Awesome Axolotls

     Hello! I'm Samuel, and today I'll be ranking the best 3 books I've read this school year, as it's soon coming to an end and we're all waiting for summer. The blog cycles were something that helped me get back into reading at least somewhat regularly. I built the habit of reading for the blogs, and would occasionally read for fun, depending on which book I was reading. So, what were these books that renewed and kept the habit of reading? Which ones did I enjoy most? Which ones had me sitting down to read the book? #3 The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins      I read the Hunger Games  last semester. I remember wanting to read it because I remembered watching the movie and hearing the book was better than the movie, so I decided to read the book. I thought they were both about the same, but I remember being really captivated and invested in the book when I read it. Even though there were some slight noticeable differences. 2# All Quiet on the Wes...

  Thank you for clicking on this blog post. Before discussing the fantastic books during my and hopefully your childhood, I apologize for not centralizing my recent blog posts around literature. This post is here to fix that. To start with the Amulet series, I don't know what happened to these books. Usually, if you went to your classroom or school library, there would be one section with this whole series, and most of the books in the series weren't even there because other people had already checked them out. I remember the book's plot is about a family that moves to a new home, and the main character, a girl named Emily, finds some portal and an amulet that takes her to a fantasy and magical world where other people also have amulets. On top of that, her amulet is a jerk and tries to make her evil, kill her, or traumatize her. (I think it's undeniable I don't remember a single thing about the series)' Next is Diary of A Wimpy Kid; I remember these books, and ...

  You better have Some Kind of Courage to read this story!             Has a book ever made you tear up? What about a children’s book? If you haven’t yet, this book will be your downfall. It was originally a gift for my little brother, but after reading the back cover, it was decided that we would all read it together. Every night, we would all head down and sit in our living room, the lights dimmed and blankets present. One of my parents would pick up the book and begin reading, and it was one of the best novels I have ever read. Some Kind of Courage tells an incredible story of a young boy whose horse was stolen. His horse, Sarah, was all he had left; he lost his mother and sister to sickness, watched his father die, and had his horse sold by his despicable guardian. This was the last straw and he set off on a journey through many harrowing scenarios to get her back.          ...

                                             More Books That I Haven't Finished...yet (Mateo Hernandez)             I love to read. But unfortunately, I have continued to leave some books unread due to several reasons. If you recall, I posted an earlier blog in which I listed some books that I hadn’t finished and why. With the stress of school and not much free time, I haven’t been reading as much as I would like to. But I’ve made some progress. I’m happy to report that I finished Huck Finn a few months ago and have made a little bit of progress on the Bible. Anyways, here are a few more books that I haven’t finished and why: 1.      1. Dune Originally published in 1965, Frank Herbert’s classic novel is commonly referred to as one of the most revolutionary science fiction no...

Hello. I'm Samuel and this is my review on the Time Machine by H.G wells.  I remember first reading the time machine four or five years ago, when my dad had bought it and brought it home for me.  I remember not being a big fan of reading at the time, but after reading the first pages of the book, I was invested and short days after finished the book. During the first weeks of the blog cycle, I found the book sitting in my shelf, so after many years, I decided to read the book again to see what kept me so interested.  The book is set in the year 1895, in London, the main character being, well... The time traveler. A very famous inventor who has just finished working on his greatest invention, the time machine. He calls many of his friends to see his new time machine. After their visit, he decides to test the machine for the first time, being met with a success, having travelled four hours ahead. He pulls the lever again, being taken to the year 802,701. He meets people who...

  A Review of Artemis Fowl As ridiculous a book as Artemis Fowl may seem, I think it might just be one of my favorite series. It’s a fantastic blend of myths, magic, and fairies with unreasonably advanced technology. The novel, written by Eoin Colfer, is set in a world where mythical creatures such as fairies and gnomes still walk the earth—just not on the surface. However, these fairies are nothing like . Long after a series of wars with humans, the fairies were forced underground where they began to develop technology far beyond anything humans could hope to achieve. The book follows Artemis Fowl, a young (human) genius who believes he can meddle with this ancient race. He gains access to their book of laws and learns the rules which dictate their way of life. He then develops a sinister plot to kidnap one of the fairies for ransom, as the book of laws states that any gold a human takes is theirs to keep. However, he kidnapped the wrong fairy. Artemis Fowl is a fantastic ble...

                                  Do Furries Deserve Hate They Recieve?                                                                               By: Akeel Dixon If you clicked on this blog post I don't know why most people would avoid this topic the millisecond they get. But, my post will be about whether this Fandom deserves the hate, so stick around and read a bit longer. A fandom is a safe space or community for people who respect certain things like comics, movies, video games, etc. For the basics, the definition of furries is a group of people who appreciate anthropomorphic or cartoon animal characters. In this blog, I'm gonna be talking about why ...

