Struts & Frets
So, on Sunday, I went to the Library to print stuff. Mum made me get a book. Well, the teen section sucks. Stuff I’ve never heard of before, nothing that seemed friendly and opening. Then, there was a light green spine with the word ‘Frets’, and, being a guitar player, I immediately picked it up… And finished it last night around 8.
‘Struts & Frets’ by Jon Skovron is about a 17-year-old boy named Sammy Bojar who plays guitar in his very dysfunctional band, Tragedy of Wisdom. (In the very beginning, it explains that Sammy wishes it was ‘Tragedy of Reason’ because ‘Wisdom’ made no sense.) Anyway, the band is made up of skinny TJ, their drummer; Rick, the gay bassist; and Joe, the terrifying, ill-tempered frontman; and, as previously stated, Sammy, who plays guitar and writes songs for the band.
Early in the book, he realizes that his best friend, Jen5 (Jennifer, Jenny, Jen, and J had already been claimed by the four other Jennifers in their class) really likes him. Then they start dating. Tragedy of Wisdom enters a Battle of the Bands…
It’s difficult to explain without too many spoilers. Sorry. 
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It really explains how difficult it is to keep together a band that doesn’t really even work well. But it was an amazing book, and I’d totally suggest it to anyone who likes music and explanations of reality. It’s great. I actually read it a ton, and now I’m reading it again, it was that good.
Early in the book, he realizes that his best friend, Jen5 (Jennifer, Jenny, Jen, and J had already been claimed by the four other Jennifers in their class) really likes him. Then they start dating. Tragedy of Wisdom enters a Battle of the Bands…
It’s difficult to explain without too many spoilers. Sorry.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It really explains how difficult it is to keep together a band that doesn’t really even work well. But it was an amazing book, and I’d totally suggest it to anyone who likes music and explanations of reality. It’s great. I actually read it a ton, and now I’m reading it again, it was that good.
The Stress That is High School and Markus Zusak
Let me start with apologizing for not posting in a while. I mean, I just started high school about a week after I posted about “The Sorcerer’s Stone” then I was moving away from the little town I had lived in for all of my 14 years and have been in a small city where I have now been in Junior High with 8th and 9th graders for a little over a month. Unfortunately for me, this Junior High School has about 2000 students. And my old town’s population was under 2000 total (1763 at the last census, I believe).
But one very good thing has come out of this move- ”I Am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak.
About a week after I started school here, my English class was informed that we would do a “Hero’s Journey Workshop” in which we would choose from the selected books to read in three weeks. Everyone who chose that book would be in a group together to go over what we’ve read in one week.
I chose “I Am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak. It’s a great book. It takes place in a little town right outside Sydney, Australia. It starts with this guy, Ed Kennedy, and his best friends Marv, Ritchie and Audrey. They’re all in bank as it’s being held up. Marv goes on to Ed that he can’t afford a parking ticket because he’s in a fifteen-minute parking spot. Ed manages to get the gunman who’s robbing the bank to try Marv’s car as a getaway vehicle, which “has about a five percent chance of starting on the first go.” Gunman gets arrested. Happy-happy-joy-joy, right?
I think not.
Ed gets the Ace of Diamonds with 3 addresses and times written on it. Ed goes to these places and saves the day and all that. Then he gets the other Aces and delivers those messages. I would love to tell you the last two lines, which are probably my favorite lines ever, but they sort of spoil the book.
Don’t go looking at the back of the book, though. I usually do, but when I read this book, I didn’t because I didn’t need the extra push to finish it. Definitely one of the best books ever written. I loved it. And, even though it’s got the most common character thing at the current time (the main character being in love with his/her best friend), I thought it was great.
The characters are realistic; they swear and act like normal people. The plot is pretty simple; no wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. The setting is easy to relate to; the book was written in 2003, so you can sort of relate to it. And, of course, it’s just really well-written.
