Leo+S

__**Leo's School Books Page!**____**2011-2012**__
 * __[[image:phoenixkidsread2011-12/panda-6.gif width="125" height="168"]]+__**

ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||  || This book was very interesting. I thought that the author was very good at describing the thoughts that the main characters, Josh and Sophie Newman. The continuing doubt that the twins started to have towards the Flamels, the other main characters, was built upon and very dramatized. || Zacks || Suzanne Collins || Fiction ||  || I liked this book partly because of the action, but at the same time this book made me feel sick. The thought that kids, twelve to eighteen years old, were sent into an arena to kill each other was horrible. The fact that people had to treat it as some sort of celebration, and that the people who organized this event called it a game made this book all the more crazy. Even though this book was a bit gruesome, it was well written by the author Suzanne Collins, and the political events of the story, especially towards the end, gave it a very nice twist into the second and third books. || ZackS || Elie Wiesel || biography ||  || Night was a very emotional book. It was powerful, and moving, and the author, Elie Wiesel, used compelling language to tell the story of his life. I was almost in tears as I read that he would porbably never see his mother or his sister again. He had a way of writing, that made me feel as if I was there, running the long treks with him, to get to the next prison. I guess I could call his type of writing complex simplicity. I know it is an oximoron, but his style of writing, conveyed so much more than the few words that he wrote; they carried across an entire message; this is what it was like for me. || ZackS || Jacob Boas || documentary/biography ||  || This book was similar to Night, not in the story, but in the type of writing. Sure, both books were set during the Holocaust, but they weren't really all that similar, whereas the writing, it managed to again, say so much more than the simple words written down. It was an emotional book, that spoke out. || Zacks || Christopher Paolini || Fantasy ||  || I liked this book a lot. I have read it over and over and over again, but each time I read it, I find myself going back and finding something that I didn't notice the time before. This book was complex, and the author, Christopher Paolini, wound an epic that that included myth, legend, and fantasy. || Zacks || Christopher Paolini || Fantasy ||  || This book, much like the first one in the style of writing, was very good as well. It started where the previous one left off. Eragon, scarred by the shade Durza had to continue his training in Ellesmera, the city of the elves. During one of the elves' traditions, the Blood Oath Celebration, he was gifted by the dragons; the gift of the speed, strength, and perception of an elf. The scars that he had aquired over the many years he had worked as a farmer were gone, along with the scar that the shade gave him. I liked this twist because previously I had thought that the "good guys" in this story were doomed because although Eragon was a good fighter, he just wasn't as good as elves. He didn't posess the toughness that the main character needed to have. When he gained these powers, I was overjoyed that the "good guys" had a chance. || ZackS || Christopher Paolini || Fantasy ||  || At the end of this book, the note written by the author explained that this book would be split into two, Brisingr, and Inheritance. This book was again, very well written, like the previous ones. This book had an interesting plot line, and when the twist came, I was very happy. Eragon learned that the dragons' minds still existed through their "heart of hearts' eldunari. This was different and turned the direction the book was going into in a different direction. || ZackS || Christopher Paolini || Fantasy ||  || I thought that this book was the best out of the entire cycle because it tied up all of the loose ends, and came to a satisfying end. The ending was especially good, because the protagonists prevailed, and the antagonists failed without the main character turning into a murderer. I thought that the author thought of a very clever way to sum up all of the books. || ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||   || This book was just as good as the two previous books before it in the series. It focused mainly on the Sorceress, Perenelle Flamel. It was a very nice fantasy that had lots of great action, but at the same time, had a very clever twist. She and her husband, the legendary Nicholas Flamel were slowly dying because they couldn't use the immortality potion to renew themselves. || ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||  || I thought that this book was very good, and that it had a very nice twist. In the preceeding books, the two main characters, Josh and Sophie Newman, had had doubts about whether to trust the two immortal humans, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. The author, Michael Scott, had Josh Newman turn to the dark side after two of the many antagonists, Dr. John Dee, and Virginia Dare manipulate him. He was turned against his own twin thanks to the manipulation and now hates her. || ZackS || Kate Dicamillo || Fantasy ||  || This book was written for a bit of a younger audience, but was a very enjoyable short read. I enjoyed it mostly because of the intense vocabulary that the author, Kate Dicamillo, used. She explained many of the words that she used, and applied them to her character. One of the things that surprised me about this book was that the author spoke to the reader. She addressed the reader and talked to the reader throughout the book. || ZackS || Jacob Gowans || Science Fiction ||  || This was the first book of the series, and I had never even heard of it. My mom downloaded it onto my kindle for me, but when I started reading, I was hooked. I couldn't stop. This book, although fairly simple, was a very nice action book. It was a short read, but delved more into the main character's physical aspects. || ZackS || Jacob Gowans || Science Fiction ||  || The second book of the series delved more into the emotional aspects of the main character. When Sammy was abducted and taken to a building for interogation, his captors tortured him. The author, Jacob Gowans described the torture. The torturer, a man that Sammy nicknamed Stripe, applied different types of cream onto different nerves of Sammy's body. Each cream sent the brain signals about whichever type of pain the cream inflicted. There were creams that made Sammy's body feel freezing, or boiling. There was sharpness, and pressure, and twisting, and wrenching; and it was all fake. This book focused on the main character's sanity, and his path, to try and keep his sanity as he escaped with another convict, and walked from Rio, all the way to Witchita; only to have his friend killed by his enemies. It was an emotional book that made me especially feel what the main character felt. || ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||  || This book was very short, and it didn't have much depth. I didn't expect it to be so short. It was a side story, but I thought that the author could have built on it a bit more. || ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||  || This was a tiny bit longer than The Death of Joan of Arc, but it was still very small. I thought that it could have been much longer as well, and it didn't play into the main story at all. It was just one of the main character's adventures. || ZackS || Rick Riordan || Fantasy ||  || The Son of Neptune was a very good book, and it was a good second book in the series. I had read the previous series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but the author, Rick Riordan, made that series seem insignificant compared to this one. This book was a great second edition. || ZackS || Suzanne Collins || Fiction ||  || While the first book focused mainly on the main character's survival, this one focused a lot on the political side. After beating the games in the first book, and angering the government by making them look like fools, the president is set on revenge. He says that the only way that Katniss and everyone that she loves will be safe, is to convince him, that the only reason that she offered to kill herself, and her team mate by holding out the poison berries, thus making the governments false image shatter, that she was madly in love with her fellow player, Peeta. She is sent back into the games for a second time, a horrible experience, this time, with only one mission, to keep Peeta alive. In the end of the competition, she blows up a force field surrounding the arena, keeping the players in. People rescue her and another tribute that she trusted named Finnick Odair, but not Peeta. She really is heartbroken, and she doesn't know if she has the will to keep living. || ZackS || Suzanne Collins || Fiction ||  || This book was mainly about what Katniss Everdeen had to go through. She and her family were saved by another district, district thirteen and kept safe until they went to war with the government. It focused mainly on what Katniss went through emotionally as she saw some people try and gain power, some try to keep their power, and some lose it. This was my least favorite book of the series. One of the reasons being that they killed off Katniss's little sister Prim. It had an unsatisfying end, but the rest of the book was okay. || ZackS || Michael Scott || Fantasy ||  || This book was one of my favorites of the series so far because of all of the emotions that Sophie Newman is going through. She was betrayed by her brother Josh, but because Dr. John Dee, and Virginia Dare, tricked Josh, Josh thinks it is the other way around. In the end, the biggest twist was my favorite because the readers find out that Dee's masters, the ones who want to bring human civilization to its knees so the Dark Elders, beings 10000 years old and older, who want control over the earth again, have been posing as Sophie's and Josh's parents the entire time. The book is left off at a surprisng twist, and I can't wait to find out what happens in the final book. || = =
 * **#** || **Date** || **Title** || **Author** || **Genre** || **Pages** || **Comment** ||
 * 1 || 9/12/11 || The Magician
 * ||  ||   || Comment by Dad ||   ||   || This series has caught Leo's interest. He's also read the third and the fourth book. We'll be looking for another series for him to get interested in. ||
 * 2 || 10/11/11 || The Hunger Games
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 * 3 || ? || Night
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 * 4 || ? || We Are Witnesses
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 * 5 || ? || Eragon
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 * 6 || ? || Eldest
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 * 7 || ? || Brisingr
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 * 8 || ? || Inheritance
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 * 9 || ? || The Sorceress
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 * 10 || ? || The Necromancer
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 * 11 || ? || The Tale of Desparaux
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 * 12 || 1/13/12 || Psion Beta
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 * 13 || 1/15/12 || Psion Gamma
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 * 14 || ? || The Death of Joan of Arc
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 * 15 || ? || Billy the Kid and the Vampyre Chronicles
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 * 16 || ? || The Son of Neptune
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 * 17 || ? || Catching Fire
 * ||  ||   || Comment by Dad ||   ||   || This book took place after King Polydectes and his court are turned to stone by the head of Medusa. Phaidon, one of the boys who worked in this kitchen had a sister who was turned to stone as well. Phaidon decides to give his sister a decent burial and goes on a journey with his new uncle and two friends to escape the island that they live on and find a new home. Along the way, they get marooned by sailors on what they thought to be a deserted island. They also encounter Scylla and Charybdis, two monsters. This book was very good because the author Vivian ||
 * 18 || ? || Mockingjay
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 * 19 || ? || The Warlock
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 * ||  || XXXXXXXXXXX ||   ||   ||   || GOOD TO SEE SUCH THOUGHTFUL COMMENTS. ||
 * 20 || 2/5/12 || Words by Heart || Ouida Sebestyen || History ||  || This book was thoughtful, and full of heart. The main character, Lena, went through a lot when she won a bible reciting contest. When she came home the night of the competition, she and her papa, and her stepmother Claudie, found a knife stuck in the bread. Claudie, instantly thought it was a message from the white people, telling them to get out, but her father, a reasonable man who believed in the bible and who followed it wholeheartedly, urged and convinced her that it was not so. Lena then went to help a white woman, Mrs. Chism who was a widow and was getting rid of all of her books, beloved books that Lena wanted so badly. One day she stole one, and from then on, she continued to steal them until her father found out. Her father, was sent to Hawk's Hill place to fix one of Mrs. Chism's fences. When he didn't come home the night he was scheduled to, Lena ran away to find him. She traveled the long road, and found him lying on the ground; dirty, but happy. She learned that a man had shot her father, but the shot had scared the man's horse, thus sending the man tumbling from it. Her father asked her to forgive the man, just like god would, but Lena couldn't bring herself to let go. Heartbroken, she brought her dead father and the almost dead man back to her town. When she was asked who had killed her father, she lied and said she didn't know, for her father. In her heart, Lena learned to forgive. I particularly liked this book because the emotions that Lena felt were strong, and she had great connections with her family. ||
 * 21 || 2/5/12 || The Mysterious Benedict Society || Trenton Lee STewart || Fiction ||  || I loved this book because it made me think. Even though it was an action book in one sense, it was a thoughtful and smart action book. The young heroes, Reynie Muldoon, Kate Wetherall, Sticky Washington, and Constance Contraire, were extraordinary kids who were very smart. They were sent to the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, L.I.V.E. Their mission was to figure out how a man, Ledroptha Curtain, was sending messages into people's minds. They were admitted and soon figured it out. The messages were being sent by a machine called the Whisperer, a machine that gave an illusion of no fear. The classes were very confusing, and sounded like nonsense, but they were all part of a plan, a plan that would make Ledroptha Curtain the ruler of the world. Reynie and his friends stopped Mr. Curtain with the help of a man named Mr. Benedict, and his friends, Rhonda, and a woman who was called Number Two. This unique style of writing that the author, Trenton Lee Stewart used, made me think, and try to anticipate what would come next, but at the same time, it was an adventure story that pulled me in and kept me turning the pages. ||
