St. Jerome's Catholic School

I am inspired by the great people before us, and the great civilizations. The Minions built great temples and the Aztecs built temples, waterways and in my eyes one of the greatest cities in the world. In my book Free Fall by Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon Will is inspired by his father, who in his eyes, is one of the greatest archaeologist in the world. Will’s father is inspired by many things. One is an ancient society that is devoted to throwing themselves off cliffs as deep into the poor as they can get. Two is to the Styx, even tho they are evil they have created an advanced civilization under the crust without anyone knowing about it. Three he is inspired by the natural wonders of our world, like the world inside of our world. We strive to make our selves better by trying to be like the people who inspire us. Will wanted to be like his dad so he started digging tunnels all around to learn how to be an archaeologist. Will’s father threw himself off a cliff to learn more about the ancient society, we all do what we can to learn.

Our world would not be what it is today if we did not have the great people that we had. Those people were inspired by some one, were they not? Benjamin Franklin was inspired by lightning and in that he created electricity which made many advances in our world.Thomas Edison could have been inspired by either Benjamin Franklin or electricity which helped him to create the light bulb. In the book before when Will meets Drake, a renegade from the deeps, he becomes inspired and wants to be able to shoot and kill as well as Drake can. When the time comes that Will has to shoot Drake because he was taken over by Limiters, who are the fiercest warriors that have never lost a war. Will is devastated he almost doesn’t do it, but in the fear that Drake will be interrogated and that he will tell all there secret hiding spots, he kills him.

One of the worst things in your life would have to be loosing someone, now image a person you really want to be like that you knew very well dying. One person i lost that inspired me allot would have to be my grandma Evlen. My Grandma was one of the sweetest granny’s you could have ever met. When I lost her I was very young but now that I am older i have realized how much I miss about her. Every holiday she came and visited us with us and when she came she always gave us little goodies. Even if it was not an important day and she randomly came and visited she would have a little or sometimes big treat for us. If my Grandma were to come back I would be one of the happiest people on the planet wouldn’t you. IN my book now that wish is given to Will. When he resurfaced to above the crust he finds Drake. This is a blessing to Will because he finds out three thing, one is that Drakes still alive, two that he still has a chance in beating the Styx, and three that he never killed one of his friends but actually helped him. Will did not get to spend allot of time with his inspiration because he had to go back down to the poor and kill his sisters.

Inspirations do not all ways come in the form of people. People can be inspired by buildings or ships. They can be so inspired that they want to build a better ship, or better building. I am inspired by great architecture. Will father was inspired by the three great temples he found in the world inside of a world. Will was inspired by guns and Elliot was inspired from her knew weapons from Drake. A little higher up but not on the crust Martha is inspired by Chester and Chester is trying to get away. A little higher up but still not above the crust Will’s mother is inspired by the colony where she was taken to and the old lady she is sitting across from. The oldlady is inspired by staring at Will’s mother. Everyone is inspired by something most people are inspired by more than one thing. Some things little, some large, or some important. If we weren’t inspired by anyone or anything nothing would get built or improved on. Society would not get more technological and more advanced.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

I recently finished the book Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson. As you know I have been reading the Dragon Keeper series over the year and by finishing that book I finish the series. This book has a lot of things that connect to me and what I believe. For me this book really interests me in the ways in shows the ancient Chinese culture and their myths and legends live together without even knowing it. For example at the end of the book when the dragon Hei Lei drops Ping off in a grassy field after flying over more than on little village without them even noticing a giant black dragon flying overhead.

In this book Ping keeps asking herself what the dragon haven is going to be like is it a place where dragons and their keepers live in harmony or is it only for dragons. Is it the good life for her and the dragon or for just one of them? Asking that what is the good life? Is it a physical place like when you relax have no pressures and don’t really have to deal with daily problems that occur when you are trying to survive in the world of humans and everyone mistreats the dragons? Or is just a feeling that comes to a person that makes them feel like nothing can make it worse nothing can screw their moment up. Their are many different definitions for the good life some say it’s having no worries others say a high standard of living and don’t even know. The just think that they will know when it happens.

