Saturday, April 2, 2011

Book Review 6- Angel by: James Patterson

Angel (Maximum Ride, #7)Angel by James Patterson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Book Review 6- Angel Maximum Ride



by: James Patterson





INTRODUCING...

Maximum Ride: Angel by James Patterson. It was published in February 2011. It’s fiction. So far this book doesn’t have any awards yet, but it’s predicted to win the best-selling award. It has 291 pages inside. It took me 2 days to read. Maximum Ride is the main character while Iggy, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel are the supporting characters. This book takes place in France in the present day.



The Story

The story takes place in France in present day. The protagonist is Maximum Ride. The main character had to actually make a lot of choices particularly in this book. She had to make the choice of either choosing Fang as the love of her life or the new member Dylan as the love of her life. She is still confused on who she should choose at the end of the book. Another choice she had to make was whether to have her sister and her brother disarm a bomb by themselves, or to have their whole flock escape while the city of France blows up. The major conflict in this book was whether Max could stop the Doomsday Group alongside her ex and his flock. The antagonist in this book is this “Doomsday Group” that plans to wipe out the human race and instead have the new generation of genetically mutated children take over the world. The other characters in the story are Fang and his new flock of genetically mutated teens.



Analysis

One theme I found in this book was about moving on. After Fang leaves the flock, Max is heartbroken. However in the book, Max learns to just move on with her life and stop moping around. Another theme I found was trust. After Max’s mom suddenly disappears out of nowhere, she is convinced that her mom is secretly in alliance with the Doomsday Group (Patterson 148). After Max comes to this conclusion, she learns to never again trust another adult. Before, she couldn’t trust anybody but her mom. She doesn’t even fully trust in some of the members of her flock. She makes a pact to never trust an adult ever again (Patterson 148). I believe in this book the message that James Patterson wanted to get across was to just keep moving on with your life. You shouldn’t stop yourself from living or stop yourself from enjoying life. The characters conveyed the message perfectly by showing how the two flocks differ from each other. They always argue and fight about things. But they learn to just move onto a bigger picture than just to get along. They fight for a greater cause which is saving the world. I did have a disagreement with the decision that Fang made. Fang decides to choose a clone of Max as his partner in crime. If I were him, I would have just stayed with Max and his original flock. The characters’ actions help better the understanding of the message because they are two very different groups of individuals. They have different personalities, powers, and attitudes. So, you wouldn’t think that moving along was possible for them. But in the end, they somehow do get along.



Recommendation

Reading this book will not just feed your hunger for action and romance, but it also leaves you with an open-mind on society in the real world. The book doesn’t actually seem too far-fetched. It could sometime happen in the future. Even today we’re already starting to mutate sheep and horses. How long before they mutate humans? I want the reader to read this book because it will start something in them. I know it did for me. It jolts you like Gatorade because it starts curiosity in you, it gets your brain visualizing, and it’s just so engaging. I would definitely recommend this book to others.



Conclusion

All in all, I loved this book to pieces. I’m glad I waited for this book to come out. I wished that it was longer too. I found this book to be just perfect. It wasn’t worse than the book before lik soe of the books I’ve read in other series. It just keeps gettin’ better and better. James Patterson will definitely be my all-time favorite author because of this series.



View all my reviews

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Book REview 5- The Great Gatsby

The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Danica A.

1-24-11

English I

Mr. Williams



Book Review 5- The Great Gatsby

by: F. Scott Fitzgerald



The Beginning

Let me just start by saying that this was by far the most confusing book I have ever read. It was still a pretty good book though. So, when I read the first chapter I was like, " Oh this seems easy! I know all the words so far." Pretty soon it turned into this, "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS BOOK?! Who's saying what, who's who, and what just happened?" This kept playing through my head like a broken record. It just droned on and on without stopping. It was horrifying. Then I decided maybe it isnt how the book is written, it's how I physically read it. Turns out, reading it off the computer was more difficult to read than reading it from a physical book. The first few chapters were now bearable to read instead of dreadful.