 * 22 || ? || The Five Ancestors: Tiger || Jeff Stone || Fiction ||  || Kung Fu has been an interest of mine for over two years and this book has furthered my interest. This book is the first of the series and it features Fu, which is Cantonese. I read this book in four hours at the library. This was a fast easy read, but was full of information about Kung Fu. Fu is a twelve year old monk who has mastered the Kung Fu art of the Tiger. He fights like a tiger, has a build like a tiger, and his personality is that of a tiger. His temple, Cangzhen Temple was attacked by a brother of the temple, Ying. He is sixteen and has mastered Eagle style Kung Fu, but he longs to be a dragon master. A dragon master trains in the five different animal Kung Fu types. Dragons are not as powerful as the people who just train one Kung Fu style, but are still almost as powerful. Ying seeks revenge on Grandmaster, the leader of the temple. He brings with him an entire army armed with Quiangs, long tubes that shoot out lead balls that kill people. All one hundred of the warrior monks in Cangzhen Temple fall to the quiangs except for the Fu and his four other brothers. Fu flees when Grandmaster faces off against Ying. His goal is to get the legendary dragon scrolls which supposedly hold the keys to becoming a dragon style master. He fights Tonglong, the Mantis style master and flees into the night. He has many adventures. One where his animal tiger instincts take over and he goes into a rage, but another where he saves a village by sacrificing himself. When he is being brought to the emperor in a cage, monkeys suddenly appear and start bombarding the army guarding Fu with their vicious attacks. Leading the attack is Malao, the eleven year old Monkey style Kung Fu master. ||
 * 23 || ? || The Five Ancestors: Monkey || Jeff Stone || Fiction ||  || When Malao, (the Monkey style Kung Fu master,) and his brothers fled the scene of Grandmaster fighting Ying, he decided to circle back and see if he could be of any help to anybody. While there he meets his other brother, Hok, and teams up with him to bury Grandmaster's body because Ying defeated Grandmaster. Malao can not bring himself to look at Grandmaster so he flees. He flees into the night and leaves Hok by himself. When he gets into the forest, he finds a white monkey with one eye who soon becomes his friend. With his new friend, he comes upon a gang of bandits. The bandits want to cut him up so they can have liver soup that night, but Malao won't have it. A mysterious bandit also disagrees and says that any noble man would fight the boy until he admitted defeat, then he could eat him. The bandit that fights Malao is named Hung, which means Bear in Cantonese. Malao's monkey style Kung Fu is made to fight people who are much bigger than him, people like Hung. A fight ensues and Malao is able to hold off Hung. When he looks to see who suggested the fight, the mysterious stranger, he sees him. It's his brother Seh. Seh, the snake, sneaks up on Malao in the middle of the night and tells Malao about the bandits. He thinks that the bandits could possibly help him and his five brothers. When he meets up with Fu, he finds out that his father was the Monkey King, and he must find him. He also here that his father was driven off by a person named Bing. He swears that he'll find this person as well. He and Fu are captured though. They manage to fight the people off, but one of the man fires his quiang, a warning shot to Ying. ||
 * 24 || ? || The Five Ancestors: Snake || Jeff Stone || Fiction ||  || In this book, Seh learns that his brother Hok, is actually a girl. He teams up with the bandits and has many adventures. He and his two brothers, Malao and Fu, go to the bandit stronghold where they meet two other Kung Fu masters. Their names are shallow and deep and they are able to fight extraordinarily well in the water. When they go to the bandit stronghold, Seh finds out that his father was Mong, the Python style Kung Fu master. Mong's wife, Angangseh, comes to a bandit feast and he meets her. Her name means cobra in Cantonese. Seh is talking to his mother during the feast and she convinces to give him two of the three dragon scrolls that Seh has. Suddenly, the bandit stronghold is attacked by Ying and his army. The bandits are barely able to fight them off and they flee into the night. When the bandits are first attacked, a man come up to try to incapacitate Angangseh and Seh, but Angangseh jabs the man in his neck with her very long, very sharp fingernails. The man's neck swells to twice its normal size and he dies. She had poison underneath her fingernails. Seh and his brothers flee where they meet up with Fu's father, Sanfu, mountain tiger. They go to the the city and get ready for the dragon boat festival. There, they meet Hok with her family. When Tonglong, the mantis, takes over Ying's troops, he opens fire into the city in an attempt to capture Seh, Malao, Fu, Hok, and their parents. Malao in a rage jumps onto Tonglong's boat and fends off the soldiers, but a hand, a hand with very sharp and long fingernails jabs him and he drops to the floor of the boat unconscious. Seh realizes that his mother is evil. He flees and he asks Hok's mother what her name is. Her name is Bing. ||
 * 25 || ? || Singer to the Sea God || Vivian Seacock || Fiction ||  || This book takes place after Polydectes and his court are turned to stone by the head of Medusa. Phaidon, one of the boys who worked in the kitchen has a sister who was turned to stone. Phaidon decides to give his sister a decent burial and decides to go on a journey with his new uncle and two friends to escape from the island and get a new home. Along the way, they come across some sailors on what they thought to be a deserted island and encounter the monsters Scylla and Charybodis. This was a pretty good book because the author did a good job describing everything. ||
