Never Cry Wolf

1. Never Cry Wolf
2. Farley Mowat
3. I am 3/4 of the way through the book.
4. Well he just learned about Uncle Albert. Now he is trying to find out where the wolves have been eating because none of them have brought any meat home to eat. He soon watches the mother wolf go to the stream and try to hunt ducks. She almost killed the duck but her leap was just a little to short. Then he noticed the wolves going to the field. He realized they were eating the mice from the field and that is how they have been surviving all this time.
5. It is a decent book but I would rather read a fiction book.
6. He wrote this book to talk about his findings about wolves.
7. The theme is about wolves.
8. I like the mother wolf right now because she is very smart in who she hunts.
9. "She started to act like a puppy" this is when the mother wolf was trying to attract the ducks.
10. Not really right now.

By, Adam Nelson-Ockenfels

Never Cry Wolf

1. Never Cry Wolf
2. Farley Mowat
3. I am about half way thorough the book.
4. Well he has finally established contact with the wolves and he is very surprised. He made his tent right next to one of their main hunting trails and the wolves do not seem to notice. He has also had an interesting expirence with the wolf pups. While he was getting close to the den and watching the pups the parent wolves came back. They were not happy to see him close so they almost attacked him. Now he has just started to watch the movement of a more secret wolf called Uncle Albert. It seems that Uncle Albert is like a nanny for the wolves for when the mother is gone.
5. I think that it is a decent book but I like fiction books more.
6. This author wrote this book to tell about his expirence in the wild with wolves.
7. I think that the author wanted us to know more information about the wolves.
8. I like Uncle Albert the wolf because he is very playful.
9. "He did his job on one tank." This is when the wolf was marking his territory after the man had marked it already.
10. Are there other wolf packs around?

By, Adam Nelson-Ockenfels

3rd blog 4th quarter

I have recently finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. So in the book basically what happens is that the rebels gradually take over the districts. After that the rebels overrun the capital. Lots of people die in the process and Katniss shoots the rebel leader Coin for dropping parachute bombs over children, her sister, just to end the war faster. But she is not thrown in jail but gets to return home to district twelve where she lives happily ever after with Peeta. I think the book was great but very depressing because so many people die. I think the main reason why the author wrote this is to show that not everything ends up perfectly,like many books and movies say. If you need something big to happen there needs to be sacrifice. The theme is definetly action. I think the author wanted us to think about how soilders can be changed by a war or killing thing. She did a great job of showing post-dramatic stress syndrome on all characters that contributed in the Hunger Games especially Katniss. So I just thimk she wanted us to see it from the soilders perspective. I think the best character is Finnick. Finnick stays the same the whole book but he dies by getting his head chopped off by a mutant lizard. My by far favvorite quote from the book is when President Snow is talking to Katniss about the parachute bombs that killed her sister. Katniss immediatly blames Snow but Snow says it was really your own leader, Coin, who bombed them to end the war faster. Katniss basically says no it was you when Snow quotes "Katniss I thought we agreed not to lie to each other." This basically convinces Katniss that Coin killed her sister. I just wonder how gale is doing with his new job in district 3 and what he is in charge of?

Kon-Tiki Across the Pacific by raft is what I am currently reading. It is by Thor Heyerdahl. So I have finished this book and what It is basically about is that Thor wanted to test the theory of that pre-Inca Peruvians settled in the Polynesian Islands. To test this Thor and six other sailors sailed traveled, by raft, from South America to Polynesia. So this book is basically about his travels and arrivals. I think the book was ok it sure added extra suspense when exciting moments would happen because it really did happen in real life, it's not fiction. I think the author wrote this to share his experiences and obviously to help prove his theory of pre-Inca Peruvians that inhabited Polynesia. I think the theme is action because some exciting real-life moments occure. I think the best charactor is Thor and he has only changed in that i think he is more thankful for the life he has. My question for the book is I really wonder if some of these events where dramtically altered to make the book more exciting?

