Igraine the Brave

Title: Igraine the Brave                                          

Author: Cornelia Funke
Igraine lives in Pimpernel Castle with her mother, her father, her older brother and her talking cat, Sisyphus. Her parents, the Fair Melisande and Sir Lamorak the Wily (or the Witty), are magicians, and her brother Albert is training to be one too. Igraine, though, unlike her family, is uninterested in magic. She wants to be a knight, like her great-grandfather Pelleas.

Pimpernel, built by one of her ancestors, was often besieged before Igraine was born. The motive? Igraine's family owns the Singing Books of Magic. The castle has few neighbours, the closest being the Baroness of Darkrock, whose two pleasures in life are horses and drinking spicy mead.
The day before her twelfth birthday, as Igraine tells Sisyphus that life at Pimpernel is a bit boring, the master of horses at Darkrock, Bertram, rides to the castle. He has bad news. Osmund the Greedy, or Osmund the Magnificent (it depends on who's talking), the nephew of the Baroness, has arrived unexpectedly at Darkrock. Rumour has it that he wants the Books of Magic.

Melisande and Sir Lamorak are not worried. They assure the anxious Bertram that they can take care of Osmund.
However, they make a little mistake while finishing Igraine's birthday present...and both are turned into pigs. Talking pigs.
Meanwhile, Osmund is coming. The Baroness has disappeared.
Igraine's parents, now being pigs, can't work magic. And that means that they can't get rid of Osmund and his army until they turn back into humans. For that, they need giant's hair. Unfortuntely they're out of stock.

Osmund and his castellan, the Iron Hedgehog, a.k.a Rowan Heartless, show up outside Pimpernel and warn Albert and Igraine that if the Singing Books are not handed over to Osmund the next day, the castle will be beseiged.
As it is an emergency, the books agree to help Albert hold off Osmund until Igraine returns from the journey she has volunteered to go on- to the hills in the west to get giant's hair.
She succeeds, and meets the Sorrowful Knight along the way, who helps her. And then she learns that the cure will take an hour during which none of Pimpernel's magical defenses will work.

Will Sir Lamorak and Melisande turn back into people without losing Pimpernel? Will Osmund get what he deserves? Will the Sorrowful Knight become happy? And finally, will Igraine become a knight?

Maybe it's below my age group. But even though I'm a teenager, I enjoyed it. And if you like knights, smart girls, magic and twists in the story, I think you will too.

...And Foes Bear Arms To The Doors Of Death

 Drum roll, please....

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call

To storm or fire the world must fall

An oath to keep with a final breath

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death

(This post will probably be twice as long as my two previous ones. And it will have LOTS of spoilers. Be prepared.)

In the old myths of Greek and Roman mythology, the gods had half-human children, called demigods, many of whom went on to become famous heroes- Hercules, Perseus, Achilles, Odysseus.

Who said that wasn't the case now?

And now, we come to the final eight characters, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus, by Rick Riordan.
Annabeth Chase from PJO and Hazel Levesque from HoO finished first and second, respectively. Leo Valdez from HoO came first, closley followed by Percy Jackson from (predictably) PJO in second place. The least popular characters in both categories- Jason and Reyna from HoO.

What is the appeal these characters have?

Readers please note that the survey was held BEFORE the release of the House of Hades (Book #4, Heroes of Olympus, also called HoH) in the first week of this month, so the views of the voters on the following characters could not have been affected by anything in that book.

The hero of the first series, PERCY JACKSON, is the son of Poseidon. He's a popular character. Undoubtedly. I mean, look at his powers- he can control the water, breathe underwater, survive a fall into the Mississippi River from the top of the St.Louis Arch, can talk to horses, and whip up a hurricane. Amazing. And it's not like he's 'too perfect'. In The Titan's Curse, he thinks that there was a time when people watched black-and-white TV and hunted dinosaurs. Reality check, Percy! People never hunted dinosaurs, and black-and-white-TV came way later. And he makes a lot of jokes.

“Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it's a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades.”

