Letter to Author Ryan Conklin

Dear Mr. Ryan Conklin,

           I am writing a letter to you about your book An Angel From Hell and how it changed my view of things around me. I loved the book and how you describe your view of the war in depth. Honestly its my favorite book, I do read quite a bit, but this one takes it.
           The book An Angel From Hell changed my view of the war. I have always wanted to join the Army ever since I was little and always thought of it being different. My thought of a soldier was these gung-ho guys looking for some action. My view changed to regular men and woman who are incredibly patriotic and want to help this country. Your book helped change my view by telling war how it is; it's hard, sad, and scary. I have wanted to be in the military since I was little because it always seemed really heroic. When I was five I watched "Black Hawk Down", I saw all the branches come together to save their comrades at all cost and it inspired me.
            I found this book in my school's library and thought, "Cool, a book from an actual soldier and not a made up story." I have always had an interest in military books, but a lot of them were written by average authors and not from someone who actually experienced it. I liked your writing style. You didn't sugar coat the book, you explained every gruesome detail about it and I really respect you for doing that. I also liked how you talked about the Fobbits just standing around doing nothing and acting like they were out in battle.
             I have a few questions to ask you though. Have you talked to your fellow soldiers of the Rakkasans lately? How has your life changed since you got back or as of late? In the book, you said that you had gone back to war in 2010, are you planning to write about your experience during that deployment?
             If you are writing another book, I will be looking forward to your next book. I also want to thank you for serving our country and for writing the book, It must have been hard to relive that experience.



                                                                                                                      Sincerely, Connor

The Girl Who Threw Butterflies (Dear Author)

Dear author Mick Cochrane,
Over the summer I was assigned to read your book The Girl Who Threw Butterflies.  I actually really enjoyed reading this book.  I felt like it truly inspired me to stand up for what I believe in no matter the circumstances.  Molly is a strong, talented, and brave girl.  She works her hardest to prove that she can be part of the baseball team too. Even though this is the boys baseball team, she feels that this is the only way she can hold onto the memory of her father.  Molly is doing what her hearts wants and that means something to me.
Since I was little my father has taught me softball. We spent hours in the yard playing catch, just like Molly and her father. He taught me to play my hardest no matter what.  In a way, that is what Molly is doing.  She is playing her hardest to be accepted by the team.  Even though the boys judge her, mock her, and make fun of her, Molly keeps her head up high and doesn't let the hurtful words get to her.  Because of Molly's hard work, she makes the team. Throughout the book, she gains more and more respect from her teammates.  She knew this journey wasn't going to be easy, but she followed her heart, and in the end, that is all that mattered.
Your book has shown me that if you work your hardest you can do anything you set your mind to.  It has inspired me to never give up on my dreams no matter how hard or impossible they are.  We all go through points in our lives where we doubt ourselves, but now that I have read The Girl Who Threw Butterflies,  I know that there is always a way to accomplish the impossible.

The Obsidian Trilogy Final Blog

I have finally finished the last book in The Obsidian Trilogy, When Darkness Falls. The series, although a little slow especially at first, accelerates until the end of the last book, which is fast-paced and full of twists and surprises. Here is a final review for the series.

In the beginning of this book, Kellen lives in the Mage-City of Armethalieh. The entire city is based upon magick: the very walls themselves to the smallest household items are impacted by magick. But Kellen comes to realize that the mages are corrupt. When he finds three books describing a different kind of magic he hasn't seen before, he is banished by his father. He uses this new magic to call a unicorn named Shalkan who helps him to escape the boundaries of Armethalieh. Once outside the boundaries, he finds a mage who has the same three books, and he discovers that she is his sister. She trains him in the ways of the Wild Magic, but he is not very good at it. Eventually, they have to evacuate to the Elven Lands because Armethalieh is expanding its borders. Once there, they find the Elves deep into drought with no supposed cause. But Idalia and Kellen realize that there is a barrier stopping all the weather from coming in. Kellen and Idalia's elf-friend Jermayan embark on a journey to destroy the barrier. On the way there, Kellen discovers that he is a Knight-Mage, an amazing warrior that uses magic to make him nearly invincible in battle and a great strategist. The books ends after he completes this quest.

To Light a Candle starts where The Outstretched Shadow left off. Kellen and Jermayan are just beginning their journey back after freeing the Elven Lands from their drought. However, the rains are being released with the force of many months' rainfall at once, which makes journeying treacherous. By the time Kellen gets back, the Elves have realized that the Demons are preparing to attack the creatures of the Light (elves, humans, unicorns, etc.) again, just as they did a thousand years ago. The Elves gather their armies to fight the Demons, but this time the Demons are using different tactics: instead of planning to meet their enemies on the battlefield, they have been slowly, over the decades, weaving traps and impurities through the Elven defenses. This book consists mostly of the setting up for the next book, namely, the Elves' trying to get rid of these impurities. The main foe the Demons have leaked into the Elven Lands are the Shadowed Elves, which are a Tainted race of Elves that the Demons created specifically for the purpose of secretly infiltrating caves around the Elven Lands. Much of the book tells of the army's attempts to find and destroy the Shadowed Elves' hideouts.

