Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

Here is the URL to her blog post:
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

Ramsey talks about the greatness of LEGO'S and how they affect a child. She goes on to talk about the life skills they teach you and why every parent should fully encourage LEGOS. She says, "With Legos, kids build sturdy little creations – which, in turn, build sturdy kids. ?" at the very end of her article. It leaves of with an idea of what LEGOS do to kids. When i was a kid i couldn't sop playing with them, I had countless ships, city's, cars, and other ideas that I could build. I got better and better the more time i spent building. She gets across how little kids felt and the influenced me. Some questions I would ask the writer Krista Ramsey are how do you get a voice so apparent in your writing, How does she know what LEGO's are like for kids, and how to infuse choice of diction and syntax into writing?

Comparing Allegiant to Mockingjay

I have read Mockingjay  by Suzanne Collins and I am reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth currently. These books are very similar, heck the whole series are very similar. Both the main characters are female, both are post-apocalyptic, both are a trilogy, both have too much romance, and both are having their last movies are getting put into two parts. I mean they needed to do it for The Deathly Hallows, but not for these series as well. Even though they are similar in many ways to the naked eye but even their meanings and themes are fairly similar. At least they seem that way to me. They both are about morals, more specifically morality of a society. Now it is basically impossible to explain this without spoilers so I will just keep it at that. But I assure you these books are one in the same,  I am not saying this a bad thing. They are different in a good amount of ways, and I started reading Divergent after  good amount of time since reading Mockinjay so it didn't really bother me. If you have read one of the series and u liked it you should definitely read the other

Divergent series relation to Maze Runner series

So I am now on the third and final book in the "Divergent" series by Veronica Roth, the book "Allegiant". Now I noticed this in the first book, but the relation really came out in the second and third books. This series is very similar to "The Maze Runner" series by James Dashner. Now a movie is coming out soon for the "Maze Runner" series and a movie just came out for the "Divergent" series so I will try to leave all spoilers out, but there might be slight hints to what happens later on.

So the reasons these books are very similar are abundant. To start they are both post-apocalyptic books, but then again about every other young adult book now is. Veronica Roth's story takes place in a walled in, half burned out, grim looking Chicago(One of the best city's ever). While Dashner's is in a maze, so not much similar there. There are multiple small similarities through each series throughout their plots and themes. But the main huge similarity is the plot of each book. Now if you didn't already know "The Maze Runner" is about way more than just a maze, I mean seriously way more. It's one of those twists/enlightenments that almost make the first book irrelevant, it remains relevant though and was the bases of the themes and whole drive of the story. Now Roth's plot is very strikingly similar. Roth's series like Dashner's first takes place in a both physically and mentally cut-off world, they have no idea why they are there they just are. They solve the problem within the their own seclusion and yay everything's happy and normal now! Nope the opposite happens, they then find out about the world they live in really really sucks. Then a whole massive plot happens diminishing the old one. If you haven't read either of these books or just one I have two words for you, read them. 

Trailer for maze runner:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64-iSYVmMVY&feature=kp

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I've decided to blog on my required book for this post. Mainly because some think it is just a stupid book about people who like to burn books and a guy named Guy (hehe) who doesn't like to anymore. It is much more than that. It is about how someone should always strive to be out of conformity, to think your own thoughts, make your own decisions, and make your own views and opinions. To embrace difference and creativity. It also is about how books can affect any person in endless amount of ways. How they give you knowledge, they give you creativity, they give you power.

Neil Gaiman one of my favorite authors explained that it is basically a love letter to books in the introduction. As it is a love letter to books showing how lucky we are now and the freedoms and how amazing our world is. It is also a warning to the world to watch where our world travels. This book was written sixty years ago and he talks about short attentions spans of people. The lack of people like Clarisse in the world, the use of books dropped and measly game apps and TV. He reminds us and warns us to never forget what books do. If you do not understand this book, if you hate books, if you can't understand why people even read books in the first dang place, if you haven't the attention span to even read this whole post which I am sure some people do. Then i fear we head towards a dark and daunting future like in that of the book Fahrenheit 451. We have been warned.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

So i just finished Insurgent by Veronica Roth and i thought it was a fantastic book. It continued my liking of the series as it was just as good as the first. While it didn't go into the psychology of the characters like the first it had much more action and focused a lot more on the war. It did get into the relationship between Tobias and Tris more which made me lose a lot of interest and want to go and puke, but hey if your a chick you probably love it.

