Week #28: Heart of a Samurai

This week I read "Heart of a Samurai" by Margi Preus

 

  It is the true story of a Japanese teenager named Manjiro who lived in the mid 1800's, and experienced an amazing adventure. The book starts with his fishing crew off the coast of Japan who are struggling to catch fish. Suddenly a large storm interrupts them and destroys their ship, leaving them floating away from their home in the ocean. After some smaller adventures, they are found by an american whaling ship, and are rescued, not knowing anything about these knew people. Manjiro learns to love the people and sea, and is soon taken to a place he knows nothing about- America.

    The fact that this is a true story is pretty cool, and it is told in a way that doesn't have a beautiful writing style, but explains the event in a simple and interesting words. It is an easy read, and is about 300 pages long. I recommend this for anyone that wants to read a realistic adventure book.

Week #27: The Edge Chronicles

 "The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods" by Chris Riddell, and Paul Stewart
         This is an interesting book- I didn't actually like it as much as I thought I would. It was a very low reading level, yet it was sort of hard for me to read because I couldn't get hooked on to it at all. Being a low reading level, I think it might be better for younger kids, but at times it was kind of cool (me liking fantasy books). Something I noticed about it, is that it was making up this huge unknown world, much like the Lord of the Rings, but it doesn't captivate you the way LOTR does.That might be because the Lord of the Rings was written a very long time ago, so the writing style is different to us these days which makes it seem old and otherworldly, while the Edge Chronicles was written in the past ten years, so it doesn't have that vibe.
     
         But before I start careening off track- as you probably remember from Gavin's Book Talk, it's about a boy names Twig who lives in a world called "The Edge," and goes on an adventure into the Deepwoods to find out about his history. It is an okay fantasy book, yet I didn't particularly like it, but if you like fantasy books I would recommend trying it.

Reading Week #26: The Children of Men

    It is the year 2027.
    The last days of the human race.
    No child has been born in 18 years.
    He must protect our only hope.

    This is a book that I read after I saw the film which came out in 2006 and is one of my favorite movies ever. I was immediately hooked by the realism and humanity exhibited in the movie, and I really wanted to read the book that it was based on. I am very happy to say that the book is every bit as striking as the film adaptation, and it is a book that everyone should read one time or another.

    However, this may not be a book that everyone should read. It is incredibly dark (to maintain all the realism of our world falling apart), and there is also a fair amount of adult content in here. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone in our class right now, but everyone should read it at one time or another.

The book:

The movie:

Week #25: Out of My Mind

   Last week I decided to read this very well written novel, and I am very happy that I did. This is a book about an adolescent girl named Melody, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is almost completely incapacitated. Because of her illness, it is hard for her to convey her toughest to her family, so that they don't know how  she is on the inside.
    Like I said, this book is very well written and overall an amazing story, that i would recommend to anyone in our class. There is not much mature content, and it is something that anyone in our class can handle. I had a very good experience reading this book, and I hope everyone else does as well.