Independent Reading quarter #2

This quarter,
I Read the award winning book, "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose. Like all war books, this book had me on the edge of my seat for most of the story. However, what made this one better is knowing that all the events being written about have taken place. It gives the story a more authentic feel to it. During the book, I actually felt like I was apart of Easy Company, fighting in the battles, and going through all the hardships. Despite being trapped in a High School english class, I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone seeking an adventure without having to move. Overall, a 8/10 is fitting.
--Brian Loomba

Star wars Trilogy

Star wars, a story of father and son's, family, and most of all redemption. Ironically, I used to insult anyone who bravely admitted they enjoyed Star Wars. Now, I consider myself the biggest fan in the grade, perhaps even the whole school. We begin this wonderful story around the time where Leia is rushing across space in the patented Tentav IV, which contains the stolen plans to the Empire's deadliest weapon, The "Death Star". Unfortunately for Leia and the rest of the the rebellion, the Empire has tracked them down and has boarded their ship. Almost every rebel is killed, and the living are taken captive. Right before her capture, Leia places the stolen Death Star plan's into R2-D2. There R2-D2 and C-3P0 escape the ship in an escape pod and land on the remote planet of tatooine. There, they meet luke skywalker. by fate and fate alone, luke meets obi-wan kenobi, one of the few remaining jedi. When Obi-Wan discovers the stolen Death Star plan's, he realizes he has to get them back home to alderaan! There Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han Solo and chewbacca, crewmates of the infamous ship, the Milenium Falcon. Long story short, they rescue the princess and blow up the Deathstar.

This summer, to support my love of Star wars, I chose to read Star Wars: The Phantom menace. the tricky thing about Star Wars is that everything is backwards. As you all should know, Darth Vader was once a jedi, but was seduced by the dark side of the force. So, in these books, its interesting to see how a little boy with so much potential could screw up so hard. As Obi-Wan said, "You were supposed to destroy the dark side, not join them!". In this book, you can discover how Obi-wan takes anakin skywalker as his aprentice. This I find most interesting and ironic because anakin is actually the one that kills Obi-wan. Small world. This book also shows how anakin meets the beautiful Padme Amidala, AKA Natalie Portman. I liked this book because it lays the structure for the rest of the Star Wars saga.

IRR #3

The title of the book is Manchild in the Promise Land, the author is Claude Brown.

When Claude was young he was in a fish and chip place and he was shot in his side. it was important because he could have died. it made me think about how bout violence is in low class areas. i thought that he was going to die and the story would be told from someone else's perspective of Claude's life.

I like Claude. I do not like PaPa because he beats up his son when he acts out. i do not relate to anybody in the book. I wonder what happens to Claude's friends later on in life.

The important choice that Claude faces is giving up his life of a thug and becoming a better person. When he was shot a second time his decision was influenced to get better.

The minor characters are his siblings, Mama and Papa, Pimp, Turk And Danny. they either help him try to get better or make him get worse.

Overall this was such a fantastic book sand look forward to reading more like it.

my 2nd book

in my book the main character was shot in a fish and chip joint then was put in the hospital, he had many dreams/nightmares, it is a great book so far.

watsons wonderful trip

In the great book by Christopher Paul Curtis a black family from the north go on a trip to the south. they are forced to go because the oldest son got in trouble too much, they are greeted by racism and hatred as they go into the south.

BLOGGINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im done my book but my IRR wont upload

blogging, i love it, i also love reading books. i read this brilliant book called Monster, it was great. i am now reading a book called "The Watsons Go To Birmingham" its by a black guy.

Danger Boy, By Mark London Williams

The book that I read over the summer is called Danger Boy, By Mark London Williams. This was the first book in the series and it is about a boy named Eli. Eli’s dad used to work for a company called DARPA. Eli’s dad use to make machines that used something called a WOMPER charge to travel things through time. After Eli’s mom gets sucked into a time sphere, Eli’s dad decides to try to run away from DARPA. They move to a place in the country named Valley of The Moon, and although they try hard, the company agents find them. Then Eli’s dad starts to work again because of a new discovery. There is an outburst of small pox and Eli has to go back to ancient Alexandria to try to find out how it started (In order to find a cure). While he is there he finds a young girl who is accused of being a witch and a futuristic lizard boy from a different dimension. The three of them have many adventures together. At the beginning of every chapter the author tells you who is telling the story in that chapter, where it is, and when it is. This is important because the book is about time travel. You need to know who is speaking and what year and dimension you are in. for example, throughout the book the characters are in ancient Alexandria, present time, and a different dimension. The book uses foreshadowing. In this book the author gives subtle hints to what is going to happen in the next book in the series. This is also a form on cliffhanger. Every book ends with a question or a big event that makes you want to read the next book. There is much internal conflict in the book. Eli lost his mom in an accident a long time ago and throughout the book he is hoping that he will find her. He is drawn sometimes between trying to save his friends, and trying to rescue his mother. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves adventure books. The first book is great and the books get better as the series progresses.

