The Maze Runner (hopefully last post)

Hey, y'll I'm still on The Maze Runner and it is getting intense! Thomas just told everyone he and Teresa can talk telepathically and that they helped the "Creators" in putting them in The Glade. Everyone was surprised and well confused. But thanks to Minho and Newt, things calmed down. They also figured out that to get out of the Maze you have to solve a code and the only exit is in the Maze inside the Griever Hole. Enough of me spilling about the book, which I can do all day, and let me talk about something else.

As y'll know The Maze Runner came out September 18th. Mocking Jay comes out November 21st. Divergent came out March 21st. Hunger Games came out March 23rd. I'm telling you this because out of the three movies that have released, The Maze Runner is the best by far! Why? Well, it stayed true to the book except for some little things like solving the code with the pages of sketched art of the Maze. It had a lot of action and suspense. It was a movie that kept you at the edge and the book keeps you intrigued. I loved the movie when I saw it and read the book. Hunger Games and Divergent had interesting story lines but neither was as good as how James Dashner created The Maze Runner. It has a different taste to the story and has several twists to the story.

Hopefully I complete The Maze Runner soon so I can start The Scorch Trials or maybe take a small break from Dashner's books and read a book from one of my all time favorite authors: J.K. ROWLING ... but I can assure you I am not going to read the Harry Potter series even though those are the BEST BOOKS in the world! She is going by a different pen name now releasing new books. Hope they are as good as tHP series :D


Have a fantastic Thanksgiving and safe travels y'll!

Hana's Suitcase

   Taking a break form The Maze Runner to tell you about a really good and inspiring book. I read it in the 3rd grade and reading it again made me cry even more. As you can probably tell, its a sad story. Hana’s Suitcase is a true story that interweaves the tragedy of Hana Brady, a Czech Jewish girl who died at 13 in Auschwitz, the determination of Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Center, and her young helpers, and the generous spirit of George Brady, Hana’s older brother, who survived the Holocaust and now lives in Toronto.

   The Tokyo Holocaust Center, endowed by an anonymous Japanese donor, had a number of objects obtained from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland, among them Hana’s suitcase. The simple suitcase, with Hana’s name, birthdate, and the German word for orphan written across it, captured the imagination of the children who helped Fumiko at the Center and other children visiting it. They wanted to know who Hana was, where she had lived, what her family was like, and what had happened to her. They formed a club called “Small Wings,” and they produced a newsletter so that children in other parts of Japan would know about the Holocaust and their search for Hana.

   Karen Levine skillfully alternates the narrative of Hana and her family in the 1930s and their deportation and life in the concentration camp with the story of Fumiko’s detective work in 2000 to uncover that story and share it with Japanese children. Some time after sending the suitcase to Tokyo, the Auschwitz Museum learned that Hana had been held in the camp in Theresienstadt (the name the Nazis gave to the Czech town Terezin) prior to being sent to Poland. Fumiko was able to obtain some drawings that Hana had made there, but the Terezin Ghetto Museum could not provide any more information about the young girl.

The children at the Tokyo Center kept asking Fumiko to find out more about Hana and especially to get a picture of her, but Fumiko had very little information to go on. Then, finally, Fumiko herself visited the Terezin Museum and with the help of Ludmila, a worker there, she found a list of the children who had been imprisoned in the camp and discovered that Hana had had an older brother. The records also showed that Hana had died but that George had survived. The knowledge that Hana’s life had been so unjustly ended made Fumiko even more determined that she would not be forgotten. Continuing their search through the records, the two women found the name of the boy who had shared a bunk with George in the camp. Miraculously, Ludmila recognized the name and knew that the man was living in Prague. Immediately Fumiko took a bus to Prague and found someone at the Jewish Museum who put her in touch with him, and he gave her George’s address in Toronto.

Back home in Tokyo, Fumiko wrote to George in Toronto telling him about her work in the Holocaust Center and the tremendous interest of the members of Little Wings, who identified with Hana so closely. George responded right away with photos of Hana and a long letter telling about his and Hana’s happy early days with their family before the war.

   In 2001 George and his daughter Lara Hana visited the Tokyo Center, met Fumiko and the Little Wings and saw Hana’s suitcase. At that intensely moving meeting, George realized:

“… in the end, one of Hana’s wishes had come true. Hana had become a teacher. Because of her—her suitcase and her story—thousands of Japanese children were learning about what George believed to be the most important values in the world: tolerance, respect, and compassion. What a gift Fumiko and the children have given me, he thought. And what honor they have given Hana.”