 * 25 || 3/5/12 || The Lovely Bones || Alice Sebold || Realistic Fiction ||  || This book was a tragic book and definitely only for older kids. The main character is killed and she watches her family on earth as she lays in her perfect heaven. Alice Sebold is able to write in one of the most extraordinary ways. Her intricate way of writing is unique and she can form an image in my mind. While she watches how her family copes with her death, she sees that her family in the beginning is a wreck, but when her family reforms, her entire family forms a bond bigger than the one that they had when she was still alive. She sees her family and all of her friends grow up in ways that she never expected and they all go their separate ways. Some of them can sense her watching them, but she is always watching all of them. She is the one that formed them, that kept them together. She is //The Lovely Bones.// ||
 * 26 || 3/30/12 || The Devil and His Boy || Anthony Horowitz || Historical Fiction ||  || I enjoyed this book thoroughly for it's mystery and suspense. This book takes place in the Queen Elizabeth age where a boy named Tom lives in the small village of Framelingham. He is treated as a slave by Sebastian and Henrietta Slope; the owners of The Boar's Head Inn. One night, he is visited by a mysterious man who announces that he will be taking Tom to England which is five days travel from Framelingham. One the way to England, they are ambushed by a man who calls himself Gamiliel Ratsy who is a thief hired by the Slopes. Ratsy shoots the mysterious man and is about to capture Tom when the mysterious man leaves one last message for Tom, "Find Moorfield," and slaps the rump of the horse bringing Tom with the horse to England. When he gets to England, he has no money or any belongings so he wanders into central England to find work. There, he is recruited by a man named James Grimly who brings Tom back to his house to "prepare him for work." Grimly is about to cut off Tom's legs when he is rescued by a girl named Moll Cutpurse. She saves him and sends him off to work as an actor for Shakespear, but instead, he is recruited by Dr. Mobius, a member of The Garden Players, (an acting company.) He and The Garden Players rehears their play called, //The Devil and His Boy//. They are to perform in front of the queen soon. They perform their play, but while tom is backstage, he realizes something. The barrels of the fake muskets that they use in the final act are in fact the barrels of guns. He realizes that The Garden Players are going to try to assassinate the queen. In a desperate act, he runs in front of the queen to protect her when he slips on a board and lands on her. He is blamed for trying to attack the queen. When he is sent to prison, he is to be hanged. Thankfully, Moll Cutpurse and Gamiliel Ratsy explain to the queen what happened and he is not hanged. He decides to become an actor for Shakespear thanks to the queen who he finds out is is grandmother. The author Anthony Horowitz has a good way to make easy books to read with suspense and action. He is also the author of the Alex Rider series which I enjoy just as much. ||
 * 27 || ? || The Five Ancestors: Crane || Jeff Stone || Fiction ||  || This was the fourth book in //The Five Ancestors// series that I enjoyed very much. In this book, Hok, the crane, flees Cangzhen Temple and hopes to find refuge in Shaolin Temple. She gets to Shaolin Temple and is confronted by a monk named Tsung, leopard. Tsung lunges at Hok with the speed of a leopard and whacks her head. Right before she falls unconscious Tsung tells her that he is one of the Emperor's generals and she is his ticket into Shaolin Temple, the temple from which he was banished. Hok awakes amidst a battle raging inside Shaolin temple and flees Shaolin Temple as well where all of the monks were killed by General Tsung's troops. She collapses by the side of a road and lies there until a sixteen year old boy picks her up and carries her back to his ship's captain's wife who Hok finds out is her mother, Bing. She and her family travel to the city of Kaefing and are in celebration when they are attacked and Malao is captured. Hok, Fu, Seh, and their parents and family manage to make it back to their safe house. Hok sneaks out to find out where Anganseh, Seh's mother, and Tonglong took Malao. She decides to visit Ying who was put in Jail by the emperor where Ying tells her that Tonglong most likely brought Malao to a safe house. Right as she is helping Ying out of jail, she notices Tsung. Tsung tries once again to defeat her, but with Ying's help, Hok manages to defeat General Tsung and escape with Ying. YIng disappears into the night and Hok goes back to the safe house. She takes Fu, Seh, Cheen, and Sum to the safe house where Malao is being held. They are confronted by Ha Mo, the toad style Kung Fu master. He defeats Hok, Cheen, and Sum and captures Fu. Angangseh is also at the Safe house and she poisons her son Seh and tries to drown him. Hok manages to save him and they retreat. ||