Reading Circle - Reflection 9

Our group reviewed the first two chapters of the sequel to "The Lighting Thief" by Rick Riordan called The Sea Of Monsters. The book starts with Percy having a nightmare about his friend Grover who is the satyr who brought Percy to camp Half-Blood. In the nightmare Grover is chased by a large monster near a beach. The monster seemed to want something from Grover as it screams "MINE!" He then woke up startled. There was a knock on his bedroom door and while his mother called him down as he was late he thought he might have seen a shadow flicker across the glass. It was his last day of school and the year miraculously went by without any incidents. Percy eats his breakfast of blue waffles and blue eggs and tells her about his dream. She then says if Grover was in trouble they would have heard from camp and offers to take Percy and his friend Tyson to Rockefeller Center. Percy then points out that they were supposed to pack for camp. His mother says that she got a message from Chiron saying that camp might not be safe.

Percy goes to school meets up with his friend Tyson and later they get bullied by Sloan and his gang. As Percy and Tyson leave class a girl's voice whispers Percy's name. He shrugs it off and goes to gym. In gym class as they were playing dodgeball Sloan's friends suddenly turn eight-foot-tall giants. Annabeth materialises out of nowhere and helps Percy kill the giants. As the teachers arrived confused, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson escape through a hole in the wall caused by one of the giants.

The book like the last one is told in Percy's point of view. Percy a teenager with ADHD and Dyslexia and is a demigod similar to those in Greek myths. Because Percy defends Tyson from the bullies it shows that he helps people in need and that he is a loyal person.

In the discussion we talked about Percy's life according to the start of the book, why camp isn't safe for him at the moment and if what he dreamt predicted the future or is showing him what was happening at that moment. Next time I will be the summariser and I will try to shorten the summary of the next five chapters by only adding in the important bits.

Reading Circle - Reflection 8

Our group read a book called "Under The Ice" by John Gordon. Although I wasn't there because I was sick I have talked to my group about what i've done for the discussion. The story is set in the sub-urbs sometime during winter.

The story starts seemingly normal at first when a friend invites the main character over to his house to hang out, later they both go ice skating at the nearby lake. The friends skate at night so there is an ominous aura being given off. While he is skating he suddenly sees a corpse under the ice he is skating on. Just as he thought the night could not be creepier his friend tells him that he and his father drowned his uncle here. He goes on to explain why he drowned his uncle and later sends the main character home.

Next day they both acted like nothing happened and business went on as usual. One day his friend invited him over again and they went skating. They talked about what happened last time and continued skating. Suddenly his friend's father warned them to go back. They started skating towards the bank but when the moon starts to emerge a crack appears in the ice. The corpse crashes through the ice and grabs the friend. The father skates toward him but alas it is too late and the corpse takes them both into the water. The main character just stands there watching as his friend and his friend's father drown.

I thought the ending was extremely scary, especially because I read that at night. The story seems to be a movie style scary story with a scary twist in the end where the dead takes revenge for the wrong done on him/her. The genre of this book is Horror/Thriller and I think I would only recommend this story to people who are interested in this genre.

Reading Circle - Reflection 7

We read a short story called "The Bear Got Me" by Matthew Licht. It's about an engineer who is sent to a military base in Alaska to maintain and fix their facilities. On the way he spots something moving on the road. Curiosity gets the better of him and he slows down to get a better look. As it got closer he could see a bear. He knew it wasn't an ordinary bear as it continued to chase him. Suddenly a bright light blinds him and he is forced to stop. As two soldiers approach him he visualizes the being torn apart by the bear. The vision quickly subsides and when he tells them his story they dismiss it as him having too much to drink.

The story was bizarre and I couldn't tell if he was hallucinating or not, there was no background story about the character and it was left on a cliffhanger. I guess that he was actually hallucinating because he couldn't get much sleep driving to the base. The genre of the story is a suspense-thriller as the bear did not stop chasing him and disappeared at the last second.

