House of Hades week one 0-261

 What was going through your mind as you read?

(This was a bit of a debate because I swear a lot in my mental dialogue but whatever, most people probably do.)

These are in no order what-so-ever

First sentence of the entire book: "During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder." - Well that escalated from nothing to not good in under three seconds.

"One panicked and ran face first into a tree"- monsters have the grace of 50 pound boulders....

"Frank glared at him. "Now you remember?"

Nico hung his head almost as low as a katobleps. ", uh... used to play this stupid card game when I was younger. Mythomagic. The katobleps was one of the monster cards."

Frank blinked. "I played Mythomagic. I never saw that card."

"It was on the Africanus Extreme expansion deck."

"Oh."" Incoherent fangirling that can roughly be translated to: You two are such dorks, Nico why do you have to be so adorable, why have I not found fan art of this scene yet, and, if there isn't a scene where these two play each other I am going to be highly disappointed.

*Pretty much every part with Octavian ever*- I cannot wait for you to die.

"Suddenly where Nico di Angelo had been standing was a potted plant about five feet tall, with drooping green leaves, tufts of silk, and half a dozen ripe yellow ears of corn."- *Face palm* *Sarcastic clapping* Way to go, you pissed off another god.

"No need." Reyna said, studying Rachel Dare. Do you bring weapons?"

Rachel shrugged. "I hit Kronos in the eye with this hair-brush once. Otherwise, no."- Behold, my favorite mortal character in the entire series. If she and Octavian should have an argument she will beat his but through the floor. Wait... what if Octavian is one of Gaea's pawns and he's purposfully trying to make the Romans and Greeks battle so it's easier for her to take over the world....

"And Hecate? I'm not choosing one of your paths. I'm making my own." You go girl.

I purposefully avoided some parts, Annabeth's and Percy's in particular, in case other people in this class want to read it and didn't want any major spoilers.

Howl's Moving Castle- 12-12-13 finished

What is the title of what you are reading? How does it fit the story? If you

don’t know yet how it fits the story, what is your best guess?

The Title of the book I read is Howl's Moving Castle. Howl is a magician who lives in a castle that moves.  The castle moves because he has a fire demon named Calcifer that controls it, and Howl is running from a curse that The Witch of the Wast put on him that has yet to catch up. The castle is very strange. The door has certain knobs with paint on them that when opened each go to a different building in a different town, which is how Michael and Howl help enough people to make a living. The inhabitants of the Castle are Howl, a drama queen who makes green slime when he gets upset, (Much to Sophie's dismay) Sophie, a girl who was cursed by the Witch of the Waste (She does like to curse people doesn't she?) to be an old woman of at least 90 who then walked away (she couldn't run) because how would her family recognize her like this(?), came across the castle, entered because she needed shelter; and Michael, Howl's apprentice.
Oh, and if you were wondering about the green slime it's horrid and was quite a bother for Sophie to clean up, "There were horrendous, dramatic, violent quantities of green slime- oodles of it. It covered Howl completely. It draped his head and shoulders in sticky dollops, heaping on his knees and hands, trickling in lops down his legs, and dripping of the stool in sticky strands." Luckily for pretty much everyone this only happens once in the story. I can't wait to see the movie, that scene is going to be quite a sight to see.

Giver- 12-4-13

• Quote a passage & respond to it. How did it make you feel?

"His father turned and opened the cupboard.  He took out a syringe and a small bottle. Very carefully he inserted the needle  into the bottle and began to fill the syringe with a clear liquid.

    Jonas winced sympathetically. He had forgotten that newchildren had to get shots. He hated shots himself, though he knew they were necessary. 

    To his surprise, his father began very carefully to direct the needle into the top of the newchild's forehead, puncturing the place where the fragile skin pulsed. The newborn squirmed and wailed faintly.

"Why's he-" 

"Shhh," The Giver said sharply.

    His father was talking, and Jonas realized that he was hearing the answer to the question he had started to ask. Still in the special voice, his father was saying, "I know, I know. It hurts little guy. But I have to use a vein, and the veins in your arms are still too teeny-weeny."

    He pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into the scalp vein until the syringe was empty. "All done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" Jonas heard his father say cheerfully. He turned aside and dropped the syringe into the waste receptacle.

   Now  he cleans him up and makes him comfy, Jonas said to himself, aware that The Giver didn't want to talk during the ceremony.

   As he continued to watch, the newchild, no longer crying, moved his arms and legs in a jerking motion. Then he went limp. He head fell to the side, eyes half open. Then he was still.

  With an odd shocked feeling, Jonas recognized the gestures and posture and expression. They were familiar.

   Jonas stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. The little twin lay motionless. His father was putting things away. Folding the blanket. Closing the cupboard.

    Once again, as he had on the playing field, he felt the choking sensation. Once again he saw the face of the light-haired, bloodied soldier as the life left his eyes. The memory came back."

    I've got to admit, I was crying after this part. If it wasn't 10:30 at night when I should have been in bed over half an hour ago, I would have thrown it at a pillow and stormed around the house. But it was over my bedtime, so I just read on quietly crying into SnugglePup (My stuffed animal) kept reading, and hoped my Mom couldn't hear me over the sound of the television. Luckily, she never did, otherwise I wouldn't have finished it so soon. This scene does leave you wondering what they do with the bodies though. I would assume they burn them far away somewhere, after all, Jonas never comes across a body, so they don't just dump them outside the borders. I wonder who's job it is to do that. Perhaps the Nurturers and the caretakers of the Old deal with it as part of their assignment. Perhaps I'd find out if I read the other books. I'm not sure if I'd be able to deal with any more sad parts though.... I don't like sad books. If I know it will be sad, like The Fault in Our Stars, I refuse to read it. I'm good at being stubborn like that. Unless it's for school, then I don't really have much of a choice. Arguing with teachers just isn't a good idea.