I DID IT!!!

I'm so excited that I finished NaNoWriMo! I'm so glad I decided to try. There were times when I was worried that I wouldn't make it. But now I'm definitely doing it next year!

Thanks, Jean, for all of your support and encouragement! I don't think I could have done it without you!

Obviously, I need to do a lot of editing to whip my story into shape, but I'm going to paste my prologue here, since no one could get to my site:

Winged Wolf’s Cry

Prologue

In a land far away, past rolling hills and dense forests, a winged wolf stood on a ragged cliff. His searching eyes scanned the horizon worriedly. “Talia,” he muttered to himself, “where are you?”

He had been waiting for days, standing there, yearning for that flashing smile and those gleaming eyes. But it never came.

“You never should have let her go alone!” he silently cursed himself. “She never could have made it.”

He remembered all too well those dark pits of torture, where the Enemy captured winged wolves and took them, where his Daemons tortured them until they could stand it no longer…

He could stand it no longer. He howled out loud. The piercing cry echoed off of the cliffs and the caves around him.

“Jalon, you know where you have to go,” the wolf told himself, “before it’s too late…”

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (book review)

This book was for both the Book Awards Challenge and the Four-legged Friends challenge.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett, is the story of a sly, talking cat named Maurice and his companions, a bunch of rats and a stupid-looking kid named Keith. Maurice is the mastermind behind the biggest pied piper scheme in Discworld. But when he leads Keith and the rats to the town of Bad Blintz, he doesn't know what trouble it's going to cause. Bad Blintz isn't like a normal town... something evil hides here, something that could destroy Maurice's scheme for good.

This book was suspenseful, funny, and dark. It was also a quick read. The characters were well-developed. This was the first book I've read by Terry Pratchett, and I can't wait to read more!

I give this book 10 out of 10 stars.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book Eight: The Outcast (book review)

This book is from my Four-legged Friends Challenge list.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book Eight: The Outcast, by Kathryn Lasky, is the story of a young Barn Owl named Nyroc. He has fled from his mother, Nyra, a tyrant who rules the Tytonic Union of Pure Ones. This is a group of evil owls who long to take over the owl world. Nyroc yearns to go to the Great Ga'Hoole tree, where noble owls study and fight the Pure Ones. However, first he must fulfill his destiny by heading to the dark place filled inhabited by warring dire wolf clans and volcanoes spewing fire--Beyond the Beyond.

This was the eighth book in the series, but only the second one that featured Nyroc. I enjoyed some of the books more than others. This was one of the better ones. Maybe I feel that way because there were wolves in it, and wolves are my favorite animal. The wolves had a little Macbeth theme going; a lot of their names were characters from the play. I thought that was interesting since I just read Macbeth!

I give this book 9 out of 10 stars.

2 more for the Newbery Challenge (book reviews)

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, is the story of a black family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. Nine-year- old Cassie doesn't understand why she is humiliated in public by a white girl simply because she is black, or why the night men ride each night to the houses of black families. But after each horrible day, she always has a home and a family to return to. Will it stay that way?

I loved Mildred D. Taylor's moving story! Cassie had to go through many hard times, but she always had the support of her family, no matter what happened, so while this book could be very sad at times, overall, there was a real joy expressed.

I give this book 9 out of 10 stars.


The View from Saturday, by EL Konigsburg, is the story of a group of four very different 6th graders who come together in a pattern of strange events to form the Academic Bowl team for their school.

This book was actually more like four short stories that intertwine to become one big story. I really enjoyed this one!

I give this book 9 out of 10 stars.