Escape from the Island of Aquarius

Title: Escape from the Island of Aquarius

Author: Frank Peretti

Publisher: Crossway books

Place of publication: United States of America

Year of publication: 1986

Number of pages: 160

Where I found the book: Christian heritage school library

Summary

In this book the main characters are Jay, Lila, Dr. Cooper, Adam Mackenzie, and kelno. This book takes place in the island Aquarius but the time of when this took place is not specified. This all starts when Adam Mackenzie (a missionary that is part of the international missionary alliance) has not been heard of for a while until there is a dead body found on a raft carrying a note written by Mackenzie. So the missionary alliance sends Dr.Cooper along with his kid’s Jay and Lila to look for Adam Mackenzie. This book takes place in the Island Aquarius but the time of when this happened is not specified. The theme of this book is always kept fighting for what you believe in and it ok to share your opinion even if it’s different.

When the coopers reach the Island of Aquarius they find a very civilized village, led by Adam Mackenzie, with nice houses and electricity.  All of the villagers  used to live in big countries with normal jobs and all share the same dream which is to start their own new world. Dr. Cooper then starts to realize that Adam Mackenzie is no longer a man of God because he doesn’t have church, teaches that  Jesus came to save us from ignorance, and believes in evils forces, spirit’s, and curses. As the Coopers were leaving the island Mackenzie finds them on sacred ground and thinks they were cursed. The Coopers were now put in a hut which was used as a jail. As the Coopers escape they are found again by Mackenzie and Mackenzie decides to send Lila to be used as a sacrifice to the island and puts Jay and Dr. Cooper in a whirlpool of water.

 The whirlpool of water led Jay and Dr. Cooper to cave underground with the real Adam Mackenzie. The real Adam Mackenzie explains to Jay and Dr. Cooper that the guy they thought was the Mackenzie was actually named kelno. Adam was kicked out of the village by kelno and lived in the cave for a year. In that year spent in the cave Adam was building boats to prepare for the day the Island would sink. Dr. Cooper and jay realized the island was sinking so they had to act fast to save Lila. But what they didn’t know was that Lila was already saved by a big Polynesian guy named Candle. Jay, Adam, and Dr. Cooper try to go and save all the village people and bring them to the two boats left on the Island before it sinks. But the villagers make it to the boats only to find out that the water is too high to leave the cave. Lila gets an idea to set off bombs in the cave to lower the water level which does work. While Lila was doing that, Adam talked to each single person on the Boat about Jesus just in case they all died. Lila then became the hero because she saved all the people on the boat and everyone makes it out of the Island  safe except Kelno.

Christian Perspective

This book is definitely written from a Christian perspective. The cooper’s Christian belief was really strong and there wasn’t any moments were they doubted God. They never lost faith in Him and always remembered that they are children of God. When they were jailed by Kelno all they did was pray. Dr. Cooper talks to kelno about how God’s power is amazing and stronger than Satan’s power which was what kelno believed in. If I was in Dr. Cooper’s shoes I would be a bit doubtful and scared. When Dr. Cooper believed that Kelno killed his daughter he was planning on revenge but he backs off and realizes that he belongs to God and ended up not harming Kelno. If I was in Dr. Cooper shoes I would not have the strength to control myself the way he did. Also it talks about how Adam Mackenzie would pray every day for the village people and how he forgives people who have wronged him.

My Thoughts

The reason I chose this Book was because our E.L.A teacher recommend it to me. I am the type of person who judges books by its cover and I thought this book was going to be boring but it wasn’t too bad. The language the author used was tough to understand at times. I felt as if the book forever to read but maybe that’s because the book start to get interesting around pages 95 and over. I like this book because it was my first time reading a fiction book by a Christian author so I liked to see how the author would bring a Christian perspective into this book. What I dislike about this book had nothing to do with the story itself I just didn’t like how the author wrote it. I found the book boring in the beginning which made me want to put down the book and stop but in the end it got really interesting. I would recommend this book too people interested adventurous books with lots of action and bit of drama because it gives you an equal dose of both.    

Brian's Winter

Title: Brian’s Winter
Author: Gary Paulsen
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and year of publication: Broadway, New York 1996
Number of pages: 133
Where I found the book: CHS Library

Thirteen year old Brian Robeson is stranded in the Canadian wilderness. To survive he must rely on his intelligence, his instinct, and a hatchet. He had been in a plane crash. He had lived day by day for 54 days until he found the survival pack in the plane which has helped live. This book is a companion book to “Hatchet” and the plot is “what would happen if Brian had not been rescued by the plane. In "Hatchet” Brian has nothing to help him survive except the few items he happened to have with him when the plane crashed. The title Brian’s winter means that this book will be talking about Brian surviving the winter. It doesn’t mention what time this happens but we know it happens in winter time. In this story Brian is the only main character. The theme of this book is don’t lose hope in hardest situations and think of ways on how you can improve that situation. Brian is one of those people who are actually better off independently.

