Lily's Review of Oedipus a greek tragedy

Review of Oedipus a greek tragedy

No. Just No. I am required to read this for school. Just no. I was excited because I love the Greek Myths, but, just do yourself a favor and don’t read it, please. Just No.

-Lily

GadgetJax Reviews: Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading (I can't believe that title)

I know I set the world on fire with my last review. I covered Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and I called it bad. 

Very bad. 

Twilight level of bad.

So, I needed some time to cool off and find a book in a similar genre that was actually good, which took a long time. So much time, that I actually gave up and moved onto other titles that I would personally recommend: The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, Little House in the Woods, and one I'm working on right now: Eragon. (Hear that, Zack? I cracked from boredom and finally gave into your wish!)
With so many other titles mixed in, I eventually forgot my quest for finding a new title and went on with my standard reading selection. Well, I would of, anyway, if I didn't notice a peculiar-looking title on the Juvenile Fiction shelf at the Highland branch. I picked it up, read it, liked it a lot, and then it reminded me a lot of Wimpy Kid's genre, so I decided to review. So, what book was it?

The book has what is probably the best title for any piece of fiction. It is called, and I quote, it is called, AND I QUOTE...

"Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading"

Wow. When you have a title like that, what could possibly go wrong?

The Guide to Not Reading (I can't take that title seriously, it's so hypocritical.) is just another title in the tsunami of Middle School stories right now: Simple tale, just like every other book about a depressed grade school boy, but with a twist. Charlie Joe is our main character and narrator for the tale, but he hates books. No, I mean hates them a lot. So much so, that he gets his best friend Tim to read any assigned schools books for him in exchange for cafeteria food. 

O.o

So, with such a special twist, you can expect a lot from this book, and it truly delivers! I would cover the bits and pieces of the book in detail, but that would ruin the story, and TRUST ME. DON'T. SPOIL. THE. STORY. 

With story out of the way, I would like to take a moment to reflect on why this book excels over the Wimpy Kid formula.

First thing it gets right is the main character, Charlie Joe Jackson. Greg Heffley was a terrible character because the book kept trying to encourage you that he was the only nice person in the story, which was contradictory to the way he actually acted. On the other hand, The Guide to Not Reading makes 101% emphasis on how Charlie Joe is such a ridiculous person by his hatred of reading. This aspect is reinforced so good that the book contains little snippets inbetween explaining why Charlie Joe thinks reading is bad. It's hilarious stuff, with the best in the entire book being a mini-segment where Charlie Joe says that people that read need glasses because the small words hurt their eyes! That's comedy gold!

Speaking of little snippets, the sour disposition Charlie Joe has towards reading is reflected from the chapters. Each one is only a page or two long, and all of the long ones are followed up by little notes from Charlie Joe(the narrator, reminder to you) saying that he'll make sure that the next chapters are smaller. Seriously, the writing for this book is as good as the stuff in early Spongebob, and you want to know how good early Spongebob is?

That's how good it is.

The final thing that The Guide to Not Reading excels in over Wimpy Kid and all of that series is the cast. All of the other characters are fleshed out like needed, and while this is a common staple to ANY book, I can't even begin to tell you how refreshing it is to read a book that takes a pre-existing formula and adds the finishing touch right on key. All of these characters are specifically designed to counter-balance Charlie Joe's personality, and as such, it helps make the book feel like a community I can connect to.

Bottom line, if you want a book that will truly make you laugh, read this title. It gets so much right, that all it needs to do is be funny. Yes, there are a few little things here and there that ruin the book, but I can't really say anything about those issues without spoiling the book, so I'll end on this note: Read "Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading." It's amazing.

Quote of the Month: Lily

"How romantic, you smell of freshly puked apples." Lily W.

This was Lily's reaction at discovering that in one of the versions of Snow White, the prince wakes the princess, not with a kiss, but by jostling a bite of the poisoned apple from her throat.

Here is a handy link to the Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts. Professor D. L. Ashliman created it when he was at the University of Pittsburgh. Here is a link to his translations of a bunch of different versions of the Snow White story so you can compare them yourself!

This was at our book discussion of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman on 5/6/15.

