Wise up, Alex by M.a.k.i.n.g F.r.i.e.n.d.s Synopsis 14

Alex is 13, her mother died when she was a baby. She lives with her dad and older brother Matt. Matt is 14 and everyone likes him, especially because he's really cool. Alex is not very girly, she is a kind of tom-boy. Her favourite this to do are to skateboard, and be adventurous.
Alex's best friends are Carrie and Sky. Carrie lives with her extremely rich family, and Sky lives in a boat house with her parents.
Its the first day back and Amy is being unusually nice to Alex. Amy is the cool girl of the school, so its weird to see her sucking up to Alex. Its also weird because Amy normally picks on Alex, saying rude things about her skateboard and the way she dresses. Amy manages to isolate Alex from her friends and apologize for everything, she then invites herself over to Alex's house. Carrie and Sky can't believe that Alex ditched them like that, so they get really angry at her. But Alex soon finds out Amy wanted to be friends so she could get to see Matt (the guys she likes). Alex is hurt and quickly looses Amy, but now she doesn't have her REAL friends. For a few days she stays alone, but she is still desperatly trying to make them forgive her. Alex sends notes apologizing, she calls them, waits by their lockers but they just don't give in. When school comes to the end of the term they still aren't talking.
The first week back Amy tries to do what she did to Alex to Carrie. Carrie then realises how persuasive Amy is, in the afternoon she lets Alex walk with them. Alex says she things that by the end of the day they will be talking.

Personal aspect on Trieste

My favourite thing about Trieste is probably the history behind it. If you walk through the town today you will think it's pretty, clean and modern. I can say that i agree with you, but its also very interesting to find out how it was and how it became how it is now. I have already spoken about 'La Risiera di San Sabba' and about how during World War II it was a concentration camp for all Jews, Slovenian, Partisans, Croatians and Italian anti-Fascist who were made to do forced labour. It was also an extermination camp and it owned a crematorium which was pulled down by the Germans' after the War so there could be no evidence that they killed all those innocent people. Trieste during the war was home to many killings, not only did it have the concentration and extermination camp it also had things called 'foibe'. Foibe means a deep hole, basically like a sinkhole. After the war they were used to put military and civilian people. Mainly though the Fascist people were put in there, and left to starve to death. Many people refer to this as another Holocaust, but on a smaller scale. It is infact like another Holocaust because people were being thrown into the foibe because of what nationality they were, and maybe even because what they looked like. The story has never quite been put straight. For about sixty years after the war it was nearly all silenced, but some people spoke out and slowly since then we have recovered information. The excact number of deaths is unsure. Its approximatly 5000, 570 but its argued that that sum is too high.

Geographical Entry on Trieste; The Adriatic sea

The Adriatic sea separates the Apennine peninsula from the Balkan peninsula. The Western coast is Italian, and the eastern coast runs along Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania. The Adriatic sea is 800 kn long with an average width of 100m. And a depth of 1, 324m and an area of 131, 050 sq km. The word 'Adriatic' comes from the Latin word Mare Hadriaticum or Mare Adriaticum. Which means Adriatic sea in Italian. The name comes from the Etruscan colony of Adria (or Hadria). The main ports in Italy are Venice, Brindisi, Trieste, Ancora and Bari. In Croatia the only port by the Adriatic sea is Rijeka. In the Adriatic sea fishing is an important activity, and you can find sardines, lobsters, and tuna. The Adriatic sea is very salty and rich with lots of fish. The warm weather is nearly constant in the summer, however during the winter it can be cold, dry and windy, which is basically the Bora. The Bora is a strong current of wind that comes from Muggia. The Italian coast is mainly straight and continuous, having no islands, but the Balkan coast is full of islands, generally parallel to the shore.