Review of The Martian Matt Damon starring in the film adaption of The Martian             ‘I’m pretty much f****d’ . . . The first line in Andy Weir’s hit novel, The Martian , might slightly put you off. It did for me, or rather, mostly my mom, a few years ago when this book first came across my radar. While on a bike ride with my mom, at the young age of eight years old, we passed by a little free library (the box where you put in a book and take one out) in our old neighborhood. At the time, I was out of reading material so I decided that I would take a glance through the library and see what they had. The first book to catch my eye was The Martian. Space is something that I really enjoy and am fascinated by, so I thought I would flip through the pages and see if it looked any good. But after mom read the first sentence, she determined that it would be wise to save this book till I was a bit older. Anyways, I was recently skimm...

  Hello, I'm Samuel Troconis and this is my review on The Militia House by John Milas.           The book is centered around Corporal Loyette, A US Marine deployed with his unit in Afghanistan in 2010. There, while not having much to do, they quickly become bored and the days become dreadful. While at their base, they get told stories about an abandoned Soviet military base from the 1970s. Loyette and his unit, having nothing else to do quickly go to explore the house. There, they experience paranormal occurences. After the events of the Militia House, they try to forget what happened, but things gradually get worse. They think it's just the war and being away from home, but something about the Militia House is not letting them forget the eventful day.         Having some interest in war books, after hearing this book's horror twist, I was curious to see what it was. I began reading the book, and I soon saw myself enjoying it. The ...

The Hate You Give (THUG) is a realistic fiction book by Angie Thomas. The plot focuses on a black girl named Starr who witnesses the death of her best friend Khalil due to a white police officer. Due to Khalil's death, Starr and her friends and family have to overcome the protests, riots, and racism that happen in her neighborhood, school, and social life. I first read this book for a project in my subbie Language and Literature year. Overall I found the book to be pretty interesting with a few shortcomings here and there. When I first told my parents I was doing this book for an essay they recalled there being a movie about it. So when our family had free time we watched the movie and after reading the book I could tell they changed, or more specifically toned down a lot of the things that made the book worth the read. The first change I want to talk about is the overall violence throughout the story. As stated earlier Starr's neighborhood and community aren't taking Khali...

A Review of Redwall (By Andrew Langer                In most adventure stories, the hero is a young human, generally a farmer or peasant who goes on a journey that turns them into who they are at the end of the story. Only a few stories focus on the little creatures beneath their feet. Redwall is a fantastic novel written by Brian Jacques. The novel replaces humans with animals but keeps the different power dynamics between the animals.                The novel centers around the adventures of Matthias, a mouse, and the abbey he comes from, Redwall. The mice and squirrels live together in harmony with most of the other creatures in the forest of Mossflower. However, the peace cannot last, and before long, a thieving band of rats comes to Redwall. Their leader, Cluny, had his sights set on conquering the castle, so while Redwall puts up a defense against Cluny and his army, Matthias goes on a quest ...

Review of Wonder             The story Wonde r, written by R.J. Palacio, follows a young boy named August Pullman who has a rare condition known as ‘Treacher Collins syndrome’ which deformed his face at birth. Despite his appearance, August is a normal boy: he likes his Xbox, ice cream, and Star Wars , things that any other ten-year-old would like. He has a loving mom and dad, a protective older sister, and a nice home in lower Manhattan. But no matter how many surgeries he has or how normally he acts, his face won’t ever look like everyone else’s. As the beginning of 5 th grade looms around the corner, his parents urge him to start attending a school with other children, since he has been homeschooled his whole life. Although August believes that middle school is the last place that he would want to go, for fear of being stared at and bullied, he eventually comes around and begins Beecher Prep. Once August started going to his n...

Hi, I'm Samuel, and this is my review about the Catching Fire  book in the Hunger Games series.      "Catching Fire" is the second book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games . The story continues with Katniss Everdeen, the main character, and Peeta Mellark returning to District 12 after winning the 74th Hunger Games. Despite their victory, they face challenges as the Capitol heavily enforces control and seeks to maintain order. The pair embarks on a Victory Tour, during which Katniss realizes the growing unrest in the districts. President Snow announces the 75th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, which involves a twist that brings previous victors back into the arena. Katniss and Peeta find themselves once again in a fight for survival, alliances, betrayal, and a rebellion brewing in the districts. After recently reading the first Hunger Games book and watching the prequel movie, I decided to begin reading the series. At the beginning of the story, Katniss begins describi...

