Not everything is what it seems

By: Gabby Madrid

READING RESPONSE LOG

{1}

How the story starts

The story starts when Kendras grandparents (on her moms side) pass away. They said when they died their children and their spouses would go on a cruise. Since both the grandparents died Kendras parents are going on a cruise. The children though are not included so they will have to stay at their other grandparents house. Their grandparents have a huge house with a forest and really nice gardens. They also have a pool. Kendra and her brother Seth are going to stay there until their parents return.

{2} Meet Kendra Sorenson,

Kendra Sorenson is the main protagonist of this series. She is thirteen turning fourteen. She has a younger brother called Seth. Out of the two she is the more quiet and reserved one. Kendra is also the goody two-shoes type. When her brother breaks the rules she is usually the one to put him back on track. But near the middle of the book she becomes more adventurous and more willing to break the rules.

Currently I am on page 136 of Fablehaven, I am nowhere near done with the book. I am in the part where Seth captures a fairy and makes the mistake of leaving her indoors during the night. The fairy turns into an imp, a fallen fairy. Seth accidentally left a mirror in the jar, which was cruel to the imp. Imps hate how they look and having a mirror to look at constantly reminds them of how ugly they are.
After reading that part I think that the fairies would get mad at Seth for turning one of them into an Imp. I think that they will come after him and curse him. By the way not just one fairy would do this I think a large amount of them at once would curse him. {Not unlike a swarm of bees}

{4}
There is a part of the story that reminds me of the Little Mermaid. Lena, the old lady that Kendra and Seth think to be the house keeper, was a naiad. She turned mortal after saving the groundskeeper from her kin, who tried to drown him. She saved him because they loved each other. This happened 160 years ago. Since naiads age slower than humans she watched him die. In the Little Mermaid both the Brothers Grimm and Disney version Ariel saves the prince from drowning. The Disney version is more similar to this story because after leaving the water she explores the world and lives happily ever after. But in the Brothers Grimm version, Ariel dies because she doesnt have the heart to kill him.

{5} How the story ends

Having been retuned to human form, she was the pet chicken named Goldilocks that was kept in the attic playroom with the children, Grandma Sorenson and the kids enlist the help of a troll to divine the whereabouts of Grandpa. Muriel is holding him and Lena in an old church called the Forbidden Chapel. Muriel frees a demon named Bahumat to help her overthrow Fablehaven. Kendra is the only one Muriel can't capture because Kendra has abstained from using magic, so it cannot be used on her. Kendra petitions the Fairy Queen for help, and the Fairy Queen makes all the fairies human-size. They battle Muriel, Bahumat and their minions, and they win, saving Fablehaven from certain doom in the form of the evil demon Bahumat. Muriel by the way is an evil witch that turns Grandma Sorenson back into a human. Muriel also turned Seth back into a human after the fairies turned him into a walrus. Kendra defeats Muriel and Bahumat, who have already been freed, with the help of the Fairy Queen. She defeats them after she runs away from the Forbidden Chapel. Kendra thinks of this idea when she sees the beautiful garden with a lake and island in the middle. She gets into a boat and rows across the lake. On the island she finds nothing but a small fairy statue and a small silver bowl, a shrine to the fairy queen. Kendra was expecting to find more help on the island, hopeless and disappointed, she starts to cry. Her tears fall into the bowl and this summons the Fairy Queen. The Fairy Queen tells Kendra to mix together blood, magic milk and her tears and Kendra feeds this to the fairies. After feeding the fairies they change into their form for war. They help Kendra defeat evil.

ARTIFACTS

Poem

Glory
Nicki D. Thomure Looking in a book of 1,000 pictures And I finally find one of just me And it seems it's the smallest one there There are thousands of that blonde beauty She has everything I don't Love from you, talent, and beauty She gets all the glory And I get none. Just for one moment I wish I could stand up on that stage And do what she does As you watch her and a tear comes down A second later, you yell at me For one moment, I want to do that She gets all the glory And I get none

It seems you look at me And see a mistake that you made You look at her And see something that you've always wanted I want to feel loved and wanted By the one that should mean something to me She gets all the glory And I get none In every room There are trophies that showcase her talent On every shelf, on every wall There's pictures of her that showcase her beauty For once, I want to be that blonde beauty She gets all the glory And I get none That's always how it's going to be.

I chose this poem because it reminded me of the relationship between Seth and Kendra. Since Seth is the younger one but he is louder and more out going the poem is kind of like how Kendra feels at the moment this happens a lot with siblings, I should know I have six.
This poem talks about how the parents view each child. The personality of one of the siblings usually the eldest or youngest is the one they want in all children. So they view the siblings that do not have those traits as not as good or undesirable. But I think Kendra will not feel as down as the person who wrote this poem because as the story goes on I think she will find her strengths.

