My Last Post Involving Riddles

Anyone who wants the weekly riddle can have it.

The Delayed Weekly Riddle

Sorry for the delay, I was out of town.

The answer to the shadow riddle was the castles shadow.

This Weeks Riddle- He has married many women, but has never been married. Who is he?

No Fear Shakespeare Macbeth

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic 219 page play (Double pages makes it  438 pages. Translated to plain English by Sparknotes, No Fear Shakespeare puts the original text of Macbeth and translates it side by side modern text. I would suggest reading through the original part first, then going back and reading the translated part. Like Hamlet, one thing leads to another person dying. In the end, eight people total died. Three witches try to comfort Macbeth when he returns from a war, but they do not really. The general, Banquo is predicted by the witches that he will become king. Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth then puts Duncan's blood on the swords of the sleeping guards. Macduff discovers Duncan's body and Macbeth kills the guards saying that they obviously murdered Duncan. Macbeth then becomes king. Lady Macbeth then starts to go crazy and kills herself. Then Macduff kills Macbeth and Macduff becomes king.

Sea Glass and Book Bag Props

The Book

Sea Glass, by Laurence Yep, is 215 pages (double pages, so 430 pages). Craig loves his life in San Francisco's Chinatown, so he is pretty bummed when he finds out that he and his family are moving away to Conception. Craig's father wants him to be an athlete, since not many Chinese are athletes, but Craig hates playing sports. Only His Uncle Quail understands this. Craig lives his life with his parents and visits his uncle quite often. Then he meets Kenyon, who becomes a friend with Craig. At first, Uncle doesn't want to meet Kenyon,  because she is a "Western", but he agrees to meet her eventually. They like to go to the ocean and swim together. One day, Craig is unable to take Kenyon to the beach she gets mad and stays away from him. Then he gets in a fight with his dad over the topic that he doesn't want to play sports. A few weeks later his parents have a talk and tell Craig that if he really hates his sports this much, he could stop them. Craig tells his father that he has been doing some swimming with Uncle Quail and that he would play that, but not for competition.  I really enjoyed this book!

Props

1. Sea Glass- The Sea Glass is an important part of the story even though it was only in the last two pages. Craig found a piece of sea glass when he was swimming in his uncles cove,

2.Water- This symbolizes Uncles cove, which was like a private part of the ocean in his backyard. Craig and Kenyon swam there quite often.

3. Chinese Calender- The Calender shows Craig's Chinese heritage and the setting in Conception's Chinatown. Craig fit in more in San Francisco's Chinatown than he did in Conception.

4. Swim Goggles- The goggles represent Craig and Kenyon's love for swimming in u=Uncles private cove. Craig had to persuade Uncle to let her swim in his cove because she was a "Westerner".

5. Yellow Rose- The yellow rose symbolizes Craig and Kenyon's friendship. Kenyon actually made fun of Craig when the first met, but they became good friends as the story went on.

6. Receipt- The receipt shows the store that Craig's family ran. It was in a two level building in which the bottom level was the store and the upper level was their home.

7. Inflated Basketball- This shows how Craig's father REALLY wanted Craig to be good at sports like he was and that that was the only way that he would be accepted in Conception.

8. Deflated Football- This prop symbolizes how Craig really didn't want to play sports and how he thought he was really bad at them unlike how his dad was.

9. Leaf- The leaf represents Dad and his dream of Gardening. Their new place had an old, run down, backyard that Craig's dad was determined to fix up. He eventually made it a beautiful garden with trees and flowers.

Dragonwings (4th Quarter Books)

Dragonwings, by Laurence Yep, is a wonderful 317 page (double pages = 634 pages). This book starts out in China with Moon Shadow living with his mother and his father living in San Francisco. When something happens that makes him have to live with his father, Moon Shadow is not very happy about the idea. His fathers dream is to build a flying machine (airplane). He has tried and tried but failed each time. When Moon Shadow arrived his father thought that he should learn more English. His teacher is Miss Whitlaw, but she turns out to be more of a friend to them. Then the big San Francisco earthquake happens, leaving nearly everyone homeless and starting fires everywhere. They move to Oakland where his father continues to work on his flying machine. He actually makes it work, but falls of and breaks a leg and some ribs. He is considered very lucky to be alive, but he gives up his dream of flying and puts his family first. Mother travels out to Oakland where the are reunited as a family. I think  this is a book that any one would enjoy.



Pie (IMPORTANT)

I am still looking for the pie cutter from pie day. If you think you might have it, PLEASE check. :) thanks

Thief of Hearts

Thief of Hearts, written by Laurence Yep, is 206 pages long. When Stacey's family from China comes to live in the suburbs of San Francisco near Stacey, Stacey and Hong-Ch'un don't get along at all. Hong-Ch'un goes to school with Stacey, and since they "know" each other, they have to share a locker. Then some items belonging to some students and the principal get stolen and are put in Stacey's locker. Everyone knows it is not Stacey, so Hong-Ch'un is being blamed. She swears it was not her, but no one believes her. Then Hong-Ch'un runs away to San Francisco's Chinatown. Stacey, her mom, and her great-grandmother, Tai-Paw go to look for her. Tai- Paw used to live in Chinatown, and she cannot believe how much it has changed. They eventually find Hong-Ch'un and take her back to her home. Stacey, Tai-Paw, and Hong-Ch'un come up with a way to catch who really committed the crime. Stacey's dad gets a special gel that you can put on something, and when the person grabs it, it turns their hands purple for quite a while. The thief turns out to be Stacey's best friend, Karen. When asked why she stole, she says because it seemed like Stacey was paying more attention to Hong-Ch'un than her. After a brief fight, they make up. By the end of the story, Stacey learns more about her Chinese culture than she learned before. This book was a great read!