The Lady Grace Mysteries, Deception Novel Synopsis 13

This is the diary of Grace Cavendish, a 13 year old girl in London in the 1800's. She is the maid of honour of Queen Elizabeth I. In the book is doesn't say who the author is, and at the end it says that Grace Cavendish is a fictional character, but some other people in the book were real.
Lady Grace lives in the majesty's castle, and she shares her room with two other maids of honour, Lady Sarah and Mary Shelton. The reason why Mary is not Lady Mary is because you have to born into a Lady and seeing as no one from Mary's family was a Lady she will not be either. The river Thames has frozen over and Lady Grace can't wait to skate down to the Frost Fair on the lake. But the dead body of a man, with the Queen's new currency stuffed in his eyes interrupts the festivity. Lady Grace needs to find out who it was, and the Queen allows her 5 days to find something, otherwise she will hire detectives. Lady Grace get her two best friends Ellie and Masou to come and help her. They go out at night searching for clues for 3 nights. Lady Grace has only one chance left, and by PURE luck on the last night they find the master mint, Sir Edward exchanging some forged coins with another man. Sir Edward sees them and he locks all three in a dark cramped closet. Lady Grace, Ellie and Masou manage to escape but they don't have long before someone notices. They run straight to the Queen who immediately believes them, and she sends guards to arrest Sir Edward. The Queen forgets about making a new currency and rewards the kids with gowns and toys.

Historical entry on Trieste

Trieste is a small city near the border of Slovenia. Its in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region; which includes Gorizia, Pordenone and Udine. Trieste is known as the Pearl of the Adriatic. Its hidden between the Carso mountains and the sea. It has a population of 207,069 people.
The mayor is Roberto Dipiazza. Roberto Dipiazza was born in February 1, 1953 in the Province of Undine. In 2001 he was elected mayor of Trieste, and his goals where to improve the cross border relations between Italy and Slovenia, he sucseeded. In 1943 Partisan groups were active throughout northern and central Italy. Very often the partisians were former soldiers cut off from their homes and still in possession of their weapons. Many were young men fleeing from Mussolini, who had extravagant ideas and the did not agree with him. He was the leader of Fascism in Italy during World War II. During World War II there was a concentration camp called 'La Risiera di San Sabba'. Trieste was the only Italian city to have a Nazi concentration camp. Here many Jews, Slovenian, Partisans, Croations, and Italian anti-fascist were executed. Before being a concentration camp it was a rice-husking factory, but the Germans transformed it in 1943. The building is open to the public, and today there are two rooms where documents and information on the concentration camp are exposed! It has attracted many tourists, mainly because it near the stadium 'Nereo Rocco' where the home team 'Triestina' train and sometimes play.

This is the e-mail that we have to send to Mr.Pastore confirming that we did all the work and that we wrote drafts, and proof checked everything.

'Dear Mr.Pastore,
I did all six blog entries, and all six rough copies in my notebook. For the second quarter i think i should get an A because i did all my work on time, i did all my work completely, i also used good grammar, and proof checked it all. I did the best i could on doing 24 comment, but some people didn't post some of the entries so i couldn't get 24 exactly. I used my time during class wisely, and followed the rules for each blog entry!
Magenta Z'

The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman Synopsis 12

It all starts when Makinnon, a famous magician is in trouble. Some men are trying to kill him. Jim helps him escape, and he takes Makinnon to Fred and Sally. Fred and Jim do some private investigation, and much later on in the book, find its to do with a man called Bellman. Bellman is making a super killing machine. It looks like a normal railway carriage, but it has 6 thousand little holes, where bullets come shooting out 5 per second. Meanwhile Makinnon runs away and Jim goes out to find him.
In the end Bellman sets their house on fire. That night Sally had come to see Fred, Jim, Webster (Fred's uncle) and Isabelle (Makinnon's stalker) all were caught up in it. They managed to get everyone out except from Fred who went to save Isabelle, they both died.
Sally then reveals that she is having Fred's baby!

Social Studies Entry

In Social Studies were learning about the Blitzkrieg. Which in English means 'lightning war'. It was called that because Hitler wanted to have a fast and surprising attack, doing it this way the enemies would be unprepared and defenseless. No country was prepared for the new style of warfare developed by Hitler. The Blitzkrieg changed battle tactics and started a new period in military history. In September 1939 and April 1940 there was no serious fighting in Western Europe. This period is known as the 'Phony war' and sometimes 'Fake war'. The fake war in which Britain and France waited for Germany to threaten them. The Blitzkrieg was successful because they had very skilled tactics. This way their 'victims' had no chance, not even to escape! They surrounded the countries and followed out surprised ambushes. I find this topic interesting, and it's useful to know these kind of things.

