Fire

By: Bri Larcom

            Fire is the main character of my book, Fire. Fire is a monster with fire like hair. Fire is a dynamic character. In the beginning she was afraid of turning into an atrocious monster like her father. Later she realizes that she is not who her father was.

            Fire is described beautiful in the book. You would think that a monster would be scary looking but it’s just the opposite. Whenever men take a glance at her they stand there in awe of her. She’s so beautiful that once a man looks at her he proposes right away. It says these things multiple times in the book.

            Since Fire is a monster she has the power to control people’s minds and actions. Fire is apprehensive because she’s afraid she’ll turn into her father who abused his monstrous powers for no good. Later in the book when people of the kingdom need her powers at the most she has to decide whether or not to use them because she is apprehensive about herself.

            Fire is magnanimous. She always puts herself before others. When the army had to go in the tunnel they wouldn’t make it because the monster birds (overly sized colorful hawk like birds that will eat anything including humans and especially monster humans like Fire) would have killed the entire army because there were hundreds of them. But they did make it into the tunnel because Fire risked her life saving the whole army. 

            In the beginning of the book Fire is confused. Archer is her boyfriend and he repeatedly asks her to marry her. Fire doesn’t know if she wants to marry him or not because he’s jealous of her and is always sleeping with different women. Then later in the book she meets Prince Briggan who begins fall in love with her and she starts to fall in love with him. Fire is completely confused and has no idea what to do.    

            When Fire changes, she becomes confident. She realizes that her father used his powers for no good. She realizes that she uses her powers for goodness of the kingdom. She sees that her father was a total different person than she is. Fire knows she will not become what her father was.

            Later in the book when Fire changes, she is not confused anymore. She realizes that Archer doesn’t truly love her so she breaks up with him. Fire realizes that she absolutely wants to be with Prince Briggan because he loves her with his whole heart.

            There are only a few themes in my book. They’re mainly about on what Fire decides to do with her problems. It’s not only about her problems but what she learns.

            Fire and Archer have always been long time friends. Then later in the book they become boyfriend and girlfriend. But since Archer is jealous of Fire he sleeps with other woman. Fire knows this and just forgives him because she knows he can’t handle his temptations very well.

Later in the book Fire has to go away for a very long period of time because the kingdom needs her for her powers. Over this long period of time she realizes that Archer never truly loved her, he only loved her for her beauty. So when he comes unexpectedly to see her she tells him how she feels and says that they still can be friends like before.

            The theme I got from this is that if you truly love someone you love every single thing about them. Not just their looks but their personality, flaws, and everything else about them. Love isn’t just about looks.

            I can connect to this because I love my family. Even if they do something dumb, you still love them. This theme compares to a theme in the book Gracling. Katsa and Po are madly in love but they have to separate for a long time. When they finally find each other after two years, Katsa realizes Po is blind. Po tells Katsa not to love him anymore because of this. Katsa still loved him and that only made their love grow stronger. Katsa loved everything about Po including his flaws.

            Another theme Fire learns from is that she is afraid to turn into her father who used his powers for no good. Monsters they have the power to control peoples and animals minds. Fire’s father who was evil inside and out, used his powers to do his evil and greedy deeds. Later in the book when the kingdom needs her most for her powers she almost refuses to do so because of this. One day in the book she looks at herself hard in the mirror and sees that she is nothing like her father.

            The theme I got from this is that you are only you. No one can be the exact same person as you. Everyone has their own personalities.

            I can connect with this them because people say my brother and I look the same. But our personalities are totally different. For example he gets frustrated easier than I do. I handle things a lot different than he does.

            The book, Fire, was an astounding book. I couldn’t put it down. I literally finished it in three days. After I read the book, Gracling I found out it had a companion, Fire. This made me more excited because the adventure didn’t die. Fire is one of the most mind-blowing, magnificent, and astonishing books I have ever read.

