May Monthly Review

The book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is an easy-read fiction book that is set in present USA. The author tells the story of a young man, Percy Jackson, who prevents the gods from creating a war. He learns he is the son of the sea god, Poseidon. There is a law for one of the Big Three to not have kids anymore because there is a prophecy that one of the Big Three’s children will decide Olympus’ fate. Olympus is the home of the gods, on the 600^th floor of the Empire State Building. Percy Jackson goes on a quest with two friends, Annabeth, and Grover. His quest is to retrieve the Master Bolt, Zeus' weapon used to fight his father, Kronos. Along Percy's quest, he encounters Medusa, the Parthenon, water spirits, countless monsters, and the gods. Eventually, Percy finds Zeus’ Master Bolt, and Hades’ Helm of Darkness which almost triggered the war. It appears out of Percy’s backpack which was given by Ares, in which Ares knows who the lightning thief is. Although the lightning thief is not revealed by Ares, Percy finds out who it is. Luke, son of Hermes is the lightning thief. Luke escapes the Half-Blood Hill Camp with his magic flying shoes. Nobody knows where Luke is, not even the gods. But, it is revealed in The Sea of Monsters, that he is working for Kronos, lord of time,

2) For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

I would recommend this book to almost everybody who likes fantasy books. This book could also be recommended to children with great memory. This book is very easy to read, and I personally really love this book. My dad has actually already read this book; he recommended it to me to read for English class. Now, I love reading about Greek mythology and their gods. Historians who know about the Greek culture should read this book to analyze if everything is correct about the gods. The Greek gods are mentioned many times, and sometimes I get confused with the names. Introducing too many names in a book can be confusing to the reader, just like Bastard out of Carolina. (My monthly review can be found here. Bastard out of Carolina was a difficult book to read and understand at first, but after I remembered everybody’s name, it was a little easier to read.

Greek mythology was not interesting to me at first, but once I started learning about the characters, I began to like learning about it. Some elementary kids may not be able to understand the characters or some parts of the book.

Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all. He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor...

On the news, it said that Ares kidnapped Percy and his mom, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy was actually fighting him. Ares "shot" a gas pipe that caused an earthquake. This fight ended with Percy wounding Ares, and Ares went away. The story is not as complicated as it seems. If I were in elementary school, I think it would be hard for me to read this book.

7) If you’ve read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?

One book I've read in the same genre as The Lightning Thief is Eragon. This fantasy book was written by Christopher Paolini. In Eragon, Eragon is a simple farmer, until one day, he finds a mysterious blue egg. The blue egg hatches, and it appears that it was a dragon inside the egg. Eragon names her Saphira. His quest is to become a dragon rider, and defeat Galbatorix. Along the way, he meets Murtagh, Arya, and Brom. Only one of his companions survive, Arya. Brom is killed in an ambush by the Ra'zac, and Murtagh was killed in the next book.

Unlike Eragon, in The Lightning Thief, Percy has only 2 companions, Annabeth and Grover stay with him the whole journey. None of the main characters die in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. Percy Jackson's quest to save Olympus from a war is more interesting than Eragon to me. Eragon just got too boring, too long to read, and the series is still not over. After a point, the author just keeps stretching out the plot, and it is hard to read because he/she tried to extend it.

8) Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two characters.

One character I'm particularly interested in is Grover Underwood. He is Percy's bestfriend, and a character who sticks with Percy until the end. Grover was also the one assigned to transport Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia to the Half-Blood Camp. Grover is not human, he is a satyr. He's half goat, half human. Being half goat, Grover can talk to animals, such as dogs.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

Gladiola, a pink poodle helped Percy and his friends get money enough to buy a train ticket on the Amtrak. Grover proves to be useful instead of using woodland magic all the time.

Grover's quest is to find Pan, the lord of the wild. Many believe he is dead, but satyrs refuse to believe their god is dead. People believe this because somebody shouted that the great Pan was dead, and that there are not many untouched wild places left in the world. Humans are taking over the world, jungles, mountains, etc.

Last, Grover proves to be loyal to Percy. He is willing to go in the Underworld, which no satyr has done before. Only three have escaped from the Underworld, Hercules, Houdini, and Orpheus. Although, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy all escape from the Underworld by crushing three marbles which allow them to go where ever they desire.

