The Unlikely Hero Of Room 13B

Good Morning! My name is Katrina the Reporter Person and I've been interviewing 15 year old Adam Spencer Ross from The Unlikely Hero Of Room 13B.

So, Mr. Ross....

Oh, please, call me Batman.

Okay. So, Batman, for all the people out there who haven't read The Unlikely Hero Of Room 13B, tell us about your adventure and life in the book.

Umm... I guess it all started with me being diagnosed with OCD and joining a Support Group. My councillor, Chuck, told me to go. One of the days I was there this girl showed up and she was perfect. Her name was Robyn and she was tall and tanned and had black hair and long eyelashes. As I said before, perfect.

I thought to myself 'wow, I need to get better for her. I need to protect Robyn Isobel Plummer'. And so I tried to get better and taller. The latter was achieved. The former, not so much. I got to know her kind of, but there was this guy named Wolverine and he was totally hitting on her and I hated him for that reason and many more, including his height, coolness, and overall epicness.

So you're saying that 'Wolverine' was stealing your girl, and one up-ing your epic factor? Have you learned from him, or do you still envy him for his "coolness"?

Naw, he's okay now and I have learned from him. If it wasn't for him being so showoff-y, I wouldn't have made a move on Robyn.

Interesting, but back to the story. What happened after you met Robyn?

Well, during the whole story, I have to deal with the over-complicated life at 97 Chatsworth, my mom's place. My mom was a hoarder, and a bad one. But I didn't talk to her about it, we both just kind of ignored it. It got so bad that I had to started stepping on things to even get to my bedroom.

It was nuts. On top of that, she was receiving these vulgar notes telling her that she’s ruining her son’s (that’s me) life and that she should kill herself. She wouldn’t show me but I found a few of them in the trash and pieced them back together. It was horrible. It was the cause of a lot of counting, pacing, and tapping, some of my bad habits from my OCD.

I totally get the hoarding thing, my brother did that for a while, but it got too messy too fast. But what’s OCD?

Yeah, it means Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

It pretty much means things that shouldn’t matter cause anxiety, like a certain image or a type of object. One of the biggest problems for me was thresholds. In certain places, certain doors, I couldn’t enter without ‘cleansing’ it. I’d do a ritual before entering or else the world would end or something just as bad would happen. In the book, I couldn’t enter the church or the side door at my dad’s house or the large bio lab at school. At one point in the book, I couldn’t even get into my own house.

That’s rough, man. I can’t relate directly, but I can empathize. It must suck, i feel like that would hold you back from accomplishing things. Does it?

Yeah, one time, I couldn’t get into my classroom because I kept messing up the ritual of, like, forty minutes. Also, I took my support group to the church, but I made them turn around so I could get in without them seeing. Yeah, it was a major setback, but not really anymore.

Well, that’s good.

Yeah, but OCD isn’t my whole life. I also have a little brother named Wendell -we call him Sweetie- to deal with, and a half-gone mom to keep from going insane. I was a busy guy. Anyways, continuing with the story. Robyn and I had to walk through the cemetery to get to our houses from Group, so every time we’d go to her mothers grave and sort of ‘pay our respects’.

She was very interested in learning how to be Catholic, so I taught her the holy rosary to do everyday at her mother’s grave. She brought it up at Group and everyone else wanted to be Catholic, too. So I was volentold to take the Group to my church and show them around. I hadn’t been in that church in years, but i kinda like it in there.

Oh, how so? Is there anyone or thing there that’s special to you?

Father Rick. Yeah, he’s cool and really respects me, which is hard to find since I’m often found performing rituals to get into places. People think I’m crazy. Anyways, I also like the labyrinth. I used to walk it all the time when I was little.

That sounds interesting. How did the others like the church?

They loved it. They were all so curious.

Well I would be, too, if it was my first time in a church. They’re huge! So, what happened next?

Then Robyn and Wolverine met my dad. Many Awkward moments. But then I got Robyn’s number so all was amazing again. I called her. Multiple times. Then, we went to a café with Chuck and the Group. Thor taught me how to be a man and drink coffee even though it tastes AWFUL. Nobody thought Thor could talk before then.

I became pretty good friends with all the superheroes, including Wolverine, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Robin, Green Lantern, and Snooki.

Snooki?!

Yeah. We ran out of super-hero names. Anyways, that Christmas, my mom decided to stop hoarding and take out two garbage bags of stuff to the curb every day. She made a big deal of it too. Until I found out that the bags were full of newspaper balls, not clutter. I didn’t speak up. Then, I went to Robyn’s house for the first time and she told me her ultimate lie. That her mom didn’t commit suicide, but died of breast cancer. Then, I spent New Years with Ben Stones, my longtime friend. It got pretty intense, lots of chocolate covered coffee beans from Robyn and Red Bull to wash them down.

Yumm…..

Yeah, but the whole time I was thinking about the letters my mom was receiving. Those awful letters, I didn’t see who could hate my mother so much. On the bright side, Group was starting to be fun and I enjoyed going. I took the Group to church again and showed them the labyrinth.

Even though i’ve read the book, i’m wondering what comes next! Please, continue!