During a time in the book when she thinks she has found the haven but it turns out to be a place that has a pile of dragon bones. Through this and then having Kai the dragon snatched away from her by a rouge dragon and feeling like her heart had been ripped in half and taken away how does she find any inspiration to keep on searching for him. Well in the book it takes awhile but she finally finds enough energy to try to walk and find him. But for weeks she walks in the directions the dragon flew. The weather starts to get a little colder and she is wandering the mountains like a zombie. She has forgotten what she was searching for and who she was. What inspiration could she have now just keep walking in some random direction and maybe you’ll find what you were looking for. But how will she know what she was looking for. For her inspiration comes in shape of Danzi’s old dragon scale. She remembers everything and I guess even that little memento can give you all you need to survive.

Later in the book after her search and she gets picked up by a dragon and brought to their new haven she has to go through many obstacles to kind of fit in. For one she can’t talk to any of the dragons but Kai and the dragons do not want her there. She has an encounter with Hei Lei who hates humans like the other dragons but with more anger and hatred. I wonder on her time in the new haven does she ask herself if she belongs and would it be right for her to leave and pursue happiness. I believe that every person and animal on this earth should be able to live in happiness and have someone in his or her life that makes him or her happy. They need to have a sense of happiness and if they don’t what will they become? Will it be one of those old mean neighbors you see in movies or even worse.

That is how I feel this book connects to me. How people achieve the good life and what inspires some people. This book and series showed me how ancient Chinese culture worked and how I could connect with it. Although I wouldn’t want to live in that time period and in that country I do now respect what people had to do and put up with back then even though my book is fiction it is still partly true.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

What is right? Miles Manning knows what the right decisions are in life and he tries his best to do what is so called right. Many of his friends have gone down the wrong road which leads them into drugs and alcohol showing the darker side to human nature Miles Manning plays on high school football team that is under so much pressure to do the best they can. Many kids on the team go to the extremes to get the top play out of their game but he does his best to do what his right.

Many of us do not know what is right and what is wrong. Some have never really been shown the difference. I know from what I’ve been taught the right things to do in specific situations but to others this may be viewed as wrong. In a book I have recently read called Crackback a young man named Miles Manning gets offered caffeine pills and steroids to try and get an “extra edge” in play. His family has always taught him and showed him that drugs are wrong and he should not be a part of any of it. He is under so much peer pressure it does not seem that bad to just “try” them. He does end up at first taking some of the caffeine pills but knows better than to actually try them and says no.

I know that if I was put in that situation I would say no. My family and peers and all of the people around me have influenced me into making this kind of right decision. But for people who have never been shown these ways it may not be right.

In every kind of story or anything like that there is always a dark side and a light side or the good side. This also occurs in humans. This occurs in my book when many teammates on his team take steroids, drink excessive alcohol even with the agreement they have with their football organization. He is on the side that does the right things but inside of his football team there is the darker side that does all this. I do not really know the complete dark side to human nature but from what I understand is that it is the violence and the theft and things like that that harms other humans or causes them grief.

Many people do not understand what the right ideas or qualities humans are supposed to have an I myself do not have a full understanding but from what do know is that I will strive for what I believe is right and teach others of what I know is right and try and rid ourselves of the darker side to life

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

The book Azincourt is based on the real Battle of Agincourt. It takes the view of a fictional archer name Nick Hook. The book Azincourt talks about the hardships of the invading English. King Henry the 5 decided to invaded France because he thinks that he his the rightful heir to the throne. Like in any war there are many fears going around. Nick Hook fears for the life of his wife Melisande, he fears of what the French will do when they capture him, and he fears for England. Hook also has doubts in the book. Nick doubts that the English army will succeed in there attempt to take over France. Much of the army agrees with Nick about this but its a matter of pride for King Henry. He can’t go back to England with only taking over one town.

