Monthly Review #3: Alex Rider Series by: Anthony Horowitz

Hey everyone! This is my third monthly review. I plan to write about the whole Alex Rider Series because it wouldn't make sense to write about a book that is near the end of the series. It would definitely not make any sense to you guys in the audience because you wouldn't understand a word I'm saying. Think of it this way. If I started telling you guys a story, starting from the middle, would it make any sense? No, it wouldn't, so that is why I chose the WHOLE series to talk about. And just between you and me, it would be a whole lot easier to write about because i have a good 6 to 7 books to write about, not including the eighth book I still haven't read yet. So, let's get started.

For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

This series was intended for children because most adults are not interested in reading a book about a teenage spy. They read spy books, but not teenage spies. I would recommend this book to teens because some teens can relate to Alex's problems. The problems I am talking about are not spy related, but family problems. Alex has lost both of his parents at a very young age and was living with his Uncle and "caretaker" Ian Rider and Jack Starbright. He loses his Uncle and is then pulled into the spy world of MI6 British Intelligence. OK, OK, it is about spies. So anyway, as he goes from mission to mission, accomplishing them with flying colors and coming back home with cuts and bruises, he learns more and more about the death of his parents. So anyway, teenagers can relate to this minus the spies part because some kids loses their parents in accidents or other ways. Teens would be better fit to read this book because they are old enough to realize and accept what happened to their parents. The younger kids might not be ready and wouldn't want to read about some one's parents being killed, even if it is a fictional character. It might bring back bad memories and they might not be able to handle it. That is why this series is directed at teens. The adults would find this series to be boring and not exciting enough. To me, this series is amazing. I hope they will come out with new books. I might try to read The Power of Five series also by Anthony Horowitz. So to end my statement, I would recommend anyone who enjoys reading adventure, spies, teenage life, and mystery novels to read this series. I can guarantee you that you will love this series. Their is even a movie for the first book in this series, Stormbreaker.

Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?

I tried to research Anthony Horowitz and why he wrote this book, but all I find is his other books and series like The Power of Five. The only thing that is closely related to this question is that his family fully supports him and helps him in writing and creating his books. His wife, Jill Green, has produced several of his scripts like the drama serial, Foyle's War. This drama won the Lew Grade Audience Award in the year 2003. One of his two sons, Cassian, is a seasoned actor and has appeared in three of Anthony's shows. Nicholas, Anthony's other son, helped in creating Alex Rider by researching all the skills Alex knows, like scuba-diving, snowboarding, and surfing. So in a way, Anthony's true life is his family, and his family is part of the reason Alex Rider exists. So therefore, his life is indirectly reflected in the Alex Rider series.

Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

If I was forced to choose a character from this series and write about that person in great detail, even though that is exactly what is going on right now, it would be of course, ...*drum roll*. Alex Rider of course. What do I say about him. Maybe a quote would be better at describing him.

And already they knew. He had glimpsed it in the eyes of the diver who had spoken to him. The disbelief. These men―the helicopter, the aircraft carrier―had been rushed out to rendezvous with a module that had just reentered the earth's atmosphere. And inside, they had found a boy. A fourteen-year-old had just plummeted a hundred miles from outer space. These men would be sworn to secrecy, of course. MI6 would see to that. They would never talk about what had happened. Nor would they forget. (Snakehead book 7, Chapter 1, Page 3)

This quote makes me think that the secret intelligence is using Alex and not appreciating what he is doing for them. He was blackmailed into working for MI6 when his uncle, Ian Rider, was killed. Since then, he has completed 6 missions successfully, but each time, they find a way to make Alex agree to take on the mission, and each time, they send him in unable to protect himself. They don't allow him to carry a gun to protect himself. They treat him like a child when they're the ones who wants his help. Luckily, Alex has one true friend in MI6. Mr. Smithers.

