The Sea of Monsters: 8/3/14

Pages: 1-107
Prompt: Describe the characters

     The main character is Percy Jackson. He is a half god (son of Poseidon), half human which is called a half-blood or demigod. He can heal and strengthen himself by touching water, can control water and can breath underwater. He lives at Camp Half Blood where he trains and is safe from monsters. He discovers that he has a half brother named Tyson at the beginning of the book.

     Another main character is Annabeth. She is a half-blood, the daughter of Athena. This makes her very smart and great a war strategy. She has lived at Camp Half Blood for longer then Percy and led Percy through his first days at camp in The Lightning Thief. Percy discovers that for an unknown reason she hates cyclops.

     One other main character is Tyson. He is a cyclops and a son of Poseidon. A cyclops is a monster with only one eye. This causes him to be bullied often and embarrasses Percy. A final main character is Grover. He is a satyr which is a half goat half human. He is trapped by a cyclops who love to eat satyrs but thinks he is a lady cyclops.

The President Has Been Shot: 7/28/14

Pages: 78-end
Prompt: Summarize what you read

     The second half of the book talks about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It tells how Lee Oswald set up for the assassination. Oswald disassembled his weapon and put it in a brown paper bag. He chose a window on he sixth floor all the way to the left because of the view of the road where Kennedy would be driving. Oswald then set up during his lunch break.

     Then the author writes about the assassination. Oswald fired three shots but only the second and third hit Kennedy. This was all caught on film by Abraham Zapruder. The president was then rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Oswald attempted to escape, shot a police officer an fled to a movie theater. At 1:50 he was arrested in the movie theater.

     After Kennedy was pronounced dead Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. He wanted to have his wife and Jackie Kennedy by his side as he did it to show that the nation would continue. Oswald was shot and died without confessing to shooting the president. Johnson made a committee to investigate the murder. They found fingerprints on the weapons and markings on the bullets fired that proved that Oswald murdered Kennedy and a police officer.

The President has Been Shot: 7/11/14

Pages: 1-77
Prompt: Summarize what you just read.

     This book is about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The first part of the book tells about Kennedy's life. It tells that he was the youngest person ever elected president of the United States. It also tells about his experiences in WWII. He commanded a PT boat, which was a small boat designed to come close to large enemy boats and fire torpedoes at them. On August 2, 1943 he narrowly escaped death.

     He was in his boat at 2:30 in the morning when an enemy boat chopped his boat in half. Two of his twelve crewmen were killed and others including Kennedy were wounded. They swam to a deserted island and tried to signal passing boats. They swam to a near by island and found friendly natives. They wrote a message on a coconut shell and the natives carried it to the rest of the military. Kennedy kept the coconut shell as a souvenir of the wartime experiences.

     After the war Kennedy ran for the House of Representatives. He was reelected two times then was elected to senate. He then ran for president. He was younger then the other democrats running but he was nominated for the democrats over them. He started out behind Nixon but caught up through television debates. He won the election by 119,450 votes out of 68.3 million votes. Then you learn about the things Kennedy did while he was president.

Brian's Return: 5/13/14

Pages: 0-59
Prompt: Summarize what you just read.

     The first chapter is an intro to the rest of the book. It introduces what the rest of the book will be about even though it takes place in the later in time than the beginning of the book. It takes place in the forest and tells about why the main character, Brian, was in the wilderness, because the wilderness had become a part of him. He then tells why he did not like the city. He says how boring and frustrating their pointless activities are. He found sports and video games to be silly and pointless and how "extreme" outdoor sports were just games. He talks about how he is not interested by the things everyone is always talking about and he just pretends to listen to his friends.

     He then tells about the event that pushed him to his limit. He was walking into a pizza place with two friends, one was a girl, Susan, who had invited him to get pizza and talk (the other boy just assumed the invitation included him). As he walked in a boy from school, Carl, was walking out. He was a football player and was jealous of Brian's popularity. He had also asked Susan out on a date and she refused. This made him very mad at Brian. He tried to hit the door into Brian but missed, hitting Brian's friends. He than punched Brian. This caused the survival instincts Brian had gotten in the wild to react. He attacked Carl with the heels of his palms rather than his fists, striking quickly.

     Brian would not stop hitting Carl because of his instincts and beat him to the ground. Eventually he was pulled off of Carl and the police came. Carl was sent to the hospital because he had severe bruising on his face, stomach, and ribs and he stayed there overnight. Police recommended that Brian go to a counselor named Caleb. It takes Brian about 20 seconds to realize he is blind. Caleb asks him a questing and Brain starts nodding. Caleb repeats the the question because he cannot see him and Brian realizes he is blind. Almost immediately Caleb asks for Brian to describe a scene in the wild to him. These discussions lead to Brian realizing he needs to return to the wild (that's where the title comes from.) I ended reading where Brian had just arrived in the wild.

