Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse

Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan starts off with Percy (son of Poseidon), Annabeth (daughter of Athena), Thalia (daughter of Zeus), and Grover (a satyr) at a boarding school looking for a pair of half-bloods (half-god, half-human) named Bianca and Nico. They are attacked by a monster called a manticore, who kidnaps Percy, Bianca, and Nico. While fighting the manticore, Annabeth disappears into nothing. They go back to Camp Half-blood and then go on a quest to San Francisco to save Annabeth. While traveling, they encounter many monsters, like a giant metal man that Bianca sacrifices herself to destroy. When they make it to San Francisco, they go to the Garden of Hesperides, where they get past the "hundred-headed" dragon Ladon, and find Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt) holding up the sky, which she had taken from Annabeth. Then there's a fight scene between The General (Atlas) and Artemis, Grover, Annabeth, etc., and, of course, the good guys (Artemis, Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, Percy, Zoe, etc.) win! That's pretty much the end of Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse.


I think the main theme of this book is Good vs. Evil. One example of this is the ending, when the "evil" guys (The Titans) are fighting against the "good" guys (The Greek Gods.) Here are some sentences from the book, 'The General chuckled. "So much for old friends. And you, Zoe. It's been a long time. How is my little traitor? I will enjoy killing you “‘and,’” So, even the stupidest of heroes can finally figure something out. Yes, I am Atlas, the general of the Titans and terror of the Gods. [Congrats]. I will kill you presently..."' That's why I think the one of the main themes in this book is Good vs. Evil.


I would definitely recommend this book to other 7th graders, but you probably should read the first and second books in this series first. This book is written really well, and it's really easy to understand even though it's about complicated Greek mythology. Other books like it are all the books in its series: Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth, and finally, Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian. Those are the many reasons why I would recommend this book to other 7th graders.


I got the picture at http://abook.ws/2010/03/29/rick-riordan-percy-jackson-3-the-titans-curse

My Acess Essay: Is being famous advantageous?

Do You Want Fame?

Being famous has its downsides, but there's upsides too. One reason  is that stalkers aren't that dangerous against you. Second, being famous benefits people by either providing entertainment, a cure for a disease, charity work like Angelina Jolie's, et cetera. Third; if you're famous, and you really love what you do, then you would accept the consequences. I'm not saying that fame doesn't have its downsides, but the positives outweigh the negatives. All those reasons support that being famous is a good thing! Even if fame has its downsides, being famous is a good thing.

        The first reason for why being famous is advantageous is that you'll probably won't be stalked. If you did a good thing for humanity, then it probably won't happen! I mean, come on! Everybody goes on about how stalkers drive people insane and kill people (on purpose or accidentally, probably nobody will ever know), but really, we're all stalkers. We all don't stalk people by walking down the street, following them everywhere, but we do pretty much know everything about every famous person. So, if we're all stalkers, are there really any stalkers? No, and even if there were, then famous people probably wouldn't be stalked for doing a good thing.

        Second, benefiting people should be encouraged in our society today! We all say being famous is overrated, but really, everything we do is overrated. We waste money on expensive clothes. All of us pretty much just care about what we look like. Same as celebrities, just on a bigger scale! So, celebrities do benefit society in many ways, like showing people what to wear, or entertaining us, or maybe one day finding a cure for cancer! Famous people do benefit us all, even you reader, and they should be encouraged to do so.

        Third, if you were famous and really loved what you did, then you would accept the consequences of being famous. Besides, the positives of fame usually overweigh the negatives. For example, say you were famous for finding a cure for a disease, but you were being stalked, which probably wouldn't happen anyway, but let's just say it did. That's a case of the positives outweighing the negatives. You helped hundreds of people by finding a cure for their disease, and that overweighs the consequence of being stalked. If you're famous and really love what you do, then you would accept those consequences.

        Fame has so many downsides, but all the upsides outweigh them. To recap, the first reason of why fame isn't that bad is that stalkers probably wouldn't be a problem if you did something that helped humanity. The second reason is that you could be benefiting a lot of people. The third is that if you were famous and really loved what you did, then you would accept the "consequences" of being famous! Being famous isn't "a box of chocolates," but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

I got the picture at http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=FAME&FORM=BIFD&adlt=strict#x0y0

IS There Hope for the Future of Humanity? (5 paragraphs)





I like to think hopefully, so I think most of us humans are promising for ending violence. As a species, we're able to have mercy. We also are able to love, hope, and believe in something. Most of us try to do the right think, too. So, I really do believe that humans are a promising species!

We have mercy in many ways. For example, if we see something that needs help, like an animal,most of us "kind" humans would help it ourselves or call a local animal shelter. Another example is that if there was someone,or something, alive that was in so much pain, but couldn't be helped, then we would help it in the only way possible: we would put it out of it's misery (kill it...) Same story if we were in a war. Those are just some of the ways we have mercy.

The human race is able to love, hope, and believe in so many ways. We have romance, true love, some believe in religion, those people pray for people in need to have hope, we all have things we enjoy to do, to the point of loving them, and we all have families, most of which love one another. There are just so many ways to love, hope, and believe in our world, much more than those listed!

Lastly, most of us are kind and really try to do the right thing. If we saw someone sitting on the curb homeless and helpless, most of us would help them, either with money, clothes, food, etc. I'd bet that if we could donate to a cause, whether a school or a charity, most of us would. Another thing that shows how kind a human can be is all of the volunteers. They do work that helps society, mostly by volunteering for them themselves, and don't get paid! Those are all examples of how humankind is a promising and kind species. We even have the word 'kind' in our name!

Those are all the reasons that I really do believe humans are promising! Just in case you forgot already, here's a list of them:
          1. We're able to have mercy
          2. We're able to love, hope, believe
          3. Most of us try to be kind and do the right thing.
Those are the reasons why I think we, as a species, are ready to change and be good and king again. We all can and probably will be able to end violence. We are humans! I hope that we're all proud of it, because we have reason to be.

I got this picture at http://www.flickr.com/photos/boundforotherports/3661567219/

Here are some links to websites about world peace/ending violence/star trek:

http://ipb.org/i/index.html Internation Peace Bureau website
http://endviolence.org/evp/index.shtml Ending Violence Project website
http://www.startrek.com/ Official Star Trek Movie website

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

 

The Alchemyst, By Michael Scott, is about twin brother and sister Josh and Sophie Newman, who both get summer jobs in San Francisco. Sophie worked at a local Coffee Shop across the street from where Josh worked, a small book store owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. At the beginning of the book,  Sophie notices strange men (who were actually Golems, a creature made out of mud) across the street. Another man steps out of the car the Golems came out of, and they go into where her brother Josh works. Then there’s a fight scene where Dee (the man that stepped out of the car the Golems) takes a rare book, but only after Josh accidently, but luckily, rips the two most important pages out of, and takes Perry Flamel hostage. They meet up with an Elder named Scatty, and speed away from San Francisco, barely escaping an attack from vicious birds. They hide in a shadow realm created and inhabited by the Elder goddess Hekate. She senses that Sophie and Josh have very strong auras and as Nicholas Flamel (Nick Fleming) suspected, are probably in one of the prophecies in the Codex (the rare book Dee stole). Then they decide that they need to Awaken the twins magical potential, which means that they would be so in tune with their bodys that they can see every fur on an animal, they can hear every silent noise, they can taste every single seasoning and flavor of food, and so on. Meanwhile, Dee and his partner the Crow Goddess decide to team up with Bastet, a Dark Elder that has the body of a woman and the head of a cat. Sophie gets awakened, while Josh does not. Nicholas, Sophie, Scatty, and Josh escape while the Crow Goddess and Dee are fighting Hekate. They then drive to another magical being, the Witch of Endor. Sophie learns all that the With of Endor knows, while Josh is sent out to the park across the street. Dee arrives attacking again with all of the dead things within range (Dee is a necromancer, which means he can control the dead). Sophie fights them off with her new found powers, but still they are definitely out-numbered and losing until, all of a sudden, all of the zombies and skeletons stop moving. It was Josh’s doing, he startled Dee’s concentration, so all of the dead things stopped attacking. Sophie, Josh, Scatty and Nicholas disappear into the witch’s antique shop, and then go through a mirror into Paris, France. That’s the end of the first book, which is kind of a cliff-hanger, isn’t it?