3. Sherlock Holmes

     The book I am currently reading is A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  So I've made it to the first chapter of part two and I've been enjoying this book.  It is told from the point of view of Dr. John Watson and tells of his adventures after meeting Sherlock Holmes.  After serving as a doctor in the Afghan war, Watson has come to London in search of a new place to live. An old friend knows of a man looking to share boarding with another and John eagerly goes to meet him.  This man is, of course, no other then Sherlock Holmes.  They agree to share a place and begin their friendship.  John finds out a bit of what Sherlock does as they begin to help solve a murder case that the police asked Sherlock to help with.                                                                                                                      
     One of  my favorite parts so far is where Watson is trying to learn more about Sherlock and finds he knows next to nothing about the Solar System and after John informs him about it he imidiatly tries to forget it.  Holmes states, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose."  I think that a theme of this book is the importance of inteligence and the ability to apply it.  I think the author must have been quite the guy due to his ability to produce a charater and story like this.  He probably wrote the book because it was his passion and he was good at it.  Maybe he was like Sherlock and wanted to share all the inventive methods and ideas he had with people like Sherlock does with John.
     I do have a couple of questions so far.  I really would like to know Sherlock's background.  For example;what was his childhood like or why he is the way he is.  He is definately an interesting character and one of my favorites due to the conflict he has between scentific method and normal human interaction.  I am excited to see how the story will turn out! 

3) Stefan's Diaries

     I am reading the book Stefan's Diaries by L.J Smith. This book is kind of a spin-off from the Vampire Diaries series which I have already read. I am about 1/4 of the way through the book. The book is about a boy named Stefan Salvatore who is engaged to marry a girl named Rosalyn who he does not love. While with Rosalyn, an orphaned girl named Katherine moves into their house. He falls for Katherine and finds out her big secret...she's a vampire. Katherine ends up killing Rosalyn on her and Stefan's wedding night without Stefan knowing. With Rosalyn dead he can be with Katherine, but Katherine also likes Stefan's brother Damon. So now Stefan and Damon are fighting over Katherine.
    I really like this book! I mean I know how it turns out because I've read the Vampire Diaries, but I am learning stuff about Stefan and Damon that I didn't know before. I also like how the book takes place in 1864 Italy. It was so old fashioned back in those times and it's interesting to see how people were back then. I think the author wrote this to explain Stefan and Damon's past and to also explain why they end up hating each other. The book was written to help people understand the main series, Vampire Diarie's. The theme of the book would have to be Jealousy. Stefan loves Katherine, but so does Damon.
    The author definetly wants to make us think about the importance of family. Stefan ends up hating Damon and vice versa. They end up going their seperate ways and even trying to kill each other. Sorry this is really hard to explain because I know whats going to happen from reading the Vampire Diarie's, but you wouldn't know this much information just from the book...so I'm doing the best I can. My favorite character would have to be Damon. He is the family outcast. His father likes Stefan better so he is really mean to Damon. I like Damon because he is really mysterious and also very funny. He hasn't really changed much yet in the book.
    "We will come up with a plan. And we will prevail. Beause while they may have immortality, we have god on our side. It is kill or be killed." This is Stefans father talking to him about the killing that have been going on around town. Being it 1864, the town is very superstious and most believe in ghosts and vampires and etc. So Stefan's father is talking to him about defeating the evil. This is important because the evil he is fighting is really Katherine.
    Some questions I have is, how does Damon fall in love with Katherine? Will anybody else find out about Katherine being a vampire? How did Katherine get turned into a vampire? That is pretty much all the questions I have.