In this book there are 2 parts, the first part is fall and second part is winter. In The Fall Brian receives many signs that winter is coming but doesn’t notice them until the end of fall. In the survival package there was a rifle but Brian was not comfortable with it and it was running out of bullets so he stuck to his bow and arrow. One night as Brian sleeps in his shelter a bear comes and eats some of Brian’s fish. Brian then notices the bears blocking the shelter and Brian yells “Hey- get out of here”. The bear threw Brian across the campground leaving him scratched and soar in the morning. Brian then decided he would need to make a larger weapon he couldn’t use his small bow because it was good for smaller game like rabbits and fool birds. He then made 2 larger bows, one served as a spare. He could use this bow to defend himself and hunt bigger game. Later on in fall he with more and  more signs of winter coming, Brian decides to winter proof his shelter by filling in mud through the wooden walls like how he saw beavers do it. He also has a small fire inside his shelter. Other ways Brian gets ready for winter is by making a vest from rabbits skin to wear.

One day he decides to hunt bigger game so as he was outside his camp ground he saw a group of wolves eating a deer he waited for the wolves to finish and took what’s left of the deer for himself. There was a lot of deer meat left and lasted weeks. He would also make boots from the deer hide. A couple days later he notices he is laying between an angry bear and some venison he left out last night. He tried to move out of the way but the tightening string on his sleeping bag would not come loose so he was stuck in it. The bear scooped up and tossed him to the side. The bear is about to finish him off when he hears something. He turns around to a direct spray in the face from a skunk. The skunk comes by very often and threats to spray Brian so that Brian will toss her a piece of meat. He then named her Betty. With Brian low on meat he goes hunting and succeeds in getting a moose which he had a one on one scenario but he was Brian was safe at the end. Brian then realizes that he will be stuck here for a long time so he tries to make living in winter easier so he makes some snow shoes that prove to work. Brian looks near the lake and finds some Human footprints. Following those footprints he finds that just a few hundred meters from him a Native-American family is living there. They get supplies from an airplane that comes there every month. Brian gets to spend a month with them and he ends up really enjoying their company. When the month was over the plane came and took Brian with them to head back home to meet his family and friends.

MY THOUGHT

I chose this book because I am interested in survival type of stories and I thought that Hatchet was an amazing action book and I wanted to see how much better can this story get and it did get better. I think this book was really informative about the survival subject. It talked about how hunting and surviving didn’t only take skill but a good positive thinking and that is true. In the beginning I found it hard to pay attention to the book because there was only one character, but in the end Gary Paulsen introduced a lot of details keeping me glued to my story.  One other thing I liked about this book is being focused on just one idea, which kept me from getting lost in so many details and small stories inside the story. I recommend this to people interested in survival and action stories.

                                                      CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

This book was not written in a Christian perspective. But throughout this book Brian shows Christ-like behaviour even though he is the only character. Some ways he does that is not by swearing or cursing. Some ways Gary Paulsen could have made Brian more of a religious character is if he would talk about Brian praying to God for help and just talking to him. But this also depends on the author’s faith so Gary Paulsen may not be a Christian making that a reason why this book is not written from a Christian perspective. In the end Brian finally gets to talk with other humans who were Native Americans and after spending three weeks with them he feels as if he is part of the family and he doesn’t want to leave. Another way this reflects Christ-like behaviour is that Brian is acceptance of others and doesn’t judge.

Nelson Mandela-" No Easy Walk To Freedom"

Title: NELSON MANDELA
Author: Barry Denenberg
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and Year of publication:
Published in New York in 1995
Number of pages: 174
Where I found the book: In Christian Heritage School library

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. This book title is “No Easy Walk to Freedom” this explains Nelson Mandela mission, he wanted freedom for his people and he knew that this is a hard way to walk. This takes place in South Africa from the years 1942-1994. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. When Nelson was 12 years old, his father died. Before he died he saw to it that his son was placed in good care of an uncle who was also a tribal chief. Nelson attended schools run by missionaries and he later on became a good Christian. When Nelson was 20 years old he enrolled in Fort Hare College which was one of the few universities in South Africa which allowed black students. Nelson
was interested in politics and he thought he might become a lawyer. By studying law he might be able to help his people obtain their lawful citizenship rights. The theme of the book is fight
for what you believe is right and don’t stop until you get what you wanted. Nelson Mandela fight for freedom was right and he didn’t stop until he won that freedom for himself and his people which then changed many lives.


