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Name of book: White Boots.

Author of book: Noel Streatfield.

Number of pages: I don't know.... it's a small paperback of medium thickness.

Rating: Six out of ten.

This book is about two girls, Harriet and Lalla(weird name) who have one thing in common - ice-skating. Harriet does it for her legs which are weak due to illness. Lalla is training to be a child star at figure skating. She is forced to do this and follow horrible diets by her rich aunt who took her in when her father, a champion ice-skater, drowned when skating over thin ice. Lalla and Harriet become friends as Lalla is slighty spoiled and her nanny thinks Harriet will balance her out as Harriet's family is extremely poor(her brother has to do a paper round each week just to pay for renting the skates). There are lots of quarrels, all started by Lalla because she is jealous of Harriet's family and happiness when all Lalla has is money....

Cover: The cover of this book has a picture of Harriet wobbling on her ugly rented skates while Lalla glides around in the background wearing a white outfit and white skates.

Thoughts: I thought this book was a bit of a ''jolly hockey sticks'' kind of book. All the girls seem to do is have each other over for ''afternoon tea'' or arrange another skating outing. A bit dull.

Characters: Lalla- a bit conceited, wanting Harriet to take her skates off for her after passing a test with flying colours. She is a strange character with good and bad sides but she always has time to help Harriet with her skating.

Harriet: She likes Lalla because Lalla is nice to her, not because of her money. She is patient when Lalla starts an argument and shares her few posessions with her. She is shy and is nicknamed ''Daddy Long-legs'' by her brothers because of her spindly legs.

Themes: The themes of this book are fun, jealousy and friendship.

Emotions: I felt glad that Lalla and Harriet had a friendship, shocked to find out how nasty Lalla could be when she wanted to and happy for Harriet when she got her bronze medal.

Realistic or Fantastic? I think this book is alien to girls of today but as this book is ancient maybe it was realistic back when it was written.

Name of play: Romeo & Juliet.

Playwright: William Shakespeare.

Number of pages: Erm... 235 divided by two?

Rating out of Ten: 9 and 3/4. I thought this was a brilliant play but there were a few minor details left out which frustated me because I like to know exactly who, what, when, where, why and how!

Summary: This play is set in fifteenth-century Verona.  It is the story of two ''star cross'd lovers'' whose lives are led by fate.  They are from two equally noble families, the Capulets and Montagues. The Capulets and Montagues are constantly competing, bickering and fighting, an ongoing feud which has become increasingly violent in recent times (''Three civil brawls bred of an airy word / By thee old Capulet and Montague / Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets''). Romeo, a Montague, is melancholic because of his unrequited love for Rosaline, a Capulet. His close friend, Mercutio, persuades him to go to the Capulet's ball, the idea being that Romeo will meet someone nicer than Rosaline. Romeo agrees to go, but only because Rosaline will be there. At the ball, Romeo sees Juliet for the first time. It's love at first sight for both of them. Juliet doesn't know that Romeo's a Montague, nor he that Juliet is a Capulet. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, recognises Romeo and swears revenge for Romeo's ''invasion''. While the guests are leaving, Romeo finds out that Juliet is a Capulet and Juliet finds out that Romeo is a Montague.

Later that night, the lovers meet and vow their love to one another. Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to marry him and Juliet. Friar Lawrence is a bit shocked that Romeo has forgotten Rosaline already but agrees to the marriage in the hope that it will end the feud between the families. Juliet pretends to go to confession but really goes to church to marry Romeo.

That afternoon, Verona is stiflingly hot and tempers are running high. Tybalt sees Romeo and takes this opportunity to get his revenge for Romeo's trespass. Romeo doesn't want to fight now he is married, as Tybalt is now his cousin. Mercutio sees this as cowardice and intervenes, fighting Tybalt himself. Romeo and Benvolio, his cousin, attempt to separate them. Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under Romeo's arm and Mercutio is mortally wounded. He blames Romeo, who blocked him from seeing Tybalt's sneaky attack, saying on several occasions ''A plague o' both your houses'' and asks Benvolio to assist him rather than his 'best friend', Romeo.

Benvolio runs back to Romeo and tells him that Mercutio has died. Romeo is blinded by anger partly because of Mercutio's death and also, in my opinion, because Mercutio was angry at him and died before Romeo and he could discuss it rationally. His last words were a curse on Romeo's family and the Capulets. Romeo's anger is great enough that, when Tybalt reappears, Romeo attacks him without hesitation. There is a brief fight and then Romeo kills Tybalt.