  

Gracling

By: Bri Larcom

Mod: 12/13

                In the book Gracling, the main character is Katsa. Katsa is a dynamic character. In the beginning she was merciless because she was the king’s killer. When she killed someone she didn’t wince at all, she had no feelings for who she killed. But at the end she opens her heart to realize she doesn’t have to be the killing monster she was.

            Throughout the whole book Katsa is protective. In the beginning she had to save the father of one of the kings. She would let no one hurt him. Towards the ending, Katsa has to protect a princess named Bitterblue from whoever harmed her. Katsa had to even kill Bitterblue’s own father because he was the one who was harming Bitterblue. She also had to protect Bitterblue from hundreds of guards, wolves, a mountain lion, and the bitter winter cold. Katsa made sure no harm would even come near Bitterblue.

            Throughout the book Katsa thrives to get the job done. When Bitterblue was in harm she had to kill the Bitterblue’s father to get the job done. No matter how long it took she got it done (in this case, it took a few months). Even when she had to kill for her king she got the job done, whether it was good or bad reason to kill.

            Throughout the whole book Katsa knows how to survive. She is graced with killing (that’s what she and others think), but later she realizes she’s graced with survival. She can kill someone or any animal with her bare hands; she also has sharp aim and has incredible instincts. She had to go through the mountains with Bitterblue. She was able to get her and Bitterblue through the mountains, and that took a couple of months. Katsa was determined that she and Bitterblue would survive through the mountains.

            In the beginning of the book Katsa’s inconsiderate. She had no feelings for the person she would kill, even if she didn’t know the reason why she was killing that person. She even hated a princess that was just ten years old. She threatened to the princess that she would kill her if she even stared at her.

 When Katsa changes she becomes considerate. When she had to protect Bitterblue, she made sure she was alright the whole time through the mountains. She even gave up her own coat to the Bitterblue for the whole trip in the mountains. She practically questioned her if she was alright every second.

In the book, Gracling, There are many conflicts that Katsa has to over come. She has to go over external conflicts and internal conflicts. But she always seemed to find a way to solve them.

One of the internal conflicts Katsa has to overcome is her feelings for Po, a prince that is her friend. Katsa doesn’t want to get married nor have children.  When Po comes along she questions if she wants to marry him or not. Later in the book Po spills his heart out telling Katsa how much he loves her. Then Katsa takes a long think about it and she says no. She just wants to be his lover not his wife. But Po understands and he accepts.

If I were Katsa in this conflict I would have said yes, because they are great friends and they do everything together. But if I were to say no I would have handled it in the same way. A character like Katsa, the answer no, fits with her personality.

Later in the book Katsa has to overcome a big external conflict. When Katsa and Po rescue Bitterblue from her father, the king of that land is livid. Only one way to keep Bitterblue safe is to kill her father. When Po tries to do so he gets shot by arrows and has a concussion. Now Katsa has to get out of there fast with Po and Bitterblue. But Po is slowing down their pace and Po wants Katsa to leave him behind but she doesn’t want to.

Katsa overcomes it by putting Po in an abandoned log cabin. She makes a bow and arrows for him. Katsa and Bitterblue get a ton of fish and wood for Po. Plus there is a secret hide out for Po to go to if the guards come.

If I were in this conflict I would have done the same as Katsa. I admit it would be hard to do but Kasta had to keep Bitterblue safe. For a character like Katsa this would match her personality.

At the end when Bitterblue is all safe from her father Katsa and Bitterblue go back to find Po. After a couple of weeks of traveling they find Po in his log cabin. But turns out, after having a concussion Po is blind. Po not wanting Katsa to deal with his blindness and tells her to go away. But Katsa refuses and wants to be with him and of coarse Po accepts.

If I were Katsa in this conflict I would have definitely done the same. Why would you leave the guy of your dreams? For a character like Kasta this fits her personality.

This book was by far the best book I have ever read! The first thing I did when I got home was read, read, and read. You just can’t get enough of it. Read Gracling, you won’t be disappointed.

