Peak: Jail or Mt Everest

             I just started reading a book named Peak by Roland Smith.  The title or cover didn’t look very interesting to me but I was wrong.  Peak doesn’t start like a traditional book that goes in chronological order.  It starts with a hook; an exciting part that will catches people into the book, and then fills in the middle.  I started off with a 14 year old boy climbing up the outside of the Woolworth Building, like it was a mountain.  Seeing the skyscrapers of NYC every day I couldn’t imagine climbing up one.

            The main character’s name and the names his parents almost called him may give a clue to why he climbed the building.  His name is Peak but his parents also considered calling him, glacier, abyss or crampon.  His parents were both climbers and his dad is even a very famous climber.  This is one case where being famous could be good for you, his dad being so famous helped keep him out of jail.  Sometimes being famous is not good, Prince William of England would rather not be as famous as he is.

            Peak was arrested for climbing the Woolworth building while the mayor was in the building.  It was possible that Peak would spend time in jail after being arrested.  It was not only his father’s fame that saved him but also that the judge was a graduate of the school that Peak attended.  I realized how much his arrest affected the rest of the family, his mom and his twin sisters.  It also shows that the media can go too far by sensationalizing his story another young boy tried to copy him and ended up dying.

            Peak is given a great opportunity.  Instead of going to jail he is going to go live with his dad, who he hasn’t spoken to in seven years.  He gets to spend time with his dad and get to know him.  I can’t imagine not seeing or talking to my dad for seven years.  Another reason it is a great opportunity is because he is going to get to climb Mt Everest and be the youngest person to ever do it.  I am looking forward to finishing Peak and seeing how Peak’s homework assignment turns out, after all writing his adventure down is so he can get credit for his year of school.

Ender: The Small Package

            It is often said that “Good things come in small packages”.  Andrew Wiggins, aka Ender, of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card could be an example of this.  He was taken from his family at the age of six and placed in Battle School.  The Colonel of the school felt that Ender would be ready to be the Commander when the next invasion of buggers occurred.  Most people would not like their future determined when they were only six.  Physically he may be a small package but there is a big powerful mind in it.

            Ender’s mind is like a super computer.  He learns from any source he can.  He watches the videos of earlier battles so he can develop new strategies to win his battles.  He is not afraid to share information with the other commanders because he doesn’t think they will be able to use it against him.  He has sleepless nights because he is often thinking and cannot shut his mind off.  To many people a mind that works like a computer would be a good thing.

            Having a mind that works like a computer isn’t enough to have to make a life happy.  Because of his battle success, Ender had no friends on his level and the other commanders were jealous of him.  His success also leads to quick promotions so he doesn’t get to spend a lot of time with many people.  The pressure for Ender to be the next great commander is also great.  It is surprising that a six year old boy could be giving so much responsibility and handle it this well. 

            Even though this is a science fiction book, there are many parts of it that are real; the bullying, sibling rivalry and pressures to succeed.  My plans for the future have changed many times since I was six and I couldn’t imagine having someone else plan my future or having Ender’s fight to be successful.  But having a brain that worked like a computer wouldn’t be bad because then I could have 100% in all my classes.

Judging A Book By Its Cover 2

            A well known saying is “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  I think this is wrong.  The book my mother is reading has a boring two colored cover.  The book doesn’t look interesting for me to read at all and my mother agrees that I probably wouldn’t enjoy the book.  The book that I have chosen to read next, NERDS 2: M IS FOR MAMA’S BOY has a funny and colorful cover.  The cover shows five of the characters that seem to be having a good time.  This cover makes the book look good to me.

            Also I think a book’s title can help draw you into that book.  This book is the second book in the NERDS series and I think I am going to enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first book. Also the subtitle has something to do with my life.  Some people call me a mama’s boy because my mom does this, that and the other thing for me.  I think she is just being helpful and showing that she loves me.  My friends think that they are teasing me but I don’t let that bother me.  Are you a mama’s boy or have you ever been called one?  I can’t wait to see how the title fits into the book. 

            In writing a series it is important to have the same characters in the following books.  Once a reader becomes attached to a character they are more likely to read the next book. They are going to want to find out what happens to the heroes and the villains.  I think Duncan Dewey, Ruby Pette, Julio Escala, Matilda Choi, Jackson Jones, and Heathcliff Hodge are going to be the same as they were in NERDS.  I think Heathcliff is going to cause havoc and the nerds are going to have to stop him.  I wonder how the characters are going to change from NERDS to NERDS 2.

            After reading two nonfiction books about personal tragedies and hard ache: Lou Gehrig’s battle with MLS and Matt Long’s struggle to overcome being run over by a bus, I look forward to reading a funny and meaningless fiction book.  I hope NERDS 2 is just the book to read and enjoy.

http://louisvazquez.blogspot.com/2011/02/judging-book-by-its-cover.html

Life Lessons in Ender's Game

            In Ender’s Game, author Orson Scott Card, puts many of life lessons into a futuristic science fiction book.  Card takes six year olds away from their families and gives them more independence then most teenagers are given.   He takes six year olds and gives them the responsibility of being the one to save the world.  In the search for the right leader the kids learn valuable life lessons, like be careful what you wish for and how to find comfort in difficult situations.  The students also learn that adults don’t always have the right answers and can be mean.  In the search for the right leader, the adults chose many kids to attend Battle School but most find it too difficult and drop out.  In their attempt to train the kids the adults are mean and unfriendly to the students.  They want the students to be able to rely upon themselves in difficult situations, another life lesson.