3. Montana 1948

        I am reading Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. I am now finished with the book. Basically what happens is after they find Marie dead, David tells his parents a serious secret. David knows information about the death of Marie involving Uncle Frank. David tells his parents that he saw Uncle Frank enter their house through the back door just hours before Marie is found dead. David's father is torn between his job and his family. Being a cop, he should turn Frank in, but Frank being his brother-in-law complicates things. David's dad kind of drags on for a while wondering what to do. Eventually he brings Frank to his house for a meeting. To save Frank from embarrassment, David's dad locks him in a room in their basement. This is simulating jail. David's entire family is paranoid about having a criminal living in their basement so  David' s dad decides that he will turn Frank in and have him go to public jail. But the night before, David and his father are woken by the slamming of glass jars coming from Frank's room. David's father goes down to see what is wrong. He finds Uncle Frank dead on the floor with flood spilling out of him. Frank committed suicide.
        I thought this was a very intriguing book. It was interesting and had many unexpected twists. I believe this is why I liked it.  This book really kept my attention and it kind of opened my eyes to some racism that takes place.
        I believe that the author wrote this to expose some of the disturbing truth about rape and racism. It is something that needs to be told and I found really interesting. His motivation probably had something to do with a past experience and he wanted to show that this really can happen.
        I believe that the theme of this book was courage and taking responsibility for your actions. David's father had to have courage when he arrested his brother. That takes a lot of guts, but it needed to happen because Frank did wrong and he needed to know that.
        The best character was definitely Uncle Frank. I just found him really weird and interesting. He was definitely the life of the book. I don't really think that he grew or changed before his death. I do believe that if he were still living, he would have learned from his mistakes and grown from them.
       "At the cemetery they made a point of standing on the opposite side of the grave from us. Even I understood the symbolism: Frank's death was an unbridgeable gulf between us." This quotes basically explains itself. It is cool because it shows symbolism. Frank's death has literally split this family and it will take years to bring them back together.
        The only thing I am wondering about my book, is that I would like to see more into the future. How did Frank's wrong-doings and his death affect the family. Larry Watson gave a small preview of this but I think it would be interesting to see more.

3. Call of the Wild

I am currently reading Call of the Wild by Jack London. I have finished reading this book. Since the last blog Buck and his crew were camping out and not really traveling anywhere. Buck decides to go hunting for once, which means he left camp. This big moose comes along, hes the leader of the moose, and Buck decides to go after him. The moose towering over Buck, Buck still somehow maintains to bring the moose down. This goes on for more than a day. buck decides to head for camp when he smells a sharp sent. The sent was blood. He finds all the dogs dead, and worst of all John Thornton is dead due to this tribe called the yah-kees. Adrenaline rush comes over Buck and he kills just about most of the yah-kees and they leave terrified of this ghost dog as they call him. Buck is left to nothing and finally heads for the moose site where he is chased by these wolves. The wolves corner him and finally his friend appears from the crowd and Buck is now running with the big dogs and the book ends.

This book was really good I had no idea that ending was coming it was a big surprise.The book, I wish was a little clearer so I knew what was going on earlier in the book. The author in my opinion wrote this book so he could share the great art that he made and just to let people know that nothing is what you may think it is till it happens because again he was a hobo and he made this book. The ending theme I think was Never give up. never give up even if everything is gone. better things are to come and its not to late for you to be a hero and make something of yourself. The best character is Buck always learning from mistakes always getting the job done no matter how tough. He is obedient and shows his knowledge and inner dog. He is more witty and stronger plus he has a great sense of what to do in what situations like the moose and John Thornton. A cool quote is "no matter how big or small, anything is possible". This really should hit home to people because anything is possible and never giving up is great for you and how you grow. I have no questions currently about his book.

3. Avalanche

        I am have just finished my book. It was called Avalanche by Arthur Roth. When we left off last Chris was still in his hole in the snow waiting for someone to find him. He had just created a signal to help people be able to see where in the snow he was. He would rotate this thing every once and a while so it would flash is all directions. Chris was then on day seven and thinking of ways to kill himself so that he wouldn't have to starve to death. At that same time his brother, Terry, thought about the fight they had and how Chris said that he could go through Hidden Valley faster than Terry. So Terry decided to go out by himself and look for Chris. As he was going he noticed a bird peaking something in the snow. That something was the string holding together Chris's mirror and stick device. Then Chris had been saved by Terry. Chris only lost two of his toes and had made amends with his brother.
           I think that this is a really good book because it has a faster pace to it. There is always something happening, which also helps the book move faster. Then when you start to get into action in any book then you can't set it down. So for me this is a hard book to set down each time I start reading it.
            The reason I think the author wrote this book is to show to show that brothers are really closer than they are. They will always love each other no matter how big of a fight they get in. Maybe he had these moment with his own brother. I think the theme of this book is survival because it is about a boy trying to survive under feet of snow. That here are some ways to survive if you were ever stuck in a situation that Chris is in. My favorite character in the book is Chris because he is the only character that I really been able to make connections to. Through the book he has grown a lot. He has had time to think about he little things in his life. Like that he and his brother, Terry, may fight ,but he will always wish the best for him. A question I have in this book is will Chris make it out of the snow before he dies so he may tell Terry how much he really admires him.

