King Of The Shadows By Susan Cooper

King Of The Shadows is a great, fictional story about a boy named Nat Field. Nat is one of many talented actor and acrobat that has been recruited by an American acting company that is to travel to London to perform "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare at the replica of the Globe theatre. Nat is excited to leave behind is home and the shadows that haunt his past as a small child. Then one day while practicing his role at the Globe Theatre something weird happens, Nat becomes ill with The Black Death. Everything happens so quickly, he's in his room with a fever and then the next second he's in a coma. At least that's what everyone in 2013 think. Nat wakes up in an interiorly different]t world. In a world where he will befriend Shakespeare himself and be part of thee original Midsummer Night's Dream.

The theme in the book is that everyone has a bigger purpose in life. Nat didn't want to time travel or have his parents die but because of his past it shaped the person he is. If Nat hadn't time traveled then most things that happened in the past wouldn't have happened. Shakespeare wouldn't have been inspired to right Hamlet. In the book Nat discovers something amazing, "If I hadn't gone back in time Shakespeare would have died way too early." This means that Nat saved Shakespeare by traveling back in time, meaning that he had a bigger part in this universe than he thought.

Shatter Me By: Tahereh Mafi

"Shatter Me" is a science fiction about a girl named Juliette whose touch can literally kill. Juliette has been in a concrete room with just the smallest window to keep her sane for 264 days. She has's seen another human being in 264 days. Not that having someone in her cell would be a good thing. One touch could cause excruciating pain and even death, leaving Juliette to for ever long the touch of another human being. Then one day a boy is thrust into the cell, a boy that Juliette used to know. She thinks she can trust him even though he doesn't apear to remember the days when Juliette lived in the same town. He doesn't seem to remember the reason why Juliette was put in the cell. However everything changes when four soldiers rush into the room taking Juliette to a government compond were she will be forced to torture those who don't agree with The Reestablishment. An organization whose mission is to destroy every ounce of culture with in the human race.

The conflict in the story is that Juliette doesn't want to be the moster that "The Reestablishment" believes her to be. The leader who wants Juliette to be his, believes that if he can use Juliette's powers he could destroy the groups of people threatening "The Reestablishment". However Juliette has fallen in love with the boy she once thought feared her. Now she will do anything she can to escape the compound to live a normal life with the person she most loves, a person who her powers don't work on.

Shadow and Bone By: Leigh Bardugo

This book was amazing. Ever since I finished reading Shadow and Bone on friday, I want to read the second and third books in the series. So lets talk about the actual book. Shadow and Bone is a fictional book about a girl named Alina Starkov. Aline lives in a country named Ravka which is split in two by a darkness called the Shadow Fold. Mostly everyone fears the Shadow Fold, which crawls with monsters who love to feast on human flesh. However Alina and her friend Mal, who have known each other since they were orphaned, have been assigned to cross the Shadow Fold. This assignment is risky but nothing important until their ship is attacked by the monsters that live with in the Shadow Fold. In a moment of true disparity the world turns white with Alina's hidden powers. Alina is then thrust into the world of the Grisha, a race of humans who can manipulate the earth's elements. Alina is now Grisha, a Grisha who can manipulate light. With the help of her teachers and a very attractive Grisha she must train to destroy the Shadow Fold. However trusting people as easily as she does could cost her life and the one of the person she most loves, Mal.

The conflict in this book is person to person. Alina doesn't quit know how to control her power. She is extremely powerful but sometimes her powers can be too much for her. This means that Alina must hunt a magical dear in order to use it's antlers as a magnifier. With the help of the magnifier her powers could grow and make her powerful enough to beat the Shadow Fold. However, if Alina doesn't get to the dear first she could turn into the most powerful and dangerous weapon against the country of Ravka. In the book Alina says to Mal, "If we don't make it and the Darkling gets to the antler's first, you must promise me not to let him take me." This means that Alina is willing to lose her life in order to save the lives of many others.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Part 2

I just finished reading "Miss Peregrine's" this weekend (along with another great book) and my overall thought of this book is that, it had it all! Personally, I like books more when they have a lot of action and romance. "Miss Peregrine's" had romance, action and even a plot twist that caught me completely off guard. I mean really I wasn't expecting it. So let's talk about what happens in the second part of the book. So, Jacob, the main character, learns that his grandfather had come across the peculiar children when he became a refugee during the Jewish genocide. However, the only reason he had stayed in Miss Peregrine's home was because he was in fact peculiar; which makes Jacob peculiar. Jacob crosses "the loop" which leads to September 3, 1949 a place and time where the peculiar children are in hiding. He learns that the whites and hollows are after the peculiar race so he decides that in honor of his grandfather, Jacob will stay to fight against the hollows and whites. However Jacob is afraid that he won't be as strong as his grandfather. 

