c16tk

Hi again! These next few posts will be about the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Actually, his real name was Charles Dodgson, but he was afraid someone would do something to him, since he was a math teacher and Alice in Wonderland is a book for children. I know that’s very unfair, but it won’t help to say more about it. I am doing a project about the book. I won’t say anything about the book, because there’s a lot of other things to write about. You can buy the book yourself. This is the part of the project that I’ve done so far. First, I read the book. I read about a chapter a day, give or take a little. I also learned about Charles Dodgson. The name “Alice” comes from a child named Alice Liddell. Mr. Dodgson liked telling her stories. Then, one day she suggested that he write the stories down. He did, and he called the book Alice in Wonderland. This is what it looked like:

Actually, the book sold about fifty copies before Dodgson decided to change it. He tried to get all the copies back, but some people wouldn’t return them. Those fifty copies are worth over $1,000,000 today. Try not to beg for one from me. Who knows? Someone might be selling one on ebay. Anyway, he made another version of the book. This one was slightly different. It’s the copy that we have today.

After I learned about Dodgson, I started a project for Alice comics. I am making them with c16rb. Everyone in my class is making comics for one or two chapters. I am making comics for chapters eleven and twelve: Who stole the tarts? and Alice’s Evidence. Remember, this is only stage one. I’ll write another post about this when I’ve made more progress. But I’ll end this one right here. Bye!

Hi again!  This post is going to be about (as it says in the title) The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.  It is called “Chronicles” because it’s split into five books.  Strange, because it is all in one movie.  Enough about that.  Onto the actual book, I mean books.

The books are about three children named Jared, Simon, and Mallory.  They live with only their mom (their parents were divorced).  They move away from NYC to a place with a name so unimportant that it’s not even shown in the book or the movie.  Anyway, in that unknown place, Jared, Mallory, and Simon’s house is huge.  It’s like a castle.  (By the way, I forgot to tell you this; Jared is NOT happy about moving.)  There’s something strange about the house too.  There is a circle of what looks like mushrooms surrounding the house.

J, S, and M go into the house.  There was something moving inside the walls.  This might be a list of what might be in there:

Squirrel

Rat

Mouse

Another animal: Probably

Jared, still unhappy about moving, started to bash holes in the wall with a broom (he probably had a tendency to do that).  Mallory gets mad at him (not surprising) but then clubs the broom into the wall and a huge chunk falls out (surprising).  Slightly interested, she starts pulling stuff out of a hollow space that the chunk was covering.  The hollow space (in other words called a hole) is full of lots of different things, including a key.  Jared picks that key up.  Mallory finds some other interesting stuff in the hole, but after a while she stops and goes away.  Simon goes away also.  Jared is the only one left.

That night, Jared creeps into the hole.  He finds some ropes going through it.  Then he realizes that the hole was a box.  He climbs in and pulls the ropes.  He feels himself going upward, and then finds himself in a hidden room (probably the reason why he didn’t notice the extra space while looking at the house from the outside was because the house was so big in the first place).  The room has a chest.  That is, as in a treasure chest.  Jared still has the key that he found in the box.  He uses it to open the box.  In the box there is a book.  It’s called Authur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the World Around You.

All right, I have to end this post.  I barely managed to stop.  It might be hard to do it again.  If I kept going, I might not be able to stop until I got to the end, and then there would be no point in you buying the books.  And the point of writing a post about it is to get you to.  Here, with this you don’t even have to search the web.  Or you can watch the movie.  Sorry, no link here.  I think that these are very good books because they are very suspenseful.  But you can have your own opinion.  Anyway, I’ll end this article now so that I don’t accidently start to continue the story.  Bye!

Howdy! Remember in The First Blog Post when I said I would be writing a Cinderella story? Well, here it is! In case you’re wondering why it’s called Cinderella and the Cheese, well, you’ll find out once you read it. At the end, there is a recording of the beginning of the story. (I know this sounds funny; it would sound better if at the end there was a recording of the end. Maybe it would also sound better if at the beginning there was a recording of the beginning.) But anyway, who cares? It’s not like the recording’s hard to find. Maybe I should be beginning the story right now, so here it is…

Cinderella and the Cheese

By c16tk

A long time ago in the time of magic, there was a girl named Cinderella. Cinderella lived in a kingdom where, for some strange reason, all the royalty loved cheese. Her parents had died a while ago, so she had only her sisters for company. But they were arrogant and mean, and they made her do all their work. She had no way to stop them, for they were twice the size of her.

