Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 25 Reading Response, 66-81

Summary:

            I read pages 66-81. When Nathaniel was the age of 6-8, he would visit his master once a week. This week Nathaniel and him talked about how malicious and tricky demons were. His master then announced that next week he would start his magical studies, meaning that he would have to meet twice a week with his master now. On the next week Mr. Underwood (Nathaniel’s master) showed him to the master library. Mr. Underwood where he showed him to a massive bookshelf filled with books written in English, Hebrew, Latin, Czech, and some Coptic. Mr. Underwood explained that he would need to have read and learned all of this within the next three years. Mr. Underwood then gave him some special spectacles that allowed him to see demons. Mr. Underwood then pulls out a bottle with a dead rat inside. Nathaniel looks at it through his spectacle and sees that it is actually an imp. Nathaniel for the next couple of weeks began lessons, learning about the basic things about demons. Nathaniel also practiced summoning demons with Mr. Underwood.

 

 

 

Vocabulary:

            Nuance-n. a subtle difference or distinction in expression, meaning, response, etc.

            Lexicon- n. a wordbook or dictionary, esp. of Greek, Latin, or Hebrew.

            Chastising-v. to discipline, esp. by corporal punishment

            Quailed-v. to lose heart or courage in difficulty or danger; shrink with fear.

 

 

            Nathaniel is one of those people who thirst for power. He demonstrates enthusiasm, vigor, and dedication to learning more about how to become a better magician. He studies hard without complaining much, and it seemed in the book he almost enjoyed reading through the hundreds of books his master told him to read to become a better magician. He is also always trying his best during his lesson with his master, because that is the only time he really learns any real magic, unlike learning about mathematics and politics with Mr. Pucell. I think Nathaniel thirsts for whatever can make him a better magician. 

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 25 Reading Response, 50-65

Summary:

            I read pages 50-65; the chapter starts off learning about a magician named Arthur Underwood. Arthur Underwood is a middle-ranking magician who works for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Mr. Underwood now has to take in an apprentice from the orphanage, though he doesn’t really want to. Mr. Underwood takes the boy home where they meet Mrs. Underwood. Mrs. Underwood asks the boy to tell her his name, even though he is supposed to never say his name again and forget it. He tells her Nathaniel. Nathaniel and Mrs. Underwood grew a very close connection. Mrs. Underwood was the only person Nathaniel could really talk freely and openly with. Nathaniel has special tutors for all the different subjects he has to learn with each teacher stricter and meaner then the last. Though he is young, he has to learn about advance stuff such as learning everything about the Middle East in only a week or such as learning to play every singly instrument by his teacher Mrs. Sander.

 

Vocabulary:

Cantankerous-adj. Bad tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative 

Diminutive-adj. small; little; tiny

Ministration-n. The act of ministering care, aid, religious service, etc.

Virtue-n. Moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.

Anguish-n. Excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain: the anguish of grief.

            Verb. To inflict with distress, suffering, or pain.

 

 

Diary Entry #1

            Mrs. Underwood told me that it would help to express my feeling more by writing this so called “Diary”. I believe she just said to write about whatever happened today. Well I guess it was just another normal day living in this house. I woke up at around sunset and brushed my teeth and changed my clothes. I then gathered all of my homework and headed down the stairs. Mrs. Underwood greeted me and laid out a nice breakfast across the table. I believe it was toast and cereal, with a glass of milk. I thought the breakfast was good, sort of the same as usual. I then headed off to meet my teacher, Mr. Pucell. I entered the room and as usual was trying to smooth down his hair, so that people wouldn’t know it was thinning. We did the usual today, mathematics, modern language (French and Czech), geography, chemistry, physics, history, and of course politics, which Mr. Pucell thought was the most important thing in the world. After about 6 hours of class, I descended back down to the kitchen where a sandwich was left under a moist piece of saran wrap. After lunch I headed back up to the music room, where Mr. Sindra practiced my singing and piano. As usual he called me pitchy and horrible. After 2 hours of music lessons I headed out to the garden; the garden was my favorite place in the house. It is where I could have peace away from everything that Mr. Underwood forces down upon me. After an hour of peaceful relaxation in the garden I entered back into the house for dinner. Tonight dinner was turkey and potatoes. I talked to Mrs. Underwood about my day and how mean Mr. Sindra was. That's when she told me to write this thing, and that it would help me feel better. I don’t really feel all the better, so I think I’m just going to stop writing now.

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 24 Reading Response, 35-50

Summary:

            I read pages 35-50. Bartimaeus talks about the amulet and how it gives off large magical pulses that can easily be sensed by Simon Lovelace’s henchmen. Bartimaeus has to fly all around until dawn when its time to meet up with the boy. Bartimaeus dodges Simon’s demon that are trying to hunt him down all over the city. Bartimaeus soon tires out and decides to try hide in Trafalgar Square where he could easily hide with all the other magical things that people are buying and selling there. Bartimaeus catches a group of teenagers that are staring at him. Bartimaeus tries to get away, but they kept following him. Bartimaeus hides himself with a concealment spell that covered in darkness, but the children easily saw through it and attack him. Bartimaeus let loose a couple of spells that should of turned them to ashes, but nothing happened. After struggling for a bit, the girl demands the necklace. Bartimaeus quickly turns into a crocodile and easily escapes them.