Smithers is a protagonist who has appeared in all of the novels, as well as in the film adaption. He creates the various gadgets for MI6 agents, a role similar to that of Q's in the James Bond films. It is often implied that Smithers is Alex's only genuine friend at MI6; in Eagle Strike, when Alex attempted to convince MI6 to investigate Damian Cray, he was ignored by Blunt and Mrs. Jones, but Smithers nevertheless supplied him with a high-tech bicycle that played a crucial role in Alex's investigations, and in Ark Angel Smithers took time out from his holiday to provide Alex with new gadgets when the CIA requested Alex's assistance in investigating the father of a new friend. (List of Alex Rider characters, Wikipedia)

Another quote to prove my point about how Alex is used and manipulated by MI6 is

"I don't know, Jack..." Alex looked at the ice cream, melting on his spoon. He wished he could explain how he felt. He didn't want to work for MI6 again. He was sure of that. But at the same time... (Snakehead book 7, Chapter 5, Page 58)

This quote is from my lit circle letter of Snakehead. This quote proves my earlier point because Alex clearly said, in his head, that he doesn't want to work for MI6 anymore. Or any other agencies to that matter. He just wants to be a regular schoolboy, but he can't because the way ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Services) manipulated Alex into agreeing to do the mission in book 7, was to have the God father he doesn't remember, Ash, to work together on the mission. The reason he is with ASIS and not MI6 is because shortly after the murder of Alex's parents, Ash did some papers and dropped out of field work, but later decided to leave MI6 and emigrate to ASIS. In the other books to the series, Alex is manipulated and used repeatedly like a tool that can just be replaced if broken. This is what describes Alex Rider.

That's about all I have for my third and last monthly review for the school year of 2009-2010. I might continue doing the blog, but most likely I won't continue the monthly review. So this is good bye for now. Please check out my blog once in a while to see if there is anything new. See you next time. Until then, see ya!

Quickwrite # 3: The Rules of Love...?

Hey everyone! Here is the quickwrite that I did yesterday and have to post today.

1. What rules dictate the behavior of young men and women in relationships today?

Don't hurt the ones you love. If you truly love the person, then you must be willing to let her go. Don't cheat on them. Treat them the way you will treat yourself. Treat them like a person, not a play thing where you can dump them when you get bored. Don't keep secrets from each other. Relationships are all about trust. Respect each other. Protect them. Make them happy, smile, and laugh.

2. Name a situation in which the rules have clearly been violated. In other words, what are the things "nice girls" just don't do? What are things "nice guys" just don't do?

I don't know. They don't cheat on their boyfriend/girlfriend. They don't go and find someone to mess with and dump them when they're bored. They don't mess with people's feelings.

3. What are the possible consequences for breaking these rules?

Girls/guys won't trust you anymore. You might end up hurting the one you love. You will get in trouble with your parents. You will be killed by the friends of the one you hurt. You might be pushing the one you love farther away from you.

4. Where do these rules come from? Who "invented" them and who enforces them?

These rules are basic common sense. They are the unspoken rules everyone should know deep in their hearts. There are new rules everyday with each new experience. Everyone who truly believes in love enforces them.

That's the end of my quickwrite. Thanks for reading it. Please don't laugh. I had no idea what to write about. Oh well, I'm just glad it's over. Come back next time. Until then, see ya!

Book Review #1-An Alex Rider Adventure: Snakehead Book #7 by: Anthony Horowitz

Hey everyone! Here is the first letter, to anyone who wants to read it, for the last Lit Circle book of the year. My book is Book 7 of the Alex Rider Adventures. I hope someone comments on this. Just an FYI, I don't have a Lit Circle Partner, but it's all good because I can work independently. So now lets begin.

The first part to my book is right after the end of book 6. It is about a 14 year old boy named Alex Rider. He was blackmailed into working for the MI6-Britain's top secret intelligence agency. His father, uncle, and godfather all worked for MI6. But then both his parents were murdered by Scorpia, the top terrorist organization in the world, when he was only a few years old. Then when he was 14, his uncle Ian was shot and killed by a contract killer, Yassen Gregorovich. Since then, Alex has been used countless times like a puppet on strings. He has been recruited by MI6 and forced to investigate Lebanese millionaire Herod Sayle, who plans to kill all of Britain's schoolchildren with his "Stormbreaker" computers. His next mission was to investigate Dr Hugo Grief, a South African scientist who runs Point Blanc, an academy in the French Alps. He later foiled a Triad plot to fix Wimbledon games, and is in danger of assassination, so he is forced to leave the country, and MI6 sends him on a mission to Cuba with the CIA, where he encounters a former Soviet general, Alexei Sarov, with plans for a nuclear holocaust and world domination. Soon after he finds himself with Damian Cray, a world-famous pop star, who hopes to destroy the world's drug-making countries by hijacking the United States' nuclear arsenal. Suspicious of him, Alex takes Cray on without the help of the skeptical MI6. His 5th mission takes him to the criminal organization "Scorpia" to find out the truth about his father. On his most recent adventure, he finds himself working for the CIA a second time to gather information on Russian billionaire Nikolei Drevin, who is financing the space hotel "Ark Angel", and the eco-terrorist organization, Force Three. Now finally we come to the 7th mission where so far, Alex has been recruited by the Australian Secret Service, after he has just returned to Earth from space where he destroyed the Ark Angel before it had the chance to crash and kill hundreds of people at the Pentagon in Washington. His newest mission leads Alex to his godfather, Ash. Ash was the closest friend to Alex's father and was there the morning his parents were killed. He originally worked for MI6, but later emigrated to ASIS. In order to make Alex agree to help, ASIS partners Ash and Alex and has them flown off to Bangkok so that they can investigate the snakeheads who is a ruthless gang that smuggles drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people. Their job is to replace the father and son, Karim and Abdul, and secretly investigate the snakeheads while they are smuggled back to Australia.