How To Play: The Pokemon Trading Card Game a GadgetJax production

Enjoy Part 1 of our new feature: How To Play
In this video GadgetJax starts us out with the basics of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Anime Club recommends:

At the last Anime Club here at Highland I asked the members to submit titles for us to watch and their suggestions were too good not to share! Please remember that these titles, unlike the ones that are shown at our club meetings, have not been pre-screened by the librarian. These are teen suggestions for other teens!

Most of these recommendations are for comedy shows (lots of Hetalia fans in Highland, Indiana).

Myia recommends the comedy Nodame Cantabile, and wrote that the show "is funny and it gives you a view of a kid who wants to be a conductor"

Liliana and Stephanie both suggested the fantasy series Fairy Tail (Liliana said it is "AMAZING :3 ")

Nick recommends Blue Dragon to our viewers at home.

Annabelle thinks that everyone should watch Ouran High School Host Club, which was the first anime she ever saw.

Chloe is also recommending her first title: Hetalia, which she claims is hilarious (agreed) and educational (sometimes? PLEASEplease Fact Check before citing any events that happen in this show).

Katie's first show was Bunny Pop Kids and she recommends to fans of cute anime.

Zack recommends the military/action show Arpeggio of Blue Steel.

Camellia's recommended three titles: Kagero Project, Houzuki no Reitetsu, and Comedy in Hell.

Alissa's favorite series right now is "Say I Love You" which she has watched through twice now!



Aaand Mrs. Jennifer (the librarian) thinks that everyone should be watching MY love STORY!!



Do you have another favorite to add to our list? Comment below!

Thanks,
The Highland Anime Club

Lily's Top 10 Books

My Top Ten Favorite Books

I can be a very picky reader (okay and a very opinionated person in real life too) but these are some of my favorites. It was very hard for me to write down just ten but these are sure to make you love reading! (And these are all at the library.. I’m pretty sure)

1.Percy Jackson and the Olympians/ The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan I’m sure many of you have heard of these series I'll just say that it is beautiful and should be read as fast as possible (It was agony waiting for the last few books over the course of three years.)

2.Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. For once we get to read a novel with the villain as our hero! With fairies, centaurs, and LEPRECON these books are amazing!

3.Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha VanLeer. This Mother daughter duo did an amazing job, you’ll get sucked right into this fantastic adventure! (If you have read the book that joke makes a lot of sense!)

4.Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede. I just did a review on this so read that so I don’t have to retype this! Its awesome so read it!

5.The 39 Clues/ The 39 Clues Cahills vs. Vespers/ The 39 Clues Unstoppable/ The 39 Clues Double Cross by like a million different authors but it is a popular series so you will have no trouble finding a copy at the library. It really is unstoppable it’s on its fourth series and I am behind two books, granted they are very short books, they are amazing but don’t waste your money trying to buy all of these unless you have an infinite amount of money, they are expensive since they somehow made a card game with it!

6.The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is a classic story that is set in such an amazing world! I have to say it is so fun to read these books!

7.Cinder by Marissa Meyer.If you know anything about me it is that I absolutely HATE the fairytale of Cinderella, damsel in distress who never stood up for herself doesn’t float my boat sorry. This novel completely flipped the fairy tale on it’s head and I suggest you read this futuristic cyborg based series because it is pretty amazing.

8.Its Kind of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is a lighter take on teenage depression, though the plot is rather sad the story is full of hilarious plot twists, sadly though the author Ned Vissini died from his depression, I suggest you read this wonderfully funny novel, even if it isn’t a fantasy!

9.Beautiful Creatures  by Kami Garci and Margaret Stohl is a BEWITCHING (pun intended) novel about magic and even some voodoo! Check it out because it is super funny! The last book in the series is actually my favorite!

10.The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley is a children based series but it is so amazing it cannot be looked over. No matter what your age you will love this new take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales!

Gosh that was so hard to narrow it down to just ten favorites! I barely came out of this alive! Well I’m onto my next quest, I hope you all can enjoy these books as much as I have!

Happy Reading!

-Lily

Quote of the Month: Hayden

"An emu ... it's like an ostrich but less...ostrich like." 

Hayden G. 2015.

(from the teen book discussion of The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate)

Ostrich and Emu images from the British Library's flickr 

(this one is my favorite)