Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! So there are some things we're all grateful for, and our favorite book characters are here to share them with us :)
Firstly, we all love food, especially if you're in marching band. But even if you're in marching band, you may not love food as much as this kid.
We're grateful for our family too, and this family loves each other more than anything.

And, we're grateful for our friends.
We're grateful for clothes. And Harry is especially grateful for his favorite shirt.
 
We're grateful for the beautiful nature around us.
We're grateful for our other half. And for those fangirls that don't have one, we're grateful that we get to read about these guys.
We are grateful for our pets.
And for helping others, and for when people help us.
We're also grateful for people who taught us a lot.
We're grateful for laughing so hard that we can't breathe.
We're grateful for gifts, especially from our favorite people like these cuties
.And we're grateful for special moments with special people.
We're grateful for memories.
And for doctors like this awesome lady.
We're grateful for crying....
And for people to comfort us when we cry.

We're grateful for music. (This is Katniss singing to Prim, folks. It makes sense.) 
And, we're grateful for books! Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Annabeth's Hair

Did I make up the fact that Annabeth's hair is curly? In the first book it is mentioned. But other people thought that she grew out of that, like it was something she was doing to her hair. I thought that Annabeth's hair was naturally curly! Did anyone else get that vibe? I thought that was it. I mean, come on! Did I make that up?

All the Characters Are the Same

Well, not exactly the same. But, I mean, all the stories have the same type of characters. Let me show you what I'm saying, and then you'll be like, "Oh yeah, you're right!"
The first type is the hero, like our friends Harry, Katniss, and Percy.
Then there's the villain, just like Voldemort, President Snow, and Kronos.
The best friend of the hero: Ron, Gale and Grover.
Love interest: Ginny, Peeta, and Annabeth. (Poor Ginny. I guess she didn't get the love-interests-must-have-curly-blond-hair memo.)
The right-hand guy, who's a great helper and friend: Hermione, Finnick and Thalia.
The wise teacher, in this case, Dumbledore, Haymitch, and Chiron.
The poor misunderstood kid: Draco, Cato and Luke.
Then there's the kid that you love because of how weird/annoying they are: Luna, Effie, and Silena.
The underrated hero: Neville, Johanna and Tyson.
The faithful pet: Hedwig, Buttercup (haha in a sense) and Mrs. O'Leary.
See what I mean? I guess there are some "Great Story" elements that you can't go without. Can you guys think of any others?

Sunday, November 24, 2013

We're Grateful for Harry Potter

Guys, just so you know, our dear Harry Potter-loving friends, ABC Family, are having a Harry Potter marathon... on Thanksgiving! What a great way to celebrate what we're thankful for :) But dang it, I was going to have a huge party. Maybe I'll just record the whole thing and have the party later.

Muggles and Wizards

You know, wizards are just adorable. We all  love them anyway, but the way they think Muggles are the cutest things ever and so very interesting is just the darlingest thing. (According to thesaurus.com, "fetching" is synonymous with "adorable". I rather enjoy that word. Mental note to use it more often.) Since we think it's so cute that the wizards think so highly of the Muggles, it's especially depressing when the Dursleys are so rude to the wizards. We all think, "No come on you have to be nice to them they think you're the greatest things ever!" but hey, some things will never change I guess, except it turns out (Deathly Hallows spoiler) that Dudley didn't mind Harry this whole time. As for Aunt Petunia, some things in your past will affect you forever and Uncle Vernon is the normalest person on the planet, so he isn't going to find wizards the most fetching people he's ever met. (See what I did there?) But then, since it's so common, I guess that we forget that it's rather unkind the way some wizards treat the Muggles. I mean, we obviously can't forget since it's basically the whole point of the story, one of the reasons that they want to stop Voldemort, but still. They do horrible spells to them if they can get their hands on them and they say horrible things about them when there aren't any Muggles available to torture. And we just want to say, "I don't care how special you think you are, Voldemort! Sure you're a great and powerful wizard or WHATEVER, but you're still not nearly as cool as you think you are and Muggles are totally decent and awesome people too!" Gosh dang it people, listen to Harry and his friends. Just like we all know in our real world, everyone's a person even if they're different from you. No one said it as good as our friend Kingsley Shacklebolt did: "We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving."

