Pendragon Book Five: Black Water. Pages read: 100 (45 mins)

No vocab. found.

 Bobby was able to save Eelong from a disease from another territory even though the flume there was destroyed since Mark and Courtney had to go through it to save Eelong. Now Gunny and Spader are trapped for the time being.

I wonder if Spader and Gunny will ever get out of Eelong? I think that they might sometime. I am now waiting for the next book at the library. It should be there soon.

Pendragon Book Five: Black Water by D.J. MacHale. Genre: Adventure Fiction. Pages read: 112 ( 55 mins)

The words I chose are tensile, obligatory, exertion and bantering. Tensile means sufficiently ductile to be stretched or drawn out. Obligatory means required to be done, obtained, possessed, etc. Exertion means strenuous effort. Bantering means cleverly amusing in tone.

This time, Bobby had to go to Eelong. Gunny was supposed to be just looking at what they were going to be up against since Saint Dane was going there next. But he didn't come back, so Bobby has to go. He finds out that the quigs are humans, and humans are primitive and not the superior life forms! Instead, big cats that don't have a tail, talk, and can walk on their hind legs are. Some keep humans as pets and they are even thinking about taking back a law that allows them to eat humans! There is not enough food to supply the growing population of people, so that is why. But then the Traveler from Eelong comes to Second Earth and dies of poisoning, just like the poison on Cloral. So now Mark and Courtney can go to different territories since the rules have changed and the walls between the territories are crumbling. They are about to go to Cloral for the antidote.

I think that it might be a bad idea if Mark and Courtney travel to Cloral because they are not supposed to. But they might be able to save Eelong if they do. So it might work. I hope nothing bad happens.

Pendragon Book Four: The Reality Bug. Pages read: 246 (2 hours)

There were no vocab. words I didn't know.

To stop the Reality Bug, they had to go wake up the creator of Lifelight, who's now 76, and have him stop it. They stopped it just as it was coming out the virtual world into the real one and turned off Lifelight. Then the directors of Lifelight put it back on. The main director who made it come back on turned out to be Saint Dane in disguise. So now Veelox will continue to crumble and he won his first territory.

I hope that Saint Dane won't get anymore territories because he said that once he gets one, the others will fall easily, like dominoes. I can't wait to read the next one. I was waiting for this one for months. This is quite the awesome series.

Pendragon Book Four: The Reality Bug by D.J. MacHale. Genre: Fantasy. Pages read: 129 (70 mins)

The words I chose are anticipation, arrogant, taunt and implore. Anticipation is an expectation. Arrogant means Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance. Taunt means to reproach in a mocking, insulting, or contemptuous manner. Implore means to ask earnestly or piteously for; supplicate; beg.

Bobby went to a territory named Veelox. They found out a way to go into their dream world by using computers. Actually, it was an ingenious ten year old boy who created it. It's called Lifelight Another Traveler named Aja made a thing called a Reality Bug to try and stop Lifelight because everyone was leaving Veelox to crumble so they can live in their own fantasies. But Saint Dane had done something to make the Reality Bug even more better than they thought, so it  took your fears, put them into Lifelight, and if it hurts you, you actually get hurt just like this one person got killed.

I wonder if they will be able to stop the Reality Bug? Maybe Saint Dane will finally have his first victory. I don't think so but maybe. I'm going to get the next book since I'm almost done with this one.

Here Lies Arthur. Genre: Fantasy. Pages read: 20 (45 mins)

The words I chose are desolation, infallibility, discernible and masques. Desolation means the state of being abandoned or forsaken; loneliness. Infallibility is the quality of never making an error. Discernible means perceptible, as by the faculty of vision or the intellect. Masques means a dramatic entertainment, usually performed by masked players representing mythological or allegorical figures, that was popular in England in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

Arthur and his troop went to a village so they could offer their protection for gold. While there, they met the widow of one of Arthur's dead friends. She let them stay there for a while and Gwyn met a little girl who was really a boy! He was the widow's last and only surviving son. She pretended that he was a girl so that way he wouldn't have to go and die fighting. Then they came up with an idea to find out if the priest was keeping their money saying that he was getting rid of it. They found out that he did and Arthur took all the gold for their protection.

I have to now return the book to the library. It is due. I liked this book a bit. Not too much but a bit. I wonder why the author wanted to show the dark side of Arthur.

The Haunted Auditorium by R.L. Stine. Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi. Pages read: 119 ( 45 mins)

The words I chose are emphasis, brief, prefer and props. Emphasis is special forcefulness of expression that gives importance to something singled out; stress. Brief means short in time, duration, length, or extent. Prefer means to choose or be in the habit of choosing as more desirable or as having more value. Props are a theatrical property.

