Showing posts with label westerfeld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label westerfeld. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Bogus to Bubbly

Bogus to Bubbly
by Scott Westerfeld
reviewed by Hannah

I have been waiting for this book to come out for years! My friend Kallen gave it to me for my birthday last week, and I read it during that day at school. (I'm not exactly sure what the teachers taught that day) Scott Westerfeld wrote the "Uglies" series, which, despite the name, is actually quite good. It had to do with ethical and moral issues in a "Utopian" community. It's a good series, because it really makes you think! It's sci-fi, but it actually has a plot and characters with real feelings, which I have found many sci-fi books lack.

This is a guide book, subtitled, "An insider's guide to the world of Uglies". Inside is information about the world which Westerfeld has created. Some sections include the science of beauty, a guide of the gadgets and technology mentioned, and the beginning of one of the books in a series from a different character's perspective To someone who only read the series once, this is an interesting read. I, however, have read the entire series 3 times (I'm sorry-- they're my favorite. haha) and so I knew most of the content already.

I did learn some new and quite random facts, which was cool; The phrase "I love you" is said exactly twice total. Also, the unit one character uses to measure beauty, milli-helens, originates from Helen of Troy, whose beauty was said to launch 1000 ships.

I would definitely get this is you see it, but only if you first read the 4 books in the series: "Uglies", "Pretties", "Specials", and "Extras". Those books, along with this guide, will give you an exciting and disturbing look in the direction our world is headed and an absorbing conspiracy plot of our planet 200 years in the future.

All we need now is a movie!


Monday, December 1, 2008

The first post!

Ever since I was in 5th grade, I've had an interest in journalism. I first published a work called "The Hannah News" -- I know, creative! Anyway, It had articles about people in my family who believed in aliens, poems that my little cousins had written, a story about extremely good intuition on the part of a family member. Nothing special, but definately a good start as a 10 year old. I made about 4 or 5 issues and even started charging for a subscription to my mini- newspaper/magazine! Eventually I ran out of things to write about, because quite honestly I was to lazy to actually do any real research, and too young to understand most of the interesting things happening around me anyway.

Now, as a high school student, I'm taking the first step in making "The Hannah News" come back to life. My new magazine/newspaper will most likely to called "Bubbles", the reason for which I will discuss soon. I know that my writing won't be perfect, and to be realistic, it isn't likely that I will keep it up for a long time, but I'm going to try and write articles about whatever interests me at the time, normally about things like books, movies, technology, and my personal opinion on what's happening in the world. I'll probably sound naive to some, but I'm hoping that this blog will help me become a better writer, and help me be more comprehending about, well, everything.

And, the reason I named it "Bubbles" is that my favorite author, Scott Westerfeld, just published a guide book on my favorite series, Uglies, called "Bogus to Bubbly". His blog is great for me to read! He posts a lot, and always about things that I find relevant, so "Bubbles" seemed appropriate.

Keep reading everyone, I'll post more as soon as I can!