Dragonfly

How would you like to be forced into marriage with someone you don't know in order to unite your lands? Princess Taoshira, The Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands felt exactly that same way when she was being order to marry Prince Ramil ac Burinholt,Prince of Gerfal.

She soon began her journey to Gerfal which laid over a thousand miles away from the Blue Crescent Island. But to make matters worse, Prince Ramil was unspeakably rude and not even trying to be pleasant to her. Princess Taoshira was so upset over the meeting with Prince Ramil that she refuses to leave her quarters. Ramil knew he had so do something to fix this, so he decided to take her for a horse ride.

Princess Taoshira has never ridden a horse before, and she soon found herself sliding all over the horse's back with no conception of how to stay on at full speed. Princess Taoshira was feeling extremely angry at what Prince Ramil did to her, that she called the alliance off and that she is going home; unaware that somebody is lurking in the forest waiting to kidnap the Prince and the Princess....

Personally, I thought this book by Julia Golding was going to be a boring book but it turned out to be a marvellous read and I didn't regret borrowing it!

My rating: 10/10

The Graveyard Book

Nobody Owens, also known as Bod has been living in the graveyard, raised and educated by ghosts after his real family has been killed. This book is packed with endless stories about Bod's adventures in the graveyard. He has met a human girl called Scarlett which he finds her a great companion besides the other ghosts. Together they explore the different parts of the graveyard, while Bod would tell Scarlett whatever he knew about the inhabitants of the grave or tomb and she will tell him about the world outside, about cars, aeroplanes,television and buses. One day they decided to explore a mausoleum under the hills which said to content treasures hidden by the people before the Romans came. Suddenly, a slithering noise made Scarlett half gasp half wail, without seeing anything Bod knew there was trouble....

******************************************************

But in the land of living a another danger lurks among the darkness; it was the same person who killed his family and now he wants to kill Bod too. Now, can his master save he as he did last time when Bod was taken to jail? or will Bod die the same way as his parents did?

A absolutely captivating story written by Neil Gaiman. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a little fantasy and danger to read about. 'The Graveyard Book' deserves a rating 9 out of 10.

Forget Me Not- [READING CHALLENGE]

'Forget me not' is an intrigueing and passionating novel written by Anne Cassidy. A kind of book which I can easily gobble up in a a few hours; the curiosity, wonder and fear won't let you put the book down for even a minute.
Stella Parfitt, 18, lives alone with her mum in the suburbs of London. One night, Teresese -her mum- comes home very late, all muddy and with no rational explanation for her drunken and disgarceful state. That very night, a child is taken from its cot, just a few houses down. Stella watches the investigation unfold, and begins to gather information of her own. How can it be, that all of a sudden it is she that has to take care of her mother? And why is it that she only learns about her terrifying past once teh police arrives at their door? A very dark secret lures right around the corner...
A fascinating yet paralyzing novel, a must read for intrigued readers who enjoy solving challenging puzzles.

Rating: 8.5/10

Double or Die - Charlie Higson

With such action, adventure and trouble, this book is deadly outstanding, even though there are few gruesome and bloody situations - mostly when James Bond gets in serious trouble (or to put it right, when trouble comes to him). The story begins where James gets a letter full of cryptic clues that conclude that a teacher in his school, Eton, has been kidnapped so that he could make this mathematical technology that is 3 times the man-kind's mind and that can crack top secret codes. Now that the trouble has arrived James, he gets into action trying to save the teacher... as well as himself. He goes through secret, illegal gambling pubs, chemical and car explosions, over-speed-for-humans transporter, 5-sec-to-explode ship, two frightening murderers and also nerve-wrecking high heights. However, all of this hasn't stopped James, he still survives from these deadly scenes... though he ends up feeling none of his bones but could taste his own blood.

In conclusion, this book is hair-rising and bloodcurdling. I found it absolutely fantastic and I adventured every action with James Bond, so I can promisingly rate this book 10 out of 10 (in my opinion).