 

 

Vocabulary:

Escapade- n. A reckless adventure or wild prank.

                   n. An escape from confinement or restraint.

Unceremoniously- adj. Discourtesly  abrupt; hasty; rude

                                 Adj. without ceremony or formalities

Manifestation- n. An act of manifesting

                         n. The state of being manifested

                         n. outward or perceptible indication

 

One thing I really like about this book is how the author is really good at showing things through his writing. I have tried to write a couple of fantasy stories myself, but I found it extremely hard to show these new creatures through my writing in a way that the reader could imagine it. The author of this book is really good at showing and explaining things that he imagined in his mind.

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 23 Reading Response, 19-34

Summary:
I read pages 19-34. Bartimaeus enters a room filled with magical objects and trinkets. He finds the Amulet of Samarkand. He quickly checks all of the different planes for security or guards. He felt a small presence of something on plane 7, but decided to ignore. Bartimaeus grabbed the amulet and quickly ran out the door. Before he ran out the room he noticed something was coming out a black portal that had opened in the room. He knew the time for stealth was over. Out of the portal comes a red man with a jackal head to yells Bartimaeus’ name in fury and chases him around the house, throwing balls of green flame at him. Bartimaeus quickly runs till he finds himself in the kitchen and baricades himself in by putting a charm on the door. Inside is a chef. Bartimaeus checks him on all 7 planes, and finds that on plane 7 that he is another djinn named Faquarl, who is working for Simon Lovelace. Faquarl asks for the amulet. Bartimaeus quickly removes the charm on the door, which causes it go flying at Faquarl. Bartimaeus escapes from Simon Lovelace’s house in the form of a bird. The next chapter talks about the boy who summoned Bartimaeus, with his master in the past when he was younger. The master tells the boy to never trust demons. The master send the boy down to his room to grab his glasses. The boy goes down and put the glasses on his eyes where he sees hundred of little imps. The imps instantly attacked him when they knew he could see them. 20 minutes later his master decided to save him. His master was satisfied with the lesson.

Vocabulary:
Urbanely- adj. having the polish and suavity regarded as characteristic of sophisticated social life in major cities: an urbane manner.
Adj. reflecting elegance, sophistication, etc., esp. in expression: He maintained an urbane tone in his letters.
Coyly- Adj. artfully or affectedly shy or reserved; slyly hesitant; coquettish.
Adj. Shy; modest
Adj. showing reluctance, esp. when insincere or affected, to reveal one's plans or opinions, make a commitment, or take a stand
Musingly- Adj. Absorbed in thought; meditative
Imperceptibly- Adj. Very slight, gradual, or subtle
Adj. Not perceptible; not perceived by or affecting the senses.
N. Something not capable of being perceived by the senses
Finality- n. the state, quality, or fact of being final; conclusiveness or decisiveness.
something that is final; an ultimate act, utterance, belief, etc.


From Jacob’s view-
Another usual night patrolling through my master’s house. I’m so hungry, even though I ate just an hour ago. I seem to be never satisfied these days. Oh how my life has been diminished to patrolling these halls of my master’s house. Oh an alarm has sounded on one of the upper flowers, maybe something interesting will happen. Let me just use a portal spell to get up there. Oh so it’s Bartimaeus; I better capture him or my master will punish me. “BARTIMAEUS” I yelled as I threw one of my own special detonation spells. I watched as Bartimaeus got up, and ran off unharmed. I quickly followed after him, but unfortunately he was too fast for me. I knew Farquol would head him off, so I continued at the same pace after him. I quickly followed him down to where the kitchen is located. He quickly shut the door of the kitchen and placed a charm on it. I sensed the level of the charm and new that after a good couple of blasts that it would crumble. After firing 5 detonations the door flew off, unfortunately hitting Farquol square on in the face. I entered the room and saw Farquol was okay, so I quickly pursued after Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud. Cycle 22 Reading Response, 3-18

Summary:
I read pages 3-18 of a new book called “The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand”. The book opens with a description of a room being turned into a dark, arctic Iceland by some magical being. A djinni (genie) appears in a cloud of smoke and sulfur, trying to use all these excessive poofs of smokes and magic to scare the small 12-year-old boy that summoned him into telling him his name, so that he could use the name to later take revenge on him. The young boy though quickly took control and ordered the djinni, Bartimaeus to go and retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of Simon Lovelace, a very powerful magician and to bring it back to him at dawn the next day. Bartimaeus fights against having to go, but ends up just going due to the fact that since the boy summoned him, he could use spells to inflict pain till he would go. Bartimaeus goes in the form of a blackbird. He soon arrives at the house where he found several defenses around the house. He has the ability to look through 7 different planes, all coexistent with each other. Bartimaeus used several different transformations to sneak past all of the defenses and made it into an air duct as a fly. Bartimaeus enters another room in the form of vapor and slips through the crack under the door.

