14 December 2010
Guest Blogger Busy B on HP7
If you haven't gotten a hold of J.K. Rowling's final Harry Potter book yet, well you definitely need to. HP7 tests your faith in the characters more than any other book in the series, whether you're forced to turn your back on Ron, Dumbledore, or even Harry. HP7 opens with Voldemort torturing a muggle studies teacher at Hogwarts. It gives a somewhat spooky insight into Voldemort's sick mind and exactly what might occur over the course of the book. Then Harry is brought into the picture, reading the Daily Prophet and all it's outrageous lies. Following this, one of the most shocking surprises of the book is displayed: Dudley's kindness towards Harry. After a frantic chase later on with Death Eaters and dealing with Ron's time consuming mother, Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally slip away from the Burrow to search for Voldemort's Horcruxes. The complicated task left by Dumbledore leaves the three friends bickering day and night, and wearing Voldemort's Slytherin Horcrux necklace surely doesn't help. As you're about to pull your own hair out, Ron just up and leaves a torn Harry and Hermione, only to re-appear again a few chapters later. Meanwhile, Harry battles with the speculations following Dumbledore's death. He constantly wonders if some of the gossip is indeed true. An encounter at Godrics Hallow with Voldemort leaves Harry broken, but his spirits are lifted when Ron comes back, saves his life, and retrieves a once lost treasure. Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out again, but this time to learn more about the Deathly Hallows. Hermione is convinced that they are mere fairy tales, but Xeno Lovegood proves her wrong and unfortunately betrays the trio in the process. They manage to escape with valuable information. At last, Harry believes he knows what Voldemort's after, however, one night on the run Harry slips up by using Voldemort's tabooed name. Wizards surround their tent and capture Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They are brought to Malfoy Manor and luckily escape, but not without a devastating loss. Eventually Harry, Ron, and Hermione wind up at Hogwarts to search for the final Horcrux and a horrendous battle breaks out between Dumbledore's Army and Death Eaters. When it comes down to it, who is the last one standing? Harry, or Voldemort? Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and you'll find out!
08 December 2010
A little nonfiction talk...
If I'm *really* being honest, I don't do non-fiction. I read to escape. Period. However, in going through our non-fiction here at Teen Central, I've found some books that I'm adding to my must read pile and I thought maybe some of you would be interested as well...
1. Chew on This by Eric Schlosser
I really didn't need to browse through this one after stopping at a local burger joint for lunch. I'm sure the faces I made while browsing some of the facts in this expose on American fast food were humorous...to everyone else in the room. I officially don't want to know how many cows my lunch came from. Makes a girl look for the nearest friendly piece of lettuce.
2. Ophelia Speaks by Sara Shandler
I've always loved looking into other people's lives. Books that provide glimpses at how other people live and the experiences other people have fascinate me. This one offers the look into the hearts of a thousand teenage girls on subjects that range from boys to school to politics. I can't wait to read this book of honest confessions.
3. America Through the Lens: Photographers Who Changed the Nation by Martin W. Sandler
In history class, I always found it hard to concentrate on the text because the pictures were always so arresting. It was like peering back through a window in time to really connect with the people of a particular time period. I flipped open this book and found one of my all time favorite historical photos. It's a photo of a woman and her two children during the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange called "Migrant Mother". I always had thought the woman in the picture must be in her late 40s, according the the photographer she was just 32. This book shows and tells the stories of many photographs and photographers dating from the civil war on up to some really cool NASA photographs that were taken in the late 60s.
4. A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
Speaking of pictures, I've always thought of poems as the photographs as literature. If a novel is a movie, then a poem is a freeze frame snapshot of a particular moment momentous or simple. Just reading two or three of the poems in this book of verse made me want to gobble the whole thing in one sitting. I'm not sure if I like "Moving House" or "Worry" better.
5.The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
I'm a sucker for a good memoir and The Burn Journals looks like a good bet. Brent Runyon set himself on fire when he was fourteen. And he survived. He tells all about that startling act, what came after, and the what got him there in the first place.
1. Chew on This by Eric Schlosser
I really didn't need to browse through this one after stopping at a local burger joint for lunch. I'm sure the faces I made while browsing some of the facts in this expose on American fast food were humorous...to everyone else in the room. I officially don't want to know how many cows my lunch came from. Makes a girl look for the nearest friendly piece of lettuce.
2. Ophelia Speaks by Sara Shandler
I've always loved looking into other people's lives. Books that provide glimpses at how other people live and the experiences other people have fascinate me. This one offers the look into the hearts of a thousand teenage girls on subjects that range from boys to school to politics. I can't wait to read this book of honest confessions.
3. America Through the Lens: Photographers Who Changed the Nation by Martin W. Sandler
In history class, I always found it hard to concentrate on the text because the pictures were always so arresting. It was like peering back through a window in time to really connect with the people of a particular time period. I flipped open this book and found one of my all time favorite historical photos. It's a photo of a woman and her two children during the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange called "Migrant Mother". I always had thought the woman in the picture must be in her late 40s, according the the photographer she was just 32. This book shows and tells the stories of many photographs and photographers dating from the civil war on up to some really cool NASA photographs that were taken in the late 60s.
4. A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
Speaking of pictures, I've always thought of poems as the photographs as literature. If a novel is a movie, then a poem is a freeze frame snapshot of a particular moment momentous or simple. Just reading two or three of the poems in this book of verse made me want to gobble the whole thing in one sitting. I'm not sure if I like "Moving House" or "Worry" better.
5.The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
I'm a sucker for a good memoir and The Burn Journals looks like a good bet. Brent Runyon set himself on fire when he was fourteen. And he survived. He tells all about that startling act, what came after, and the what got him there in the first place.
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