A review of Welcome to the New World by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan (Mateo Herandez)             Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times series, Welcome to the New World follows the Aldabaan family, who, faced with violence and conflict in Jordan, were given the opportunity to move to Connecticut in the United States as refugees. The family faced a time crunch of making the decision to leave for America before election day 2016, with the possibility of Donald Trump winning the election and shutting down immigration. The family was approved to leave, but some of the extended family members were not. After a lot of arguing over the decision to stay with Grandma in Jordan or leave for the U.S. to pursue a better life, they ultimately chose to come to America and arrived on election day: when Trump won the election. Even though the family was out of the war zone in their home country, they were faced with a new set of c...

  Clicking on this blog post, you may think, "Of course, Akeel's posting about video games he's addicted to them!" But, I made this post because I've been hearing about some of the positives of video games and how the effects are very similar to that of books. Also if there are blog posts about how analyzing music by Taylor Swift this should be okay (That blog post was amazing!)  Most adults tend to see video games as unhealthy and addictive and this mostly stems from video games being a more newer thing when they were kids. Jump to 2024 and you have the Super Nintendo World theme park and the Steam Deck which has over 8,000 games. Some of the reasons that video games have made an impact is how it feels like you are playing the story of a book and the game gives you a view of the main characters' perspective.  Are you part of a book club where you read a book at home and then come together to talk about it? Well, with videogames you can play online ranked matc...

Review of Divergent by Veronica Roth Review Written by Andrew Langer               One dilemma that continues to plague me is what book to pick at the library for the summer reading challenge. The glass case full of literature is intriguing, yet frustrating. The amount of choices is kind of overwhelming, but I can’t seem to find any titles that grab my interest. A large part of my time there is spent looking up reviews to try to find something interesting. This time, however, I was unable to decide on what to pick, and I had been there a while. I flagged the librarian down and told her that I was into dystopian novels, and if she had any suggestions. What came up first was Divergent . I wasn’t sure about it, but we had to go and I took the first and second books as my choices. When we got home, the book sat on my dresser for a few days before I went to read it, and I can say with confidence that I regret that wait complet...

  As I usually start with these blog posts, my mom was shopping one day and stopped by Barnes and Noble to get me and my brother some new books to read. Because I love science fiction and books that feature Diverse characters she got this book for me. The general plot of this book is amazing and simple as it's just like E.T. and the main characters have to fix an alien spaceship without the government finding out and one of the kids is known for being an outstanding inventor. But the aspect of this book I wanted to discuss was Chapter 13 ironically called "The Talk".  Usually "The Talk" would refer to something else but in this book "The Talk" is what a black person should do when pulled over by the police. The reason I wanted to write a post about this is because when I read this chapter my reaction was "Oh my gosh!" I can relate to this. I personally got the talk at around the age of ten but my parents usually end up giving it to me two tim...

  Review of (another) American Classic, Mateo Hernandez             I began The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn near the end of my summer break after I reached an unbearable amount of boredom. I asked my mom to pick up some classic novels while she was at the library as I found I enjoyed previous ones like Of Mice and Men.             The story of Huckleberry Finn takes place in the mid-1830s/40s before the Civil War and follows a boy known as Huckleberry Finn, a young teenager who after enduring much abuse from his father, fakes his own death and runs away from his home. After a few days he encounters a runaway slave named Jim who he befriends and with whom he travels down the Mississippi River. The duo has many encounters on their travels ranging from hitchhiking con artists to a shootout between two rival families. At the end of the book Jim is freed and Huck contin...

A Review of Unwind by Neal Shusterman Review by Andrew Langer Fair warning, this book/review is slightly macabre (look it up), so just be aware of that.               What was going on inside Neal’s head when he came up with the idea for this story will always be a mystery to me. Unwind, written in 2007 by Neal Shusterman, is a novel set in a dystopian world where abortion is illegal. Instead of aborting, parents must keep their child alive from conception all the way to age 13. After age 13, the parents can elect to have their child unwound. It’s like organ donation, but involuntary… (I’ll keep it at that.) This process saves countless other lives through the sacrifice of one, and every unwound part is kept alive. This is the justification, saying that no part ever “dies,” so the person is still technically alive. After they turn 18, the person is no longer at risk of unwinding and now lives in a world with no medical ...

Every year, I try to attend the NARBC (North American Reptile Breeders Conference) in Tinley Park. It’s the largest reptile/amphibian conference in the country and conveniently close, considering many attendees drive or fly for hours in order to be there. I have always had a passion for and felt drawn to animals ever since I was little. My dad unfortunately passed his allergies onto me though, so I had to stay away from any furry or feathery pets. I started doing research on animals that I wouldn’t be allergic to, and so began my journey with reptiles. I currently have two African fat tailed geckos (shown in photos) and I love them! At last year’s conference, I was lucky to meet and chat with Robbie Hamper. She is a knowledgeable reptile enthusiast, breeder, and publisher of Crested Geckos in Captivity .  This book is packed with information on the origins of this species, how to properly keep them in captivity, as well as the breeding process and growth cycle from hatchlings to ad...