A Bone From a Dry Sea

   


As part of my at-home evolution unit, I read the book A Bone From a Dry Sea. This book has two sort-of related stories in it, switching off between two protagonists.

     One of the stories focuses on Li, who is of a species of ape-humans that are our ancestors. Li is more thoughtful and creative than the rest off her species, and helps lead them away from danger. Her species spends a lot of time swimming and in the water. Scientifically, her species existing is only one the theories about our ancestors from that period of time.

     The other story revolves around Vinny, a girl in modern times. She is visiting her dad, an archeologist. She goes to a desert area, in Africa, where he works. They find remains of a hominoid creature, as well as what appear to be shells cracked with tools. They have to overcome the teams leader, who is provocative and bossy.

    I thought this story was sort of interesting, so I am giving it an 7.5 out of 10. I ended up being more interested in the story of the prehistoric girl than the story of the modern girl. Thanks for reading!

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

   
      Because my current schooling program doesn't do much history work, my mother and I are doing some work on history at home. My mom is a history teacher, so she has experience teaching kids this subject. We are starting with a history/science unit on evolution. A few days back, I finished a book called Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman. This book is about Charles Darwin's personal life and his theories' relations to his family and life. I thought this book was okay, because I thought it would be more about the science behind his theories and other scientist related arguments. It did contain some of this information, but the book was mainly about Darwin's wife, kids, and other family/friends. This book did talk about the religious community's problems with it, because his wife was a strong Christan. Overall, I were to rate this book from 1 to 10, I would give it a solid 7, but I may have just expected more science from it then what the author was trying to deliver. Thanks for reading!

Lord of the Rings #1

http://mysite.verizon.net/aznirb/mtr/fotr99.jpg

     Very recently, I finished the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book, titled The Fellowship of the Ring, took me a long time to read, but I liked it enough to continue on to number two.           Before I read this, I read The Hobbit, the prequel to this series. The way this book was written was a little old-fashion, and my edition had almost unreadable small text,  but I loved the storyline and characters, who had very believable personalities. I thought that the beginning of the story dragged on too much, but once I got past that I liked the pace more. Unlike other books I've read, this book's storyline was not so predictable, which I feel is very important. Overall, I really liked this book, and would recommend it to anyone who like fantasy stories. I think it is important that before you read this book, you read The Hobbit, which gives very helpful background information. Thanks for reading!

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

    I have just finished reading a really complex and thought-provoking series. This series, titled The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel, includes the six books shown on the left. These books incorporate historical and mythical figures that add to the plot line, such as Niccolò Machiavelli and the Roman god of war, Mars. This series has many, many elements of a fantasy book, but has some science fiction pieces as well. These books are some of my favorite among all of the books I have read.