A Little Sneak-Peek

Sir Richard couldn’t see the dragon’s lair, but the sky was smoky and hazy.  He knew the horses could sense danger and were uneasy.  Cyrus smelled it in the air too, he could tell, but the German Shepherd walked quietly beside his master’s steed with only his ears twitching nervously.

The Sacrifice

I’m working on the science-story-thing I’ve been talking about at the moment (and it’s almost done), but when I finish it I’m going to pick up The Sacrifice again!

As you can see, I decided to rename the German Shepherd.  I loved the names that were suggested, but I felt like this one fit into this story best.

Happy Tuesday!  I cannot wait to posting The Sacrifice!

??? {Mystery Quote #13} ???

Okay, who remembered I was doing “Mystery Quote” today?  No pressure, ’cause I almost forgot! 🙂  We’ll see how Monday works!

Anyway,

Last week’s quote was from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  Chapter 13: “Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time”.  TOTALLY recommend this one! 🙂

Juliana, Spencer, and Micaiah all guessed the right book, and Micaiah guessed the chapter.  And Skylar gets creativity points for her guess: “The Story of the Walking Talking Stump”. 🙂  Now, this week’s quote:

“I’ve been watching you.  You’ve been alone for a long time,” said the chipmunk, stuffing another acorn into his fat cheeks.  “I hear you’re lost.”  “Mama said to wait, to wait right here,” whispered the fawn.  “She will come back.”

I think this one is really obvious if you’ve read the book, but I decided to go with it anyway.  Happy guessing!

P.S. You seriously need to listen to this.  Crazy good!  (Check with your parents, there might be unfortunate adds that come up before the video.  Sorry about that.)

June Book Reviews: Sarah Whitcher’s Story

I’m almost done with history books, and then I’m not sure what I’ll write about! 🙂

Anyways, Sarah Whitcher’s Story by Elizabeth Yates is based on a true story of a little girl who got lost in the forest for days.  It’s a sweet, fairly-short book; with a Christian message.  It is dedicated:

To all–especially children–who believe in miracles.

Awesome, easy reading.  We found it at our library.

This is still pretty short, but I don’t want to give away too much, so I’ll leave it at this!

Happy Thursday!

P.S. Elizabeth Yates did also write Amos Fortune: Free Man, which is great!

??? {Mystery Quote #12} ???

Sorry it’s so late!  Bright Lights is kinda’ getting in the way,

So starting next week I’m going to try Monday instead.

I’ll see if that works better.  Anyway,

Last week’s quote came from The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  This is the first book I would not necessarily recommend.  I did not read all of the book.

Spencer, Becca, and Micaiah all guessed right.  (It was from Chapter 5, by the way; which no one guessed, probably because most of them guessed from the movie!)

Now:

And if you had watched long enough you would have seen the stump walk across to the boulder and the boulder sit up and begin talking to the stump.

Happy guessing! 🙂

Misunderstood

And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. (400)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

June Book Reviews: A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. . . (7)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Even more than with Great Expectations, I don’t really feel qualified to write this review.  But I’ll do my best.

Expressive signs of what made them poor, were not wanting; the tax for the state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, tax local and tax general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to solemn inscription in the little village, until the wonder was, that there was any village left unswallowed. (117)

(Be prepared for lots of quotes!)

A Tale of Two Cities is not as funny as Great Expectations, but books don’t have to be funny to be good and it still made me smile at times! 🙂

. . . and the owl made a noise with very little resemblance in it to the noise conventionally assigned to the owl by men-poets.  But it is the obstinate custom of such creatures hardly ever to say what is set down for them. (130)

Charles Dickens is incredibly good at making realistic characters!  Their habits, mannerisms, personalities, etc.  It’s truly amazing.  I noticed that here more than Great Expectations.

‘Bring your chair here, and speak on.’  He complied with the chair, but appeared to find the speaking less easy. (135)

There is also a bit of romance, but it’s handled well.

The main themes are redemption and sacrifice.  On the back of my book it said:

Here, too, are all of Dickens’s recurring themes–imprisonment, injustice, and cataclysmic violence, resurrection and the renunciation that makes renewal possible.

It takes place during the French Revolution, and it is rather violent.

Every living creature there held life as of no account, and was demented with a passionate readiness to sacrifice it. (217)

Do you mind that this is mostly quotes?  I hope not.

I’m not sure how to tackle the story-line.  It’s pretty straightforward, but hard to relate without giving anything away!  I couldn’t say who the main character was, either.  And there are a lot of characters!  The two cities are Paris and London.  All of the main (good) characters live in London, but a lot of the book takes place in France.

And one of the characters was named Lucie! #LoveAtFirstSight

Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope. (259)

Do you feel like I’m. . . going in circles?

The best books are the hardest to explain!  Just go read it.  It’s awesome.  Emotional though.  I found the sixth book that made me cry.  (Yes, I’m counting. 🙂 )

‘But try!  Of little worth as life is when we misuse it, it is worth that effort.  It would cost nothing to lay down if it were not.’ (340)

??? {Mystery Quote #11} ???

Last week’s quote came from The Growly Books: Begin by Philip and Erin Ulrich, Chapter 13: “Hammocks”, and the [he] was Growly.

Becca guessed the right series, and Ellen guessed. . . everything else. 🙂

He was glazed with fatigue.  He had been bitten, cut, gone without rest. . . had saved and taken lives.  He had risked his world, and now it was walking away from him, hand in hand with a ruffian prince.

Hint: I don't know if any of you have read this book, but the movie is really popular, so I think some of you might get it because of that.

Happy guessing!

Module 9 & 10 Story #6

THE LAST ONE!!!

Whatever will I do with myself now that I don’t have a story to post about? 🙂

IMG_1214

What is it?” asked Brian.

“It’s a Sand Dollar,” Dad explained.

“Why didn’t we find any earlier?” asked Mandy, disappointed. “I would have liked to see more. They’re pretty.”

Pretty?” asked Dad, looking down at hairy, black circle on his palm.

“Yes, very. Can we take it home?”

“No, we can’t take it home. We can’t take living creatures.”

“Oh, dear! That means I can’t take my kelp!”

“Um, kelp isn’t a living creature, Mandy-girl. You can take that home—you might be able to press it in our dictionary. And if we find a white Sand Dollar, we can take that too.”

“No, Daddy, kelp is alive. Katie told me it was.”

“Well, I suppose you could say plants are alive,” Dad said patiently. “They just don’t want us to take animals—plants are fine.”

“But they’re not plants either, Daddy.”

“I suppose Katie told you that?”

“Yes, she did. Kelp is not in Kingdom Plantae. It’s in Kingdom Protista. It’s algae, not Protozoa, though, so it doesn’t act like an animal. So. . . do you think they’ll let me keep it?”

“Yes, I think so. And, just between you and me, they’ll probably tell you you can take it home because they’ll think it’s a plant.”

The End

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So, what did you think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts! 🙂