The Call of the Wild

Hi! I am back, and talking about a new book this week. I am reading The Call of the Wild by Jack London. It is about a husky dog named Buck, who gets kidnapped and shipped to Alaska. He gets released and tries to run away, but a man catches him and beats him with a club many times. He passes out after a while, then wakes up in a tent. There are a few other husky dogs with him, and a man. The man lets the dogs all rest, then brings them outside. He attaches them to a harness, and to a sleigh. He teaches them to pull him on the sled. Buck quickly catches on.
Later, a group of wild, skinny, desperate husky dogs show up while the man (Francois), Buck, and his teammates are asleep. They scavenge for their food. Francois wakes up and hears them rustling around. He tries to chase them away, but they bite him and attack him. Outraged by this, Buck and his teammates leave the tent and go help Francois, after all that he did for them. They bite and jump and kick and attack until their enemies finally give up.

So far, I think that this book is pretty good. In the beginning, I didn't like it all that much, because I love animals, so I didn't like reading about him being kidnapped, starved, and I especially didn't like when he was being beaten. Although he survived, I wish that hadn't happened. If I were the author, I would make him not get beaten.
I liked it when Francois rescued him from the abusive people. He made friends with his teammates, so that was also a good/happy thing.
I like it when books are exciting, so even though the fight wasn't a good thing, I kind of enjoyed it. I like it when there are fights and/or tension in a book or movie, so that was an exciting part for me.

Overall, I think this was a pretty good book so far. I think this because it was exciting when there was the fight, and when Francois rescued him. I didn't give it an excellent rating because I didn't like the part when Buck was being kidnapped and beaten. If I had to rate this book on a scale from 1-10 (10 being high), I would probably give it a 7 1/2.

-Erin

*I commented on David Messina's Blog

The Sisters Grimm

Hi! I am back, (obviously), and I have started reading a book called The Sisters Grimm. I have to thank Patrick Gardner for this, because he gave me the first 2 books in the series for my birthday. So far, there are two sisters (hence the name, Sisters Grimm), Sabrina and Daphne. Sabrina is 11 and Daphne is 7. About a year ago, their parents mysteriously disappeared. So their family attorney has been chouffering the sisters around, trying to find different foster homes for them to go in. So far, all of them have been bad. Then they find their long-lost granny (who has been believed to be dead by the girls) in a newspaper ad. The family attorney drives them over and drops them off. Their granny is sort of strange so far, and their granny's butler, Mr. Crim, is even creepier. Once they get to the house, the girls unpack, have dinner, and go to bed. In the middle of the night, Daphne gets up and sees some small lights out the window. Sabrina is still asleep, so Daphne gets up and opens the window. Sabrina wakes up and yells at Daphne. They try to close the window, but it is stuck. They turn around and see Mr. Crim standing in the doorway. He looks angry. He comes in, yells at them, closes the window, and nails it shut. He tells them to, "Never let anyone or anything into this house!" Just as he turns around, the girls see a small figure sitting in the woods, playing the flute. Sabrina blinked, and it was gone. She thinks something fishy is going on.

I think that so far, this book has been pretty interesting. I say this because in the beginning, it is suspenseful when the girls are going to meet their granny. Truthfully, I thought that the granny wasn't going to show up at first. Also, I think that something fishy is going on, because they saw the small lights, and Mr. Crim and their granny were extremely strict on the fact that they were not supposed to let anything into their house. I also thought it was kind of suspicious that they saw a small "person", if you will, sitting in a tree. Then the next second, it was gone. I think that they might be fairies or pixies, because the title of the book is The Sisters Grimm; Book 1, The Fairy Detectives. Also, when their granny is laying down the rules in the beginning, she mentions a locked closet that is to stay locked at all times. She says that the girls might hear some strange noises coming from the closet, but they are to ignore the noises and keep the door locked tightly. I think that maybe the granny is a fairy detective/hunter and she finds the fairies and/or pixies and locks them in the closet. Later on in the book, she probably introduces the girls to fairy hunting. So far, this book has been fairly odd and suspicious, but on a scale from 1-10, (10 being wonderful and 1 being repulsive), I have to give this book an 8. I give it a high rating because it was suspenseful and interesting when the girls were finding out about the closet. I don't give it a 9 or 10 because I haven't read all that much of the book, and I think it could be better.
If I were the author, I would make the granny not show up when the girls are scheduled to meet her. Then, it would be even more suspicious because the girls know that their granny is dead, because their parents told them so. And, they would have to go searching for her. Once they found whoever was posing as their granny, they would have to do some research on who this woman is.
I also think that since the granny is supposedly dead, but she is actually there, it is kind of weird. I think that eventually, they will find out that this is just some old random lady who is crazy. I think that they will find out that she escaped from her mental institute. I'm serious! This lady is weird! When they were leaving the house to go shopping, she knocked on the door and said "We're just going out for a while, we'll be back". The girls asked her who she was talking to, and she said that she was talking to the house. I'm not even joking. She said that as if it were the most normal thing in the universe.
Overall, this is a pretty interesting book. I hope it will be exciting soon. I also hope that they will see more strange figures in the woods.

-Erin

*I commented on Sam Lisak's blog.

Exit Here

Hi! I am continuing to read Exit Here by Jason Myers. So, now Travis met up with Claire at a bar nad they had some drinks and talked about school and other stuff. The book is in fist-person point of view (Travis's point of view) and he keeps thinking about how pretty Claire is. I think that instead of moping about Laura breaking up with him, he should just go out with Claire. Next, Travis, Cliff, Michael, chris, and Claire go to a party, and (as I predicted), they saw Laura there with another guy. Travis gets angry and he walks away. This would have worked, except for the slight detail that Laura noticed him.
She calls him a few times, and follows him until he realizes that she is not going away. She asks him why he is going away from her, and he lies and tells her that he didn't hear her, and asks if she could hurry up because he doesn't feel well. Obviously he is lying, because he was going to a party and hanging out with his friends, so I'm guessing that he feels well.

I think that next, she is going to introduce him to her new boyfriend and he is going to be really mean and snotty. I also think that instead of Travis being mad at Laura, he is going to pull her aside and ask if she wants to get back together with him. I think he is going to do this because he keeps talking about Laura to Michael and Chris. She will probably say no, becuase she is going out with Bryan. (Bryan is her new boyfriend's name). Overall, I think that this book [so far] deserves a 6 out of 10, (10 being fantastic and 1 being horrible).

I think this because the book is fairly interesting, considering the fact that Travis is torn between Laura and Claire, and he can't decide who to choose. I also didn't give it a really high rating becuase the book is kind of boring. There's no action, except when Travis is running away from Laura, and that isn't even all that interesting.

Like I said in my previous post, I hope this book will heat up soon, or else I will have to abandon it.

-Erin

* I commented on Jocelyn Weisman's blog