![]() ![]() Although Tod bullies many of the other kids, he does have two friends, Rex and Rob. A very unhappy boy, Tod has given up on himself. He hopes that no one notices that he eats both breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria. Tod is embarrassed by the house he lives in. His father left when he was little, and his mother works long hours at the dry cleaner. By acting stupid and domineering, Tod carves out a reputation for himself that stops these other kids from bullying him first. ![]() He comes from a poor background, whereas, many students at the school come from wealthy families. ![]() Large for his age, Tod plays the class clown. As far as Tod is concerned, he rules the school, and everyone should do what he tells them to do. It is unclear at first why he bullies people, but Tod is serving detention for being mean to other students. The protagonist, Tod Munn, is a bully he is the type of character who usually serves as the antagonist. ![]() Before writing books full-time, Shulman had various jobs ranging from rock band manager to jingle writer for laxative commercials. Shulman is the author of more than 150 books for young readers. It was nominated for the 2010 Cybils Award. Although the book was written to appeal to middle-grade readers, it also appeals to younger high-schoolers. Mark Shulman’s Scrawl (2010), a contemporary novel for middle-grade readers, follows a young teenage bully and his spells in detention, where he is encouraged by a guidance counselor to write about his experiences. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() The serious kiss comes in a wonderful final chapter containing a rare gift: a supremely satisfying last sentence. Dad’s alcoholism hits bottom and rehab ensues Libby’s tone shifts, thankfully, from an overdramatic annoyedness to an open realness. Far away from her old best friend (and co-conspirator in getting a “serious kiss” from a boy), Libby forms a new life in the tiny desert town. Lamenting that “everything awful happen to me,” Libby’s yanked out of her small town and moved to a Barstow trailer park (surprise: it’s a retirement home!) next door to an unknown woman (surprise: it’s her grandmother!). Libby’s screwy family includes a mother more likely to say “dinneroo” than “dinner” and an older brother who hides cigarettes in his hair worse, no one sees her, her father’s an alcoholic, and family dysfunctions go unacknowledged. Fourteen-year-old Libby’s first-person narration of her trials and tribulations starts off gratingly but becomes likable two-thirds of the way through. ![]() ![]() They made plans to live with a freedom neither one was familiar with once they hit eighteen and meet up in West Hollywood and start anew. They became each other's lifeline, anchored by their friendship and mutual need to simply have someone out there who will accept them for who they are and offer the support and understanding they crave. Lucas Barnett and Gabriel Stewart met online when they were both sixteen. No question about it, they've "got this". ![]() Theirs is a formula that I wouldn't hesitate to go back to again and again because Christina Lee plus Nyrae Dawn equals priceless new adult M/M romance gold. But nope, it's true, and what a writing these two have made and what an initial foray into their team-up they've put together with Touch the Sky, the series starter for Free Fall. After all, the idea of Christina creating not just a standalone but an entire series with the author of one my favorite series from last year, Blackcreek (written using the pen name Riley Hart), seemed to good to be true. ![]() When she informed her readers that she was teaming up with Nyrae Dawn, my mouth literally hung open for a good half a minute in shock. Her books have never failed to evoke a myriad of emotions within me, her stories leaving me with a smile in my heart, and her characters inspiring me to believe that maybe everyone does get a happily ever after. I've said plenty a time that Christina Lee is one of my all-time favorite authors. ![]() ![]() Though it touches on many topics, the story is perhaps best described as a high-tech reenactment of the Trojan War. It's a sprawling epic story that is conveyed through three seemingly disconnected but intertwining narratives. ![]() Illium is a Speculative Fiction novel by writer Dan Simmons. ![]() PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples.Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. ![]() Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. ![]() This is becoming, even more, the case with each passing year as the topic of addiction becomes better and better studied, understood, and detailed. So, how can we tackle this seemingly inescapable problem? Fortunately, while addiction seems near-impossible to beat on a larger societal basis, individuals can relatively reliably overcome addiction and get on the road to recovery with enough support and effort. Even the oldest myths and religious texts we have speak about the blight of addiction, indicating that this problem is actually about as old as humanity itself. If we look into literature, we can find that authors and philosophers have been writing about addiction for hundreds and thousands of years. Whether this is an actively worsening problem, however, or we’re just getting better and more precise at measuring its exact scale is another question. Statistics across the board seem to show people’s addiction woes worsening despite various restriction attempts and support tools getting employed. ![]() The topic of addiction, be it to drugs, alcohol, gambling, or even to things such as gaming, sex, or work, has been widely discussed in recent years. ![]() ![]() His first experiences with net culture occurred when he wired seven phone lines into the back of his Apple IIe and hosted an online chat system.