Author Archives: 25margots

Jun
07
2017

The Land of Stories, The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

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Will Alex and Conner ever return back home? I read The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer only over two days in late May. It is part of The Land of Stories series, which has five books (so far), all very long. The sixth and final book is coming out in July. The Wishing Spell is the first book in the series.

Alex and Conner Bailey are twins. Their dad died right before they turned eleven. They don’t see their mother much because she has to work to support their family. On their twelfth birthday, their Grandma comes and presents them with her big book of fairytales, The Land of Stories. Alex loves fairytales, and she wishes that all of it was real, in a world where they could visit all the characters. The first night they have the book, after Alex rests it on her bedside table, ready to drift off to sleep, she notices that the book is glowing and humming. A week later, she’s at school and the book starts glowing and she has to explain to Conner what’s happening. After school that day, she has an idea. As well as the glowing and humming, anything that she drops onto the pages sinks in and disappears. She wonders what it would feel like to sink into the book. She starts with her arm, gently swirling it into the pages. Suddenly, she falls face first into the book. She lands in The Land of Stories (Conner comes too) where one of her greatest wishes is true: fairytales are real.

Now, the reason this book is named the Wishing Spell is because if you succeed in the spell, you will granted a wish. No matter how large, if you succeed, the spell will grant you one wish. They don’t know how to get back home, so that is what they are wishing for. In order to complete the spell, they must collect eight items all over the fairytale world. They are following a journal written by a man who was also on a quest for the spell. They have experiences with Goldilocks (the fugitive on the run), Red Riding Hood (the self-obsessed queen), Sleeping Beauty (the wise, trusting queen and my favorite of the queens), and many other famous and not so famous fairytale characters. It is set mostly in The Land of Stories, which is located in… a book. It’s very interesting, and a real page turner!

I am going to describe Conner’s personality. Most people would describe Alex, as her personality is pretty easy and she shows a lot of it, but Conner’s personality is more complicated. He is popular in school, unlike his sister, and keeps falling asleep in class. As you can tell, he’s not a very good student. Maybe the total opposite of his sister, who is attentive, intelligent, and a bit of a know-it-all. Conner is a bad student, but a good brother, as he saves Alex in many sticky situations. He has good ideas. For example, he has a trick to keep himself from falling asleep in class. He wears a rubber band around his wrist, and any time he feels himself getting sleepy, he snaps the rubber band. He presents this idea to the Sleeping Kingdom (Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom), as their citizens are sleeping 24/7, and no work is getting done. The kingdom adopts this idea and it works. Conner can be very logical and smart at times. You just can’t force him to be smart and logical. For example, when they first arrive in The Land of Stories he is the smart and logical thinking about all the things that could go wrong in their world while they’re gone. There might be a huge time change! Something big politically might happen! Literally anything could could go wrong, or they could miss something super huge. Alex loves sightseeing, and while the logical voices in her head were repeating what Conner was saying, but her curiosity got the better of her. So Conner is a logical intelligent person, you just need to catch him at the right moments.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

One of the most interesting and important parts of this book is when Alex and Conner go the Sleeping Kingdom for the first time. They need to collect the original needle that Sleeping Beauty first pricked her finger on for the Wishing Spell. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite of the queens. Conner is presenting the rubber band idea and suddenly one of Cinderella’s glass slippers falls out of their bag. The slippers are one of the most prized possessions in all the land. It makes them look like thieves. They didn’t actually steal the slipper. They tell this story to Sleeping Beauty and her guards (the guards are attacking) and Sleeping Beauty has faith, trust, and wisdom, for she believes them and calls off the guards. She is very wise, and she gives them the needle gladly, with the promise that they will return it as soon as they are done with it. It is important because it teaches Alex and Conner that some people in the fairytale world are also reasonable and wise, even people that you might least expect to be. That’s also just a general lesson in all life.

I enjoyed this book SO MUCH! I honestly loved it so strongly and this series in general that it’s the best thing since Harry Potter. It is so rich and full of information and twists around every corner that you just don’t want to stop reading it. All the other books are that same. I am one of those people that like to find out the true hidden meanings of famous stories, and that is basically exactly what this book gives. If you love that kind of stuff too, you need this series in your life. There are many other books that uncover hidden secrets from famous tales and you can look at multiple perspectives. These books might not be for everyone, but I highly suggest you give them a try because I’m 99.99999999999% sure that you will love them.

My rating of this book is (drumroll please): 5 STARS! This is maybe one of the greatest books I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot of books) and as soon as I finish the rest of the books I will definitely be rereading!

 

Apr
19
2017

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

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Review by Margot Story

 

Is Captain Flint an ally, or an enemy? Over Spring Break I read the book Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons series consists of twelve books. Swallows and Amazons was written in 1930, and the rest of the books were written in a pattern: 1931, 1932, 1933 etc. It is also a British book, which changes some of the language. The main characters are the four Walker siblings and the two Blackett sisters. The Walker siblings are: John Walker (the eldest), Susan Walker, Titty Walker, and Roger (the youngest). They also have a baby sister Vicky, who is mentioned throughout the book. The two Blackett (usually mentioned as “Amazon”) sisters are: Ruth Blackett (though her pirate name is Nancy, and that is her name throughout the book – She changed her name after her Uncle Jim said that pirates were “ruthless”.), and Peggy Blackett. It is set in the Lake District in England, though some of the later books are set in other places. The four Walker siblings convince their mother to let them go on an adventure while on summer vacation. They consider themselves explorers, while the Amazon sisters consider themselves pirates.  They meet the Amazon sisters and they form an alliance. Then they get into a whole series of events which included the Amazons and the Amazon’s Uncle Jim, who they refer to as Captain Flint.

