Blog Entry 2

The Boxes- Eli Vande Griend

The setting of The Boxes, takes place in a modern day city, unnamed throughout the book. This causes some little problems for Annie and Henry that involve moving around and traveling to certain places. One of the places they have to go to and from is the Crutchly building. Here they are interrogated and asked questions about the lord (a clock that can stop time). Multiple times they are either kidnapped or taken by force, and asked how they can use the lord for their own devious purposes. Another place the story mainly takes place, is Annie’s house. Since Annie lives in a mansion, it is very easy for her to hide the boxes. In the basement, is where the creatures live and where she goes to talk to them.  Also her room she has the lord in it hidden from anyone who may walk in. A small part of the story, takes place a Henry’s house on the hill at the top of the neighborhood. Here Annie finds Uncle Margo on Henry’s roof frozen in time (he wakes up latter and helps them).

The Westing Game – Jordan Cutaia
The setting in the book The Westing Game takes place in Westing Town but within the town it takes place in Mr. Westing’s house.  Also, the book seems to take place in the early to mid 1900’s because they have cars but also talk about mansions which are more seen in older times. Mr. Westing’s house is less of a house and more of a mansion while the heirs to the fortune are using it as a hotel.  While the heirs are given clues and trying to find the murderer and who is going to get the fortune they go about roaming Mr. Westing’s mansion. Also, the murderer is supposedly one of the heirs which means the murderer is in the mansion with the rest of the heirs. The heirs are trying to find out who the murderer is before it’s too late.

The Hunger Games- Kayla Cashen

                This story takes place in District 12, there are 11 other districts. District 12 tends to be one of the poorest ones. It’s in a post-apocalyptic time, after the bringing down of the United States, the country of Panem arose. The Capitol was the capitol of Panem, but a little while after Panem came, a rebellion started from the thirteen districts. During the rebellion, the District 13^th district was destroyed. The district has coal mines, and very few businesses.

Ship Breaker (Claire Hovde)
In the book Ship Breaker, the characters Nailer, Pima, and Lucky Girl, are on an island where they are waiting for the tide to go down so that they can return to their homes. The current setting of the story is significant because Nailer and Pima have just found a dying Lucky Girl inside of a wrecked ship. They rescued her and right now she is trying to convince them to keep her alive with the promise of wealth and the opportunity to never work again. This part of the story is dark and intense because Pima and Nailer have to decide Lucky Girl’s fate and that is represented by having them around a campfire. The book doesn’t specify what exact year the book takes place in but it is sometime in the future.


Peak (Nathan Wagner)
In the beginging of Peak, Peak Marcello starts off climbing up the Woolworth building.  He is then detained and sent off to the Juvinial Detention Center.  After spending several days there, Peak is sent to Nepal to meet up with his father. Is sent because his father sent for him to atempt to climb Mt. Everest before he turns fifteen.  This book does not say when exactly when the story is supposed take place, but I would assume it takes place during modern times.

BOB Entry 1

The Hunger Games (Kayla Cashen)

In the book, The Hunger Games, the main character Katniss is faced with a problem that threatens her family. It’s Reaping Day in Panem, the country they live in, and it’s Katniss’ baby sister’s first time. The chances of her name being pulled to Katniss’ is very low. But, when the names are being called, Primrose’ name was called. In a panic Katniss volunteered herself to take her sister’s place.Peeta Mellark, a boy who practically saved Katniss’ life years ago, was also called. Now she has to go into the Hunger Games..

Boxes (Elijah Vande Griend)       

The book I am reading for battle of the books is called The Boxes. This story is about a girl named Annie, who must deal with a lot of conflicts. Annie was adopted by her aunt after her parents died while she was an infant. One of the side conflicts of the story is Annie dealing with her relationship with her Aunt Ruth. One day, however, Annie’s mysterious Uncle returning briefly from one of his many far away trips. She gives her two boxes, one metal and one a wooden crate. He leaves her with three commands. One do not open them, second keep them apart, and third not to tell her aunt. The next day, burning with curiosity, Annie opens the wooden crate. Inside she finds odd little crab like creatures. One inconstantly comes to life and escapes the box, terrified Annie leaves the basement, not to return until about two days later. She returns to find that the single one that escaped awoke the others. Soon, she is talking to tell and learning more about them, but she can’t let her aunt find out. Then, they make her to open the other box; it contains an object that looks much like a clock. Another conflict Annie must deal with is the Cruthchley Development. This company is trying to buy all the houses in the old neighborhood, and then tear them down to make a mall. She also has to make sure they do not get the house, or the creatures will be found. Most of these conflicts are simple person vs. person, but there is also a trace of person vs. self, because Annie must decide whether or not to tell anyone.

The Westing Game (Jordan Cutaia)

In the book, “The Westing Game” the main conflict that my main characters face are Mr. Westing is murdered. The heirs  play a game to figure it out and figure out who is given  the fortune and riches that Mr. Westing left behind. Everyone is paired up to play the game and given $10,000 and a weekly clue to figure out who killed Mr. Westing and who is the heir to Mr Westing’s fortune. Anyone who does not want to participate in the game does not have to but have to give up $5,000. After they are all paired up and given their first clue, the heirs start thinking and trying to figure out what the clues mean. One of the main characters, Turtle, thinks that whole murder case is supposed to throw them all off track and confuse. He says that if there really was a murder then they would already know who it was and have thrown them in jail. So now they are left to wonder, is there really a murderer and who is the heir to Mr. Westing’s fortune?

Ship Breaker (Claire Hovde)

In the book Ship Breaker, the character Nailer faces a conflict that threatens his life. Nailer is trapped in an oil pocket in an old ship. He must decide whether or not to wait for somebody to rescue him or to find his own way out. The only problem is that you can’t swim in oil so if he lets go of the wall to find his way out, then he might die. But if he waits too long then he could drown.

Peak (Nathan Wagner)

In Peak, it starts off with the main character Peak Marcello suspended hundereds of feet in the air on a sky scraper clinging for dear life to it.  After a short break, the silence is disrupted by the thundering rotors from a police helicopter blasting through the cloud cover.  "Young man your under arrest!" the office shouts into a mega phone.  Peak is then caught and then deported to his dad on the other side of the world.  Peak is now on a mission to climb Mt. Everest, and if he makes it, he will be the youngest person ever to scale up the legendary Mt. Everest.