Jenny's Blog

Ok, I’m really sorry, but i can’t put pictures on my blog, it doesn’t work in China. Basically, all I’ve done so far is sleep, eat, go to the zoo, go shopping, and go to a really fancy restaurant.

Hi everyone who reads my blog! Summer is here, I hope you have a really good summer. I’m in China right now visiting my relatives, the plane ride was really long and boring. I haven’t really done anything interesting yet, but there’s more to come. I’ll post a lot of pictures and everything interesting!

For my independent read book, I am reading the book The 13th Reality: The Hunt for Dark Infinity, by James Dashner. It is the second in the series, the first one is called The 13th Reality: The Journal of Curious Letters. The book’s main character is  Atticus Higginbottom, a.k.a. Tick. He started to get strange letters from a person named M.G., all the way from Alaska. They hold clues, and the first letter tells him that he is putting himself in grave danger by not burning the first letter and stopping all the madness. What he doesn’t realize, is t M.G. has enemies too. Enemies that would kill him in a flash. Tick is also getting attacked by weird beasts, and gets visited by odd people, such as a woman who is eight feet tall. Then, Tick follows all the instructions hidden in the riddle-clues, and finds himself in a terrifying adventure. He meets new friends, Sophia, Paul, and Sato, and they go on a mission that M.G. is almost positive will kill every single one of them.

The information in this book fits with a few things that I already know about. One example of that is when Tick is bullied by Billy “The Goat” Cooper. It reminded me of the articles that I have read about bullying in the real world, especially with girls. However, the bullying in this book is physical abuse. For example, he gets his head dunked in a toilet. Like most bullies in books, Billy is really dumb. Tick is probably the smartest boy ever. Even his dad calls him the nickname ‘Professor’. This book also relates to physics in the real world, because they talk about something called quantum physics, which they call “kyoopy” (as in Q.P.).

This book connects to the book Through the Medicine Cabinet by Dan Greenburg (which is a really short read for younger kids). In that book, he goes to a parallel universe. In the book I’m reading, Tick goes to several parallel universes, known as “Realities”. There are thirteen realities. This book also connects to the world, the physics world. As I described before, they describe what quantum physics are.

In my class, we do something called Caesar’s English. It is basically where we learn about new words that come from Latin root, like the stem ‘clam’ and the word ‘indolent’. You might need a dictionary!

For my independent read book, this week I read The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening & The Struggle by L. J. Smith. The edition I read is the first book AND the second book, for those of you who get confused if you have only read the first book. It is a really good book. I think that it is really good for those of you who have read books such as Twilight and My Sister the Vampire. This book is also a TV show, but I haven’t really heard about it that much.

This book is about three main characters, Elena Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore. Stefan and Damon are vampires, Elena is not. However, Stefan and Elena fall in love. Unfortunately, Damon also falls in love with Elena. Damon is willing to kill his own brother Stefan to get Elena. Elena is caught right in the middle of this deadly love triangle. At first, Elena thinks that Stefan hates her, but then, he admits that he loves Elena. He tells Elena that she looks almost like his beloved first love, Katherine, who was also a vampire. Damon also loved Katherine, and she chose both boys. Damon and Stefan fought a lot, and Katherine supposedly killed herself, because she exposed herself to the sun without a protective ring, and she burned down to ashes. Stefan still mourns over this, but he has found a new love, Elena! He can finally stop thinking about Katherine. Meanwhile, mysterious attacks have been happening. The whole town thinks that Stefan is doing it, and it looks like the work of an animal. Elena and Stefan figure out who is doing it, and they are all in trouble…read it to find out what happens!

This book reminds me of the Twilight Saga, by Stephanie Meyers. It reminds me of those books because it is a vampire romance book. I love both of these series, and I would recommend them to anyone. It may be a little of a girl read, but boys can still read it and not abandon it. In both of these books, there is a girl (Bella & Elena) with some kind of danger after them (the Volturi & Damon) and there is a boy that the girl really loves (Edward and Stefan). Also, the girls are first mortal people until their boyfriend turns them into a vampire. It happens later in the series, but it happens. In addition, the girls have to choose which boy they like best, and stick with him. Bella, in the 2nd or 3rd book, has to choose either Jacob, or Edward. This is a very tough decision for her to make. Elena has to choose Damon or Stefan, or else they will probably kill each other. They have been enemies since probably about the 16th century. These two series are a lot alike.