Romeo realises what he has done - ''O, I am fortune's fool.'' - and rushes away to Friar Lawrence's cell. The Prince arrives on the scene and demands an explanation, after all, he did make it clear that heads would roll if there was another brawl started by the feuding families. Benvolio, the peacemaker, gives a totally truthful account of what happened. Lady Capulet claims he is biased but we know this is not the case. The Prince's verdict is banishment for Romeo and heavy fines for both families.

Juliet's waiting at home for the Nurse to come back with the final arrangements and the rope ladder for Romeo to climb into her room that night. The Nurse comes back all of a dither and keeps saying ''He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!''. Juliet automatically assumes it's Romeo who's dead and immediately mentions suicide. The Nurse wails Tybalts name and Juliet now thinks Tybalt and Romeo are both dead. Eventually the Nurse gets a few words out ''Tybalt is  gone , and Romeo banished/ Romeo that killed him, he is banished.'' Juliet curses her husband using clever imagery: ''Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical/ Dove feathered raven, wolfish-ravening lamb!'' but when the Nurse decides to join in, Juliet scolds the Nurse, mildly reprimanding herself for insulting Romeo. She reminds herself that she and Romeo must stick together throughout thick and thin but breaks down when she realises that she may never see Romeo again as he is now banished from Verona forever. The Nurse consoles her by saying she will find Romeo to comfort her himself.

Romoe comes but elsewhere Capulet is discussing a hasty marriage with Count Paris..  The lovers bid farewell the next morning, unsure when they will see each other again. Juliet learns that her father, affected by the recent events, now intends for her to marry Paris in just three days. Unsure of how to proceed-unable to reveal to her parents that she is married to Romeo, but unwilling to marry Paris now that she is Romeo's wife-Juliet asks her Nurse for advice. She counsels Juliet to proceed as if Romeo were dead and to marry Paris, who is a better match anyway. Disgusted with the Nurse's disloyalty, Juliet disregards her advice and hurries to Friar Lawrence. He concocts a plan to reunite Juliet with Romeo in Mantua. The night before her wedding to Paris, Juliet must drink a potion that will make her appear to be dead. After she is laid to rest in the family's crypt, the Friar and Romeo will secretly retrieve her, and she will be free to live with Romeo, away from their parents' feuding. 

 Juliet returns home to discover the wedding has been moved ahead one day, and she is to be married tomorrow. That night, Juliet drinks the potion, and the Nurse discovers her, apparently dead, the next morning. The Capulets grieve, and Juliet is entombed according to plan. But Friar Lawrence's message explaining the plan to Romeo never reaches Mantua. Its bearer, Friar John, gets confined to a quarantined house. Romeo hears only that Juliet is dead.   Romeo learns only of Juliet's death and decides to kill himself rather than live without her. He buys a vial of poison from a reluctant Apothecary, then speeds back to Verona to take his own life at Juliet's tomb. Outside the Capulet crypt, Romeo comes upon Paris, who is scattering flowers on Juliet's grave. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris. He enters the tomb, sees Juliet's inanimate body, drinks the poison, and dies by her side. Just then, Friar Lawrence enters and realizes that Romeo has killed Paris and himself. At the same time, Juliet awakes. Friar Lawrence hears the coming of the watch. When Juliet refuses to leave with him, he flees alone. Juliet sees her beloved Romeo and realizes he has killed himself with poison. She kisses his poisoned lips, and when that does not kill her, buries his dagger in her chest, falling dead upon his body.  

 The watch arrives, followed closely by the Prince, the Capulets, and Montague. Montague declares that Lady Montague has died of grief over Romeo's exile. Seeing their children's bodies, Capulet and Montague agree to end their long-standing feud and to raise gold statues of their children side-by-side in a newly peaceful Verona.  

Name of book: The Alchemyst.

Author: Michael Scott.

Size of book: It's a thick paperback.

 Rating out of ten: Ten.

Summary: The story starts in San Francisco, where twins Sophie and Josh are working for the summer. They have jobs across the road from each other, Sophie in a coffee shop and Josh in a bookshop, so they can still see each other. They are saving up to buy a car by clubbing their money together, which is why they have jobs in San Francisco.