The End

This part of the book just got 100x better because I can go back and re-read what happened so I fully understood what's going on.It actually wasn't so bad reading these chapters. To my disbelief, I was starting to get into this book. What this book had a lot of was symbolism in it. For example in the book Nick Carraway says, "I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him..."(Fitzgerald 120). Nick says this at the very last page in the book. After Gatsby dies and all. Nick reflects on this past summer with this quote. It kind of summarized the whole book actually. Nick was trying to say that Gatsby was hoping for something that will never come. That dream that is unattainable. Daisy was Gatsby's green light in this book. Another quote that stood out for me was when Nick talked about the morals he has grown up with. "Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope." (Fitzgerald 2). This quote means that he will keep his views of others to himself in hopes that the person will change. In hopes that he wouldn't have to tell that person. But keeping it to yourself might take forever because not everybody can change.



Total Review

Very educational and suprisingly good book. It made me feel smart reading this type of literature because I don't usually read a lot of those. This was my first time ever reading a truely classic book. I liked it. Very powerful book that taught me a lot of things that went on in the 20's. How people were like. How life was. All in all, I would most definitely recommend this book to someone. Four out of five is my rating for this book.







View all my reviews

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Communication is Key!

    To me, communication is a form of connecting to other people, places, things, and events through the means of media, music, words, emotions, books, gestures and images.

   I personally do not like communicating with a lot of people through words. I like to communicate through how I write in stories or playing music because I can better express myself in words and sounds better than I talk to people. It's not that I'm anti-social or anything, I just feel that I can better communicate through other means. My family and my best friends could easily communicate with me without even saying a word. We know exactly what the other is feeling or what other's say just through looks and facial expressions. I love how we have our own language of talking to one another that no one else probably has.

   Communication is so important for our society today. We wouldn't get anywhere without communicating in some way or another. I'd bet that even cavemen communicated with each other to build that fire. Even animals communicate too. Communication is everywhere! People communicate everyday in a lot of ways. I don't think there is one single day where we haven't communicated through to someone. That's because even if you don't talk to someone, the other person can still get the message that possibly you're not on good terms? Everyone texts and calls each other on the phone. That's communication. Everyone webchats and facebooks. That's communication. Everyone watches T.V. and listens to the radio right? That's communication. To me, communication is one of the most complicated and interesting topics that I love. Everyday there are a numerous amount of new ways to communicate.


This picture is a great way of showing exactly how we commmunicate with each other around the world.



This is a great video of how advanced communications are getting nowadays.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Roaring Twetines Sports S.I.P

Danica Arma
1-20-11
English I
Mr. Williams

Roaring Twenties Sports

          During the 1920's it was when happiness and joy changed the way everyone acted. It changed the way they dressed, the way they spoke, and the way they had fun. After the war ended, no one knew what to do. They were bored, restless, and had nothing to do. They didn't have giant supermalls like we do today. They didn't have Wii or XBOX to go to when they get bored. They probably didn't even have a TV to watch anything on because they just started coming out. What else was there to do? Sports. Whether a father and son  were just playing catch or whether they would watch it on television, sports was flourishing everywhere. This was the Golden Age of sports.
         Some of the major sports that were getting popular were baseball, boxing, golf, and tennis. Even in the Great Gatsby, Nick's girlfriend Jordan played a lot of golf. Tom Buchanan also played a lot of golf. Although golf was popular amongst the rich, baseball was popular amongst the commoners. They loved the action. They loved the suspense. They loved... the violence. Since men were the predominant audience for watching sports, they loved the violence. This was the main bad side about sports because there are kids watching and listening to the game on the radio when all of a sudden you hear Babe Ruth is smoking a cigar and spitting out some tobacco while is up to bat? What kind of role model was he? In this time period, where new ideas were spewing out, new ideas were influencing people, and old traditions are being forgotten, anything's acceptable; even smoking on live public television for every single kid to look at. The parents didn't stop them from watching because they didn't know what all those things can do to you. Cancer was rare, lung disease was unheard of, and toothbrushing was only an idea of the mind. However, not all the people in sports were bad role models. The great American football player Jack Dempsey was a good role model for those aspiring to be in the NFL.
          There were also the good side of all these sports figures emerging. New opportunities for jobs were created. If you're going to make a team, you're going to need coaches. Also, there were more oppurtunities for kids to go dream big and get a job as a proffesional athelete instead of bumming out in school all day.
           Today, rarely are there any athletes who play because they're passionate about sports. They only became for the fame, the money, and the women that line up just to see them. They don't care whether or not the don't get the promotion. Real, genuine atheletes are passionate and enthusiastic about sports. That's why they always compare them from the atheletes back then, to see if they were as good as them. They deserve to be what they are today, legends.

