Suggestion of Book: The Hunger Games

Recently I have read the Hunger Games trilogy, and I find the first book, The Hunger Games, the best of all three.
It is about a reality TV show, which takes place in the near future, and where North America is situated now – that will be demolished by war and natural disasters. On its remains sits Panem, with it's Capitol and all 12 districts around it. Twelve boys and twelve girls, 2 from each district, will be drawn at a yearly "reaping" and they will be forced to compete in an event in the Capitol – The Hunger Games. There is only one rule at the Games: Kill or be killed. Winning will make you famous. Losing means certain death. Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, the poorest district, in charge of Coal Mining. One year, at the reaping, her sister gets drawn. She volunteers to replace her, but she sees as a sure death.
The tension running through the book connects pieces that fall together at the end. Unlike most fiction books for pre-teens that include intervals of suspense, The Hunger Games creates a kind of force that attracts you to the book constantly until the end, which happens to make you yearn for the next one. The ending for series of books are actually pretty predictable: either it's like Harry Potter, in which the book ends after a major event, or it just breaks off in the middle of the most exciting part. Both don't fare very well – usually they just lose the reader's interest of the next book. But the Hunger Games ends with the Games ending and Katniss and Peeta, the protagonists returning home. But Katniss has just revealed a big secret that crushes Peeta, which makes the reader want to read on to find out more.
Collins speaks with a distinct, new, fresh voice that grabs your heart and never lets go. You get whipped into the whirlpool of Katniss' world immediately and immerses in it completely. Katniss is not perfect – she has human flaws and weaknesses, as long as being stubborn, headstrong, grumpy, ungrateful, but she is also courageous, strong and independent. She shaped the story to tell of war and tyranny, and to stay alive, she will have to start making choices to weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
I think these are the things that strike me the most about this book – it significantly makes you addicted. And the movie's going to come out in early 2012 – I can hardly wait.

媽媽的笑

剛發現，媽媽臉上掛的笑容，是那樣的特別。

對任何事情，媽媽總是一笑了之。 可那笑容卻包含了千千萬萬種情感。媽媽經常笑臉迎向我，讓我感覺母愛的和藹與温柔。

媽媽笑容，含有包容。
媽媽相信，我若能知錯就一定能改；她的笑容，讓我明白自己的錯誤，讓我悟出下一次該怎样改善。媽媽總是輕輕地一笑，鼓勵我永遠不放棄，繼續努力，奮鬥。在媽媽的鼓勵下，我相信最终有一天，我會成功的。

媽媽笑容，含有無奈。
媽媽無奈於我任性地耍性子，無奈於我天真地不懂事，無奈於我無理地吵鬧。没有辦法，媽媽以她的大愛，盼着我長大。

媽媽笑容，含有體諒。
媽媽知道我一直很節儉，假如我希望擁有某一樣物品時，媽媽立刻爽快地買给我，只不過她也會笑一笑，要我一定想清楚：你真的需要它嗎？它有甚麼實際的作用？你會用它嗎？

這，就是母親的笑。她比春風更温暖，比春水更柔和。如果輕輕一觸，濃濃的母爱就一滴一滴地流淌出来。
母愛是多姿的，在女兒心中，這是一道美麗的彩霞。

Suggestion of book “Wolf Brother”

I have just read the book “Wolf Brother” by Michelle Paver. Here is a little summary of the book’s major events:

Six thousand years ago, a great forest covered most of north-west Europe. People then lived in clans, roaming the land. 12-year-old Torak is alone. His father was from the Wolf clan; mother from the Red Deer. His mother died 12 summers ago; his father killed by a demon bear. The story begins with his father’s end. Fa made Torak swear that he would, no matter how, find the Mountain of the World Spirit, or die trying. Then he died. Scavenging for food, he met a cub whose family had been killed by a flash flood. The cub became his guide. Then Torak was captured by the Raven clan. It changed his life forever, for a young girl, Renn, reveals that he is the Listener, the only person who can stop the demon bear – since the demon bear was made, for the sole purpose of killing his father. She decided to help him on his destiny – to get revenge for his father.

This is a wonderfully, beautifully crafted tale of timelessness. The bond between wolf and boy is extraordinarily strong, and so is the friendship between boy and girl. Together they embark on a journey to the unknown, to a place that nobody has ever gone to, to somewhere that may just lead to death. The only clue he has to this mysterious mountain is a generation-long riddle and an old legend. Can Torak kill the bear? Can he arouse the world spirit? These questions swarm in my head, keeping me flipping the pages. This is not only an adventure – it is the evidence of the care, love and respect Wolf and Torak give each other.

I have always thought that wolves were only creatures that were loyal to each other and they live in packs. I also believed that they were brutal and ruthless to creatures that are not familiar to them. They kill unmercifully. But thinking about it now, that is just their way of survival. If they don’t kill, they can’t eat. Aren’t we humans the same? Possibly even worse, since we are making hundreds of species extinct every minute.

I really recommend this book to you. I am not going to tell you what happens next, just so that there is a tint of suspense. But the ending shakes one’s heart, I can promise you. The journey doesn’t end here, it continues till the very end of the series. So next time when you’re not feeling happy, do what Torak does: howl your breath away. If someone responses, you know that you are not alone.

The Ultimate Lifetime Experience

In this five-day journey into the wilderness of my self-learning zone, I have indeed thoroughly understood the meaning of the old Kenyan proverb, “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable”. This was indeed a great test of my mental strength, my trust of my friends and self-control.

Standing on a wobbly line in mid-air and only holding onto a flimsy wooden plank. That isn’t my idea of fun. At all. But I only realized that when I was in the middle of the challenge. The ground seemed so far away. I pictured myself falling, screaming in mid-air, and the dull thump of a body hitting the rough pebbly ground. But I thought if I fall, my friends would definitely catch me, and so I put all my trust in my friends and summoned up my courage. I would never have believed that I would have accomplished such a feat, without the help and comfort offered by the presence of my friends. But what I didn’t know, was that there would be more challenges, both physical and psychological, to come.

I’m okay with physical challenges, just so as long as they don’t involve heights or bugs. But I’m really not so good at the psychological part. In the stress of the environment, I become very irritated at simple things, especially when people are required to work together. Quarrels happen.

I didn’t think rafting would be that stressful. We just had to tie a couple of barrels to a few sticks, and then paddle along. What’s hard with that? But I was wrong. In the heat of the sun, trying to hold the raft together, everybody was arguing. Whether this knot would hold, whether the raft would sink, whether it would get stuck in the mud… We wouldn’t have done so badly if it wasn’t for the weariness and wariness that was tiring us all out. But the nightmare had just begun. When we started paddling, the raft wouldn’t move. People on opposite sides started blaming each other for not paddling properly, which resulted in people falling in and getting crushed. I yelled inside my head, “People, stop fussing – it’s just making things worse!” Thinking back about it now, I realize that if only we had worked together as a team and had better peer communication, all our problems would have been solved much quicker than we did.

Aesop said that in union there is strength. This short yet simple piece of ancient wisdom has been passed on for hundreds of generations, and I believe the reason for its popularity is its usefulness – which I have just learnt from this five-day trip – teamwork and sportsmanship is the key to overcoming challenges.