After that, my OCD started getting worse. I was in meetings with Chuck almost everyday. I couldn’t stop counting and performing rituals and the thresholds were near unbearable.

I told Group about the old-school cut-and-paste letters my mom was getting. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. And Robyn was so proud of me and we walked home together and I kissed her. She’s amazing.

AWWWWWWWWWWW….

But then, Sweetie was shoved off the monkey bars and broke his arm. I had to go to the hospital with him and go through the ‘Cat Tunnel’ with him so the doctors could check for concussions. He got a neon orange cast and we went back to my dad’s house and I got to sleep over, even if I didn’t sleep. Sweetie has so many nightlights it’s blinding!

I walked home from Group one night maybe a week later and there was smoke coming from 97 Chatsworth. I needed to get in there to help my mom only I couldn't get in. I needed to cleanse the house. I finally gave up on the ritual and tried to knock the door in. It was stuck and something heavy was blocking it. Thor came out of nowhere and knocked the door in without even really trying. My mom was lying on the kitchen floor and a burning pot on the stove. There was magazine clippings all over the kitchen table. My mom claimed that ‘he’ had come and hit her and tried to kill her. She had gone crazy. I knew she was making the letters and sending them to herself as an excuse that they were making her crazy. Thor called the police and ambulance and they took mom away. She was sent to rehab. She’s okay now though.

Oh, Batman! That sounds awful. I’m so sorry for you. Did you go live with your dad and Brenda and Sweetie?

Yeah, I did. I had to start sleeping in a twin bed in Sweetie’s room. Then Robyn got better and she was only in Support Group to be around me and it was depressing. I knew I was bad for her and that Group wasn’t any better. I talked to her about it and it was emotional and we knew we still loved each other.

Wow. I’m speechless. Your story is thrilling and took me through every emotion. I feel like the theme of this story really is hardship and the struggles of normal and extraordinary teenage life. The places you visited were well explained and described in detail. The people you met were different in every way. I'm so glad you could share with us today.
Anytime, Katrina. Batman, OUT!
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ (5/5)

Baygirl - Characters

Baygirl
BY: Heather Smith

The book about a person who lives a rather sad life 
and moves to her ruined uncle's now cigarette smoke-stained house.

A White Pine Media task By:

Peter L. Crossley
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Characters

          The characters in Baygirl are usually described well, allowing you to clearly visualize each character as they are, with very little improvement would be needed to make the characters be able to be visualized crystal-clear.

Overall Rating

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3 Mini Missingnos out of 5

The plot was well made, the setting was detailed enough, the theme was constant, and the characters were well-crafted. Overall, I'd be just fine reading it again. Good job on this, Heather Smith!

Baygirl - Setting

Baygirl
BY: Heather Smith

The book about a person who lives a rather sad life 
and moves to her ruined uncle's now cigarette smoke-stained house.

A White Pine Media task By:

Peter L. Crossley
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Setting

            The setting in Baygirl tends to only be described enough so that you can imagine the rest. It provides a plain description of the colours, smells, and the buildings themselves, but the way that this is done allows you to easily think of what the area looks like. By doing this, it allows the author to focus more on character development.

To be continued...

Baygirl - Theme

Baygirl
BY: Heather Smith

The book about a person who lives a rather sad life 
and moves to her ruined uncle's now cigarette smoke-stained house.

A White Pine Media task By:

Peter L. Crossley
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Theme

           The one theme apparent throughout the entire book seemed to be about holding on, finding hope; Imagine, if you will: you're going through your entire life, and it seems to just never get any better, in fact, it only gets worse and worse. You're just about to lose all hope, but then suddenly: you're moving to your super-awesome-cool-[rich] uncle's house! You're so excited, but then suddenly, when you get to his house: it turns out his life spiraled to ruins. Your heart drops. You also have to go to a new school, but you lived in a small town, and can't seem to find anyone who's nice to you. Just when you're about to lose hope forever, you meet a nice person. You like them, they like you. Your hope is completely restored. This is [almost] exactly what happens in Baygirl. 

To be continued...

Now go, onto the next one!

Baygirl - Plot

Baygirl
BY: Heather Smith

The book about a person who lives a rather sad life 
and moves to her ruined uncle's now cigarette smoke-stained house.

A White Pine Media task By:

Peter L. Crossley
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Plot

You could say her life was CARP! (badum-splash)

         This is a story about a person who lives a somewhat depressing life. Her dad's an alcoholic, and a fisher that ends up losing a job since all the fish that he fishes end up being quite uncommon, and her mother can't help with support the family very well since she doesn't have a job herself, as they live in a small fishing village in Newfoundland. Their family has to move
elsewhere since they cannot fish, so they move to their uncle's house. They then find out that his life has been ruined [Highlight to find out more>] because his wife has died, so he gets depressed and all the ideas he has for his company turn south. [ <END OF SPOILER]

To be continued...

