September 11

“This is going to be awesome” Jamal said to Pete “I’ve heard you can see Mexico from the top”. “I know, what a great way to spend our last day in New York” Pete replied to Jamal. “Why did you have to book us to leave on the 11^th of September, I don’t want to leave” Jamal said to Pete shrugging his shoulders. Pete and Jamal spent ages in anticipation waiting in the elevator up to the observatory floor. Ding “were here Pete!” Jamal screamed at Pete, brutally jabbing his ribs. “Yeah I know, and that hurt you know” Pete said, but Jamal had already ran off to the fence and was admiring the view. “yep Jamal, get a picture of this” Pete was leaning against the rail waiting for Jamal to take a picture when…”PETE!!! OH MY GOD!!! PETE!!!” Jamal screamed at Pete pointing over in the distance. Everybody started running and screaming, the noise was defining. Pete turned around, to see a massive jet engine plane only a few hundred meters away from the tower. “HOLY S**T OH MY GOD WHAT DO WE DO JAMAL!!!” Pete screamed at Jamal being completely unsure of what to do. Pete looked around to see people running around, couples hugging each other crying and people jumping off the observatory. Jamal was completely distraught, so much was going through his mind; he looked around to just see a last glimpse of Pete…before he jumped. “PETE!!!NO!!!” Jamal screamed and ran to the fence. Jamal fell to his knees, and it was then when everything turned grey. Jamal’s body was boiling, his skin was burning. Too much rubble was on top of Jamal for his body to handle. On that day of 911, Jamal and Pete, two best friends spent there last few hours together in happiness before the whole world filled with sadness.

Giant Grey Graveyard

We couldn’t find him anywhere. We scanned the whole region of 767. “You knew he shouldn’t have gone collecting by himself, why the hell did you let him!?” the commander yelled at me trying to beat the sound of the roaring engine of the new Citroën moon roamer we used on the expedition. “The moon doesn’t really seem like a dangerous place, I gave him two times more air than he needed!” I replied, I didn’t think him ignoring me was because he didn’t hear me, more because he was frustrated with me. We didn’t talk for a while; we just kept searching the area. “You’re his father! When he goes to collect moon rock, you are to go with him, you know that!” the commander came out with again. “Yes, yes I know he can’t be too far away!” I yelled nervously because I knew inside he could be anywhere in this never ending grey graveyard, and he was only thirteen.

“Where going to have to search outside 767, he’s definitely not here” I bellowed to the commander. “Your right, we’ll have to call it a day, he might just have enough air to last till midnight” the commander said, turning the Citroën around. “What, no we can’t stop we have to find him, he’s only a kid, please!!!” I pleaded to the commander, violently jolting her arm. “Listen! Even if he was out of 767 he would be dead by now, its treacherous out there, there’s no point trying, he’s gone” the commander said to me in her unyielding serious voice. “Please, please no” I said under my breath as my face poured out with tears. “I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is, some things will never change” the commander said as she got out of the Citroën and walked into the base station of 767.

I watched as she walked away, balling my eyes out. I stayed in the Citroën for a few hours crying nonstop, I was out of control; I couldn’t stop myself because I was just so distraught. I had to return to the station as I was running out of air. I didn’t sleep at all that night, and when morning came I was in no frame of mind to leave my bed, by son was dead, and it was my fault.

Judging a book by it's Cover

Heroes and Villains didn't apeal to me because of its cover. Im not that into greek myths and all that, so when I saw the giant sycho cyclops I only got the book because it was small. If you ask me the cover is to blue, blue background and blue image. One good thing though is that the name Heros and Villains stands out because its yellow, which is good because the title is probably the most importent part of the book, I mean how many times have I mentioned the name Heroes and Villains throughout this blog.

Having an interesting image really is an importent part of making an appealing cover. For example the book breaking dawn, the cover has a chess piece. to Te a chess piece seems really random, but at the same time it seems interesting. Also the book putting something really obvious on the cover isn't ideal, like Heroes and Villains has a cyclops, I was dissapointed.