I’ll try my best to write more often. I’m reading a James Herriot book right now for outside of English class, so that review should be quite interesting.
[Ms Barden, you rock for using this book for a choice! I loved it, and I love your class. And, no, I'm not brown-nosing. It just seems that my English teachers are always the ones I connect to the most. You're really cool, and I apologize for not telling you about the vocab thing earlier. 
Sorry.]
About a week after I started school here, my English class was informed that we would do a “Hero’s Journey Workshop” in which we would choose from the selected books to read in three weeks. Everyone who chose that book would be in a group together to go over what we’ve read in one week.
I chose “I Am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak. It’s a great book. It takes place in a little town right outside Sydney, Australia. It starts with this guy, Ed Kennedy, and his best friends Marv, Ritchie and Audrey. They’re all in bank as it’s being held up. Marv goes on to Ed that he can’t afford a parking ticket because he’s in a fifteen-minute parking spot. Ed manages to get the gunman who’s robbing the bank to try Marv’s car as a getaway vehicle, which “has about a five percent chance of starting on the first go.” Gunman gets arrested. Happy-happy-joy-joy, right?
I think not.
Ed gets the Ace of Diamonds with 3 addresses and times written on it. Ed goes to these places and saves the day and all that. Then he gets the other Aces and delivers those messages. I would love to tell you the last two lines, which are probably my favorite lines ever, but they sort of spoil the book.
Don’t go looking at the back of the book, though. I usually do, but when I read this book, I didn’t because I didn’t need the extra push to finish it. Definitely one of the best books ever written. I loved it. And, even though it’s got the most common character thing at the current time (the main character being in love with his/her best friend), I thought it was great.
The characters are realistic; they swear and act like normal people. The plot is pretty simple; no wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. The setting is easy to relate to; the book was written in 2003, so you can sort of relate to it. And, of course, it’s just really well-written.
I’ll try my best to write more often. I’m reading a James Herriot book right now for outside of English class, so that review should be quite interesting.
[Ms Barden, you rock for using this book for a choice! I loved it, and I love your class. And, no, I'm not brown-nosing. It just seems that my English teachers are always the ones I connect to the most. You're really cool, and I apologize for not telling you about the vocab thing earlier. Sorry.]
Drunk Goggles in Health Class
I just typed this in Health Class. I thought it was hilarious. Dyer (the teacher) brought out drunk goggles because we are focusing on alcohol at the mome4nt. Anyways, Dyer said every year, someone falls. One girl said it’d be her… And it was. At least, the first. Then another girl fell, but it wasn’t nearly as funny as the first. When the first girl fell, everyone (including her) started cracking up. When she got up, she got a bunch of applause.
It made my day. I hope it made yours too.
HP1- The Sorcerer’s Stone
Okay, I’ll admit it – I enjoy the Harry Potter books/movies/such. But I’ll also admit that I 1.) Believe that, after ‘The Goblet of Fire’, the movies all go to rubbish. 2.) I can only say that I am certain that the 5th and 6th movies go to rubbish, as I have not seen either part 1 or 2 of ‘The Deathly Hallows’ movies. But I do know for a fa
ct that I enjoyed reading and watching the first in the series of 7 ‘Harry Potters’. So I’ve decided that, since I haven’t read them since sixth grade, I should refresh my memory with the books.
In ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone’, young Harry Potter is treated very poorly by his only remaining family, the Dursleys. But at 12:00 a. m. on his eleventh birthday, he is told he is a wizard. Big bomb to be dropped when you’ve been raised by Muggles and told your parents were killed in a car crash when in truth they were killed by the most horrible Dark wizard of the century, Lord Voldemort.
When Harry gets to his school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he makes some friends, enemies, and meets Voldemort face-to-face.
