Book Review 2-12: THE LONG ROAD

I read THE LONG ROAD. This is written about a man's background. He is a strong runner. However, his right leg gets impaired suddenly on his way home. Then, he has to have an artificial leg. He remembers a story about a man with one leg in a marathon. Then, he decides to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean for a purpose.

Terry Fox is a good student and a strong athlete in 1976. In March, 1997, he is running home, but he stops suddenly. His right leg gets impaired. His family takes him to the hospital, and the doctors operate. 3 weeks later, Terry has an artificial leg. He goes home in April, but he often thinks of the children with cancer in the hospital. 'Only money can stop the pain,' he thinks. He remembers a story about a man with one leg in the New York Marathon. Then, he decides to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean to earn money. Terry's marathon starts at St. John's, Newfoundland, on April 12, 1980. His friend, Doug Alward, is his driver. Terry runs in the day and sleeps in the car at night. He runs 550 miles in 23 days. In Port-Aux-Basques, the people of the town give 8000 dollars to him. On May 8, he is on the road to Halifax. He finishes his first 1000 miles. Terry is near Moncton, New Brunswick, and is in pain from his artificial leg on May 28. 'See a doctor,' Doug says, but Terry says no. On June 24, he arrives in Montreal. He meets Isadore Sharp there. Isadore gives 2 dollars for every mile of the marathon to Terry and has important massage for all Canadians: 'Give money.' After Tronto, Terry doesn't run well. However, he doesn't see a doctor. On September 1, he is running near Thunder Bay. Suddenly, there is a bad pain in his lungs. In the end, he can't run any more, and an airplane takes him back home. Then, he goes to the hospital in New Westminster. Terry runs a total of 3339 miles. He has 1400000 dollars for sick children. This is good, but he has cancer again. Sadly, the doctors can't stop his cancer. Terry dies on June 28, 1981. He becomes a Canadian hero and leaves a message 'Stop the pain.'

I didn't know about Terry Fox until I read THE LONG ROAD. He seems to be patient and brave. Talking about the reason why he seems to be patient, there is a scene which he continued to run in spite of being in pain from his artificial leg in this book. Then, talking about the reason why he seems to be brave, there is a scene which he decided to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in it. If I were Terry, I couldn't do these things probably. Personally, THE LONG ROAD is a book which encourages people who read it. [492 words]

SoundPark

A friend of mine I haven't seen for a long time asked me to go out to karaoke about 1 p.m. today. Fortunately, I was free then, so I went to his house first(^_^) When I arrived there, 'my friends who you know also come here. Therefore, 5 people including us are going to go to a karaoke bar. Is that OK!?' he said. That's all right for me, so I agreed his offer(^^)/ Then, about 3 p.m., we got to SoundPark, a karaoke bar. We sang songs for 5 hours（*^_^*） Interestingly, we sang only songs whose title are 3 letters while we were in a karaoke room because one of us proposed that to me and other friends(*^^)v It was hard for me to select the songs(>_<) However, I enjoyed singing them very much（＾◇＾）[135 words]

Book Review 2-11: MAISIE AND THE DOLPHIN

I read MAISIE AND THE DOLPHIN. A girl whose mother and father work at an animal hospital goes out in a boat with her grandfather to go swimming underwater. One day, they find an injured dolphin by an American. They take the dolphin home. Then, they take care of the dolphin very hard. Can the dolphin gets well and go to the sea again?

Maisie King lives in the Bahamas. Her mother and father work at the Freeport Animal Hospital next to their home. She and her grandfather often go out in his boat to go swimming underwater. One day, she sees a piece of wood. There are some letters on it: 'M..N...A.' Then, she swims back to the boat. He is watching a big, expensive American boat and a dolphin. Surprisingly, The American boat hits the dolphin and drives away! They take the dolphin home. They find the American boat. 'Why is it here?' Maisie asks her mother. Carl Flint, an American, and your father are in our house. I think it's his boat,' she answers. Maisie runs into the house and hears her father. 'You want to give me 200000 dollars for the hospital and this house!?' he says. 'Yes, I want to build a big hotel here. However, you don't need to decide to do it. 4 weeks later, I'll come here again,' Carl says. After that, Maisie names the dolphin Ben. Since she takes care of him with her family very hard, he gets strong and well again! Then, the time when he goes home comes. Maisie is very sad, but she takes Ben out to sea with her grandfather. A few minutes later, Ben swims away. However, she can see a dolphin beside them in the water. The dolphin is Ben, and he gets an old key in his mouth. She dives into the water. Under the water, Maisie sees a piece of wood with the letters 'M..N...A' on it. 'I remember this!' she thinks. He takes her to a box which has the word 'MONTOYA' on the top. She takes the key from his mouth and opens the box. There are lots of gold coins in it! Thanks to Ben, Maisie's father can decline Carl's offer. In addition, her mother and father can build a new hospital.

