Post 10

Harry Potter is categorized in the epic hero category. The only trait that doesn’t match him being an epic hero is he has super powers. Besides super powers Harry matches every quality of an epic hero. Harry gathers allies on his journey. When Harry first gets to the train station he doesn’t know anyone. Until he meets his soon to be best friend Ron Weasly. Ron and Harry board the Hogwarts Express and meet Hermione on the train. Hermione ends up being Harry’s other epic hero. Hermione and Ron are Harry’s allies in his journey. Another quality of an epic hero Harry possess is faces adversities that try to defeat him. When Harry first arrives at Hogwarts he is thrown into the quiditch world. Harry has a natural gift at quidtich and is the star on the team. What Harry has to face every game is the fact if he doesn’t catch the snitch his team won’t win. Harry has a lot of pressure on him to win for his team. The main adversity Harry goes through I the book is how to keep the Sorcerer’s Stone from falling into the wrong hands. The Sorcerer’s Stone keeps whoever has it alive. In the book Voldemort is trying to get the stone so he can come back to life and take over the world. The stone is kept in a secret room under the school protected by five trials he must go through to get it. First Harry has to get by a giant three headed dog that’s protecting the entrance to the undergrounds. Harry uses a flute to make the giant dog fall asleep. Once Harry gets passed the dog he gets attacked by plants that try to wrap around his body. Hermione quickly thinks of a spell that burns the plants off Harry and he is able to escape. In the next room they encounter thousands of keys and one of those keys is the fit to the next door. Harry being the terrific seeker he is spots the key and gets on a broomstick to capture it. With the help of Ron and Hermione they are able to capture the key and move onto the next challenge. The enxt challenge is a giant chess match with life size pieces. Each person must act as a chess piece. Ron who is the best chess player among them commands the troops. On his last turn he makes he decides to sacrifice himself so Harry can take out the queen and win the chess match. When Ron sacrifices himself he takes a hard blow to the head and isn’t able to move on with Harry and Hermione. The last challenge before they reach the room that holds the Sorcerer’s Stone is a poem. On a table in front of them are seven flasks with liquids in them. One of them allows you to walk through fire, which is guarding the entrance to the door. Three of the drinks kill you two are just regular wine and the last allows you to go back to the previous room. Hermione quickly figures out each potion and she decides to take the one that lets you go back to the previous room so she can take care of Ron. Harry drinks the one that allows you to walk through fire and he advances to the final room. In the final room is a professor from Hogwarts who turns out to be have Voldemort in his body. The stone is nowhere to be seen until Harry looks into a mirror that shows what you want. In the mirror Harry sees himself with the stone and all of sudden he feel sit drop in his pocket. Voldemort realizes he has it and tries to kill Harry. Harry defeats Voldemort and successfully defends the stone. Harry’s epic journey is a perfect example of one am epic hero goes through. Harry Potter is an epic hero.

Post 9(Book 2 post)

http://youtu.be/cD-uQreIwEk

Post 8

Book 3 Project

I was very surprised how in the book the author came up with an altered dimension called the Shadowland where zombies and dead souls live. Whit, who is one of the main characters is always trying to go the Shadowland. Before Whit had to run from home because the government took everything over he had a girlfriend name Celia. Celia was murdered by the government and now lives in the Shadowland. She is considered a Half-Light. She has all her features and memory but she is a ghost and she can't come to the real world. Whit is still deeply in love with Celia and can't get her out of his mind. The Shadowland has zombies that hunt for any humans that ever try to visit the Shadowland. Whit fell for Celia hard and when he found out she was dead he was crushed. In the book the villain is named The One Who Is The One. He is a powerful wizard who has the abilities to control almost everything he wants. The One doesn't mind to prove his terror. In the book he beheads kids in public to make his point no revolution will ever happen. Whit and his sister Whisty have other plans. Along with hundreds of other kids they live in a deserted mall. With almost all the adults brainwashed the kids have to figure how to out smart adults. One of the ways they did this in the book is when they would got to the jails and act like they were prisoners but they would take the guards out and free all the in prisoned kids. I thought this was a very good idea because the government ever expected the kids to come to the jails. Throughout the book Whit and Whisty learn they are wizards. This is a huge help for them in defeating the government. Whisty is able to turn people into any kind of animal she wants. One such time when they are escaping from a prison break she turns into a bird and flies away. I thought the author added magic into the book to make the book more kid friendly. If the author would of made the book without any magic factor the book would of been better. Adding a magic to any book instantly makes it less realistic and personally I think it makes it more childish. This book would of been a great book without magic. The whole storyline fit together well magic ruined the book.

Blog #5

In my opinion I do believe that a book has to be one hundred percent true to be considered a non-fiction book. I've always thought of non-fiction books to be books about something that has happened in the past. If I'm reading a book and its about something that hasn't happened then I would consider it a fictional book. I think David Shields is right. I believe we should clearly separate the books. I don't mind reading a book that seems real but half way through the book everyone turns into monsters and the world ends. I don't mind books that are half-truths I defiantly wouldn't consider them non-fiction books but they still can be good books. In my opinion I think the non-fiction category is starting to decline. The current generation and next generation are into fictional books. I would rather read a boo k about a made up world with monsters and fairy's then a book about a story of a girl who lived through the Holocaust. It just seems more intriguing to me to read a book I can make up stuff in my mind and clearly picture it. I don't mind it when authors bend story's but when they put "based off a true story" on the front of the book you can be sure I'm going to expect a book that is a word for word that really happened. It would ruin my whole idea of the book if I read it and though the story actually happened only to find out the author twisted the truth, which to me is practically lying.