In 1942, Nelson joined the African National Congress (ANC), which at the time was polite to the government, soon Nelson Mandela had persuaded the ANC to use boycotts and strikes against the government instead of being polite. He was arrested for civil disobedience, and was not allowed to attend gatherings. In his spare time, Nelson Mandela studied to become a lawyer so
that he could protect blacks. Working as a lawyer strengthened his feelings against apartheid. After the Shapesville massacre in which many blacks were killed, the white rule banned the ANC. Nelson went underground, he created the MK, which was the military portion of the ANC. Nelson arranged military training in Algeria for the MK members. He launched a sabotage campaign. On his return from Algeria he was arrested for going between countries without a passport, and was tried for sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government. He spent
the next 28 years in prison. Before going to prison he said, “Make every home, every shack or rickety structure into a learning center.”

When he got to Robben Island where he was to be imprisoned Nelson was told to jog to the prison gate. He refused and he and the other prisoners started a hunger strike to get better living conditions. The prisoners won. They also found ways to communicate with other prisoners. A few
methods were: Writing messages on toilet paper, hiding messages in the bottom of food buckets, and slipping notes in the dirty dishes .While Nelson was in prison he was offered freedom if he would stop his violent actions. He refused this offer. During Nelson Mandela’s jail time he had secret talks with South Africa’s president, P.W. Botha, and his successor, F.W. de Klerk. As a result, in 1990 he was freed. He was appointed Deputy President of the ANC. In July of
1991, Nelson Mandela was appointed President of the ANC. Nelson decided to join the government and other parties to negotiate South Africa’s future. Finally everyone came to agree on a majority rule constitution. This constitution states that racial discrimination is
against the law. In 1993, Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk for dismantling apartheid, and in 1994 he became the first democratically elected South African president.


Christian thoughts

Nelson Mandela was raised as a Christian when he was young, the book describes him as a strong
and humble Christian. Nelson Mandela was fighting for freedom for the black people during the racist government. Blacks started to believe that God made them to be slaves and that white men should rule, Nelson disagreed with that type of thinking. When Nelson and the ANC were on strike they noticed that the white South African government wasn’t listening to them which led Nelson into using violence. If I was in his spot I would have prayed and asked God to help
me fight for what is right. The book never mentions anything about Mandela repenting and asking God to forgive him. Spending 28 years in jail may have caused him to realize that using violence was wrong. Overall, he put others before him which is a good Christian trait.


My thoughts

I chose this book because I have always heard of Nelson Mandela but I never knew anything about who he was and what he did, so this helped me increase my knowledge about him. I think this book was really informing on teaching me how some governments treated the black people. Biography’s are not my favorite type of reading, but this author used nice and simple vocabulary making it easy for me to read the book. Reasons I like this book is because it has a really
good story to teach which is having perseverance. I recommend this book for the type of people interested in learning about racism and fighting for what you believe in.

Food and Water

When surviving, two thought cross your mind,
surviving and being rescued but how would you survive without food and water?
Having a good supply of food and water is like the trunk of a tree, it branches
off to many other important things. When you have food and water, you now have
saved time instead of wasting time searching for food, with that out of your
way you now have more time to spend on making and improving your shelter and
rescue signal. A good supply of food and water gives you hope of living. With
that hope you won’t be panicking as much. If you were stuck on Island there 3
main things that you need to accomplish such as finding food, making a shelter,
and a rescue signal. But with a good supply of food and water you now have 1
less thing to worry about. In the hatchet Brian has many things to accomplish
such as finding food, shelter, and making a rescue signal. The book mentions
Brian spending hours trying to find food so he wasted time on improving shelter
and rescue signal. Without food and water you won’t last long. Food and water
give you hope of living and being rescued

Everest: book one: The Contest

Title: Everest: book one: The contest
Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and year of publication: U.S.A, August 2002
Number of pages: 138
Where I found the book: School Library

The Contest is the name of the book and it is book 1 of the Everest trilogy. The story takes place in Summit Athletic Sports Training Facility in High Falls, Colorado located in Rocky Mountains, another location was a mountain named Lucifer’s claw in Alaska. The story dates to a couple of years back. The reason the book is named The Contest is because there is a contest
between 20 candidates and of the 20 only 4 will be chosen to climb Everest, the people in the story are excited to enter this competition because they will be the youngest team to ever climb Everest. The main characters are Dominic, there’s Chris, his older brother, Tilt Crowley, a ruthless poor boy, Bryn Fielder, Samantha Moon, a fearless 15-year-old, and Perry Noonan. The Theme of this book is always aim for the highest and never give up. When you think there is no way out, find ways to solve it.