Homework (set Thursday 2nd December 2010)

Imagine you are Siegfried Sassoon. Write a letter to a friend at the Home Front, describing your opinion of the Generals who are in charge of the War Effort.

Remember to use an appropriate register , form and tone and include ideas about the following:
1) What the Majors look like
2) Describe how the Majors spend their time during the war
3) Describe the Majors’ attitude to the way they deal with the deaths of the young soldiers
4) Express your own opinion (or rather, Sassoon’s) about the war

DUE: Monday 6th December 2010

HITLER'S DAUGHTER- reading challenge

'Hitler's Daughter' is an informative and interesting book written by Jackie French. It's the sort of book which will keep you up till 1 am just to know the rest of the story, and will afterwards prohibit you from sleeping whilst hundreds of questions and thoughts tumble through your mind. Is it a true story? Did Hitler really have a daughter? How could he be so cruel to her? Just because she (Heidi) was his daughter, did that make her evil aswell? All these questions were also going through Marc's head, 24/7, between the 'matinal' story tellings of his friend Anna. Every morning, she'd tell a part of Heidi's rather tragic story whilst waiting for the school bus. Heidi was completely cut off from the world during WW2, and saw noone but Faulein Gebler (the woman who brought her up), her cook and Duffi -aka Hitler-, when he once every few months (is she was lucky) blessed her with a short visit. The novel follows Heidi's joruney out of Germany and Marc's thoughts on the story at the same time. It is quiet a fascinating novel; however, there were times where I was sat wiahing Jackie French could have skipped a few of the slow and painful passages about the rain, swamps and cows of Australia. A bit boring at times, yet the rest of Heidi's story is completely worth it.

Rating: 6.5/10

Homework (set Tuesday 9th November)

Please learn the following vocabulary list for next lesson. You will be tested on them at the beginning of the lesson (Thursday 11th November). You will be given one mark for the correct definition and one mark for the correct spelling:

‘slink’ = to move in a secret, guilty manner
‘concealed’ = hidden, covered
‘bore’ = gave birth to, (past tense of bear)
‘roam’ = to wander about
‘shed away’ = stripped away
‘hag’ = an ugly old women; a witch
‘knock-kneed’ = knees knocking together in walking.
‘trudge’ = to walk heavily or wearily
‘lime’ = a white, acid-like powder
‘guttering’ = To flow in channels or rivulets
‘Writhing’ = to twist or squirm because of pain
‘cud’ = partially digested food that is returned to the mouth
‘vile’ = sickening or disgusting
‘zest’ = lively enjoyment
‘ardent’ = extremely enthusiastic

Eat Pray Love

This brilliant novel was written by Elizabeth Gilbert about a long travel through Italy, India and ending the year in Indonesia (Bali). She describes how she tastes wonderful food such as spaghetti in Italy with such pure delightfulness with delicious toppings that you can just feel along your tongue. Spending around 3 months there learning the Italian language and how the language is like music floating through your soul. Afterwards she lands herself in India by calming her nerves with praying day in and day out from 3am till 10pm. Sometimes she ends up locked in her room by her room mate and climbing out the windows, landing in some bushes, bleeding endlessly but yet needs to go and pray her heart out. The journey slowly comes to an end in Bali, where she re-meets the man who taught her of her knowledge and the bumps in the road along her life.

I recommend this novel for anyone who likes to take a break and loves food. I really enjoyed this book because it's like a biography and yet is like an adventure. How there is one escape from reality and you can go along the road just exploring yourself and finding who you really are instead of relying on someone else all the time.

Year 9 English Homework:

Choose two of the poetic techniques below (that you have not already done) and write a DETAILED PEE paragraph for each (2 PEE paragraphs in total):

1) “Juliet is the sun.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
2) “Life’s but a walking shadow.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth.)
3) "Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle"
4) "Only the monstrous anger of the guns." (Owen)
5) “Everyday is a winding road…”
6) “Death lies upon her like an untimely frost.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
7) “England … is a fen of stagnant waters.” (Wordsworth.)

