Gathering Blue

The Giver is the first book in a series of four. Next in line is Gathering Blue.

This book's setting is about as opposite to Jonas's world as it can get. The people are taught to, and even thrive off of, fear. The village is dirty and full of dirty people, many of whom would stab a person in the back if given half a reason. The only form of government these people have is another Council, made up of only men, that rarely interferes with any matter (in a good way, anyways) unless asked.

The main character for this story is a crippled girl named Kira. She would have been killed at birth, as was the custom for deformed babies, but her mother fought for her daughter. By this time, Katrina, Kira's mother, was widowed because her husband had been in a hunting accident. Katrina was not about to lose her husband and daughter.

But by the start of the book, Kira is a full orphan; Katrina died of a disease.

Kira once again faced death at the hands of other villagers, because she had no one left to protect her. At the last moment, however, she talked her main enemy into taking the matter to the Council. The Council ruled in favor of keeping Kira in the only modern building of the community and giving Kira's mother's land to the woman who wished to kill Kira.

Why would the Council do such a thing? Why take on a crippled orphan girl barely in her teens?

Kira had a gift. She could sew like no other, and there were times when her sewing could even tell the future.

Oh, yes, the Council wanted that gift. Wanted it desperately.

How far would they go to keep Kira with them? How far had they gone before this point? What else will be revealed along the way? Gathering Blue holds all the answers.

The Giver

I can't remember when I first read The Giver by Lois Lowry, but I reread it with my class in 9th grade.

A 12-year-old boy named Jonas lives in the perfect community. Everyone is the same, everyone gets the perfect job assignment when they reach their 12th ceremony in December, and no one is left out or rude. And should anyone feel out of place, or break the rules more than twice, they are simply and quietly released from the community.

Perfect, right?

That's what Jonas always thought, until he was selected to be the next Receiver of Memories. Transmitted by touch, memories are the skeleton in the Council's closet. They don't like or want the memories, but they need them all the same. And so they choose one person every generation or so to bear those memories all on his or her own.

Some memories are fantastic - like color, or snow, or sunshine, or rainbows!

Some are horrible - like war, or broken bones, or hunger, or abandonment.

Whether good or bad, the Receiver of Memories bears them all alone. Once in a while, he uses those memories to aid the Council in a difficult decision, and they often listen; but they don't want to hear about why the Receiver recommends this action, how he knows the best course to take. They don't want that burden.

Jonas is in for a major cultural shock. And as if it weren't shocking enough to discover color or animals or real pain (emotional and physical), he soon finds out his own community is darker than he ever knew.

Oracles of Fire

Lately, I've been talking about Bryan Davis's series Dragons in our Midst. Davis also wrote a sort of "sequel series" called Oracles of Fire.

The series Oracles of Fire continues to follow the adventures of the heroes we fell in love with in Dragons in our Midst, but the first book doesn't mention any of the humans we knew until the end of the book.

Why?

Because the first book, Eye of the Oracle, begins in Noah's day - right before God sends rain for the first time and floods the entire earth. And this same book ends about where the last book of the first series ends.

The storyline tends to jump from character to character, a few of whom actually survive a few thousand years to the present. Lilith (also known as Morgan), Namaah, Makaidos, Thigocia.

And Sapphira Adi.

Sapphira, once known as Mara, is a slave girl living in an underground world. She is the main character for this book.

Or maybe one of the main characters. Hmm, it's been so long since I've read it, I can't remember. I do remember the book focuses a lot on Sapphira, but it also focuses a lot elsewhere too. I guess if there is a main character other than Sapphira, it's probably Makaidos, the dragon king.

So, yup, that's the "sequel series" for you - the first book of it, anyways. I didn't really give you any plot, sorry. It's kind of hard to sum up something that takes place over the course of four thousand years. But it's definitely very interesting, even if I don't agree with how Davis portrayed some of the biblical events.

Raising Dragons: The Movie

Yesterday, as I was poking around online to remember parts of the Dragons in our Midst series, I realized someone had made (or was in the process of making, or perhaps even had abandoned the making of) a movie based on the first book, Raising Dragons!

