Lockdown

I have read Lockdown this year and it has a very interesting plot. Is starts with the main character Alex breaking in to a house to take some things while the owners are away. The police show up to the house and arrest him. When he was in court, it wasn't for stealing anything like someone his age would, but for being framed for killing his best friend. The people who set him up were actually from Furnace and they framed him because they needed more kid's to experiment in their secret mutation lab within the jail. Alex tries to break out of the jail with only one exit. And fails. While all of his inmates lost all hope, Alex found a way out. Everyday the children in furnace have to mine in the tunnels. Tunnel #2 has recently broken down so our character Alex snoops around and finds a way out... a hidden underground river. As soon as Alex jumps into the river with his friends the book ends.

Solitary

I have recently read the book Solitary (the sequel to Lockdown/the second book in the escape from furnace series). It was a weak follow up to the first book. I have read the whole series and the first is by far the most interesting and the best at keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. The second book isn't as good because the original escape from Furnace occurred in the first book and the rest of the series is about the main character Alex's adventure out of the underground prison's surrounding caves.
In Solitary the book starts with Alex leaping into a river completing his escape from the prison. The reason he wanted to escape was obvious but Alex's had a little extra fire fueling him. When he was in court, it wasn't for stealing anything like someone his age would, but for being framed for killing his best friend. The people who set him up were actually from Furnace and they framed him because they needed more kid's to experiment in their secret mutation lab within the jail. No wonder he wanted to get out of there.

Born to Rock

I have recently read Born to Rock by Gordon Korman. It is about a boy who has never met his biological father and sets out on a journey to find him. What he finds out though mid-adventure is that his father is the famous front man of the infamous punk rock band Purge... King Maggot! He travels with the band for their summer tour and tries to discover the real story of his birth.
Throughout the whole story I kept wondering what happens is King Maggot is not his real father? What will happen then? Will the search (And the story) just end in it's tracks? Where will he go from there? Will the search for the real father continue until he finds him?
I thought that King Maggot had the best attitude in the story because he accepted the fact that he might actually be the father of this kid and brought him along with the tour.

Bilingual Animals

Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130307145105.htm

Sniffing, a common behavior in dogs, cats and other animals, has been observed to also serve as a method for rats to communicate.

Researchers have long observed how animals vigorously sniff when they interact, a habit usually passed off as simply smelling each other. But Daniel W. Wesson, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, whose research is published today in Current Biology, found that rats sniff each other to signal a social hierarchy and prevent aggressive behavior.

            I liked this article because it talks about how animals sniffing each other kind of show emotion in the process. So if you think about it the animals kind of have their own second language. It’s like a little sign language.

Non fiction reading response

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121129143301.htm

This article is about how some carvings in the Grand Canyon date back to 60 million years ago. Back to when the dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. This is pretty cool because now that we know the Grand Canyon is 60 million years old in some places, we can also figure out how old other things are by comparing the two. For example, we could look at some markings in the Grand Canyon and compare them to the carvings inside a crater and figure out how old the crater is.
            I liked this article because it talked about how old the Grand Canyon is and that is something I have always wondered. I have also been to the Grand Canyon and this article brings back memories from being there with my family. When I read the article I thought ‘If the canyon was here when dinosaurs were alive did some dinosaurs live in it? Why wasn’t there proof before?’

Struck By Lighting.

I have recently read Stuck By Lightning by Chris Colfer. This story is about a teenager trying to cope

with high school life and who blackmails the most popular kids in his school into giving him articles for 

his literary journal to make his college application better. His main goal in life is to get into Northwestern 

College and eventually the 'Big Cheese' at The New Yorker. All the while he has to deal with his parent's 

being divorced and a school full of people who hate him.

Reading Response

I have recently read Death Cure by James Dashner. It is about a boy who

escapes from a high security science/testing building, owned by a company called

W.I.C.K.E.D. The main character, Thomas, runs away from the crazy building with

three of his friends(Minho, Brenda, and Newt.) and a berg (a type of drop-ship) pilot

(whose name is Jorge, he knows Brenda from previous interactions) because they

were afraid to be turned into test subjects. Most of the book is about how they’re on

the lam and how they plan their revenge on W.I.C.K.E.D.

                        One thing that I have noticed in the book is that people such as the

Cranks, and the Norms, hate the Munies! I know that this may sound confusing, but

in the book, there are three groups. The Cranks are the people who have the Flare (a

disease).The Norms are the people who don’t have the disease but could get it. The

last of the groups, the Munies, are the people who are immune to getting the Flare,

the terrible disease. Therefore, making them the most hated out of all of the groups.

            This book is a very good one and I would suggest it to anyone that likes

reading fast-paced, action-based, fun!