Blog #4

I am reading the book Bourne Identity and I think converting the book into a movie would be a good idea. The movie would have to have lots of action. Some of the big scenes that must be in the movie would be when he gets shot at the beginning of the play and falls into the ocean. Another important scene in the book that needs to be included is when Bourne kidnaps Marie and makes her drive him out of the town. A scene that you could cut from the book is when Bourne has a 6 month rehab assignment after he got shot at he beginning of the book and does nothing but slowly get better. Another scene that isn't very important is when Bourne gets smuggled out of France and goes to Switzerland it just involves him riding a ship out of town. I would make sure whatever actor plays Bourne is a very handsome, muscular man to attract the female audience and generally most people imagine special agents as attractive and muscular. I would make sure Marie is a young actress who is very attractive and intelligent to portray a doctor. One little thing I would change is the doctors age from forty to twenty five. Based off the film version I thought they did a poor job with scenery. He is in Paris and when I was reading the book I imagined these beautiful restaurants and amazing cut scenes of Paris. The movie portray as dark place and poorly uses lighting. As the director of the movie I would make sure the three big keys of a movie are filled. Good acting, good storyline and beautiful scenery. If those three things are filled you have a good movie!

Book Project 1

Book Project 1

Do you love Monopoly? Did you read The Cuckoo’s Calling and love it? Well, we are offering you a brand new game of Monopoly called; “Cuckoo’s Monopoly.” The game includes actual places visited in the book, like Guy Some’s design studio, Strikes office and The Mayfair. Also in this Monopoly is a little sneak peak at the sequel just released, called The Silkworm. The game hits stores this Friday at your local bookstore!

Cormoran Strike, or better known as Strike, is a war veteran and amputee, now working as a detective. The book opens at the crime scene, the Mayfair Apartments where Lula Landry has been discovered dead. She appeared to fall from the balcony of her apartment. The police take one look at her and say, “the poor cow jumped. There was no one else there. Your so called witness was coked out of her mind.”  After three months of further detective work, the police label her death a suicide. In comes John Bristow, Lula’s brother and big time lawyer. He believes that Lula’s death wasn't by accident. He thinks someone killed her. Strike has been having financial issues after divorcing his wife. He is living in his office and falling behind on his bills. One day, Strike gets a phone call from John Bristow saying he would like to set up an appointment. Strike agrees and they meet. John wants Strike to investigate Lula’s death and he insists he will pay him handsomely. Due to his deep debts, Strike accepts the case. Bristow has a nice, little folder with lots of information on the “suicide” to help him. Strike quickly starts to interview Lula’s family and close friends. One of the more interesting interviews he has is with the designer, Guy Some. Guy is a gay, African-American designer who is on top of the fashion world. As Strike is talking to him, Guy accuses Lula’s boyfriend Evan Duffeild and says, “All of us have got it in us, somewhere, to kill, so why would Duffeild be any exception?”  After interviewing some of Lula’s closest friends and watching tape from the night of the ‘suicide,’ he is starting to put together a good idea of what happened. The final person Strike interviews is Lula’s mom. She only has days to live before she dies of cancer. Strike isn't really going to her house to interview Lula’s mother. Rather, he has a hunch that Lula’s will had been hidden in her purse. His hunch turns out to be correct. He locates the purse, finds the will and the will reads that all of her money is to be given to her real brother; not John Bristow, who is Lula’s adoptive brother. Strike, with all the evidence he has, is ready to confront John with the facts that will put him away for life. Strike confronts Bristow alone at his office and shares all the details of his investigation. Bristow denies everything, in the beginning, until Strike says, “An innocent man wouldn’t be sitting here listening to me. He’d have stormed out by now. But don’t worry I’ve got proof.” After Strike finishes his explanation of his investigation, Bristow tries to attack him with a knife. Strike, who had been a boxer in the military, is able to handle him until Strike’s secretary comes in and calls the police. 

The idea of Monopoly is a great idea because Monopoly can be played by anyone over the age of ten. Monopoly is a good format because you could use the colorful characters from the book as game pieces and all of the different places in the book as properties. The Community Chest and Chance cards could be from random parts of the book, like when Strike falls down the stairs and you would lose money or when Lula fell and you were a photographer and you sold your picture and made money. It would also be cool to have a quick summary of the book on the back of the game and even offer a special edition of the game that has the actual book included. After reading this book, I think it would be fun to play a game based on this book because of all the plot twists. It would also make the book and game more popular if more people knew that J.K. Rowling wrote the book and she used a pseudonym. It could be placed on the front of the game because she is a popular author. Another idea that could of been cool would be to make a clothing line from the book and call it, “Guy Somes" clothing line after the character in the book.

 

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