With my friends cody Howley's book Trash the thing that stands out the most is that the people are seriosly littering. But what the designer has done is he's put the title really big, which is good because thats the most importent part. Unlike Heroes and Villains where the authors name is the main attraction.

Reading Habbits

I myself am not crazy about reading. In fact I might read two or three novels a year. I usually read books about 300 - 400 pages long. The book I'm currently reading, Heroes and Villains is only 170 pages, this is because I have to wear my spare glassed for a while and I cant read big chinky books.
I like and prefer to read before I go to bed, this is because I'm relaxed and my mind is set. also I have trouble reading when there's other things I could be doing, for example I go out somewhere with my friends pretty much every weekend so I have trouble sitting down to read on weekends. I read at big chunks at a time so reading before I go to bed gives me heaps of time to read.
As I said before I don't read much at all, so I only really know and like Robert Muchamore as a favorite author of mine. Robert is the author of the CHERUB series, and I'v read the first three. He's really good at describing the scene, take a look at this part of 'The Recruit':
James was due at the Basic Training compound at 5AM. He set an alarm and left it on his bedside table. Worrying about training kept him awake for ages. When he woke it was light. It’s never light at 5AM in November. This was bad. (see a small description of 'The Recruit' on the right hand side of my blog)
Surely now you see what I mean, those few sceentences put a prisine picture in my mind. I'm sure if I could be bothered I would read the whole CHERUB series, and I probably will in the future. My cosin was the first person to introduce me the CHERUB series, he told me that it was really really good and he told me to borrow a copy of the first book from him. My friend Aiden introduced me to another book series I like the 'Once, Then and Now' series by Morris Gleitzman. He was reading it last year for some assignment we had to do, meanwhile I was reading a different book. Aiden told me to read 'Once' the first book in the seires, and I loved it. This semester I'v only read one book, and thats the book im reading now. 
To be honest Anthony Horrowitz' style of writing dosent really remid me of any aother author I know of. He writes very formally, ussing fancy words. Still, everyone has there opinion and preferences of different aspects of reading, and this is mine.


Aiden's Blog: http://dalightningfief.blogspot.com/
Find out more about CHERUB: http://www.cherubcampus.com/

The blurb on a Book

As you know I'm currently reading a book called Heroes and Villains. The cover of this book has a raging Cyclops on it and is part of a series called 'Legends'. Strait away I knew that this book was about legendary beasts and soldiers in ancient times.
I turned the book around to read the blurb, this is because the blurb pretty much sums up the whole book in a few paragraphs so I generally choose a book based on the blurb. This is what it said:
"The battle between good and evil has raged throughout time.
The heroes and villains of this ancient conflict are many. Some fight using their superior strength and some their wit and cunning. other triumph speed, skill or sheer determination, but they all have one thing in common: they are ready to fight to the death."
This really didn't really surprise me. I expected this sort of thing as I said before. I think anthony probably could of added a little bit of excitement to this blurb. Maybe mention the types of things to expect in this book for example " The almighty Zeus, God of Gods rules everything the sun touches, but what happens when Archilles fights against him?" To me this blurb really says the self explanatory.
Some use strength, Some use speed, well obviously they wouldn't be called heroes if they were all the same. The battle beetween good and evil has raged throughout time, again hes just stating the obvious. Heroes and villains is a book I'm enjoying, posting this post has made me realise how poor the blurb is though.

The title of a Book

Heroes and Villains, a great book, part of one of Horowitz' best series yet. In my opinion though the name 'Heroes and Villains' dosent really capture the real feel in the pages of the book.
The name 'Heroes and Villains' gave me the first impression of people with super powers fighting to keep there city safe of evil bad guys. This book actually has nothing of the sort, instead you have 'Achilles' a greek soldier who fought in the war againts Troy, and the Cyclops, a large one eyed beast that lived alone and hearded sheep all day.
Really the book should be called 'Beasts and Warriors of Ancient Greece' or 'Secrets of the underworld'. although the Heroes and Villains has a name that dosent really match the content of book, its still worth reading and I still like it.