May Literature Circle Letter #3

I finally finished the book Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It was a really good book, and it's easy to read. I really enjoyed the part when they went to the Underworld to visit Hades. The master bolt was actually in the backpack Ares gave to them. That means Ares knew where the master bolt was, and didn't return it to Zeus. It turned out that Luke is the lightning thief, the person who stole the master bolt from Zeus. The prophecy said that one of the Big Three's children would be the lightning thief, although Luke is a son of Hermes. Hermes is the messenger god, god of thievery, and more. The Big Three consists of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again...

This is when Percy Jackson fights the war god, Ares. Percy remembers Annabeth's saying "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes." With that said, Percy Jackson changes up his fighting skills. He has wounded Ares, and ichor, the golden blood of gods, was visible. Ares got pissed off and left. Mrs. Dodds, one of the Kindly Ones, said the quote to Percy Jackson. She realizes that he did not steal Hades' Helm of Darkness, and Ares was in possession of it.

Overall, I think this book was a very fun book to read. It is one of my books I'd actually read for fun. I usually do not read for fun, nor will it be in the future. I actually really hate reading, but this book was just so entertaining with Greek mythology, and I really like history. One question I have is why did Zeus not try and kill Percy when he was in the air because Zeus hates Percy. Zeus believed that Percy stole the master bolt at first.

Quickwrite: The Rules of Love...?

Today, guys are expected to pay for dates, meals, etc. The guy has to also open doors for the girl, and allow her to get in first. Way back when, guys used to ask girls out by asking "Would you like to study with me?" My mom told me that, I thought it was so funny. Now people ask "Do you wanna go out with me?" instead. During lunch, it doesn't really matter where you sit as long as you sit with somebody. I have never eaten at the school cafeteria, but I plan to eat there one day. It seems like everybody in there is asian and speaking some asian language. Also, they stared at me when I walked in...so I thought it was sort of creepy. So, I never go in there because I'd be left out, talking to nobody. Possible consequences of breaking the rules are getting pregnant, getting STDs, going to jail, and being hated at home. It sounds really bad, but they don't have to happen.

People all over the world can go out with somebody. Parents don't have to know about it. People can talk online over the internet, use the phone, etc. Some consequences of getting caught by your parents could be no more phone, internet, or even going out. People can even just say they're going to the movies and everything, but go off to see their loved one.

One funny commercial I saw a month ago said "Life is too short, have an affair." I thought it was so funny because it was real. People have dating sites, which is pretty sad I think. Which of these relationships actually work out? I think in order for a relationship to work, you have to live near the person, and see them often. In Dear John, their relationship didn't work out because John was always off in Germany for the army.

Rumble Fighter Part 2 + Random Stuffs

These past two years have been fun. I've been playing Rumble Fighter since the summer of 7th grade. In the game, most of my friends quit Rumble Fighter because of various reasons. Katherine said she stayed up too late playing, and her eyesight is getting bad. She used to stay up until 6 A.M. playing... Alec said he lags with his new wireless keyboard. Eva quit because she got bored. Sally and Vicky stopped playing after an incident on the game. Andy, Randy, Donny, Chenny, Jason, and Kenny still play with me though. We usually play all together, and we're split apart due to too many people. Team games can hold up to 8 people, 4 versus 4 people. I usually play in Glacier Cove, one of my favorite maps. It's fun because it's a map where I can fight decently and also edge people if I want. There are two little islands in the map, and I run there when I'm almost dead. It's easier to edger people on the island.

For a year and a half, I have been playing with Andy and his cousins. It's almost always fun because we win most of the time. We probably will lose once every ten games, but that's okay. We kick high levels, laggers, and people who say "wow" or start crying about losing. It's so funny kicking people, because after a while, they recognize your name and telling the room master to kick me. Oh, and last week the Easter bunny boss mode got cut. Good thing Andy and I kept playing boss mode to get our boxes.

Almost everyday I play Rumble Fighter. It's so fun, I'd spend money on it to support. This month, there's an event for playing 10 games per day for 28 days. I usually just suicide so it goes by faster. It's probably because less people play the game now, oh well. I'll probably play the game after my math and physical education homework. Speaking of PE, I'm not supposed to get worksheets in 0 period PE, and this is my 3rd time getting a handout. Well, it's just coloring...but I still don't like them.

So anyways today I've been to the lab twice, once in the Media Center for English 2, and 204 for History. In history, we've been doing our sophmore research project. My project is on water supply. I'm studying how people get water, our water sources, and proving that our water sources are limited, and we have to find a new source of water.

