Blog Reflection

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   I have met the expectations of the Theme & Summary Rubric, with my post because first the Theme & Summary post required a passage which I provided with correct citing. In the rubric it said find the theme or central idea of the passage which I said was when things seam bleak or bad to you, you should never back down rather than face the problem head on. It also says to put examples of how this theme is incorparated into the story. I said that earlier in the story when they are trying to rob a museum to get an artifact that could save the world they faced a Griffin that spouted flames that couldn't be quenched with water so rather then back away from the problem and let the Griffin engulf the museum in flames, they faced the problem head on and used magic to destroy the Griffin. The last requirement for the Theme & Summary post is that there needed to be a summary of the passage which i gave explaining that they went to a province in Russia (St. Petersburg) and they a man ancountered a man named Menkishov who has the last Tome of Ra. The only way to get the tome from him is to defeat him.

 
   Some problems I had with blogger is that at first I didn't know what everything was and each button could do so I was lost when I had to do specific requirements. This was like embeding a video or like tagging a picture or linking to a specific article. The way I overcame this was I tried each what eqach thing would do to see what would work, I clicked on Link to be able to link my article which I wanted in one of my posts. I did this to solve all the problems I had when I was lost with blogger. A strength I had when blogging is that I had good word choice or explanations when trying to analyze certain texts for a requirement on the Blog Rubric.

Links and Displays

I've finally finished Throne of Fire, I'll be starting to read Eragon by Christopher Paolini or start reading the Heroes of Olympus series which is by Rick Riordan. But with Throne of Fire on  Goodreads the book is rated a 4.2/5 stars. To understand who Ra is as the God of the Sun this visual could be helpful, the orange circle above him is supposed to be the sun, and his face is supposed to represent a bird/pharaoh sort of mix to deliver the sun across the sky.

Here is a link to the review with critics saying what they think of the book on Rick Riordan's website; critics like New York Times.

This is a picture of Rick Riordan if you didn't know what he looked like

Rick Riordan wrote books like The Lost Hero or The Battle of the Labyrinth if you knew any of these books. They are quite popular, the covers of these books look like this if you may have seen it but just not remember it:

 

New York Giants Matchup against Minnesota Vikings

Well my favorite team would have to be the Giants and the way they've been playing this season is horrible. Eli Manning is up to 15 interceptions which makes me not want to sing "I Believe in Eli." They are up against Minnesota in week 7, their record is 0-6 right now while the Vikings are 1-4. But Giants showed real spirit while playing against the Bears last week with their current Injury Report. I was going around thinking Giants will finally win, 1 and a 1/2 weeks to practice, playing home against a team that has not shown a lot of intensity made me feel like finally 1-6 Giants soon-to-be. The Giants have won 7 times during Monday Night Football under head coach Tom Coughlin while the Vikings have won only 3 times. And also, during these games Giants have been able to limit Adrian Peterson to fewer than 60 yards a game for two times. I'm hoping for the first win they could finally get, could make them 1-6, so that would just leave the Jaguars winless.

Theme and Summary

"We both knew we couldn't defeat Menkishov. He'd let the pushmi-pullyu snake wear us down, and if we survived that, he'd just blast us with something else. The guy was a pro. We would either die or get captured, and Bes warned us about not getting taken alive" (Riordan 173). The theme of this passage is when things may seem bleak or bad to you, you shouldn't back down rather than facing it. This theme works along with the course of the text because when Carter and Sadie face a new challenge, sometimes they feel it easy just to give up but they don't... they face the problem head on and come up with solutions to it. They face this griffin at the beginning with flames that can't be put out with water but somehow they overcome this eternal flames by using magic. Later Sadie faces the baboon god Babi which chases her around all of London but she couldn't destroy him until the Dwarf god came to rescue and her from Babi. In this chapter with this quote, Carter and Sadie went to St. Petersburg in search of the last tome for the Book of Ra. Problem is that this guy Menkishov has it and they can't claim it unless they defeat him.

Tone & Mood

I'd say for my independent reading novel, Throne of Fire that they are both urgency feelings. The book gives off a certain feeling of urgency giving a deadline for everything while reader thinks that the character should be hurrying up in certain situations. In chapter 1 even they say this, "...But tomorrow it leaves for Europe, so you'd better hurry! You'll have five days to figure out how to use it, or we're all doomed. Good luck!" This gives the book a urgent feel to it, like everything has to be done perfect so time won't run out before the deadline. The reader sometimes feels this when reading or the reader feels hopeless that the character can't do these things. Also my quote is also a good example when a character swayed the beliefs of others. When the character (Horus) was talking to Carter in his head, he used this as a way to make Carter feel urgent while trying to reassure him with the 'Good luck' part. Well this sense of urgency sure got Carter to go out and get this artifact that he needed to save the world.

Analysis

Throne of Fire
Carter Kane: "I was in shock that Sadie had discovered my secret name. Suddenly she knew me better than anyone in the world. I felt like she'd opened me up on the surgery table, examined me, and sewn me back together. My first instinct was to run away, to put as much distance between us as possible" (Riordan 222).

This piece of text is saying that all of a sudden Carter's sister, Sadie has suddenly learned something about him that he thought he himself only knew. The simile is describing that he felt like she just studied him thoroughly and knew everything about him. His first thought/instinct was to maintain distance between the two of them.

Evidence:
-"Despite that, I felt like a creep for leaving Sadie on her own yet again" (Riordan 222). He left his sister to go to London to have to face two gods by herself. They drifted apart to have gone together.
-"But a good brother would have stayed with her" (Riordan 222). He went to go find his love Zia who is in a eternal sleep after Sadie saved his life."
-"Basically, I'm going to skip to the part where Bes and I were rumbling along a dusty road in the back of a pickup truck driven by some Bedouins" (Riordan 220). Carter didn't take his sister with him to find Zia in the no-longer-existing village where she is located.



Inferences I could make is that Carter won't want to stay close or tell his sister anything about what is happening in his life in fear that she could use it against him. He would stay away from her in the future.

Post #4

I really like my book Throne of Fire. I like how it ties in with Egyptian Gods and using them as plot points and conflicts in the book like Apophis the giant snake breaking loose from his shattering eternal prison. The book is so much like The Lightning Thief and that series (mostly because the two series are made by the same author, Rick Riordan). But even though this book adds a new twist to the other stories like new gods and new mythical beasts that the characters struggle with to defeat. It's a really good book.                          

Characters

The change of the characters in The Red Pyramid are drastic. One character in my book named Carter Kane was in the beginning was laid back, yet still serious from the first book, he's gotten a bit desperate after which he was told he only has 5 days to save Ra to destroy and evil snake that being resurrected. Over the course of the story, he's become more depressed, he's still sarcastic with his sister, Sadie Kane, but his mind drifts to other places like he needs something. He's become more desperate now that the days are becoming shorter and that he is unable to find The Book of Ra. He still uses his intellect to try to figure out challenges that would face them, so it progresses the story along but he wants to find his love Zia who is lost after turning out to be a clay doll in the first book. The book starts to head in that direction as it follows his story as he tries to find her. This is sidetracking him from his real goal of saving Earth.

Post #3

What's happening in Throne of Fire is that Sadie goes back to London to celebrate her 13th birthday but when she gets there to visit her grandparents, her grandparents have fallen host to Nekhbet, the vulture goddess. Another Egyptian god named Babi, the baboon god has been ordered to hunt down Sadie Kane and her friends and dispose of them. They are saved by the dwarf god Bes and they are teleported to the eighteenth nome in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Egyptians split the world into several Nomes where a major city is. A man named Menkishov is trying to summon Set which was the evil god in The Red Pyramid. Menkishov summons a snake to battle Carter and Sadie. I really enjoy this book so far, and I like how they incorporated all these Egyptian gods into it.

Book Recommendations

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a fictional book with magic and monsters in it. If you read Lightning Thief or The Lost Hero, this book has the same formatting and will be enjoyable but with Egyptian Gods instead of Greek. I really liked this book by how the chapters are placed out by having two narrators (Carter and Sadie Kane) which both have 2 chapters to tell their side of the story and then they switch to another narrator. Its a really good book with plenty of cliffhangers and great descriptions of things, it really pulls you into the book. Throne of Fire is a really good book so far!

Post #2

So far in the book I am reading which is Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan, they found out that a giant snake that has been in eternal conflict is about to break out and destroy earth. The only way to stop it is to rally all of the Egyptian gods and fight it. The only problem is that the sun god Ra is in a deep sleep and no one knows where his sleeping sanctuary is and how to wake him. They go into a long ride on a boat under the underworld so they can find out answers as to how to wake up Ra.

Reading Skills

The independent book I am reading is Throne of Fire which is by Rick Riordan. I predict what will happen in the book is that Sadie and Carter Kane will have to search for Ra and after waking him he will refuse to help them having to travel to Ra's 'Throne of Fire' which is what the book is called to convince him into helping. What if though they fail to wake Ra? Will they go to an alternate plan to trying to destroy the evil that haunts them? A text-to-world example would be that in the book it takes place partly in Egypt which is ironic since there was revolts and violence their not that long ago. A text-to-text example would be like Lightning Thief, series which even though is made by the same author has similar story lines like gods and a secret world of magic and creatures. A text-to-self example is that Carter slowly gets irritated over a long period but is able to hold it in which is sometimes what I do.

Post #1

The book I am reading is Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan, it is about two Egyptian twins who after defeating an Egyptian god named Set who plans to take over the world by unleashing monsters. They use magic to overcome their new challenge in the book which is a giant snake who had been battling another monster for millennia is about to escape from its prison and destroy the world. They have to try to wake the Sun god named Ra who could be their only hope so they travel around trying to find clues to Ra's sleeping sanctuary. I really like how in the book the two main characters, Sadie and Carter Kane get two chapters to tell their part of the story then it switches to the other character. This repeats through the whole story so you get two views of how the book happens.

My summer reading book was Flags of Our Fathers and the characters changed drastically throughout the whole story. Each character’s story is told how some of them were hardworking and intelligent at the beginning. During the course of the story when they were fighting the battle of Iwo Jima, they eventually started to lose their spirit and some like Ira Hayes were scarred for a lifetime from the battle. Three of the six main characters died in the battle but during the battle, they slowly lost their spirit by seeing friends die in explosions and gunshots. This created a feeling of desperation as a theme in the story because they went through 36 days of horror till they won the struggle. In the end, of the three that survived one (Ira Hayes) was scarred mentally by the battle. Another  had a lifelong physical injury and lastly one (James Bradley) was not affected at all.

 

 

My James Bradley Article was a biography about the author of the book and why he was interested about writing the story of his father and his friends in the war.