I think it's fan-made, though they have a professional name for themselves, I believe. And they worked together with the author Bryan Davis himself. And their website has a couple of trailers for the movie.

Honestly, I couldn't stand the trailers. The first one had a typo in it, or maybe someone did it that way on purpose, not knowing there was a difference between were and where... -_-

I don't actually know exactly what it was about the trailers I couldn't stand. I can overlook typos. And besides, the music was pretty great.

I don't know. I should try not to influence your opinion too much, because I was excited to learn they were making a movie based on the book. And maybe I will try to watch the movie itself if it's actually done.

But I kind of get the impression it was never finished. Am I wrong?

If I am, would you mind please letting me know? I know you readers don't like to talk to me, but this time I'd really like you to. Where can I get/watch the movie Raising Dragons?

Dragons in our Midst

Have you ever read the Dragons in our Midst series by Bryan Davis?

The books are a little hard to get into at first, but eventually the characters are really wonderful. It's sort of a Christian fantasy series, but it takes place (at least for the most part) in our world, maybe a few decades back.

When I first started reading, it was kind of hard to get through the first few chapters of the first book. And even when I finished that first book, I might not have gotten the next books in the series had it not been for one character: Walter Foley.

He's the main character's best friend, and is he ever awesome! I was a little worried at first that he would turn out to be the best friend that ditches his friend when certain truths are made known, but not only does he stick by his friend, but he doesn't even let on that he knows anything until the friend(/main character) tells Walter himself.

Also, Walter, I believe, is the first ever character in a book to make me laugh out loud. He is renowned among his friends for his sense of humor, and it translates very well from the page to the reader. I could hardly keep reading, I was laughing so hard at one point.

And once I loved Walter enough to keep reading, I soon fell in love with the other characters: Bonnie Silver, Clefspeare, and eventually even Billy Bannister. For some reason, the main character was the slowest to worm his way into my affections, but maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that he had a lot of spiritual growth to go through. Bonnie almost seemed like a spiritual crutch for him at first, before he learned to stand on his own.

Hmmm, I think I may have just talked myself into rereading the series. It's been a while... xD Have a great day, dear readers!

Spring Break Pt. 2

Something else occurred to me as I was writing yesterday about my spring break.

It's not Easter yet.

For as long as I can remember, I'm pretty sure my spring break has been an Easter break as well.

But this year, I do not get an Easter break. Well, I get the Friday before off, but not the week following. My spring break is long before Easter.

I've heard the reason is so that the politically correct term is spring break, rather than Easter. Sort of what they're trying to do to turn Christmas break into winter break.

Now, I'm not going to go into some huge long tirade about how wrong that is and why. You've probably heard that story dozens of times from dozens of other sources. I'm just going to say it bothers me.

Because, worse than anyone else putting God out of these holidays, what if I'm letting it affect me?

Sometimes, I do interchange the terms Christmas break and winter break. And this year, technically I don't really seem to have Easter break at all.

Que Dieu m'assiste. May God help me. Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Spring Break

I'm on spring break! Woo-hoo!

As excited as I am for this break, I do have a lot of homework to do. =/

Yesterday, I managed to complete the bulk of my homework list, but I still have the bulk of my homework work ahead of me, if that makes any sense.

In other words, the stuff I finished yesterday were stuff that could be done in a few hours collectively. The stuff I have left to do will probably take a few hours per assignment.

Ouch.

But I have a full week to do them, so hopefully I'll still be able to enjoy this time off. Yay!

Wish me luck! I have to study for a test, write two papers, write a post for my class blog, and take at least 10 professionalish-looking pictures for that blog.

I'mma buckle down, get to work, and hopefully have it all done by Tuesday or Wednesday!

...Except maybe the studying part. I should probably keep working on that all week. Yeah...

But anyways! I'm ready to go, ready to work for relaxation, even though that totally sounds like a paradox! Have a great day!