As the summariser I found it really difficult to summarise this story as the structure of it made it confusing. It was a challenge but I managed to do it. Next time as a summariser I would like to read another challenging book.

Reading Circle - Reflection 6

We discussed the last two chapters of animal farm. In this chapter the animals have started rebuilding the windmill after the celebration. Boxer refused to stop working every day and it led to him injuring his lung. Napoleon assured the animals that they were taking Boxer to the vet while in reality they sent him to be killed. It is found out that Napoleon sold Boxer to the horse slaughterer so he could buy more whiskey. In the end Animal Farm was renamed to Manor Farm and what was left of the farm was a shadow of it's former self. 

We talked about if a second rebellion were to happen would the state of the farm become better or worse and we also talked about the future of the farm. I think that the book talks about the corruption of leaders and also how greed can effect a successful revolution.

Reading Circle - Reflection 5

As we are close to finishing Animal Farm one thing I noticed the past few weeks was how similarly the events of the book mirror the events of world war 2. We discussed about Napoleon and his use of propaganda (squealer) to brainwash the animals in the farm.

As the quote finder I have pointed out in a quote how people with power can bend laws to suit their purposes.

Reading Circle - Reflection 4

We discussed about how Napoleon took over the farm. The situation was similar to Stalin and Trotsky, Stalin trained his own guard like Napoleon trained the dogs then they rose to power. The pig called squealer is similar to propaganda that Stalin used to keep power. Since the story is sort of based about WWII i'm expecting the farm to invade other farms.

I participated quite well in this discussion bringing up the similarities to WWII. Next week as a quote finder I will try to read between the lines.

Reading Circle - Reflection 3

Today we talked about the first chapter of a story called "Animal Farm". It starts on a farm with a pig called Major rallying all the farmyard animals to the barn for a meeting. Major talks about how humans are mistreating animals, working them hard then in the end they kill them. Major also talks about how all the humans are enemies which I thought was untrue as vegans would be on their side. I thought that the story was quite like Charlottes Web except Wilbur was treated better that the animals in Animal farm.

I thought that I worked quite well as the discussion director and I have improved my discussion skills.

Reading Circle - Reflection 2

The story we discussed about was seemingly normal at first, Dick was getting ready for a test and his family was assuring him that he would do well and telling him not to worry. But then as the events unfurled I suspected something bad was going on, my suspicions were confirmed as the short story ended with a call from the examiner telling the parents that their son Dick's intelligence exceeded government regulation and they also asked them wether they want them to dispose of the body or if they want a private burial.

By completing my role I have improved on finding main quotes in a story and explaining on what I thought the quote was about. I think that the story was good, if what I read was part of a book I would like to read the whole thing as what I read ended in a cliffhanger which left me wanting to know what happens next.

Reading Circle - Reflection

Today I learnt that there are many ways someone can structure a story. The story we discussed consisted of random parts of the individual's life which were filled with strange but funny adventures. I thought that stitching together bits of the character's life to make a story was interesting.

By completing my role I have improved my visualization of what I thought happened in the story. If I had the chance to be in this role again I would draw a picture that vaguely resembles the story because it would be interesting to see what the others think it represents.

I liked the story but I also thought that it was quite strange as the dad seems to get into crazy situations and does crazy things.

Shakespeare

Before we started the activity I had already read about Shakespeare and his life. 

Facts I already knew:

-He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.

-His last words.

-Where he lived.

-His wife's name.

-The theatre he worked in.

We got a few right but we got the dates wrong. I've learnt about some of his past life, his father's job and the names of some plays. I think that this game improved our knowledge of shakespeare.

New Years

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."


I chose this quote as my favorite quote for new year because of the phrase "Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves." It makes new year seem like a fresh start.


Now a picture that stuck in my mind from last year was the picture of Gaddafi lying dead. It stuck in my mind because there were many people crowding him and taking pictures. I thought this was a terrible thing to do as the dead should be respected and buried in a proper funeral. I don't think I should post the picture as it is really gruesome.