DUE: Monday 8th November

Year 9 Instructions - Tuesday 21st September

Is this a dagger I see before me?

Using your detailed annotations for Macbeth's soliloquy at the beginning of Act 2, you are going to complete a detailed analysis for 2 key images. Your analysis will be used for display, so it is important that someone reading your work understands your ideas fully - even if they have never read the play!

Use the following instructions to guide you:

1)Select 2 images that you think are the most powerful in presenting Macbeth's thoughts here.
2)Copy out the quotations in full, using quotations marks - eg."Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"
3)Underneath each quotation, you will complete a detailed analysis. Remember to focus closely on the language used by Shakespeare and think about the effect on the audience.
4)Once you have completed your detailed analysis, prepare each example for display by selecting appropriate images / colours to represent your chosen examples (One example per A4 page - use space wisely)

See below for an example:

"Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"

In this scene, Macbeth is alone on stage before he moves to murder King Duncan. He hallucinates and believes he sees a blood-stained dagger in front of him. Initially, he is terrified and tries to argue the vision away. Shakespeare uses a metaphor, ‘dagger of the mind’, to describe Macbeth's vision. In one sense it represents Macbeth’s hallucination: that he is imagining the murder weapon he will use. It also represents the deadly and dangerous thoughts that he has before killing Duncan...

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This thrilling and exciting novel is about a young indian boy named "Pi" which was short for his real name Piscine, named after a swimming pool.He lived in Pondicherry, he was going out into sea with his family until a huge storm crashed in and he had lost his family. He found shelter before the ship sank on a small yacht with a tiger, zebra who's leg was broken, hyena and a female orange-utan. Days after days they were left stranded on the boat with no food. The tiger had served himself with the zebra by taking out all its guts and enjoying the taste of it while the zebra was still faintly alive. Although after ages and ages all the animals had been eaten and served as the tiger's food, Pi had thought up of smart and tactic plans to lure the tiger onto the other side of the boat. He did this by giving the tiger new fresh fish all the time. This plan had worked out really well. Pi had indeed survived... read the rest to find out more! this book i will definitely rate it as a 10 because there is always an element of intensity and excitement.

Pretty Little Liars-Sara Shepard

Over the summer i read , the novel pretty little liars.The book is about five pretty girls,that all go to the same school, Alison,Emily,Hannah,Spencer,Aria.After their annual sleep overs for celebrating 6th gr.Alison goes missing...When they finally find her, she was murdered and berried in a hole from her back yard.They all had dark secrets,but Allison Knew them all.They started getting mysterious texts From ''A'' ,they all thought it was some kind of joke but if it was then why would ''A'' know EVERY thing...From their family secrets to their Private lives.Only Alison knew these things because, Ali was Ali ,she was manipulative, Beautiful,and mean.Every girl wanted to be her and every guy wanted to date her,she had a perfect life but nothing's really what it seems.''A'' tortured them for a very long time by messing with their heads.These 4 girls have a very un-lucky life they have to live through pain and constant stress.So basically this novel is a teen drama novel. It has many twist and turns Lot's of drama , and you always wanna flip the page because it's that interesting! -Tiffany

Romance Of the Three Kingdoms

Romance Of The Three Kingdoms is a story of three nations fighting over each other for complete control over China. These three nations consist of ; The Shu; The Wei and The Wu. The Shu nation started off small which was lead by three sworn brothers, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Bei. Liu Bei emerged as King of the Shu although he was the youngest of the three.

The Wei was ruled over by a strategist named Cao Cao, he had the most control over China and owns hordes of men at his disposal. Cao Cao also had a advisor which was also a strategist named Sima Yi which planned out ambushes and formations.

The Wu was a noble family consisting of Kings, Queens and heirs. At the beginning of the story the King of the Wu was Sun Quan. Unfortunately he was ambushed by the Shu and killed, later on in the story the had taken vengeance and ambushed Guan Yu, the General of the Shu. The heir was then past onto Sun Ce, the Wu didn't lasted long until they were wiped out by the Wei.

