What is your hidden superpower?

 I recently read a book called Quiet Power, by Susan Cain, which is a book about introversion. Now, a lot of you are probably thinking, What is introversion? Well, introversion is a personality trait where you react to stimulation more strongly than extroverts. Extroverts are the people who are the life of the party, the people who enjoy loud music, and the people who can make friends at the drop of a hat. Introverts are people who prefer to be reading a book or using their iPad on the couch.

I am an introvert myself and this book really helped me learn more about my personality. At school, people always ask me, Are you OK? They ask this because I’m quiet or just staring off into space while I’m thinking. I never understood why people thought I was angry or sad, when really I was perfectly fine. Susan’s book taught me that extroverts prefer to have stimulation at all times and do not need to “recharge their batteries” by having time alone.

In my school’s science fair, I did a project on personality. It was mainly focused on Minecraft players’ level of introversion or extroversion and their preferences for playing in creative or survival mode (see my Minecraft for Dummies post). In that project I learned a lot about introversion as well as extroversion, but this book, Quiet Power, really helped me understand myself even more than I already did. I learned that introversion is my superpower. In chapter 10, The Quiet Athlete, Susan talks about how introverts who play sports are able to practice hours on end alone, whereas extroverts need stimulation from people after a certain amount of time. I thought this really fit me because if I have the drive to do something, then I  can focus on it for long periods of time without interruptions. I play basketball by myself at our local school all the time to perfect my shot.

I love being introverted; one piece of advice I have for introverts is, don’t try and be someone you’re not. Embrace your introversion and you can do great things.

And now…. The Not So Philosophical Question! Do you think you are introverted? Take Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution Personality Test to find out. Make sure to answer in the comment box! That’s all!

And the dictionary does it again!

If you don’t know why the image is of a spider, I’m going to tell you why. I’m doing a review of the movie and book called Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. I read the book and watched the movie in my classroom and I thought the book was better (of course).

Book Review

I have to say the drawings were really detailed so make way for illustrator Garth Williams. There was this one picture where a farmer named Lurvy was trying to tackle a pig who got out of his pen and accidentally tacked his cocker spaniel and the pig goes through Lurvy’s legs.

One of the things I like about E. B. White is that he uses a lot of good vocabulary. My teacher had us write new and interesting words on a post-it in the front of the book. One day I went home and my brother was eating all of my food and I said, “Stop being a glutton.” And my mom was really surprised that I used that word. She said, “Where did you learn that word?” My response: “Charlotte’s Web.” These vocabulary words below were from Charlotte’s Web just so you know why perspiration is there.

glut·ton

1.  one given habitually to greedy and voracious eating and drinking
2. one that has a great capacity for accepting or enduring something <a glutton for punishment>

per·spi·ra·tion

1.  the action or process of perspiring
2. a saline fluid secreted by the sweat glands: sweat

SPOILER ALERT

If you want to read this book stop reading NOW!!

Charlotte has a really clever plan to save Wilbur, the pig. Chalotte is saving Wilbur from getting killed and eaten at Christmas time. One day in school my teacher asked us to write in our journal about if you could save Wilbur how? A lot of people wanted to get him out of his pen, including me. But Charlotte’s plan involved him not getting out of his pen and into the world because Wilbur doesn’t want to go out of his pen. I am going to tell Charlotte’s plan in steps.

1. Charlotte spins the following words in her web: SOME PIG, TERRIFIC, RADIANT, HUMBLE
2. Mr. Zuckerman, Wilbur’s owner, will think that Wilbur is some pig, terrific, etc.
3. Mr. Zuckerman will then take Wilbur to the county fair and win prize money and an award.
4. When it is Christmas time Wilbur will not get killed because he won prize money for Mr. Zuckerman.

I don’t want to tell you too much information in case you are reading the book. But I would recommend you reading this book.

Movie Review

Let me just tell you…I have a lot of differences from the movie and the book and I don’t want to have to list them all because parental controls are going to shut down my computer in ten minutes so I don’t have a lot of time. To make a long story short you can totally tell Charlotte the spider was animated. My mom just said I have to explain but I only have nine more minutes to explain.

On another note, they left out Chapter Three, Escape, in the movie. I only have eight more minutes left so I’m going to save my post now. This is Robo signing off.

Oh, I have one more thing, these are references from where I got the definitions and the picture:

Definitions come from Merriam-Webster dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

photo credit: Aleš Smrdel via photopin.com

 

Rick Riordan Unlimited

One of my readers, Susan, asked me these questions and I told her I would answer in a blog post so here it is.