Here is my introduction-
About 1.8 million people lose their lives due to unclean water; ninety percent of them are children. Our water today is running low, and we need to find new sources of water. This is a global issue, and people will need to work together around the world unless we want wars over water to break out. If people do not find a new source of water, the human race will fade, billions of lives will be lost. One day, we will drain the Earth of water, and there will be no life on Earth. Our water supply is the most essential thing for life on earth. As human beings, we can talk, reason, and make decisions. The most promising solutions for our water problems are desalinating ocean water into drinking water, cloud seeding, and water conservation.

This is a hard topic because I do not how to start my second paragraph on the history of water irrigation and aqueducts.

May Literature Circle Letter #2

"...Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in my business, but they passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them you see. They are my company."

This quote is about Medusa telling a story to Annabeth, Grover, and Percy. She tells "sad" story to them. Her statues keep her company, and she always likes to collect more. She asks them to smile for her for a picture, but Annabeth recognizes Aunty Em as Medusa. Percy Jackson manages to slice off her head, just like Perseus from the Greek myths. I like this part because Medusa makes her life story into a short little kid version of it.

One thing I don't get about Percy is that why he's being framed for stealing the Master Bolt. Just because some prophet told the gods doesn't mean it's going to happen. The reader already knows Percy didn't steal the Master Bolt, Zeus's ultimate weapon. Percy has to find the Master Bolt and return it to Zeus because there's four sequels to the book.

A part in the book I disliked was when Ares, god of war, asked Percy a favor. Ares mentioned he left his shield in an abandoned theme park. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover go to retrieve the shield, but ultimately fall in his trap. It was a trap meant for gods. The team barely survives, and make it back to Ares. He gives them a ride to Los Angeles and a new backpack. But earlier, a water spirit told Percy not take the gifts. But, Percy ignores this and takes the new backpack.

For our last monthly review, I plan to write about #2, #6, and #8. They're almost the same questions I answered in the first monthly review, but I like writing about these types of questions. They're fun to write about, and easy to expand on. I'm also reading the second book of the series Percy Jackson because I already finished the first book. It was an actual fun book for me to read. It's a simple book, yet easy to read.

Rumble Fighter Part 1

Since 8th grade, I've been playing a game called Rumble Fighter. I heard of it from my friend in Texas, and it was a pretty new game. I started my character, an elemantalist named ryanhuey10. It's a pretty obvious name, and includes both my first and last name. I usually always name myself ryanhuey10, ryanhuey, ryanh10, or ryanh. It's just my way of naming people on games. My first scroll was called Street. It's a basic scroll, and the cheapest. The combos are ppp, pk, and kk. It's a fun scroll to use when I play against low levels. I played with my friend Alec, Sally, Jason, and Vicky in 8th grade. It was always fun playing. Well, at that time Alec and Sally were going out, but not anymore. I learned how to ram, slide, punch, delay, etc. It was really fun to play.

During the year, I learned how to juggle by using a launcher. A launcher is a kick or punch that makes you go up in the air. After that, you punch twice, and do a combo. Although it took a while, it was fun to learn. It's useful when fighting against people and edging. A juggle will do more damage than a combo, and it goes farther. During summer, I was playing Rumble Fighter as usual. I went into a Dos Palmas room, a new map. I found a guy named EMwaveshinobi. It was really strange actually. He asked what school I went to, and I replied "used to be wood". Then he said, shouldn't you be reading The Hobbit? It was really scary...and it turned out to be Katherine Chiang's cousin, Tim. Katherine was there with Tim, and she recognized my name ryanhuey. She told Tim to ask the questions, and I had no idea who it was still. Katherine also plays Rumble Fighter, but she quit 3 times. Her name was lilazngrl510 at the time. She always puts 510 in her name.

In 9th grade, I met Andy Ye in P.E., in Mr. Thomas's class 4th period. I didn't talk to him in the beginning of the school year, it was about in the middle of the year. It was funny because he also played Rumble Fighter. I found him on the game under the name claypuppet. His cousins also played, they were all puppets actually. There was waterpuppet, sandpuppet, and ironpuppet. We played a lot, and we still play today. They made new accounts because sandpuppet's password was changed. We always play in Glacier Cove, boss mode, or Demolition. There's three types of gameplay in Rumble Fighter. There's regular maps, moving screens, and boss mode. There's too many regular maps in my opinion, they need more moving screens. Demolition and Taurus Temple are my favorite moving screens because I like to ram people off the edge. Regular maps is just fighting with ramming still, but the screen doesn't move. There are four types of boss mode. There is a shaman map, a skeleton map, a Halloween event map, and a Easter event map. The Halloween event map went away though, and now there's an Easter map. The Easter map will go away tommorow though after the update.

