Friday, July 4, 2008

I have been tagged!

I got tagged by http://www.elenatintil.blogspot.com/ Soooo.... here we go.


Rules
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Who’s your all-time favorite author and why?
It's a tie between Bryan Davis and Thomas Wayne Batson

Who was your first favorite author and why?
My first favorite was probably Brian Jacques. I just love the way he writes the redwall series books.

Who is your newest favorite author?
I think Thomas Wayne Batson

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?
Bryan Davis and Thomas Wayne Batson.

I'm going to tag My mom, I don't know anybody elses blog. http://www.lebenstransformator.blogspot.com/

I'm going to stop with the book review for now, ALthough I will do some from time to time.

What is the name of Sam Gamgee's first child?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rebelution

Hello!

the reason I haven't actually writing that much is because I've been busy with graduation stuff, my sister is go to Europe, and birthdays. and I had to figure out what to post about. But I know what to post about now so....


Rebelution, Do Hard things.




My brother and I went to the conference on 6/21 and it was amazing! It talked about how to do hard things and how we have fallen to meet expectations. Here is a site that puts VERY low expectations for preteens and teens.




I will talk about it a little bit. She says that preteens should pick up/vacuum/ dust their room weekly With some parental help. I would rather have my parents stay our of my room most of the time :). She goes on to say some other stuff that your preteen should be expected to do. She says that young teens and older teens are expected to do a daily household chore, cleaning their room Without help from mom or dad.


(Note that I am not trying to dishonor her or anything else by talking about this stuff. She made some good points, just not all of them good.)


In her article, she says that teens should not be expected to do all of the things, just some of them. Alex and Brett (that's the 2 brothers that talked at he conference) just made clear how low the expectations have fallen. And, as they rightly said, when the expectations are high, people rise to meet them, when expectations are low, people fall to meet them. I will probably talk more about this in my next post.


The candlestone wasn't my favorite of the series, though it is still good.
The Candlestone is a contemporary fantasy novel, the second of a series of books for pre-teens and young adults. Along with a unique blend of fantasy and real life, it delivers action and inspiration through the adventures of two young teens, Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver.

Billy and Bonnie wonder about a number of unsolved mysteries. What was the strange book that the dragon slayers used to summon a dragon? Where is the magnificent sword that seemed to disintegrate the evil Devin? And what happened to The Candlestone, that strange gem, always absorbing light and with it the powers of dragons or dragon children within its sphere of influence?

The Candlestone not only absorbs light, it captures and holds encoded light, including transluminated humans, people who have been transformed into light energy by Excalibur, King Arthur’s great sword. When Bonnie enters the stone herself, she learns that many disembodied souls have fallen prey to the gems powers, but no one has ever escaped.

The two teens face their greatest fears, and they learn to use their strengths, both innate and newly found, as they battle powerful enemies, ancient fiends from times long past, and the horrors of the blackest of prisons, captivity with the walls of unearthly darkness, the crystalline tomb of The Candlestone.
The question is....
Name five children of Samwise Gamgee.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Second Post

Hi guys, it's me again. sorry I haven't been posting, I've been busy cleaning my house for my brother's graduation. I have been visiting Thomas Wayne Batson's blog and this is what happened from Wayne's point of view.







My wife was not home--on her way back from the shore. I was alone with my four children, three of whom were in bed. I had just sat down to write upstairs in my room. I picked up my headphones, and started to put them on. I like to listen to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack when I write. It both puts me in fantasy frame of mind and also blots out the world of distractions. I paused, looked at the head phones, and decided, not tonight. The thought actually entered my mind: "Better not."Not five minutes later, before I could even finish a paragraph, I heard a loud and terrible crash on the kitchen floor. It was the smack-thud-crash that can only come from a body hitting the floor…hard. "Kayla!" I yelled. No answer. "Kayla?!" I was on my feet now and racing down the stairs. "Kayla, you need to answer me."I found my firstborn daughter (now 12) lying on her side and quivering.


I called her name. She responded at last as if waking from a dream. "I fell. I fell, Daddy." I looked around. I didn't see any blood. I assumed she was okay, except for being frightened."What happened?" I asked."I was on the step stool. I had the worst headache I've ever had. I blacked out."That scared me. What she said next, well, I can't even explain what that did to me."Daddy, help me. I can't feel my legs."I couldn't believe it. I'm thinking, no way. You are way over reacting to this fall, kiddo. I started to poke her in the legs...the usual tickle spots. She didn't even flinch. In the flurry of activity that followed, I layed her on her back and put a thin pillow under her head. I told her I loved her and that she'd be okay.