2099 Betrayal

During the summer of 2010 I read the book 2099 Betrayal by John Peel. It is the second book of the 2099 Series. It is an action science fiction thriller that is about a teenager (Devon) and a unique terrorist organization called Quietus outside of earth trying to destroy this computerized planet. The external conflict is the main character Tristan, Devon’s supposed clone is being chased by the police because they think he let out the Doomsday virus which Devon did. The internal conflict in the novel is that Tristan’s girlfriend Mora is also led to believe he set out the virus. Mora was the closet person to Tristan so Tristan has to find a way to clear is name with all the mental problems. The mane characters in this story are Tristan (already mentioned), Devon (mentioned), Mora (mentioned), Genia- an underworld, genius girl who is amazing with computers and was able to get a sample of the virus on a chip. Inspector Shamoda who is high up a high up police operative assigned to track down the person who set off the doomsday device but she is going after Tristan, mistakenly when she should be going after Devon.
Some incredibly important details in this story details in this story are-Tristan manages to contain the internet virus by making a virtual blockade but it can’t hold up for much longer. Tristan escapes from Quietus terrorists by slashing at one of their necks and running. But when Shamoda comes to save him (before she thought it was him) the identified the skin in Tristan’s nails from when he scratches his neck and the DNA shows up as Shamoda’s boss’s DNA. Tristan’s girlfriend tries to hand him into the cops betraying him (hens the name of the book Betrayal). Genia helps Shamoda track down Tristan when she gives her the virus sample but Shimoda’s boss sees Genia and sends her to jail. He sent her to jail but Shamoda is curios how mysteriously her boss knew she was from the Underworld. Devon leaves his home for the first time in his life.
John Peel uses makes this story unique from the multiple points of view he shows from the characters. This is the reason why there are so many main characters. The author also uses many literary devices to enhance the story. He uses setting with every character (except Devon) currently in the suburbs of Manhattan while the “Net” (computer systems) is getting destroyed their. The year is also a big piece in this story because so much has change in this world thus affecting the mood. The year is 2099 and the world is soon to crumble. Peel uses foil character making Devon and Quietus the evil characters and the rest good.
This book was definitely one of my favorite books. It is the second book of a 2099 series. I read the first book is called 2099 Doomsday Fear the Year and it was so good I continued on to 2099 Betrayal. And I plan on reading the rest of the series and you should too.

Sea of Monsters Blog

                         Have you ever wondered about the mysteries of Greek mythology? Have you ever wondered what would happen if all those myths appeared into the actual world itself? I got to see this occur, not in real life, but in the pages of a book. The book (The Sea of Monsters) by Rick Riordan moves things along as the sequel to (The Lightning Thief) and starts another chapter in the Percy Jackson series. People might remember the past events taken in (The Lightning Thief.) People who have already read the series already know about Percy Jackson, he is a demi-god (half human, half god) who is the son of Poseidon and has ADHD. Most of the time he doesn’t do well in school because most of the written English letters can be easily read by regular humans themselves, but to Percy, the letters start to scramble all over the chalkboard like little kids on the playground. After the incidents held in (The Lightning Thief.), it has already reached the end of Percy’s school year. But some strange things have been going on because Percy has been having strange dreams which are revealed as messages from his friend Grover, a satyr that has helped Percy in the past events. Grover says that he has been held captive by a Cyclops who mistook Grover as a lovely Cyclops that he wants to marry, and says that if he ever spilled the beans that he was indeed a satyr, and not a Cyclops, the one-eyed beast would eat him. After a brawl with monsters on a dodge ball court, he reunites with Annabeth (another one of Percy’s friends, she is also a demi-god.) and Tyson comes along to accompany him in his adventures. Percy is guided back to Camp-Half Blood, a place he has treasured since the first time he has been there. After taking care of business there, he encounters an internal conflict. Tyson was in fact a Cyclops, and Percy was shocked by the fact that he was actually his brother, and so, in one day, Percy, who was once a hero after the events in the past book turned into a person that people didn’t really honor anymore. Along with the internal conflict, he has noticed that a tree that keeps Camp Half- Blood was poisoned, and that the only cure was a golden fleece that was in the Sea of Monsters. That’s how Percy started a journey to the Sea of Monsters, in order to save Grover, and Camp Half-Blood.

