For this book report my class and I had to choose a award picking book. I chose the Lion The Whitch and The Wardrobe, which is the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia. The chronicles of Narnia were wrote by C.S Lewis a Irish famous writer. The story takes place in London England during the first half of the 20 century. The main characters are a group of siblings, Edmund Pevenise, Lucy Pevenise, Suzan Pevenise, and Peter Pevenise.

ORR #1: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Name of Book: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Pages Read: 87/470
Genre: Teen

This particular book has won a lot of awards, and so I decided to take a look at the book and see what the story is about, and it was a really smart thing I did. This book was written by Lauren Oliver and it was the first book she wrote (was published in 2010). This book is about a girl who relives the last day of her life, seven times and each time, she keeps on learning new things and mysteries about her death. This girls name is Samantha Kingston, and she has, well had it all. The best boyfriend, three amazing best friends, she was the popular girl in her high school Thomas Jefferson High. She had the best table in the cafeteria, the perfect parking spot. Friday, February 12th seemed like the just another typical day in her perfect and charmed life. Instead, however, it was her last. What I like about this book is the fact that it is a typical teenager book, the words, the phrases, everything is just like the author is describing the life of someone who goes to the same school as you. Samantha is a stuck up, popular girl, who thinks she has it all, but then when she dies, and gets to relive her day again, and again, you see that she is confused by the surroundings she is found in.

I chose to read this particular book because it has won a lot of awards and it seemed like a really good book, which for now it looks like it is, and its only going to get better. As I mentioned before I really like how the author describes the teenage life of the girl, like she was there. I can't wait to see what happens next in the story.

Alex Rider: Skeleton Key

·         Book title: Alex Rider: Skeleton Key

·         Author’s name: Anthony Horowitz

·         Number of pages: 327

·         Genre of novel: Action-Adventure

·         Basic settings: sets place in Wimbledon so far and main character is Alex Rider which he is spy from M16 to spy on Wimbledon because his boss, Crawley noticed something odd there. And his girlfriend, Sabina Pleasure.

·         What has been great about this book so far: This book thrilled me with great mysteries and excellent settings. This book always shows me unexpected stories. This book is great so far.

·         Rate the book: I will give this book "Thumbs Up", because I personally really enjoys adventure books and this book is filled with first-class actions and author really describes the situation very well. I am planning to read the whole series.

      Quote from the book

"The teacher hesitated. It was rather strange, one of his boys talking to this man in old fashioned blazer and striped tie. But on the other hand, this was Alex Rider and the whole school knew there was something odd about him"

I chose this quote because this quotes shows that something mysterious happened and going to happen again. From this quote I can learn that Alex’s teacher was wondering that Alex is strange because he was talking to this man in old fashioned blazer and striped tie. I would have thought that kid is strange if I saw my students talking to a strange person. 

The main character of this story is normal British schoolboy named Alex Rider. Alex was a normal kid, but in the first book, the "Stormbreaker" his uncle died in car accident, but Alex thought something was wierd. Soon, he discovered that his uncle was a secret agent who was working for British secret agency, the M16. M16's chief, Crawely wanted Alex to be a agent after his uncle. Alex accepted his offer and done 2 secret missions so far. 

Back to the Skeleton Key, Alex did not want to be a secret agent risking his lives. But, Crawely has another mission for him. Crawely noticed something strange in Wimbledon. He was told that there was a intruder in the Millennium building, which is the changing room, restaurant and other stuff for the tennis player. Crawely thought someone is trying to sabotage Wimbledon. So he sends Alex as a ballboy to investigate.  

Blog Post W1

Name: MindSet
Author: Carol S. Dweck
Pages Read: 276
Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology

This book was recommended to me by my mum so that
1) I would learn better.
2) I would be motivated.
3) So that I can see the world from a different perspective.
4) So I could increase my chances of being successful in life.
5) I know how to fulfil my potential

And ultimately it worked. I now have a source of motivation to do homework, I know my current life plan, I actually think before doing stuff instead of doing something and then immediately regret it, and I do feel as if I have a positive future instead of the train wreck my life sort of felt like last year.

The book talks about what it says quite literally on the cover. It talks about mindsets; both of them: The Growth Mindset and The Fixed Mindset. The Growth Mindset is a mindset that means the person will strive to achieve and understand and challenge and learn for the sake of learning. They base themselves on the mindset that intelligence/skill can be a gift/talent, but practice can make one better than that. If you don't practice a skill/talent, you loose it, simple as that. Even a non-gifted person can achieve a better level of skill than one who is talented with that same skill; if the talented person doesn't practice because they think they are talented-which brings me to fixed mindsets.

Fixed Mindsets are people who believe that intelligence and skill are things that you have a set at your entire life e.g "I can't do this math problem because its hard and it confuses me so that means I'm bad at math!". They don't strive to learn because they think they don't need to since they have a "fixed level of talent", and hence a Fixed-Minded person will probably never risk much in life. They might go "I can't climb Mt Everest, I fell of a rock climbing wall once!" while a Growth-Minded person would (probably) go "Sure, why not? It will be something new and I can learn along the way! I love challenges!"; meaning that the Growth-Minded person achieved something new while the Fixed-Minded person stayed at home eating a bucket of chicken/broccoli.