“I don’t know much about Rick Riordan. Can you tell me why you like his books? Can you recommend a favorite?”

Well Susan, I don’t have a favorite yet because I haven’t read all of his books but I can tell you why I like his books.

Here is my top five list for Rick Riordan:

1) In the Kane Chronicles, he puts words in brackets that are jokes because two characters are recording their voice on a tape and sometimes the other character says something while the other is recording. Here is an example from page 7 of chapter 1 (Fun with Spontaneous Combustion) :

Jaz was holding Walt’s hands. That surprised me, but it surprised Sadie even more. She made a squeaking sound like a mouse getting stepped on.

[Oh yes, you did. I was there.]

Carter is narrating this chapter. The part in brackets is Carter talking to Sadie in real life. This technique is on my top five list because it shows you that they are really recording it on a tape. It is funny.

2) I like Rick Riordan’s writing because he understands humor for kids. He know what kids will like or won’t like. See these other blog posts to learn about his funny chapter titles: Rick Riordan, New Series! and Scoop the Poop

3) In the Percy Jackson series I learned about a bunch of Greek Gods. Here are some examples:

• Zeus, God of the Gods
• Poseidon, God of the Sea
• Hades, God of the Underworld
• Athena, Goddess of Wisdom
• Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt
• Apollo, God of Music
• Diyonesius, God of Wine
• Demeter, Goddess of the Crops
• Gaia, Goddess of the Earth
• Hefastus, God of Fire

There are many more Greek Gods but my mom says I have to stop.

4) I also like that he doesn’t keep continuing the same series so you don’t have to wait for the next book to come out. He just write a bunch of series.

5) In the chapters each chapter gets better and better until the end it’s the final battle against any Egyptian or Greek or Roman God.

I know what I said in the beginning that I can’t tell you my favorite book but I take that back. I can tell you my favorite book but it is only going to have to be in the Percy Jackson series because I finished that series. My favorite book (drum roll please) is The Titan’s Curse, book number three. This is my favorite because there is a lot of action going on.

 

New Series #2 !!!!!!!!

Tuesday was my birthday and I got a new series by Rick Riordan. It is called Heroes of Olympus. I   was expecting to list the funny chapters but guess what? The chapters titles are just people’s names. So I guess I have nothing to write about.

New Series!

I finished the Percy Jackson series and now I’m reading the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. Once again.

This series is based on Egypt but they travel all over the world. I bet if I looked at the chapters I can tell who the author is because all of his chapters are super funny. And, in The Red Pyramid Chapter 15 is called A Godly Birthday Party. In the Percy Jackson series it was also all about gods.

I’m going to do the same thing that I did for all of Rick Riordan’s books in other blog posts. I’m going to write the funny chapters. Okay, so here they are.

Book Title: The Red Pyramid

• An Explosion for Christmas
• Kidnapped by a Not-So-Stranger
• I Drop a Little Man on His Head
• We Run from Four Guys in Skirts

• We Meet the Human Flame Thrower
• I Face the Killer Turkey
• A French Guy Almost Kills Us
• How Zia Lost Her Eyebrows
• When Fruit Bats Go Bad

Book Title: The Throne of Fire (Book 2)

• Fun with a Spontaneous Combustion
• We Tame a Seven-Thousand-Pound Hummingbird
• The Ice Cream Man Plots our Death
• I Learned to Really Hate Dung Beetles
• A Gift From the Dog-headed Boy
• Carter Does Something Incredibly Stupid (and No One Is Surprised)
• I Get a Demon Up My Nose

Book Title: The Serpent’s Shadow (Book 3)

• We Crash and Burn a Party
• We Win a Box Full of Nothing
• I Consult the Pigeon of War
• Amos Plays with Action Figures
• Take Your Daughter to Work Day Goes Horribly Wrong
• Don’t Worry, Be Hapi
• Bulls with Freaking Laser Beams
• A Friendly Game of Hide-and-Seek (with Bonus Points for Painful Death!)

Scoop the Poop!

Sorry for the inconvenience. I wanted to add this list of funny chapters to the other post I wrote about Rick Riordan books but I want to have as many blog posts as possible so I’m writing a new post.

OK. Here are the chapters for book #4 of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Battle of the Labyrinth. I didn’t add these funny chapters before because I just finished the book last night.