The theme in "Miss Peregrine's" is not to let fear take over your life. In the book the theme presents itself in the form of encouragement. Jacob is the only person who can truly fight against the hollows and whites. His unique gift which allows him to see the hollows, allows him to protect the other peculiar children. However the question is, what happens when you can't put the fear of your grandfather's killer behind you, a killer that is now after you and people you love? In the book Jacob says to himself, "What if I'm not as strong as him. I'm not as brave or as strong so how could I ever protect the people I love the way he did?" Obviously conquering the fear of your grandfather's killer is a hard thing to do but what Jacob later realized was that he didn't have to be like his grandfather in order to achieve in over throwing the whites. Jacob is a strong and brave person but just in his own way. 

American Indian Response

American Indians have been marginalized for quit sometime. Ever since the day people came to live in America, American Indians were treated unequally. In the article "Would We Be Killed" the author wrote, "By 1879, settlers and the U.S. Army had forced most tribes off their lands, and "white man" diseases had devastated the native population." This quote shows that "white men" didn't care about the health and the lives of the American Indians who were forced out of their home.

In Shanice Brittons's essay, "Life on the Rez It's Not What You Think", Shanice describes her life on the Rez. She tells the reader about how her life isn't as different as people might think despite her American Indian ancestry. Shanice describes her desire to help American Indian traditions from disappearing like the  language sometimes used in her community. She tell the reader about her life in order to help the reader understand that they aren't that different and how she wants her community to prosper. 

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children By: Alma LaFay Peregrine

I have only read half of this book so I'll only be writing a summary of the first part. The main character in the story is a sixteen year old boy named Jacob Portman. As a child Jacob grew up with fairy tales about children who could disappear in mid air and monsters with eyes the color of coal with tentacles springing from their mouths. As a child Jacob believed the stories told by his grandfather but soon grew to doubt them. Until the day that Jacob's grandfather died suspiciously. As his grandfather slowly faded away his last words were a confusing quest for Jacob. So off Jacob went to find the truth about his grandfather's past, a past hidden with in a remote island. What Jacob didn't know was that the fairy tales once told to him as a child would reveal themselves to him as being true There is indeed a girl who can make fire from within herself and a boy who is completely invisible. These children are known as peculiar and have been in hiding for thousands of years from monsters known as the hollows.

The conflict in the story is that the hollows have been threatening the existence of the peculiar race. All these children who have been separated from their non peculiar families are being hunted down. The monsters "Awful hunched-over ones with rotting skin and black eyes" had killed the only person that Jacob truly felt that understood him, his grandfather. 

Count Down By: Deborah Wiles Part 2

After 3 weeks of reading Count Down, I finally finished it. Since I've already did a summary of the first part of the book, I'll just do the second. It seems like every time the book switches to the historical part the author always mentions the Cuban Missile Crisis and how President JFK and the Russian president are tempting each other. Then in the historical fiction, which is Franny's story, it seems like the family is falling apart. Franny's mother is always upset and distant, while Franny's father is always at the military base ready to fly off to protect his country. Then her brother is all depressed because he's obsessed with "Our Friend The Atom", a book that tells him that atoms are supposed to be used for good, yet atomic bombs are made of atoms and are being used to hurt people. So things are pretty messed up but as the days go by they seem to help and rely on each other despite their differences.

I honestly love the way the author developed the main character, Franny. In the beginning all I could do was roll my eyes at the ignorance Franny seemed to always show. She acted as if she only cared about her image, even though she truly loved her family. In the beginning as Franny and her friend walk home from school and saw that Uncle Otts was scaring people as he acted like everyone on the street was a soldier. Franny hid behind a bush and said, "I just can't. I don't want them to make fun of me. I'm going to be the laughingstock of the neighborhood, if not the whole school, on Monday." Honestly, I get where she was coming from, but she chose to save herself even though her uncle needed her. I believe if Franny would have stood up for her uncle she wouldn't have been laughed at but looked up too. Then as the story goes on and Franny learns to be more considerate and mature I learned to love her character and the way she saw things. Franny and Margie (ex-friend) get into this big argument but instead of leaving Margie to run around in the woods, Franny goes to help her even though she has every right to be angry. In the text it says, " I can help. I don't want to. I will. I turn myself around and run into the woods."