The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkein

Bilbo Baggins gives his nephew Frodo the ring to keep while he goes on adventures. After a few years, Gandalf the wizard shows up and sends him on a quest: to destroy the ring at the Cracks of Doom. Sam, Pippin, Merry(hobbits), Gimli(a dwarf), Aragorn(a man) and Legolas(an elf) go with him and face Riders and much more.

The first of a wonderful, long trilogy that takes several readings to understand at all. I think that the Riders are cool and awful at the same time. The movie does them perfectly, but to do them perfect they have to be really creepy. I hate the spiders.

a Happy poem

Looking out the window
I see snow
and a little black dog
with his tail going wag.
The little black puppy
looks at me
and his face is covered in snow.

Hooray for Happies!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter: Harry has spent the entire summer at the Dursely's without a word from anyone and is sick of it. So he is more than happy when dementors show up. After fighting them off, he faces a trial at the Ministry of Magic by the prejudiced Fudge. And if that's not bad enough, there is a crazy teacher who is a Ministry plant and tries her best to expel Harry. But then it looks like Sirius is trapped by Voldemort...and Harry decides to rescue him!

The Order of the Phoenix is way too long. What does Grawp matter? Why spend an entire chapter on Hagrid's vicious brother? Luna is good though. Snargles and Crumpled Horned Snorkbacks and the Rotfang Conspiracy. It was great. And I was glad Harry found out about the prophecy.

CTK Christmas dinner tonight. I'm an entertainment-Dazzlers. I look like Shirley Temple in hair.

Bat 6 by Virginia Wolff

Bat 6: A couple years after World War 2, two towns come together each summer to play a sportsmanlike game of softball. One year an unusual girl named Shazam walks in, and instantly makes the team. The others aren't so sure about her, but they accept her all the same. On the Ridge, a Japanese girl is also drawn in. Shazam has a huge predjudice against Japanese, since her dad was killed at Pearl Harbor. This anger builds up until ther first game against each other comes, and Shazam severely injures Aki.

Boom! I cut you off. I culdn't figure the story out. right before the end, I thought I knew what was going to happen, and it ended. It was neat how the author used the girls on both teams to say what they thought about Shazam. Shazam's comments are disjointed, creepy sentances that tell you what her past was like. Very cool.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter is an orphan living with his cruel aunt, uncle, and cousin. On the day of his eleventh birthday, a giant comes to tell Harry he's a wizard. So on September first he goes to Platform 9 3/4
to catch the train to Hogwarts. Getting to the platform met going through a solid wall. On the train he meets Ron Weasley, who quickly becomes his best friend. Another true friend is made while defeating a ginormous troll. Harry and Ron and Hermione find a series of clues telling them what is hidden behingd the forbidden door at Hogwarts. And finally, they find out, but it's not what any of them expected.

One thing that annoys me about Harry Potter books is the wands. Certain flicks and swishes get you certain spells and if you lose or break your wand you're dead. I would find it more interesting if they could do some things without wands. But I really enjoy wizard's chess and Fluffy. I would stink at chess, but it's fun to think about.

Cheerio!
-ruthie Girl!

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

A boy in love with books named Bastian has stolen one. Sure that he will be imprisoned if he tells his father, he hides in the school attic. There he is drawn into the Neverending Story...
A dreadful thing is spreading across Fantastica. The Childlike Empress is terribly sick, and no one except a human can give her a new name. Fantastica is almost lost when Bastian gives the Childlike Empress a new name. THen he is granted the power to make everyone's wishes come true-but every time he does, he loses a memory of home. You need at least one more memory to go home, and when he loses it....

The book was great for me because I make up all kinds of wierd things in my head and the Story is full of strange and interesting things. I enjoyed the problem of Bastian losing his memory because it happens. So what's he going to do? the ending's really great and answered everything and finished everything.

A fun fact- today is All Saint's Day. Yesterday was Halloween. When did Halloween get like this?
Mom(and Mr. Spears) said that people first dressed up to mock the devil. The horns and pichfork,etc-saying you're just a ridiculous thing, not even worth being called an angel.

A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer

A Girl Named Disaster: Nhamo is an orphan in Africa. her aunts hate her, her uncle dislikes her, her cousins don't know what to think, her grandmother loves her, and the rest of the village thinks she's a witch. When an epidemic of cholera strikes the village, they journey to a muvuki, or witch-doctor. He says that Nhamo must be sent to a man she doesn't even know as a wife. She is under twelve. Grandmother orders her to run away to the mysterious Zimbabwe and find the rest of her family. But the journey goes badly wrong.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it twice. It was really interesting about all the spirit stuff they believed(believe?) in. the ancestors, witches, water spirits, etc.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter is half way through his miserable vacation with the Dursleys, his mean rrelatives when a mysterious creature, called a house-elf, shows up and tells Harry not to go back to Hogwarts. Harry is a wizard who gos to school at Hogwarts and enjoys most of it very much. But when Dobby ruins the Dursleys dinner, Harry is locked in his room day and night. He is saved when Ron, his best friend, and Fred and George, ron's brothers show up in a flying car. Ron's sister, Ginny, is starting her first year at Hogwarts, and she proves to be a valuable find for Voldemort, Harry's arch-enemy. But when Ginny is stolen down to the Chamber of Secrets harry and Ron decide to find out what's going on....

I couldn't make up all that myself. I like Lochart, Harry's stuck-up teacher. He takes everything Harry does as trying to get more fame: "...I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Moust-Not-Be-Named...I know, it's not as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row as I have, but it's a start!" Funny.

Veritas school picnic is today! It's gonna be fun!

Together is all we need by Michael Phillips

Together is all we need: Mayme Daniels and Katie Clairborne are cousins-except one is white and the other is black. Katie is an orphan of the Civil War, while Mayme's mother was killed. Katie's family owned a plantation named Rosewood, and the two girls and a few friends have run it by hemselves, telling everyone in town the Clairbornes are still alive. But when an uncle of Katie shows up and claims it as his own, will they be able to keep it?

I found it very interesting that Katie and Mayme were practically sisters, though different colors. During the Civil War period most blacks were treated like trash. there are also three other books before the above, and they're all great too.


Hey russ-when's that train ticket coming?
i miss you guyses!!

Terry Waite: a biography by Trevor Barnes

Terry Waite: Terry was from the start drawn to the church, even when he was a little kid. he enjoyed going on long bikrides by himself but also hanging out at parties and making everyone laugh. When Terry was older, he first enlisted in the Navy, then the Army, but he was allergic to the khaki die in the uniforms. So he entered the Church army. Then he married Frances and they had four kids. being in the Church Army led him to become a secratary for the Bishop of Bristol, then a lay-trainer(?) in Africa, then Rome for the Medical Mission Sisters, the the Archbishop's 'special envoy' as a mediator in Iran. He went there three times, and on the third was captured himself. For four and a half years he was kept in a tiny room. when released, he was a hero.

this was a neat little book. I couldn't figure out what the Church Army was though, other than it wasn't a military unit. I'd like to hear ideas. Something I found interesting was that Terry named his brother! David was born premature and wasn't thought to live long so Mr and Mrs Waite sent for the priest to have him christened, but they hadn't thought of a name. Terry had just been to Sunday School where he heard about David and Jonathon so the baby was named David Jonathon Waite.

russ-i want to see you guyses weally bad!!!