      
Lou Gherig                                     Jack Dempsey                    Babe Ruth

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Dream Quote/Adage Essay

Danica Arma
1-19-11
English I
Mr. Williams

“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.”

To me this quote means that the person inside you, the person who you really are on the inside, is trying to give you signals or pictures of yourself on the inside. What you’re thinking on the inside. What you want in the inside, where your soul is. The dreams are the pathway for your soul to talk to you, to connect to you. When the quote says “... from the book your soul is writing about yo,” it means that that book is who you are or who you want to be on the inside.
Everybody in the world dreams. The bad people dream. The good people dream. Politicians dream. The President dreams. That’s how we got here today didn’t we? If Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t have the dream that all men and women will be equal to one another? He followed that dream. He followed what was right for him and his soul. His dreams led us to what we have today. If President Obama never had a dream to become a president, he wouldn’t be in office today would he? President Obama’s soul was writing his book about him. He was going to be smart, a good person, a kind soul. He is what he is today because of his dreams.
This quote remindded me of Cinderella. I absolutely adored her. She’s one of my favorite Disney characters right under Mulan. I’ve seen the movie maybe a 100 times, I’ve seen her in Barbie doll form 1,000 times, and I’ve been moved by her by about a million times. She came from a widowed dad, a wicked step mom, 2 horrible step sisters, and her only friends are little animals. How could she go on like this? She does somehow. She had a dream too. She dreamed of going outside and dancing. She dreamed of traveling and chatting with her dad. She dreamed and longed to get away from the step mom and two step sisters. In the end, she gets it all. Cinderella even said, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.” It took all her heart to get to her happy ending. Without her dreams, where would she be now?
I don’t get dreams often. When I do, it’s always something random and unexpected. Sometimes, I know exactly what they mean. Sometimes, it’s like trying to read hieroglyphics. If I wouldn’t have dreamed though, I wouldn’t be in the Medical Arts Program. I woudn’t have such a great family. I wouldn’t have such great friends. I wouldn’t have such a great life. Almost everyone I have know has said, “Push beyond your limits. Go up above and beyond what you’re supposed to do. Reach for the skies, the moon, whichever is higher.” Where would I be without these dreams? I think I would have been a loser. No motivation, hates people, and hates his life. I feel pity for that person. They should always just dream. It’s right there inside of them, they just don’t know it yet.

The perfect song to this essay     ( ***Don’t worry! It’s not bad or anything!*** )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSn8V_m9HvI&feature=related

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Roaring Twenties S.I.P. - Sports (Presentation)

Sports in the 1920's has just started to gain in popularity. Sports like golf, tennis, and baseball gained in popularity. It was no longer just for the higher classes. Everyone started to join in sports. Sports teams were being made and coaches were being hired. Atheletes were starting to rise and become recognized for their talents in sports.

Famous Sports Figures





  • Lou Gherig (Great American Baseball Player)













  • Born in June 19, 1903 in New York City.













  • Achievements: Hit four home runs in one game













  • Won the Triple Crown in 1934













  • Holds the record for most Grand Slams in a career with 23.













  • Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.













  • Just to name a few.









  • Lou Gehrig Photo




  • Grover Cleveland Alexander Great American Baseball Player













  • Born February 26, 1887













  • Played for the Chicago Cubs, Cardinals, and Phillies :D













  • Achievements:













  • Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938













  • 373 career wins













  • Pitched 90 shutouts














  • Babe Ruth  Great American baseball player













  • Born in February 6, 1895













  • Achievements:













  • 7x World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928, and 1932)













  • 714 homeruns













  • Hall of Famer in 1936













  • First player to hit 60 plus homeruns in a season














  • Bill Tilden (American tennis player)













  • Born on February 10, 1893 in Philly!













  • World's #1 player for 7 years.













  • Won 138 of 192 tournaments













  • Winning percentage: 93.6














  • Suzanne Lenglen a French tennis player













  • May 24, 1899













  • won 31 Championship titles between 1914 and 1926.













  • One of the first internatinal female sport stars













  • Gold Medal in Olympic Games (Grand Slam)









  • Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Tilden-2.jpg

    Many people all over the world thought the 1920's were the "Golden Age" of sports. After coming back from the war, what else were people supposed to play and look forward too? Sports. They were all game unlike today which is now all about the money, the steroids, and the media. I guess it was where all this had to start. This was the era where the true genuine sports players have been deserved to be called what they are today. Legends.

    Monday, January 10, 2011

    Book Review 4- The Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

    Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, #6)Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars


    Danica A.

