Readers Response + Vocab

Vocab:
1.Eschew-to shun or avoid
2. Fugacious-lasting a short time
3. Prescience- knowledge of events before they take place

The Maze Runner
James Dashner
Rating: 9.25/10
p.1-p.374
2hrs.
    
     The Maze Runner is a book that takes everything good about the sci-fi and action genre and combines into an amazing book. The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas who wakes up with no memory in a place which turns out to be a maze. In the night the walls to the maze close and monsters roam the maze. The other boys have been trying to navigate the maze for a long time using supplies that come in a box, sent by the"creators" of the maze. Soon after Thomas arrives, another girl arrives with a note from the creators saying that she is the last one. The walls no longer close at night making life much more deadly. Thomas and the rest of his friends try to solve the maze...
     One thing that makes this book so appealing is it's fresh and original plot. The idea is something amazing that hasn't been heard before, and there's never a point where you can guess what's going to happen next. The book moves at a very fast pace, and the pages are thoroughly detailed so you can get a precise view when the author narrates the action that is unfolding. The language and names in this book are also very creative and funny, and although this book is written mostly English, there characters do use words that aren't part of the language, and the names (newt, alby, thomas) are funny, and you later find that the people in the maze are named after famous people( Newton, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison. Overall this book was a thrilling and great read.   

Readers Response 1

The Battle of the Labyrinth
Rick Riordan(this book is autographed by him) :)
the whole incredible 361 pages of it
about 2hrs.
rating: 9.5/10

     Yay, this is the first time in forever I'm doing a response before Wednesday or Thursday! This is my 3rd favorite book by my favorite author and ranks among my 10 favorite all time books which I will list here just because I feel the urge to:
1. The Lost Hero-Rick Riordan
2. The Last Olympian-Rick Riordan
3. Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K Rowling
5. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code- Eoin Colfer
6. Pendragon: The Never War - D.J MacHale
7. Rangers Apprentice: The Battle of Skandia- John Flanagan
8. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- J.K Rowling
10. The Battle of the Labyrinth- Rick Riordan
11. Pendragon: The Pilgrims of Rayne- D.J MacHale
12. Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony- Eoin Colfer

     Okay, maybe that's a little more than ten but I figured Pendragon and Artemis needed second mentions because of how awesome they are. Anyway, I just realized I don't need to do readers responses this week because of literacy night, so I'm just gonna turn this into my first regular post in forever! On this top ten list, I spent about 20 min. just working on it and deciding which goes where, and I probably could still play around with a little more if I wanted to. Catching Fire and City of Glass deserve an honorable mention( has anybody ever noticed how we use "an" before "honorable and "honor" but they don't start with a vowel? Weird.) Try putting your own top ten list in the comments, or if you're short on time, top five. Harry Potters probably going to take the top spot, but I'll try to make a combined top ten list of all my blog readers. I would like to conclude my post with this sentence: You just lost the game.

Readers Response 3

Pendragon: Black Water
D.J MacHale
p.145-p.427(end)
Rating: 8.5/10.0

     The book continues with Pendragon finding out Saint Dane's plan to destroy Eelong: convince the Klees to eat the gars(humans), which will in effect kill the klees because of a poison planted by Saint Dane. I like how this book has an ending where Eelong is saved, but with a heavy cost, which I won't reveal here. The book continues the plot with a switch from slow progression and great description to escalating action and a great climax.
     One thing I didn't like was that the climax feels somewhat rushed, where there is a million important things happening in the span of two pages. This is somewhat confusing at times, and it doesn't help that about six characters play a role in this climax, which makes it hard to keep everything and everyone straight. The ending wasn't terrible, but it wasn't as great as I'd hoped it to be. It leaves you waiting for another sequel, but it doesn't really tie up any knots, and I wish it did because the final book which gave us all the answers was completely epic- and epic failure! If J.K Rowling can plan the whole Harry Potter series so precisely that I can't even think of an adjective strong enough to describe it, why can't D.J MacHale plan a series so that information is revealed bit by bit and not in a giant, blown-up conclusion that doesn't really match up with the whole series. I guess it's unfair comparing any writer to J.K Rowling, but still this series was poorly planned. Black Water is still an incredibly engaging book, and it was a great read, but I wanted just a little more out of this book and the entire series.

Readers Response 2

Pendragon: Black Water
D.J MacHale
p.1-p.145
45 min.
rating: N/A

     This is the 5th book in the amazing Pendragon series, a series about a group of people called "travelers" who travel through the 10 "territories," one of them being earth, who try to stop an evil traveler named Saint Dane who tries to wreak havoc in the territories. Through the series they learn more about themselves and why they were chosen for the task of protecting the universe. This book is about Pendragon, the lead traveler from earth, traveling to the world of Eelong to stop Saint Dane from destroying it. There's one catch, Eelong is filled with giant cats who are the " humans" the civilization, and humans, which are known as "gars," are the pets and stupid animals.
     The one thing I like is all the thought that MacHale puts into creating this entirely new world. There are so many little details that go into creating the jungle world of Eelong and making it sound believable. Of course, it's nothing like the brilliant world of Harry Potter, but Pendragon is pretty good at it. The characters are pretty cool too, but some of them are pretty repetitive. For example, the traveler from Eelong, Kasha, is reluctant to accept her role and is uncooperative for the first half of the book, which happens to the traveler Pendragon has to work with in about half the books. Other than that, this book moves along pretty well so far and I look forward to re-reading the rest of it.

Readers Response 1+Vocab

Vocab:
1. Gastronome-

A connoisseur of good food and drink.

2. Gimrack-

A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.

3.Masticate-

 To grind or crush with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew; as, "to masticate food."

  

Artemis Fowl: The graphic novel

Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

p.1- end

35 min.

Rating: 7.0/10.0

 

     This book is a graphic novelization of one of my favorite books, Artemis Fowl. Unfortunately, most graphic novels adaptations don't live up to the standard set by the original book, and I'm sad to say this is no different. The pictures in this book are nothing like I expected them to be , and lots of the story is cut to make it fit into its comic book form. This book is just not meant to be a graphic novel. The only thing they did well was keep the original story, which is one of the greatest stories ever. The plot is about a genius 12 year old genius named Artemis Fowl, who discovers a fairy civilization that lives miles underground. He kidnaps one of the fairy's for a ransom, and the fairy's friends are involved in a hostage standoff that has many twists and turns. 

     One of the things I like about this book is it doesn't have characters that are portrayed as good or bad. Each character has a complex personality and the book narrates itself using a neutral 3rd person point of view, where you can't really tell who's the bad guy. Artemis himself is a kidnapper and extortionist, but he is the main character and you can't really help but like him. It's sort of like cowboy movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where Butch and Sundance are really outlaws who steal stuff, but are the heroes of the movie. I think this is a good example of life, that people aren't stamped with good or bad on them. Each person is has their owm complicated personality, and we can't judge them based on just a few of their actions.