A Wizard of the Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is the tale of the young wizard Ged, whom from an early age showed extraordinary magical ability. His first display of this was when he saved his entire village by covering it with fog, so that the brutal invaders from Kargad could not find nor harm the villagers.
After this a wizard came and took him to be his apprentice, but it was not long before Ged was sent to a wizard’s school in Roke. There he met Jasper, a proud, rather big-headed boy a few years older then Ged. Eventually, he challenged Jasper to a contest of power. Jasper scoffed, obviously thinking himself better. To prove that he was powerful, Ged summoned a dead spirit. The remainder of the book is about Ged’s quest to put the malicious spirit back to sleep.
My grandmother who used to be a Language Arts/English teacher recommended this book to me ages ago, but I had some trouble finding it. This book is excellent. Ursula Le Guin’s writing style is unique but spellbinding, and definitely works well with this story.
Note: This is the first book in a series, but I don’t know how many books are in the series or what their titles are.
After walking by this book for months at my school library, I finally picked it up from the town library and read it. I wish I had read it sooner! This intriguing book by Meredith Ann Pierce was excellent. I recommend you read this imaginative novel.
Hannah is a girl who lives on the edge of the Tanglewood, a forest feared by the nearby village. She is under the custody of an evil wizard who lives at the heart of the forest. Once a month, she is forced to make a drink for him from the plants that grow in her hair. Yet she does not rebel until a time when she forgets to make the drink, and the wizard brutally pulls the plants from her hair himself. After that Hannah was careful to give him weak drinks, because pulling all the plants from her hair weakened her. However, she still did not attempt escape until one of the knights spoke to her. Usually, the knights would ride their horses into the depths of the forest, and nothing anyone said or did could stop them. They never came back.
This is a story of Hannah’s quest to save the knight who spoke from a dreadful curse, and on the way find out who she is, for the wizard never told her, and she can’t remember.
Having been reading like crazy, here is a list of books that should be appearing on this blog in the near future:
- A Wizard of the Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Saint of Dragons by Jason Hightman
- Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy
- Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge (the title fits perfectly)
- In the Stone Circle by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
- The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (second in the Lord of the Rings)
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech is a book of overcoming fears, confronting memories, and facing your problems. It is a wonderful book for a smile and a personal view of a hectic journey across the sea. The way of writing is unlike any good books I’ve read before. However, Sharon Creech is so talented she can make the multiple points of view work, and work well in this Newberry Honor Book.
Our main character, Sophie, is a girl of opposites. She loves the ocean and always wants to be on a boat, but at the same time is deathly afraid of it. An orphan, Sophie has been adopted by a husband and wife living in the U.S.A. When her new cousins and uncles decide to take a trip across the sea, sailing from the U.S.A. to England in order to visit Bompie, (their grandfather) she hops on board. This is a tale of their voyage across the fearsome blue.
I suggest you read this book. The Wanderer is an amazing story. Rosalie, oh Rosalie!
I have only read a single, slim book in the last two weeks or so. To be truthful, I have been reading various issues of National Geographic magazines, their dates ranging from 2001 to 2005, with gaps in the middle. My dad had gotten me a new subscription, but it had been a month at least and, well, I got desperate.
But then, out of the blue (or maybe the mailman’s bag) my first issue showed up just a day or two ago. Hallelujah! Yeehaw! Party!
The book I did read was The Last Treasure by Janet S. Anderson. It isn’t really the sort of book I tend to read (I like warrior maidens and dragons and whatnot) but it is still a good book. It gives us a glimpse of the Smith family, a family with one very determined ancestor – John Matthew Smith. John really just wants his family to be happy, but money is slowly but steadily running out and they family members are constantly quarrelling among themselves, single arguments lasting years, even decades. He recruits two cousins, fifth cousins to be exact, to find his last treasure. I suggest you read it. It’s pretty good. Read it now, in the heat of summer, when those blazing days of August keep us inside with our air conditioning and our ice cold drinks. Speaking of which, I would really like a lemonade…