One day Sophie is working as usual in the coffee shop, when she notices men with grey skin go into the bookshop where Josh works. She thinks nothing of it but casually mentions it to Perry, a regular customer and the wife of the bookshop's owner, Nick Fleming. Perry looks terrified and tells Sophie to stay in the coffee shop, rushing over to the bookshop. Fearing for her brother's safety, Sophie follows Perry over to the bookshop.

A weird scene meets her eyes. Nick Fleming and another scary-looking man are throwing balls of what looks like green and yellow energy at each other. There is a strong smell of peppermint and sulphur in the air. Two big grey men are chasing Josh, who has an ancient-looking book in his arms. The scary man takes the book off Josh and runs away but Josh realises he still has two pages in his hands which had been torn out when the man grabbed the book.

These pages form the rest of the story. The book was the book of Abraham the Mage and the pages were the Final Summoning which could bring about the end of humankind as we know it. Sophie and Josh have to be Awakened and they must learn the Ancient Magics in order to survive and protect the pages. They also have the difficult task of getting the book back as Nick reveals that he is in fact Nicholas Flamel and he and his wife Perenelle are over six hundred years old. The problem with this is that in order to stay alive they must rely on the book for the Elixir of Life formula, which is different every month and appears for a short time once a month.

Thoughts: This book is a fantastic read. The best way to read it is curled up on the couch with some chocolate and a big soft blanket! It is very tense as well, at one point, they arrived at a safe place and just when you think that they are going to have a breather they get attacked there.

Characters:

Sophie: She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She is a very intelligent person and although she finds it hard to accept all the magical stuff going on she just accepts it.

Josh: He also has blonde hair and blue eyes. He is inclined to speak before he thinks which can get him into sticky situations sometimes. He is also less inclined to believe and trust in the beginning and is sometimes sceptical regarding magical theories.

N.B. There isn't actually a whole lot of information about Sophie and Josh in this novel. I would have liked to tell you more about them but I think Michael Scott thought we might get sick of them seeing as the whole story is through their eyes!

Nicholas: He has black hair and grey eyes. He is a brilliant alchemyst but a very bad sorcerer as his attention to detail, patience and ability to follow instructions to the letter are the qualities which are needed for alchemy but very bad for sorcery. He lacks a creative spark. He is able to make decision in a split second and gets everyone out of a number of scrapes in this book.

Perenelle: She has black hair and green eyes. She is very intelligent and a brilliant sorceress. Also, she is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which means she can see ghosts!

Scatty: She is Nicholas and Perenelle's friend. She invented judo and is a fearsome warrior. She can take on twelve men and easily knock them all out. She teaches Sophie and Josh judo and travels with them to protect everyone.

Dr. John Dee: The scary guy who we meet at the start of the book. He wants the pages with the Final Summoning to give to his mysterious master. He is a necromancer (a type of sorcerer who uses dead bodies as puppets and makes inanimate objects do his bidding by giving them lives of their own) and used to be Nicholas's apprentice until he turned bad.

Themes: Magic, violence and mystery.

Emotions: Impossible to portray accurately, there were too many!

Realistic or Fantastic? Well, obviously fantastic, but Michael Scott only invented Sophie and Josh himself, the other characters are all from myths or were actual people in history.....

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''People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading''. Logan Pearsall Smith, 1917.

''Books had instant replay long before televised sports''. Bern Williams.

 ''He who lends a book is an idiot. He who returns the book is even more of an idiot''. Arabic Proverb.

''O for a Booke and a shadie nooke, either in-a-door or out,

With the grene leaves whys'pring overhede or the Streete cryes all about,

Where I maie Reade all at my ease, both of the Newe and Olde,

For a Jollie Goode Booke whereon to looke is better to me than Golde''. John Wilson.

Just a few quotes to brighten up your day - I love the last one, it describes me perfectly!

I realy enjoyed using the blog this year for my book reports. I liked the fact that you can personalise your own page and it's neater than anything you'd write out. I like being able to read other people's blogs and comment on what they've said. I think it's a great idea and that more schools should use these blogs. The only problem I had with the blog was that I often found it hard to go in to the computer, log on etc. Other than that I had a totally positive experience with the blog and would be delighted to continue next year(hint!). I would definitely recommend using a blog for schoolwork to anyone who asked.

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