Ammy's Book Reviews

Title: The name of this book is called 'The Northern Lights'.

Author: The author of this book is Philip Pullman.                          

Number of Pages: This book has 397 pages.

Ratings: I give this book ten out of ten.

  Summary: "Everyone in my world has daemons, so why are they cutting them away?" Lyra Belaqua is a normal girl, at least she thinks she is before Mrs. Coulter comes. Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon, her soul that walks beside her, leave Jordan College, Oxford, where she grew up, to go with Mrs. Coulter to London. She takes with her a golden compass, an alethiometer, that tells the truth. She finds out that Mrs. Coulter isn't that nice and runs away. She finds out that her uncle, Lord Asriel, is being held captive by the armoured bears so she tries to rescue him. She goes to the North with some friends of hers called the Gyptians. On the way she meets with Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear, exiled from Svalbard, the kingdom of the armoured bears, Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut and Serafina Pekkala, a witch. Along with all these people she heads to Bolvangar, a place where very evil people are doing very evil things, cutting children's daemons away. Lyra and Pantalaimon save them all and continues to the kingdom of Svalbard to save Lyra's uncle. She meets with the bear king, Iofur Raknison, on her own (with Pantalaimon), as she was separated from the rest of the group on their way to Svalbard. Iorek comes to save her and ends up fighting  Iofur. When he succeeds, they (Iorek, Lyra and Pan) go to free her father. They arrive at the house that he was living in to find that he was trying to make a bridge to another world. He succeeds and Lyra and Pantalaimon cross this bridge into another world.

  My Thoughts on the Novel: -Characters: I really like the character of Lyra because she is brave, kind, determined and even though she has had many hardships, she usually seems to be happy. She is also adventurous and doesn't seem to mind getting into trouble. She would be my favourite character. Her daemon Pantalaimon, is opposite in some ways. He is the careful one, thinking of the consequences before they do something silly or dangerous. He is, though, a brilliant character. Iorek Byrnison is an armoured bear, exiled from the kingdom of Svalbard. He is a great companion to Lyra and Pan. He is brave and does not mind going to war.

  -Themes: I think the themes of this book are friendship, magic, adventure and family.

  -Emotions: I think the emotions in this book are; shock, this is evident when Lyra finds out what they are doing in Bolvangar, excitement, when the children of Bolvangar are waiting for the signal from Lyra to escape, happiness, when Lyra is on her way to Svalbard with Lee Scoresby and anger when Lyra reaches her uncle in Svalbard who isn't grateful when she brings him the alethiometer or happy to see her. 

 -Realistic or Fantasy? This book is definitely fantasy. There aren't talking armoured bears in our world and there aren't alethiometers in this world either.              

        "Friendship, a dear balm...     

 A smile among dark frowns:

         A beloved light:

                         A solitude,

              A refuge,  a delight."

         Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)

 Name: The Alchemyst.

 Author: Michael Scott.

 Marks out of Ten: ten marks out of ten.

 Information: There is a second book called The Magician and the third book, The Sorceress, is coming out on the twentieth of May.

 Summary: This book is about two twins called Sophie and Josh Newman. They are in San Fransisco for the Summer and Josh gets a job in a bookshop run by a middle aged man called Nick Fleming and his wife Perry. Sophie gets a job in a cafe across the road. One day, some grey looking men and a small man get out of a black car and go into the bookshop across the road. In their wake, there is a strong smell of sulphur or rotten eggs. Josh and Nick are in the bookshop and Josh witnesses some extraordinary things that could only be described as magic. Sophie and Perry witness one of the grey faced men being blown out the door and rush in to help the others. The bookshop was in ruins and the small man was stand ing across from Nick. There is one final explosion coming from Perry and the other grey men start to melt! The small man rushes across to Nick and grabs a book from Nick. Josh sees this hapenning and grabs at the book, tearing out the last two pages of the book. The small man leaves, taking Perry and his grey men with him.

