The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian is the final installment in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Throughout the 400 pages, Percy and his friends must fight the Titans while the gods try to rescue the world by fighting Typhon ( a giant with 100 heads and each eye shoots lava) who got out of the volcano he was trapped in. Percy and friends fight the Titans led by Kronos by making Percy almost immortal in the same process that Achilles almost became immortal, dipping him in the river, Styx. In the end, it comes down to Percy and Annabeth in the throne room against Ethan Nakamura, the son of the goddess of revenge, Nemesis, and Luke who has been taken over by the almighty Kronos. Percy finds out by Ethan's dying breath that Luke had been dipped in the river, Styx, as well. Then in an instant, Luke gains enough control of his body to complete one action-kill himself. Percy has a tough decision, either to kill Luke himself or give Luke the dagger to commit suicide. Percy chooses the latter because he believe that that was what Luke wanted. In addition to killing himself, Luke also kills Kronos who possessed his body. Finally, the gods defeat Typhon and everyone is safe. But Percy has one last demand for saving the world. The gods must all take claim to their children.

Eye of the Forest

In P.B. Kerr's fourth installment the twins protect an ancient Inca secret throughout the 384 pages. They meet Zadie Eloko a good djinn with a bad master and promise her she can come on their next adventure. John accidentally releases a ten thousand year old djinn from a spirit board. Dybbuk lost his power so he helps Finley Macreeby's father Virgil, who is a magician that wants ultimate power from the secret. John and Phillippa go to the Amazon and have to fight Natives and too big to be true monsters made by a secret marauder they go to the lost city of the Incas and stop an accidental destruction of the world. I enjoyed the book because it had many twists in the plot and more action in the story.

Day of the Djinn Warriors

Day of the Djinn Warriors tells the story of the next adventure John and Phillippa embark on. In the 373 page novel by P.B. Kerr, John and Phillipa must discover why ghosts are being moved from the spirit world. Iblis plans to use millions of children's souls to power terracotta warriors so they can live and do his bidding. The twins get help from Marco Polo and Genghis Khan's grandson. The twins Mom had to leave to fulfill her destiny. But will the Children be saved a horrible fate or will the twins and their friend prevail? Read to find out. I reccomend this book just as much if not more than the other installments. It breathes suspense, with an accomplice of constant action, out of every page.

The Winter Room

The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen is 103 pages long. It tells the story of Eldon and his family in Minnesota. during Winter the family stays in the living room listening to Uncle David's stories of other places. Wayne becomes mad at Uncle David, who he usually idolizes, for telling a story about himself and what he could do when he was young. Wayne does not like this because he thinks Uncle David is lying and being a braggart. David does what he said he could have done when he was youthful. He does not know that Eldon and Wayne are watching his feat of amazement. I like this book because of the funny things Wayne and Eldon do together.

Dragon's Gate

"Dragon's Gate" is a 333 page book by Laurence Yep. In the story Otter a young Chinese boy from Three Willows village wants to join his adoptive father and Uncle Foxfire in America, The Land of the Golden Mountain, so that the people may learn how to overthrow the Manchus, who invaded and took over, with technology like trains and other gadgets. When Otter finally goes to America unlike everyone in China's belief he finds out that his uncle and dad are not at the top but rather almost like slaves of the railroad contractors where they work 8 to 12 hours a day chipping away at the mountain the workers call "The Tiger" so that the railway can go through the mountain itself. At the end Foxfire dies, his father is blinded, and Otter is a hero for saving the camp from an avalanche so he can get off the darned god forsaken mountain and back to his pampered ways in China but he carries on his Uncle Foxfire's dream of studying the American tech for the aforementioned overthrow of the Manchu invaders power over China.

The House of the Scorpion

The wall slid open at Matt's touch.The House of the Scorpion is a 373 page science fiction story by Nancy Farmer that tells Matt the Clone's story of life. Growing up Matt lived a poor life with Celia, his adoptive mother, in a house lying in a field of poppies, but all that changed when Mateo Alacran,El Patron, the real Matt reveals his clone. Written for seventh and eighth graders, the characters Celia, Tam Lin, Matt, El Patron, Felicia, Tom, and Maria are warm but a little devious or just plain evil. It takes place in Opium and Aztlan, which are future broken up Mexico countries.
I recommend it absolutely for many reasons. First, the author was hinting at things the whole time so that the reader could guess what would happen next. I liked the fast paced, action filled plot with secretive yet lovable characters like when Matt escaped from the house in the poppies or when Matt escapes Opium to go to Aztlan. When Matt finds the secret passage he doesn't tell anyone proving that he is secretive.
That is why you should read The House of the Scorpion if you enjoy a great Newberry honor book for proficient readers.