I called 911.911 told me an ambulance had been dispatched and would be there in 4-5 minutes...minutes that, by the way, felt like lifetimes.Kayla suddenly said her stomach felt weird. She said her hands were getting tingly. I held her hands. I brushed the hair out of her eyes. I called 911 again. I asked was there anything else I should be doing. Was there anything I could do? They told me to wait. I hung up.Kayla told me she was losing the feeling in her arms. She kept pleading, "Daddy, Daddy!" Then, she said her vision was getting blurry. She looked up at me, and I felt like I could see her drifting away. "Stay with me, Kayla. Stay with me. I love you, Kayla." In that moment, I thought her eyes could close at any moment...for good.My son Tommy had come down. I told him to get me a damp wash cloth. We put it on her forehead. That helped some. Kayla seemed to be awake.




But she was in pain and terrified.The paramedics came. They stabilized Kayla and tested her legs. They confirmed what I feared. Kayla had no feeling of anything below her waist. They told me that we would be taken by helicopter to Shock/Trauma at John's Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.I spoke to my wife. I felt numb. This couldn't be happening. But it was. I went with Kayla in the helicopter. It all felt surreal. One minute, Eldersburg. The next on a landing pad atop a tall building in Baltimore. After that, it was like an episode of ER. There really were about 12 different medical personnel surrounding my daughter. They did test after test, spoke in shouts and in whispers to each other. I didn't much like the whispers.My wife arrived. It felt even more surreal. Kayla got a CatScan. And as my little girl's body slid into that imaging tube, I thought I saw her foot twitch.



But the doctors told us, she still showed no sign of feeling or movement below her waist.Kayla was taken to Pediatric Intensive Care, hooked up to IV's and a half dozen monitors. Every hour or so, a neurologist or surgeon came in and tested her. Kayla cried out, "This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me."But somewhere around 3 am, Kayla suddenly started showing improvement. Her pinkie toes moved. Then her ankle a little...even her leg. By noon the next day, Kayla had regained most of the motor control of her legs and feet and toes.Many tests and hours later, the doctors could find nothing wrong with Kayla. They gave her a clean bill of health.God healed Kayla. The neurologist told us that they see things like this once or twice a month, but it never heals this fast or this completely. "Incredible," she said.I know God healed my daughter. I am overjoyed and thankful.




But I am also still feeling sober, even a little sad. Because, I know God might have chosen not to heal Kayla. She just as easily could have been paralyzed for life. She might have even died...right there in my arms on the kitchen floor. I suspect if either of those latter events had occurred, I might not be writing this post at all. I'm a little afraid of the thoughts I might have given air to.God is sovereign. That means that He has absolute and exclusive right to any and all things that transpire in the universe. And I praise Him for being sovereign. I am SO glad that He is in charge, and not I. He gives life. He takes life. He is God over all things. He does not cause evil. He allows it. And He redeems it.The events of this past weekend left me shaken. At one point, while Kayla was being wheeled from intake to the ICU, I prayed, "God, see! See, I told you I couldn't take care of her. I told you." But God already knew that.God is sovereign. And it's an awesome and fearful thing.





While I was reading this my eyes were wet, Wayne must have been really scared and sad. I told my Mom about it and she said that it sounded like a spiritual attack, and now that I think about it, what happened to Kayla must have been a spiritual attack.




this time, my review is about Raising Dragons, the first in the series of Dragons In Our Midst. (DIOM) here is a summery and pic.











Raising Dragons is a contemporary fantasy novel that inspires young people to dig deep within to find their God-given strengths and use them to overcome any obstacle. It is both a hair-raising, modern-day adventure and a glimpse into another world—a world of knights, dragons, and fair maidens.
A boy learns of his dragon past; a girl has known of hers for years. They combine their faith, courage, and love to overcome evil, a slayer who seeks to bring an end to dragon heritage, forever.
The kids at school call Billy "Dragon Breath" for good reason. His breath is bad! It isn’t the normal, morning-mouth bad; it’s the hot-as-fire, "don’t-you-dare-get-near-me" bad. Trouble erupts when his hot breath sets off the fire sprinklers in the boys’ restroom at school, and his parents learn that they’ve kept their secret for too long.
Billy finally discovers the secret. His father was once a dragon! Now that’s a piece of news a guy doesn’t deal with every day! Billy feels betrayed, alien, lost. When the dragon slayer traps him on a cold mountaintop in West Virginia, Billy learns to battle with weapons of steel and spirit while relying on a power he doesn’t understand, a power that helps him learn to trust again.
Bonnie, an orphan, tries to find a home, someone to love her, even though she feels like a freak because of a body feature that she calls a deformity. But this unusual feature becomes a life-saving attribute as she discovers that her love for others and her faith in a creator hold the answers she’s looking for.