Afterwards Josh shows Nick the two pages of the book he has left and Nick, with the twins, rush away from the bookshop. The twins confront him and make Nick tell them about magic! Nick tells the that the grey face, melting men were called Golems and were made of mud. He also tells them that he and Perry are actually over six hundred years old! He says that his real name is Nicholas Flamel and that he is the most famous alchemyst in the world. Perry's real name is Perenelle Fleming and she is a renowned sorceress. The small man in the bookshop was called Dr. John Dee and had been hunting the Flamels for a few centuries. He said that Dee worked for magical god like beings called Elders, although the particular Elders Dee served were called the Dark Elders. These Elders wanted to see a return of the Elders so they could rule the world and make humans their slaves. The world had been like this before but some Elders had allowed the humans to form as a race. The Dark Elders needed the book that Dee had stolen. The book was called the Codex and was the Book of Abraham the Mage. This book contained many different spells and potions but the two pages that Josh pulled out were the most important pages. They contained The Final Summoning which allowed the Dark Elders to come back and rule the world. One of the special potions in the Codex was the potion for immortality. The Flamels used this each month and without the Codex they will age a year for every month and would die by the end of the month.

Nicholas takes the twins to a dojo where they meet a teenager with red hair whose called Scathach. Scatty, as she's called by the twins, is a Next Generation Elder (not as powerful as the Elders but still very powerful) and claims to be a millenium or more old. Scatty invented all types of karate and is a master with a sword. She is also a vegetarian vampire.She travels with the twins as Nicholas takes the twins to a very powerful Elder called Hekate, the Goddess with Three Faces. In the morning she looks like a young girl, she gradually ages during the day and at night looks like a very old woman. There is no telling what age she could be but she is very, very, very old. As thay are going to Hekate's Shadowrealm, a dimension joined onto ours, they are attacked by thousands of huge crows called dire crows who are controlled by the crow goddess, the Morrigan. She is extremely evil and Dee had called on her services. They get away safely though and escape to Hekate's Shadowrealm.

Here, Nicholas asks Hekate to Awaken the twins powers. Only some Elders can do it and Hekate can. A person's magical abilities depend on their aura, the electrical field around their body. If you have special auras, your magic powers would be stronger. It just so happens that Sophie has a pure silver aura and Josh has a pure gold aura, the two most rare auras in the world. Nicholas says that there is a prophecy in the Codex about these particular twins. It speaks of twins with silver and gold auras. It also says that the two that are one, the one that is all will save the world. Hekate had created her Shadowrealm and in the centre of it was a giant, huge tree called the World Tree. the World Tree and Hekate were linked so if one became weak, so did the other. Meanwhile, Dee has Perenelle prisoner with magic chains which weaken and bind her. Dee goes to visit another Dark Elder,Bastet, the cat goddess of the Egyptians, and asks her to help him and the Morrigan attack Hekate's Shadowrealm. She says yes.

The next morning Hekate agrees to awaken the twins as her army gathers outside. Perenelle, who has the natural ability to talk to ghosts(her aura isn't affected by this ability as she is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter) had sent a ghost to tell Nicholas about Dee's attackon the Shadowrealm and that is how they found out. Dee, Bastet and the Morrigan had assembled an army at the entrance to Hekate's Shadowrealm and they attacked. Hekate awakend Sophie but Dee set the World Tree on fire and Hekae ran out to save the tree. Sophie fainted as when your powers are awakened, your senses are greatly enhanced and you could die from a sound or smell overload. Josh helped her outside and Scatty and Nicholas protected them. However, Bastet attacked Nicholas and was about to kill him. Perenelle somehow gets free and tries to help Nicholas by looking at the scene through a pudle of water. She sees Sophie unconcious with her powers awakened and takes over Sophies body. Doing this she saves Nicholas, Scatty and Josh. They escape but Dee strikes the World Tree with his sword Excalibur, the sword of ice, and kills the World Tree and Hekate along with it. Dee, Bastet and the Morrigan escape Hekate's Shadowrealm before it died with Hekate.