#2 Newspaper article
This article is not from an actual newspaper, it is from an online one. It is about how older people are better at making choices that are over all better because the increase the benefit in the future even if they decrease the immediate benefit. It shows that Kendra is right both in Fablehaven sense and real world sense: you should listen to older people.

In the book Seth constantly breaks the rules his grandpa set, which lead to Dale being turned to stone, a witch being freed of her prison and Lena and Grandpa Sorenson getting kidnapped. Moral that I got from this: listen to your elders, they know best.

#3 photo
I chose this photo after looking on Google images {I did not draw this} because it reminded me of the fairies that live around Grandpa Sorensons forest. The colorful wings with lots of delicate details was what I thought one of the fairies wings looked like. This picture also reminded me of the play A Midsummer Nights Dream again because of the fairies. In Fablehaven the kids have to survive the summer solstice also known as Midsummer. Usually Midsummer is a time for parties and merriment. But in the world of Fablehaven, Midsummer is a dangerous time where dark and evil beings have their own demented party on the lawn, where it is usually safe.

VOCABULARY WORDS
The actual word

Definition Using the word in a sentence

Synonyms
Antonyms

The great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong.

Triviality or smallness or insignificance

Retribution, punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance or revenge for a wrong or criminal act.

Synonyms: Punishment, penalty, revenge ,atonement or

clemency, grace, leniency, lenity, mercy; forgiveness, pardon, remission

To overcome an obstacle or difficulty in a clever way.

beat, bypass, dodge, get around, shortcut, sidestep, skirt

comply (with), follow, keep, obey, observe

A loud, confused noise, especially one caused by a large crowd of people

Mercurial
Adjective, subject to sudden and unpredictable changes of mood or mind. Quicksilver, Stable, fickle, steady, volatile, capricious, constant
erratic His temper is mercurial.

BOOK REVIEW

These days there are many stories that blend myths and reality, like the Percy Jackson series, Harry Potter, the Spiderwick Chronicles, Reckless and many others. In these stories the myths and mythical creatures can be good or bad depending on their history and how the author interprets them. In Reckless magical creatures are often interpreted as dangerous and better off dead, while in this book called Fablehaven, some of them are gentle creatures that need to be protected. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull is about two siblings named Kendra (the older one) and Seth (the younger one). They are forced to stay in their grandparents house because their other grandparents died. There they are given a set of rules to follow. As long as they follow the rules they can do what ever they want. However Seth breaks the rules and goes into the woods. Through this, Kendra discovers that Dale, the groundskeeper, leaves tins of milk out for the butterflies, humming birds, bees and dragon flies. Intrigued by this Kendra goes outside with Seth and tricks him into drinking the milk. They discover that the milk is magic and after

This leads to them becoming part of Fablehaven, a sanctuary for magical beings. During their stay they have to brave a festival the creatures that happens during the summer solstice. Seth, once again disobeyed his grandfather and his actions caused his grandfather and Lena to be kidnapped and Dale to be turned into stone. The fate of Fablehaven is in Seth and Kendras hands. While Fablehaven is a good book with an interesting plot, there is no such thing as a perfect novel. For example Kendra changing from a goody two-shoes into a rebel happened quite fast and Brandon Mull did not give enough reason for change. Another thing that I did not like about Fablehaven was the transitions between some of the events. That is a bit rich coming from me because my own transitions are the roughest and choppiest I have ever seen. Even though it has some imperfections, Fablehaven does have its strong points. I like how the author interpreted fairies, naiads, imps and the other magical beasts. They are not the

I give this book 4 out of 5

Long story short I liked Fablehaven a lot and I would recommend it to others because of it is a light yet entertaining read with a good plot, unique magical creatures and lovable characters.

About the Author

AGE: 38 What inspired him to become a writer: He became a writer because of the idea he had for a book called Beyonders. Like the Percy Jackson Series in this novel he blends everyday life and fantasy. FUN FACT: He was working on the idea for Beyonders for 10 years.

DATE of BIRTH: November 8, 1974 He lives in Utah in a valley near the mouth of a canyon with his four kids and wife.

NAME: Brandon Mull

Other books by Brandon Mull

Sources:
Google images http://brandonmull.com/site/author-about Fablehaven.com http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article2040841/Why-really-SHOULD-listen-eldersStudy-shows-old-people-really-wisdom.html

The End.