Although this book was definitely middle story line. There is a big "war" which is just one battle that is severely dragged out and you finally figure out what happened to civilization and whats outside the wall. I was expecting a virus or some psychological thing that causes insanity like the Maze Runner, zombie thing, heck even mutated nuclear monster thingy. But alas it is not although it is psychological which falls into the books usual focus, you will have to read it to know.It leads to a whole new concept and the "war" is really diminished compared to this in importance, almost like the whole meat of the book was kind of meaningless and some characters were needless but you got too add new things i guess. Although, to me at points it feels as though the book is comprised of filler like an anime series it still is great and would be a great series for you as it is well rounded in many areas and anyone could enjoy it. The movie did just come out as well and it was very well done, but you should of course read the book first.

Sugi's Blog Reflection

My best blog post is probably Characterization and review of Micheal Vey: Battle of Ampere. The link is here http://sugisreadingblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/characterization-and-review-of-battle.html. I'd say it is probably my best post because i actually had a voice in my writing. I wasn't just stating facts about a book but telling them and I even went on a little rant (good or bad, I don't know). A quote showing my voice is " For example "The Hunger Games" was carried till it had nothing left which took you to a civil war plot instead of "hunger games", needless characters, Katniss getting addicted to morphine and constantly hiding in a stupid closet crying the whole dang time. I could keep going but ill just say plainly it was the worst ending of a series i have ever read, saw, or even played. I literally threw the book out when i was done.". Now I realize there is kind of a run-on sentence but I just got into it. I was expressing my deep, deep, deep, hatred for Mockinjay by Suzanne Collins. I don't just rant the whole time either. I talk about the characterization in Battle of Ampere as well as the plot of the book and compare it to the two books before it. For example " The story line is quite cool in theory, but this book is very anti-climatic. It's not very deep in emotions or characters, i could sum up the main character Micheal Vey as the literal exact same as Shia Labeouf's  character Sam from Transformers.". I talk about how the plot was slow and boring. It tried to have all this rising action and build up, to literally and ending that takes 3 pages only. I also make a connection to the almost exact same characters MIcheal Vey the protagonist of Battle of Ampere and Sam WitWicky from the Transformer films.

My goals for next Trimester are to read more complicated and harder literature. Maybe even some older novels like The Odyssey by Homer, I'd also like to read the Sherlock Holmes series. The TV series and movies are great so that must mean the books are amazing. I also have an idea of a story. I am no writer and am not a great story-teller but I'd like to try to put my idea down on paper. I keep thinking about different things in my idea of a world. I would really like to improve on my writing skills. As of now I am not to good, but I love reading and have always kind of wanted to make a book of my own. I think I have a really cool idea too. All that's left is to try. Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon when he was 15, its not impossible for me to write either.

Ideas and themes in Divergent

I got Divergent for Christmas and I finally got around to reading it. I bet most people have either read the series or heard of it, it is a bigger series than I originally thought. When I started reading it I kind of thought it as another series trying to get big money on a post-apocalyptic plot. I changed my idea of it after the first couple of chapters. It is an idea of its own, and to my joy only had one thing in common with "Hunger Games" the main character is female. The idea of people being categorized in factions is a very interesting topic. You see how people cling to the faction system and loose the emotions that aren't recognized in their own faction. Well they at least try too. There is Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor. The trials for Dauntless Faction are very interesting to me. Veronica Roth goes into psychology with fears. People face there fears and realize their fears. They spend time with their fears to lose their fears, staving to be fearless. A theme i think is present through this book is people aren't always one type of person or just generic and singular. People and their Emotions can not be controlled that is the beauty of being human. If i had to choose a faction hands down it would be Dauntless. What is your faction? http://www.divergentfans.com/page/faction-quiz Try this quiz and find out!