Nicholas takes the twins to Scatty's grandmother, the Witch of Endor. She is the Master of Wind and teaches Sophie how to use the power of wind. Josh was aent out of her house in Ojai and goes to the park across the road. Here Dee meets with him and tells him stories which confuse Josh and compell hin to go with Dee. Dee leaves Josh pondering his stories and goes to attack Sophie, Nicholas and Sctty. He raises all the people in the 'Old West' graveyards and they walk the streets, attacking the group. Sophie eventually screams in exhaustion as she has used all magic she is capable of. Josh hears her and saves the day by driving into Dee in a car, destroying Dee's concentration and causing the dead to fall. Josh runs to the group and they all go back to the Witch of Endor. She opens a ley gate, a way to travel between continents using mirrors, and they all travel to Paris. Dee rushes in after them but the ley gate is destroyed by the Witch of Endor who makes her shop explode, hurting Dee.

 My Thoughts on the Book:

 Characters: My favourite character is Scathach or Scatty. She is a millenium old warrior who has some origin in Irish legends. She is supposedly to have trained Cúchulainn. She is very kind and looks after the twins very well. Nicholas Flamel is a strange and slightly scary character. He was a real man who is believed to still be alive today. Someone broke into his wife's and his grave but there was no bodies there. He is also mentioned in Harry Potter. He is supposed to have found the secret of immortality and the secret of changing rocks to gold. Dr. John Dee is a very dangerous, cunning and scary character. He too was a real character and was the English Queen's most valuable spy. He signed his messages with a 007. The two 00 were supposed to be the eyes of the Queen and the 7 was his own personal mark. Sophie and Josh are fraternal twins but are the best of friends. They get on very well and can finish each other's scentences. When Sophie gets her powers awakened, he is very scared for her but also a bit jealous.

 Themes: The main theme in this book is magic. The Flamels use magic to survive for centuries. the Elders are magical beings that were alive milleniums before dinasaurs arrived and the twins' powers are awakened so they can save the world. Another theme is family. This theme is very important to the twins as their parents work a lot so they look after each other and know each other so well they can finish each others' scentences.

For my Junior Cert I'm studying the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I thought this play was very good overall but sometimes it was a little boring. I didn't really like that the prologue told you what happened in the play so you knew the basis of the story and that Romeo and Juliet both die. Ther are five Acts in this play. This play is directed by fate and the two lovers are described as "star-crossed lovers."                                                                                                                          

 The play is set in Verona and two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, are feuding. The fighting is so bad that even the servants of each family can't stand each other. In the first scene there is a fight and Prince Escalus, the ruler of Verona says to the head of the two families, " If e'er you disturb our streets again/ Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace." Romeo, the only child of the Montagues, believes he is in love with Rosaline, a cousin of the Capulets. He is very sad as Rosaline will not love Romeo. He wandered on his own and was always deep within hmself in sadness. This is called unrequited love. The Capulets are having a party and while Romeo and his first cousin, Benvolio, are taking a walk, they meet a Capulet servant delivering the letters. The servant is illiterate and so asks Romeo and Benvolio, not knowing who they are, to read him the list. Romeo sees that Rosaline will be there as well as a lot of the beauties of Verona. The servant leaves and Romeo and Benvolio, with their friend Mercutio, a relative of the Princes, decide to go to the party.

 At the party Romeo sees Rosaline but he also sees Juliet, the only child of the Capulets. He has eyes only for her and says "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright/ It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/ As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear." He goes up to her and they converse in a sonnet, a fourteen line poem where every second line rhymes except for the last two which rhyme with each other. Romeo calls Juliet "a holy shrine" and his lips "two blushing pilgrims" which want to worship/kiss her. He does and they fall in love. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, hears Romeo and recognises his voice (The three friends are wearing masks like mostof the guests). Tybalt, who has a very hot temper, wantes to strike Romeo dead on the spot but Capulet hears him and stopped him. He says, "Verona brags of him to be a virtuous and well-governed youth." Tybalt leaves the party in a temper as Capulet scolded him about being foolish. Romeo goes to leave and as he does, finds out that she is Juliet. She likewise finds out that he was Romeo. Just before the party Count Paris, another relative of the Princes, asked Lord Capulet, Juliet's father, could he marry Juliet. Capulet replys by saying that his daughter is not yet fourteen and to wait a year or two. Juliet was to examine Paris at the party but she fell in love with Romeo.