     

A Christmas Carol

In my book, A Christmas Carol, the main character is Ebenezer Scrooge or known as Scrooge. Scrooge is a dynamic character. In the beginning he was someone you would not want to meet. Nobody liked Scrooge and Scrooge didn’t like people. In the end Scrooge learns how to be generous and compassionate to others.

            Scrooge is described as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!”(Page 8) Scrooge is always hunched over in disgust of everything he sees and hears. Scrooge is so brutally cold it makes others seem twenty below is like a balmy seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Scrooge has a wiry neck, his skin is as shriveled as a raisin, his eyes are always blood shot red, and his lips curl up when their blue and cold. If you ever saw him open his mouth to say something, it would always be something that would make you shrivel away and never want to see him again.

            Scrooge’s personality is cold as ice. The book says that, “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintery chill him. No wind that blew was bitter than he…” (Page 8) If Scrooge ever spoke to someone it would make them freeze up into an ice cycle.

            Scrooge is the definition of inconsiderate. In the book there’s a part where there are two gentlemen going around asking for charity. When they ask Scrooge for some money for the homeless he says to them, “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”(Page 18) All Scrooge has for a heart is a lump of coal.

            There is one thing that Scrooge says to people and that is, “bah humbug!” Scrooge’s respond is “bah humbug” because he thinks what everybody says to him is rubbish and ludicrous. He says “bah humbug” to his own nephew when he says to him, “A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!”

            At the end Scrooge learns to be compassionate to others. The book says that, “He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call.”(Page 147) He was so compassionate after he woke up he went out and bought a big turkey for Bob Cratchit’s family. He also gave a lot of money to the two gentlemen going out for charity. At the end of the book Scrooge’s heart melts from ice to love.

In the book A Christmas Carol, there are flashbacks. An example of one in the book is on page 64 and 65. In the flashback Scrooge’s fiancé breaks up with him on Christmas. The reason they showed this flashback in my book was to show maybe why Scrooge hates Christmas.

            In the book there is also foreshadowing. An example of foreshadowing is on page 94. In that foreshadowing moment what happens is that Scrooge is at Bob Cratchit’s house with the Ghost of Christmas Present, and he tells Scrooge this “with unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”The reason I think that they showed this in my book was to show that by Scrooge being the way he is, this child will die because of him.

            Some stories have different impacts when flashbacks or foreshadowing are used in novels or books. In the book, A Christmas Carol, the foreshadowing in it has an impact on the book because it shows that if Scrooge behaves the way he is, bad things will not only happen to him but bad things and good things in a bad way will happen to others. What I mean by “good things in a bad way” is that in the book is that the people were happy that Scrooge died.

            In other books or novels it can have an impact on it too, but in a different way. In the book, Whale Rider, in the beginning it says that Kahu saved them. In the book, A Christmas Carol, it had an impact on Scrooge because he changed. In the book, Whale Rider, it had an impact on the book because Koro changed his ways of believing that girls should be treated the same as the boys.

So having these foreshadowing or flashbacks can impact a book in different ways. Like Scrooge from being malicious and self-centered to sympathetic and cheery. Also it changed Koro from sexist to being able to understand that girls should not be treated differently than boys.

Having foreshadowing and flashbacks can make the book more interesting. They could also make books and novels more understandable, because in the book, A Christmas Carol, I learned why Scrooge is so melancholic and cantankerous towards people and the holiday season.

The biggest impact in the book, A Christmas Carol, was that when Scrooge went into the Future. The reason that had the most impact was that Scrooge saw how his attitude affected a lot of people. After Scrooge saw the Future he changed his ways and made his life and other people’s lives better.

Foreshadowing and Flashbacks can have an impact in the book or novel. I also think that if you read this book it’ll have an impact on you. It’ll make you see that if you change one thing, like your attitude, it affects not just yourself but multiple people. And that is what I think the whole book, A Christmas Carol, was about.