As the story progresses with betrayal and murders, and nations agreeing on a treaty on one another to keep balance of who will rule China. Finally at the end of the story The... triumphs, I'll leave to find out but when I read this book and like most readers to this twisted story would think that you feel a sense of emotion and wanting the Shu to win. After all they were the innocent ones

TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY by Jay Asher

Thirteen reasons why is a novel about a boy, Clay, who's first love commited suicide (i know, very depressing.) I usually stop reading depressing books the moment they become sad, but this one was so compelling i just couldn't resist. The plot is one that would never even cross my mind, basically there is a boy named Clay who receives a box in the mail with no return address. He opens the package to find 7 cassette tapes, one was labeled '1' on one side and '2' on the other and so on... But the seventh one only has the number 13 on one side and is blank on the other. Remembering his mom has and cassette player, Clay goes into the garage (where his mom keeps the audio player) and immediately starts to listen to the tapes. Hannah Baker (the girl who committed suicide) is the person talking on the tapes and she begins to give brief instructions, quickly starting on the first person on 'the list'

Yes, apparently there is a list of THIRTEEN people who had something to do with her taking away her life.

And Clay is one of them.

Hannah Baker (or her voice, at least) mentions that he, or whoever is listening, could follow her steps, as she had slipped a map with coordinations of everywhere something happened to her that amounted to the suicide into their lockers, but of course, they were oblivious to the reason they had received a map of their town with x's scattered in various places. I think this writer is extraordinary because he actually prints the map on the back of the books cover (it is a hard back book and has a paper flap with the blurb, ect... On the back of this is where the map is printed!)

Clay uses his friends portable cassette player and follows his first love's voice through the town. The chapters are labeled according to the tape Clay is listening to. Before I go on, I should explain that you actually read Hannah Bakers tapes, instead of just reading about clay rambling on about it (Jay Asher first wrote Hannah Bakers part, than after that had been done he read through and stopped at intervals for Clay to say something, these intervals would be made clear by pause symbols, and so on, as if on a DVD remote, also they were in a different font.)

This book was amazing and i recommend EVERYONE I KNOW to read it (that is, after i get it back from my friend who is currently borrowing it)

I devoured this book in one day and got so mad at myself for not reading it slowly so it would go on longer but the thought came too late. So, I read the authors notes and they were surprisingly very interesting and told with dashes of humor. I found out that this is Jay Asher's debut novel, which i find amazing because it was written so well. I also found out that he got the idea of having cassette tapes while he was at the museum, listening to the audiotapes about the facts and thinking about how eery it was to have someone talking to you without actually being there, the book was originally going to be called 'The AudioBiography of Hannah Baker' (clever, eh?) He said he made it audiotapes instead of CD's was because one day CD's will be replaced by something even more new and they will be out of style, though because the characters are acknowledging the fact that they're old will make the book last longer through era's of technology (not word for word but he said something along those lines.)

This. Book. Is. Amazing.

Read. It.

Eclipse

The book that I enjoyed reading most this summer is called Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer. That was the sixth time that I had read that book- and I wouldn't say that I'm obsessed with The Twilight Saga- but every time I read it, I always end up finding something in the book that I haven't realized before. The Twilight Saga has really inspired me by the creativity it has in it and the tragic problems that they have to avoid. Eclipse is about the three main characters, Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. It turns out that Edward and Jacob are both in love with Bella, but Bella only loves Edward, but deep inside she loves Jacob, and through out the whole book, Jacob tries to show her that until before the fight with the 'new borns', does she actually realize it. The book is mostly about tragedy and romance, and I really enjoyed reading it!

Frostbite

This book was very interesting book with vampires and their protectors. In this book, the main charactors were 2protectors. When I saw the cover page for first time, it didn't give me a big interest but when I started reading about I couldn't stop reading it. It was not just about vampires fighting. There were royal vampires who doesn't drink human's blood and other vampires who drinks human's blood and they are threatening royal vampires. To protect the royal vampires there are protectors for each royal vampires called dhampers. I thought it was all about vampires so the introduction of dhampers were very interesting to me and their love story was really attracting me. of coures, their happy ending made me smile after I finished reading. This book was amazing and memorable.
rating-8/10

The Hound of the Baskervilles [by Sir Arthur Connan Doyle]

The Hound of the Baskervilles, a world-known classic from the 'Sherlock Holmes' series, is the book that I read this summer which I enjoyed the most. I have read many books by Sir Arthur Connan Doyle, and yet this one was the one I enjoyed the most.

It is the tale of an ancient curse put upon the grey towers of Baskerville Hall which sets the story on path; according to the myth that has been passed on from generation to generation, every inheritant of the majestuous hall carries the heavy burden of being killed by the Hound which lives on the vast moor surrounding the Baskerville Hall. It is for this reason, that after the sudden death upon the moor of Sir Charles Baskerville, that the last inheritant, Henry, decided to seek advice and protection from the private detective Sherlock Holmes. Together with Dr Watson, they will step by step unravel the many secrets that are held in the mysterious towers of Baskerville Hall and the wild open country of Dartmoor. Whether it really is a supernatural manifestation, the reader shall find out; you will be sure to remain haunted by the terrifying hound of the moor. Rating: 9/10

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

A 14-year-old boy,Will who shares a passion with his father for digging.One day, his father suddenly disappears after quarrelling with his wife into an unknown mysterious tunnel. Chester, Will's best friend has been asked to help Will in a search to find his missing father.Down,down,down they went, after each hour stopping to catch their breath and having a quick drink of water. After a few days on digging non-stop into the underworld, they finally step into a world different from ours. The houses are different, people are mysterious and enemies are closing in. Will has to find his dad before any else horrible happens. But before he knows it, he has been taken away from Chester and reunited with his 'real' family in the underworld. Can Will find his father,best friend and return alive to the real world? Find out!!

I love this book because its about a different world from ours and it has alot of fantasy in it which I absolutely adore! 8/10

Dark Life

In a disasterous future, where the majority of Earth has been overtaken by rising sea levels, the residing humans are forced to make a difficult choice: live packed together like sardines in cramped apartments, or live at the bottom of the ocean, where land is the last of peoples concerns, the dark life.

Ty, known as the first person ever to be born sub sea, is having a perfectly normal life farming the ocean floor, preparing for the time in which he would be able to claim his own stake. Nothing could have been better for Ty, but when outlaws suddenly start attacking government ships, chances of Ty having his own land start to fade away as government officials plan on bringing the sub sea pioneers topside.

Joined by Gemma, an orphan who came from the "topside" in search of her missing brother, Ty embarks on a journey in which he finds out that things weren't really what they seemed, and that living in the dark life, had much more to it than he thought.

Overall, i think this book is a great story to read as it includes a variety of elements which can keep peoples eyes glued to the pages for hours and i would recommend it to all ages.
8/10

Silverfin by Charlie Higson

This is the book I'm currently reading. It is the first book in the Young Bond series and all I can say about it as far as I've read, it was fantastic. It is about a young boy, James Bond, who just went to a boarding school, Eton (where he made new friends as well as enemies), since his parents died while they "were on a climbing holiday in Aiguilles Rouges, above the skiing resort of Chamonix in France". While he was at school, he had few adventurous races and challenges. Now he is on his way to Scotland to see his Aunt, Chairmian, and her brother, Max, who has fallen sick (cancer).

To find out more, read the book (well I have to, anyway, since it is too interesting) and I rate this book 9 out of 10.

Point Blanc

A book i read over the summer is called Point Blanc.

The author of this graphic novel is Anthony Horowitz.

This book is talking about a boy named Alex, he is a member of MI6 to investigate the deaths of billionaires. He did a lot of missions. For example he busted a group which is a drug company. I think this is a very good book because it's talking about adventure and agents which is one part of my hobbies.
Rating : 9/10