Within Reach: My Everest Story book review

Article posted September 21, 2006 at 10:37 PM GMT0 • Reads 58

I read the book Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer. It is about Mark (a 13-year old kid) Pfetzer who gets involved in climbing accidentally. He goes on a camping camp with 15 year olds (but he is huge for his age, about 6’2” and 100-something pounds). He has to climb a 40 foot mountain. He said he was scared to death. He finds out that he loves it and goes on to climb Everest.

Plot

The plot was very interesting. It was his autobiography. If you climb or know someone that does climb, this book is for you. Even if you don’t climb I would still recommend this book. He gives details of the mountains and the terrain. He even included a glossary of all of his climbing gear.

Writing Style

At some points his book becomes hard to understand because of his grammar. Sometimes he says things that even if you read them twice you still will have no clue about what in the world he is saying. Most of the way through though, it is very readable.

Humor and Readableness

This book is hilarious. He has a great sense of humor. Some things that aren’t normally funny become something you could laugh at. If you’re not on the edge of your seat, then you are probably cracking up. He was 16 when he wrote this book, so what do you expect? Sometimes he used very “colorful” language, but not much of it and they are very mild words. His “colorful” language comes near the end of the book, when he is climbing Ama Dablam and Everest.



His book is also very exciting. Sometimes you have to force yourself to put the book down because it’s 12:00 midnight and you want to know what happens next. Or maybe you need to eat dinner because you need to get ready for football practice.



All the drama of not getting to summit Everest because you break your rib because he was coughing so much. Or the fight between his fellow expeditioners at Advanced Base Camp. Or what happens at the end. The book can get tragic sometimes. People die climbing Everest. Eight died while he was going to summit but was held back.



I really hope a lot of you read this for summer reading. It was a great book and I highly recommend it to everyone.

comment answering

Article posted September 26, 2006 at 11:00 PM GMT0 • Reads 32

I'm sorry if this isn't the right way to respond to comments, but this is the way i'm going to answer them. First i'm going to thank everyone that gave me positive comments. I am also so glad that so many people read and responded to my blog. Cookoo4chocolate: You should really try to read this book. It's great if you are looked for an all-around good book. It is a fairly long book, though. It would be great to read during reading zone, too. Haley: I'm glad that you thought I was descriptional. I hope that you might want to read the book also. To post an article all you have to do is make a blog and click on "article". Then type your article in the box. When you are done check the box that says "request publishing". Click save and then Ms. Walden will check your article to make sure it's school appropriate. Soon you should see your article posted on your blog.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince

Article posted July 12, 2006 at 07:00 AM GMT0 • Reads 32

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince







My book was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. This is the sixth installment in the Harry Potter series. Half Blood Prince is about Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts. He is confronted with new challenges and of course new responsibilities. This year he gets a crush on Ron’s sister Ginny. He is faced with his girl problems and must overcome them so he can help Dumbledore.

• • •

Plot

I would have to say this is the best book I have ever read. It is packed with action and drama. Poor Harry is faced with so many problems, making his real problem defeating the Death Eaters and helping Dumbledore find something very important. This story probably has the greatest climax. Action, death, deception all in about two pages. Although the ending is very sad, but it leaves you anxiously awaiting the seventh Harry Potter book.

• • •









Writing Style and Readability

J.K. Rowling has a very cool writing style. She uses a lot of detail and uses very British words and sayings. Although she does use some bad language the book is relatively clean, making it great for anyone above 10.



Her writing style makes her books very readable. She incorporates true British language and drama and action to make her books impossible to put down. After you finish the book it’s just so hard to wait for the next one.



Humor

This book is great if you want a few laughs. You may end up in a non-stop giggle. Her style is very humorous, making the book even better. It’s great if you have a bad day and just want a good laugh. Her characters sometimes do stupid things that are so funny you wonder why they aren’t on Comedy Central or something. Her humor can sometimes be very dry, which I find the funniest.

In con conclusion, this book is a great read. It’s perfect for action or drama lovers. Even better for comedy lovers. I would recommend this book to anyone over 10 looking for the greatest book ever written!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Article posted December 14, 2006 at 01:48 PM GMT0 • Reads 32

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince







My book was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. This is the sixth installment in the Harry Potter series. Half Blood Prince is about Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts. He is confronted with new challenges and of course new responsibilities. This year he gets a crush on Ron’s sister Ginny. He is faced with his girl problems (just one of his many problems) and must overcome them so he can help Dumbledore.