When Darkness Falls is the final book of the Obsidian Trilogy. It is the most action-packed and my favorite one. A lot of stuff happens that I don't want to give away, so I'll give a brief summary. It starts with Kellen, Idalia, Jermayan, Shalkan, and a few more characters counteracting a direct magical attack by the Demon queen on the army. Through the following greater portion of the book, the tension is increasing as the Demons make bigger and bigger attacks on the Elves, on their allies, and on Armethalieh. As the Demons get stronger, the Allied Forces have to find more and more ways of combating them. In the process, Kellen is given more and more responsibility with leading greater portions of the army. In the end, Kellen will have to be a hero and lead the whole army for them to have success. The story ends with a huge climax that brings together all of the elements that have been previously building up. Read it to find out what happens!

The Obsidian Trilogy is a great trilogy full of twists and turns. It has many forms of magic, and many creatures too. Although a little slow-paced, especially in the first two books, it accelerates until a gigantic climax that is filled with surprises. I recommend this series for anyone who likes fantasy books that create their own world and have a large plot.

I give this series a 9/10.

Week of March 3rd-- Dear Author

Your English teacher is not afraid to admit that she is a bit of a book nerd and I like to read about authors. Did you know-- Neil Gaiman hangs out on Tumblr, Laurie Halse Anderson makes her home on LiveJournal, Jay Asher is on BlogSpot, Jay Clark--- okay, he's not cool because he uses a corporate site, but you get the idea. I like to read what writers are writing about well, stuff.

Writers are some pretty real people, and like real people, they are touched when someone is moved by something they wrote. I'm not a big "fan letter" writer, in fact, I've only written one in my entire life. But a book moved me, and I took the time to write. The other day I told you all to SLOW DOWN. So now we will. Instead of blinding blogging, let's savor some reading.

Your blog assignment this week:

Which book from your reading life has made an impact on you?

Write a letter to the author.

You will find 3 model letters written by kids on the side pages of the blog-- each letter has its own page. Your letter will be as thoughtful, honest and indepth, even if you have not had something as life changing as some of these kids.

You may post your letter as a blog entry OR you may submit it digitally to me via email (or print a hard copy first).

Alex Rider Skeleton Key

Alex is being tested by his fake parents so that he could know all of the fake information that he needs to know for his undercover mission. Troy, his fake mother is skeptical of Alex joining this operation. She believes that he is only a child and that he shouldn't be out here in this danger doing these things and that he is just too young. Alex finds himself at some points of this very bothered by this. Carver, Alex's fake dad is going in on an undercover bust to take out a drug dealer who is believed to be linked to the business going on in Cuba (the are in Miami now). While on the ship something goes wrong and Alex goes in to rescue his "dad" and knocks out the dealer. He also is responsible for, possibly, blowing up the ship and rescuing carver. This impresses him but not his fake mother who believes he should not be doing these dangerous things.

Ruined, By: Paula Morris

             In my pervious summarys I said that Rebecca had to stay in New Orleans because her father had to work in China for six months. She feels like a complete outsider and wanted to follow the popular kids at her school into the cemetery. At the cemetery she saw a ghost and they became friends. Only certain people can see this ghost and the ghost knows somethings about this town that now one else knows. The ghosts name is Lisette.
           One day after school Rebecca was going on a date with the man who works at the cemetery. On her way to the date she decided to look in the cemetery and see if she could find Lisette. Right before she was about to leave Rebecca found her behind a tall tombstone. Rebecca wanted to know about ghosts. What did ghosts do? Why are they ghosts? Lisette said that a ghost is a ghost because it was not there time to die yet in the world. Ghosts stay a ghost untill the curse is broken. Rebecca wanted to figure out what the curse is but Lisette just disappeared.
         What is the curse? Where did Lisette go? I would recomend this book to young adults who likes mysterys. I would rate this book an 8/10.

Unfinished: Saturday Night Dirt

So far in Saturday Night Dirt, everybody that races their cars in the local races is on their way to, or is already at the race track. "Hot laps" (warm-ups) hasn't yet started an people are getting angry. The weather is holding up for the time being, but that may  change later in the book. I'm wondering what is going to happen with the weather and if there may be an accident that night. Will it storm? Will there be a "good" race?