                 Rick Riordan features many scenes that will blow your mind in this book. The word choice and the events that will happen in the book will make you think more about other events that may have happened in (The Lightning Thief

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer

Over the summer, a really book I read was Eclipse, written by Stephanie Meyer. It’s a magical realism that can make you smile, cry, and make you want to read it over and over again. The book is about how Bella Swan, a stubborn, yet confused teenager is once again surrounded with danger. She has to choose between Edward Cullen, her vampire boyfriend, or Jacob Black, one of her best friends. Although Bella and Edward are in a big relationship, Jacob thinks that he might be better for her. The only problem is, is that one of the decisions she’s making either ends to life or death. The thing that is really unique and special about this book is how the author puts so much vivid imagery and detail. She makes all the characters seem to come alive.
A really huge conflict throughout the book is external and internal conflict with Jacob and Edward. It seems to be a man vs. man situation. Jacob and Edward both don’t like and agree with each other, and they are both fighting for Bella’s love. While Edward seems a bit unsure of himself and how he and Bella’s relationship would turn out, Jacob seems to feel a bit jealous of how Bella and Edward have a stronger relationship. The overall message of this book seems to be, that although people can go through tough and hard situations, don’t worry that much, because it usually turns out alright.
I really loved and enjoyed this book!! I wouldn’t really recommend it for little kids, but I would definitely recommend it for teenagers and adults. (they would understand it a lot better) =)

Over the summer i read a book from one of the best series ever, The sisters grimm. The book in the series was Tales From the hood. The book is about two girls sabrina, and daffny. They are living with there grandma, Granny Relda. Then there's Mr. Canis. Mr canis is the big bad wolf in human form, at any given moment he can turn into the big bad wolf. Then there's puck. Puck is an elf that looks like a boy but is really 2000 years old.
In the book The sisters Grimm Tales From the hood, Mr. Canis is on trial for murder. The rest of the charachters are searching for the real killer. Through the book Sabrina thinks it's better that Mr. Canis stays in jail for the safety of there family. Sabrina tells Daffny, so they get into a fight about how nice a man Mr.Canis is and why he should/ shouldn't go. This book is very intreging right at the moment.
THE END OF THE BOOK WILL SHOCK YOU.
-Paul Damiano

The novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer is the last book in the Twilight series. Throughout the series there has been a love story told between a vampire, Edward, and a human, Bella. The previous books have told the complications of being in a relationship with someone who is different than you. This has put Bella, Edward and Edward’s family, who are also vampires, in life threatening events.
In the beginning of this book it is Bella and Edwards are only days away from getting married. Bella has been nervous and has somewhat been resenting it. Once she actually gets the she starts to enjoy it. After the wedding Edward takes Bella to Esme’s Island, an island that Edward’s dad Carlisle bought for Edward’s mom Esme. Bella later becomes pregnant with a half mortal, half vampire child. Once finding this out Edward and Bella rush home. The baby is to powerful for a human to carry but Bella still wants to have it. The decision to keep the baby is cause Bella much pain because the baby I growing at a rapid rate and is crushing and breaking Bella’s ribs. Once things are finally looking better the baby shatters Bella’s spine because it has fully developed in her stomach. Edward had to rip the baby out of Bella’s stomach, Bella would have died but Edward shot Bella with venom in her heart which changed her from a human to a vampire.
When Bella finally woke up after the change everything is different she sees things more clearly and can hear things that are a mile away, the main change was that not only does she still love Edward but she can’t stay away from her daughter Renesmee. After everything that has happened everyone thinks that they are safe but the biggest probable hasn’t even come yet. To find out what happens next read the amazing novel Breaking Dawn.

The Life You Imagine

Over the summer I read a book by Derek Jeter with Jack Curry. The book is called, The Life You Imagined, and it’s about how Derek Jeter got up to the major league level. This book is an autobiography about his life experiences. This book is written as a chapter book. In this book, there are real pictures of Jeter, his parents and special events that he went through. This book also features people talking about his skills of baseball and how good he was at such a young age. He put all of these features into this book to make it easier to understand what he did and how while getting up the major league level.
When you read this book yourself, you will be amazed at how many different events he went through. His parents were making sure that he was safe at all times throughout his life. He worked very hard at and did what had to come first such as school work before going out to play ball. When you read this book you will find out what else Jeter did and went through other than working hard every single day at baseball.During his childhood, he was a good kid. He did nothing bad and always worked hard when it came to school. He kept his grades up near the A range in all classes. Just like Jeter worked hard in school he also worked hard in practice with a good attitude. He always had his mind set to be the best. Jeter stayed in good shape and ate healthy. Derek was as all around player too, because he could run, hit, throw, and field. He was talented when it came to baseball. Jeter tried hard in games too. He would keep on hitting the ball game after game after game. He would make great plays in the field also. Jeter was made to play baseball. This book tells you many of his life experiences and how he tired to help people from staying away from thing you shouldn’t do in life. This book will also tell you his role models along the way. He had more than just one and he followed in there foot steps. Some of his role models played baseball and some didn’t.