                I would say that the main theme of this book is Good vs. Evil. An example of this is every time that the good people (Sophie, Josh, Scatty, Hekate, Nicholas, Witch of Endor, etc.) are fighting the evil people (Dr. John Dee, the Crow Goddess, Bastet, etc.). The main fight is near the end of the book, when they all fight each other at Hekate’s shadow realm. That fight shows the good people vs. the evil people because the evil people kill somebody (I won’t say who…) and that shows just how evil they are! That is why I think that one of the main themes of this book is Good vs. Evil.

                I would definitely recommend this series by Michael Scott to other 7^th graders. I really enjoyed it! It was very fantasy like, but had a little bit of history because of all of the mythology in it. It is really entertaining, and is a page-turner. I would recommend other books from this author, like the whole series that this book is the first to. There are four books in that series so far: The Alchemyst, The Magician, The Sorceress, and The Necromancer. There are also other books like this, like the Ranger’s Apprentice series. That’s why I would definitely recommend these series to other 7^th graders that love a little magic, mythology, and fantasy.

I got this picture at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/michael-scott/alchemyst.htmThe

The Control System

     

Dear Human Body Corporation,

You shouldn't fire me! You know why? Well, do you ever wonder why your body can do all these things without you thinking about it? And the things you do think about? It's because of me, the Nervous System (N.S.)! Without me, you can't do any of you're hobbies, skills, and/or actions! You also wouldn't be able to do any of the practical things, the things that keep you alive. And, you just can't live without me (literally)! So, now that that's over, I'm going to go into even more detail on these three reasons why the Human Body Corp. shouldn't fire the N.S.!

        Without N.S., you wouldn't be able to do anything you like! For example: if you liked soccer, you couldn't play soccer. It's the same with reading, sports, dancing, singing, any hobby, skill, and/or action! Why would you want to do that to the poor old person, Human Body Corp.? Anyway, you also wouldn't be able to think for yourself, or even think at all! Like I said, you can't do any skills, hobbies, and/or actions without me, the N.S.!

       Without me, the N.S., you couldn’t do any of the things that keep you alive! You couldn’t breathe, and imagine what that would be like! You couldn’t eat, and that would be horrible! You also couldn’t drink, walk, blink, talk, think, you just couldn’t really do ANYTHING! Your heart wouldn’t pump, your ears wouldn’t hear, your eyes wouldn’t see, your hands wouldn’t feel, you mouth wouldn’t taste, and you would be a lifeless dummy! So, just remember that you, Human Body Corp., wouldn’t even work without me!

            You would definitely die without me! Like I said (or wrote, I guess...) in the paragraph before this, you wouldn’t be able to eat, so you’re body wouldn’t get any protein or energy it needed, you wouldn’t be able to breathe in the oxygen you needed, and you wouldn’t get any water, any exercise, and you would be very sick! Remember the four things you have to have to survive are:

1. Oxygen
2. Water
3. Food
4. Health

So, the human body would definitely die without me, the N.S.!

          

        So, I hope that if you ever did wonder how you’re body can do anything at all, that I answered you’re question! Let’s go over them now:

1. You couldn’t do anything you like
2. You couldn’t do anything that keeps you alive
3. You’d die without the N.S. (me)

But, Human Body Corp., if I would be so brave to say so, the human body couldn’t go on without any of the body systems. We all depend upon each other to do their jobs so we can do our jobs. We all work together to make the human body work, and without just one of us, we just couldn’t go on.

                                                                  Sincerely,
                                                                  The Nervous System

I got the picture at http://www.human-nervous-system.com/