This is about Jenny and Michael. They made the main parts in a school play that hasn't been done for over 70 years. Everyone claims it's haunted because a kid died in it. Then a new kid comes to school named Brian. They think that the ghost was ruining the play writing Stay Away From My Home Sweet Home on the props. Then they find out a hobo was living under the stage. He ran away and they did the play. Then Brian turned out to be the kid from over 70 years ago who died in the play. He came back and played the main part as a ghost after knocking out Michael. Then he explained that he died by falling through the trapdoor. When Jenny was about to take off his mask, he backed away and fell into the trapdoor again. Everyone thought that it was part of the play, and when Jenny and Michael went to look for the body, it was gone.

I think that this is another book with a strange ending. It was very unexpected. I think that Brian has finally found peace. He just had to die again after finishing the play. Very weird.

Stop The Sun by Gary Paulsen. Genre: Historical Fiction. Pages read:9 ( 25 mins)

The words I chose are veteran, persisted, involvement and afterthought. A veteran is a person who served in the armed forces, such as the navy, air force, or army. Persisted means refused to give up; continued in a stubborn way. Involvement means the act of being a part of or taking part in something. An afterthought is an idea that occurs or comes to mind later.

I read this for English. It's about a boy named Terry and his dad who has Vietnam Syndrome. His dad always stares off into space, lost in a memory. Terry decides to find out what's wrong with him after he finds him crying and crawling on his stomach in a hardware store and he gets embarrassed to be around him. He asks him when his mom's at the store since she doesn't like him talking about it. He says that he was the only one to survive an attack on his group. He had to hide under the only half of his dead friend's body that was left to survive. Terry will now try harder to understand his dad's pain.

I think that Terry will be able to understand his dad a bit more. He will also not be afraid to be around him. He will not be embarrassed around him too. I wouldn't either.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. Genre: Fiction. Pages read:7 (20 mins)

The words I chose are mock, rouse, suspicion and mutilated. Mock means to imitate; counterfeit. Rouse means to excite, as anger or action; stir up. Suspicion means the act of suspecting something, especially something wrong, on little evidence or without proof. Mutilate means to deprive of a limb, essential part, etc.; maim; dismember.

I read this in English. It's about an old man who has a glazed over eye and another man who thinks it's an Evil Eye.The man hates it. So he plans to kill him. After waiting for about a week and building up his nerve, he sneaks into his room, pushes his bed on top of him, and waits for his heart to stop beating. He chops up his body and hides it under the floorboards. Then the police come over saying that the neighbor reported a scream. They question him and he's calm and shows them around the house. Eventually, while they sat and talked, the man started to hear something. It got louder and louder until he could take it no more. He burst out saying, "Mock me no more! I did it! Here, here is the body! Under the floorboards! It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

This was a weird story. How could his heart be beating if he's dead?! On top of that, he's chopped up! Maybe it's the guilt getting to him. The author is a good writer.

HLTQ ( High Level Thinking Question ): List 3-5 reasons why someone should or should not read this book:

I think that someone should read this book if they like strange fiction books. The author who wrote it had a sad life. So he wrote sad stuff. Or mainly stuff about death. If you like that kind of stuff, then read his books, including this one.

15th blog! Shock On Shocker Street by R.L. Stine. Genre: Sci-Fi/ Horror. Pages read: 117 ( 45 mins )

The words I chose were horrified, slump, flutter and hypnotize. Horrified means stricken with fear. Slump means to droop, as in sitting or standing; slouch. Flutter means to fly by a quick light flapping of the wings. Hypnotize means to put into a trance.

This is about a boy named Marty and a girl named Erin. Erin's dad, Mr. Wright, can do anything with robots and he lets Marty and Erin test ride the Shock Street tour. The Shock Street movies are terrifying movies that they love. The monsters are too real though once they start going and the ride stops in a cave full of giant praying mantis'! Erin and Marty barely escape and have to go through Shock Street itself to try to get out. They run into a graveyard full of zombies and they have to run from werewolves. Then a so called "director" tells them to go through a house to get out. Erin realizes he's a robot a moment to late. When Marty goes in the house, he gets electricuted! Erin runs to save him and thinks she sees her dad. She doesn't recognize him and she starts making weird sounds. Then a real man comes to her dad and says "It looks like your robot children malfunctioned, Mr. Wright." Apparently, Erin's memory chip wore out and Marty shorted out. They were testing the ride before real people went on it to make sure everything worked right.

These books have weird endings. I would never had thought that Erin and Marty were robots! I guess Mr. Wright really can do anything with robots. They didn't even know that they weren't really humans.