MAISIE AND THE DOLPHIN included an impressive scene for me. It is that Ben took Maisie to a treasure box under the water. If he hadn't found the treasure box, her family might have had to sell their hospital and house for a living. Therefore, I thought Ben did a very good job for them. After I read the scene, it seemed to be like a part of the scene in The Grateful Crane to me. Perhaps, he might think he wanted to give something back to them after they helped him. [474 words]

Joyfull

I went to Joyfull to have dinner with my friends today(^^♪ A lot of people came here, so we had to wait about for 10 minutes(-_-;) I ordered mixed grill for the first time. It was delicious than expected(^^)/ We met each other for a long time, and had various things which we wanted to talk. Therefore, we talked about 3 hours there!(^^)! I had a very good time(*^^)v [68 words]

Book review 2-10: Marcel and The White Star

I read Marcel and The White Star. The scene of this story is in France. 2 men cause a case. A detective is going to solve the case. He goes to several places alone. Then, he knows a fact. Can he solve the case?

Marcel is a French mouse and a secret detective. One day, he waits at the station in Louvre. He sees 2 men standing next to him. They talk about Opera Star, a diamond which Zaza has. Amazingly, they are going to steal it! Then, they go to her house to steal it. Marcel follows them to protect it. However, they steal it well! Then, they drive a car to run away from Zaza's house. He sees that, so he gets on the car. After half an hour, the car stops next to a cafe. In one corner in the cafe, a woman sits on a chair. They show her Opera Star. 'Oh! This is it,' she says. When they are about to give it to her, Marcel gets it well! Then, he can get away from them! After that, he walks back to Zaza's house. A problem happens to him there. It is that he can't take the ring off! There is a soap on a table, so he uses the soap to take it off. A few minutes later, he can do it fortunately! Marcel puts Opera Star on the table. Zaza finds it after he gets out of her house. She gets happy and feels mysterious.

The content of Marcel and The White Star ended up to be a happy ending finally. Fortunate things such as getting Opera Star on his first attempt, getting away from the thieves and taking it off by soap happened to Marcel, so I think he did a good job. In my opinion, Zaza may never know the truth in spite of his job because he may also never tell anyone the truth. [324 words]

A lot of mandarin oranges

When I went to one of my relatives' house with my family on December 26, she gave us a lot of mandarin oranges(^^)/ She and her husband have a mandarin orange grove, so they give us them every year. This is happy for us(#^.^#) They look delicious, so I wanna have them soon(^^♪ [53 words]

Book Review 2-09: THE TROY STONE

I read THE TROY STONE. There is a stone at Troy. A main character finds it. Then, something happens to him suddenly when he cleans it. Is he OK!? Well, I will introduce you to a summary of this book.

Mark and Fay, his sister, are visiting the city of Troy. They are getting on a bus. At Troy, they start to look at the old city. After an hour, Mark sits under a tree. 'I'm going to stop here for a moment,' he tells Fay. Then, Mark sees a flat and yellow stone on the ground. He picks it up and starts to clean it with his hands. Suddenly, there is a white strong light in his eyes! Mark closes them. 10 seconds later, he is standing on a beach. He can see hundreds of ships and men. Then, one of men says to him, 'Boy! Come here! Carry these woods.' 'I don't know your face,' Mark says. 'Oh, are you new here?' the man says. 'Yes, I'm new here,' he says. The man's name is Andros. At the top of a small hill, there is a big wooden horse. 'This horse is going to win the war for us Greeks. However, we can't find a yellow and flat stone for the second eye. Do you know anything about it?' he says. 'Wait! I have it,' Mark says. 'Oh, that's it! We must thank you. You can come with us in the horse tomorrow night,' Andros says. At that night, the war breaks out. Mark sees the cruelty of the war. After a few minutes, 2 Trojans with sword come in the horse. 'I may be killed by them,' Mark thinks. They are about to kill him with sword. 'Please don't kill me! Don't kill me! Please!' he says. After that, Mark is under the tree. 'Mark! The bus is leaving in a minute,' Fay says. He looks at the yellow stone in his hand. He thinks it has special powers.

There are 2 interesting points for me in THE TROY STONE. The one is that the flat and yellow stone which Mark finds has a power which can make people who clean it be in the other world. This can be a turning point in this book. The other is that Mark sees the cruelty of the war. I think he learned we must never break out the war because of that although it isn't written in THE TROY STONE. As a whole, I think the content of it is a little mysterious. [385 words]