   Honestly just reading this makes me cry. Hana was only a little girl who went through the torture of the Nazis and putting up a fight she passed. They KILLED HER! But one of her family members still lives today, George Brady, her older brother. He now is 86 years old with 3 sons and a daughter, working as a plumber. As I turned the pages of this amazing true story I started crying. Little sobs at first, then a down pour by the end. Its still a really good book, a little confusing, but amazing. Imagine yourself, a Jew, in the time of Hana, George and the rest of the people who went through this horrible thing. 

The Maze Runner (my talk about the actors)

As you all know I am reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I saw the movie, fell in love with it and am now reading the book. I can honestly go on and on about some of the actors/ characters in the book/ movie. That is what I am doing today in this extra blog post:



First off the main character: Thomas who is portrayed by Dylan O'Brien. O'Brien is from a hit TV show on MTV called Teen Wolf. The way O'Brien plays Thomas is similar to Stiles in season 3B, as I said in previous blog posts. He is a confused, strong-minded person who has to deal with a lot. Thomas is the same. He has to deal with his memory loss, what the Glade is and everything else about that place. Asking questions and getting answers is how Thomas figures things out and doesn't give up till he has all the information he needs. In Teen Wolf, Scott and all of Stiles' friends don't give up in helping Stiles get away from the Nogitsune. Stiles is being controlled by this creature and doesn't know what exactly he is doing. Its the same way with Thomas; not knowing if he is doing the right thing. Honestly if Dylan O'Brien didn't play Thomas, the movie would be a bust. He knows the structure of the character really well and has a sense of how to play Thomas like that. HATS OFF TO DYLAN O'BRIEN! 


Then there is Minho who is played by Ki Hong Lee. I don't know much about him or any of the other characters in fact... If you guys remember, he was in Victorious and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Lee did a great job bringing Minho to life. He was a type of character I didn't expect. Minho was this character who only seemed what was good in his eyes. When Thomas saved Alby from the Grievers, Minho saw that having Thomas a runner would be the best thing for him and everyone else. Thank You Ki Hong Lee for doing a fine gob playing Minho!

Now we have Gally who is portrayed by Will Poulter. If you watched The Chronicles of Narnia, he played Eustace Scrubb, the cousin to the Pevensie's in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Gally is someone who doesn't trust Thomas from the get-go and thinks he is up to no good. No one else plays Gally better than Poulter because of his character capability he has shown in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a lot like how Gally is shown. He also brought Gally's character to life just as the other actors did! Thank You Will Poulter for playing Gally in a way we won't forget!


And finally Teresa who is portrayed by Kaya Scodelario. Teresa is the only female ever in the Glade and she ended up coming a day or two after Thomas. She at the beginning is a shady character. Kaya was in Skins, Clash of the Titans, Emmanuel and the truth about Fishes... Thank you Kaya Scodelario for playing Teresa!

The Maze Runner

I'm still reading The Maze Runner and i got to say it is a page turner! As i read i don't feel like stopping. Even though i saw the movie it seems like i am hearing the story for the first time. This dystopian type novel has me moved to continue reading it to the very end and all books that follow as well. The characters are evolving and becoming these new people who are ready to take charge or control. Thomas asks more and more questions and can't always find the answers though. He wakes up one day or sometime, and decides he wants to become a runner. A runner is someone who well runs around the maze mapping it out and looking for an exit to get out of the Glade. Minho and other runners have ran that maze for 3 years and still haven't found an exit. That is because every night after the doors close, the maze changes. The Maze Changes!

Where i am in the book is when Ben has been "stung" and is being banished because of the trouble he caused with Thomas and some other characters. Also a newbie arrives 3 days after Thomas which is absurd because a new person only arrives every month. Another twist is that the newbie is a girl, the very first and last girl and new Glade member ever. A mysterious note in her hands read: She's the last one. Ever. The girl is later revealed to be Teresa and for some crazy messed up reason she only remembers her name (like everyone else in The Glade), but also Thomas. She for some reason remembers Thomas' name. Gally thinks that Thomas knows more than he's letting on and is against him throughout.  I don't want to give more of the story away so i'm gonna stop here. 

James Dashner does a wonderful job displaying the characters and making each character unique in their own special way. Because Dashner made the characters the way they are, the actors who played in the movie did a fantastic job in bringing the characters to life. I thank Dylan O'Brien for outstandingly playing Thomas, Blake Cooper for playing Chuck, Thomas Brodie-Sangster for playing Newt, Ki Hong Lee for wonderfully playing Minho, Will Poulter for playing Gally and Kaya Scodelario for playing Teresa. Each actor displayed their characters in a way you can only imagine. They also did a fantastic job in bringing the characters to life and making us readers enjoy the book/movie even more! 



Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwwbhhjQ9Xk

THE MAZE RUNNER

Since i finished Soulstice I started reading The Maze Runner. The book is really good so far. I actually haven't gotten that far in it. Just finished chapter 3. I'm at the part where Thomas is starting to ask so many questions about the Glades and the Grievers. The book so far is similar to the movie which i like. Okay so for me, I usually watch the movie first to get a feel of what the characters look like and if the book is worth reading. I don't like reading the book first, then imagine how the characters would be then watch the movie and they are nothing to what I imagined. Except for Harry Potter since I grew up with watching the movies. For Maze Runner the movie was amazing so I decided  to read the book. Hunger Games and Divergent movies weren't that good so I didn't read the books.

The author did a good job showing Thomas' feelings towards everything and how others felt about him. Watching the movie helped a lot because I honestly didn't think there would be so much in the book or movie. This is not a typical book I'd normally read, hence my other books. The actors in the movie did an amazing job portraying the characters and bringing them to life. Dylan O'Brien from Teen Wolf did an outstanding job playing Thomas because they way Thomas was done in the books, O'Brien did something like that playing Stiles as a confused, strong-minded person in season 3B of Teen Wolf. Honestly if O'Brien didn't get the part of Thomas, I wouldn't have seen the movie. No one plays Thomas any better than Dylan O'Brien does!

This is a book i normally won't read because this type of genre isn't really for my liking, but when i saw the movie i loved it and decided to give the book and genre a go. Look how that turned out.. I love the book as i did with the movie. I'm glad i gave it a go!




sorry this blog post was published a little late...

Soulstice and Nightmarys

  I finally finished Soulstice and I'll tell you that like Fang, it kept me up reading. I didn't want to put the book down at all. There were many plot twists and things you would expect to happen but the author switches it up and changes your views on what's going to happen.

  I loved how Aaron reacted when he found out about Quinn and how Reggie has to deal with it. Things happen between Reggie, Quinn, Dr. Unger, Eben, and some other characters. Reggie comes home after everything happens and tries explaining it to her dad because he asked and after listening to everything she had to say, he thought she was CRAZY and MENTAL and locks her up in some remote, sound proof room from the outside world. Read more to find out what happens with our amazing characters.

  If you think this book is interesting, check out The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki:

Timothy July has been having nightmares. About his brother, who is in a coma after being wounded in Iraq; about his best friend, Stuart, who is behaving like a jerk; about the old biology specimens in jars lining the walls of his classroom; and about Abigail, the new girl who seems to be a magnet for trouble. Or perhaps she is the cause.

Suddenly Timothy’s nightmares are coming true. His brother, his face decaying, approaches Timothy on the street. Stuart ends up in the hospital, terrified that monsters are stalking him. And the specimen jars are tormenting not only Timothy but his teacher as well. 

What is the secret in Abigail’s past that is the key to these horrors? And can Timothy figure it out before his nightmares become a deadly reality?

 Nightmarys goes along the lines of Soulstice but there aren't any Vours or other things to deal with. Read it to see what Timothy and Abigail have to deal with and how they overcome those complications. 

  Does anyone have any books that they thought were interesting and fascinating? I'm in between books and i need a book to read. If you have any good books, please list them in the comment section below... Thanks :D

Soulstice by: Simon Holt

As you guys know i already told you about "Soulstice" in the last blog post. I have to now tell you about what is happening in the book.

Well lets start with this... Reggie and Henry are trying to figure out the plans of the Vours  before Starry Night. Aaron is back in the game and so is Quinn, a mysterious guy who was supposedly dead, and only Reggie knows he's back. Keech and Mitch Kassner are sorta the bad guys but Keech is more because he is a Vour now and Mitch needs Reggie's and Aaron's help to free his brother.

Reggie enters Keech's fearscape which is pretty much his mind/brain and tries to gather clues left by human Keech. Using those clues she has to also deal with Vour Keech and his evil tricks. Trying to save Keech's life, Reggie also has to save her life. It will be interesting to see how Reggie will deal with all of the things going on in Keech's fearscape and also how Aaron will deal with the fact that Quinn is alive and if he will forgive Reggie or not.

A passage from the book:

    She glanced around the room, looking for something to use as a lever to pry open the trapdoor. A high-pitched giggle came from the cabinet.
    Reggie turned her head slowly and gasped.
    Behind the glass, all the dolls stood as they had except for one. A doll with dark curls hung from a noose made of yarn, and she swung faintly back and forth.
    Reggie opened the cabinet doors and lifted up to the hanged figurine. At that instant the arms off all the other dolls shot up, pointing at Reggie. They opened their mouths in unison and began to shriek. Reggie clamped her hands over her ears as the piercing wail shattered the glass. (154,Holt)

This passage is on page 154 of "Soulstice" and it is what Reggie was experiencing at one point in Keech's fearscape. If you want to know what happens to Reggie, Aaron, Henry, Keech, Quinn and Mitch... READ THE BOOK! i highly encourage it to anyone who is interested in the supernatural, mystery or is looking for adventure.