Book Challenge 2015 - progress part 2
5/19/2015Hello everyone! :)
Uh, how much is happening right now! Fortunately I've managed to go through organisation things. I'm so happy I figured out Healthy Teenager Project (see on the right) finally.
There was some mess with it, but officially I announce it works (progress! progress!) as the Instagram account:
(@healthyteenager_project)
Okay, let's say this auto-promotion has been done, now let's start the real post.
Finally next part of summary Book Challenge. Reading books take more time than watching movies, for example, especially when most of them are pretty thick.
Today "The Land Of Stories" and "British History Seen Through Art". Non-typical combination, hm? Welcome.
(from "The Land of Stories")
- IN ENGLISH (or another foreign language) -
AUTHOR: Chris Colfer (more about this man - see this post)
TITLE: "The Land of Stories - The Wishing Spell"
PAGES: 438
ABOUT: The twins, Alex and Conner Bailey get fairy-tales book from their grandmother, but don't expect they will enter the fairy-tale world, where stories still continue in their own, magical way... They have to come back to real world, but there is one problem - one of the most serious villain has just come back on the trail...
MY IMPRESSIONS:
Well, first of all you should know I'm very partial to fairy-tales. They set important part of my childhood and I can't imagine life without them. I still have my Grimm's old book on the main shelf. I'm totally not embarrassed about it, because as many people forget fairy-tales have been one of the main sources of our patterns of behavior. In each story we will find particular moral. Despite this fairy-tales absolutely have been affecting my imagination and let escape from the problems of this world. That's why I really like good fantasy books, like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings (okay, they had many problems too, but you know what I mean).
Chris Colfer shows in his books (because The Land of Stories is series) that what I've just written about. The main characters are still children so you may want to reject this position because it's for children. Nothing more fallible. If you have some time or don't know which book read to your children, choose "The Land of Stories". The book is put in very complex plot, full of creative description and shaped characters. We have moments to laugh and even more moments to reflect. There is a lot of wisdom hidden between lines, which only testifies about author's intelligence and sensitivity. The read is very pleasant, as I said, we can leave the routine and surrounding world for a while. So you won't even notice the number of pages.
Everything in book has a particular meaning, so pay attention to details. What I can say more? The book contains beautiful illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and complex map of the fairy-tale world just when you open a cover.
I can sum up my impressions with the USA Today's review of this New York Times bestseller:
"There's more in Colfer's magic kingdoms than Disney has dreamt of".
Sorry, Disney. Now Colfer's time has come. You need to look for new ideas, because remakes are getting boring now.
MY GRADE: I'm leaving this point, because I'd like to make common grade of the whole series and compare books to each other.
- HISTORICAL OR POLITICAL -
(what a contrast!)
AUTHORS: Gina D.B. Clemen / Laura Stagno
PAGES: 127
ABOUT: The books is pre-intermediate PET-preparing educational book presenting british history mixed up with art information
MY IMPRESSIONS:
So I didn't choose this book simply to read about British history. I had to analyse it for competition, so I'm going to judge it basing on its usefulness.
So the authors present is very detailed (for me even too much like for PET-level) British history, explaining it with using art history too. We can see really big number photos of paintings which of course are under deep analysis - why Elizabeth The First was holding foot on the world's map and so on... The thing is that this books isn't very actual for now, because the history ends on Tony Blair. Of course we know history is still moving area, but for those needing good source for now, I don't recommend it. That's not only reason. The book has couple of exercises after each chapter and that's good to revise things after learning them. However there is no key to check them, just the link to site when we should find more exercises and explanations while... the site doesn't exist.
That makes the book a failure. Despite the fact it was published long ago - editors, authors and people who care should activate the site.
At the end of the book we have got PET-style test and still... no key. Of course you can find all answers in the text, but who will read it again and again...?
The plus is a CD, from which there are some listening exercises and in my case it was luckily working.
MY GRADE: 5/10
I'm sure there are now better and more clear ways to learn British history. Check the Horrible Histories for example. These guys rule the history teaching.
And that's all what I have today. At the end get some (discover more by yourselves!) inspirational quotes from "The Land of Stories"! :)
- " Once the world has made a decision, there is little anyone can do to change its mind"
- "Fairy tales are life lessons disguised with colourful characters and situations"
- " Sometimes we forget about our own advantages because we focus on what we don't have"
~GigiBax
0 comments