Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson lives a normal life. For a demigod, that is. He lives with his mother and stepfather in New York. Strange things happen to him quite often. He doesn't find out until his 7th grade year, though, the reason for these strange occurrences. Zeus's master bolt, the strongest weapon in the world, was stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Percy is shipped off to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns that his birth father is Poseidon. Because of his lineage, Percy has unusual powers and can control the water's actions. (FYI: Poseidon is the god of the sea) Percy and his friends, Annabeth and Grover, go on a quest to retrieve the lightning bolt. Annabeth's mom is Athena, and Grover is a satyr (half man-half goat). They end up going on this big adventure across the entire US and going to the Underworld towards the end. The movie and the book end kind of differently.

Movie: Luke (son of Hermes) is the lighting thief. Percy defeats him right before he returns the bolt to Olympus.

Book: Percy returns the bolt to Olympus. Only after that, when he's back at camp, does he discover that Luke is the real thief. Luke escapes before Percy can report him.

My opinion:  I love the book, and the sequels are great, too. The movie is great, but it really didn't follow the book. Also, the actress who plays Annabeth is not the right actress. 1) She's supposed to be blonde. 2) She gorgeous, but she looks just like him. Both have dark hair and BLUE eyes. They could be twins, for crying out loud!!!!!!! That's just wrong. People aren't supposed to start looking like each other until after they're married! Great movie, though, and an amazing book! I suggest reading and watching. (there's not really anything that's very questionable in the movie)

Until next time!
~Caroline

Call it Courage

Mafatu was a cowardly boy who lived on an island in the Caribbean. Everyone made fun of him because he was such a coward, so Mafatu ran away to a different island to prove himself. On the island, he killed a wild boar, made a canoe, and survived being chased by the “eaters-of-men” (aka cannibals). When he came back home, everyone was so proud of him and didn’t think that he was a coward anymore.

My opinion: Easy, super fast read. Insanely boring, though. Kind of a pointless book. Not a bad story, but to be good, the book should be more than twice as long as it is.

Jacob Have I Loved

Claire Louise (Wheeze) was the older and more neglected of the twins in her family. (I can’t remember the last name, so let’s just call them the Smiths) The Smiths lived on an island off the coast of New England. Wheeze’s younger sister, Caroline had always been sickly and weak. The title is a comparison of the story of Caroline and Wheeze and the story of Jacob and Esau. Caroline and Jacob were the favored twins, and Wheeze and Esau the neglected ones.

My opinion: Sad story, I feel sorry for Wheeze because her family is so mean, and because she has such an awful name. Well written, though. Not hard to read, and not very boring. The story is pretty realistic. Wheeze's grandma should go in an insane asylum. She's totally wacko!

The Old Man and the Sea

Here goes with the book reviews:

The “Old Man” (henceforth referred to as Joe, considering that he wasn’t named in the book) was a fisherman. Joe went out fishing one day and he caught a marlin. The marlin, however, wasn’t interested in being caught and eaten, so the marlin dragged our friend Joe out into the middle of nowhere with no food and barely any water. Joe stayed out for about three days before he finally killed the fish. By the time Joe got back to shore, the sharks had eaten the marlin, so Joe didn’t even get anything out of his little adventure.

My opinion: Terribly depressing, but good understandable descriptions. Apparently Ernest Hemingway wrote some very depressing stories. My parents say that this is the least depressing of all of his books. If you’re required to read an old classic for some reason, this is a good one. It counts as a classic, but it’s understandable and it takes no time to read. (compared to other classics, that is)

~Caroline