Rangers Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan: A look at the Author

Hey guys. Been a week already huh? Anyway its Sunday and time for me to do my blog post again. This week I have decided to vary things up a bit. For the part three weeks I have done reviews after completely finishing a book. I realized (with Mrs. Bross pointing it out) that this could get boring after a while so this week I am doing something else. Plus that was just taking way to much of my teams that I could sorely use for doing homework :).  


This week I have started a reading a book called The Ruins of Gorlan by an Australian author called John Flanagan. I actually got to meet him at my old school, and believe me it was quite interesting.

Mr. Flanagan had come to our school i would say mid way last year. He was a pretty popular author and his series (yes this is a book series) has had more than 2 million copies sold. That's quite a lot and you could probably imagine my surprise that this author was coming to me my school. He came to talk to us about his book and he was pretty funny. The reason I chose to read this book now and not sooner? Well to put it simply I forgot about all this happening until my friend brought it up when i was at his house. Opps. Oh well I guess. Hey I'm only human (no I am not referring to the song).

So what will this weeks blog post be about? Well if you guessed its about one of the characters you guessed right :).
 Just by looking at the cover the book seems to be vary mysterious and unique. It is quite interesting but this week I want to go into the Main Character's background. This is the first book of the series, fortunately, so I learned quite a lot about Will's background and characterization (yeah that's his first name and no he doesn't have a last name).

Will is an orphan that lives in a ward during Medieval Britain. Through the baron of that estates's kindness, all the orphans on his land are being raised in a ward including Will. Not much is said about his past, but I think they go into that more in another book. Will is described as, " ... Will was small and wiry. he was agile and fast and surprisingly strong, but he simply didn't have the size tat he knew was required of Battleschool apprentices." This gives us quite a bit of his physical attributes but now lets look at some of his mental and verbal qualities," Will's wit was as agile as the rest of him and he almost always managed to have the last word." These are both direct characterization of Will, but it speaks volumes about him as the describe quite a bit and help paint a picture of the character. Will

Football Genius: Rating and Review

Hey guys. This weeks book rating and review is of a book called Football Genius by Tim Green.  Again as like every week, as this is a book review I may give away some spoilers so you have been warned.

The story is about this kid named Troy White. He is just a regular kid who likes to play football but he has a special talent which allows him to see the defenses or of offenses play before they happen. This would be a tremendous help in a football game as player could correctly adjust their players to better defend the play. 

The plot of the story is about how he 

tries to use his ability to help the Atlanta Falcons win games and how he eventually becomes a quarterback on his football team. Ok I am going to give away  part of the beginning away so if anyone is interested in reading the book I suggest you skip this part. Troy and his mom live in the Atlanta Suburbs and life was ok for them. Things weren't so great for try as could play starting Quarterback on his football team just because  a kids dad is the coach and the coach playes him over Troy. Troy is a lot better then him though so it's a bit unfair. Troy kinda gets bullied by this kid for reasons you will find out later. Troy's life gets better when his mom all of a sudden gets a job to work for the Atlanta Falcons. Because of hits mom, he gets tickets to a Falcons game and then... You will have to find out yourself :)
Here is a quote

After reading it I have decided to give it

Its a good book but still has some small stuff missing from it that I think would complete the book.

 

 

 

New Kid: Surprise Ending with a Great Plot

Ok, so as you can probably infer by the title I really like the book I just finished reading :). It was very emotional which can be trying at times with certain kinds of stories but this book honestly was probably one of the best single book stories I have ever read. Again as I am doing a review of the book I am going to reveal some spoilers which some people may not like so you have been warned :).

So, lets get right down to the message of the book. The main morale I think the story was trying to get across was that you may have issues with your family, but they will almost always be there for you through thick and thin. They will look out for you and try help best support you the way they can. Now with that being said, I am going to do a small summary of the book and you should be able to infer what the conflict and plot of the story revolves around.

There is this 12 year old kid named Tommy Rust. This isn't his real name which you will learn the reason why later in the story. He is an amazing pitcher at baseball but never really gets to show his true talent because of the fact that he is always moving. This is partially his dad's fault. His dad has been on the run from so supposed "bad guys" that have been chasing them ever since Tommy's mom dies. The book starts when Tommy is in the middle of a baseball game and its the finals of the series. Its a 3-2 count and Tommy is up to the plate. With one hit he could win the game and the tournament for his entire team. He goes up to plate but then... You will have to find out for yourself if you want to know the rest :). See that was to bad now was it? There is a lot more to the story obviously but I decided to give you a brief preview of the story. As you can probably guess i am going to give the story a 5 out of 5.

