Inspiration thingy Rough Draft

Every person in this world has someone who is an inspiration to them. One of an unknown number of people who inspire me is Tyra Banks. Yes, she may talk about herself incessantly, and say weird things too, but besides all that she is a good role model. Tyra started the TZONE week-long camp in 1999 to help teenage girls with self esteem, reinforce positive values and to encourage them to resist peer pressure. She has helped empower many girls and young women. More recently, when Tyra Banks launched the Tyra Show, she began giving power to women more publicly, through television. On her hour long show, she helps women and girls with body image issues, among other things that help to better people. In our society, today, body image is a very important thing. Girls’ ideal body images have come to be ones of impossibly stick thin models. Tyra has addressed this, and I am in agreement with her- you do not have to be skinny to be beautiful. Beauty comes from your attitude and how you present yourself to the world; it’s not just your body. Tyra is pretty, funny, smart and likes to do good things for other, more unfortunate people; that's why I chose to write about her. Tyra Banks has helped so many girls with so many things, which is why she is inspiring to me.

Harry Potter (Book 1) What I've Learned

The book I read, which was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is also the first book in the Harry Potter series. I have learned quite a few things from reading this book. One thing I have learned is that if you're going to grow up being disliked, ignored, verbally abused and often beaten and/or chased after by a relative, you are going to turn out one tough cookie, and be quick witted, too. Harry Potter has never really had any affection shown towards him since he came to live at the Dursleys. They always yelled at him, made him do things he didn't want or need to do. Harry had it rough at the Dursleys. Growing up with Dudley and his posse following him around, Harry learned to be clever and fast. He needed to know where to go to hide away from Dudley and his gang. Another thing I have learned is that sticking together and putting your strengths to use will get you far. Harry and Ron worked together to gang up on the troll in the girl's bathroom to rescue Hermione. The three of them also did some major teamwork during the end when they went through the trapdoor that they assumed contained the Sorcerer's Stone. Hermione used her logic to get past a hindrance in their quest to get rescue the Stone, Ron used his awesome skills in wizard's chess, and Harry- his nerve and bravery. Harry, Ron and Hermione stuck together and ended up winning the House Cup for Gryffindor, with their sudden addition by Dumbledore of 160 points.

Harry Potter (Book 1) Rating

The book I read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Being an enormous Harry Potter fan, of course I'm going to have to give the book five out of five stars. I gave Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone my 100% approval rating because the book (and the series) has everything a fantasy lover wants in a story. Some things in the book, if you don't already know, is that there is action, dragons, magic, dueling and child neglect. If that's not what you're looking for in a fantasy book, then you'll have to look somewhere else. I'mma let you finish, but sorry to all you Twilight fans out there, in my expert opinion is that Harry Potter is probably the best fantasy series of all time.(It's a Kanye West joke. Anyone?!) I know you may be thinking, “There is child neglect in Harry Potter?” Yes, yes there is. The Dursleys -which are his aunt, uncle and cousin he has lived with since his parents were murdered by He-who-must-not-be-named- ignore him and abuse him in various ways. That conflict between them does generate some laughs when Harry unintentionally uses his then undiscovered magical powers as he reacts to their actions. This was also rating so highly by me because it is so entertaining. As I this Harry Potter book again I have now finally realized how it was in no way surprising that the books have been made and still are being made into movies.

Note to teacher:
I know “I'mma” is not a word, Mrs. Clear :)

Velocity, Book Report 2: Rating

I would rate the book Velocity by Dean Koontz 4.9 out of 5. I’m rating the book very high because I love murder, suspense, and creepiness in a story. The main character, Billy Wiles, is plagued by a series of messages and notes from this crazy psycho killer. Some notes say that Billy has to choose between two victims for the killer. Other messages tell of wounds that Billy will receive. In Velocity, Billy’s mind is just a mess from all these notes and soon starts to dread what could happen to his comatose fiancée, Barbara. When the killer, or “freak” as Billy refers to him in his head, starts to take the lives of his choice victims, he does it twistedly, gruesomely. The killer always plants incriminating evidence against Billy on the people he slaughters so, if investigated, all fingers would point towards the innocent Billy. Billy had started to come up with some suspects, none of which he was absolutely positive about. He went to interrogate a suspect, but he left discouraged with his tail tucked between his legs knowing he had assumed wrong. I would have rated the book a 5 out of 5 if not for two parts near the end. One part was when Billy caught the freak; the whole ordeal that happened with Billy and the killer just wasn’t enough for me, I expected more fighting. The other part was at the end where Barbara opens her eyes for roughly 7 seconds to supply Billy with two sentences worth of conversation before falling back into her coma. I was confused about why and how she woke up. Besides lacking .1 of a rate point, Velocity is an amazingly wonderful, creepy, twisted story and is probably my new favorite book.

