Piggy’s Blog <333

Of Mice and Men News Paper Article

Written by, Kyle Mori on October 11th 2007

The article I am writing about is… 

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/412330/illegal_downloading_is_stealing.html?cat=9

I disagree with the fact that downloading music, software or music is illegal. He or she says, `Quite simply, stealing is taking something from someone without permission, and that is exactly what people are doing downloading things from the internet.’ Then why would they put it on the internet? Don’t they do that because they don’t mind if other people take it? And if they do agree with article, why don’t they lock it or, delete it from the internet? Although, I don’t take music from limewire or internet sites. I use a site that allows me to insert the URL and then, they change it in to a MP3 file for me. I would rather get music that way rather than buying a whole album. What if there is a song that we like that is only in an album? That usually happens. For example, there are 14 songs and you only want one of the songs in it. Would you rather buy that whole album and waste your money on the other songs that you will never listen to? Or would you rather download it from the internet and just enjoy that one song? I would just enjoy that one song.

The third book from the Twilight series. My favorite character so far is Edward Cullen. The Cullen’s are a family. They are not a real family since vampires don’t age after becoming a vampire. The Cullen’s have 7 people in the family, Carlisle (Dad), Esme (Mum), Edward, Alice, Emmet, Jasper and Rosalie.  Bella, the main character is a girl who comes to a rainy town from Forks to live with her father, since her mother had to move around the world with her new husband. Then she falls in love with a vampire called Edward and starts to find secrets about him.

I remember the first time I heard about Twilight. Elisabeth told me that I should read it and she told me what the story is like. A girl who falls in love with a vampire. Wow. I borrowed it about a week later (she said it’s too heavy to bring to school) and that night I couldn’t STOP reading it. The next day I ended up buying all the books in the twilight series on Amazon. So here I am on the third book. The story continued with New Moon (the second book), it introduced a werewolf called Jacob into the book. Edward was absent for most of the book although the action from before remained. Bella was still facing a danger from Twilight by a vampire named of Victoria, a threat that follows her into Eclipse.

In Twilight Bella nearly gets killed by a stranger called James, who the Cullen’s and Bella met at a field. He was with two other people and they were Laurent and Victoria. James was killed by Edward for trying to kill Bella and Laurent got killed by Jacob for trying to kill Bella too. Victoria wanted to take revenge for both of them. Eclipse is mostly about the final months before Bella’s high school graduation. 

Carlisle promised to turn Bella into a vampire after the big event. Bella does not only want this transformation in order to stay with Edward forever, but has to become a vampire because if she isn’t, Bella faces death at the hands of the Volturi, the ruling group of vampires from Italy. Edward, of course is still against her changing, desperate for her to have as normal a human life as possible, so he promises to protect her. Bella also finally forgives Jacob for telling her dad about her motorcycle, something he did in New Moon. Edward and Jacob are mortal enemies and the two most important people in her life, and in the end they seem to form something like a truce. Bella gets to spend time down in La Push (where Jacob lives) with Jacob and the rest of the pack. But Jacob isn’t willing just to be Bella’s friend and chooses to fight to make her realize that deep down she loves him just as much as he loves her. 

Meanwhile, in Seattle there have been unexplainable murders. As the murder toll goes higher, the Volturi are more likely to make the trip from Italy to investigate and while they are there check up on Bella as well. But the situation suddenly changes when Bella realizes that the activity in Seattle is linked to her. In the end Bella has to make choices about who she is and who she loves, and what sacrifices she can make and still live with herself.

 One of the things I really enjoyed about Eclipse is the background of the Cullen’s. We find out about both Rosalie’s and Jasper’s pasts. The history that formed them and their reactions towards Bella become clear. I think that is one of the things that I think is really good about this book. The fact that you become so wrapped with the characters, they make you laugh and cry by reading the book. It isn’t just Bella and Edward that capture your attention but Charlie, Bella’s dad, Jacob, Alice, and the rest.

I feel a wide range of emotions while reading Eclipse and once I closed the book I felt emotionally exhausted. If someone recommends you a book why don’t you try it out? You might like it or you might not. I’m happy and thankful that Elisabeth told me I should read it. Or I wouldn’t have met this wonderful book!

 I think school does kill creativity in a way and it doesn’t in a way. Even if it does kill creativity I think we need school. Getting taught at home is not a bad thing. Although, getting taught at school and meeting teachers and friends is important. Even if you get taught at home and you work as well as kids do at school, you don’t know cooperation, friendship or love. I think YIS does a good job of encouraging our creativity. Like now, they let us use blogs on computers to write book reviews and comments, they also let us go into groups for discussions so we get a range of ideas for the topics. I don’t think we should just focus on creativity, but I think we can focus on it a little more than the other topics. Creativity is very important, but the world is not just made by creativity. 

2. Compare the themes of Skellig to one or more of William Blake poems that you think also focuses on the same or similar ideas? Comment on the similarities and differences between the texts.

“The chicks in the nest won’t need a classroom to make them fly. Will they?” This quote is what made me interested in the book even more. David Almond’s Skellig has a lot of similar ideas to William Blake’s Schoolboy. The theme here is about school and home school. David Almond and William Blake talk a lot about education. The chicks in the nest would be students, and make them fly would be make them work. What this quote is saying is that just like the birds wont need a classroom to make them fly, so students wont need a classroom to make them work. That is what I will be comparing in this essay.