            While Ender is living with his family he doesn’t seem to enjoy his life.  He is bullied by his brother, Peter and a big kid in school, Stilson.  He proves he is tough when he beats up Stilson.  He continuously plays buggers and astronauts with his brother to show his brother that he is good.  What he truly enjoys at home is his sister, Valentine and his mom and dad.  When given the opportunity to go to battle school Ender sees it as his chance to get away from the bullying and studying school. He quickly finds out that bullying can happen anywhere and that he misses Valentine and his parents.  He learns that you have to be careful what you wish for it may not be any better than what you have.

            Ender’s experience can also teach us about finding comfort in hard times.  At dinner he imagined his mom and dad just as they would be at home.  He was even able to put Valentine into the scene.  This helped him get through the difficult time of being lonely and feeling unaccepted by the other kids.  To find comfort, he was able to leave his brother out of his imagination.  Ender’s example can help us through times we find difficult.

            Ender has taught a lot of life lessons.  I wonder how many more Ender has to teach before the book is over.  Will he be the one that proves that adults can make good decisions?

Ender's Game The Way It Might Be

            The Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is the futuristic science fiction book I am now reading.   I didn’t care for the beginning of the book.  It seemed like it started in the middle of a series.  It is confusing because it starts with someone reflecting on the past, but the reader doesn’t know what has happened in the past.  It took some reading to figure that the book is going to be about Andrew “Third” going off to battle school to prepare to save the human race. 

            I think it is interesting that the characters of a futuristic science book have some of the same issues that people face today.  In the future society families are suppose to have only two children.  The Wiggins family was granted special permission because they thought that Ender would end the war that they expected in the future.  The taxes on a family increased greatly when they had the third child and only two kids got a free education.  In our society people have only one or two kids because of the expense.  Bullying is still present in the future.  Third gets bullied by Stilson and gang and even his own brother, Peter; because he is the third.  Competition will still exist between siblings in the future.  Peter the other brother is jealous of the fact that Ender is being selected for the training school.  In the future kids will still play some of the same games.  Nowadays kids play, cops and robbers, in the future they will play buggers and astronauts.  The battle stills exists between the good guys and the bad guys.

            Orson Scott Card doesn’t keep the future exactly like the present.  In the Ender’s Game, children are taken away from their families at six, to go to school to learn to battle.  They have monitor placed on their necks so that can be evaluated constantly.  The first two child of this family, Peter and Valentine, were tested for battle school and came close to being accepted.  They were not accepted for opposite reason; Peter was too aggressive and Valentine was too mild.  The Wiggins family was given permission to have a third child; the officials hoped that their third would have the best qualities of both siblings. Nowadays parents don’t need permission to have a third child.  I am looking forward to seeing what other similarities and differences Card has planned for the societies and if Ender is the leader they hope his is.

Losing Abilities

            NERDS 2 M: is for Mama’s boy by Michael Buckley is an enjoyable fiction book.  Many of the characters have special abilities which they call upgrades.   For example, Duncan has the codename gluestick because he can stick to walls.  After trying to stop a bank robbery all of the NERDS have to lose their upgrades, be without them for three days and try to live as normal kids.  I saw the frustration they must have felt firsthand when my best friend broke his ankle and lost his “super speed”.  He broke his ankle right before national that he could have won.  Now that he has healed, he has to train with the regular kids on the team.  No more “super speed” for him for now but it will return just like the NERDS will get their upgrades back.

            This part of NERDS makes me think of another friend of mine who likes to run every day and train regularly.  Last year, he got a case of tendonitis.  He lost the ability to train daily and then got slower.  He was also very frustrated about not being able to run.  My friend, unlike the NERDS lost more than three days, he lost the rest of the season and part of the summer.  He came back this fall just as well and I think the NERDS can return just as well if they stay focused. 

            Another part of the book that makes me think about my life was when two of the NERDS saw their neighbor’s son for the first time.  Duncan had seen the bank robber and gave a description to his supervisor and then he saw the neighbor’s son.  Duncan recognized him right away as the bank robber.  I have a friend who is very very skinny and not that tall.  He would talk about his father and refer to him by his nickname “Little”.  One day I met his father; unlike Duncan I would never have thought that this man was “Little”.  My friend’s dad is 6 feet 4 inches and anything but little.  He could easily play football or Santa Claus.   Reading this scene made me laugh because you can’t always recognize someone from a description.

An Uncommon Book With Common Things

            Nerds 2: M is for Mama’s Boy is an enjoyable book to read, especially after finishing the two heavy books I just read.  The emotional books I just read were the nonfiction biographies Long Run and Luckiest Man.  Nerds 2 is a fiction book that is a sequel to Nerds, also by Michael Buckley.  The first Nerds book ends with Heathcliff “Choppers” Hodges becoming a villain.  I think Michael Buckley planned on making Choppers a bad guy so that he could have a sequel to Nerds.  So far Nerds 2 is just as enjoyable as Nerds.

            Nerds 2 begins after Choppers has become a villain and the Nerds think he is dead, the reader knows that Choppers is alive and this set up the conflict between good and evil.  In Nerds 2, Choppers joins forces with a bunch of squirrels to rob banks.  The NERDS, fulfilling their role as the National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society, investigate and soon find out that Choppers is responsible for the bank robberies.  This good versus evil conflict is very popular in books.  I suspect that in this book the heroes will prevail because in most books the hero prevails.

            Each of the members of the NERDS has a code name, which helps reveal something about their personality and their superpower.  For example, Duncan Dewey’s code name is “gluestick” because he loves to eat glue and his superpower is that he sticks to walls.  Michael Buckley gives the characters codenames like people give other people nicknames.  A nickname often develops because of things people do.  Michael Buckley also takes something else from our everyday lives, having objects that have more than I purpose; cell phones are not just for making calls anymore.  I hope I enjoy the rest of the book as much as I enjoyed the beginning of the book.