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Little Things You Know You Love About the Fandoms

Well, I mean we basically love almost every part of the fandom, except for that one person who makes you think "Augh why the heck are you so AGGRAVATING?!" (How many of you just thought of Dolores Umbridge?) or when the characters do something that makes you think "Oh my gosh, why did you do that?" But, I mean, these are the things that barely affect the story, and some of them actually affect the story quite a lot, or some of them affect it more than we realize while we're reading but we realize have more of an impact on the story when we decide to become little book philosophers. But hey, once you read this you'll think to yourself, "Oh yeah, I do love that."
Firstly, you know you love the fact that Katniss sings. Especially us choir kids, and yes I am one of them, we're all like "Oh yeah Katniss you get us." But I mean, think about it, Katniss sings all the time. She sang to Rue when she died and singing was the way they communicated and it was something they both did really well. She sang "The Hanging Tree" to herself while they were out on a little filming trip for no actual reason. And, the biggest proof of this is in Catching Fire she knows the obvious choice for her victor talent would be singing because it's something she's actually good about but she doesn't want to because she doesn't want to give a real part of her and something she actually likes doing to the Capitol. Katniss, you're cool.
And in District Twelve they dance. I mean, come on. That is just so cute! Come on, that is seriously just adorable. You can't get over the cuteness either. You just think about it and you think "Awww." Just a little quote from the book so you can further enjoy the cuteness of this, here you go:
   "After the kiss that seals the union, the cheers, and a toast with apple cider, the fiddler strikes up a tune that turns every head from 12. We may have been the smallest, poorest district in Panem, but we know how to dance. Nothing has been officially scheduled at this point, but Plutarch, who's calling the propo from the control room, must have his fingers crossed. Sure enough, Greasy Sae grabs Gale by the hand and pulls him into the center of the floor and faces off with him. People pour in to join them, forming two long lines. And the dancing begins.
   "I'm standing off to the side, clapping to the rhythm, when a bony hand pinches me above the elbow. Johanna scowls at me. 'Are you going to miss the chance to let Snow see you dancing?' She's right. What could spell victory louder than a happy Mockingjay twirling around to music? I find Prim in the crowd. Since winter evenings gave us a lot of time to practice, we're actually pretty good partners. I brush off her concerns about my ribs, and we take our places in the line. It hurts, but the satisfaction of having Snow watch me dance with my little sister reduces other feelings to dust."
Okay, and before we go off on a little rant about how adorable Katniss and Prim's relationship is, we'll move on to the next point.
The guard at the Empire State building reads Harry Potter. Okay, you may not have noticed this, but it's so a thing. Listen to this, from The Lightning Thief:
   "He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must have been good, because the guard took a while to look up."
A huge book? Picture of a wizard? Really good? Guys, Rick Riordan is making a reference to something famous, an allusion to those of you who pay attention in English class, to the beloved classic (you are kidding yourself if you don't think it's so) Harry Potter! For you Potterheads who didn't realize this before now, you are free to fangirl without being judged by me. I'll speak for myself, however.
And come on, Percy's relationship with his mom is the cutest thing. So so so cute! Sally Jackson never gives up on her son. Seriously, Percy has been getting into trouble since he was a little kid. Does that make any difference of how she treats him or how much she loves him? No. He's not the easiest kid to raise, he can be a little aggravating sometimes. Does that mean anything? Not at all. And no matter what happens she wants to do everything to make Percy happy, safe and in general okay. And Percy is a demigod. So naturally trouble is going to find him and he knows he will always make her life hard. But does Percy give up on trying to be good even though he knows that he will always be involved in trouble? Nope. He wants to be normal just so his mom can relax and not worry about him or him causing anyone else trouble anymore. He constantly wants to be good so that his mom doesn't have anything to stress about. That relationship is perfect.
Professor Dumbledore starts talking about love.... And while he's doing it Harry's just finding it all so overrated but we're all thinking, "No, he's right, Harry!" Because really, the way Dumbledore believes in love is just really great. I just thought of Percy Jackson and his conversation with Aphrodite in The Titan's Curse, but it is so not the same thing. Dumbledore knows that Harry's a great wizard and all, but his greatest power is that he can love other people. And some people will tell you it makes you vulnerable, but it really doesn't. It makes you know so much more and feel so much more. And more experience in life means that you can do more. Dumbledore's got it right, y'all! And we love it!
And lastly, Luna Lovegood is just plain awesome. Luna is weird. Seriously weird. And we all know it. And we all love it... except Ron. He teases her for it all the time. But what does Luna say? She tells him he's wrong. We love that Luna is always herself and she doesn't care what people think of her. She know Ron thinks she's crazy. She knows that people call her Loony Lovegood. She doesn't care. She likes herself and she doesn't want to be anyone else. And a good portion of us appreciate her for that.
How much do you feel right now, readers? Do you feel happy? Are you smiling? Good. I hope so, dears.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Catching Fire!!!

