A Series of Unfortunate Events 3 (book 3) 1/26/15

Prompt - Create a ‘WANTED’ poster for the antagonist.

       This is the Wanted poster I made for the main antagonist of The Series of Unfortunate Events.

A Series of Unfortunate Events 2 (book 2) 1/19/15

Prompt - List the physical characteristics of the main character (clothing, physical features, etc.)

     In this book, A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Reptile Room, there are three main characters; the Baudelaire orphans. Their names are Violet, Klaus, and Sunny (in order from oldest to youngest). In the series, they are described as brilliant. 

     Violet Baudelaire; the eldest of the three is 14 years old and she has brown eyes and dark brown/black hair. Her hair is described as flicking or curling towards the ends. She always wears a ribbon in her hair when she is thinking hard about an invention. She is very good at inventing things and her hair distracts her when she is thinking. Violet dresses differently in all of the books and sometimes she disguises herself, but, she is drawn on the books wearing a purple coat. In the first book, she is said to have pleasant facial features and is very pretty. 

     Klaus Baudelaire is 12 years old and he has black slightly curled hair (his is all according to the covers of some of the books). His eyes are brown and he always wears his glasses. His glasses are black and rounded. He dresses semi-formally, he is always wearing a bow tie on the drawings from the jackets of the books. 

     Sunny Baudelaire is the youngest of the three orphans and she is an infant throughout most of the series. Sunny cannot walk until the seventh book. She is known for talking in a weird baby talk when she says a random thing that is nothing but she actually means something. This language only her siblings understand; an example would be "agydeegi!" which would probably mean: "I don't like Count Olaf!" She is also known for having strong teeth which she used a lot to help her and her siblings escape from Count Olaf.  In the books, she has black hair and eyes, and her hair is in a ribbon on the covers of the books. 


     

A Series of Unfortunate Events (book 1) 1/12/14

Prompt - Describe your least favorite character and explain why. Describe your most favorite character and explain why. 

( I have just started to read this series for the second time but I will still be reading The Twilight Series and this blog will contain spoilers.)

     My least favorite character from the first book of The Series of Unfortunate Events - The Bad Beginning would be the villain obviously. The villain of this book is named Count Olaf. He is a very distant relative of the three orphans; Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. The three Baudelaire children were at the beach one day when they were informed by a family friend; Mr. Poe; that their parents died in a house fire. So, according to their parents will, the children had to be raised in the most convenient way possible and Count Olaf was the closest family they had. 

     I dislike Count Olaf because he is a very cruel, bad man that did horrible things. One of his plans was to take the whole Baudelaire fortune (their parents were rich). The orphans were very smart; but he was also clever. Some things he did to them was make them do really hard chores like repair his windows, make dinner for him and his whole theater troupe, and he only provided them with one bed in a small room. His main plan to steal their fortune was to marry the oldest orphan; Violet. Violet was only 14; but according to the law, she can marry under 18 if she had the permission of her legal guardian (Count Olaf). 

     The requirements for her to be legally married to Count Olaf was for a lawyer to be present, the saying of "I do." by the both of them, and the signing of a document. Count Olaf tricked them into starring in a 'play' with him. But, they were smart, so they figured out his plan quickly and their next door neighbor (a real lawyer) agreed to be in the play and read from her real book so they could really get married. But, the lawyer didn't know this and thought it was just to make it seem 'more real'. Count Olaf knew that they were smart enough to figure it out, so he captured Sunny (who was only a baby) in the middle of the night and put her in a cage to dangle her in a high tower. Then, he captured the rest of the orphans and then forced them to go to the 'play'. If they didn't, he threatened to let Sunny fall all the way down the tower. 

     When the orphans got to the play, and it came to the part when Violet had to marry Count Olaf; she signed the document with her left hand; so she wasn't legally married to Count Olaf. She was right-handed and legally, she has to sign with her 'own hand'. But, Count Olaf didn't notice his, so he let Sunny free (his friend was there guarding and Count Olaf was still at the play; they had walkie talkies) and announced his plan to the audience. They were all so shocked but then Violet announced what she did. They all said Count Olaf had to go to jail for dangling an infant over a tower, but of course, he managed to escape. So, that's why he's my least favorite character. 

     My favorite character would be Violet. She's my favorite character because first of all, she is very smart. Also, she is caring and she worked hard to help herself and her siblings escape from Count Olaf. She is good at making inventions like when she made a grappling hook to save her sister Sunny, which worked perfectly, but she got caught so her and Klaus got captured (before the play). But she still makes sure to figure out a plan to help her siblings.

The First Time Reflection of 2014 1/9/15

Prompt - When was the last time you did something for the first time?

     The last time I did something for the first time was a few months ago. I started watching a really good show called American Horror Story. I always looked at this show and wondered what it was about. All of my friends liked it, so I decided to start watching it. When I first started watching it, I thought it was weird, but as you watch the show more; you start to get used to the weird things and your just like "oh ok, that's just someone coming back to life."