There's also the fact that he's a dyslexic, ADHD kid who's labelled as a 'troubled child', which is mentioned on the very first page of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif ('...Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. I guess you can call me that'). He goes on to become a leader at Camp Half-Blood (for demigod children of the Greek gods). It's one of those zero-to-hero stories which reaches out to kids. His fatal flaw is his loyalty- according to Athena, he will do almost anything to save his friends or family. But then, Athena doesn't like Percy because a) he's Poseidon's son and b) he likes her daughter.
He got one negative vote. Why?
Maybe it's because of Annabeth. Annabeth is Percy's girlfriend, and in my opinion, sometimes Percy and Annabeth can be...difficult to read about when they're together, from The Last Olympian onwards. Maybe this affected that voter's decision.

The 'genius' of the series, ANNABETH CHASE, is a daughter of Athena. She has, unfortunately, no magic powers, but she does have intelligence (i.e. a brain that is not stuffed with seaweed, as she claims Percy's is), fighting skills, and a magic invisibilty cap on her side.
She's dyslexic too, but as far as I can see, if she's ADHD, that's hidden pretty well. She's an aspiring architect who is put in charge of redesigning Mount Olympus after it is 'trashed' by the Second Titan War.
She's brave. She's quite loyal (she doesn't give up being loyal to Luke, even after he hosts Kronos, which is saying something), she's intelligent, she's a really good strategist. However, she isn't as good at fighting with a sword as Percy is, preferring to fight with a knife (it's possible this was mainly for sentimental reasons- Luke gave her the blade) and resorting to her mind when others resort to their powers. I always wished that she had magic powers- wouldn't it be cool if she could, say, summon a flock of berserk war owls or something?
It's ironic that she got no negative votes, while it's possible she pulled down Percy.

The typical tough girl, CLARISSE LARUE, is a daughter of Ares. She has no powers mentioned, but she is a fighter with a wicked electric spear (which she calls Maimer, whereas everyone else calls it- behind her back- Lamer). Hardly surprsising, as daughter of the war god. She was entrusted with taking care of his chariot for one day (the first story of The Demigod Files, on a day which went crazily wrong) and so it's kind of obvious that she's one of the kids her dad is more partial to. She made friends with Silena Beauregard- totally unexpected- and the rage she felt when Silena died, combined by the fact that the monster was fated to be killed by a child of Ares, allowed her to slay the drakon threatening Mount Olympus.

I personally like Clarisse. She's a very flawed character, but she has a sensitive side. I think she's put down too much, but since I wasn't voting...yeah, she wasn't really close to the top. People who like Percy don't like Clarisse because it's almost always Percy vs. Clarisse. Plus, she kept the whole Ares cabin at camp when the rest of the campers were fighting to protect Olympus.
Technically, Percy helped Clarisse a LOT, and it may also be because she didn't really thank him. Thanking someone is foreign territory to Clarisse, so I think it's justified. Also, once she did show up at the battlefield, she did amazing. She killed the drakon, she led her cabin and various others into battle, screaming at everyone and fighting nonstop, making the enemy army back off.
But, like I said, not many others share my opinion.

Moving on to the next series, we come to the opening character, JASON GRACE, the son of Jupiter (Greek: Zeus). The HoO series starts with The Lost Hero, which starts with this sentence- Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day. So we can consider him the opening character.
He's got some awesome powers- the ability to control the winds, to fly, and to summon lightning. He's been trained not to show his feelings, to be brave, to lead...
...To be too perfect. I guess that's why he ended up labelled 'Least Popular Boy Character' (again, keep in mind that this survey was held before the release of HoH. He might have gotten more points if it had been after).
Even in HoH, Piper -Jason's girlfriend, who I very unwisely excluded from the survey- is shown thinking about what people said about Jason (Piper knew what her friends whispered about Jason- that he was too perfect, too straitlaced...), and apparently the voters agreed.

The praetor of New Rome, REYNA RAMIREZ-ARELLANO, (whose full name isn't mentioned until HoH), is a daughter of the Roman goddess, Bellona. She shares more than one similarity with Annabeth, such as the fact that they both are strong fighters, good strategists, and don't have magical powers (well, Reyna isn't shown with any, so we're assuming she has none).
And look at the difference in the total number of points they recieved. Annabeth at 16 and Reyna at 5. Eleven points. Big difference.
Reyna has a kind of difficult background. She and her sister are from San Juan (why they left is never mentioned, but based on what Jason remembers about a conversation with Reyna, I think there's another tragedy or something involved), and they worked for Circe- until Percy and Annabeth wrecked the island. Her sister, Hylla, went on to become the leader of the Amazons, while she went to Camp Jupiter, eventually being named praetor.
She faces huge problems- the creepy teddy-bear-slaughtering augur Octavian, descendant of Apollo, stirring up the camp against her; her colleague and fellow praetor Jason's disappearance and reappearance; Percy, the guy who wrecked her home, showing up suddenly at camp and becoming the other praetor; the Argo II's appearance; Percy and Jason's departure to take part on the quest to fulfil the second Great Prophecy.

