Monthly review

Question #2
For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)
 
It is kind of hard to narrow this book down to a single set of age group. I would have to say that this book is for anyone from the age of twelve to mid thirties. This book is full of adventure and action,fantasy, and tons of imagination, and has one great plot. About six kids who have been genetically altered to be able to flight, and be stronger, and faster. Kids who are twelve can start to comprehend the plot and understand whats is going on, and to the age of mid thirties for an older group of adults, because a majority of adults at that age might start to loose their creativeness and lose interest in the book as a result.This book would probally most attract kids my age because of all the imagination that it contains.In this book, there is a lot of flying, who doesn't like to dream about being able to fly? If i could fly, there is no way in hell anyone would ever see me again. There is also these men that can morph into werewolf type things, called erasers, these are the henchman of the villain of our story. There is also a little bit of romanticism to the book as well, some young teen love, which is a another good contributor to my argument that this book is mainly for children from the ages twelve and higher. So if you happen to be talking to one of your friends about a book, hit them up with this one, its great, and it comes in a series so that they'll be reading this book for a while, if you liked the harry potter series,then you'll definitely fall into this book within the first couple of chapters.

Question #4
How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

James Patterson, author of Maximum Ride,writes this book almost as he's painting the scene of where the story is taking place with so much depth. As my group and I read through this book, there was so much description in each of the scenes that he had written. The opening chapter was the narrator who is also the main character, saying how her and her family lived on an L shaped building high up on a mountain that couln't be seen from anywhere, almost as like there house was there own personal haven from the outside house. Another section of the book, near chapter forty-two, is when Max saves a girl from these bullies who have a gun, Max runs from them after knocking one of them out with one punch. The narration from Max running was just tremendous narration, James Patterson describes the scene as if he were running from the guys with the gun, constantly being shot, with a shot shoulder. Besides the Maximum ride series I know that James Patterson also writes murderer mystery novels, i cant imagine how well his description is those books are. Overall , I find James Patterson's writing completely superb. When my group and I continue the next book in this series, I hope for the same kind of visual experience that I received from this book. I would definitely recommend this book for the fact that it is such a great book to get addicted to.Flying! i still cant get over that fact, I don't know how he is able to pretend that he has the ability to fly, and he even writes down realistic speeds for flying and heights as well. Being able to write something as good as that, requires a lot of time and creativity.

Question #8
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.

Another hard question to only talk about one individual, so I'm going to have to cheat this question a little bit and narrow it down to two people. Both Fang and Max interested me quite a bit. Max of course because she is the main character of this story, the title is named after her existence signifying that shes that important. And the other would have to be Fang. The only description i know that they gave Max is the fact that shes fourteen. I imagined her as a taller girl,skinny,long curly-dirty blond hair. Her character itself to me symbolizes some sort of justice figure. Where as Fang is described as a tall shadowy type figure,with dark hair and with dark wings. I don't think that he is evil or anything, just that kind of person who likes to keep everything bottled up. He and Max hardly talk, he kind of just gives her a look to signify either an approval or decline on what they are going to do next. I think that if we could actually peak into Fang's mind, and see everything coming his perspective, that the book would be a lot more interesting. The main reason why i chose these two characters was because Max and Fang are basically complete opposites. We have Max who is the a radiant type of girl who takes charge of the flock and is running everything, where as Fang is keep to himself kind of guy, taking no responsibility over the flock, only when he is actually needed then he helps. Such as when there is a fight, he can take maybe two or three erasers, so when the time is needed he comes and helps out the flock. But at the same time, Max needs Fang to coexist, there is this aura from fang that makes it so that Max is in a perfect balance so that she can make wise decisisons. I also find it very interesting that we hear nothing of his personal life or about where he came from, where for everyone else, your given a rough guess as to where they came from. .

last letter

Finally we can talk about the end of our book. Just to recap tho, Max and the flock are now in New York looking for the institute. And Max has that voice in her head, kind of pointing her in the right direction of where she should be going. The voice had told Max to get on the bus and to hop off when it looks fun. And then they come up to a toy store, and Angel finds this teddy bear that she wants to have, and Max sais that its too much. Out of no some person just buys the doll for her, because Angel "influenced" them, buy forcing thoughts into their head to control them, which is awsome, getting anyone to do what you want. While walking down the streets of New York, the flock wins a free makeover, and they decide to take it because with the erasers constantly tracking them, Max thinks that their new looks will make them un-noticiable.

The flock then goes to the beach and Angel of course has the ability to breathe underwater. They then get into this big fight with the erasers, and then Jeb comes to stop the fight and refers to Max's situation as a game, and how that the beauty of the game is that no one else has experienced what Max has. After they have that encounterment with Jeb, they head to the institute and go find data about them selves. Mudge gains this ability to know stuff about people just by touching them, she can know everything about them. They then escape threw the tunnels of new york, and max confronts Ari in their last battle. In this their last battle, max ends up dropping ari from the top of the tunnel, and breaking ari's neck, killing him.

If you could give yourself any power ...