     Most shows have one certain story that goes on for seasons. But, what I like about this show is that it doesn't. Each new season, it's a whole new story. My favorite season was the first season. The first season was called Murder House; the whole story was the setting of a haunted house and all of the people who died there, stayed locked in there as ghosts. The seasons were called murder house (season 1), asylum (season 2),  coven (season 3), and freak show (season 4).

     Since I have just started watching this series, I am in the middle of season 3. Season 3's setting is a boarding school for witches so they won't get exposed to the world and they all learn magic there together. If they get exposed to the world, people would want to kill them. Based on the seasons that I've already watched, I think asylum is the creepiest. Lastly, I am glad that I started watching this and I would recommend it.

Eclipse 12/15/14

Prompt - Draw a picture of what you've just read

     I drew this picture of Edward, Bella, and Jacob. First of all, I drew Jacob as a wolf because he obviously is one in the book. I drew Edward as a lion and Bella as lamb because throughout the whole series, (especially in Twilight) it is said many times that Bella is like a lamb and Edward is like a lion. I drew the lamb annoyed and the lion and wolf glaring at each other. I did this because Edward and Jacob don't like each other and Bella doesn't like it that they fight/dislike each other. 

    A direct quote from one of the books was "...and so the lion fell in love with the lamb." Bella is a lamb because she is delicate/fragile. Edward also constantly says that he has to be careful with Bella because she is so easy to break (in all the books). Edward is a lion because he is strong and is always described as cat-like or like a lion; especially in the meadow scene in Twilight. Edward's big cat like qualities are highlighted when he plays baseball during a thunderstorm while he was also described by Bella as fast as a cheetah as he quickly outran the rest of the Cullens.

     The first time that Bella visits the Cullen house, it said in the book (when Bella gets a cut and Jasper loses control because of the blood when Edward tries to protect her but he knocks her over and her arm starts bleeding) that Edward's body is described as, "shifted suddenly, half-crouched, tenses like a lion about to pounce." So, that is my description of my drawing.

     

Sisters 12/8/14

Prompt - Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why

or why not?

     In the book Sisters; by Raina Telgemeier, all of the characters seem realistic. First of all, I know this because it is a memoir, so, for sure these are all like real people. Second of all, there is a lot of realistic things about them. One thing that Raina (the main character) did which was very realistic was to tell her parents that she wanted a little sister.

     It was all she talked about every day. Then, when her parents surprised her and told her that they were going to have a baby, she was happy. But, as soon as the baby grew up and knew how to talk, Raina noticed that they didn't get along well. They would fight over little things and Amara (her sister) threw tantrums; which is realistic for little kids to do. 

     Something that also makes the characters realistic is that they don't have any un-realistic characteristics like super powers or anything like that. They also make mistakes in the book, like everyone does. One example of a realistic mistake was when Raina stepped on a snake.

     This happened when she was on a camping trip with her parents (before Amara was born), and she went in to the woods where she found blackberries; as she went further, she found a lot of them (blackberries) and she started going through all of the bramble, when suddenly, she stepped on a dead snake. So, that is another realistic thing about her. Lastly, I also noticed that in the picture of when she went back to her parents, she had a lot of cuts which would happen in real life if you ran in the woods with all of the branches. 

Eclipse 3 12/1/14

Prompt - List five major events in order from which happened first to last.

     In Eclipse, there was a lot of major events. I will list the five most important things that happened. The first major event that happened in Eclipse was when Rosalie tells Bella her backstory on before she became a vampire. This was in chapter 7. 

     Rosalie was born in a middle class family in 1915. She always dreamed of having a perfect life; having a big house, a rich husband, etc. One day when she was coming back from her friend’s house, she came across Royce (her fiancé) and his friends which were drunk. They left her dying in the street until Carlisle found her and changed her (into a vampire).

     

     The second important event that happened after Rosalie’s backstory was Jasper’s backstory. His backstory was told in chapter 13. A brief summary of his backstory is that he used to live in Houston, Texas and he mined the Confederate Army in 1861 at 17 years old. He was ‘Major Jasper Whitlock’ before he was a Cullen. One day, he came across there vampires; one of them turned him because she wanted a superior army to fight off other vampires. 

     She thought Jasper had potential to be a leader. After a long time with her, he decided to go away. Then, he met Alice; because of her talents (seeing the future) they both set off to find the Cullen family and added on (to the family).

     The third major event that happened was when Jacob told Bella that he loved her and that he would never give up on trying to get her to be with him instead of Edward. Then, he kissed her but Bella got mad. She then broke her hand (because he is a werewolf) trying to punch him. This was on page 330 in chapter 15.

     The fourth major event in Eclipse was the Cullens' and Bella’s graduation. Edward told Bella that it was very important because it’s the only time she is going to graduate (as a human). Another reason it was important was because all of her friends, Charlie (her dad), and Jacob were there. This was on chapter 16.

The fifth major event was when Edward proposed to Bella on page 460 and chapter 20. He actually proposes to her in New Moon, but she thinks it was a joke (which it wasn’t). So, he gave her time to think about it and in Eclipse, he actually proposed with a ring. 

     The last thing that I know was a huge event was all of the planning/training and the actual battle with the newborn vampires. This was all in several chapters throughout the book. Edward also finally killed Victoria (a vampire that wanted to kill Bella since the first book).