Dominic, 13, has won one of five wildcard spots for a four-week intensive boot camp competition in Colorado while his older brother, Chris, was already attending because he is second best climber in the country. 15 people are chosen by Cap Cicero (The leader of the expedition and world famous climber) and the other 5 are entered from winning a contest sponsored by Summit Athletic fuel juice, this is how Dominic entered. When Chris and Dominic went to the training facility in Colorado they were amazed of the extra ordinary training facility along with the other 17 climbers. The reason of having only 19 people was because Cap was reserving a spot for 16 year old boy who has already climbed Everest; his name was Ethan Zaph also known as the Z-man. So Cap’s job was to choose 3 kids out of 19 to climb Everest and he would do that through boot camp. The boot camp was so intense that few people quit on the first day. Every week Cap would choose 3 to leave the team. It came down to Chris (Dominc’s older brother), Bryn Fielder (the country’s top female alpinist), and Perry Noonan, whose billionaire uncle is footing the bill for the entire expedition and the Z-man. However, Tilt, Dominic, and Samantha where going back home. While Tilt, Dominic, and Samantha where riding the car back to the airport, they turned on the radio and heard that Ethan Zaph was joining another climbing team so they went back and told Cap about the change.

When cap heard this he was outraged and now he had to pick Tilt, Dominic, and Samantha.
Cap chose Samantha to take Ethan’s place. So now Perry, Sammi, Bryn and Chris are in the original team. The team changed for many reasons like Chris Alexis was kicked off because he was too old and he wouldn’t beat any records so Dominic took Chris’s spot. Cap thought they were now ready for real practice, so he took them to Alaska in a mountain called Lucifer’s claw. Cap was there to make sure they were doing everything right. When they got high up they would set up tents and sleep there for the night. While everyone was in deep sleep, Perry couldn’t sleep, so he got out the tent to take a breather at 2:30am and while he went out he saw Bryn walking towards the cliff. He tried to stop her but she kept walking and fell off. Perry panicked and woke up the whole team. He told Cap that she had fell off and Cap went down to save her with the help of Dominic. Something they didn’t know was Bryn had a history of sleep walking. They discovered she was still alive but lots of her bones were broken and that why the called in a chopper to pick her up and they called Tilt to replace Bryn. This is the end of book one but there is still book 2 and 3 where they pick up off where book one ended.

Christian perspective
This book is not written with a Christian perspective. But Christ like behaviours reflected, Dominic would think of others first and he was the only character that wasn’t judgemental and he never gave up. One thing that really amazed me was that one of the characters mentioned there is no such thing as luck only God’s will and that is something I would agree with. Some of the characters would say “thank God”. I think the book hints some religious characters. A way
this book can be more Christian, if it would mention them praying to God for strength and help during the boot camp and that they would stay physically fit, then it would have given a deeper reflection on faith. Overall Dominic shows his Christian like behaviour because he does not lose hope. Throughout the book there were many moments where he got frustrated but he controlled himself, like how a Christian should. If I would climb Everest I would be really scared and I
would ask God for help.


My Thoughts
I chose this book because the title sounded cool and the book was written by my favourite author, Gordon Korman. The book turned to be one of my favourites; in my opinion it’s the best
dventurous book out there. This book has an extensive amount of details and describes the characters thoughts really well. I personally not very fond of these type of adventurous books, but this one was really fun that I might read the whole trilogy. Reasons I like this book is because it has a really good story to teach which is having perseverance. There were lots of new words in
this book that I found helpful to add on to my vocabulary words list. I recommend this book for the type of people interested in adventure and survival books, this book stresses on the idea of having hope and not giving up.

The Officer James

There once was a very weird and retired colonel named James. He love to wake up and drink a cup of coffee that had lots of caffeine and teriyaki flavoured beef jerky. James would anxiously wait until his wife would make him teriyaki beef place on a awesome looking ceramic plate. James was in his 40's and he became a cop to keep order in the city and keep it clean from discipline. When the city was in need he thought of it as an epidemic so he would save the day from villians, He was so famous that he was noticeable. He loved wearing his beige uniform hen he was on duty and he also loved eating quesadilla . He had two boys in high school and he loved to embarrass them. James would barricade there room with pillows and mess up the room and make them clean it with a vacuum. The point was they city couldn't function with out him but his sons could.