That's right cuties! The Catching Fire movie has officially come! Last we saw Seneca is locked in a room with rather deadly berries, Katniss is in big trouble with the Capitol, and President Snow wants to do something about it.... Unless you saw it already and if you tell me anything I will be very upset!
So to celebrate I thought that I would give you guys five reasons the Hunger Games is super great!
1. Oh man those adorable Capitol people. And you might be taking that the wrong way but don't worry let me explain myself. The Capitol people are so oblivious that what they're doing is wrong. You gotta love Katniss's prep team. And how much Effie actually does love Katniss and Peeta..... Ugh. It hurts a little. Like Katniss said herself, "It's more complicated than that. I know them. They're not evil or cruel. They're not even smart. Hurting them, it's like hurting children."
2. Prim and Rue are just the sweetest little things ever. I'm not sure why completely, but even before I read Hunger Games Prim always gave me a good vibe. I always liked her. And Rue is just fabulous and adorable. "Deep in the meadow, under the willow...."
3. We all love Finnick and Johanna. Man, Finnick Odair is just plain cool. You can think he's attractive all you want, but when it comes down to it Finnick is really awesome. And Johanna the rebellious little soul..... Oh we all love that girl.
4. In the end, Katniss is a good heroine: Okay, it's horrendous of me but I can never get past the fact that Katniss had a hard time forgiving her mother for her mental health problems. (Yeah a lot of people don't agree with me, but Katniss's mom didn't abandon her kids on purpose. She was seriously depressed. It wasn't her fault! :( ) But hey, we all make mistakes. Katniss is really awesome. Thanks for being the best heroine we could have asked for, dear.
5. No offense, but Peeta Mellark is in general perfect. Deny it all you want, Gale fans and shippers! But Peeta is super cool! He's really kind, sweet and giving, not just to Katniss, but to everyone! Gale himself said that he was annoyed how hard it was to hate Peeta. And what he does for Katniss is really nice, and Peeta, I know you love her a lot, but still, get a hobby. And I know you have that baking thing, and on the side you have that painting thing, but that doesn't seem to be working out for you either. So seriously. Get a hobby. But other than that, we love you! (Leave him alone, Gale fans.)
Are you excited to see it yet, guys? "Fire is catching. And if we burn, you burn with us!"
 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

School Book Projects

Hey guys! First of all thanks for following me! I love it :)
All right secondly I was reading Nancy Drew right...? Well that is on hold because for school I have to do a project on a fiction book second quarter, a memoir third quarter, and a classic fourth quarter. Well you might say "Well that's okay Nancy Drew is fiction you can read one of them for your project" but the book I read has to be at least 250 pages long. However, if I have a book shorter than that I can just read two books to make up one. But still it has to be my grade level or above. Most books are about fourth or fifth grade level. Even difficult classic books and adult books are about seventh and eighth grade level. A book exactly my level can't be found. Luckily I am allowed to read said adult book that is about seventh grade level and over 250 pages. The teachers say they let us choose our own books so we want to read them and are interested in them. But I have a slightly different idea of school book projects.....
I don't think we should get specific of what genre you have to read, fiction or memoir or nonfiction or classic or whatever, because if you really want a kid to be interested in what they read maybe they're not a fiction person or a memoir person or a classic person. It also shouldn't have to be at your grade level or above because a lot of kids aren't at that reading level yet. When I was in seventh grade a girl I knew was reading a book that was probably not even a hundred pages because she just wasn't that good at reading yet. You may think they are ready for a book at that level but really, a lot of kids aren't. Same thing for the number of pages we need to read. Some kids think 150 pages is really long. They will seriously go crazy if they have to read a book that long.
So, basically, if I were an English teacher, which teaching is honestly a job I would never want to have, that's basically how I would do that. The bad thing is a lot of English teachers like to read so they don't understand the kids that don't like to. Honestly, I can't understand people who don't like to read either. But I know some of them, so I know that some people can't handle that. And if you really want the kids to be interested in what they read they should be able to choose the book COMPLETELY on their own.
:) Haha, thanks for listening to my rant today!