Velocity, Book Report 2: Choices

The book I am reading is Velocity by Dean Koontz. I really like the book so far. There’s this unknown, unseen, elusive psycho killer sending Billy Wiles, the main character, these notes. The first note that Billy gets says, “If you don’t take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blonde school teacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have six hours to decide. The choice is yours.” He chose to not do anything about the very first note because he thought it was just a really sick joke executed by a coworker. It was not. Billy was really having trouble with deciding whether to act or not on the second note. He was debating with himself on the second note because the “choices” were between a young mother of two and an unmarried man who wouldn’t be missed much by the world. The choice was obvious to him; don’t go to the police so the mother would be saved. But little did he know, the killer had one of Billy’s friends, Lanny, in mind. I agree with Billy for making the choice that he did because Lanny had said to him about the note, “Are you going to choose to make two orphans?” I think that it is really twisted of the killer to have a person choose who dies, when there is not an obvious right and just choice. I hope that Billy eventually finds out something about the psycho killer to stop him so he doesn’t have to continue choosing life or death for people the killer picks.

Theme/Lesson: Frankenstein: book two, City of Night

In Frankenstein: book two, City of Night, there seriously was not a theme. So, I thought that if I finished the third and final installment in the series I would find some sort of theme. How the storyline of the Frankenstein series is, is that the series is a compilation of related stories all told alternating in different chapters. The alternating stories all come together at the end of the series. The Frankenstein series, all three books are really just one story starting in the first book, continuing on through the second and then finishing in the third. Book two, the one I read, was really just a continuation of the first book leading to the second, without a real ending until the last book. The weirdest thing about the series was that since I thought that the end of the series would bring me a theme or lesson, it didn’t. The first and second books in the trilogy did not either. I’m not going to give away the ending of the series. Right when I was reading the ending climax of the book, I was sure there would be a theme or lesson. Now, after reading the climactic part of the end of the last book (where the theme should be, IF there is one at all), it finished without the real main character, Victor Frankenstein, learning anything at all.
Keep in mind that there wasn’t really a theme in my book-report book and that I’m getting my “theme” from the last book in the series. If the series had ended like I thought it was going to end, the theme would be this: if you create or do something really, really terrible, eventually people will try to stop you, and you will get what’s coming to you for doing what you did. Victor was creating a New Race. His New Race was malfunctioning and no longer being obedient to him, so Victor was going to do something about it. He went to where his cruel and twisted experiments on his New Race went when they went wrong. He went to the dump. The workers at the dump were all created by Victor and of the New Race, and since their program within them was malfunctioning, they began to hate Victor. When he went to the dump, he got what was coming to him. That happened, but that’s not quite how the series ended.

Setting- Frankenstein: book two, City of Night

The Frankenstein series takes place in hot and humid New Orleans, Louisiana in present time. Victor Helios Frankenstein’s parts mostly take place in his mansion and in his laboratory. His laboratory used to be an old Catholic mental hospital, The Hands of Mercy. Victor Frankenstein had revamped The Hands of Mercy, on the inside, to make it so he can create his people, the New Race.
Frankenstein’s mansion is almost like a palace. To him, it is his kingdom and he is the ruler. The mansion is very large and lavish with mountains of luxuries and rare historical pieces. Victor’s mansion is very technologically advanced and very tasteful and expensive. Even his bathroom is fit for royalty. His master suite has two bathrooms, one for him and one for the current edition of his wife, Erika Five. Victor’s bathroom is over sixteen hundred square feet of extravagance, with a steam room, spa, two under the counter refrigerators, an icemaker, a fully stocked bar, a microwave, three plasma screen televisions with Blu-Ray, and a cabinet full of whips. The faucets and other fixtures were gold plated, as was the flush handle on the toilet. The rest of his bathroom retreat is covered in mirrors. All that, and it’s just one bathroom.
There are many, many rooms, passageways and hallways in the Helios’s mansion. There is a library stocked with fine literature from over the centuries. All the furniture in the mansion is fancy, expensive and/ or a priceless antique. Victor has also acquired some famous, valuable artwork and paintings from some well-known artists. Many rooms and hallways are also adorned with huge, beautiful, intricately woven rugs. The maids, butlers and housekeepers all maintain the grandeur of Victor’s immense manor.
The Hand’s of Mercy, Victor’s New Race manufacturing lab, is also very large. Mercy’s externals to the naked eye are just a broken down and boarded up, long forgotten old hospital. On the inside, The Hands of Mercy is highly technological, spotless and uncontaminated, and swathed in machines and computers. There are several creation tanks from which most of the New Race was birthed. Some of Victor’s other creation are submerged into a nutrient supply bath and hook up to machines so they can survive.
The setting is a very important part in the story. In Frankenstein, the setting really helps create a picture in your mind’s eye. Another city and state wouldn’t change the story too drastically, but it helps in conveying the atmosphere and the mood.