Ī frequent speaker on the future of technology, science fiction, and indie publishing, Hertling has spoken at SXSW Interactive, Defrag, Or圜on, University of Colorado, Willamette Writers Conference, and many other conferences.ĭC: Will, thanks so very much for doing this interview. Hertling grew up a digital native in the early days of bulletin board systems. His first novel for children, The Case of the Wilted Broccoli, was published in 2014. Hertling’s Singularity Series novels have been endorsed by and received wide attention from tech luminaries including Harper Reed (CTO for the Obama Campaign), Ben Huh (CEO Cheezburger), and Chris Anderson (CEO 3DRobotics, former Editor-in-Chief Wired). His novels have been called “frighteningly plausible,” “tremendous,” and “must-read.” These near-term science-fiction novels explore the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), the coexistence of humans and smart machines, and the impact of social reputation, technological unemployment, and other near-future issues. Apocalypse, The Last Firewall, The Turing Exception, and the upcoming Kill Process. William Hertling is the author of Avogadro Corp, A.I. ![]() ![]() So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I’m out, we’re all out-and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. But it’s all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.Īnd now the impossible dream has come true. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Paste, Publishers Weekly Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I have been reading a few poems by Wordsworth and it felt so delightful. This is mentioned, not with so ridiculous a purpose as to prevent the most inexperienced Reader from judging for himself, (I have already said that I wish him to judge for himself ) but merely to temper the rashness of decision, and to suggest, that, if Poetry be a subject on which much time has not been bestowed, the judgment may be erroneous and that in many cases it necessarily will be so. This is not only an act of justice, but in our decisions upon poetry especially, may conduce in a high degree to the improvement of our own taste: for an accurate taste in poetry, and in all the other arts, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed, is an acquired talent, which can only be produced by thought and a long continued intercourse with the best models of composition. If an Author by any single composition has impressed us with respect for his talents, it is useful to consider this as affording a presumption, that, on other occasions where we have been displeased, he nevertheless may not have written ill or absurdly and, further, to give him so much credit for this one composition as may induce us to review what has displeased us with more care than we should otherwise have bestowed upon it. ![]() ![]() ![]() Leo, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Annabeth Chase, accompanied by Coach Hedge, arrive at Camp Jupiter to rendezvous with Percy Jackson and Roman demigods Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Six months after the events of The Lost Hero, Leo Valdez has constructed a flying trireme named Argo II, for use in the quest to Greece and Rome to stop Gaea from awakening. It has since been translated into many languages and released as a hardcover, e-book, audiobook and paperback. Criticism was focused on its slow pace, action, and different perspectives. The Mark of Athena received positive reviews from critics for its humor, characters, and mix of elements. ![]() It is preceded by The Son of Neptune and followed by The House of Hades. It was published on October 2, 2012, and is the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series, a sequel of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. The Mark of Athena is an American fantasy- adventure novel written by Rick Riordan, based on Greek and Roman mythology. Print ( hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book ![]() ![]() Ship of Magic can be a stand alone book.but why would anyone want it to be with such superb entertainment to follow? ( The Mad Ship, #2 in the series, and Ship of Destiny, #3). These enormous trading vessels are built of wizardwood - a magical substance obtained from the dangerous Rain Wilds. They take-on and retain the memories of those who lived and died aboard them. After three consecutive owners, from separate generations of the same family, die upon their decks, the ships become alive. ![]() ![]() Ship of Magic, the first installment of the author's Liveship Traders Trilogy, caught me up from the very first page and kept me reading well past midnight, every night, until I had completed this book and this series. Robin Hobb, an enormously talented writer, has a particular gift of imagination that transforms readers into addicts. I agree - but more so with fantasy fiction which is so dependent on the author's imagination and ability to tell a good tale. Now, one could argue that any good novel should possess the above criteria. I am a fan of fantasy novels, BUT only if the books are extremely well written, contain unique and compelling storylines, and are peopled by magical, well developed characters. Over to read a review of The Dragon Keeper)ĭown to read a review of Mad Ship #2 in The Liveship Traders)ĭown to read a review of Ship of Destiny #3 in The Liveship Traders) ![]() |