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man
I am reading a book called The Invisible Man.
A person called H.G Wells wrote this book.
I am less then halfway through this book right now.
So far this book is kind of confusing. At the beginning of this book it talks about this mysterious looking man and his arrival at the Bramblehurst railway station. This mysterious man's name is Griffin. Well Griffin arrives at a local hotel in the English village of Iping during a very bad snowstorm. This man has large bandages covering his entire face! As well as a long-sleeve, a thick winter jacket, gloves, large googles and a wide-brimmed hat. He insists that he be left alone. He stays in his room working on various chemicals. He isn't the most friendly either. After awhile he becomes the talk of the town. And this is where I left off at.
In a way i find this book rather odd. Mostly because it just jumps into it and it's kind of confusing at first. I do, however, find it pretty good because it is a mysterious book indeed.
Im not really sure why the other would have wrote this. Maybe this could of happened to him. Or he could of just thought about it.
I think the big idea might be that people are nervous to show other people the real them. So we shouldn't judge a book by its cover and really get to know that person. Maybe they aren't as bad as we think.
I think the main character Griffin is the best. Mostly because he really isn't scared to speak his mind but i feel like as the story goes on he will become more comfortable and open up.
"The poor soul's had an accident or an operation or something." I think that this quote is important because this is what Mrs. Halls thinks when she first sees Griffin. She was judging him by the way he looked and didn't even know if that was the true reason for the bandages or not.
Some questions i have on my book is why didn't the other slowly go into the story? He just kind of jumped right in and to me it didn't really make sense. I was a little lost.

~ Alanna Brumwell

2 Call of the Wild

I am reading the Call of the Wild by Jack London. I have read to page 157 out of 172. In the pages I've read so far Buck and his team keep traveling to different places. They have covered over 3000 miles so far and conditions for the dogs are getting better with the weather changes. The owner of the dogs, Francois has died and a new guy jumpes into his place. His name is John Thorton. Buck loves John and will do anything for John , John loves Buck to.
The wilderness is treating them well. Buck had pulled over 1000 pounds of flour because some men didn't believe Thorton. So Buck pulled the load and won a lot of money and John used it on a gun. With the gun Thorton is able to hunt and come up with food easier for the dogs. At night while camp is set up Buck hears noises and decides to find it. This noise is a Wolf that Buck turnes out to be best budds with, and some nights he would go find him.
This book is really good and very intense and yet again keeps you reading on. This book makes me wounder what it would be like if I were there. As I keep reading on and learning about Jack London, it made me realize this was his life, and he is now putting himself as a dog and creating new things in the book to go along. He had enough time on his hands to be able to make this and it turns out to be a great book. The big theme of the book would be keep driving on and it pays out in the end. The best character is Buck he never talks but shows us what hes made of. He loves to be around people and never gives up. He never backs down from a fight and is very skilled. He has grown in how strong he is and instinct. He becomes a leader and showed he could lead the team by how well he can adjust and keep going. There are many cool quotes in this story but I can't decide which one is the best between the descriptions and intesive quotes describing what the books main theme is. Jack London gets very confusing with big words and most of the story is lost because he doesn't come out and tell you whats happening so big question what is going on in the book.
Ryan Kelchen

Post Two. The Member of the Wedding. By Carlyn.

          I am reading The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. I am on page 71 which is about half way through the book. So far, her brother is engaged and she is very jealous. Now, however she isn't jealous because she thinks that after the wedding she will just move in with her brother Jarvis, and his new bride. She walks all around town telling people about it, and she tells a solider who is WASTED. The solider thinks that she is older than she is (she's twelve) and so he starts hitting on her, and asks her on a date. She says yes. They're going to go dancing at 8 o'clock. That's as far as I've read.
         I really don't like this book. Until the solider hitting on her it was the most boring thing I've ever read. I think that the motivation the author may have had for writing this book was to show kids, and adults, that they're not the only ones who hate themselves sometimes, everybody has those days. Also, to show small town cliques and stuff; how small towns function. I think those are the main themes, those and jealousy. Jealousy is a big one. Frankie is SO jealous of everyone, her brother, soldiers, and girls her age.
         I like the servant, Berenice, so far. Just cause when Frankie gets all creepy, or whiney, or weird, Berenice puts her in her place.
Here's a quote I liked from the book, "I love the two of them so much. We'll go to every place together. I love the two of them so much!" Page 43. This just shows how weird Frankie is. Like third wheel EXTREME.
Some questions I have are: What is going to happen on their date? Will she actually move in with them? Will Jarvis be okay with that? When will it get good?