Vocab:
Writhed- v. To twist the body about, or squirm, as in pain, violent effort, etc.
v. To shrink mentally, as in acute discomfort.
Perceptible- adj. Capable of being perceived; recognizable; appreciable: a perceptible change in his behavior
Phlegm- n. The thick mucus secreted in the respiratory passages and discharged through the mouth, esp. that occurring in the lungs and throat passages, as during a cold.
n. One of the four elemental bodily humors of medieval physiology, regarded as causing sluggishness
Intoned-v. To utter with a particular tone or voice modulation
v. To give tone or variety of tone to; vocalize.
v. To recite or chant in monotone.
Sepulchral- adj. Of, pertaining to, or serving as a tomb
adj. proper to or suggestive of a tomb; funereal or dismal
adj. Hollow and deep
Conformists- n. A person who conforms, esp. unquestioningly, to the usually practices or standard of a group, society, etc.
Adj. of or characterized by conforming, esp. in action or appearance.


I decided to switch books because of a couple of reasons. The first was because I didn’t think the book had enough challenging vocabulary to increase my own set of words. My new book “Bartimaeus” has a wider set of vocabulary that I can learn and use in my own writing. Also I didn’t really find “The Supernaturalists” to be very interesting or exciting. It never really had me on the edge of my seat; I think this is because I’m more into fantasy books then Science Fiction. By reading the first 15 pages of Bartimaeus. I think I’ll really enjoy it because its showing me the usual fantasy that I really like with a whole new level of vocabulary to learn and master. I think I’ll enjoy reading Bartimaeus.

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer. Cycle 21 Reading Response, 63-78

Summary:
I read pages 63-78 The Supernatrualists exited to the top of the roof using the elevator. They used bridges that could retract from special kits they carried to get from roof-top to roof top, till they reached their destination. Their destination was the apartments that crashed into each other when they were being moved. Cosmo could see the parasites swarming in the direction of the apartments. When they reached the appartments they used their bridges to get into one of the buildings. They entered the building, Stefan and Mona were blasting parasites with great accuracy. Cosmo was just following he didn’t really shoot any, because he was thinking about how they were living things, but then Stefan reminded him what they did and how they sucked the lives of the so many victims. Ditto didn’t shoot any because he was a pacifist, so instead he would go around healing the injured. Lawyers started to storm the building. Lawyers instead of working in court room and such, they work in the field capturing anyone that tries to leave the scene of crime. The lawyers chased after the group, but they made it away safely.

Virulent-bitterly hostile
Forestall-prevent or obstruct an anticipated event or action by taking action ahead of time

One thing I don’t really like about the book is how in a way it kind of rushes through things too fast. It seems like it doesn’t give you as much scenery detail as you would want. I feel like things and events are happening too quickly. In a way I wish it would maybe slowdown and go into more details with certain events. I think the author made it like this to show how Cosmo’s life if rapidly changing and all these events are happening so quickly to him.

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer. Cycle 20 Reading Response, 48-62

Summary:
I read pages 48-62. Stefan invites him to join their group of Supernaturalists. Stefan calls the group a family. Though Stefan used the word lightly, but to Cosmo this was a very big deal. Stefan explains what he knows about the parasites(the blue creatures) so far. The parasites hate water and suck the life force from people who are injured or dying. The parasites population keeps growing and growing each day, the Supernaturalists feel like they are barely even leaving a dent in their population each night they go out hunting. Mona will be the one who teaches Cosmo how to kill the parasites. Stefan heads to his mother’s gravesite. He questions himself on why is he doing this. He starts to get pressured by how everyone looks up to him to be the leader. He feels like he is getting no where with killing out the parasites. He knew what his mother would say, “Everyone you save is someone’s son, or someone’s mother. When you save them, you save me.” Mona wakes up Cosmos and tells him that the group was getting ready for a parasite hunt. Two buildings had crashed into each other when they were being moved around by a master satellite in the sky. She hand Cosmo a lightning rod and says, “Green button, prime. Red button, fire. Make sure the narrow end is pointing at the spooky blue creature. Got it? Good. Consider yourself trained.” Cosmo was surprised that he was being sent into combat with them so quickly.

Quote: “Everyone you save is someone’s son, or someone’s mother. When you save them, you save me.”
I think this quote is extremely important to the book. The Supernaturalists aren’t killing the bugs to save themselves they are doing this to avenge friends and family members that have had their lives sucked away by the parasites. It shows how though they may not be able to achieve revenge by killing them, they still can help to keep other people from feeling the pain they have felt from loosing people close to them.