A few weeks after her parents died, her clothes were ragged and torn, and dirty from searching to find the milk from the goats that could be used to make cheese. It was essential for them to make cheese if they were living in the kingdom, because if any of the royalty found out, the orphans would be punished.

When she asked why she had to do all the work, they said, “Do you expect us to do the work, in our beautiful clothes?” Their clothes weren’t that beautiful. They had too much pride, which was partly why they were so mean.

One day, a messenger came to every house in the kingdom saying that the prince would marry whoever could make the best cheese. The contest would take place a week from then in the castle kitchen.

“A week?” said one of the sisters. “We have a week to make a recipe?” The messenger nodded and left.

The minute he left, the sisters ran to the kitchen and started trying things out. They made Cinderella get out from the cupboard everything they needed. This went on for hours. The sisters finally chose a recipe that tasted terrible, for it was the best cheese they could make.

A week later, they were about to set off for the contest. One of them told Cinderella, ”After you wash the dishes, clean the fireplace, and fill the wood box, you may go to the contest and make a fool of yourself.” They set off, while Cinderella started washing the dishes. But it was slow work, and after an hour had passed, she began to lose hope. Just then a ball of cheese streaked down from the sky, there was movement in the chimney, and a woman stood in the fireplace. Cinderella happened to be filling the wood box, and was very surprised when she saw an old woman next to her.

“Do you want to go to the cheese contest?” asked the woman.

Cinderella nodded, and said, “But I still have too many chores to do.”

“Oh, I can take care of that! I am the Swiss Cheesemother,” said the Swiss Cheesemother.

She pulled out from her dress a wooden spoon. She waved it, and at once, Cinderella was dressed in clean clothes, not anything too fancy, but more fancy than she had been wearing in years. She waved it again, and all the chores were done. The Swiss Cheesemother gave Cinderella a recipe, and before Cinderella could ask anything about her, she had vanished.

Cinderella ran to the castle. Everybody was almost done trying out his or her cheese. Cinderella saw the prince try out her sister’s cheese. He ate it, waited a few seconds, and vomited all over them. Cinderella laughed and started making her cheese. Soon she was finished. She gave it to the prince, who had recovered from being sick. It looked like any other cheese, but it smelled much better than the muck that Cinderella’s sisters had made. When the prince tried it, he became so happy he made an announcement that he had found his wife. He was making arrangements for the wedding when Cinderella saw her sisters. They were about to leave! She ran home in such a hurry that her recipe fell out of her pocket and landed on the floor of the castle. Cinderella ran home and closed the door just before her sisters came home. They were covered in vomit. Cinderella’s clothes had turned dirty and ragged again.

“What have you been doing?” asked one of the sisters. “You’re out of breath.”

“Well, making me do all the chores, what would you expect?” said Cinderella, annoyed.

“There was someone at the ball that made the so-called best cheese of the century,” said the other sister. “And when that disrespectful prince tried ours’ he vomited all over us!”

Meanwhile, at the castle, the prince came back from his arrangements and was very surprised to see Cinderella not there. He searched the entire palace. Then he found the recipe near the exit. He read it over, and then, seeing the door next to him, he knew what had happened. He went to his father, the king, and asked for advice. The king said he would think about the situation and he would try to solve the problem. Meanwhile Cinderella was again made to clean the prince’s vomit off her sisters. They didn’t notice the Swiss Cheesemother secretly making a copy of the recipe, for she knew the king’s decision.

“Anyone who can name the exact recipe of the cheese that had the taste of my dreams, I will marry!” That was the speech the prince made the next morning. Cinderella was very excited, for she had found a copy of the recipe on her bed. Now the only problem would be for the prince to notice her. It wasn’t going to be easy. Her sisters were determined not to let her be seen.

The next day the prince arrived. Cinderella’s sisters were making Cinderella do work up in the attic. She secretly kept her copy of the recipe in her sock. She heard her sisters guessing at the recipe. “You travel to the moon, collect some cheese…”

“Next!” interrupted the prince.