I will not say that I don’t like this book, because I love it. I just think the 3rd book and movie, ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, is the best. Can’t wait to talk about that one. But I will wait, rather impatiently, to post about that until I have chatted ’bout ‘The Chamber of Secrets’, another of my favorites. And I do apologize for not posting as regularly as I did during the school year. I don’t have a life, but this summer I didn’t even have enough of a life to post here. Sorry about that. But school starts tomorrow, and I will officially be in high school.
ct that I enjoyed reading and watching the first in the series of 7 ‘Harry Potters’. So I’ve decided that, since I haven’t read them since sixth grade, I should refresh my memory with the books.
In ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone’, young Harry Potter is treated very poorly by his only remaining family, the Dursleys. But at 12:00 a. m. on his eleventh birthday, he is told he is a wizard. Big bomb to be dropped when you’ve been raised by Muggles and told your parents were killed in a car crash when in truth they were killed by the most horrible Dark wizard of the century, Lord Voldemort.
When Harry gets to his school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he makes some friends, enemies, and meets Voldemort face-to-face.
I will not say that I don’t like this book, because I love it. I just think the 3rd book and movie, ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, is the best. Can’t wait to talk about that one. But I will wait, rather impatiently, to post about that until I have chatted ’bout ‘The Chamber of Secrets’, another of my favorites. And I do apologize for not posting as regularly as I did during the school year. I don’t have a life, but this summer I didn’t even have enough of a life to post here. Sorry about that. But school starts tomorrow, and I will officially be in high school.
The ’80s Weren’t Good to You People, Were They?
My mom’s friend (we refer to her as Aunt Charlene) texted me this last weekend, telling me she had a boxful of the Sweet Valley High books. Never heard of ‘em. But her husband (one of the town’s judges) took them over to my house. Inside the box was about fifty of the series, a few missing here, a few missing there. Impressive, right? Not all of those books were impressive, though.
One title – “Karen Kepplewhite is the World’s Best Kisser.” Believe me, I’m grateful she dropped off the books. But “Karen Kepplewhite is the World’s Best Kisser”? So crazy. The word ‘jazzed’ was often used. It’s from 1983, something like that.
Another book – “Cute”. Wow, these books had lame titles. Which makes me think - I’m a 21st century girl. Born in the ’90s, I have no clue what possessed you people to think the way you did in the 1980s.
Mom tells me she wore blue eyeshadow. I’ve seen movies from the ’80s with guys wearing shorts no longer than modern girls love to wear. You spoke so weird, saying you were ‘totally jazzed’ and all of these lame lines. So, like I said -
The ’80s weren’t good to you people, were they?
Lock and Key (Sarah Dessen)
So, as school got out on tuesday and I went to Hattie’s house that day, and I was dragged to her 4H meeting half an hour from our hometown, she had me read (yet another) of the books she has gotten from book fairs in the library at our school. So, in the course of the two to three hours, I got thirty or forty pages into this book.
In this novel, nearly-eighteen-year-old Ruby Cooper has been living alone with her mom since her older sister, Cora, left them to go to college. Ruby’s mom dissappears, though, and Ruby finds herself living with Cora, her husband and CEO/founder of social networking site UMe.com, Jamie, and their yappy, scared-to-death-of-the-oven-and-smoke-detectors, little-bitty dog, Roscoe. On her first night, Ruby tries to run off, but she can’t find the gate to the wooden fence behind Cora aand Jamie’s house, so she happens to meet Nate Cross, their neighbor, as he’s swimming laps in his pool.
Eventually, of course, Nate and Ruby end up together. And, even better, Cora and Ruby find their mom – in a rehab clinic in Tennesee.
Nate won’t make it easy for Ruby to help him with his hot-tempered, semi-evil dad, Mr. Blake Cross. And she wants to help so much, but he just doesn’t want her to. They break up, but, as predictable as every book targeted to the teenage girl, they get back together.
The last part of the book was hardest to understand. Cora and Jamie are taking Ruby somewhere, but it is never specified.
