Reading Logs

Texts I am going to do

• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
• Blackwater (Game of Thrones)
• Percy Jackson 
• Holes 
• Hong Kong Anti-Government protests
• Martin Lutherking Jr ‘I have a dream’ speech (read the speech off paper)

Title: Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

Text type: Movie

Author: J.K Rowling
Date watched: 30/09/2019

Plot overview

In the movie ‘Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire’, Harry Potter returns for his fourth year at Hogwarts’ school of witchcraft and wizardry with his main friends, Hermione and Ron.  There turns out to be a tournament coming up called the Tri-Wizard cup, where one wizard is selected from three different schools to compete.  Harry does not put his name down to take part in the competition as he is not old enough, but somehow he is selected to compete. Everybody thinks that he found a way to sneak his name into the competition but he did not.  He must now compete as a fourth player.  

Characters I found interesting and why

This movie is built around strong character development.  The first character I found interesting in this film was Barty Crouch Jr.  This is because he is part of the biggest plot twist in the whole of the movie.  The plot twist was the person who everybody thought was Allister Moody, turned out to be Barty Crouch Jr using poly juice potion to disguise himself.  The reason he did this was because he was secretly a death eater who was working for Lord Voldemort and he had been sent to disguise himself and make sure that Harry enters and wins the Triwizard tournament but when Harry touches the trophy, get teleported to Voldemort so Voldemort can kill him.  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” said Barty Crouch Jr to Harry Potter and he was talking about the death eater sign on his arm. This proved that he was a death eater working for Voldemort. I thought that this made Barty Crouch Jr an interesting character because it showed that he was a very loyal person because of the things he would do for Voldemort, and it also showed that he is a very sly and smart person because he spent a very long period of time pretending to be somebody he wasn’t and he had fooled everybody until the end.  I related to this because I am a loyal person and I will not just switch sides, for example one time I was playing a board game with my friends called risk, and I had made an alliance with one of my friends, but then we started to lose the game and I got offered into another alliance where I could have won, but I stayed loyal to the first person and we lost. “Don’t lie to me. Gillyweed may be innocuous, but boomslang skin? Lacewing flies? You and your little friends are brewing Polyjuice Potion, and believe me, I’m going to find out why!” Professor Snape says this to Harry Potter because he thinks that Harry is the one stealing poly juice potion from him, but it is actually Barty Crouch Jr. I thought this helped show how sly and cunning Barty Crouch was because it meant that he could deceive one of the smartest people in the entire movie. Another character I found interesting in the film was Professor Snape.  I thought of him to be an interesting character because he was found out to be a death eater, but he was still allowed to be a teacher at Hogwarts. I thought this was a pretty interesting and confusing thing because death eaters are supposed to be really dangerous people, and should be kept away from students, but since he was so trusted by Dumbledore, he was allowed to remain a teacher at Hogwarts. I found this relatable to the world, because sometimes in the world people are given another chance. For example, Donald Trump did a lot of bad things like saying that he will build a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it, but he got given another chance and still got elected president.

Messages I took from the text and why

A message I took from the film was to not accuse people of doing stuff when you are not sure if they really did it.  In the film, when Harry gets chosen to be one of the Triwizard tournament competitors, everybody thinks that he put his own name down to get all the glory.  This makes Ron hate him and think that Harry is being very selfish so they stop being friends for a while, but eventually, Ron realizes that Harry didn’t put his own name down.  When Ron is apologizing to Harry he says “I reckon you would’ve had to be barking mad to put your name in the goblet of fire”. This shows that he knew he made a mistake in blaming Harry for putting his name down and that he shouldn’t have been so fast in believing that he actually signed up.  Another message I took from the text was that if you want to do something, do it quickly. In the movie, Harry fails to take Cho (his crush) to the dance. This is because he took too long to ask her. During the movie, Hermione once says to Ron “If you wanted to take me, you should’ve asked me soon, and not as a last resort”.  This is just another example of people not getting what they wanted because they took too long to do it. I thought that if Harry and Ron just got the courage and asked people earlier, they would have gotten who they wanted to go with to the dance.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

One challenge that Harry Potter had to face in the film was to try and get an egg, which was being guarded by a dragon.  It was the first stage of the Triwizard tournament. I thought that he was extremely lucky to be able to survive, because there were so many dangerous moments during the task where he easily could have been killed in seconds.  I found Harry’s situation during this task easy to related to. This is because I have been in situations similar to his (but on a much lower scale). When I say this I mean that I have been in situations where I must think fast and act on quick instinct.  For example, one time I got asked to go to a concert on the day it was happening and I would have had to drive five hours to get there, and my cousins were at my house, so I quickly had to make the decision that I would stay at home with my cousins instead. Another challenge a character faced was when Harry Potter saved Fleur’s little sister as well Ron, when he was only supposed to save Ron. This is because the second challenge of the Triwizard tournament was to swim to the bottom of the black lake and bring up somebody who had been tied at the bottom and save them.  Each competitor was only supposed to bring back one person to save, but Harry realized that Fleur wasn’t going to make it to the bottom, so Harry saved both of them, which was a massive risk because his decision made him a lot more likely to die. I thought this was an extremely brave move on Harry’s part and I respect him for it.  I found Harry’s decision hard to relate to, because if I was in his position, I would be pretty focused on keeping myself alive, because it would have been terrifying at the bottom of the lake and I would do what I could to get up and probably not even realize that Fleur wasn’t going to make it on time. For example, once I was watching TV and I realized that I was supposed to go and pick up one of my friends from the bus stop but I had forgotten because I was busy focusing on my TV.