Then the second sister tried: “You collect the milk from a cow….”

“Enough,” said the prince. “Is there anyone else?

“Oh yes, there’s Cinderella,” the first sister blurted out. The second sister slapped her, sending her across the room. She slumped to the floor.

“I’m sorry, my sister has some mental issues,” said the second sister.

Suddenly the prince was very angry. “WHERE IS THIS GIRL?!!?” he shouted. The sisters were so startled that they immediately pointed up the stairs. The prince ran up the stairs to the attic. The prince saw only a dirty girl in the attic. The sisters had been right; this was only Cinderella. It didn’t seem possible that she could be his bride. But then he remembered how strange it had been when the maiden had run away. Why would she have run away, if not for a very straightforward reason?

Cinderella saw the prince looking at her. She ran over and started naming ingredients. “Take the milk of a goat…” Cinderella named every ingredient correctly, but the prince thought she was lucky. He just couldn’t bring himself to believe that this dirty girl was his bride. He ordered Cinderella to make the cheese right there and then. He knew that if she could make it as well as she had at the contest then it would prove she wasn’t a fake. She ran down the stairs and went outside to get some goat milk.

“What are you doing?” asked one of the sisters. “And where is the prince? Have you done something to him?” Cinderella ignored her and went out to get some milk. Meanwhile the sisters were secretly having a discussion. They thought she had kidnapped the prince! They knew that he would want to marry the one who could rescue him.

Cinderella finished making the cheese a few minutes later. She was about to call for the prince when her sisters grabbed her.

“We’ve got you now! We’ll surely get a reward for rescuing the prince, you kidnapper!” said one of the sisters. The prince was upstairs and didn’t know what was happening. He hadn’t dreamed that it would take such a short time to make the cheese.

The Swiss Cheesemother heard what was happening in that room. In a split second she was in the room, invisible to the sisters. She waved her spoon and the next moment two goats were standing there.

After thanking the Swiss Cheesemother, Cinderella brought her cheese up to the prince. The prince saw the cheese and walked over to Cinderella. He took it out of her hands and ate it.

Without a delay, he ran down the stairs with her and called a coach to take them to the castle. The cheese had tasted exactly like the cheese he had tasted at the contest.

The wedding was arranged and the day arrived. The Swiss Cheesemother had made Cinderella enough clothes for a lifetime, and that load included a wedding gown and veil. Cinderella brought the two goats to the castle and they were made to make milk for all the cheese Cinderella and her husband would ever eat. They would have to make it whenever the couple wanted. Cinderella was given a room in the castle, and she and the prince lived happily ever after.

The end

 

 Cinderellareading: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As you possibly have heard, a book called “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!” by Laura Amy Schutz won the Newbery award for 2007 (although the award was given in 2008). My teacher, Monica Edinger, was one of the people who decided. My class each read a chapter from the book. Here are the chapters:

Hugo, the lord’s nephew

Taggot, the blacksmith’s daughter

Will, the plowboy

Alice, the shepherdess

Thomas, the doctor’s son

Constance, the pilgrim

Mogg, the villein’s daughter

Otho, the miller’s son

Jack, the half-wit

Simon, the knight’s son

Edgar, the falconer’s son

Isobel, the lord’s daugher

Barbary, the mud slinger

Jacob Ben Salomon, the moneylender’s son

Petronella, the merchant’s daughter

Lowdy, the varlet’s child

Pask, the runaway

Piers, the glassblower’s apprentice

Mariot and Maud, the glassblower’s daughters

Nelly, the sniggler

Drogo, the tanner’s apprentice

Giles, the beggar

I acted as Giles, the beggar. But I have to end this post. You may have noticed that this post was shorter than the others. But if I explained every chapter then the post would be ten times as long as it should be. But I have an audio recording of me reciting the chapter. It will appear at the end.