But I enjoyed this book. My twelve-year-old brother kept trying to talk to me in the car, but I was reading. And anyone that knows me understands how little I will tolerate when it comes to interruption of exciting, recreational literature. Better, though, is that I was texting Hattie the entire time.
Read the book. Read this blog. Comment. Buy the book. Support me.
Eventually, of course, Nate and Ruby end up together. And, even better, Cora and Ruby find their mom – in a rehab clinic in Tennesee.
Nate won’t make it easy for Ruby to help him with his hot-tempered, semi-evil dad, Mr. Blake Cross. And she wants to help so much, but he just doesn’t want her to. They break up, but, as predictable as every book targeted to the teenage girl, they get back together.
The last part of the book was hardest to understand. Cora and Jamie are taking Ruby somewhere, but it is never specified.
But I enjoyed this book. My twelve-year-old brother kept trying to talk to me in the car, but I was reading. And anyone that knows me understands how little I will tolerate when it comes to interruption of exciting, recreational literature. Better, though, is that I was texting Hattie the entire time.
Read the book. Read this blog. Comment. Buy the book. Support me.
North of Beautiful (Justina Chen Headley)
So, my best friend (more like sister), Hattie, had me wait forever to read this book about a girl from Colville, Washington, with a huge, obnoxious, obvious port-wine stain on the right side of her face. For those of you that don’t understand, a port-wine stain is a birth mark that kind of looks like wine was spilled on your face. And Hattie told our friend Tony he could borrow it. Why he’d want to read a teenage girly book, I have no idea.
So, the girl, Terra, has gone through all this laser treatment and nothing has worked. Then one day, as they’re going back home, Terra nearly runs over a sixteen-year-old Chinese boy, Jacob, and Terra and her mother go with Jacob and his adopted mom, Nora, to go visit Terra’s big brother Merc in China. Then Terra goes on to find true beauty and accidentally falls in love with Jacob, even though she has a boyfriend, Eric, at home. So, et cetera, et cetera. Eventually Terra breaks up with Eric and Jacob and Terra can live happily after.
Now, I have four more things to say. 1.) This was an excellent book. Each time I uncovered something in the book, I would go up to her the next day and totally flip out. “Why didn’t you tell me that, Hattie?!” 2.) Get it. Like I said. Great book. 3.) Hattie and I wonder – is it Merc like Mercer Island, but without the -er, or is it Merc like Mercury without the -cury? 4.) Please respond to these reviews. Also give people this site address. I want more readers. The more readers I get, the easier it’ll be for me to publish a book.
Thanks for reading! ~Flik
The Lost Hero (Rick Riordan)
For my recent birthday, my friend Kelli ( http://klmsbookreviews.blogspot.com)gave me a hardback (thank you!) copy of the first ‘Heroes of Olympus’ book, “The Lost
Hero.” Now, you might think that this ‘Lost Hero’ guy is the main character. But that’s not it. The lost hero comes into play when this kid, Jason, and his friends Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite and movie star Tristan McLean, and Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus and a deseased mother, show up at Camp Half-Blood. Jason thinks of the gods in their Roman forms, speaks Latin, and is the full brother of Thalia Grace. Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, tells them that her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, is missing. But Jason, Piper and Leo first have to free Hera, or, to Jason, Juno. The three go on a quest to save the goddess, and after they get back to Camp, Jason and Annabeth agree that, if Jason came from a Roman Camp, and is at Camp Half-Blood, without any memory, Percy must be at Jason’s camp, known as the child of Neptune.
It’s not a Percy Jackson book, sure, but “The Lost Hero” is definitely just as good. Rick Riordan is a great author, and when he dies, people will remember his books like we remember anybody else with works that we revere. Thank you, Riordan, for the material to pass the time with and to entertain me so much. I apologize about my summary, but it was a little bit complicated to do this. After all, this is a great book and good books are hard to write reviews on.