If you could give yourself any power what would it be? I would probaly take the powers of the Green Lantern. The ability to conjure anything from your ring at your will. Imagine not having any of your normal day stuff things with you, just you,your clothes, and that awsome ring. You wake up on a Friday morning and its seven fifty, Oh no what do i do? Not to worry i'll just FLY myself to school within a minute. Now that your at school and you are situated, its lunch time and some bullies come over to you and try to mugg you, now what? Well you have some good options, make a forcefield ( like i do everday of my life) and block them so they cant do anything, or you can just punch them with a giant sized green latern fist. This is why the Green Lantern is such a beast, he cant be stopped. Sinestro , the main villian, alredy tried to fight him using the yellow element ring, and failed miserebly to Hal Jordan. I dare you to try and beat him, he's got many more powers than what i've listed, and i mean MANY MORE.

 

If you could make up your own superpower, what would it be? Thats kind of hard, theres not alot of super powers to choose from left is there? Id probally take the ability to remake anything at my own will. Im not sure if theres a super hero who can do that, if there is go ahead and leave the name of that superheroe. But being able to touch something and turn it into whaever you want would be prety cool. Kind of like alchemist, but at the same time i wouldn't have to obey the law of equivalent exchange, nothing can be created from nothing , you must give up something of equal value, plus theres a bunch of science behind that. If im at home, just change my whole house into a transformer, no reason, just chillin with my house, or even just clean it like that. There are alot of endless posibilities to that kind of power. I could turn Mr.Sutherland into Chuck Norris if I felt like it. If you had that power, and could only do one thing with it, what would you do? Thats kind of a one wish type question, you could give earth a whole bunch of brand new natural resources, and then we would probally be out of national debt. Supernatural powers having a healing effect on our economy, thats all we could really ask for.

 

And who is your favorite superhero, we all clearely know that the green lantern is god and cannot be beaten by anyone, but if you had to choose who would it be? Or supervillian for that matter. Best superhero or best villian. If i had to choose it would probally be Venom, even tho he requires a host, he gives his host the ability of super strength, and speed. He might not be the strongest of vilians but he is one of the coolest.

 

Group reading letter deux

Im happy that Max finally decided to get the hell out of Ella's house and go and save Angel. Iggy and Gasman flight and meet up with Max who heading on her way to Arizona to meet up with Nudge and Fang in Arizona. And then they jack some guys credit card and take some of his money, then steal a car and drive to death valley, California. I don't get why they steal a car, they flight a lot faster then they do drive. Then they get captured and taken to the "School" and are hopeless. Max and Jeb come face to face, even tho Max thinks he died, and he tells her that she was created to save the world. If i was in her shoes, i would think how the hell is a fifteen year old girl supposed to save the entire human race? They then bust out and fight bunch of erasers and fly away. The only thing i dont like about hat area of the story is that no one got mayjorly hurt, It would make sense tho, its supposed to be one of the biggest and most umbeliveable rescues, and not even one of them got a mayjor injurie.

When they discover that there is a bunch of  information on then in New York in a place called the Institute. They decide to head over and check it out. One thing that irritating me is who that voice inside of Maxes head is, in the book she says that she cant identify the voice, not a gender or how old. And it just came out of nowhere, Out of the blue as soon as they got to New York and were wondering where to go to begin their search for the institute. SO you guys are going to have to tell me who you think the voice is. I dont think that it would be Angel because she can identify her voice. Maybe someone we have'nt met yet?

Group reading letter deux

Im happy that Max finally decided to get the hell out of Ella's house and go and save Angel. Iggy and Gasman flight and meet up with Max who heading on her way to Arizona to meet up with Nudge and Fang in Arizona. And then they jack some guys credit card and take some of his money, then steal a car and drive to death valley, California. I don't get why they steal a car, they flight a lot faster then they do drive. Then they get captured and taken to the "School" and are hopeless. Max and Jeb come face to face, even tho Max thinks he died, and he tells her that she was created to save the world. If i was in her shoes, i would think how the hell is a fifteen year old girl supposed to save the entire human race? They then bust out and fight bunch of erasers and fly away. The only thing i dont like about hat area of the story is that no one got mayjorly hurt, It would make sense tho, its supposed to be one of the biggest and most umbeliveable rescues, and not even one of them got a mayjor injurie.

When they discover that there is a bunch of  information on then in New York in a place called the Institute. They decide to head over and check it out. One thing that irritating me is who that voice inside of Maxes head is, in the book she says that she cant identify the voice, not a gender or how old. And it just came out of nowhere, Out of the blue as soon as they got to New York and were wondering where to go to begin their search for the institute. SO you guys are going to have to tell me who you think the voice is. I dont think that it would be Angel because she can identify her voice. Maybe someone we have'nt met yet?

ASHLAND!

So this weekend I'm going to be hanging out in San Leandro, so I'm not going to be able to hang out with people but on the bright side, as much as this makes me sound like a dork, I'm going to play the hell out of my new game Fable II, I'm so hooked onto it. And I have to wash cars on Saturday from nine till twelve, so if anyone needs a cheap and good quality car wash, come anytime between nine a.m. till three p.m.  and that same day I'm supposed to be having a St.Patrick day party at my house with family, witch should be interesting, depending on who cooks. And wile this is all going on my Little brother, Ben, is heading up to Ashland,Oregon for the Shakespeare festival. Where they get to stay at South Oregon University.

