Reading Log

June 26, 2013

The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa

Fantasy

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book in the series but as I am with most series I wanted to know what happens in the end. I am glad we had to read A Midsummer Nights Dream at school because I understood who some of the characters were I also understood some of the references. The story got better as the series went on and I was happy with how the series ended.

Night Spirits: The Story of the Relocation of the Sayisi Dene by Ila Bussidor

Non-Fiction

 I had to read this story for the Manitoba trip I will be going on this summer. I like reading about history and the story that was told in this book is a part of history that is never taught at schools in Vancouver. It is a powerful story and one that everyone should read. This part of history is definitely dark and a part of history that people don’t want to remember but it is an important part when the Canadian government made a huge mistake and the “Dene Village” that the Sayisi Dene were moved to is considered the worst slums in Manitoba History. I’m glad I read this and I think it is important to learn about the hard times in Canadian history no matter how minor they might seem.

The Program by Suzanne Young

Dystopia

This book takes place in a world where suicide is an international epidemic. The story was basically the main character’s sob story. The plot was predictable but it did keep me interested and make me wanting to read the next book. The characters were pretty flat compared to most other dystopia novel characters. The world the author chose wasn’t my favorite world with suicide seen as an epidemic and teens going to The Program to get “cured”. I don’t recommend this book when there are so many more good dystopian books to choose from. 

Reading Logs This Week

June 6, 2013

Here are my reading logs for this week.

Tomorrow series by John Marsden

Dystopian

The rest of the Tomorrow series continues with the kids from Australia fighting to stay alive during a war in Australia. Unlike other stories that take place during a war these kids are alone for most of the wartime and had to rely on each other to survive. I liked how the book was not all fighting and it included some of the other struggles like finding food and shelter.

On Thin Ice by Jamie Bastedo

Fiction

This book takes place in Nanurtalik Greenland from the point of view of a young girl. The town has not seen a polar bear in decades but when the body of a teenaged boy is found along the side of a road people begin to fear that polar bears have returned. Throughout the book I got a view of what it is like living in the arctic and some of the struggles the people face due to climate change. I started reading this book a year ago but did not go past page one and gave up. I have wanted to go back to it for a while and decided now was a good time. This time I started reading and only put it down once to read two other books. The thing that got me to come back to the book was a discussion the other day in social studies. We were talking about the effect of climate change on the arctic and when we started talking about what is happening to polar bears the discussion turned into a debate of sorts. Some people said that polar bears have to learn to adapt to climate change and who cares if they go extinct. I was the only student in the class to stand up for the polar bears. After that class I went back to the book and couldn’t put it down.

This is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell

Fiction

Two students, Emery and Jake, are helping out in the elementary school French class when a man walks in demanding to have his son. When the teacher says no he pulls out a gun and won’t let anyone leave the classroom. This was really suspenseful and I did not know what was going to happen. With all the school shootings in the states this book made me not want to go to an American school anytime soon.

Failing kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Fantasy

This book is about a fantasyland where three kingdoms are fighting for power. The main characters are four kids from the kingdoms and their storylines eventually come together. I am not a huge fantasy fan but this book caught my eye when I noticed one of the characters was named Magnus. Magnus is not a common character name but one of my favorite characters from The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices is named Magnus. I wanted to see if this Magnus was anything like the Magnus from the other series. The plot was really good and kept me reading into the night. By the end I did not like Magnus and look forward to see what happens to him next.

Test by William Sleator

Dystopian

All students have to take this test at the end of the school year and if you fail there are consequences. The school that Ann goes to prepares the students for the test the whole school year. When Ann is threatened on her way home from school she and a new friend are caught up in a conspiracy act involving the creator of the test. This future probably won’t happen where we will suffer terrible consequences if we fail a test that we only take because if we don’t we could get killed. But we take in high schools we take provincials and in elementary some elementary school they take the FSA test. I would not want a psycho teacher like Ann has. I have never had a teacher that sits the students in order from best student to worst student before but I did have a teacher that posted our math test scores up on a chart for the whole class to see.

Character Names

June 6, 2013

I have thought a lot about names of characters in books and I have noticed that some characters with the same names from different books share some of the same personalities. There is one name in particular that I have seen that.

The big name I have noticed the trend is the name Vaughn. All the book characters  I have met that are named Vaughn have turned out to be evil. In the chemical garden Vaughn is the main antagonist and in Variant Vaughn turns out to be an antagonist and also pure evil. Another name that has come up a lot is the name Sam. All the Sams I have come across have turned out to be one of the main characters and are on the same side as the protagonist. In Gone Sam is the main hero of the story and in The Wolves of Mercy Falls Sam is the also one of the protagonists and a hero of the story.

I don't know what it is with all characters named Sam being good or all characters named Vaughn being evil. There might be something in the author handbook about which names have to be evil and which good. I would like to see the author that goes against this trend and makes a protagonist named Vaughn or an antagonist named Sam.