 

I am going to describe Titty because I feel that she is the most interesting. Titty is independent, brave, and curious. She is independent and brave because she stole the Amazon during one of the events that happened in the book. She also volunteered to stay alone on the big island at night, with absolutely no contact with her sister and brothers. She is curious because when she was alone she thought that some pirates were burying treasure on the island, and to have proof when her sister doubted her, she actually went to the spot and dug around. She also was very curious about Captain Flint at first, and decided to try and find out things she was curious about throughout the entire book. She has a big imagination because she thinks that Captain Flint is a retired pirate, and also she loves role-play. Whenever she role-plays she is Robinson Crusoe, and she pretends that her mother is Man Friday, two explorers from a very famous old book a little similar to Swallows and Amazons.

 

One of the most interesting (to me) parts of the book is when the Swallows see Captain Flint waving his fist at them. It is a minor point in the book, but I find it interesting because they have absolutely no idea what he is waving his fist about, yet later in the book when John goes to visit Captain Flint it is made known that Captain Flint believed that the Swallows lit his houseboat on fire. While the visit seems more interesting, I think that the fist waving is more important. It starts the relationship between the Swallows and Captain Flint, which is needed to start the series of events in the books that makes Swallows and Amazons one of the most interesting and pleasurable to read.

 

As you can probably tell already, I really love this book. I do think, though, it is a VERY difficult book to read, as the vocabulary is very advanced, using phrases like “make fast”, and using the word “native” as an offensive term. These are some outdated old British sayings which makes it hard to read, but if you use the context and read it over and over you can probably figure out what the words mean (with the help of Google), and then you can really enjoy the book.. I wouldn’t recommend this book for younger children, because of the vocabulary issue, and because it is such a long book I think they may find it draining to read. I think that if you want to try to read this book, go for it! It may be tricky at first but it’s a very enjoyable book to read. I am actually on my sixth time reading it, so get reading, you fo’c’sle crew!
My rating for this book is: Five stars! It was so fun to read. And I just loved the storyline!                   

Feb
16
2017

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett

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Where’s Vermeer’s A Lady Writing?

I read the book Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett over early January. It is set in in Chicago, Illinois and the time period is probably recent past. Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee are searching for a famous painting by the artist Johannes Vermeer, named A Lady Writing. They start to see things that the professional investigators can’t see. Also, in the illustrations there is a hidden pentomino code, as Calder is obsessed with pentominoes and they help him figure out some clues. If you didn’t know, pentominoes (they are usually in the form of a little plastic chip) are 5 equal squares put together to make 12 different letters of the alphabet. They are: F, I, L, N, P, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.

 

Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee are super curious and can make connections easily. Petra and Calder use Calder’s pentominoes to randomly discover clues, like when they use their pentominoes to figure out something is hidden in Delia Dell Hall, nicknamed Delia Dell. This is a good skill for them and it has led them to many conclusions. They are curious because they decide to take the matter of the theft into their own hands. They’re also really good at seeing things that other people cannot see in this theft. They figured out where A Lady Writing was and nobody else could figure it out. There are many decisions that are made by Calder and Petra that are really influential to the story. For example, they have to decide if they want to tell Ms. Hussey (their 6th Grade teacher) about their investigation or if they want to open Mrs. Sharpe’s mail, big events that change their investigation or trust with other characters.

 

I absolutely loved the book. I thought it was really fast paced. I love how Petra and Calder are made fun of by their classmate (because they spend so much time together) by saying that they are boyfriend and girlfriend and how they eventually come to not care about her words, move past it and move forward with their investigation. I loved the chapter about Halloween. Petra dresses up like a lady from her dream, which Calder has seen before, which is also the lady in A Lady Writing. Super coincidental, or is it?

 

I recommend this book so much. If you like good mysteries with a good clever touch (like the hidden code in the illustrations), then this is the book for you. It is really full of action. There is a little bit of violence and an injury so I wouldn’t recommend this book for littler kids. I love art and before I read this book I didn’t know who Vermeer was, but now I am excited to see his other works.

 

My rating of this book is (drumroll, please):

Five stars. Amazing book. Really well written. It includes some beautiful and interesting language.

 

Jan
17
2017

Local Girl Tackles Bandit!

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Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception by Wendelin Van Draanen

KANSAS-Local girl Sammy Keyes tackled a bandit at the Vault art gallery in Santa Martina, Kansas on December Third, 2016.

All Sammy Keyes meant to do on December Third was to go to an art gallery for a “stupid” (as she says) junior high art paper, and she ended up taking down a bandit. Keyes had a paper due for her art teacher “Miss” Kuskowski. The assignment was to feel art. Experience it. Define it. But the only thing Keyes felt was the clothing of a bandit.

She went to the Vault with her grandmother Rita Keyes, and their friend and neighbor Hudson Graham. That night the Vault featured work from Tess Winters, Austin Zuni and Diane Reijden. Winters features in her abstract paintings, Reijden in her landscapes, still lifes and wooden sculptures. Zuni features in his paintings of the American Southwest and Native Americans. The bandit was carrying a squirt gun, though none of the people attending the gallery knew that. The bandit came in and told them to “FREEZE!” Then he tore some of the Reijden paintings off of her wall.

Keyes noticed a dark spot on the bandit’s coat. “I began to wonder, what if that was a drip of water? I had to find out for myself.” Keyes tackled the bandit. He snapped her tongue between her teeth, so all she could say was, “Its sus a swurcun!”

Keyes got on top of the bandit, who was wearing a nylon jacket and sneakers. She got the paintings and put them back on the Reijden wall.

Kuskowski was also at the Vault that night. Kuskowski said in an interview, “I was so proud of Sammy. I bragged to everyone that she was my student.”