Stuff That Happened in Dragon Rider

Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke, was the second best book that I ever read.

The book is really, really, really good.

The book is set all over the world. Ben, Sorrel, Fire Drake, and a character they meet on the way - Twigleg, are traveling to a mythical place, called the Rim of Heaven, in the Himalayas.

They encounter mythical and fantastic creatures on the way, and make new friends. But, somebody wants to ruin it all, Nettlebrand.

Dragon Rider Links:

Scholastic: Dragon Rider - Chat with Cornelia Funk

Don't Be Greedy

My mom read a story to me called The Story of the Blind Baba-Abdalla from The Arabian Nights Entertainments edited by Andrew Lang.

Here are some of the words from this story that I looked up in a dictionary:

Covet - To envy or to wish to have very much.

Avarice - Extreme greed for wealth.

Reproach - Address someone with disapproval.

Anoint - Smear or rub with oil.

Alms - Money or goods given in charity.

In this story we find the following phrases:

'the more one has, the more one wants' and

'Remember riches sometimes have wings if we keep them for ourselves, and the poor are at our gates expressly that we may help them.'

What do these phases mean?

In this story, there was a man named Baba-Abdalla who was so greedy that when he found an old man who told him about a palace full of riches he kept on asking for more and more, instead of sharing, that it backfired because he ended up blind.

The story means that you should never be greedy and you should always share.

Fun Things

Here are some fun thing. Playing Gameboy is fun. Playing with Auntie is fun. Saturday is the funnest day of the week. Summer vacation is fun. There is a lot of fun stuff in the world!

What I Did

I dissected an owl pellet. First, I read the instructions. Next, I soaked the pellet. Then, I dissected the pellet. Last, I assembled the bones.

Facts About Leperdy

Leperdy is a leopard gecko from the desert. Here are some random facts about him. He is made to survive extreme heat in the desert. When he eats, instead of his belly getting fat, his tail gets fat. The tail getting fat allows him to live longer without eating because he uses the energy stored in his tail. Some people think that leopard geckos have scales, but in truth they have skin! It's kind of bumpy and once it's shed, it doesn't have the same pattern that it had on the gecko. The only pattern left on the shed skin is lines of bumps. All around the lines of bumps there are tiny bumps that surround the whole skin, and completely fill the surface. All together, the leopard gecko is an extremely interesting specimen.

Pop-Up Magic

If you ever wonder about how I made these amazing pop-ups, then try looking at Robert Sabuda's books. Here are some pop-ups you can make yourself.

Two Excellent Books

I read The Castle in the Attic. I also read Loch. Loch was excellent. The Castle in the Attic was also an excellent book. Loch is by Paul Zindel. The Castle in the Attic is by Elizabeth Winthrop.

Loch is about a herd of prehistoric sea monsters called plesiosaurs. The plesiosaurs are endangered because a man named Cavenger is trying to kill the herd and get rich by taking them into the museum. Three kids are trying to stop them - Sarah, Loch and Zaidee. Only their father knows how to open the trap, called a grid, that holds the sea monsters in the lake. I definitely recommend this book.

Castle in the Attic is about a portal to a medieval world where there is a wizard waiting for battle, and a dragon that's guarding the gates. In front of the portal there is a finger-high knight called the Silver Knight who used to own the castle that the wizard has taken over. His father was the king who was killed by the wizard. The Silver Knight returns with a boy to defeat the wizard. Before they get out of the forest, they see many images of food and stuff they love but this is only to get them off the trail. The rest of this book you should read yourself, but I highly recommend it.