Nick Hook is sent to Soissons to defend an English town. Waiting for the French to attack Nick starts praying to the saints of the town Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian. The a month later the French invaded. You can’t really call it an invading because the leader of the town betrayed the English to the French and let the French walk in. The French started killing all of the English but luckily the archers hid in the Cathedral so they were safe for now. Nick didn’t make it to the Cathedral so he hid from the French in a house. Hook saw the man who betrayed the English about to kill a nun and nick heard a voice in his head that said to save the girl. Nick feared the voice. Hook was said to be cursed because his mother died on the same day he was born. Nick didn’t know if this was the devil talking or God telling him of a way to redeem himself.He feared it because he already failed to do what a voice told him so he didn’t know what God might do if he ignored it again. Nick also doubted the voice because its a voice in his head he didn’t want to explain to other people that he killed a man because someone told him to. He also ended up in Soissons because he listened to the voice before. The voiced said to save a girl named Sarah who a priest named Sir Martin was going to kill. Nick could do nothing except hit the priest. Later a man named Sir Edward helped him escape because otherwise he’d be hanged. Hook ended up saving the girl.

Nick and the girl he saved (Melisande) hid from the French in a barn that had a clear view of Cathedral. The English man who betrayed everyone told them to open the door. They did willingly but then got ambush and killed. The archers were tortured. They had their fingers that they drew their bows with cut of and then they were castrated. Only after that they were left to bleed to death.Nick now feared for what would happen to him if he was captured. He saw his companions brutally maimed on the left to die. He wondered what to do and he began to doubt the voice in his head even more. But then the voice told him how to escape and the two refugees got back to England.

Nick was able to get into the service of Sir John ,a tough Englishman who is a great warrior, and they prepare for battle. The English army sail to France and the siege at Harfleur began. The English army shoot their cannons at the wall and fire their catapult but nothing seemed to penetrate the barbican. They English army waited trying to get and edge but all they got was diarrhea. The disease actually killed many people in the English army. Sir John was beginning to doubt that they could take over the town and feared that most of the English soldiers will become ill and they wouldn’t be able to continue the march. Soon enough the French came and destroyed the cannons and catapults and before a battle could break out they went back into their hole so to speak. So the next night King Henry decided to attack back. The archers were order to shoot fire arrows over the wall and the remaining catapults shoot balls of fire. Hook and the archers he was in charge of ran out of arrows so they climbed the wall and attack the French with their poleaxes. Nick meet Sir John in the town and together they pushed the French back into the main part of the town. The town folk then gave up saying they were done with the fighting. King Henry made them all leave the town in nothing but a white shirt and white pants.

The whole of the English army was wondering if King Henry was going to go home to England or if he was going to march to the next town. Henry decided that he was going to go to the next town. On the way ambassadors from France came and asked if King Henry was looking for a fight the king of course said yes. The only thing he didn’t agree on was the place. So the English army know feared that any minute the French going to come out and kill them. They feared that since their army is severely weaken with injuries and disease then isn’t a battle be suicide. The army also begin to doubt in the king. They began to see that he won’t stop to matter what until he won. The soldiers began to doubt that he was Gods favorite like he told so many people. One of the kings brothers thought that it was madness and they left. The English army got to an area that they need to cross to get to the town but blocking it was 36,000 French men. All the English had was 7,000 warriors and 5,000 of those were archers. So the battle began. The English army was greatly outnumbered. Nick now feared for his life because he knew he would die. But that fear was washed away because he realized that dying was inevitable. It rained all night and the next day (the feast day of Saint Crispin and Crispinian) the battle began. The archers let loose volley after volley. Since the ground was muddy the French had a hard time climbing the hill. So the first wave was defeated by arrows. During the second wave however the archers ran out of arrows and wet to hand to hand fighting. The third wave retreated and the English were victories.

This battle left 112 dead men on the English side and 7,000 to 10,000 dead men on the French side. Over 1,500 French noblemen were taken prisoner and ransomed. The English defeated all odds and came out victories. Even though their were many doubts and fears about the decision the men were awed by the outcome. This is a good book to read. But I do not recommend it to all people because it is very historically accurate of what the men did to the women.

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