40 Book Challenge Reflection

     This year I read 24 books for my 40 book challenge. Although this was only just over half of the 40 I think it introduced me to more types of books. I read all four poetry books when I would normally read none. I also read both of the mystery books. I would normally not have read these types of books.
Now that I have read these types of books I am more interested in them. An example of this is the mystery genre. I got Ripper from the book fair because it looked cool and I was interested in history. I liked it so much that the next two books I read were also mystery, The Hardy Boys, 1 and 2.

     Another thing that the 40 book challenge made me do was at the end of the year to look back at all the books I had read. This made me think about why I read these books in the first place. As I thought about this I realized all the messages all the books had taught me and will remember these messages better then if I had just read the books on my own. I think that my 40 book challenge was a success although I did not read close to 40 books because it introduced me to new books and I learned many new messages from these books.

My favorite book

The Lightning Thief: 5/7/14

Pages: 1-74 (summary: 1-15)

Prompt: Summarize what you just read.

     At the beginning of the book Percy is going on a field trip with his school, Yancy Academy. They are going to a museum to learn about Greek Mythology with his teachers, Mr. Brunner and Mrs. Dodds. On the bus a girl named Nancy Bobofit was pelting Percy's best friend, Grover, with pieces of sandwich. When he wants to stop her he can't because he is on prohibition. He tells how every year and on field trips something weird happens and he is expelled. He tells about how in fifth grade he shot a school bus with a cannon and he dropped his whole class into the Marine World shark pool. Then the whole class is looking at a statue and Nancy says something about the statue being naked and Percy yells at her to "shut up".

     Then Percy's teacher, Mr. Brunner, asks Percy what a picture on the statue is about. He knows and tells Mr. Brunner that it is about Kronos eating his kids the Greek gods. After Percy answers that question Mr. Brunner asks him how it applies to real life and Percy doesn't know. After everyone leaves for lunch Mr. Brunner tells Percy that he must learn how it applies to real life. Percy says he wants to get angry because of how hard Mr. Brunner pushes him. He than says that Mr. Brunner looks at the statue for a long time, like he was at the girls funeral. When Percy goes out side he notices a large storm outside which almost never happens.

     This is when Nancy gets bored of stealing from other visitors and "accidentally" dumps her lunch onto Grover's lap. Percy is so mad that his mind goes blank and a "wave roared" in his head. The next thing he remembers is Nancy sitting in the fountain yelling, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds immediately is next to Percy and everyone is whispering, "Did you see-" "-the water-" "-like it grabbed her-". Mrs Dodds says "Now honey-" and Percy says that he knows that he will spend a month erasing workbooks. This makes Mrs. Dodds very angry and she leads Percy inside. She then threatens Percy and turns into a evil hag. This is when Mr. Brunner comes to the rescue and throws Percy a magical pen that turns into a sword. Percy kills Mrs. Dodds and he room becomes empty. When he goes back to the rest of the group everyone denies that there was a Mrs. Dodds ever at the school.

The Right Fight: 4/30/14

Pages: 41-150
Prompt: Does the title fit the story? Why or why not?

     Pages 41 to the end are all about Roman's experience in the army. He describes what boot camp was like first. He tells about the battle simulations he did where it was just like a real battle but there was no shooting. There were loud noises like guns and artillery and Roman was driving a real tank. To "kill" somebody you had to surround them. Even Roman's least favorite people, umpires, told you when you had been "killed" (Roman is a baseball player). This was all to prepare the soldiers for when they would go to war.

     When Roman finally goes to the battle he is sent to help drive the Axis out of Africa. Even though Roman was in the battle simulations he was scared when his ship started being bombarded. He felt helpless and small. When his boat landed they were attacked by French troops in old tanks. This mad Roman mad because he thought the French were his allies. As they moved further inland they begin encountering Stuka. These are planes that make screaming sounds as they fly. They then take a airfield that is virtually unguarded.

     The title does not fit the story. It does not tell what the "right fight" is and talks very little about the righteousness of the war. If anything what the book describes is the wrong fight. Roman kills an enemy by not shooting him once or twice, but three times in the head. He did this because when the enemy flew at his tank he got scared and looked away. This made him frustrated and he wanted revenge. The only thing that the author may be referring to is that at the beginning of the book Roman gets into a fight at a baseball game. The author may be saying that fighting in the war is a more "right" fight than a baseball fight.