The end

 

 Giles, the Beggar: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hi! It’s me again. Here’s what this post is about. Two posts ago, in An Example of Slavery; Sarah Margru Kinson, I talked a lot about the Amistad.  Remember Cinque?  And Mangulu?  Well, now I’ve written a poem about it.  It is from Mangulu’s point of view, but in the poem she is called Margru, because that name is more common.  Anyway, it tells about her story in general.  So here it is:

Note: The words may have been hard to read.  In case you didn’t understand, the first paragraph is about Mangulu being born in Mendeland in western Africa.  Her father trades her away and she ends up on a ship to America.  Cinque finds a nail and sets the capives free, capturing the slave-traders in the process.  The ship sets sail towards Africa, but the Spanish turn the ship around during the night and sail to America.  Eventually the Spaniards reach the USA and are seen.  Other slave-traders rush onto the ship and recapture the Mende (”Mende” is the name of the tribe that Cinque and Mangulu are from).  The Mende go through many trials and one in the Supreme Court before they are finally freed.  But they can’t go back to Africa if they can’t pay for the ship (I know this sounds unfair; they didn’t pay for going to America, nor did they want to.  That was life in those days.  This sounds even more unfair, but they were very, very, very, very, (etc.) lucky to not have been made slaves at all).  That pretty much wraps up the poem.  As you can see on line seven of the text of this post (not including the poem), it said the word “Note” (which obviously meant that there was a note).  I just want to tell you that the note is long over.  Oops!  I said I just would tell you that.  Which means I can’t tell you anything else, so I want to tell you one last thing.  Bye!

I am reading a book series called Warriors, by Erin Hunter. Look, a picture of the cover of the first book found its way in. Let’s have a look at it:

The series is about four clans of cats (I know this seems a bit strange to some, but the whole series is about life from a cat’s point of view) called ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan. All four clans live in a forest. A house cat named Rusty has had a dream about chasing mice. This causes him to go into the forest. He meets a cat from ThunderClan named Graypaw, who turns out to be his first forest friend. From there, Graypaw invites Rusty into the clan. Rusty gets his new name, Firepaw, and is a loyal member of the clan. All is well, until ShadowClan tries to take some of ThunderClan’s hunting areas. Then ThunderClan has to fight for its territory…

It is a very good story, and so are the rest of the series. There are enemies other than ShadowClan. Twolegs (humans) try to chop down the trees in the forest. (Just like us. Humans chop down trees and don’t think about wildlife. I could write a lot more about protecting the natural enviroment, but it would take up a lot of space on the post, and also I’m getting far off the subject.) Also, house cats (known as kittypets) are not liked much by anyone in any clan. There is another clan called StarClan. The reason I didn’t mention it before is that StarClan isn’t like other clans. StarClan doesn’t live in the forest; it is a bit like heaven in a cat sort of way. All cats go there when they die. Those who have faith in StarClan seem to come around better then those who don’t. This is because of many reasons, so I’ll only tell you a few.

First of all, StarClan can give you strength when you’re weak. On the other paw, StarClan gives the leader of a clan nine lives. (Ever heard someone say that cats have nine lives? In this case it’s true.) Oh, now you’re begging to be a leader. I’m sorry–being a cat is essential. And even if you were a cat, you would have to be made deputy by the current leader (this involves a ceremony) and then you would have to wait for that current leader to lose his/her nine lives, while avoiding the cats that would do so much as to kill you to become deputy. Once the leader dies, you go to the Moonstone (a very holy place) and put your nose on the rock that lies there. Then you would-oh, I can’t tell you the rest. But anyway, StarClan would give you nine lives and the word “star” at the end of your name. It’s against the warrior code (a set of rules given by StarClan) to make someone deputy if they haven’t been a mentor for another cat first. But a deputy has some powers too. A deputy is second in command and is like the leader’s right-paw man. (Or left-paw man. It depends whether the leader is left-pawed or right-pawed.) Are you still sure you want to be leader?

Oh, by the way, about the “star” at the end of names…

Names are very important to the clans.  Cats who are less than six moons (months) old (before they are apprentices) have “kit” at the end of their name.  This makes sense, because young cats are called kits.  For example, a mother could name her kit Stonekit.  The first part of a kit’s name is decided by the mother.  When the kits reach six moons old, they get the word “paw” at the end of their name.  So Stonekit would become Stonepaw.  Cats keep this name until they are made warriors (which means they can have an apprentice, but they aren’t apprentices anymore), when the clan leader (the one with the name “star”) decides what the last part of the name should be.  The most common last parts are “fur”, “pelt”, “stripe”, and “heart”.