Hero.” Now, you might think that this ‘Lost Hero’ guy is the main character. But that’s not it. The lost hero comes into play when this kid, Jason, and his friends Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite and movie star Tristan McLean, and Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus and a deseased mother, show up at Camp Half-Blood. Jason thinks of the gods in their Roman forms, speaks Latin, and is the full brother of Thalia Grace. Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, tells them that her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, is missing. But Jason, Piper and Leo first have to free Hera, or, to Jason, Juno. The three go on a quest to save the goddess, and after they get back to Camp, Jason and Annabeth agree that, if Jason came from a Roman Camp, and is at Camp Half-Blood, without any memory, Percy must be at Jason’s camp, known as the child of Neptune.
It’s not a Percy Jackson book, sure, but “The Lost Hero” is definitely just as good. Rick Riordan is a great author, and when he dies, people will remember his books like we remember anybody else with works that we revere. Thank you, Riordan, for the material to pass the time with and to entertain me so much. I apologize about my summary, but it was a little bit complicated to do this. After all, this is a great book and good books are hard to write reviews on.
David Clement-Davies
So, back last year, in seventh grade, I got some books from Barnes and Noble for a Christmas present, but I couldn’t get into th
em. So, I traded them in for two books – “The Sight” and “Fell”. The first one is about the life of this pack of wolves – how they started by the Human Dens and the Stone Den in a cave Palla (the Drappa or female leader) was born in, the cave Palla’s nurse, Brassa, nursed Palla and Palla’s half-sister, Morgra. This book has this big adventure where Larka (a pure-white female named after the newly-fallen snow, and they soon find she has the power of the Sight) and Fell (Larka’s black brother named for Palla’s father, who towards the end of the book is found to have the Sight, too) and how this pack slowly dies off, Brassa first, and eventually the Sikla (Omega) dying, too. Larka has to kill Morgra and a prophecy must occur. At the end though, I started crying. I’m a sap now, because I didn’t cry in “Shiloh” or even “Sounder”, but I cried when a talking white she-wolf falls to her death. (Actually, she is barely alive after the fall. Lord Vladeran finishes her off. More info in Book 2.)Then Fell goes off to become a Kerl, or loner wolf, which is weird to the wolves, or Varg, because Kerls are basically weirdos in the wolf-world.
In the second book, “Fell”, Fell must find a teenager, Alina, disguised as a boy named Alin, who will “affect nature itself”. 
Alina has been told she is a changeling child, but she finds out that she is actually of noble blood. Alina and Fell most confront Vladeran, kill him. Vladeran has been in contact with Morgra’s spirit – she died from the same fall Larka suffered. So, Alina then meets a boy, Catalin, and at the end they’re pretty much going out, but you can’t say that because this book takes place in somewhat-Renaissance Romania.
So, read it! If you have a Kindle like my Aunt, Frances, http://justfrances.com/, get it. Go to the library, buy the book, borrow it from a friend, but this is a great book for a fantasy fan. So, as I said before, read it!
Saving Juliet
Earlier this month, author Suzanne Selfors came to visit my class. She’s the one that got me to begin this blog, as I have often dreamed of becoming an accomplished author. Anyways, Ms. Selfors has written “Smells Like Dog”, “Mad Love”, “Coffeehouse Angel”, and, of course, “Saving Juliet”. In “Saving Juliet”, Mimi Wallingford is a seventeen-year-old actress at her family’s theater. She dreams of becoming a doctor and having a life outside the Wallingford Theater, but her mother disagrees. Mimi is transported to Verona, Italy, 1594, after a heated argument with her mom, and so is actor/pop star Troy Summer. Troy and Mimi are trying to get home, but Mimi wants to save Romeo and Juliet from their awful fates.It’s hard to explain the plot of “Saving Juliet”, but I do not recomend this book for those that are sensitive to adult content. I still say you should read it, though. Suzanne Selfors is a great author and deserves as much publicity as Rick Riordan and Gordon Korman and Sophie Kinsella. Long live literature!
