3 - Quarrel with the High King
The Greeks went to Troy and battled Trojan warriors with a victory and then built a camp. For nine years there was hardly any way, but the Greeks raided nearby villages, and once they took two girls for slaves, one for Achilles and one for the High King Menelaus. But because one of the girls was a daughter of a priest, Apollo made the camp ill. Achilles had a huge quarrel with the High King over the girls and eventually he said he wouldn’t fight for the Greeks anymore.Black Ships Before Troy - Chapter 3 - Summary
Mar 2, 2012
2 - Ship-Gathering
Menelaus called all the other Kings of Greece to his aid to revenge Paris for eloping with his daughter Helen. Meanwhile, Achilles was smuggled to the Isle of Scyros, dressed like a girl, for Thetis feared for his safety. However, Achilles revealed himself and he went to battle with a fleet of 50 ships given by his father.
Mar 1, 2012
1 - The Golden Apple
When Prince Paris of Troy was born, he was put into the woods because it had been foretold that he would burn down Troy. He was found and raised by a herdsman, and one day Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite asked him to choose who was fairest. Since Aphrodite promised him great love, he chose her, and Aphrodite arranged for the Queen to find her long-lost son, and let him live with her. There, he learned of the greatest beauty in the world, and traveled to find her. Then they ran away together.
Feb 22, 2012
As one of the best books I have read recently, the book Walk Two Moons scores a huge 10/10 from me. It's lovely, with the two threads woven into a fine, smooth story. 14-year-old Sal has an urgent deadline to reach her mother's gravestone on her birthday. On the way, she recalls the story of her best friend Phoebe's mother's mysterious disappearance.
Salamanca Tree Hiddle is the sole daughter of Chanhassen "Sugar" Hiddle and John Hiddle. One day, traveling from Euclid, Ohio, to Lewiston, Idaho, where Sal's mother died in a bus accident, with her paternal grandparents "Gram" and "Gramps", Gramps suggests that Sal "spin us a yarn", referring to a story, Sal decides to tell the curious story of Phoebe Winterbottom and the lunatic.
Phoebe's mother Norma isn't supposed to do anything too shocking, just cook and bake and be nice and polite, but one day she disappears completely, to the surprise of Phoebe. In addition, a mysterious note-leaver is leaving odd sayings on Phoebe's front porch, such as:
"Everyone has their own agenda," and "Never judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins."
On top of it all, there is a suspicious boy in his twenties who is snooping around Phoebe's house, looking for her mother, and a particular boy named Ben in Sal's life, which, as Michael D. Beil, the author of the wonderful, but sadly not very well-known, series The Red Blazer Girls, once said, "complicates everything, as Boys usually do."
I recommend this book to girls ages ten and up, or nine years old if you want a challenging book. I think that people who enjoy the following books should read this book, and if you have read this book, you might want to try reading the following:
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
Love, Audrey, by Suzanne LaFleur
Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
Rules, by Cynthia Lord
The Red Blazer Girls Series, by Michael D. Beil
--Dana
Salamanca Tree Hiddle is the sole daughter of Chanhassen "Sugar" Hiddle and John Hiddle. One day, traveling from Euclid, Ohio, to Lewiston, Idaho, where Sal's mother died in a bus accident, with her paternal grandparents "Gram" and "Gramps", Gramps suggests that Sal "spin us a yarn", referring to a story, Sal decides to tell the curious story of Phoebe Winterbottom and the lunatic.
Phoebe's mother Norma isn't supposed to do anything too shocking, just cook and bake and be nice and polite, but one day she disappears completely, to the surprise of Phoebe. In addition, a mysterious note-leaver is leaving odd sayings on Phoebe's front porch, such as:
"Everyone has their own agenda," and "Never judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins."
On top of it all, there is a suspicious boy in his twenties who is snooping around Phoebe's house, looking for her mother, and a particular boy named Ben in Sal's life, which, as Michael D. Beil, the author of the wonderful, but sadly not very well-known, series The Red Blazer Girls, once said, "complicates everything, as Boys usually do."
I recommend this book to girls ages ten and up, or nine years old if you want a challenging book. I think that people who enjoy the following books should read this book, and if you have read this book, you might want to try reading the following:
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
Love, Audrey, by Suzanne LaFleur
Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
Rules, by Cynthia Lord
The Red Blazer Girls Series, by Michael D. Beil
--Dana
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron is good, to say the least. I had a little bit of a problem when the author used improper words such as "waked" instead of "woke", but my overall impression was quite good, and the author wrote this book in 1954, so perhaps back then the common term was "waked" and was different from what we use nowadays. Maybe this book earns a 7 or 8 out of ten.
David Topman and Chuck Masterson, the main characters of the book, are very fascinated with space ships and space travel, especially David, who dreams about flying one every night to different planets, and Chuck talks about space travel with his "grand-pop", Cap'n Tom, who used to be a captain on a ship, because his parents are traveling.