2)Trance

      I just finished reading Trance by Linda Gerber. The book is basically about this girl named Ashlyn, who has these trances where she can see when something bad is about to happen. While in a trance she writes down a bunch of numbers, so her and her sister have to figure out what they mean to stop something bad from happening. Ashlyn doesn't have the best life. Her mom is dead, her sister left and she doesn't know where she is, and her dad is away on business trips a lot. She only has one friend and she blames herself for her moms death. At work she meets a boy named Jake,but whenever she is around him she goes into a trance. In the trance she sees a boy being hit by a car. It takes her awhile to figure it out, but the boy in the trance is Jake. She saves him from being hit by the car and they live happily ever after...I think.
     I really liked this book and would recomend it to anyone! The book is such an easy read so it didn't take me long to read it. The thing about me is that I'm such a picky reader, if the book is boring for even one chapter it's like torture for me to read it. Fortunetly, this was not the case for this book. The thing I liked the best about the book is that it's different from anything I have ever read. It never gets boring and suprises you in every chapter. Overall great book!
    The author wrote this book because she wanted to show that everyone is different. Ashlyn has trances and everyone at school thinks she is kind of weird, this causes Ashlyn to hate her Trances when there really a gift. She can save peoples lives with them. I think the message Gerber is trying convey is that just because your different it doesn't mean your weird and that something your ashamed of, might be able to help somebody in the future. This also could be the theme of the book.
    The best character in the book would have to be Ashlyn. She is kind of an outcast, but thats why I like her...she is different from everyone else and has the potential to save peoples life. From the begining of the book she has grown a lot. At first, she thought her trances were a curse and she hated them a lot. At the end of the book, after she tells Jake about her visions and saves him, she realizes that maybe her trances were good. That she could help people with them. She learned to except that is who she is and she can't change it.
   “Never use limitations as an excuse for mediocrity.” This is an important quote in the book. I think it means that you can't make excuses for not trying your hardest on things. Don't let limitations stop you from what your doing, fight for what you believe in.
    Now that I've read the book the only questions I would have is, what happens in the future? Do Ashlyn and Jake get married? Do the trances ever go away? Does she save more people lives? Does the relationship between her and her dad get better? So many questions! They need to make a sequal!

2.) The Lucky One

     I finished reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.  I thought it was a really good book!  It was about a former marine named Logan Thibault who walked cross-country to find the girl in a picture that he believes is a lucky charm.  He ends up falling in love with Elizabeth (the girl from the picture) and her family of her son, Ben, and grandmother Nana.  However, Keith Clayton, Elizabeth's ex-husband, is causing problems for Logan and Elizabeth.  At the end, he scares Ben off to his rickety tree house in the middle of a terrible storm.  Logan, Elizabeth, Keith, and Nana rush to rescue him and find him dangling at the end of a rope in the fast-running creek.  Logan, Zeus (Logan's faithful dog), and Keith dive in to save Ben.  Keith doesn't make it out alive, but the rest do.  After this, the surviving become a happy family.
   
     The end was really well written I thought.  It made you believe that both Keith and Logan had died in the creek.  The author continued the theme of destiny throughout the book.  Logan's friend Victor was the main supporter of destiny in the book and began to get Logan to believe it to.   I think one of the main reasons he wrote this is because he enjoys writing and it's his way of expressing his ideas and beliefs.          
     
     Nana is still probably one of my favorite character.  She's not shy and has some interesting sayings!   After reading the book, I want to see the movie and how the book was portrayed in it.  I've heard good reviews about it, but that it was a little different then the book.  I don't really have any questions about the book.  The ending was wrapped up pretty well.