• I Battle the Cheerleading Squad
• Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead
• We Visit the Demon Dude Ranch
• I Scoop Poop
• We Play the Game Show of Death
• My Brother Duels Me to the Death
• Grover Causes a Stampede
• My Birthday Party Takes a Dark Turn

This book was my second favorite. My favorite book in the series so far is the Titan’s Curse, number 3.

Image from:  pakec via Compfight cc

Great Books for Kids

I’m going to tell you some books for kids that you can read. So parents listen up!

5-7 years old

Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne

• One day I read six books straight in one day. I learned a lot about places and people around the world because the characters time travel.

A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy

• Every title of the book had to start with a certain letter. Like A, B, C, etc. The first book in the series was called The Absent Author.

6-8 years old

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black

• I liked this series because there was a lot of mystery and suspense in the books. 

7-12 years old

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

• I read this book in one night and I stayed up until 2 in the morning at my grandma’s house. That book was different from other books because it had mostly pictures and the pictures were really detailed.

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by 14 different authors

• Here is a video about the mystery of Harris Burdick: 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

• I’ve already told you enough information about this series in other blog posts.

The Kane Chronicles series also by Rick Riordan

• I got this series for Christmas and my grandma gave it to me because she knows I love to read. I haven’t read the series yet because I’m going to finish the Percy Jackson series before I start reading this series.

So folks this is all I have for today. – Robo

Rick Riordan

I am reading a series of books that is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians  You might have seen my post about the movie. But now I am going to tell you about the author, Rick Riordan. I would like to tell you some of the chapters that in the books that were funny.

• The vice principal gets a missile launcher.
• Thalia torches New England
• Everybody hates me but the horse
• I learn how to grow zombies
• I break a few rocket ships
• Grover gets a Lamborghini
• I go snowboarding with a pig
• I wrestle santa’s evil twin
•  We meet the dragon of eternal bad breath
• I put on a few million extra pounds
• The Gods vote how to kill us

Those are the funny chapters for book number three, The Titan’s Curse. The next chapters are going to be from book two, The Sea Monsters.

• My best friend shops for a wedding dress
• I play dodgeball with cannibals
• We hail the taxi of eternal torment
• Demon pigeon attack
• I have the worst family reunion ever
• We hitch a ride with dead confederates
• Clarisse blows up everything
• Annabeth tries to swim home
• The party ponies invade
• The chariot race ends with a bang

I like Rick Riordan’s writing because he understands humor for kids. He know what kids will like or won’t like. That is why he put in all these funny chapters.

At one point in the chapter, The Party Ponies Invade, there is this one centaur who shot a paint ball into a monster’s mouth. Then he made an impression of him. The centaur said, “Whoa like dude I have a paintball in my mouth.” And then he started laughing. So that is why I like Rick Riordan and his writing.

Paintball Art photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/loriho/

Movie Review: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

 I’ve been reading a series called Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan. I’m really liking the books. The book I’m current reading is called The Battle of the Labyrinth.

I just saw the movie called Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief last night but it was horrible because they skipped so many good parts. There were too many bad parts on my list that I couldn’t fit all of them in this post so here are the basics:

1. We didn’t see Ares, God of War.
2. They don’t fight the hydra until book two but in the movie Grover beat the hydra with the Medusa head in Nashville. It created one heck of a statue!
3. Luke isn’t revealed as a bad person until book two but in the movie he revealed himself as a servant of Kronos the Titan Lord.
4. In the book, Percy, Annabeth and Grover don’t look for the pearls to help them get out of the underworld. Instead, Poseidon gives Percy the pearls.
5. They don’t see Hades, the God of the Dead, until they get to the underworld. That was a big mistake by the movie makers. In the movie he just popped out of the fire in Camp Half-Blood.
6. They don’t go to the Lotus Casino on purpose in the book.
7. We don’t get to see Cerberus, the three-headed dog, in the movie.
8. The Medusa head was supposed to be in a meat loaf surprise to turn Gabe Ugliano into a statue. Instead, they put it in a refrigerator with a lock and a note that said, “Do not open this refrigerator under any circumstances.

There were only two things that I like about the movie:

1. I liked the scene where Percy, Annabeth and Grover were traveling in the underworld to see Hades. I liked it because there was a bunch of garbage floating in the air beside them as they were riding in the boat to Hades’ castle.
2. I liked Grover’s actor. I like him because the actor really acted like I expected him in the book to.

As you can tell, the movie makers got the whole plot of the story all wrong. I’ll bet that the author of these books gets so mad when he watches the movie because they skipped a bunch of parts. So for future reference do not watch this movie. I give this movie 0 out of 5 stars.

Picture of Poseidon by http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/