Plot

I would have to say this is the best book I have ever read. It is packed with action and drama. Poor Harry is faced with so many problems, making his real problem defeating the Death Eaters and helping Dumbledore find something very important. This story probably has the greatest climax. Action, death, deception all in about two pages. Although the ending is very sad, but it leaves you anxiously awaiting the seventh Harry Potter book.





Writing Style and Readability

J.K. Rowling has a very cool writing style. She uses a lot of detail and uses very British words and sayings. Although she does use some bad language the book is relatively clean, making it great for anyone above 10.



Her writing style makes her books very readable. She incorporates true British language and drama and action to make her books impossible to put down. After you finish the book it’s just so hard to wait for the next one.



Humor

This book is great if you want a few laughs. You may end up in a non-stop giggle. Her style is very humorous, making the book even better. It’s great if you have a bad day and just want a good laugh. Her characters sometimes do stupid things that are so funny you wonder why they aren’t on Comedy Central or something. Her humor can sometimes be very dry, which I find the funniest.



Character Development

This probably the most important aspect of the Harry Potter series. Rowling has excellent characters. I guess this could be considered part of her writing style. Of course the main character Harry Potter is your usual teenage boy. He has a ton of problems as the series progresses and as he gets older. With each year comes more new discoveries and bigger problems. Ron, Harry’s best friend, is a more typical teenage wizard. He goes through his girl problems and of course gets sucked into Harry’s problems. He is tall and thin, with bushy red hair and some red freckles on his face. His two twin brothers, Fred and George Weasley, are big troublemakers. They run their own joke shop and in the previous book they infuriated a teacher by insulting her in front of the entire school, and then escaping to freedom. Hermione Granger, Harry’s other best friend, is pretty with somewhat curly brownish hair. She is fairly tall and thin. She has her boy problems, specifically wanting to be Ron’s girlfriend. As usual she is a part of Harry’s problems. She is very smart, and Ron thinks she’s a mental know-it-all. Another very important character is Albus Dumbledore. He is tall and bony, and very old. He has a long gray beard and long gray hair. He is probably one of Harry’s closest friends. Dumbledore was there for Harry from his first adventure. In this book he plays a major role in helping Harry, and he plays a big part in the heart-stopping climax. Professor Snape is probably number one on Harry’s most-hated list. He is a vicious, sly deceitful guy. His skin is chalky white and he has a long, hooked nose. His hair is short and greasy, and he loathes Harry. He has a big role in this book and by the end you will hope he bursts info flames and dies.



In conclusion, this book is a great read. It’s perfect for action or drama lovers. Even better for comedy lovers. I would recommend this book to anyone over 10 looking for the greatest book ever written!

The Holocaust

Article posted May 9, 2007 at 02:16 AM GMT0 • Reads 32

The Holocaust was a terrible act of cruelty towards Jewish people and also gypsies plus other races. A man named Adolf Hitler was the one responsible for the horrible acts. The Holocaust happened many years ago around the time of WWII. It started in 1939 and ended in the mid 1940’s.

A quick synopsis of the Holocaust would start in Germany with Hitler. Hitler was a young German who was out to get Jews because he thought that they were responsible for the events happening in Germany at the time.

Germany was having terrible financial problems because of the war. They owed billions of dollars to the U.S. and other countries for what they did. This made the Mark, or German currency, virtually worthless. At the time of the depression, you would end up paying hundreds of Marks for a loaf of bread.

The Holocaust was the mass murdering of Jews and others. The tragedy ended with over six million casualties. In the following paragraphs I will be explaining the Holocaust and other events that the Holocaust triggered.

Adolf Hitler was a messed up kid. Hitler started his persecution of German Jews in 1933 and expanded his persecution to European Jews. This persecution lasted until the day he took his own life. Hitler’s youth was disturbed. A very bad father raised him. He was abused. He also suffered from depression. These and other factors contributed to him trying unsuccessfully to overthrow the German government.

His futile attempt to overthrow the government landed him in jail where he wrote his biography, Mein Kampf, which meant My Struggle. Hitler was a devoted Ostara (an anti-Semitic periodical) reader. He blamed the Jews for the loss of WWI. He did not stay in jail for long, only nine months.

In just a few months he was out on the streets organizing the Nazi party. In just a few short years he and his Nazi party would hold 18% of the seats in the Reichstag (German legislative body). It didn’t stop there. The Weimar Republic president, Paul Von Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor. Hindenburg thought this would cool Hitler down. Unfortunately this just got him a better position in the Reichstag. Later the Reichstag building burned to the ground, giving Hitler the perfect opportunity to pass a law that gave Hitler all of the power in the government.