Maus

Art Spiegelman wrote Maus, a 298 page comic book about the holocaust from his father's point of view. But the characters instead of Jews, Nazis and Polish people, are mice, cats and pigs respectively. In the book, Art Spiegelman's character is interviewing his father about the holocaust for his book. I liked this book because of the interesting drawings and because Art's father didn't want to talk about certain parts of the holocaust like people in real life. The choice of the comic book format was interesting because the drawings reinforce the ideas presented in each comic book text box. The animals as the characters were good choices because cats eat mice but also it made it kind of a children's book, too. It was pretty realistic and I recommend it because I learned a lot about the holocaust from it.

Battle of the Labyrinth

In the fourth installation of the Percy Jackson series, Battle of the Labyrinth which is 368 pages, Percy finds out that Nico DeAngelo is the son of Hades from the past. He was stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino and although time passed, Nico did not age. Luke gloats about attacking Camp Half-blood through the labyrinth. The whole camp decides to guard the entrance after a capture the flag game in which Percy finds the entrance to the labyrinth. Percy, Tyson, Grover and Annabeth go looking for Daedalus's workshop in the middle of the labyrinth so they could take the string of Ariadne before Luke does. In the labyrinth, Percy and the others find a hundred-handed one whose race is a cousin of Tyson's race. They also find a demon jailer that has poisonous swords and is a dragon woman. When they find Daedalus, they discover they knew him all along. Daedalus's dog, Mrs. O'Leary, leads them back to camp. Meanwhile, Daedalus battles Luke who comes to take the string. Daedalus dies in the battle and Luke succeeds in taking the string. When Luke gets to camp with tons of Kronos's men and the dragon woman who they falsely thought they had killed, there is a giant battle because the camp is defended by dryads, nyads, and the campers who utilize traps. The camp wins after sustaining many injuries and deaths. After the battle, Annabeth uses Daedalus's computer to make many advances in weapons and technology. This is the best book in the series by far because there is a lot of action, betrayal and surprises. Rick Riordan did a great job on this book!

The Titan's Curse

Titan's Curse is a 312 page book written by Rick Riordan. The third installation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series introduces two new demi-gods, Bianca and Nico DeAngelo. When the hunter goddess, Artemis, shows up with her cult of maiden warriors to help Percy fight a manticore, Bianca joins Artemis's hunters. Percy speaks with Artemis and having been told that there is a monster that she must track alone, Percy leaves with the hunters. However, Artemis is gone for along time and during her absence, her lieutenant, Zoe Nightshade has a dream about Artemis being trapped. When Artemis's hunters call upon Camp Half-blood for help, Annabeth, Thalia, Bianca and Percy set out to find Artemis and discover that she is being held captive by Atlas, Kronos's war general. Normally, Atlas would hold up the sky but he tricked Artemis into holding it for him. After a gruelling battle with all of Luke's men, the good guys get Atlas back under the sky and Luke falls off the mountain. I liked this story because it was full of action.

The Sunflower

The Sunflower is a 98 page novel chronicling Simon Wiesenthal, a Jew, during the holocaust. He is sent to Auschwitz where a dying Nazi soldier confesses his sins and tries to repent to Simon. He tells of when they set a house on fire with Jews corralled inside and he was to shoot anyone who tried to escape the fire. when he gets to the part where he shot a family he asks for absolution from Simon. Simon does not say anything and this is absolutely wrong.

Simon is wrong for not giving forgiveness. Simon should have given Karl, the dying Nazi, absolution from his crime because he was dying. He should have humored the SS man who had converted back to his Cristianity despite the teachings he had absorbed.It reminded me of Terrible Things an allegory where the woodland creatures are like the Jews and the Terrible Things are Nazis. The main character is a rabbit that wonders throughout the story if he did the right thing like Simon did after the disturbing deathbed experience. I reccomend it because it has a great twisted plot.