Drama Entry

In drama we are doing the Shakespeare play called 'A midsummer night's dream' Nearly everyone is in it, apart from three people who do extra-Italian. I play Puck, Oberon's fairy servant. In the original play Puck is a boy, but we changed the part into a girl (so i can play it). The story is very complicated because two guys are in love with one girl, but then i put love potion in their eyes and they fall in love with another girl. It's a complex plot, also because there are other things happening, like at one point there is another play going on, so some people have two characters to play. Having two characters to play means you have to learn double the lines too!
I like this play, it's really fun, and its interesting to do because the language is different and we get to do new things we haven't done before.

Science Entry

In science we have to do projects. We picked our groups, they had to have three or four people. Then we got given a topic to do it on. I am with Sofi, Claudia and Sophia. Our topic is 'electromagnets'. We are filming a video. First we are in a talk show, and we all play different guests on this show. After there is a quiz, I play the stupid one who didn't know anything, Sofia plays the smart one who can answer everything. In the video we have to include adverts too, so we have filmed some with all of us saying 'ITALIA UNO' which is a channel over here, then we have one about Nike, etc...
I hope we will get an A+ on this project because we have all tried hard and we deserve it! Electromagnets are strong magnets that can be turned on and off. It's basically a solenoid with a ferromagnetic core.

Italian Entry

In Italian (narrativa) we are reading 'Stranieri come noi' which means 'Strangers like us'. It was written by a man called Alessandro Zucconi. The book has lots of short tales called 'racconti'. One of my favourite stories is called 'Arabia l'aereo' which is 'Arabia the plane'. Basically its about one of the wars going on and there is this boy, Mustàfa, who lives in the desert. One of the American pilots looses control and he comes crashing down a few yards away from Mustàfa. He didn't understand when the pilot was telling him to run away because the plane was going to blow. Mustàfa pulled him out seconds before, and saved his life. The American pilot gave him a bravery badge, during the special ceremony they did for Mustàfa's courage.
I like this story because it shows that when someone needs help it doesn't need to be said, and especially not in an universal language.

Whispers by Dean Koonz Synopsis 11


Katherine Frye had many problems during pregnancy. When the baby came it turned out that they were twins with cauls, (she names them both Bruno) Katherine was superstitious and so she thought that they were demon children. She made them act like one person they were so brainwashed, in the end they thought they were on. Katherine only let one out at a time, and she closed the other on in the cellar. For five years after Katherine's death 'he' (both Bruno's) had nightmares of the evil whispering and crawling down there. 'He' (both Bruno's) thought that his mum kept coming back from the dead in new bodies, so 'he' killed her so she couldn't put him back down in the cellar. It turns out that in the cellar there was billions of 2inch roaches, and the noise of their hairy legs brushing together sounding like the evil whispering. 'He' was haunted for the rest of his shot life!

Raspberries on the Yangtze by Karen Wallace Synopsis 10


Nancy is great friends with Clare and Amy. They live with their mum, and they don't have a dad. They are always playing outside and they meet friends easily. Nancy's neighbor Mr. Chevrolet is kind and loves to make them lemonade on the hot summer days. Clare and Amy go away for two weeks, and they stay with Mrs. Somers. Nancy notices Mr. Chevrolet’s car and Clare and Amy's mum's car one night outside a motel. When they come back they tell Nancy that they think Mr. Chevrolet is in love with their mum, but she doesn't love him back. Nancy doesn't tell them what she saw, and decided to let fate take it's path. Later on Clare, Amy and Nancy notice Mr. Chevrolet making changed to his house, like clearing the garage and painting the rooms. That's when they find out that Mr. Chevrolet is marrying Clare and Amy's mum!

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman Synopsis 9


Sally Lockhart is an orphan. Her father just died at sea in the East Indies. Sally goes to talk with his colleague, but he ends up dying with the words 'The Seven Blessings' Sally is frightened but she quickly makes a new friend Jim, who she confides in. Jim goes out to find the meaning of this, and he fins that Sally is in danger. Mrs Holland is ready to do anything for the ruby, she thinks Sally has it, and indeed she does, but Sally doesn't understand the meaning of the message telling her where it is. In the desperate hunt to get it she finds another friend, Fredrick. Sally and Fredrick end up living together. Jim manages to get hold of the ruby, and Sally goes to meet Mrs Holland (who ends up dead because Sally throws the ruby into the water and Mrs Holland goes after it)

Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares Synopsis 8

This is the third book in the series, so the third summer of the girls.
This year Carmen's mum gets pregnant with David, her new boyfriend. The baby arrives when David is away, so Carmen has to get him before the baby beats them to it.
Tibby's sister falls out the window. Her and Brian have go to the prom together, and she realises that he just doesn't want to be friends. They end up swimming in their underwear in a private pool, but Tibby isn't sure if she wants to be more than friends.
Lena's grandma, Valia has to come live with her because otherwise she would be alone. Valia is really angry about having to be there.
Bridget (Bee) goes to soccer camp again, but as a coach. She is teamed up with Eric, her heartthrob from last summer. This time though she is determined not to fall in love again.

Romeo and the Nurse (Romeo&Juliet) Synopsis 7

Romeo and the Nurse have quite a tight relationship. I think this because if they didn't talk then there would be no Romeo & Juliet. Like if the nurse hated Romeo she would not do Juliet the favours she does, and they would have no way to be together. But the Nurse doesn't feel like she should hate Romeo just because her 'masters' do (Capulet's) And i don't think Romeo has any choice but to like the Nurse, otherwise he would not have done many things. For example she went to tell him to come see Juliet in the night, and she got the ladder for him to climb up! In act II Scene V the Nurse arranges a time with Romeo 'This afternoon, sir? Well she shall be there' and later on he says 'Commend me to thy lady' to the Nurse, and this shows that they must have a close relationship, maybe not close on their own account, but close because of Juliet. Juliet tells the Nurse the things she wants to tell Romeo, and the Nurse goes to Romeo, Romeo then responds and the Nurse reports back.

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares Synopsis 6

This year the girls are still going to pass the pants to each other, and they are convinced that last years events are still in the pockets.
Bridget takes off to go to Alabama, to meet her grandma (Greta) who got separated from the family, but Bridget pretends to be a stranger so she can get to know her secretly, but Greta found out that it was her and let Bridget stay.
Carmen's mother gets a boyfriend, David. She feels like her mum has totally forgotten about her so she splits them up, but guilt makes her apologize and set them up again.
Tibby makes a movie for school all about Bailey, and she is helped by Brian who is in love with her.
And finally Lena, who finds out that Kostos has a new girlfriend and she's pregnant, but Lena heart throb obviously isn't worth it.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Synopsis 5

This is a fictional autobiography. Crusoe's boat got lost in the sea and he got stranded on a island. On this island he makes a house, and some necessary items.Then one day he decides to walk along the beach shore, and when he does he finds the remains of dead men's bodies, later he finds out that these people had been eaten by some cannibals. He tries to make a boat to help him get away, but it doesn't float. Other men come to the island with some slaves, Crusoe frees one, but when the men find where they were hiding they take back the slave and mistake Crusoe as one of the crew. In the end he gets taken home by the men who mistook him. He says it taught him a lesson; "I have lived many years, a life of many changes, and i have learned the blessing of ending our days in peace" He then got a job, a house and began a new life.

The Sisterhood Of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares Synopsis 4

Theres Tibby, Carmen, Bridget, and Lena four best friends. They have always been together, but this is their first summer apart. Tibby stays at home working in Wallman's. Bridget goes to a soccer camp seeing as she loves football. Lena goes to Greece to visit her grandparents with her little sister Effie, and finally Carmen who goes to stay with her dad. They have found these fantastic pants that fit all of them perfectly and compliment their figures. So they all agree to keep the pants for 1 week then send it off to the next person, always writing something with it. The pants give them confidence at hard times. All four girls have their crazy adventures and have so much to tell, but some things are better left untold...even though they know that is not true because the pants know everything! At the end of the holiday they all get back together and tell their tales.

Death Trials by Darren Shan Synopsis 3

Darren is only half vampire (which means he just drinks human blood), he lives with the vampire clan. He must face five trials to prove he is a worthy vampire, but if he fails he will die. He doesn't know what they are until he is told about it. The normal vampires have to go to the task straight away, but there was an exception made for Darren seeing as he is a half vampire. His trials were interrupted by the vampaneze (who killed their humans) declaring war on them. They murdered everyone, only Darren was left. They hunted him down, and found him in a strong current of freezing water. They wanted him because he was young and had bright ideas, Darren refused and said "I'd rather die!", and with that he was taken away by the current.