Hitler then called for a boycott of all Jewish businesses. The president did nothing to stop him. As Leo Baeck called it, it was “the greatest cowardice”. Hitler forced all Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothing. Hitler burned Jewish synagogues and demolished Jewish businesses. This horror was called Kristallnacht. Germany lost great Jewish thinkers, inventors and artists because of his acts. To leave Germany it would cost all Jews $200 apiece. After some time Hitler took over a lot of Europe. His goal was to rid the world of Jews. He called this “The Final Solution”.

Hitler’s organizations were extremely popular. The people were starting to flock to the many sub-organizations that he had, which included a group for youngsters. His entire party numbered over four hundred thousand. Because of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was only allowed an army of one hundred thousand. Unfortunately Hitler’s Nazis were a private organization, making the one hundred thousand rule ineffective. Hitler went on to gather almost five hundred thousand supporters and gain the public’s trust. He did this by choosing his wording so that people heard one thing, while he meant another. His teacher even said that he was an excellent speaker, but he was just a bad kid. And while his Nazi party grew, so did the public’s anti-Semitism, or hatred of Jews. Most citizens were in favor of the Final Solution. Even if they weren’t, they couldn’t say so. Anyone who opposed him was sentenced to death. He even sent his troops to weed out all other anti-Semitic organizations. He then gathered more troops and made his Nazi party into an army. He had one entire organization devoted to protecting him. He called them the SS. They had to take an oath to him to become a member of the SS, so the SS became a prestigious organization.

Anti-Semitism is the big word for anti-Jewish people. Hitler was anti-Semitic. He and his Nazi party were out to get all Jews because he basically wanted someone to blame for Germany’s financial problems. Though you may think all Nazis were anti-Semitic, you are wrong. Holocaust heroes came in all shapes, sizes, ages and races. Most Nazis were out to kill Jews but some were subtly helping them. One example that I read in The Holocaust Heroes was that a Nazi would enter a crowded restaurant, announce the name of the person he was supposed to get and then sit down and eat a leisurely lunch while people in the restaurant went and helped that Jew to escape. Unfortunately these acts were rare. Acts by your everyday hero were much more common, but nonetheless still rare. These heroes of the Holocaust could save anywhere from one to four thousand Jews, some even more than four thousand. It was these heroes that helped hundreds of thousands of Jews to safety. Some people even gave their lives for this cause. A politician gave up his career, friends, wealth and power to save over four thousand Jews. Others were Jews that fought back in partisan units. Some were successful, others not.

The horrors of the Holocaust inspired many people. People would ask questions like “why aren’t we doing anything about the Holocaust?” America did nothing for a very long time. Finally we did something. We went to WWII. The Germans had a very hard time fighting us. Our allies and we fought for some time until the Axis powers were finally defeated. The Jews were finally liberated.

Jews poured out of ghettos and death camps. We finally found out the deplorable conditions in which Jews were forced to live in. The worst of the death camps was Auschwitz, which was home to hundreds of thousands of Jews. These deplorable conditions included the fact that you may have to put your dad’s body into a furnace and cremate him. Another condition that you had to live in was forced labor. If you weren’t gassed to death by a Nazi gas chamber, then the Nazis worked you to death. Almost six years after the Holocaust began, the Jews were liberated.

Unfortunately the Jews were not liberated soon enough. Over six million perished in the Holocaust. Hitler was believed to have killed himself in his bunker when he knew he had lost. Many theories arose from his suicide. Some people claim to have seen him alive today. Others say he died of a disease. Recently there have been some scientists that researched a disease that they thought he died from. Whatever the cause, Hitler is dead. The holocaust ended around November 20, 1945. It was thought that Hitler killed himself around April 30, 1945.

In conclusion, the holocaust was a tragic and evil event that started in 1939 by Hitler and ended in 1945. The Holocaust’s definition is “the attempt by the Nazi government of Germany to completely destroy the Jews of Europe during WWII”. Since the end of the Holocaust, the nation of Israel was created.

Nowadays there are Neo-Nazis (new Nazis) who follow the beliefs of Hitler and white supremacy. These new Nazis are in very small quantities, though. Other extremists have actually denied the Holocaust in the effort to believe that it didn’t happen. These extremists have also attempted a second Holocaust but failed miserably. Luckily, with plenty of Holocaust survivors, and plenty of people who have devoted their lives to stop a second Holocaust from happening, we will not ever forget the tragedies of the Holocaust.