WAHOO!!!

I am now further into the hobbit, and I have to do a post on some questions I had.

My first question is about when Fili and Kili found a cave that they could be sheltered in.  They said it was perfectly safe.  This, though, was the cave that the goblins that captured them came out of.  The question is “If Fili and Kili hadn’t found the cave, and everyone with them hadn’t sheltered in it, what might the ending have been?”  The ending would certainly be different, but how so.  For one thing, the book would be very boring and short, because they would pretty much run into no problems that made the book gripping.  They would have a perfect trip to wherever they were going, and get whatever they were searching for, and live happily ever after.  The book would provide no entertainment whatsoever.

My second question came when I was reading about Bilbo having a sort of riddle contest with Gollum, a monster-like thing that has gotten all grotesque from living underground for years.  They made a deal that Gollum would lead Bilbo out of the Goblin caves he was in if he could stump Gollum in a riddle, and Gollum could eat Bilbo if Gollum could stump him.  I wondered during that “Is there a better solution for Bilbo to this problem?”  I thought that Bilbo should try to get rid of Gollum.  He had a knife, and Gollum was more than likely to be more trouble than help.  You can tell once you begin reading about Gollum that he is not a creature that will often keep his word.  It is was very likely that if Bilbo did manage to stump Gollum, Gollum would just eat Bilbo anyway.  Bilbo should have killed Gollum when he had the chance.

My third and final question came right about at that same time.  ”What would happen if Bilbo had killed Gollum?”  I think that if Bilbo had killed Gollum, he would have been better off than if he hadn’t, which is what happened.  I think that Bilbo would have a better chance of survival wandering around in the caves than being attacked by Gollum.  He probably would run into someone (hopefully a friend) before dying of hunger or something like that.

Right now I am reading The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.  It is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, a very ordinary hobbit who doesn’t like adventure of any sort.  One day an old friend of Bilbo named Gandalf comes to The Hill (where Bilbo lives), then as he leaves he puts a mark on Bilbo’s door, which signals to a group of dwarves to meet there.  They ask Bilbo to go on an adventure with them, because Gandalf  told them that Bilbo was a professional burglar.  Bilbo feels like he should go, and he does just that.  On the way to wherever they are going they run into some trolls, but get saved by Gandalf.

Before I started reading this, I saw The Lord of the Ring movies.  I know some about Bilbo and Gandalf because of that, and it helped me makes some predictions about what would happen next.  When I read that Bilbo was going somewhere with Dwarves and Gandalf, I thought it would be the ring, but I’m not sure if I’m right, yet.

So far I think this book is very good.  I would probably give it an 8 out of 10.  It is a reading level probably for middle schoolers and above.  It is very descriptive and would be just as realistic if Hobbits and Dwarves and Trolls and that sort of thing existed.  I would recommend it to most people who could read and understand it.

I am doing two book reflection; this time on the series The Five Ancestors (By Jeff Stone). The first topic is the same as I did on Snakehead- “Whether or not you woduld recommend the book to another reader and why.”  My answer to this is yes.  I would.  The end.  It is a very good series, full of action, suspense, and mystery.  Even if you don’t like usually like reading those types of books, you will probably like The Five Ancestors.  It is about five young warrior monks who’s temple they live in gets attacked by their 16 year old traitor of a brother, Ying.  Ying kills everyone in the temple, along with the monks’ grandmaster.  He tries to kill the young monks, who are named Fu, Malao, Seh, Hok, and Long, but they get away.  Throughout the series, the five “brothers” run away from Ying and his number one man, Tonglong, while they are, at the same time, trying to get get Ying to leave the “Dark Side”.

The action in these books is all very realistic.  The good guys don’t always win, which makes the book more gripping.  And if the main characters do win, it is usually very close, and someone gets hurt.  Another reason is that most chapters, which are good spots to stop reading, end in a way that it is very hard to stop without really wanting to continue right then.