The agency

For my media task I read The Agency: A spy in the house here is what it was like:

Plot

Mary Quine was sentenced to hanging at 12 years old until she is saved by a woman that takes her to Miss Scrimshaw’s school for girls where she receives an education and learns manners. Years later she discovers that the school is also an agency that trains and employs women to become agents. Mary becomes an agent and is given her first mission: to be employed at the Thorlourd’s mansion and find evidence to prove Mr. Thorlord guilty. She soon encounters a man named James Easton who is also trying to find out about Mr. Thorlords missing cargo ships and they start working together to find evidence of Mr. Thorlords crimes. The book was well-paced and had some feminist qualities to it; the story was interesting and had some plot twists that I never saw coming. The plot was very creative and wasn't to cliche I think the author did a good job wrighting this book

Characters

The main characters were Mary Quine and James Easton and the secondary characters were Angelica Thorlord, Mr. and Mrs. Thorlord and Anne Treleaven. Mary is a 17 year old girl who is feirce, ambitious and clever but has a bad temper and doesn't like being corrected. She goes from a small theft that was ready to die to a coragious young woman that has a job and education. James Easton is a man in his twentys that is co running his brothers enginering company. He is smart, clever, charming and hard working but can make asumtions to quickly and often runs into situations unprepared. He doesn't have much character development but does start to think better of women near the end. Angelica Thorlord is the daughter of Mary's employers she is rude, bratty and self centered but becomes nicer. Mr.Thorlord is Angelica's father and a rich merchant but he does illigal things. His wife is ill and may not seem important but actually is. Anne Treleaven is the woman that runs the school she is the one that saved Mary from the gallows. She is Mary's only adult figer since her mothers died and has faith in Mary to do great things. There isn't much character development in any secondary characters except Angelica

Theme

I think the theme for the book is Fufillment. Because a lot of the characters fufill what they strived to do even if they didn't relise that they wanted to do. Mary thought she was ready to die when she was younger but she ends up getting an education, finding a place to live and fufilling her goal of getting an independant job. James Easton fufills his goal of proving Mr.Thorlord to be a theft and his company end up building railways in Calcutta. Angelica leaves her unofficial marrage to go to Vienna for piano forte lessons and to perhaps become a concert pianist.One of the younger maids Mary sends to the academy. Towards the end many people relize and strive towards there goals.

Voice

The voice in the novel speaks in third person and isn't anyone in the story. The story alternates between Mary's and James's point of veiws and describes the different experiences and emotboth people very vividly. The person that own the voice in the book doesn't apear to have any signifagence in the plot.

 

Over all I enjoyed the novel very much. It was fairly unique for a book that takes place in the 1800's and i think the author did a good job.

The Oathbreaker's Shadow Day 2

Hey everyone! Today i’m going to be finishing my blog on the book The Oathbreaker’s Shadow. If you didn’t know about my previous blog click here and i’m sure you will find it interesting. Last time, we talked about the setting, the characters, and the theme. Today, we are going to talk about the plot, the voice and I will give a summary of the book along with a rating out of 5 stars. So without further ado, let’s get started!

For the Plot of this book, you can sense that this is where the author put most of her time and energy into. It is so intricate and so in depth as there are multiple plot lines going on at once. The actual plot line will be told in the summary if you wanted to get an idea. There is such a clear and concise beginning middle and end to the plot its like when you're watching a movie and the music gradually gets really loud and you get really anticipated about what's going to happen next. You get the same feeling as it gradually gets closer to the climax and you don't even think of putting the book down. A good plot has to have suspense, a gripping storyline, good characters and a theme that ties it all together. This book fits that guideline above and beyond what is necessary for a good book.

Next, we have the voice of the story and it was one of the best elements of the story. within the novel, you are introduced to these things called haunts which basically follow the characters around. The characters can communicate with their own haunts in their heads and you can tell when they are doing so if the font turns into italics. You can also imagine a tone in the characters voice just by reading the words and feeling the emotion that the character is feeling. Just as a little side note, if the character’s haunt talks aloud, only the person that is bound to the haunt can hear it. Not the people around the character.

For the final part of this blog, I will give a short summary of the story so, here we go: The story begins with a young man named Raim who is destined to become yun, one of the lands top warriors. His best friend Khareh is in line to be Khan (kind of like a king) and they both know that Raim is going to make a Promise-knot to the future Khan as a protector. If you break a promise knot, you are cast into exile with no hope of returning to a normal life. Raim knows the risk yet it is one he is willing to take. Everybody around town knows this, yet something that is not known is that Raim has a tiny promise knot that he has no recollection of making. The time comes when Khareh approaches Raim and makes him promise to protect him at all costs. Raim accepts willingly yet something mysterious is about to happen. A little while later while Raim is Talking with friends, his promise knot that he had no recollection of making bursts into flames and he is seared with the mark of an oathbreaker. Cast into exile, Raim has to discover for himself the promise that he broke by going to the oathbreakers city of Lazar where he learns more than he wanted to.

Well, thats it for me hope you all enjoyed me talking about The Oathbreaker’s Shadow. For my final opinion, I think the setting could have been improved and maybe that characters could be a bit more vivid. Other than that, I think Amy McCulloch did a very good job with this book and I can't wait for the second installment to come out 4 out of 5 stars for me.