As Romeo and his friends leave the party, Romeo decides to go and find Juliet so he leaves them suddenly and arrives under Juliet's balcony. She is talking to herself and says "O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I'll no longer be a Capulet". Romeo hears her innermost thoughts and decides to intervene. They tell each other how much they love each other and decide to get married. Juliet says that she will send somebody to get Romeo's message about the wedding. He leaves as she is called inside by her Nurse. Then he went to the Friar's cells and to his friend Friar Laurence. When he arrived, Friar Laurence was collecting plants and herbs so he could make poisons and medecines. He tells the Friar that he is in love with Juliet and that he would like him to marry them that day. Friar Laurence didn't like the abruptness of Romeo's love for Juliet from Rosaline but he thought that this marriage would help stop the feuding between the two families.Romeo then went and met Benvolio and Mercutio who were very happy to see that he was cheerier. Romeo and Mercutio had a witty conversation and Romeo had remarks on the tip of his tongue. Juliet's Nurse entered and they all laughed at her. Benvolio and Mercutio left and Romeo told the Nurse about the marriage that afternoon and that Juliet was to tell her parents that she was going to confession. The Nurse was to get a rope ladder so that Romeo could get to Juliet's room that night.

We then see Mercutio and Benvolio out for a walk in Verona. They were talking about a challenge that Tybalt had sent to Romeo that morning because they had gone to the party the night previously. Tybalt then comes in looking for Romeo who then walks in. Tybalt insults Romeo but Romeo ignores the insults as he knows that they are now cousins. Mercutio thinks that Romeo is being cowardly so decides to duel Tybalt. They draw their swords and start.Romeo gets between them to stop them but Tybalt sneaks in a strike and killed Mercutio. Tybalt ran away and Mercutio cursed both the houses and then died. Tybalt came back and Romeo, in his rage, killed Tybalt. When he realised what he had done, he ran. Prince Escalus came to the scem=ne and was shocked to hear that his relative had been killed and that Tybalt was killed. Benvolio told the Prince what happened and Romeo was banished, not killed, as he was avenging his friend.

Friar Laurence came back to his cell where Romeo was hiding and told Romeo what his punishment was. Romeo was distraught to hear about his banishment. Juliet was in a similar state as she was mourning Tybalt and crying for Romeo. Her mother thinks she is just crying for Tybalt. The Nurse decides to go to Friar Laurence's cell to get Romeo to comfort Juliet. Friar Laurence's tells Romeo to go to Mantua where he will be able to get letters from the Friar quickly and after everything had died down they will try to get Romeo allowede in Verona again. This was decided after Romeo early killed himself trying to cut out his name. Romeo first goes to spend the night in Juliet's room. That night Capulet decides that Juliet will marry Count Paris on the next Thursday to stop her grief. The next morning Romeo leaves for Mantua and then Juliet finds out that she is to marry Paris. She says she won't and her father verbally attacks her. She asks her Nurse for advice and her Nurse tells her to marry Paris as Romeo will probably never come back from Mantua. Juliet knows that she can't trust the Nurse anymore so she goes to see the Friar Laurence and ask his advice.