    1-10-11

    English I

    Mr. Williams



    Book Review 4- The Last Sacrifice



    by Rachel Mead



    In The Beginning

    I nearly fainted because of how good the beginning was. It wasn’t dull or boring or too lame at all! It was the exact opposite. The beginning has the character stuck in jail when her father comes in to comfort her. Then, right from that point on there were multiple explosions and a prison breakout had started. Now that’s what I call a bombastic beginning. I immediately fell in love with the book.



    In the Middle

    If you thought that I thought the beginning was awesome, imagine what I thought about the middle. Exactly that. I believed it to be the most heart warming, hilarious, cute, and heart wrenching storyline I have ever read. One of the quotes that made my heart go all fuzzy was when Dimitri uttered these words to his beloved Rose Hathaway, “He shook his head, the smile rueful now. "’Because sometimes, a person can get so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not just the dress or the hair. It's YOU. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me.’" (Mead 250) This happens while they’re hiding from the people that are trying to take them back to Court for being wanted fugitives. They are roommates in this little room in at a friend’s house in the woods. She gets dressed while he walks in to take a shower. He is taken aback by seeing her in a lovely dress. This was very important to the story because this is where Rose finally finds out that he has loved her all along and cannot resist the magnetic pull that’s pulling them to each other. He finally realizes this too. And at that moment that they both realize this, I was moved to tears because FINALLY he confesses this.



    The End

    The ending was spectacular. Even though I thought it was a little bit cliche, I absolutely loved it. I just thought the part where everyone is all happy and is together with the people they were always destined to be with was a little cliche. But, how it got to that ending was really amazing. It was so unexpected because they had all these puzzle pieces in the beginning and didn’t know what in the world they had to do. They didn’t know where to start, where it ended, who was doing this that cause whatever this is to effect that? Those kinds of questions. But somehow, they solved it in such a way that didn’t make me doubt how that actually happened. However, this quote basically sums it all up. "I opened my eyes and met his dark, earnest gaze. "’It's okay,’" I said. "’It's okay now. I'm here I'll always be here for you.’" Rose says this at then end when both her and Dimitri are assigned to be the guardians of her best friend and her boyfriend. Actually, it wasn’t cliche at all. Maybe a little.



    Rating

    I give this book a 5 out of 5. No doubt will I ever forget this book. The Last Sacrifice was written very well and was easy to follow unlike a lot of books I have read that had the same theme. It did not follow the traditional “vampire” theme that I thought it would. No extremely boring speeches about how vampire they were. No love dovey romance every single page of the book. No lame battles. I will definitely recommend this book to any girl out there with a passion for a good vampire romance book.



    View all my reviews

    Saturday, January 1, 2011

    Goodbye 2010. I'll miss you.

    Where has the time gone? Feels like it was only yesterday that I was unrapping presents. Feels like yesterday I was only 14. Feels like just yesterday I was watching TV with my brother. I don't like to leave things behind. It's just human nature I guess. But, I 've never left anything behind at all. I don't like too. It's like giving away a part of me. And when this year went past, it was like it was being torn apart from me. I didn't like it. If only our minds could take snap shots of every single happy moment in life and just catalog them so we can view them years later. I would like that very much. I don't like starting new years. I don't like anything to change. I guess it lies deeper than the fears of having a new year. This was a weird blog post. But, oh well. Life just goes on.

    Friday, December 10, 2010

    Quote

    "Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul." -Anonymus


    I was absolutely stunned when I was reading this quote. I could tell because I think I might have stopped breathing as I was reading it the first time. I had to add words, phrases, and quotes into a prezi I made. So, I decided to look for inspiration on google. I typed in "Music quotes" This site popped up and had bunches and bunches of quotes. I picked the one that was the longest; and so I saw this wonderful quote and think I must have fallen in love with it. "Music speaks what cannot be expressed.." this means that music is a language all in itself. Figuratively and litterally, it is a language that you have to learn. It's litterally a language because it's a series of dots, lines, symbols, and random words in Italian. It all has to be in sync with the instrument you're playing which takes time and practice. Figuratively, music is a language because it be expressed and taken into perspective in so many ways by so many different people.

    "...soothes the mind and gives it rest.." this means that music can be an escape from this crazy, messed up world that we're living in today. I know when I am so stressed from homework and school all day, I immediately go straight to my piano and start playing. I release everything into what I'm playing. All my emotions speak through what I play. It calms me. It comforts me. It tells me that I am still here and I have to get on with my life.

    "...heals the heart and makes it whole..." this means that when you're suffering through a difficult time in your life, music can always make it a little better. When your boyfriend/girlfriend dumped you, go play your iPod. When your grandmom's in the hospital, go sing her a tune. It will not onyl heal your heart, but can heal others' hearts as well. Another aspect I found when I saw this part of the quote is when someone bad, like a thief or a murderer, listens to music, they might turn good. It's like all they really needed was this song to "speak" to them. It could have given them a change of heart. It could trigger all those happy memories that were somehow clouded in all this anger and revenge. Music could ultimately, "fix" someone's sad, lonely, messed up heart.

    "...flows from heaven to the soul..." I believe this quote says that music is something wonderful that came from heaven and is given out to the earth, through someone's soul and passion for music. The melody of the music and the tones and pitches, when put together, make something as beautiful as if it came from heaven. Music does come from the soul. It comes out through all these different instruments and voices.

    My American Dream Prezi

    This Prezi thing is so cool.

    Saturday, November 20, 2010

    Book Review 3- Spirit Bound by: Rachel Mead

    Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, #5)Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

    My rating: 5 of 5 stars


    Danica A.

    11/19/10

    English I

    Mr. Williams



    Book Review 3- Spirit Bound



    I loved everything this book had. I loved the content, I loved the ending, I loved every little part in the story. It did not get me bored out of my mind, it gave me the romance that I craved for, and it always had a surprise waiting at every corner. It's like getting candy from Halloween; it just gets better and better. These are the reasons why I gave it a 5 out of 5 and the reason I would definitely recommend this book.



    To begin with, the book was very entertaining and kept my mind occupied. It never bore me, which is always a plus when reading a book. The main character's personality kept things new and intersting. HEr comedic side of the story was always entertaining. In one part of the book, she said, "He has no right to threaten my boyfriends. I'm eighteen. An adult. I don't need his help. I can threaten my boyfriends myself." I love it when the main character always had some retort to say to anyone who annoyed her.



    Secondly, the romance in this book was through the roof. It had multiple couples suffereing their break-ups, their make-ups, and the akward "just friends" phase they go through in the middle. The emotion behind the story was so powerful, I cried when they cried. I got angry when they got angry. And it always got me saying "Awhh! How sweet!" throughout the whole book. An example of when I cried in this book was when the main charcter's ex-boyfriend tells her, "I gave up on you. Love fades. Mine has." This was a very big milestone in the story because this was who the story was moslty about. And without this guy, there would be no story.



    Lastly, Spirit Bound always had a surprise in every chapter. That's probably why I got through this whole book so fast. I must have read 10 chapters in a single- reading. When your ex-boyfriend's an evil vampire who hunts you down, when you and your best friend go on a quest to find a cure for "turning good" again, and when you get tried for a murder you never committed, these are the kinds of things that would make you go "Oh my gosh did that just happen?"



    Spirit Bound was an awesome book that never got you bored, always had that mushy side for those of you that love that romance stuff, and it had so many suprising twists and turns throughout the novle. For these reasons, I gave this book a 5 out of 5 , and the reason I would definite recommend this book.



    View all my reviews

    Friday, November 19, 2010

    Meaningful Quotes #2

    "The best proof of love is trust."
    -Dr. Joyce Brothers

    I believe this quote means that to know if the person you love is the real deal, you must have their trust and they mst trust in you, or it wont work.

    Meaningful Quotes #1

    "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."
    -Helen Keller

    Me and my couin were actually pondering about this at 12:08 AM. I needed a blogpost and this is what we found.

    I thinks this quote means that in order to get the most out of life, you need to understand it and live it firsthand. Another explanation was that life is meaningless and worthless unless you learn the lessons you need?

    I'm 15!......already?

    Now that I think about, I'm half way there to 30! D: NOO! Not that there's anything wrong with being 30..... but, us teens don't like to think of ourselves as, getting old. I don't want to grow up matter of fact. If we could live our whole life, stuck in the age you desire, I would love to turn back to when I was happiest. I don't want anything to change. I'd like new experiences, but I don't want to change. But the sad part is, you kind of have to. So far, I hated being 14 because a lot of things have changed. Some good, some bad. I got to meet these amazing people, I got to say goodbye to the ones I had before. I got to go to an amazing program, I got a lot more to do. And I thought being 13 was going to be hard. Bottom line: I wish genies and fairy godmothers existed. Say goodbye to another year, say hello to a new one.

    Maroon 5: Misery Review

    OH MY GOSH I LVOE THIS BAND SO MUCH. I really do. Their music is real and so "like" their past styles of music. They have never changed their style of music and I want it to stay that way. Maybe that's why they're so popular in the charts today. Their music has so much passion and feeling into it, you can just drown in it. You can tell it's so natural for them to sing through their instruments.

    Misery- Maroon 5 Song Review
    Well, obviously in this song, he nmisses his girl so much. You can tell because he's apparently in "misery". She obviously doesn't want him back, and will do anything to get her back. So, that covers the whole meaning of the song. This song was the bomb at first when it came out. Then after multiple radio stations starting laying this over, and over again, it just got plain annoying. It has an infectious beat that I love so much. I LOVE Adam Levine's voice too. The way he sings is so distinguishable because you can tell right away the way his voice sounds that it's the singer from Maroon 5! This song makes me want to dance. That's exactly my type of song that I want. The kinds that make you want to swing your head side to side, make your feet tap up and down, and make your eyes close to emphasize how much you love the song.

    Funny Words to Say

    bibliobibuli:
    those who read too much.

    biffy:
    a toilet or outhouse

    boondoggle:
    an unnecessary activity or wasteful expenditure.

    brobdingnagian:
    enormous, immense.

    brummagem:
    cheap and showy but inferior and worthless.

    crapulous:
    given to, characterized by, or suffering from gross excess in eating and drinking.

    dendrochronology:
    the study of growth rings on trees.

    factotum:
    employee or assistant who does just about everything.

    flummery:
    meaningless chatter; also, deceptive language.

    gobbledygook:
    windy gibberish or jargon.

    gorbellied:
    corpulent

    doodlesack:
    an old term for bagpipe!

    impignorate:
    to mortgage something

    spondulicks:
    a slang term used for money back then

    Thursday, November 11, 2010

    Book Review: 2 Mockingjay- by: Suzanne Collins

    Mockingjay (Hunger Games, #3)Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

    My rating: 2 of 5 stars


    Danica A.
    11/16/10
    English I
    Mr. Williams

    Book Review 3
    Mockingjay- by: Suzanne Collins

    This book was an okay book. It didn’t really have any appeal compared to the first one in the same series. In fact, it was kind of disappointing. I give this book a 2 out of 5. Imagine you saw a commercial for this cereal that had a special surprise inside. that will get you the toy that you’ve been waiting for. And then, when you dig into the box looking for it, only to find out it’s a coupon for 10% off the prize you saw on the commercial. You see how it’s kind of good, kind of bad? It was just like the book. It had some humor, it was too gory, and it was too depressing.

    To start off, this book had some funny parts that kind of made you smile. It livened up the book. Even though it can't make up the cons of reading this book, it still made me smile. In one part of the book Katniss's friend Finnick says this, "’Finnick?’ I say. ‘Maybe some pants?’ He looks down at his legs as if noticing his outfit for the first time. Then he whips off his hospital gown, leaving him in just his underwear. ‘Why? Do you find this’--he strikes a ridiculously provocative pose--’distracting?’” This was very important for the story because it shows that the psychological damage he had received is slowly ebbing away. That means he could fight for the revolution again.

    Secondly, there were some pretty graphic things that were going on in that book. The author described it in so much detail, that it kind of made me sick. It had her trainer step on a mine bomb that went off and blew his leg off. I could not get the image out of my head. Next, there was another one of her friends working with her on a mission that got trapped in a net full of spikes. That was just unbearable to even think.

    In addition, this book was depressing. Every chapter always kind of got really depressing and sad. The beginning and the ending were the only parts of the book I remember that were not sad at all. One of the chapter had the main character’s younger sister go off to help kids and then it turns out that the place was rigged with bombs and she was inside. "She's really gone, then. The little girl with the back of her shirt sticking out like a duck tail," Katniss says this after seeing what happened. Another one had her best friend practically leave her at the end. She got married and he went off to serve in the army. When her mom left to be a nurse, that was very sad too because imagine having your mom all the way in Australia and you’re in Connecticut.

    The book Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins did not appeal to me as much as I had expected it to. This book was a disappointment and I would not recommend it to anyone. I give this book a 2 out 5. Mockingjay had some humor in it, it was too graphic, and too depressing.



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