I hope you read this series. It is actually science fiction: other than the part about StarClan. Here’s a link to where you can buy the first book. See? Over here!  Also, click here for more information.  So all cat lovers, behold! No offence to the non-cat lovers. They can still read the books and like them!

As I said in Oral History, there was a slave ship called The Amistad. The book Amistad Rising is just about the same story, but instead of being from Cinque’s point of view it is from the point of view of a girl named Mangulu. Her name is more well known as Margru, but in Mende (the language spoken by her tribe of Africans) Margru means Black Snake. Now what kind of parents would name their child Black Snake? Not anybody I know! This is why she is believed to have had the name Mangulu.

Mangulu was born in a place in western Africa called Mendeland. She was still very young when she was pawned (to be “pawned” means that if your tribe is in need of something, then the one who was to be “pawned” would work as a slave for the one who would give them that thing) by her father. She became a slave to the Americans. Mangulu was chained to another slave. She was on a ship for seven weeks. Eventually the ship reached somewhere in Cuba, possibly Havana. The slaves were taken aboard another ship, this one taking them to another part of Cuba. In the middle of this trip, the slaves rebelled. Now I know you’re going to ask how they rebelled while they were in chains. Well, Cinque (remember him?) found a nail and picked the locks on the chains. Then the slaves all ran out on the deck at once. Mangulu wasn’t part of this rebellion, and she didn’t know what had happened until she saw the Spanish in chains. Cinque told them to sail back to Africa. They started sailing east, but after a few days, Cinque soon realized that they were being tricked. The Spanish were going east during the day, but at night they turned the ship and started heading west.

Eventually the Spaniards won. Other ships saw the Amistad and recaptured the Africans. The ship reached land in the United States. Cinque and others on the ship faced a death penalty for killing so many white men on the ship. But Cinque said that since the so-called “killing” had taken place outside the United States, he shouldn’t be charged for murder. Also, bringing slaves from Africa was, at that time, illegal. After many trials, the case made it to the Supreme Court. Cinque had John Quincy Adams, a former U.S president, as his lawyer. He won the case, but even so, the USA wasn’t going to provide the money for them to go back to Africa. They had to wait for donation money to add up. Eventually Mangulu got the money. On the ship, she was probably fascinated by the luxury. After all, the first time she had sailed she had been chained in a dirty prison. She must have been happy to see her native country again.

It is a sad story, but unfortunatly it is true. Mangulu sailed back to America and went to college. She even got a Christian name; Sarah (Yes, I know you had been wondering why I called her Sarah in the title). Sarah probably lived happily ever after. (Although I must say, she most likely gave her father a good telling off for pawning her. I wouldn’t be surprised.) Hopefully slavery will never happen again. (And hopefully nobody will be in such desperate need that they have to pawn their daughter, but I think Mangulu’s father would want me to change the subject.) So, in changing the subject, I guess I should end this post. Bye!

In August 2005, there was a hurricane in New Orleans. It did so much damage that people are still recovering from it. Houses are still being rebuilt. If you drive a car around, more often than not you would see a house being built. Some people are helping rebuild houses, but not many. In fact, if just one person aged above eighteen and below sixty from each family went to New Orleans to help for a week, the whole city could be rebuilt in a very short time.
My third grade buddy (fourth graders at Dalton have third grade buddies) with the initials C.H. and I were trying to convince people to try to help. Here is a picture of C.H. and me:

This is a paragraph C.H. wrote about the hurricane:

New Orleans Paragraph
C.H.

I think it is really interesting that we are having NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) buddies. I was also sort of nervous. Usually you learn about places from a “tour guide” point of view. But here you learn about in this case New Orleans from a personal point of view. New Orleans is in Louisiana, and the Lusher School is in NOLA and we have 3rd grade buddies there. New Orleans is continuing to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane and a Category 4 when it hit New Orleans. Even though they are in a higher part of town, they are still rebuilding. Since the start of the school year we have been learning about them and they have been learning about us. The Lusher School (and other schools in the Coastal Roots program) is growing Southern Bald Cypress trees (the cornerstone of the wetlands) to help save it. The Nutria (beaver-like creatures) are eating some of them. They celebrate a special holiday on the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of lent. It is called Marti Gras (Fat Tuesday in English). They have a party and throw out necklaces. They have a food that is called King Cake. It tastes really good. The tradition behind it is if you get one of two objects put into the cake, you become the king or queen and you have to do something. This year someone in my class with the initials K.S. got both objects put in so he is extra special.

(c16tk typing again) New Orleans is under sea level. It is around the coast, so you would think water would pour right in. Wrong! There are walls called Levees that surrounded the entire city. But during the hurricane, the huge waves broke the Levees. Water poured into the city with nothing to stop it. The middle of the city got damaged the most. It was the lowest part. But with the Gulf of Mexico falling down on them, even the highest points were damaged. It looked like the streets of Venice, except that there were cars underwater. And there were a lot fewer boats. Many people died and many more were homeless.

So will you take pity on New Orleans? It won’t take that much work if everyone works together. If only one person from each family helped for a week, New Orleans could soon become the city it once was. But if it keeps going on like this, it may take years before NO is repaired. So imagine living in New Orleans. Which one would you prefer?

There was a school play last week. It was called “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. It was a pretty good play, although it may have been confusing for some. It wasn’t as confusing for me because I had studied the play in 2nd grade. But it was a bit hard to understand, with all the words “thee” and “thou”. But that’s Shakespeare for you. There may be pictures from the play on The Dalton Website.

The plays starts with a man named Prospero, who is a magician and the Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, on an island. They had gotten there when Prospero’s brother Antonio was pretending to be the Duke in place of Prospero, and put Prospero on a leaky canoe and set it out to sea. Antonio’s councilor, Gonzalo, feels mercy and lets Prospero bring with him his magic books, food, drinks, and Miranda, who is only three at the time. Then they set off.

Prospero begins to lose hope until he remembers his books. He immediately creates wind to send the boat to an island, one unknown to Antonio. There he finds a spirit trapped in a tree. He rescues the spirit and in return he makes the spirit his slave. Twelve years pass and a ship with Antonio and other royalty aboard come near the island. Prospero saw the ship with his powers and caused a storm to sink the ship. He made sure that his brother and everyone on the ship made it to shore, including the King’s son, Ferdinand, even though each one thought everyone else had perished.

In all this, Ferdinand falls in love with Miranda and they want to marry. But Prospero wants to test Ferdinand to be worthy of his daughter and he makes Ferdinand his temporary slave (He does have a lot of slaves, don’t you think?). No more talking about it, or you will never see the play. Do you think he made the test? (As usual, I always end my blog right when it is getting good, so read the play.)

My favorite character was named Trinculo. He is a jester and always is acting dumb.

I think this is enough for a blog post. Soon there will be another. But you have to wait, you say? Well think how boring it must have been on that island for twelve years. Now compare that to how long you have to wait. Still not satisfied? Oh well…

We have been studying historical fiction books in my class. We were allowed to choose from a few fiction (the fiction part is a bit obvious. Remind me to make it better next time) books about people who emigrated from another country. I chose a book called How I became an American. It is about a boy that emigrated from Rumania and came to Youngstown, Ohio. By the end of the book, his mother had had nine children, and only five of them had survived past being a baby. This is what the cover looks like:

Of course, the real book doesn’t have the words “search inside” on it. The book starts with the boy (named Johnny) being born in 1892. He is born in Austria-Hungary, and when he is two, he moves to Rumania, where he lives for eight years. He is the sixth child, the third to survive. During his life, his brother Emil is born. In 1902, his family works out a plan for them all to go to America when they have enough money. First Johnny’s father goes. He works his hardest and sends money for Peter, Johnny’s brother, to immigrate. Then they work as hard as they can and they send money for the rest of the family to come to America. By the time the plan goes into action, Johnny has another sibling, named Eliss (English translation Alice). I won’t tell you more because of the same reason as last time-you might take my word for it and not read it yourself.

So now I’m ending this post. But I’m not giving you a sneak peak this time. Remember what you did last time? You kept asking for more. Oh, now you’re begging for a sneak peak? I knew I shouldn’t have said that. Next time I won’t even mention a sneak peak. But that won’t stop you from begging for it? Oh dear…