely random) picked up a book called 'Interface Masque'. I'm not quite sure if I like it yet, but it's okay. Has anyone read it? (It's not really new, it was published in 1997). Anyway, it's about a girl named Cecile who lives in a very modern Venice. She is ready to start her life as a Sept, but she has to graduate to become one, which means passing a test. Sept-Fortune creates security systems, and, for her test, she has to break through them. This is extremely dangerous, because if she's caught, then she can die, but if she passes, then her life is much more secure. There is also a question of morals, is it right to break into something, what would her parents say? Etc, etc. So anyway, that's about the first chapter, and then she decides to go through and take the test and she breaks through really easily (which isn't really a spoiler because it's still at the beginning) and passes. But as she's taking the information back, she runs into David, who you learn is working to take down the Septs. It's really weird to explain, but basically they have weaved music so tightly into everyday life that certain kinds are unacceptable, but not totally illegal. Mozart is played/sung in the morning, and everyone is calmed by music at night, but no one accepts jazz or rock and roll. So this David guy just happens to be in a jazz band, and he wants Cecile to join him in his quest to tear down Septs and to rule the world himself, except he wants Cecile, like I said. The whole plot and everything is sort of interesting, I guess. The weird thing is the science fiction part of it. Because she's in a futuristic Venice, there are weird ways of getting places and information that is hard for me to completely grasp. The cool thing about the future is that they wear costumes to protect their identity, so you never know who anyone else is unless they take off their mask, or if, by their job, they are required, not to wear masks, or they choose not to. So everyone has their own masks and costumes that they wear, that can define where they are in society, or not at all. It's pretty interesting I guess. (I looked up a picture of the author, she's sort of creepy looking) It was nice to choose what book to read, even if I didn't choose very carefully.