The Sign of the Beaver

Title: The Sign of the Beaver
Author: Elizabeth george Speare
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for young readers
Place and year of publication: New York, August 1984
Number of pages: 135
Where you found the book: The school library

Summary:
The book I read was called Sign of the Beaver and I was really attached to it while reading it. The book is about a story that takes place in the late 1760s in northeast coast of America. The main characters are Matt Hallowell, Matt’s father, Attean, and Saknis. The Book starts when Matt and his Dad are finished building a cabin near the beaver tribe territory. The dad leaves Matt with a gun, watch, and a cabin to take care of while Matt’s dad gets the rest of the family. A couple of days after Matt’s dad leaves, a stranger named Ben comes to Matt’s cabin and tries to make himself comfortable at the cabin, he was wandering down the forest and was heading towards the beaver tribe, but it was getting dark when he saw Matt’s cabin, he decided to knock, Matt opens for him and he enters, Matt then makes him food, Ben who was famished ate till he got stuffed and slept. Matt thought it was rude to wake him up, so he lets him stay. Next day Matt wakes up to find that his rifle was gone and he found no sign of Ben. Matt felt scared and miserable, like his guts were being ripped off, all what he could think of was without a gun there is no food.

Matt was tired of thinking of ways to look for food, one idea flashed, he remembered seeing a bee hive with his dad couple of weeks ago, so he was tempted to get honey and decides to climb the tree to get to the hive, unfortunately he gets stung and falls off. Lying on the floor with a blurry vision, all he notices was 2 strange figures helping him, one big figure and a small figure picking him up to the cabin and giving him medicine. He wakes up next day with an Indian chief in his cabin which is the guy who helped him pull out the bee stings. His name was saknis. Out of his deep gratitude Matt decides to give him a gift to show his respect, so he gives him a book which was one of the few things Matt had. After that Saknis asked Matt to teach his grandson Attean to speak English so when more English settlers come, he can communicate with them and make treaties. Attean then started coming everyday to learn English and he would bring food for matt such as a rabbit or a duck. A month later things reverse, it was now Attean's turn to teach Matt hunting and to pass to him some of the tribe secrets such as carving trail signs leading to the beaver tribe on trees, so if they are lost they can find their way back to the tribe.

Few weeks later, it was getting cooler, and winter signs started to show, Matt was expecting his family to come any time now. However, The bad news was that the Beaver Tribe were getting ready to move North as their usual before winter hits, this mean't that they will leave Matt’s Area. As both kids became best friends, Attean asked Matt to join the tribe as he called him now, the white brother. Matt was confused and did not know what to do because leaving with the tribe could mean that he should abandon his hopes of ever seeing his family, so he decided to stay and wait. Attean understands his decision and he assured him by saying that he would do the same. Attean then gives him his dog as a gift and Matt gives him a golden watch. Matt knew that he made the right decision when his family showed up a week later which during the time he had prepared the cabin for them and for his new baby brother or sister. As soon as they came he discovered that the baby did not survive the cold weather and died. Disappointed but happy for the return of his father and mother, he prepared a nice kitchen for his mom and every day, after their first meal, Matt would have a new story to tell his parents about his adventures with Attean and his life in the past months.

Christian Perspective:
In this book the main character struggles alot with finding food and he is always trying to figure
out a way to survive. He ends up with his Native American friend who helps him learn how to survive and brings him food. In this book I believe Matt was Christian because it talked about him having 2 books the bible and a fiction book. Matt decides not to give away the Bible because he knew its importance of it for himself. I realized that he acted like a Christian because he welcomed stranger into his home. He offered to help and teach Attean how to speak and read. Throughout the book there were many moments where he got frustrated but he controlled
himself, like how a Christian should. I also believe that he was a good Christian because he shared stories with Attean like Noah and the ark. If I was in Matt’s spot I would have taught Attean how to read and speak using the bible because he would the learn Christianity, they way of life. Overall Matt shows His Christian like behaviour because he does not lose hope in ever seeing his family and by welcoming people to his home and sharing his skills with others.


Your Thoughts:
The Sign of the Beaver was a very interesting book; it was so good that it won a Newberry Medal. The book was one of my favourites; it was probably my most liked book that I have read this year. This book has an extensive amount of details. I think the author put so many details that she made me use all my five senses, and it really showed me that we are all the same even if we have different cultures and religions, we all think the same and we all have same feelings and this was the main message of this book. In the beginning Matt and Attean both thought they had nothing in common, but they ended up calling each other brothers because that’s how much they had in common even with their different beliefs. I learned that we can always learn from anyone, no matter how different we are in all aspects and give second chances. This book is for the type of people interested in adventure and survival books.