I like Reyna, the way I like Clarisse. I think both of them are put down way too much. But, like I said, I didn't vote.
Now, if her background wasn't discussed, I could justify dislike of her. She's a Roman (Romans are apparently notoriously stony and emotionless), and she's the praetor, which basically means that she's the leader of the super-strict, abide-by-the-rules-or-else-face-death Twelfth Legion Fulminata, and therefore has to set an example. So she's "stonier" than most.
Apparently. Because she's also accused of being "clingy"- trying to find a boyfriend. She liked Jason, but he disappeared (and later reappeared with- guess what?- a girlfriend). Then Percy shows up- a cool guy- but even though he's lost his memory, he claims he has a girlfriend (which he does).
How stony and clingy go together is beyond me. But...I didn't vote....so Reyna was least popular girl character at 5 points.

Back from the dead, we have HAZEL LEVESQUE, Roman daughter of Pluto. She has the power to bend precious metals and stones to her will- summoning it from nearby, making it move around, twisting it to her liking. Oh, and one more thing- though she's not sure about it since she's been back from the Underworld, the metals and stones she affects are cursed...they will kill anyone else who touches them. She also is really good underground
Hazel died sixty or seventy years ago, when she stopped Gaia taking over before the giants rose. Now, Hazel is one of the Seven of the prophecy, trying to stop Gaia- again.
She doesn't have as much experience as Percy, Jason, or Annabeth, but she is just as powerful. She's the youngest- well, that's a debatable point, but assuming that we skip all the years she was dead- of the Seven.

She's not confident of her abilities, because she was put down often, both in her previous life and this one. Her boyfriend, Frank, was one of the few who helped her out, in this life, before she met the rest of the Seven. However, she's relatively calm in a fight- as in she doesn't lose her head when she stabs a monster. Hazel is protective about her brother, and by all descriptions a nice kid.
There've been only three books so far featuring Hazel, so she wasn't yet as popular as some of the other characters...but she came second to Annabeth. No mean feat.

"Oh, bad," he muttered. "Bad. Bad." He looked across the table at Frank and Hazel. "You guys remember Polybotes?"
"The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter," Hazel said. "The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember.” 

A boy with some really cool powers inherited from his mom, FRANK ZHANG is the son of Mars. His mother's family is descended from some ancient heroes, and he has the blood of a lot of different gods and heroes, so he's not exactly a half-blood, it's a more complicated fraction...okay, you get the point.
He has the power to turn into any animal he wants. Even Percy's jealous.

He's practically ALWAYS unsure of himself. But he does have the courage to do brave things, like the other demigods do.  And, like most of the other characters, he does make funny comments.

Under the tarp was an old steel rowboat with no oars. The boat had been painted dark blue at one point, but the hull was so crusted with tar and salt it looked like one massive nautical bruise.
On the bow, the name Pax was still readable, lettered in gold. Painted eyes drooped sadly at the water level, as if the boat were about to fall asleep. On board were two benches, some steel wool, an old cooler, and a mound of frayed rope with one end tied to the mooring. At the bottom of the boat, a plastic bag and two empty Coke cans floated in several inches of scummy water."Behold," Frank said. "The mighty Roman navy.” 

He's targeted a lot by Leo (proof will be shown later in this post). He's pretty likeable, and scored 14 points, one less than his girlfriend Hazrl.

And finally, the most popular character in the whole survey, LEO VALDEZ, the son of Hephaestus.

His power can be summed up in one word- fire. He's immune to it and can summon it. And he's amazing with tools. 

He's the 'seventh wheel', he doesn't really fit in, and he's a complicated character, one who hides his serious and worried side and shows off his crazy and funny side.

If you need to be convinced any more, here are some Leo quotes.

-"I try not to think." Leo admitted. "It interferes with being nuts."

-"Well done, Frank Zhang," Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. "That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas."

-“Any moment now..." The girl stared out at the water. 
No magical raft appeared. 
"Maybe it got stuck in traffic," Leo said.

Basically, he's VERY popular.
The Most Popular Character award goes to Leo Valdez, who scored 20 points! Applause....

And that brings me to the end of the character-analysis-posts I've been doing.
See you next time on Cartwheels in the Rain.

Let The Games Begin!

(There are spoilers in this post. If you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy, this may spoil suspense. You have been warned.)

On the ashes of a continent once known as North America, there is a country called Panem. It has twelve districts ruled from a shining city called the Capitol.

Seventy four years ago, the districts rebelled against the Capitol. The rebellion was mercilessly crushed. The thirteenth district was destroyed, and as a warning to the survivors and their descendants, the officials of the Capitol created the Hunger Games. Every year, two children- a boy and a girl- called tributes, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are chosen from each district. They are sent into an arena with one goal- to be the last of twenty four tributes to survive.

That is how the first book of the trilogy, The Hunger Games, starts. The series was a huge hit and caused major arguments in our class. So naturally, I had to choose characters from the books for my voting survey. I chose Katniss Everdeen, the heroine, Peeta, the boy tribute from District Twelve in love with her, Gale, Katniss' best friend, and Rue, Katniss' twelve-year-old ally in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games (she dies).

How did they do in the polls? I'll take each character separately.

Music-loving Rue. The twelve-year-old from District Eleven who is chosen for the Hunger Games. When the audience is asked whether there will be any volunteers, there is only the sound of the wind in the trees. Nothing else. 

So Rue is in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. She reminds Katniss of her sister Prim, and becomes Katniss' ally in the Games.

Rue loves music, and sings well. She also is fierce and scores high in the training session, and is a good ally to have. She points out the tracker jackers above Katniss' head, saving her life.

Rue dies when the boy from District One throws a spear through her body. The scene where she dies is cut out from the official film that is shown once the Games are over, enraging Katniss, who had killed the District One boy seconds after the spear was thrown. She only appears in The Hunger Games, but is mentioned many times in the later books, such as when Katniss is listing her reasons for hating Snow, and when Peeta paints a picture of Rue dying in the Games. She is one of the tributes on We Remember in the third book.

Rue scored 13, tying with Hermione in fourth place. Quite a few voters hadn't read the book and didn't add or subtract points from her. Most of the ones who knew her voted positively. A couple of people voted negatively for Rue. What are the flaws in her character that caused that?

Maybe it's because there are so few that those voters didn't like her. They thought her personality was too perfect. Several of my classmates, including me, are not big fans of perfect characters, especially if they play a big part in the story. Most popular characters have flaws- it's what makes them likeable. However, somehow Rue is a very popular character, yet it's hard to find flaws in her personality. That 'perfectness' turned a couple of voters against her.

Gale, the fighter. The only one of the four I chose who wasn't a tribute. Gale Hawthorne is Katniss' best friend, and is two years older than her. He knows Katniss better than even her mother does, and promises to help her family if she dies in the Games (which she doesn't). He's good at setting traps and he becomes a miner when he is spared from the Hunger Games at the age of eighteen, the last year of eligibility. 

He has a crush on Katniss, which he says outright in the second book. The survivors of District Twelve, after it is attacked at the end of Catching Fire, are survivors only because he saved them. He's part of the Star Sqaud in Mockingjay and fights hard to overthrow the Capitol. Gale is captured by the Capitol soon before the rebellion ends and the Capitol surrenders. He hates the Capitol and doesn't believe any atrocity beneath them. He's fierce, unrelenting, and so passionate about the rebellion that he hates even the peaceful citizens of the Capitol.

At the end of Mockingjay, he becomes a police officer in District Two without saying goodbye to Katniss. He simply disappears out of the narrative after he meets Katniss briefly before the public execution of Snow (just before the twist in the tale).

He scored 12, tying with Harry in fifth place. In the beginning of the polls, he was left alone- no points added or removed, until one voter took away a point. This was followed by two positive points, one negative, and another two positive points. This means only six people voted for or against Gale- four liked him, the other two didn't. 

Six people didn't vote Gale, which either means that they hadn't read the book or they didn't have a opinion of him. Four liked him. They may have liked the fact that he fought fiercely, or his liking for Katniss, or his role in the rebellion. He does have flaws, which makes him realistic. Two voters didn't like Gale (one asked if he could deduct two points. I flatly refused. That was against the rules). They may have thought he was going overboard with the rebellion, or they may not have liked his sudden disappearance from the story. One told me that he considered Gale to be too protective of Katniss.

Peeta the painter. The baker's son, the one who gave a starving Katniss bread when both were eleven, so he's referred to as the 'boy with the bread' throughout the series. He's a talented artist, who paints really good pictures. And as Katniss says, he doesn't need a brush and paint- he does just as well with words. He's chosen for the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games and plays a huge role in getting himself and Katniss an advantage with his 'star-crossed lovers' act. In his second Games, when he finds that both he and Katniss are in danger because of the berries, he elaborates on the act, trying to make it clear that he and Katniss actually are in love. However, he does rebel- made clear by the painting of Rue in his private training session. He is captured by the Capitol in Catching Fire when the Games end because some tributes (including Katniss) are pulled out by the rebel forces of District Thirteen.
He is tortured by the Capitol before he is rescued in Mockingjay, when the rebels discover that his memories have been tampered with. Prim helps to heal him. He is sent to the Star Squad by Coin and survives the rebellion. After Coin's assasination (the twist in the tale!), Peeta stops Katniss from biting the nightlock pill. In the epilogue, fifteen or twenty years later, he marries Katniss, and they have two kids.

Peeta nearly ended up being the least popular boy character, escaping by the virtue of one point. The voters obviously aren't huge fans of his. Why?
Haymitch repeatedly tells Katniss, "He's too good for you," to which she says, "I know." (What sort of a reply is that?!) He's fierce, but sensitive, strong, considerate, self-punishing, talented, protective...the list goes on, and he can be summarized as 'good', according to his mentor. 'Too good'. That's probably why the voters don't like him. Except, maybe, for the part when his memories are changed in Mockingjay so he's unforgiving and cold.The only flaw mentioned is his inability to be quiet while hunting. That's about it. And therefore, it turns many voters against him. He ended up with 6 points.

And finally, I present to you...KATNISS, the girl on fire. Katniss Everdeen- hunter, singer, tribute, victor, Mockingjay, rebel, archer, and youth icon.
When twelve-year-old Primrose Everdeen is selected for the Hunger Games, her sister Katniss can't believe it. She volunteers to take Prim's place in the Games, though it almost certainly means death. She soon realizes, though, that with her amazing stylist Cinna, her fellow tribute Peeta, her killer attitude, and the eleven she scored in her training session, she has a huge advantage. But when she holds out the berries...she seals her fate. Unknown to her, rebel leaders have marked her as the face of the future rebellion- the Mockingjay, after her symbol.
Katniss is determined, impulsive, suspicious, fierce and quick-tempered. She's a good hunter with an amazing voice. She knows how to keep herself alive -mostly- and she can climb a tree faster and higher than any other tribute.
So why did she score so low? She was the second least popular girl character, though she scored higher than Peeta.
What happened? She's the protagonist of a bestselling trilogy. She's portrayed by a famous actress in the movie adaptation. She's fierce, she's a survivor (as Peeta's mom puts it), and she's rebellious.

Let's also mention that she can be insensitive and distrustful- she doesn't even trust Peeta for quite a long time. She doesn't have much respect for anyone (except maybe Cinna and sometimes Gale). She also is very judgemental- she doesn't trust Peeta for a long time, then likes him, then hates him when he's cold towards her. She's rash- I mean, look at the berries, the cause of the whole problem. She blames Gale for not telling her things ("It's just what you said. And I totally agree that you should be the accessible one," says Katniss- more or less- in Mockingjay). And coming to the parts where she's in love- assuming that she has fallen in love- she can't decide who she's in love with. Gale or Peeta? Peeta or Gale?

Maybe it's not such a surprise that she scored 8 points. There are definitely quite a few negative aspects to her character.

And that brings us to the end of the list.
Next up on Cartwheels in the Rain- the performance of Rick Riordan's characters in the polls.

HP's Representatives at the Polls

(WARNING: If you have not read all the Harry Potter books, this post contains spoilers. And I will not give spoiler alerts.)

I posted the results of a survey I did recently. And if you take a look at it, you can see that Rick Riordan's characters walked off with the top honours in both categories. However, two Rick Riordan characters also ended up labelled the "LEAST POPULAR".

What happened to Harry Potter and gang?

Luna came third in the girls' category, closely followed by Hermione in fourth place (tying with Rue from The Hunger Games). Ron came third in the boys' category and Harry came fifth (tying with Gale from The Hunger Games).

I'll start with Luna. Luna Lovegood is the Ravenclaw girl who's smart, but apparently slightly nuts. In the sixth book, it's revealed that she saw her mother die when she was nine. That may have something to do with it. Of course, it could be that she's simply absentminded (or a misunderstood genius. Remember, she's in Ravenclaw). Her father also is kind of weird, wearing a strange symbol (which turns out to be central to the story of the seventh book).

However, Luna is a member of the DA and part of the group that breaks into the Ministry of Magic in the fifth book. In the seventh book, she is part of the new trio that keeps the DA alive (along with Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom).

Knowing my classmates (the kids who voted), they like people who stray off the beaten track, and they like fighters. Luna is both. True, she's more strange than fierce, but the point is that she actively opposes the Death Eaters.
So maybe it's not so surprising that she came third (with 14 points). Strange and rebellious is a good combination. Not too perfect. There were people who didn't know her and there was one who thinks she's psycho. The two who came first apparently were more well-known in my class. I think Evanna Lynch did a good job portraying Luna, and that may have helped.

Next comes Hermione. Hermione Granger is Muggle-born and the top student of their class. She more or less memorizes the textbooks. She is one of the main protagonists, helps start the DA (she and Ron actually come up with the idea), she breaks into the Ministry and Gringotts, she's with Harry on his Horcrux-destroying trip in his bunked seventh year up to the point when they return to the castle, and she basically is very involved in the story.

Why did she score less than Luna? Maybe some voters thought she was too perfect. Maybe some thought she was such a complicated character that they didn't know what to think (more likely). Some hadn't read the series so they only voted on the characters they knew.
Some voters deducted points from Hermione, who ended up with 13 points. I'm guessing they thought Hermione was too perfect, even though she is a very realistic character. I would've thought Emma Watson may have boosted Hermione's popularity, but apparently she didn't.

Now let's see how Ron did. Ron Weasley is the second-last of seven kids, and is preceded at Hogwarts by not only his parents, but his older brothers. With six siblings preceding him at Hogwarts, he's under pressure to prove himself (as it shows in the Mirror of Erised in the first book). He becomes Harry's best friend, helps him figure out the wizarding world, and is part of most of the great Harry Potter's adventures. He's scared of spiders and not exactly the class topper (his girlfriend takes care of that). However, he's a good Quidditch player and a very good chess player (proven in the first book).

He scored more than any other Harry Potter character in the polls (he ended with 16 points). Why? Many readers can probably relate to him, considering his fear and the need to show himself as an individual. Nobody voted negatively for Ron. Did Rupert Grint have anything to do with it?

And at last I come to Harry. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the one who finally killed He Who Must Not Be Named, the hero of the prophecy, the owner of all three Deathly Hallows, the one who scored less than any other character from the series named after himself. Right.
Harry is the only child of Lily and James Potter and he's godson to Sirius Black (Lily, James, and Sirius all were members of the original Order of the Phoenix). He's the sworn enemy of Tom Marvolo Riddle a.k.a. Lord Voldemort. He's a Parselmouth in Gryffindor, the youngest Seeker in a century, the guy with the lightning scar, and a celebrity since the incident that made him an orphan.

In nearly every book, there will be someone with him up to the climax, when he will go on alone, fight, and win. He shows concern for his friends, but seems as if he underestimates their capabilities. He tells his friends that he's going to destroy Horcruxes, but doesn't ask them for help, even though they are talented and would be good people to have with him. If he hadn't had the backing of so many people, he would've died. As it is, a lot of people did die, supporting him. Mad-Eye, Fred, Tonks, Remus, Sirius...all huge losses.
Harry ended up with 12 points. He's the hero of a bestselling fantasy series. What happened?
The voters may have thought that he was an overacheiver and therefore boring, or maybe they weren't sure what they thought about him. Maybe they didn't like the way he underestimates people, including himself. Only they know. I thought Daniel Radcliffe was considered cool in my class. Apparently his portrayal of Harry didn't help the actual character much.

So the HP-related questions have been partly answered. What about the four characters from The Hunger Games? They will be discussed next on Cartwheels in the Rain.

Polls in School

I'm a member of a site called Goodreads, and I often browse the discussions on it. I found a really interesting one. Ten girl characters from popular Young Adult books were listed and given 15 points each. People would post comments (or messages), adding 1 point to characters they liked, removing 1 point from characters they didn't and leaving those they didn't know or didn't have an opinion on.

I really liked the idea and set up my own version in my class. I chose 8 female characters and 8 male characters from 4 Young Adult fiction series, with the help of four of my classmates and gave each character 10 points. I opened the polls on Monday and Tuesday.
12 kids voted.
The characters were:

• Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
• Leo, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and Reyna from The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
• Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and Rue from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• I can't describe the characters in a few sentences so I'm not going to try.

I got some interesting results.
The most popular girl character was Annabeth from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
The runner-up in the girls category was Hazel from The Heroes of Olympus.
The least popular girl character was Reyna from The Heroes of Olympus.
The girl who narrowly escaped being the least popular (by 2 points) was Katniss from The Hunger Games.

The most popular boy character was Leo from The Heroes of Olympus.
The runner-up in the boys category was Percy from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
The least popular boy character was Jason from The Heroes of Olympus.
The boy who narrowly escaped being the least popular (by 1 point!) was Peeta, from The Hunger Games.

I came home on Tuesday, excited, and made charts showing the results.
The charts:

(I know it's sticking out of the post margins, but otherwise you couldn't see it.)

Any surprises? For me:
-Katniss and Peeta scored really low.
-Reyna and Jason got the same.
-The difference between the highest (Leo) and lowest (Jason) in the boys' category is 15 points...and in the books, they're best friends.

I was expecting Leo to win, Percy to come second, and Jason to score low in the boys' category. No offence to Jason fans, but I knew my class has a low opinion of him. For girls, I was guessing that Annabeth and Hazel would do pretty well (they came first and second, respectively).

But for the other characters...why did Katniss score so low? Why did Peeta score so low? Why was Ron apparently more popular than Harry? How come Reyna was so unpopular, nobody voted positively for her? Why is it that in a pair of best friends, one was super-popular and the other was the opposite? And this is intriguing, because in the books, Leo, who won the boys category in my poll, is the 'seventh wheel' and Jason, who lost to every other boy character, is the 'hero' type.

Yes, lots of questions to be answered. They will be answered next time on...
Cartwheels in the Rain!

Shadow Spinner

Shadow Spinner, by Suzanne Fletcher, is one of my favourite books. Below, is the story. In italics, I explain the story of the 1001 nights, which, if you know it, makes the book more enjoyable.

Title: Shadow Spinner

Author: Susan Fletcher                                                

A king called Shahryar was happily married, until he discovered that his wife was in love with someone else. In a fit of rage, he executed both his wife and her lover. He was convinced that he could never trust a woman again.
Apparently kings weren't supposed to not have a wife. Or maybe Shahryar was slightly mad. Whatever the reason, Shahryar ordered his Vizier to find him a bride. He married her in the evening and executed her the next day at dawn. This went on and on, and the people developed grudges against both the king and the Vizier, especially against the Vizier- because he himself had two daughters, Shahrazad and Dunyazad.
One day Shahrazad volunteered to be the doomed bride. The night before the execution, she asked if she could tell her sister a story. Shahryar said yes. Dunyazad came and Shahrazad began to tell a story. She stopped at a particularly interesting part just at dawn. The king put off the execution, wondering how the story ended. That night, she wove in another story, left off at an interesting part, and escaped execution again. It went on and on, until, after 1001 nights, Shahryar had softened, and Shahrazad was safe.

This story is set during the dangerous time in the kingdom of Shahryar when Shahrazad was still telling stories.
It is told by Marjan, a crippled orphan who, once her mother died, was sold by her stepfather as a slave. She has a bad past...her mother crippled her before committing suicide, and Marjan has a hard time coping with the fact.
But Marjan is treated very well by her owners, who consider her as family. Marjan loves telling stories and Queen Sharazad is her idol.
One day, selling trifles in the harem, Marjan begins to tell the children there a story. She has just gotten the children to laugh when she notices an older girl listening to the story too...
The girl is Dunyazad, Sharazad's younger sister. Dunyazad takes Marjan to the queen.
Sharazad is exhausted and running out of stories after almost three years of nighttime storytelling. So when Marjan tells one that she's never heard, she's immediately interested. The next day, Marjan is bought by Sharazad and comes to live in the harem.

Sharazad tells Shahryar the story. It turns out to be one of his childhood favourites and he asks for the sequel. Sharazad tells him she knows it, but in reality, neither she nor Marjan knows. She has to get the story, for fear of the king.
Marjan is now on a mission to find the storyteller from whom she heard the tale, and get the sequel in just a few days. In the event that she doesn't...Sharazad will die and the killings will start again.

But Marjan is a member of the harem. She can't go outside at all. In order to find the storyteller, she has to sneak out without getting caught by the guards. And that's not the only obstacle in her way.

The king's mother, the Khatun, is suspicious. She loves her son and doesn't trust either Shahrazad or her crippled servant. She's very powerful, with great influence over the king. She has spies. She suspects that Marjan may be helping Shahrazad to meet a lover. And that's how the whole drama started, right? With the queen having a lover...

Marjan has to get the story. The stakes are too high. The fate of the city and the eligible unmarried girls in it rest on Marjan's shoulders. Sharazad must soften the hardened heart of the king. If only Marjan could soften the hardened corner of her own heart...
Will she manage to get the story? Will she accept her mother's actions and death?
Will the killings finally stop?

I leave you to read the book and find out.

Weird Word

Here's a weird-sounding word: zakuska!
It means hors d'oeuvres, or appetizers.

Summer?!

Summertime.

People, please do not completely fall for the projected images of summer i.e:

• Swimming a lot
• Being carefree
• Relaxing vacation

There are others, but I'm focusing on these right now.

REALITY CHECK! ALL SCHOOLKIDS, ATTENTION PLEASE!

Summer also means:

• Holiday homework (mainly for students grades 5 and up)
• Well, your parents may not get long leave...
• If you're not out of town the WHOLE vacation, beware...it is crazy hot outside and the chances of you being allowed outside in the morning or afternoon are quite slim

So. What exactly are you going to DO?

Especially holiday homework. I mean, seriously, how many projects and worksheets have you been given to be submitted (completed, I mean) at the end of summer?
I'm convinced that at least 75%, though it's probably more like all, of the kids in my class are groaning about holiday homework. I also think that teachers are dreading correcting, roughly, fifty projects or worksheets from each grade they teach. If not more.

Look, I'm not saying summer's a terrible time..  It's when you're supposed to have a break...but how is it a break if you've got assignments to bother you? Do I sound irritated? Probably because I am.
This is something you've probably heard at least twenty times before, but try to get your holiday homework finished ASAP. It's going to be hard...believe me, it's taking me about a week to convince myself to start on my assignments.

All that said, good luck.
And have a great time!
                                                     
                                                    

Quotes

Here are some quotes I like. I got these quotes from goodreads

'Common sense is not so common.'
                                                          -Voltaire

'Just because we've never done it doesn't mean we can't do it.'
                                                          -Eva Ibbotson in The Dragonfly Pool

'We have no water and still less soap. We have no city, but lots of hope.'
                                                          -Mary Pope Osborne in Earthquake in the Early Morning

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'
                                                          -J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'
                                                         -Mahatma Gandhi

'You cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair.'
                                                         -Eva Ibbotson in The Dragonfly Pool

'"My truffles? You took them? That's just mean!"'
                                                        -Eoin Colfer in Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

If you like these quotes and want to find more, you can do one of the following:

1.)Read the books I mentioned or others
2.)Search the site I mentioned at the beginning of this post. (It's a hyperlink. If you click on it and get to the page, scroll down. There are several sections, and one of them is 'Quotes'. Underneath, it says, 'More quotes'. Click on that and enjoy yourself)

You can choose which option you'd like to follow. I think you'll come across some quotes you can't help liking!