David's father, Dr. Topman, discovers an ad for 'a space ship, built by a boy, or two boys, between the ages of 8 and 11, who must be ready for an adventure,' and that is where the story takes us: watching David and Chuck build the space ship, bringing it to Mr. Tyco M. Bass, the issuer of the ad, and following his unique and peculiar instructions to launch and ride their homemade rocket into outer space, to follow a quest and mission to save the Mushroom People of the satellite that orbits Earth christened by Mr. Bass to be Bastidium-X, which is invisible to the naked eye, and is only viewable through Mr. Bass's unique telescope through which one may see the position and blueish-green mass that is Bastidium-X.
Chuck once remarks, "[Mr. Bass] must be a wizard", for he had said, 'you must bring a mascot'. They brought David's hen, Mrs. Pennyfeather, and little did they know that she would save the lives of the scanty population on the almost-extinct satellite--or is it planet?-- of Bastidium-X.
How does Mrs. Pennyfeather do it? Well, I'm afraid I can't help you there; this is a reading blog, to help promote reading, so why don't you read the almost-magnificent book entitled The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet for yourself?
David Topman and Chuck Masterson, the main characters of the book, are very fascinated with space ships and space travel, especially David, who dreams about flying one every night to different planets, and Chuck talks about space travel with his "grand-pop", Cap'n Tom, who used to be a captain on a ship, because his parents are traveling.
David's father, Dr. Topman, discovers an ad for 'a space ship, built by a boy, or two boys, between the ages of 8 and 11, who must be ready for an adventure,' and that is where the story takes us: watching David and Chuck build the space ship, bringing it to Mr. Tyco M. Bass, the issuer of the ad, and following his unique and peculiar instructions to launch and ride their homemade rocket into outer space, to follow a quest and mission to save the Mushroom People of the satellite that orbits Earth christened by Mr. Bass to be Bastidium-X, which is invisible to the naked eye, and is only viewable through Mr. Bass's unique telescope through which one may see the position and blueish-green mass that is Bastidium-X.
Chuck once remarks, "[Mr. Bass] must be a wizard", for he had said, 'you must bring a mascot'. They brought David's hen, Mrs. Pennyfeather, and little did they know that she would save the lives of the scanty population on the almost-extinct satellite--or is it planet?-- of Bastidium-X.
How does Mrs. Pennyfeather do it? Well, I'm afraid I can't help you there; this is a reading blog, to help promote reading, so why don't you read the almost-magnificent book entitled The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet for yourself?
Feb 2, 2012
The book is about a fourth grader named Kate whose whole perspective on school changes when a new girl, Sugar Rose from Georgia, joins Miss Burke's class and Miss Burke decides to let Sugar Rose take Kate's seat, which she says is "up front and center". Since she moved to a seat further away from the teacher, Kate realizes that she needs glasses, and when she leaves for a trip to the eye doctor's, scares Sugar Rose with a mean outburst. Through her new lavender-colored glasses, Kate sees the world with a photographer's eye-- the leaves on the maple trees aren't fuzzy green blurs, but individual shapes with veins and markings, making each one different; even the people are different: her brother Andy is a boy with a deep passion for baseball, and the much-hated Sugar Rose is actually just a scared new girl, not the popular show-off in Kate's imagination.
This is highly recommended, and makes for a good read-aloud or bedtime story (maybe?). If you've read it, or are interested, post a comment-- I'd love to hear what you think!
--Dana
Dec 10, 2011
Moon Over Manifest
By Clare Vanderpool
Age: Suitable for really almost anyone but targeted toward 10-12 year old girls.
Awards: 2011 John Newbery Award.
My Rating: Five stars+++++
It’s 1936. Abilene Tucker’s lived on the railroad with her father Gideon her whole life, but shortly after she turns 12 he decides that railroad life is unsuitable for a young lady like Abilene and sends her to Manifest, Kansas, where he once stayed. She’s to live with Pastor Shady Howard, an interim pastor for the First Baptist Church and a friend of Gideon, while he stays working on the railroad back in Des Moines, Iowa. Once she hops off the train, Abilene immediately begins a mission to find “some news about or some insight into my daddy.”
While looking for a place to hide her possessions, Abilene finds a Lucky Bill cigar box with all kinds of mementos in it, a couple of letters, and what looked to be a map under a loose floorboard in her new room.
By Clare Vanderpool
Age: Suitable for really almost anyone but targeted toward 10-12 year old girls.
Awards: 2011 John Newbery Award.
My Rating: Five stars+++++
It’s 1936. Abilene Tucker’s lived on the railroad with her father Gideon her whole life, but shortly after she turns 12 he decides that railroad life is unsuitable for a young lady like Abilene and sends her to Manifest, Kansas, where he once stayed. She’s to live with Pastor Shady Howard, an interim pastor for the First Baptist Church and a friend of Gideon, while he stays working on the railroad back in Des Moines, Iowa. Once she hops off the train, Abilene immediately begins a mission to find “some news about or some insight into my daddy.”
While looking for a place to hide her possessions, Abilene finds a Lucky Bill cigar box with all kinds of mementos in it, a couple of letters, and what looked to be a map under a loose floorboard in her new room.
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