I'm Eating an Apple

Throughout the year, we have seen a variety of blog posts grace the pages of the Mitchell class blogs. However, there are certain types that people tend to gravitate towards more. Almost all posts can fit into at least one of these categories. Let’s take a look at five common types of blog posts I have noticed. The Book Review Easily the most common of the types of blog posts, book reviews are pretty straight forward. Reviews simply summarize the story (which may or may not include spoilers) and offer their recommendation and opinion at the end. Most of the book reviews I’ve read on our blogs have skewed positive, though I do see the occasional one where the author did not enjoy the book. Whether they have a positive or negative opinion, the author usually recommends it to people with certain interests at the end anyway. The Book versus Movie Comparison Another common blog post is the book versus movie comparison, a post I have done a couple of times myself. It feeds into the age-old...

 Michael Vey The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans revolves around this high schooler who gets bullied for his Tourettes but little do they know he has superpowers from a hospital experiment from when he was a kid. He keeps this a secret from everyone except his closest friend and his mother. And of course, this looner highschooler has to have a crush on only the most popular cheerleader, Taylor. Michael one day gets pushed too far by his bullies and shocks them to his fullest right in front of, you guessed it Taylor his crush. But then Taylor reveals she is also an electricity power superhero so she suddenly becomes interested in Michael and they hang out. The two along with Michael's closest friend Ostin they discover they are being hunted. As if someone was watching them Michael and Taylor receive scholarships to Elgin Acadamy, but Michaels's mothers panic, and at the same time get kidnapped, very fun times. I'll end my brief summary of the book there as the plot...

  This month, I read Caraval by Stephanie Garber. The book is named after a magical game called Caraval where players race to do tasks and find clues in a magical world, trying to be the first to achieve a goal and win a wish from the mastermind behind the game, Caraval Master Legend. The book is about Scarlet and Tella Dragna, two sisters who have grown up hearing stories about Caraval from their grandmother and dreaming of its magic. One year, Scarlet and Tella escape their cruel father to attend Caraval, only to be separated when arriving. The book is told from Scarlet’s perspective and it describes her adventures and magical experiences as she plays the game and tries to find her sister. I really liked this book. I have not read anything like it before and I think the concept of Caraval was very unique. I particularly loved the descriptions of the game Caraval which made it feel magical. For example, Caraval is set in a small town on an island with a beach covered in snow, al...

Trigger warning: Mentions of death, kidnapping, shooting, general violence What’s this? A simple book recommendation? Not an over-the-top analysis of one aspect of a book or a dictionary of fandom terms? From Emily? No, of course not. Run, Hide, Fight Back is one of April Henry’s most recent books, published in 2019. I’ve been reading Henry’s books since I was in sixth grade, but haven’t read one in about a year, so to read this was like being transported to my middle school self. It follows a similar narrative to all of Henry’s books, with teenagers trapped in terrifying situations that most of us have only entertained, such as being kidnapped, finding your best friend dead, or in this case, being trapped in a mall during a shooting. This book is a simple one--fast-paced, teen heroes, more of a turn-off-your-brain and get invested, one sitting read if anything. However, one thing stands out about this book, and that is its remarkable ability to perspective-switch without breaking flo...

  Many people have probably seen or heard of gay couples appearing in Japanese media. While  Japan is renowned for its “Yaoi” and “Yuri” manga and anime, pieces of media that portray gay male or female partners, these genres are actually marketed toward straight men and women, often telling a story of  unrealistic scenarios and relationships. Japan’s tolerance for gay individuals is actually not as inviting as the mangas make you think. On occasion, however, a manga will be published specifically for the LGBT community. Enter Shimanami Tasogare .  Shimanami Tasogare , also known as Our Dreams at Dusk , is written and illustrated by Yuhki Kamatani. They are openly x-gendered, which translates to nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns. In the story, main character Tasuku Kaname didn’t clear his phone’s search history and some of his “friends” found some evidence that he might not be straight. He attempts suicide, thinking that his life was over, but got interrupted by...

This month, I read Youth by Isaac Asimov. The main characters in Youth are two boys known as Slim and Red. Red lives at his father’s estate in the country and Slim is visiting them along with his father, the astronomer. Red and Slim quickly become good friends and one day, Red shows Slim two small, strange animals he found. These animals are unique and look nothing like anything seen on the planet before. Red’s goal is to use them to get into his dream job of working at the circus, so Red and Slim take care of them together. They keep the animals in a cage, observe them, and make sure they have food to eat. Meanwhile, back at the house, Red’s dad and Slim’s dad have many conversations about the youth, the progression of society, and aliens on other planets. Slim’s father, an accomplished astronomer, made contact with aliens and the purpose of his visit was to meet the aliens and convince Red’s dad to trade with them. The third perspective of the story is the perspective of the aliens...

     Ready Player Two follows Wade Watts after the events of the first novel, Ready Player One . As with any other Squeal, it contains spoilers for its first Novel, so there is your warning. So a few days after Wade inherits half a trillion dollars and becomes the richest man alive, he learns of a new technology Halliday was producing in the background, the OASIS Neural Interface (ONI). This essentially makes it so anybody could control their OASIS character with only their mind and experience all five senses. Art3mis don't really like this, saying it would just cause the world to go into even more of a mess getting into a decent-sized fight with Wade resulting in their break up. Although Art3mis doesn't approve of the ONI headsets, the rest of the High Five, Aech and Shoto, approve. So, the headsets go into production and the sales went through the ceiling. The amount of ONI users increased rapidly and once they hit, with 7,777,777 at once a new easter egg/ riddle appea...