I recently watched a TEDtalk with Adora Svitak, a child prodigy. She is 12 years old, and she speaks around the United States. She knows as many, if not more, words than people twice her age. She was an avid reader at age 3, and even wrote a books a few years later. In the video I watched today, she was speaking about how adults should learn from kids. It was a really inspiring speech about how she is tired of being described as “childish”. I agree with her speech. When we kids are called childish, we usually have done something irresponsible or something we are not supposed to do, she said, but look at what adults have done! World Wars, George W. Bush, all those bad people. She is right. It gets annoying when the adults don’t trust you, they need to have more trust in kids. The teachers in school should learn from the students, instead of saying “do this do that blah blah blah”. Parents should set higher expectations, which my parents already do. In not that long, we will be today’s generation of adults ruling the world. Then, we can treat our kids the same way, and create a better world. I wish that today’s world has the idea that Adora has. This proves that KIDS ARE IMPORTANT! Look at Adora, child prodigy, speaking over the U.S., writing books. We will grow up and rule the world, why not let us grow up even better?

However, I’m not saying that we should throw away today’s adults! Our parents should be the ones who teach us, show us respect. Then we can learn from them to help us with our children, and it will be passed on and on. Help us kids make a better world. Adora Svitak is really inspiring, she is probably my new idol. What surprises me the most is that she didn’t sound nervous at all. She talked in a clear strong voice, I would have been nervous to the max.

Watch the video below to see what I watched

For my independent read book, I am reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan. It is the 4th book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. If you have not read, it is a MUST READ. In fact, I feel sorry for anyone who has not read it. It is one of my favorite series. The series is based off of Greek Myths, like the gods and monsters. Well, it turns out that they are real. The gods sometimes marry mortals, and have demigod children. Half-mortal, Half-god. A dangerous mix. Percy Jackson, the main character, is a son of Poseidon. He has to go on a lot of dangerous quests, and nearly gets killed dozens of times. Most of these quests he does with his best friends, Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. I would give you a summery of the book I’m reading, but I would give away the series up to here for people who have not read this, at that would be a tragedy.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is not a girl book or a boy book, and it is full of adventure. It builds up suspense, and at the end it leaves you thinking “That is totally not what I expected!”. I hope that every kid in the whole world will be able to read this book, it is that good. However, you might want to read the first few books first. The order is The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. I hope you read it!!!!

In my class, we are participating in the YHBA contest. It is the Young Hoosier Book Award, and you have to read at least five of the books that qualify to go to the pizza party and vote for best book. These special books are chosen by people such as teachers and librarians across Indiana. Here is proof that I have read the books.

Holly and Di live a perfectly good life in Castar, the peaceful island of the good fairies. One day, their life source is weakened. Will Castar die off, or can Holly and Di save it? Join them on a breathtaking adventure into the unknown world outside of Castar, like no other fairy has come back from.

Click here to read it, or click/copy &  paste the link below.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfw4hcjd_106f3fqn5r6

For my independent read book, I am reading the book The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan. It is book 2 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I have already read it, but I haven’t read it in a long time. The first book is The Lightning Thief. Here is a summary of the series + the book:

Percy Jackson is definitely not a normal boy. Strange things happen to him, such as a monster attacking. He is dyslexic and has ADHD. He is also an expert at getting expelled from school. He has a strange friend, who is supposedly his protector. Then, he finds out that the Greek monsters, myths, heroes, and god/goddesses were all real. He also finds out that he is the son of Poseidon, the sea god. He is a demigod, half mortal and half immortal. Then he finds out that Zeus, the god of the sky, thinks that Percy stole his lightning bolt. Percy knows this is impossible, but he has to go on a quest to retrieve the missing bolt. To do this, he goes to the save haven for demigods: Camp Half Blood. He encounters profuse amounts of monsters, and bad things. He meets his best friend, Annabeth. He also goes with his protector, Grover, who is actually his real protector. He comes back a hero. He goes back home for the rest of the year. Nothing happens at home, until the last day of school He plays a game of dodgeball with a group of cannibal giants. His friends Annabeth comes with really bad news. The magic borders that keep his camp safe have been poisoned. He must journey on another quest to the Sea of Monster, and he discovers a stunning new secret about his family.

I think that this is a really good book. I have read the whole series, and this is one of my favorites in the series. It is really exiting, and it is also humorous, because Percy is really funny in his books. It leaves you hanging in suspense at the end of each chapter, even if you promised only to read “just one more chapter”. This book made me rush to get the next book, then the next, then the next, and so on until I got to the last book. I liked how the author put humor and adventure and mythology together all in one book. It makes it funny, adventurous, plus you learn some things about Greek Mythology. I would recommend this book to anyone in the whole world, from ages 5 to 125. I hope that everyone who can will read this series.