 I was originally going to give it a four but then I read the ending and that itself bumped it up.
The next book I am going to read is also by that same author and its called,
Football Genius by Tim Green.

Here is a picture of the title. If you guys have read it or thought it looks interesting just post a comment in the comment section next week and I will see you next week.

Artemis Fowl The Eternity Code:Review and Rating :)

So this is my book review of Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code. I am still working out the kinks with my blogging so bear with me. I already posted about this book last week so if u want to read that go ahead. There will be some spoilers obviously as this has a summary as part of it so you have been warned.

So the Artemis Fowl series is about this 13 ( in the beginning of the series) kid who is a supposed genius. He is also a criminal mastermind and that is where the conflict is created. He discovers upon a text that helps him discover a secret underground civilization of   mythological beings, like fairies, centaurs, dwarfs etc.. They are smart though and are actually technologically  more advance than humans. The books in the series are about the exchanges between Artemis and the fairy civilization (specifically a fairy called Holly). Book 3 is one of those exchanges and reveals many things. This is when the spoilers start. Skip the next couple of sections is you don't want to know what happens.

In the Eternity Code, the book starts when Artemis and a shady man called Jon Spiro have a business meeting to discuss some revolutionary technology, called the Cube, that Artemis has stolen from the fairy's in another book. The deal goes south and Artemis's best friend and personal bodyguard, Butler, gets shot but manages to save Artemis's life in the process. Butler dies but through some of Holly's fairy magic, cryogenics and Artemis's quick thinking, he lives. . Jon Spiro ends up stealing the fairy technology and that could have disastrous consequences for the fairy civilization. Artemis unwittingly during a demonstration of the Cube detects the fairy civilization below and creates panic down below.

The send Captain Holly Short to investigate and she finds out it was Artemis who did it. She saves Butler, and together they have to capture the fairy tech back from Jon Spiro and ultimately save the day. Here is a quote from the book that could be considered a teaser:)"And one more thing. About my name — Artemis — you were right. In London, it is generally a female name, after the Greek goddess of archery. But every now and then a male comes along with such a talent for hunting that he earns the right to use the name. I am that male. Artemis the hunter. I hunted you."   The rest of the book is what they have to do to achieve that goal and how they go about doing it. In my honest opinion i like the book really well but the ending of it made wonder how the author will continue the series. I wont give anything away but it made me really want to read the next book (which i guess is the whole purpose). I would probably rate the book a 4.5 out of 5 stars

because it was an exciting book with lots of action and adventure (just my type ;)). It also discusses the characters more in depth and plays on their features more. I would definitely recommend this to a friend and it was an overall enjoyable book.
Below I am posting a video with author talking about the series itself a little more in depth. This might help you understand me review a little more so feel free to watch it.


For my next book i have decided to read a book is called the New Kid by Tim Green. The reason I choose to read this was just because i thought i could relate to him. I have just started to read it but I realize that a some of the things I have experienced he has to. I wont go into to to much detail but the only thing that I will say is that this kid has moved a lot and so have I. This relationship along with some others convinced me to read the book and see if I like it.
Here is a picture of the book:

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code My new book

The new book I have just started to read is called Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code. It is about a boy genius named Artemis Fowl who is very cunning and tries to pull off one more heist before he comes he wants to come become clean. I have only read the beginning part of the book where Artemis talks about his meeting with a shady dude called Jon Spiro and how things go bad there because his friend gets shot. I literally stop at when he gets shot so i am like "Whats going to happen next, will he live?" It was probably a bad spot to spot at but whatever. I do have a prediction about what will happen in the future. I think that Butler, his friend, will live somehow through some help via fairy magic. It happened in book 2 of the series when magic saved Artemis's dads life.

 The reason i chose this book is because i have read the other 2 books in the series and wanted to give this one a try. It looked interesting and the summary of the book did help. A couple of friends referred this book to me at my old school and i though i might as well give it a go. What i liked when i first saw the book and read the first 2 pages was that it gave a mini prologue about his intentions and it built some suspense going into the book. A quote of how it built that suspense is "However, there is time for one last job. Something that my mother would not approve of. I don't think the fairy folk would like it much either. So i shall not tell them."

 Here is a picture of the book that made it seem interesting: