Posts

Wonder: A Short Description

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  In school, we write essays about various topics. For most of these essays, we have a word limit. Due to this, I have learned to keep my writing concise and straight to the point. In this post, I will try my best to summarize the storyline of a book I have adored since 7th grade. I have written a short description that highlights my favorite aspects of the book, in around 250 words. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you will feel the need to read the book as well. Wonder – R.J. Palacio The themes of the story include the importance of friendship, the consequences and effects of bullying, and the pain of wanting to be accepted by others for your looks. The book follows the story of a boy named August (Auggie) who suffers from Treacher Collin’s Syndrome which leaves him with deformed facial features. Because of his condition, August has been home-schooled his whole life, but his mother insists that he be able to experience high school for once. He is bullied because of his appea...

Wings of Fire: Dragonets of Destiny

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  Wings of Fire is a fantasy book series by author Tui.T. Sutherland. The series is divided into three arcs, each with 5 books in it, leaving the series with a total of 15 books. In this post, I will be talking about the first arc: The Dragonets of Destiny. The series is based in the imaginary land of Pyrrhia where dragons are the rulers. These dragons are divided into various tribes all ruled by majestic queens. There are seven tribes introduced in the series: MudWings, SeaWings, RainWings, SkyWings, IceWings, SandWings, and NightWings. Oasis, the SandWing queen, was killed by a scavenger (human) who then stole her treasure. Her three daughters Burn, Blister and Blaze started a war for the throne, each allying with different tribes to try and gain control over SandWing territory. The story revolves around a prophecy passed by the NightWings about 5 young dragonets, who would stop the war for the SandWing throne and pick the right queen. These dragonets were then collected fr...

Nico Di Angelo: Misery Personified

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  Life throws difficulties at everyone, but Nico Di Angelo got the shorter end of the stick. The amount of pain he has gone through, ever since he was a 9-year-old, I couldn’t even fathom experiencing. If there is a category for side-character-with-the-most-painful-backstory-and-angst-riddled-life, Nico di Angelo takes the cake. When I read about him throughout the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, I could see his transition from a bright-eyed boy to a weary, closed-off teen. From losing a sister, being labeled king of ghosts, being ignored, saving the world and getting no credit, going to Tartarus, being trapped in a jar for months, and almost dying while delivering a 40 feet tall statue across half the world, to being shunned and bullied, Nico has been through everything. At this point, he has been through enough to be labeled as a protagonist and have 17 books written about him. Through the first couple books of the Percy Jackson series, it pained me to see how little ...

Luke Castellan: Betrayed by the Gods

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  The personality and development of a character is the most important part of the book, as it makes for the plot and affects their decisions later on. There is always a feeling of satisfaction at the end of the book when a character can do something they couldn't at the beginning, be it facing a fear, forgiving someone, or even a subtle change in their personality.   The main character of the book always has some sort of character development, but what interests me, is to see how the side characters have changed, how the people who weren't in the spotlight still had their challenges to face, and what kind of direct effect does this have on the protagonist.   This is why analyzing a side character is always interesting, as you do not have a reliable source to know about them, other than the main character's perspective, which can often be unreliable. To be able to separate the lead character's opinions from the facts about a supporting character always takes ski...

The Divine Words

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  The beauty of languages, is that there are an immeasurable amount of words in them, each with a different sound, different syllables, and a unique meaning. The fact that we have developed an intricate communication system around the world, through stringing these syllables together and giving them meaning, still baffles me. Which is why, I have made a list of the most eloquent words, there possibly could be, in not just English, but various languages throughout the world. 1. Eunoia Maybe it's just my inner Percy Jackson fangirl speaking, but I've been obsessed with all things Greek for half of my life. There is just this mystical quality to the Greek language, and there was no better way to emphasize it than this word. As seen above, eunoia refers to a well balanced mind. It is also the medical term for being mentally stable. It is the shortest word that combines all of the 5 English vowels, which gives it a unique pronunciation. Sentence:   Her kindness and eunoia made her...

The Lion's Perspective

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First Thoughts:   At first glance, this quote might not look like much. However, the more I tried to understand it, the more layers there were to the proverb. Themes: I think the main themes this proverb highlights are perspective and miscommunication . Perspective: While growing up, I often read comics strips where a hunter would go and slay the lion which was terrorizing a village, and return home to a hero's welcome. In these stories, the lion would be portrayed as an evil, mindless beast, who killed humans for fun, while the hunter was the savior sent straight from the heavens. Now that I think about it, the hunter probably told many fabricated and exaggerated tales about how dangerous his adventure was, or how vicious the lion was. The villagers would blindly believe him and celebrate the lion's death. It might sound ridiculous but it reminds me of the many stories I've read where a single, innocent person is cornered and victimized for something which isn...