Well, goodnight Y'all, I need to go to bed, hopefully I will post more soon. (and hopefully it's not "Soon" As last time soon. :) )


here is the question.

What were the names of the people who are very similar to Aragorn and Arwen?

Friday, May 9, 2008

First Post

Hello! This is my first post on my very own blog! I will try to post at least once a week, I will post at least one book that I recommend, and I will post a question each week. The first thing that I want to talk about is Beyond the Reflections Edge, written by Bryan Davis. Bryan was kind enough to let me be a Pre-publication reader for his new book, but now its out in stores.

Here is my review...



Beyond the Reflections Edge is a book that is both exciting and will help you grow in the Lord.

Isaac B. Age - 13


here is the picture.




And here is the summery.




Sixteen-year-old Nathan Shepherd has a great life traveling where the careers of his father, an investigator, and mother, a renowned violinist, take him. . . until his parents are found murdered. Left with only a mirror and notes from his father's last case, Nathan goes into hiding at the remote country home of Tony, his father's college buddy, and Tony's teenage daughter, Kelly.

The mysterious mirror must be a clue to what happened to his parents, and when images appear in it-people and things that don't exist-Nathan and Kelly painstakingly gather evidence. But the killers want the mirror too, and danger threatens the teens at every turn. As it becomes evident that Nathan's father had stumbled upon dark forces at work in the world, several questions arise. Could it be that the mirror is a portal to a parallel world? Could this technology be used for evil purposes? And could his parents still be alive, trapped in another dimension? Nathan and Kelly struggle to solve the mystery before they too become victims.

I highly recommend this book to people who are 12 and up, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.



Thomas Wayne Batson writes stories that are so exciting and that keep you at the edge of your seat that you are practically glued to his books.

The door within trilogy is one such story, but they can be more than just stories if you let it.

here is the summery.

There is an unseen world of good and evil where nightmares are fought and hope is reborn. Enter The Door Within.Aidan Thomas is miserable. And it's much more than the strange nightmares he's been having.

Just when life seemed to be coming together for Aidan, his parents suddenly move the family across the country to take care of his wheelchair-bound grandfather. When strange events begin to occur, Aidan is drawn into his grandfather's basement where he discovers three ancient scrolls and an invitation to another world.

No longer confined to the realm of his own imagination, Aidan embarks on an adventure where he meets knights, warriors, kings and mysterious Glimpses who can travel between worlds. Aidan joins them in the struggle between good and evil. With the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, Aidan faces Paragory, the eternal enemy. Will Aidan be willing to risk everything and trust the unseen hand of the one true King? The answer comes from The Door Within.













































the second book in the series is just as exciting, although the main Character from the last book isn't so main in this one.
here is the summery.

Separated from his friend by a thousand miles and unable to return to The Realm of Glimpses himself, Aidan Thomas needs a way to reach Robby with the message of King Eliam, the one true King.

Enter Antoinette Lynn Reed, a bright but headstrong young lady who believes in the Scrolls of Alleble and has a passion for full-contact Kendo. When Aidan discovers that Antoinette has been called to enter The Realm, he solicits her help to find Robby's Glimpse before it is too late.


When she arrives in Alleble, Antoinette finds the kingdom is in turmoil. Alleble's allies are inexplicably beginning to turn away, renouncing former ties with King Eliam. And there are rumors that the dark Prince of Paragory is seeking an ancient evil to crush Alleble once and for all.Can Antoinette and a team of Alleble's finest knights learn the secret of Paragory's growing power? And will they be able to stop the Rise of the Wyrm Lord?



This is third and last book in the series, but by no means is it the least in excitement. here is the summery.

Still staggering under Paragor's relentless attacks, Alleble's remaining allies flee from the four corners of The Realm to safety within the Kingdom's walls.

Once there they find chaos, the forces of Alleble grieving a fallen hero, and the Kingdom's citizens clinging to an ancient legend about Three Witnesses who can bring victory. But who are they? Where are they?

There is little time for Alleble to mourn before Paragor, the Wyrm Lord, and the deadly Seven Sleepers unite against the followers of King Eliam.As Alleble begins to lose hope, Paragor unleashes The Final Storm. Will anyone survive to see the dawn?




I highly recommend these books to 10 and up, and I rate this trilogy 5 out of 5 stars.
Finally Question time.
The first question will be a Lord of the Rings question.... Question.
who made middle earth and caused everything to be created?