My second topic is “An interesting or important character”.  My “interesting or important” character is Ying, who is actually interesting and important.  Ying is the main enemy, at least at first, who destroys all of the monks living at Cangzhen temple, except for the five five youngest.  This makes him important.  He is basically one of the main characters.  He is interesting because he was originally a monk in Cangzhen too, but became so jealous of how their Grandmaster treated the five youngest monks that he got an army for the emperor and attacked Cangzhen.  Just before Ying killed the Grandmaster, Grandmaster told the five young monks that they had to set out to change Ying and turn him away from the “Dark Side”.  They run away from the temple and into the forest away from Ying, while keeping in mind that they need to change him.  Throughout the series Ying tries to find and kill the five young monks, but Ying gets arrested by the emperor.  Then Ying’s number one man, Tonglong, betrays Ying, takes control of his army, and uses the scrolls that Ying stole from Grandmaster to steal the hidden dragon treasure.  Meanwhile, Hok hears that Ying is captured and releases him from prison.  This is what makes Ying so interesting.  After Hok gets him out of prison, something seems to change in Ying, they actually sort of join together.  While Hok is tending to Ying’s injuries from prison, she kind of talks him into acting like a less evil person.  This makes him more of a mystery.

I saw this movie trailer, thought it looked kind of cool.  It came out sometime in 2009.

I watched this video of Adora Svitak speaking, and, truthfully, I think it was very good.  The only problem is that she keeps saying that kids are better than adults.  She gives all sorts of examples of problems that adults have created, and good things that kids have done, but she never mentions any of the good things that adults do, except for her parents’ belief in her and Bill Gates creating Microsoft!  What about all of the good things that adults have done for the world, and some of the bad things that kids do?  It is true that kids aren’t really powerful enough to start World War III, so adults must be to blame for the first two, but things like that sometimes just happen.

As for the rest of her speech, it was great.  She is never nervous, and is vary convincing.  She makes you want to believe her, and now I partly do.  It would be great if this current generation of kids grew up to have the would that kids still dream for (watch the video for further understanding of this), when, according to her, adults wouldn’t dare to dream of it.  If adults would actually listen to what she had to say, then did what she proposed, the world would become a very, very good place to live, with this generation of kids at the head of it.

Another thing I like about her speaking is that she can make people laugh.  She is really serious most of the time, but then she slips in something, and lets the audience laugh for a few second before she resumes speaking.

In general, I think her speech was very good.  She made some great points, it was understandable, and I actually enjoyed listening to her.  She will grow up to be a famous speaker (more than she is already).

I was assigned a topic to post about in my book Snakehead (by Anthony Horowitz).  I chose the topic “Whether or not you would recommend the book to another reader and why.

My answer is usually, but not if you read it before the books in the series that come before it.  Sometimes Snakehead mentions Alex’s previous missions, and if you don’t know anything about what they are talking about it takes away some of the understanding of why Alex is such a spectacular teenage spy.

If the reader that I am telling about Snakehead agrees to read the other books in the series that come before it first I would tell them to definitely read Snakehead.  It is fast paced and action jumps out of nowhere at the least expected times.  The author is also very good at describing things and making it feel real.  He uses a lot of real names, like instead of saying “the guard had a pistol”, he says, “the guard had a Swiss-made SIG-Sauer P226″.  That makes it more realistic.  He is also very good at making and ending.  He actually makes it feel like and end to the story, but it can still be continued in the next book in the series.

In conclusion, I think Snakehead, along with the rest of the Alex Rider series, is really good.  I would definitely recommend it to another reader.

This is my newest writing piece.

Monkeys?

I am reading a book called Scorpia.  It is the fifth book in the Alex Rider series.  The first book is Stormbreaker, then Point Blank, then Skeleton Key, then Eagle Strike, and now Scorpia.

In this book Alex goes on vacation to Venice, Italy, because (though he doesn’t tell anyone) of Yassen Gregorovitch’s last words; “Go to Venice.  Find Scorpia.  And you will find your destiny….”  Alex knows that Yassen worked for Scorpia, and Yassen was a contract killer.  Yassen also told Alex (in Eagle Strike) that Alex’s father worked for Scorpia.

Because of these words, Alex goes to Venice, and does, after some problems (tiger attacks, building explosions, etc.), he does find Scorpia, and decides that he has found his destiny.

When I read that Alex wanted to join Scorpia, I was very surprised.  I din’t think that Alex would ever join such a huge criminal association, (the S stands for “sabotage”, the CORP stands for “corruption”, the I stands for “intelligence”,  in other words spying, and the A stands for “assassination”.  Those are Scorpia’s main areas of expertise).  The whole book I had been thinking that Alex would find out about about Scorpia, then run away and tell MI6.  I never thought that he would join.  That surprised me.

I might do another post when I finish the book, but if I don’t I know I’ll do one on Ark Angel, the next book in the Alex Rider series.