STAR/CST Testing

Standardized Testing and Reporting week was so fun. On Monday, we had regular classes, like any other Monday. Everything was fine, until I got homework. Teachers aren't supposed to assign homework on testing week. For me, the homework was fine because I only had math. In this week, I had a total of five CST tests. I don't get the difference between STAR and CST testing. The only thing I hated about the CST testing was that I had it in Ms. McAllister's class. Her class was really boring, and she let us use no electronics...well it is part of the rules. Everyday after testing, I played games with Andy and his cousins. When the clock striked 10, we just talked until two in the morning. I didn't have 0 period PE, so I figured I could stay up late.

On Tuesday, I had the English part of the CST. I got sucked into reading the passages for half the time. Although, they weren't as interesting as last time. I usually hate answering the questions, so whenever there was a question I had to think about for a while, I just guess. In Alameda High, the teachers tell you to test well. But since there are budget cuts, they'll probably end up combining high schools. Most people in Alameda don't care, they live in apartments and don't have to pay the parcel tax. I don't get why they would have another parcel tax ontop of the other parcel tax. Anyways the English CST was one of the harder tests for me. I do poorly in English, and I prefer the other subjects.

On Wednesday, I took the Math CST. I have Pre-Calculus this year, and it was under the subject Summative. The test was relatively easy. It had lots of geometry and algebra in it. There was actually no Pre-Calculus in the test. Nothing about the unit circle, conics, etc. After the day ended, I didn't want the next day to come, so I played games all day. Playing games makes time go fast, but it's entertaining instead of doing nothing. I had two CST tests in a row.

On Thursday, I took the General Science CST test. Before, Ms. McAllister had us take down all the chairs because almost EVERYBODY was gone. The only people there were Tabita, another kid (forgot his name), and me. The only good thing about taking the chairs down was getting a free soda. The General Science CST is for sophmores only. Basically only freshmen take Art 1. It was so easy, all about biology. Except some parts of the test I had no idea how to answer the questions. I finished thirty minutes early, and I eventually fell asleep. Right after, without a break, I took the Modern World History CST.

Friday, the final day of the CST testing, was the hardest. Chemistry sucks, I really hate the subject. There's too much math, and too much memorizing involved. I really liked the periodic table they gave us, but my stupid teacher collected it after the test. I wanted to keep the periodic table, it was very useful, and there were formulas in the back. The only thing I looked foreward to was getting out at 12:30, and the weekend.

May Literature Circle Letter #1

This month, I will be reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I have been waiting to read this book for a very long time. My dad recommended it to me, and saw the movie. My dad said there were some significant changes in the movie from the book. They excluded characters, changed the plot, etc. Sometimes, while reading the book, I had to re-read the book. Sometimes I didn't understand the book sometimes. It's a really easy book to read, and usually I read too fast and I don't understand it. I really like the story plot of the book. It's about a boy who finds out he's the son of Poseidon. He's a normal boy, with ADHD and ADD. He gets kicked out of many schools. His name is Percy Jackson. He has a passion for Latin class, and his teacher's name is Mr. Brunner. His best friend's name is Grover Underwood. Later in the book, he finds out he's a satyr, half goat, half human. After a while, Percy's principal kicks him out of the school after summer.

In a field trip, Percy went to a museum, where he finds Mrs. Dodds to be apart of the Kindly Ones. They aren't actually that kind, she attacked Percy, but Percy killed her. After a while, Percy goes to a summer camp called The Half Blood Hill. As soon as they arrive, they are attacked by a minotaur. The minotaur takes his mom, and she vanishes. Percy gets mad, and stabs the minotaur with the horn.

"This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger." - Percy's mom

Percy's mom tries to warn Percy that he's in danger. She knows that somethings coming after him, and tries to get him to the camp. The camp has an invisible shield that protects half-bloods. After the Mrs. Dodds incident, Percy also knew he was in some kind of danger. At first, he thought he was going crazy, because after nobody knew about Mrs. Dodds. Everybody forgot about her, except Grover (Percy knew he was lying).

I'm surprised that Percy gets a mission right away as soon as he reaches the camp. He is being accused of being the lightning thief, stealing Zeus's master bolt. Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and his best friend Grover accompanies him on the quest.