 

I remember when i went to the festival in eighth grade. It was a great trip, we leave on Friday morning exactly when school starts,its about an six to eight hour drive, including food and rest stops, and then on your first day when you get there, you get your room key's, food passes, and all the rules, then you head to your room and unpack.There is such a great view if you just step outside, of mount Shasta, the top of it should be covered in snow. From that point everyone is so happy that they're no where near home, and so they all run around, going threw every possible room and just hanging around, the first night you don't do much, you just see one play. Over the next couple of days you go and take a couple of tours, and see a total of three shows.  I remember seeing The Clay Cart, A Midsummer Nights dream and i cant seem to recall the last play.

 

Our chaperone's were pretty lenient with what we did, we were able to walk around the campus all we want, walk down the hill to go and get Starbucks or walk down to the market and pick up all the junk food you wanted.The best thing about the dorm was we had a mini fridge to store all that junk food. We were also able to stay up till like one in the morning, but we could not go up to see the girls pass a certain cerfue During the course of each day,i believe there was either one or two theatrical classes that we had to go to, that took place on the campus. And then after that Everyone would split up and head there own separate ways. After one of the tours we went on,our teacher took us to a nearby Major tow, and for some reason i cant remember what city it was, but he gave us two hours of free time to go and shop and eat.

 

I my brother has as much fun as i did when i went up for the festival

 

 

lit letter numba one

In our book, Maximum Ride by James Patterson, the things so far that i have liked, is when Ari first appears when the flock are out and the flock instantaneously break into a fight with erasers. When Max is fighting some erasers and Ari comes over to her and says " don't recognize me? Well i guess i have done some growing" (pg12). that line for some reason gives me chills and for some reason its just overall a great evil character line to say. To me that line itself is like Ari is assuming his authority over Max and is trying to tell her that He has surpasses her and is better in every single way possible. Another thing i love about this book is that James Patterson writes this book with so much description of the fighting scenes and of the physical traits of characters. I also like how he does first person point of view internally and externally of the character, seeing how the main character is girl, and the author is male, it is amazing how he can put himself in the shoes of a fifteen year old girl.

 

As amazing as this book is, there are some parts that could be improved more or so than i dislike them, such as when Max shot by the guys bullying Ella, and then Max ends up going to Ella's house and staying there, I realize that shes injured and all but she stays there from like chapter twenty or so and doesn't leave till forty-one i think. In between those chapters nothing much happens, its kind of just like an intermission time of the story before the action starts to pick up again. One other thing that would be help full in this storey is if the author would give us some facial physical traits,just so that when I'm reading the book i can grasp what they look like when they fight and when they are bloody, so i can imagine what they look like.

 

I'm so juiced to read more of this book, as a matter of fact I'm going to read more.

-Bobby

PIE

This week i was supposed to have a total of three swim meets, the first against Arryo high school, then against Albony High school, and last but not least the alumni meet. On Tuesday we crushed Arryo with a ending score of ninety-four to sixty-eight, for those of you who dont know, thats a pretty big stretch in points. Unfortunately, i dint drop any time off my best, so i was a little dissapointed in myself, so hopefully i'll be able to drop atleast a little bit of time. And that meet wont be till this Saturday, because apparently Albony has a new coach and he dint get the meet memo, i've heard that excuse so many times from previous games or meets, and its pretty irritating. And for some reason this excuse is only used in the teams that are the worst in our league, i wonder why that is?



So instead of our team having a long two hour practice, we get to swim for a while and than race each other for times. I'm not nervous about anything, just as long as i can drop some time off my freestyle, WHICH IM TRYING SO HARD TO DO!, my current tim is a twenty-six point one, if my coach happends to put me in the fifty freestyle than i know i can drop it down to a twenty five by the end of this week! If i can , i can possibly do it today in practice today.I just dont want to race against someone like jarred thompson or curtis fong, because they have hella low times for their fifty free's, but then again, it might cause me to want to catch me up to them and cause me to go faster.AAAGHHHH just me thinking about it wants me to go faster so that i can start to cach up to the record time.



So now on Saturday is my last meet, its a really fun and long meet tho. We get to see all of the Alumni swimmers who hold the records on our record board, which is hanging up in the in the swim center office for everyone to see. The record for the fifty free i think is a twenty one point eight, so i have a couple of years to drop down to that time by the end of my senior year. So on saturday we get to rave against the guys of our team who use to be the best of the best, and we even get to race a couple of our coaches, and teachers and our principal. Yep, mr.rodd, and principal janivier are going to be racing this saturday against us. The meet in genreal is cool tho, we get to hanf out with the alumni, have some good food afterwards, and then go home and hang out for the rest of the weekend. After that im probally do nothing on saturday and on Sunday go to my dads girlfriends house and eat dinner over there.