Andrew Z. Shift by Jennifer bradbury

An interesting book that I recently got hooked on is Shift. Shift is a mystery written by Jennifer Bradbury. The characters in the book are Win, Chris, their parents and an F.B.I. agent named Mr. Ward. Chris and Win, friends since they were little kids, decide to bike across the country. They began in West Virginia and rode all the way to the west coast of Washington. Chris and Win were conditioned riders, who competed in bi-athalons and other races. On the trip, Win leaves Chris behind when he has a flat tire and disappears. Soon after Chris arrives home on the bus alone, Win’s lies unravel and Chris becomes a prime suspect in Win’s disappearance. Chris is then grilled by the F.B.I. Agent. Will the truth come out?

The writing style of Jennifer Bradbury is very intriguing. The whole story of the bike expedition and the disappearance is told through the questions and investigations of Mr. Ward. Chris seems like a pretty cool character that does well under pressure. Even when Mr. Ward is interrogating him, Chris stays cool and collected. But his mother is the complete opposite. She worries and over reacts to everything. When Chris was leaving for the trip, she was worrying and upset that he was going on the trip. Chris’s father is an understanding person. He was the one who encouraged Chris to go on the trip. The father wanted Chris to complete the trip because of his own person problems in his past. When he was younger, he was going to drive his vintage Mustang across the country, but never actually left, and got swept up in responsibilities. Chris’s father sees himself in his son. He wants Chris to make the journey, to fill a void inside him. I am not sure of the real motive of Chris and Win to ride across the country, but I am sure it will come out later in the book. I can’t wait to continue reading the book and learn the Truth!

Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars By Sara Shepard

Over the summer I read the realistic fiction book Pretty Little Liars the first book in the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard. This book is about four girls Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily who all live in Rosewood Pennsylvania. They were also friends with a girl named Alison. Alison was the leader out of all of them, but only Spencer was the one that wasn’t afraid of her. Aria was quiet, Hanna wanted to be like Alison, and Emily was lost in her own problems. All the girls trusted Alison; with all of their secrets.

A main external conflict was that it wasn’t until the day that they found Alison’s body. After three years of being missing, and the girls separating, the four friends went to Alison’s funeral and got a mysterious message from ‘A’. The mysterious ‘A’ was just like Alison; she knew of all their secrets. ‘A’ was following the girls every move, they knew everything. But before Alison disappeared she made bracelets for all the girls so they would all remember that they would keep each others secrets and the biggest secret between their friendships for as long as they lived. And even ‘A’ knew about that. As they were trying to keep there biggest secret by blaming Toby Cavanaugh for the Jenna thing, the secret started to unravel. As they try to hide ‘A’ more and more the more secrets that are being told.

Eventually the girls thought that ‘A’ was Alison’s killer but secrets that ‘A’ knew showed that it wasn’t. “A’ didn’t’ just know the secrets Ali knew but they also knew the secrets that the girls were making at that very moment, they were watching them, they could have been in their school, or maybe even their friends. ‘A’ was right in front of them.

The story goes back and forth between Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily. In the begging of each book and sometimes in the beginning it shows a part of an event when Alison as still alive and as if she still was. I would recommend this book because it is suspenseful, exciting and full of secrets and drama. Anyone that likes secrets and drama should read this series.

"Shooting Star," by Fredrick McKissak Jr. - Evan Shlom - Spoiler Alert

            Probably the best football story I have ever read is Shooting Star, by Fredrick McKissak Jr.  It is a touching story that both reveals what steroids can do to your life, and meanwhile, still manages to include moments of triumphant glory.  The novel begins with Jomo Rodgers, a sophomore strong safety on his football team, failing to win a battle for the championship trophy of the state.  Being a nation-wide famous varsity team, written down in history many times before, the team goes into momentary depression.  That is, until Jomo’s best friend, Jayson, the team’s star running back only in sophomore year, inspires everyone with a minimally-worded speech, followed with a group chant to pump the team back up into a positive state of mind.  Meanwhile, Jomo fails to absorb the joyous emotions that fill the room.  The teams head coach, Coach McPherson takes major note of Jomo’s seemingly effortless care for the team’s potential success, and along with that, his potential success with the team.

Here lies the temporary problem between Jomo and his coach, and even partially within Jomo’s self confidence and mental indifferences that grow between him and his friends and family.  He needs a way to get him to the top.  A path that will lead him to victory, even among his fellow players.  His coach later assigns him a workout program to follow, instructed by a woman name Jeri who knows what she’s talking about, being a former professional biker.  .  After becoming one of the “Top 5 prospects” in the newspaper, along with his best friend Jayson, he realizes his spectacular potential.  Although there was one negative about him that Jomo was hearing constantly: he was too small.  At around five feet seven inches, and one hundred and sixty pounds, Jomo was a very small player, compared to his cohorts.  Jomo knew that he didn’t have time for pointless workouts giving him minimal results.  He needed something that would spark his body and send him rocketing through the competition.  He was a small kid…but that just wouldn’t work for him.

            Out of all his fellow football players, there was one who pretty much the entire team considered a “walking drug store.”  His name being Casey Fitzgerald, everyone called him Fitzie.  Fitzie had “the knowledge of every supplement known to man.”  Because of Fitzie’s heavy involvement in muscle enhancers, Jomo guessed that Fitzie would even have connections to steroid dealers.  He was right.  Fitzie had connected Jomo to a dangerous, lying “skin head.”  This punk’s name was Ganz, a man who could con anyone into becoming his permanent customer.  He had so many tricks up his sleeve, that the only way Jomo was able to escape Ganz’s grasp of scams and traps was by attempted suicide, which obviously revealed his secret to his parents.

            But before this, Jomo experienced the nightmarish life of what it is like to abuse anabolic steroids.  He experienced a couple of the biological side-effects, like acne breakouts and rapid production/growth of sex hormones causing him to lose his beloved girl friend, Miranda.  He also experienced other major impacts on his life from his steroid overuse, like “roid rage,” which ruined many of his relationships with other teenagers and relatives.  His own uncle (who was also his boss) almost fired him from his luxurious job.  He even got in a gigantic brawl with one of his former-buddies, Harper, except Jayson broke it up right before Jomo was literally about to kill him.  So even though Harper was had the role of the “leader” of their former clique, once on steroids, Jomo could’ve easily overpowered him.  As a matter of fact, the second Jayson got complete control of Jomo, Harper immediately dashed around the corner of the hallway, as Jomo fought his way out of Jayson’s tough grasp.  Once free of Jayson, Jomo roared at Jayson, aggressively emitting a colorful vocabulary.  So…all of these awful dilemmas are occurring throughout Jomo’s childhood, and in return for what?  Big muscles?  Because no one in the whole wide world should believe that tradeoff is actually worth it.  Jomo’s family-life and friendships become torn apart as he completely undermines his father’s reputation and confidence.  His beloved girlfriend storms out on him because of the steroids messing with his mind.  And, of course, he clearly breaks the rules of his football league, by taking anabolic steroids.  This book is a compellingly true example of what steroids can do to you, let alone the fact that anabolic steroids can have a numerous amount of other side-effects than the ones included in this breathtaking novel. 

            I really loved this book so much that I can definitely say that, without a doubt, this is by far the best novel I have ever read.  I recommend it to anyone who has any involvement in sports, of course particularly in the famous sport of football.  I give it a solid five-star rating.

Video:

- YouTube Video - Fun, but still informative video which includes Mario and Peach and the downsides of taking anabolic steroids.  This video has been reviewed and used by High School Health classes for finals focused on drug abuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSom8Pfv-9U

Ashley M. Shannon Hale, The princess academy

In the book The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale the main character Miri is a mountain girl who works in the fields to support her family, but little did she know that her village would be chosen for the prince to find his princess. The main challenge is that Miri had to compete against her close/ not so close friends to win the prince’s heart. She must study as hard as she can to make a good impression and meet the standards of a princess. There was only one problem; Miri was in love her best friend Peder from her hometown. In order to find out if Miri wants to try and be the princess or if she wants to be with Peder; Miri has to find out how Peder really feels about her.
Peder has a huge impact on Miri’s life because the decision she makes will change her whole life completely. She ends up going back home to visit everyone and ends up spending a lot of time with him he finally makes his a move and kisses her. I would defiantly recommend this book to any teenager that wants a new book because it’s a very lovely story and has a great ending.