The main topic in Schoolboy is more of an argument to school. “How can a bird that is born for joy sit in a cage and sing?” Which could be restated as, “How can a child that is born for joy sit in a classroom and work?” I think this means rather than sitting in a classroom, why don’t they see and learn from the real nature around them? Nature, school for me it is a big difference. There is another quote saying, “The mind needs to be opened out into the world, not shuttered down inside a gloomy classroom.” Some people say learning from nature is better, but some say school teaches a range of things. I say both. You can learn important and original ideas from both things. You can learn naturally from nature, things they don’t teach at school. Even touching the nature, birds, water etc. can make a big difference from school.

But not only nature, school has a lot positive things as much as learning from nature. School would teach you a range of things and gives you some experiences a home-schooled child will not be able to have. For example, science experiments, field studies etc. Not every family has all those expensive equipments and field studies, which also could be friendship. Friendship is very important. There are a lot of things you can learn from it, how much people can be important to you, how much you can learn from them and sometimes you can get hurt.

In Skellig Michael goes to school but Mina is home schooled. They teach each other what they don’t know about. Mina tells the beauty of nature and Michael tells the wonders in life and friendship, and what happens in public. Just like Michael being the schoolboy that comes up in William Blake’s poem, and Mina being the person that complains what is the point of going to school?

Although in Skellig there is something that is not included in Schoolboy, which is hope. Michael has a different worry from School. He is also worried about his younger sister. She gets very sick since they moved into their new house. Towards the end of the book she has to take an operation. 

Operation, which makes Michael even more worried. Michael says something about the baby when her cold was getting worse, “Sometimes I think she’s never quite left heaven and never quite made it all the way here to earth” When the baby is getting her operation his mum falls asleep. Her dream was about her baby and Skellig. She said that they were dancing together, and then wings came out from them and they flew away. When she woke up the baby’s operation ended and she was safe. Michael’s mum said that “Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel” Michael also says something about dreams, “Maybe dreams and truths were just a useless muddle in my mind.” I think this means that Michael is starting to not believe his dreams. Maybe he’s not even dreaming or he does not like it. When they arrived home and Michael went to see Mina, Skellig was gone. Not telling anyone where he is going or why.

Dream is a big theme for Michael. Michael has a lot of dreams during he book. His dreams are mostly about his baby sister. There is one dream when he dreams, wings coming out from her shoulder blades. When he wakes up he goes to his mum and asks her what shoulder blades are. Then she says, “They say that shoulder blades are where your wings were when you were an angel,” she said, “They say they’re where your wings will grow again one day.”

From my point of view I think Skellig was an Angel. Those angels that, makes your wish or hope come true when you do something kind to him or her or someone else. I think it has something to do with obtain or Marry Poppins. Although a big question came up to me, Skellig didn’t come to Michael with a flying umbrella and a magic bag like Mary Poppins. He was just there maybe before he came. Skellig is a magical and unknown person to me. Was he even human, angel or devil? He could be anything.

I think David Almond kept Skellig an unknown person to keep the reader thinking what he actually was. Some people may think he didn’t even exist, or David Almond himself might not know what he was. People’s imagination can go on forever. Which could happen in both ways going to school and being home schooled. I think he also wanted to tell the reader that going to school or being home schooled doesn’t really matter. We are all human beings and have the same ability’s to do anything.

Skellig and Schoolboy have a lot of differences. Although their differences are mainly small, except for the fact that the way they learn are very different, but their similarities are bigger. What you think about your family, friends, and Loving people from your heart, having hope for something.

School is very important but knowing the nature around you is also important too. When you feel bad at school think about the people you love or something you are looking forward. Loving and caring about people is as big as all the work you do at school. I think that is what David Almond wanted to tell his readers about Skellig.

My book review is on Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot. I have been reading a lot of ‘The Princess Diaries’ series and i seem to have them all ♥ I usually read books on holidays or when I’m bored. ‘The Princess Diaries’ starts with a girl called Mia ( Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Girmaldi Renaldo) and she goes to an ordinary High School. Although one day her grandmother comes by and tells her that she is a princess. Obviously any ordinary girl would just freak out if someone suddenly told her that she is a princess, and so did Mia. Then she goes through some trouble and ends up in this book ‘Princess on the Brink’.

‘Princess on the Brink’ is the 8th or 9th book in ‘The Princess Diaries’ series. It is concentrated on Mia’s relationship with Michael, Mia’s best friends brother. Michael goes to his new college a few stops away from her house. As days go by Mia starts to miss Michael and starts to get worried. Mia is worried if Michael is cheating on her. Michael has a best friend and she is a girl, and she decided to go to the same college as Michael. 

For me this was the most tragic book in the series. Michael and Mia’s realationship gets worse and worse as the book ends. Towards the end Mia just cant hold her feelings anymore and says good-bye to Michael. Eventhough they still both like eachother. That happened to one of my friends recently and she is still having a hard time. Although after she breaks up with Michael she cant stop thinking about him during school. As days when by her best friend lost her boyfriend (too), but he wouldnt tell the reason of them breaking up. Around Mia lots of trouble were being made and she got a bad grade for her english which she had been getting straight A’s on. The good thing was, all of her best friends tried to cheer as much as they can.

One science class, Lilly (Mia’s Best Friend) ‘s x-bf (Boris) passes a note to her, but Mia ignored it since he broke Lilly’s heart. But she got curious and curious of what he wrote, maybe its a sorry letter! So she looked at the note. The note was not a sorry letter, it was to cheer Mia up. Although Mia only wrote ‘…thanks’, so as they were passing notes to eachother Mia felt better and better. At the end of the class she felt really thankful and hugged him at the corridors.

But that was a big mistake. When Mia was hugging Boris Michael was there and so was Lilly, as she tried to pull away to go talk to them Boris kissed her. Mia was in shock. But then Boris turned around and ran away. Mia was blank, she felt like everything was over. Her life, her throne, her best friend EVERYTHING.