"I don't know, Jack..." Alex looked at the ice cream, melting on his spoon. He wished he could explain how he felt. He didn't want to work for MI6 again. He was sure of that. But at the same time...

The meaning in this quote is always repeated in every one of the Alex Rider series. Alex is always used, manipulated, and his life is treated like crap. He is always asked for help, and one way or another, they eventually get him to agree. But once he agrees, everyone starts treating him like a kid. They don't care what happens to his life as long as he cooperates. They don't give him weapons to protect himself. How can they send a child somewhere where he can't fight on equal grounds with them?

That's about all there is in part 1 of my book. Come back next time to see part 2 of Alex's latest adventure. Until then, see ya!

Twins!

Hey everyone! Welcome back. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Today I would like to write about a family friend who happened to give birth to twin boys today. They are so cute. In the picture above, Erik, the oldest of the 4 is on the bottom bottom right, Bejamin, the 2nd child, is on the bottom left, and Jackson and Jason are on the top. I have no idea which baby is which. They are the 3rd and 4th child and they look so much like their older brothers. If they were the same age, I swear they could be quadruplets. As soon as I walked into the room, I saw Erik and Benjamin, then I saw the twins. I looked back at Eric and Benjamin, then the twins again and was like, "This is so creepy. Are you sure you didn't make clones of Erik?" After that, I went over to Diana (The mother) and asked her which baby is Jackson and which is Jason. Samantha, the oldest daughter of my Auntie's, was holding one baby and Diana the other. They stared at me for a long time, then looked at the babies, then at each other. Then they said, "We're not sure which one is which. The only way for sure is to change their diapers." I stared at them and said, "This is off to a swell start. Good luck taking care of them. I think it would be easier to take care of them rather than to figure out which baby is which.

What else should I talk about? I guess I can talk about What I've been up to at school. I have 2 math projects, a chemistry final project, blogs, lit circle letters, Spanish homework, math homework, history homework, a history project, and a history test. I am soooooo busy. I also have to work on Tuesday and Thursday after school. I need to meet up with my group for the chemistry project after work and I am exhausted when I get home that I don't have time to do the regular homework assignments. I don't even have time to read, and I love reading. I am running out of things to talk about.

Just to let you know, I am sitting next to the coolest person. Ever. Her name is Melissa Chung. She has about 10,000 bug bites on her body. The other person is Grant Placencia. He is working on a Geometry Scavenger Hunt. Melissa is chatting with her friend, dragonboi1020. Curtis Cheung (Gurfis is a Dufis) drew a kid committing suicide on the chalkboard in room 204. Now he is playing a video game. Amanda Huang is doing her sophomore research paper. Curtis just lost in his game. Curtis's hair looks gross. He is wearing brown sweater with jeans. Brown hi-top converses. He just lost in his game again. He sucks at it. Surprisingly he doesn't have any food. Now lets talk about Melissa in great detail. She has a bug bite on her right cheek, right under her eye. She also has many on her arm. She is wearing a purple shirt with a purple, striped tanktop, under a white jacket. She also is wearing jeans and blue and green checkered socks.

Yes I finally finished. I was running out of random stuff to say. See you next time when I talk about my Uncle's Wedding. Until then, see ya!