Sea of Monsters

Sea of Monsters, a 304 page masterpiece is wonderfully written by Rick Riordan. In the second installment in the series, Percy has bad dreams about his satyr friend, Grover (for demi-gods dreams are always warnings). It turns out Grover is stuck in a cyclops's cave. Things get even worse when a dozen cannabalistic giants start playing dodge ball with Percy for P.E. Fortunately, Percy's friend Tyson saves the day with his magic ability to touch fire and not get hurt for he is a cyclops. When they go back to camp, everybody thinks that Tyson is a monster/bad guy. But when Tyson is claimed by Poseidon, people start teasing Percy about his half-brother. Tyson looks up to Percy, but Percy doesn't like the thought of having Tyson as a brother because Tyson is a monster. Tyson gives Percy many gifts from the forge and they use these gifts during the chariot races and then they win. Percy, Annabeth and Tyson decide to go to the Sea of Monsters to try to rescue Grover. On the way, they meet Clarisse, a child from the Ares cabin, with her submarine full of dead confederates who are helping her. They rescue Grover and get the golden fleece that they found on the island. Then, they send Clarisse home and Luke, the person that tried to kill Percy last summer, shows up and tries to kill Percy again in a sword-to-sword combat duel. Percy wins with the help of centaurs and all ride home victorious. I recommend this book because again it is interesting in the way that he creates an empathy link between Grover and Percy, tying their fates together.

The Lightning Thief

Written by Rick Riordan,The Lightning Thief is a 375 page novel.Percy the main character in the story is a demigod, a half- human half-god, that goes to a camp for others of his kind when he is twelve. Before this , he is unaware that he is a demi-god. One day a fury who he has always known as his math teacher, Mrs. Dodds, attacks him on a school field trip and is turned into dust when Mr. Brunner/Chiron throws Percy a pen and tells him to uncap it. The pen elongates into a sword made of celestial bronze and Percy uses it to slash the fury, turning her into dust. When the school year ends, Percy and his mom go to Montauk. Grover, a satyr (a goat from the waist down and a human from the waist up) comes to their door bewildered. He tells Mrs. Jackson that she and Percy needed to leave the house, so they leave in her car. When they leave, they find a minotaur following them. Percy fights the minotaur but before he can save her, his mom "dies". He kills the minotaur who likes to eat half-bloods and enters the camp as directed by his mom but as soon as he does, he blacks out. When he wakes he sees a girl who is feeding him something. This girl is Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena, who becomes one of his best friends. At the camp, there are many things to do, like a rock-climbing wall that shakes and pours lava , an archery range, a sword-fighting arena, a chariot track and a volley ball pit along with strawberry fields. Percy learns at the camp of the Big Three, which consists of Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades, who swore not to have any more half-blood children after World War ll. When Percy is claimed as Poseidon's son nobody likes him because he is the result of a broken oath and he has to move to the Poseidon cabin which is vacant. This book has tons of Greek mythology.

Lots of Greek mythology is evident in this story in many ways. Chiron, satyrs, demi-gods, the Greek gods, minotaurs and furies were all part of Greek mythology.Riordan uses the Greek mythology and blends with a modern twist in setting the novel in New York and the surrounding country. This is effective for those who like to hear of folk tales and stories of monsters and heroes. The blending of modern and ancient is interesting because there are planes, submarines and all sorts of things that industrialize the gods territories. For example, Percy who is the son of Poseidon cannot fly in planes because that is considered Zeus's territory. However, Pegasi are neutral because they are horses and Poseidon supposedly created horses. This modern twist to Greek mythology is in all of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian books to come. I highly recommend them all because of the prestigious author's ability to catch a reader's interest and make them read more.

Artemis Fowl: Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl the novel I read is written by Eoin Colfer and is 342 pages long. I like it because it is witty and interesting .

The Big Field

The Big Field


Mike Lupica’s, The Big Field, is a 243 page book about a young shortstop nicknamed Hutch. Hutch plays shortstop on the baseball diamond until a better shortstop, Daryll, comes along and Hutch is forced to move to second base. He envies the new shortstop who is always boastful, and they eventually get into a fight because Hutch sees his dad practicing with the new shortstop, and he feels that his dad hates baseball because he wasn’t good enough unless he is practicing with Daryll. All this, however, is resolved in part because the two teammates put aside their trivial differences so they can win the championship at the big field. The strength of this book is achieved by the realistic emotions felt by both the protagonists and antagonists that remind us of natural behavior or feelings.

The strength of this book is the power of its realism which is represented through many examples. One example is that Daryll does not have a father so he feels jealous of Hutch when he takes him for granted. Another example is Hutch’s feelings of anger towards his father because he chose not to help him but Daryll and he isn’t even his own son. And a third example exists when Hutch feels ashamed of his dad because he has to drive people around or carry their golf bags or even work at Hutch’s school’s snack bar for a living,but there is some twist when his dad shows Hutch where he works Hutch finnaly respects him more and Daryll bonding with Hutch slowly over time, and Hutch and his dad celebrating after they win the championship game Hutch and his family aren't stressed and feel like a real family. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who loves baseball or a good triumph story.