If you want to know more on mindsets, read the book! It will be something new!

3 Metri Sopra ll Cielo (3 Meters Above The Sky)

Book: 3 Metri Sopra Il Cielo
Author: Federico Moccia
Pages: 395
Genre: Romance/Drama/Adventure
Setting: Rome,Italy 
 
People say that opposites attract,but what do they mean? Are they referring to physical appearance, character, personality etc.? In this book they are referring to all of the above.As it says in the back cover; "She is a romantic girl, he is a violent guy. Destiny one day made them meet, and that is when the real trouble began. The main characters are Babi and Stefano Mancini(Step).
Babi

• is a romantic and kind girl
• 17 years old
• Respects her parents(Rafaela and Claudio)
• Has a sister 2 years younger than her (Daniela)
• Does everything with her childhood best friend Pallina

Step

• has lived through a violent childhood
• as he grew older he met his to become "band" of gangsters
• go around in motorbikes
• likes Babi from the first moment he meets her
• best friend is Pollo

Throughout all the pages I read until now, a lot of things have hapened such as that the first time the two main characters met was while Babi was being driven to school, then a party occurs where they meet again and he brutally forces her to take a shower with him and stuffs the soap into her mouth. This party is also the one where Pollo and Pallina meet from which later on will become a love story. Step now only lives with his older brother who works in his own company. Babi starts hanging out with Step (however only because her best friend tricks her into thinking its cool since she finds the group of gangsters amazing, not only because one has now become her boyfriend), not only in restaurants where they eat for free but even at bike races which she finds horrifying. She experiences all these great adventures just for the fact that her parents go out every night letting her alone. She's heard it before, but doesn't know that Step is the hottest guy all around and anyone would want to be with him, but she finds him arrogant, violent, with no control and calls him a beast. Neither of them might know it, but it will soon become something more than friendship.

I chose to read this book because my dad bought it for me once because he himself had heard it was a good book, so when I started reading it I fell in love with it, the though through story makes it so realistic that you can imagine yourself in the girls place however at the same time so artificial and with so many dangers. After all I'm still trying to find the English hard cover version of the book, if I don't then I will probably have to switch books.

Award: “Torre di Castruccio” prize in 2004and was translated and sold in many countries, even Japan and Brazil

Harry Potter And the Sorcer's Stone

J.K.Rowling

Fantasy
Pages: 309
Pages Read:88

Quote from the book:  "Harry, your a wizard." this quote may be short however has lots of meanings to it. The reason why I choose this particular quote is because this is how it all started, the whole story about Harry Potter (Main Protagonist) the wizard. It opened doors which led to Harry Potter's wildest dreams. It led to his whole future and happiness, at least that's what he thought at the beginning.

What happened until now: Since I started reading the book many exited things have happened to Harry Potter. First Harry was sent to his absolute hell and misery, to live with the Dursleys in Surrey, England ever since his parents died. A muggle family, who are the only close relatives which Harry Potter knows of, his uncle and aunt. All through his life Harry has been tortured  by his abominable cousin Dudley, put to live in a closet and wasn't given a proper gift in 11 years.Treated like he is not worth anything, like he doesn't belong in this world. However one letter, just one will change his life and lead him to home. The letter is delivered by Rubeus Hagrid, (a giant who is the keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts) it is the invitation to the Hogwarts School of WitchCraft and Wizardry. Knowing he is a wizard just like his parents shocked him since his uncle and aunt never told him about the wizard world and the truth about his parents death purposely to erase that chapter of his life completely. As he finds out more about this school, he finds out more about his parents, and himself as well.  As he walks down the street of Diagon Alley (shopping street in the wizard world) with Hagrid for his school supply's everyone around him is staring, his name is known all over town and he is being greeted by the most random people. As he talks to different people the strangest name keeps on jumping out at him like someone keeps turning the jack in the box. He feels like a whole piece in his puzzle is missing, as if he was berried under ground for 11 years, like he should know who that is. His name is Voldemort (Main Antagonist), or as they call him, the one who must not be named. The more he finds out, the more it frightens him. It also frightens him when Hagrid tells him that Voldemort was the one who murdered his parents. However Harry is still confused why he is famous, why everyone knows his name. Hagrid explains he is known as "the boy who lived" because that night when his parents died, Voldemort couldn't kill him for some mysterious reason, but did transfer some of his power to him. Harry was amazed by that story since he had now clue that he was that important to the wizard world.

This book as an excellent award winning book which has been read by billions of people across the globe. I have never heard or saw one bad comment about this series, so I decided to give it a chance. It is so magnificent, its like it takes you to a new world. I rarely read fantasy books, however this one blew my mind completely. This just shows how I should keep my options open. I love how the book always has something interesting to keep you reading. The amount of detail they give so great, I can create a clear in vivid picture in my mind.

THUMBS UP !!!!