When she arrives Count Paris is there and he calls her his own. She replys by saying she mightn't be his and saying things that only those that know she is already married would understand its true nmeaning. Heleaces and shbreaks down infront of Friar Laurence. He knows of her plight and is very sympathetic. Juliet says hat if he doesn't have a remedy she will kill herself. Friar Laurence comes up with another plan. He gives Juliet a vial of potion and tells her to drink it the night before the wedding and it will give her the appearence of death. She will then be buried in the Capulet vault alongside Tybalt and when she wakes up, the potion lasts for forty two hours, Romeo, who Friar Laurence will have sent a letter to, and Friar Laurence will come and open the vault and Romeo will take Juliet off to Mantua. Juliet went home and told her father  that she would mary Pris so he moved the wedding onto the next day. That night Juliet took the potion and the next morning, the Nurse came to wake her and found Juliet 'dead'. Everyone was heartbroken. Juliet was buried and all the wedding preperations were switched to mourning colours. Romeo, in Mantua, was feeling surprisingly cheery but his servant Balthasar came running from Verona telling him that Juliet had died. Romeo was shocked and decided he could not live without Juliet. He remember seeing an impoverished chemist in town and buys a poison from him. Romeo and his servant ride to Verona with tools to break into the vault so he can lie beside Juliet. His servant doesn't know what's going on.Roeo gave him a letter to give his father to tell him about the marriage. Before they  Friar Laurence found out that the letter he sent to Romeo didn't reach him so goes to break Juliet out of the vault before she wakes up.

When they arrive, Paris is there laying flowers around Juliet's grave. Romeo sends his servant away. Paris sees Romeo and draws on him. Paris' pageran to get the policemen to catch Romeo. Romeo doesn't know who it is and so kills him as this person was going to try and stop him reach Juliet. Before he dies, Paris asks Romeo to lie him beside Juliet. Romeo then sees it is Paris and takes him to Juliet. There Romeo took the potion and died. Ouside, Friar Laurence came where he met Balthasar. Balthasar told him that Romeo was inside the vault and Friar Laurence went in. There Romeo was dead and Juliet was waking up. She saw Romeo dead and Friar Laurence asked her to leave with him and he would put her in a convent. The policemen arrived outside and Friar Laurence ran away. Juliet kisses Romeo to see if there was any poison on his lips to kill her to but there wasn't so she took his dagger and stabbed herself. The policemen arrived and see the two lovers dead. They found Friar Laurence and Balthasar. Capulet, Montague and the Prince arrived. Friar Laurence told his story and said that if he was at fault, to kill him. Balthasar gave the Prince the letter and Paris' page told his story while the Prince read the letter. When he was finished, thw Prince told the families that the Friar's story was true and he would be pardoned as he was a holy man.The Prince said that fate had taken Romeo and Juliet as punishment for the feud and that he himself had lost two kinsman for ignoring the feud foe too long. Capulet and Montague shook hands, Montague said that he would have a staue made of Juliet in solid gold and Capulet said that Romeo could lie beside Juliet in the Capulet vault. The play ends with these two lines said by the Prince; "For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Juliet is a strong, independent wilful girl and is only thirteen. She is more practical than Romeo as he woos her while she asks him if he is serious and would consider marriage. I think she is stronger than Romeo as when he was banished, he was distraught and couldn't see reason but when Juliet is faced with a more serious problem, she looks it straight in the eye and tries to find the best and most practical idea. Romeo, who is sixteen or seventeen, is kind, thoughtful, considerate but sometimes hasty person. He doesn't think things through as much as Juliet does but he thinks things through more than Tybalt. When he finds out he is banished, he falls inao a heap on the ground an can't take a positive outlook on it. Friar Laurence is kind, logical and smart. He tried his best for Romeo and Juliet and to stop the feud ut it didn't work. His plans aren't that well thought throuogh but I suppose in  the circumstances he wouldn't have had the time. I wouldn't blame him for the death of Romeo and Juliet as it was fate who killed them in the end.

The theme of love was the most important theme in this play. The love between Romeo and Juliet was very passionate and believable. The similes and metaphors used were brillian an really helped to paint the picture of their love. One of these metaphors was by Romeo in Act two Scene two where he says "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."  

I liked this play a lot. It was funny because of remarks made by the Nurse, dramatic with the deaths of various characters but also a little far fetched. Ther would have been an easier solution to the wedding of Paris and Juliet but Friar Laurence thought of a rather dangerous an risky plan. I would like to go and see this play and if I see the film I will be able to understand it. I would give this play ten out of ten.

 The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam ‘round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet ‘taint being dead-it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows-O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared and the furnace roared-such a blaze you seldom see;
Then I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked;" . . . then the door I opened wide

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm-
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."
 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun