Robinson Crusoe was my favorite book I read this year so far. It was written by Daniel Defoe, who was born in England around 1660. He died in 1731. Robinson Crusoe is about a man who gets shipwrecked on an island and has to survive and try to get home.

Robinson Crusoe is a Historical Fiction type of genre book. That means that some of it is true, but the rest is fiction. Robinson Crusoe is my favorite school book I have read. You should read it sometime.

Sherlock Holmes was written by Arthur Conan Doyal. It is my second favorite school book I have read this year. It is about a detective named Sherlock Holmes who solves mysteries in London.

Sherlock Holmes is a Horror type of genre book. Horror includes crime, mystery, theives, and more! I like Horror.

Robin Hood is the last of my favorite school books I have read. It was written by Howard Pyle. It is when an outlaw named Robin Hood steals from the rich but gives to the poor when the evil Prince John of England and the Sherrif of Nottingham are trying to get him.

The book is also a Science Fiction type of book. These three books are my favorite school books I have read this year.

A novel is typically a long sequential story that often describes characters and events. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is an example of a novel.

Short Stories are a very short part of prose fiction. The Sherlock Holmes stories are examples of Short Stories.

Novellas are texts of narrative, written, and fictional prose. Novellas are usually longer than short stories but shorter than novels. One example is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Genres are “A kind of type of works of literature art or popular fiction” according to Webster’s New Dictionary. Genres include Science Fiction, Horror, Allegory, Fantasy, Mythology, Fables, and more. All these genres are very important in writing. I have many Horror books.

The five points of a plot are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The exposition is normally at the beginning of the book and introduces the main character(s). The rising action leads to the climax while building tension in the story. The climax is the highest point of action in a book or movie. The falling action solves the tension that was built earlier in the book or movie. The resolution is the end of the story.

According to Webster’s New Dictionary, a theme is the main topic of a book. There are many themes in books and movies. Maybe even thousands in some!

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with the world-famous detective, Sherlock Holmes and discuss his recent mystery he called, “The Musgrave Ritual”, and this is what he said.

“Well, it wasn’t easy. By far it was the toughest mystery I have ever encountered, but as always, I solved the mystery. It started out as me on vacation. My assistant, Dr. Watson, insisted that I take a vacation to get soe rest and fresh air, and take some time off my cases for a while.”

Wow, I didn’t know you took a vacation, but how, even on vacation, did a mystery come to you?”

“Like always, someone comes to me, explains to me the case, and asks me to solve it. In that case, it was Sir Musgrave. He said that his butler, Buton, disappeared after sneaking into Mr. Musgrave’s library several times. He was looking over a family poem called The Musgrave Ritual.”

“But why, why would he sneak into a library just to read a family poem?”

“Not read, to decode. Sir Musgrave told me that The Musgrave Ritual was a riddle and if you decoded it, it would lead you to treasure that had been lost over the years by the family and had been forgotten.”

“But what about the butler? What happened to him?”

“Oh, he decoded the message and went to find the treasure, but I also decoded the message and went after him. I found him in the basement, suffocated and dead.”

“What happened after that?”

“Well, as always, I explain how I solved the mystery to Watson, and boy, was he amazed!”

“Well, there you have it folks, the story of The Musgrave Ritual.”

Genres

According to Webster’s New Dictionary, a genre is “A king or type of works of literature, art, or popular fiction”. The genres I learned about were Science Fiction, Horror, Allegory, Fantasy, Mythology, and Fables.

The first genres are Science Fiction and Horror. Science fiction drives into technology, sometimes space, of course, science, inventing new hears and gadgets, and sometimes time traveling. horror deals with crime, violence, mystery-solving, death threatening, and a lot of scary stuff.

The second genre is Allegory. An Allegory is a story that has a deeper meaning to it. Jesus’ parables in the Bible were allegories.

The last genres are fantasy, Mythology, and Fables. Fantasy is made up and is sometimes fairy tale stories. Some fantasy stories have farries, dragons, kings, and queens. Mythology is more likely to be a Roman or Greek myth and is sometimes legend. Fables are short stories that teach a life long lesson.

Star Wars, Star Trek and Journey to the Center of the Earth are all examples of Science Fiction. Some examples of Horror are Sherlock Holmes and The Hardy Boys. An example of an Allegory is Pilgrim’s Progress. Some Fantasy genre books are the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. Some more examples of Mythology is The Illiad and The Oddessy. The last examples of Fables are Aesop’s Fables and The Three Little Pigs.

First, I would want to have an ax to chop down trees and cut vines. I could use the logs to build myself a shelter and the vines could be used to hold the logs in place if they aren’t stable. I could also use the ax for hunting and protecting myself. I could make traps for catching animals and to chop firewood to build fires with to cook and to keep me warm.

The other tool I would want is a hammock. It could help you sleep above the ground where the critters and snakes can’t get you that are on the ground. I could also use it as a fishing net to catch fish with and a water filterer to filter out bugs and mud and large debris to make it safe for me to drink. I could even use if for a blanket if I’m cold and do not have a fire and to use it as a raincoat to protect me from rain. I could use it to turn into a sack to carry fruit in and it can be used to transport logs from one side of the island to the other by putting the logs on the hammock and using the rope to pull it. I could also make a log carrying backpack.

Robin Hood and his merry men did not have anything to eat that morning. After several minutes of hunger, Robin Hood said, “I will go fishing and catch some juicy trout for breakfast.”

“But Robin, you’ll die! You know the Sheriff’s ships are patrolling the harbor,” said Little John.

“I realize that,” said Robin, “but look at all these hungry men. I can’t just let them die of starvation. Besides, I’ll have a fisherman disguise on. They won’t recognize me.”

“If you say so, but I’ coming with you,” said Little John.

“All right,” said Robin. So they put on their disguises, grabbed their fishing poles, and left.

“Halt! Who are you?” asked one of the guards.

“We’re just going to fish, cause we are so hungry and we have nothing to eat,” said Robin. Eventually, the guard let them pass. Robin and Little John together caught seven trout for his band of sixteen merry men.

When he got back to his hideout, the cook cooked the trout in less than an hour for one trout. When he was done, the merry men were so hungry, there were no leftovers.

“But what will we have for tomorrow?” asked one of the merry men.

Robin said, “Little John and I will just fish for more trout but for more than today, so we will have leftovers for the next day.”

And so they did just that the next day.

   A novel is “a long prose narrative that describes fictional characters and events”. A short story is “a piece of prose fiction shorter than a novel”. A novella is “a text of written, fictional narrative prose normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel”.

   Some similarities between these forms of writing are that novels and short stories are written in prose which is “written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure”. Another is that all three are fictional stories. One difference is that they are all different lengths.

   I like novellas best because it’s not too long like a novel, and it’s not too short like a short story. One example of these forms of writing is “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson. This book is a novel and so is “Robin Hood” by Howard Pyle. Some novellas are “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and “The Time Machine” by H. G. Wells. Two examples of short stories are “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, a common nursery rhyme, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories about Sherlock Homes.

   In the book “A Knight of the White Cross”, the main character is Gervaise. Gervaise is a page who is a young male servant who sometimes carried messages for a nobleman. He was assigned to serve on a gally. Even though he was to serve on a galley, he had a plan to keep them from being captured by 4 pirate vessels, and because of this plan, the galley was able to capture the 4 pirate vessels. A galley is a ship which has rowers instead of sails.

   Gervaise eventually got back to the castle at Rhodes and was knighted because of his brave deed. He also decided to learn how to speak Turkish for 9 months. He was put in charge of a ship to take back the Pasha of Syria (which is in Syria because he knows how to speak Turkish. After he succeeds in taking over the Pasha of Syria, he goes to a party in which he sees a mysterious Greek talking to the slave, so he asks to be put on a galley as a slave to figure out a plot. He eventually figures out the plot and stops thousands of slaves from escaping from Rhodes since he could speak and understand Turkish.

   As a reward, he is put in charge of a galley, and all the people working on the galley were younger than Gervaise! He captures two or three of the Corsair fleet. They also burned or captured the entire fleet. when he returned to Rhodes, the Countess’ daughter, Claudia, gave Gervaise a gage at a party. When Gervaise was out at sea again, he gets captured by pirates and they stole the gage Claudia gave to him. He is sold to a kind master, but he escapes and gets his gage back. He returns in a small fishing boat, but almost gets captured by the Turks there waiting to attack the city. When some Turks tried to cross the moat, Gervaise sent fire ships and they destroyed most of the boats trying to cross the moat and the rest retreated. The Grand Master died, but the Knights of the White Cross win. After the battle, Gervaise asks if he can stop being a knight. After his request is granted, he marries Claudia.

   I am half way through reading “A Knight of the White Cross”, by G. A. Henty. It is about when Gervaise started out as a page, then became a knight of the Hospitaller of Saint John.

   The knights are on the island of Rhodes in a castle. The castle has a prison to keep prisoners and make sure that they do not escape. Sometimes when they are not at Rhodes, they are at sea in galleys chasing pirates or fighting enemies or taking a trip to get someplace. Rhodes is in the Mediterranian Sea of the coast of Turkey.

   Gervaise started out as a page, then he became a knight of a galley. After being chased by pirates, he was crashed on an island, but he found a way to escape and get back home. Back at the castle at Rhodes, he was knighted because of his courageous act. After this, for nine months, he studies Turkish and because he could now speak Turkish, he kept thousands of prisoners from escaping because of discovering a plot! You’d expect someone to become a better fighter to become a better knight, but just by learning Turkish, Gervaise became a better knight. See you next time!

White Fang

   I just finished reading “White Fang” by Jack London. I really liked it. It was a very exciting book.

   It was set in the Yukon territory. White Fang’s mother was part of a dog sled team. White Fang’s den and a Native American village are some other settings. None of my other school books I have read this year have any of these settings.

   The book “White Fang” was written from White Fang’s perspective. Whenever something happened in the story that White Fang did not understand, the Author would explain it. In other books, perspective comes from a human.

   There are lots of Themes in White Fang. Some of them are exposure to nature, hardship, curiosity, instinct, and happiness in rest. Some of these themes are in the other books I have been reading. For example, hardship is in Wulf the Saxon, happiness in rest is in all of them, and instinct is in no other book I have read.

   The book talks about White Fang’s whole life from a pup to when he is an adult. Wulf the Saxon is the closest book to that. White Fang also has to learn from trial and error. The people in the other books learn from teachings instead.

   Thomas was born in 1225 A.D. in Italy to a count and countess. At age five, he began school. When Thomas was old enough, he was sent to Naples to attend a university there by his parents. Thomas was influenced greatly by Aristotle’s writings and the Dominicans, a new order of monks.

   When Thomas was 19 years old, he became a member of the Dominicans; however, when he told his parents about this, they were very displeased, so they were kidnapped inside the castle they lived in for two years until Thomas’ mother helped him “escape”.

   After that, he rejoined the Dominican Order of Monks. Thomas’ greatest work is the Summa Theologica. Aristotle had the most influence on Thomas’ life. He died reciting the commentary on the Song of Solomon. He greatly influenced the thinking of the church. He also worked to increase the logical reasoning in the church.