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

The title of the text is “Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire’.  I believe that this is a pretty simple name, but it summarizes the film pretty well because the whole film is pretty much based around the goblet of fire.  I don’t think that there are any hidden meanings behind this title. I think that the title sort of foreshadows what is going to happen in the film, because it warns the audience that they should watch out for the Goblet of fire.  

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

I would recommend this movie to young people (children to young adults).  I really enjoyed this film, and I am a young person. I believe that this movie should be recommended to young people because it is full of action, and it is easy to relate to the characters in the film because they are also young people as well.  For example, when Harry Potter gets into a fight with his friend Ron, I could relate to him because I been in fights with my friends before too. When Harry says “You’re a real git, you know that” to Ron during their fight, many other young people could relate to situations similar to that because they had had fights with friends before.  This shows that this story is written where it can be linked to many more situations. At one point in the film, everybody thought Harry put his own name in the goblet of fire, when really he didn’t. I found Harry’s situation easy to relate to as I have been blamed for things I did not do before just like Harry. For example, one time I got blamed for stealing a toy when really I didn’t and they later found out I didn’t. This shows that I can understand how he must have felt during this time.  I like the way that the movie is shown through Harry’s eyes because it makes for a closer connection to his character.  

Title: Blackwater (‘Game Of Thrones’ season 2, episode 9)  

Text type: Tv show episode

Author: George R.R. Martin

Date watched: 3/10/2019

Plot overview

Stannis Baratheon is attacking King’s Landing.  The battle is called ‘Battle Of The Blackwater’.  Tyrion (hand of the king) uses a lot of strategies to help his side win, such as burning many of Stannis’s ships with wildfire, which helps his side a lot.  Joffrey shows he is a coward and runs away when the tides begin to turn in Stannis’s favor, which leaves Tyrion to lead the troops and he says a famous quote: “Those are brave men knocking at our door, let’s go kill them.” All hope seems like it might be lost, and just as Tyrion is injured by one of his own men, he sees Tywin (his father) leading a fresh army to rescue King’s Landing.  When Tywin is victorious, he sees Cersei sitting on the Iron Throne, but he does not see that she is about to poison her youngest son Tommen if the battle is lost, although thanks to Tywin, Tommen may live to see another day.  

Characters I found interesting and why

The first character I found interesting in this text was Tyrion Lannister.  This is because in this text, at one point during the battle, Joffrey (the king) runs away which left the rest of his army without a leader and if they didn’t have a leader then they would likely lose.  This is when Tyrion Lannister steps up and takes charge and manages to raise the hopes of his side. “They say I’m half a man, but what does that make the lot of you”. Tyrion shouts this to the people fighting with him.  He says it in his speech trying to get them to regain hope. I thought he was really brave because he is just a dwarf, but he still did what he could to get the men to fight again. I found this hard to relate to because if I was a dwarf and was in the middle of a battle when the king ran away, I would find it really hard to get the courage and lead them.  I wouldn’t think that anybody would listen to a dwarf, but I guess the soldiers respected his bravery and decided to follow him. Tyrion also says “There are brave men outside our gates, now let’s go kill them”. I thought this was a very smart thing to say because it hyped up all the soldiers and they ran outside to fight. I find this hard to relate to because I don’t think I would be brave enough to say something like that, but I respect that he had the courage to do it.  Another character I found interesting in this text was Cersei Lannister. During the battle, she was inside with her children and she had poison with her and her plan was to kill her children with the poison if the enemy breached the gates to stop them having worse fates. I found this really hard to relate to because I have never been in a situation so serious, and I believe that if I was, I would not poison my children because I would just do what I can to keep them alive.  

Messages I took from the text and why

A message I took from the text was that even if you don’t think you have the skills to do something, sometimes you just need to be brave and commit to doing it, and you might be able to succeed.  This happened when Tyrion commanded the rest of the soldiers into defending the city and it actually worked. I thought that this message was pretty good because it is true that sometimes you just need to commit to doing something and others may help you and you can succeed.  I found this relatable because one time I had to do a reading log, and I didn’t think I had the skills to do it, but I just committed and did it. Another message that I took from the text was that sometimes you need to be patient. Half of Stannis’s fleet was killed with wildfire before he attacked King’s Landing, but in the end, he didn’t have enough troops to win because he wasn’t patient enough to retreat and build up his army again before attacking.  I thought that if Stannis just had a little patience, then he would have been able to take King’s Landing. I found Stannis’s situation easy to relate to because I am not a very patient person and sometimes it can cost me. for example, one time I played mini-golf, and I could have taken my time to take my last shot but I didn’t and I rushed it and lost the game because of it.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

The first challenge a character had to deal with was when The Hound ran away from the fight when he saw fire because he is terrified of fire.  He is normally a really tough character, but when he saw the fire he got scared and just ran away. I found this pretty easy to relate to, because one time when I was climbing a pretty steep cliff, I looked down and it looked really high and scary, and even though I was quite close to the top, I stopped and climbed back down because I found it hard to face my fear, just like The Hound did when he ran away from the fire.  

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

The title of the text is “Blackwater”.  The reason why that is the text’s name is because the Blackwater is the name of the water outside the city which is under attack in the episode.  The title foreshadows that something will take place at the Blackwater.  

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

I would recommend this text to young adults.  This is because it is a bit too violent for children to watch.  Young adults would enjoy it because it is a bit of a mental workout in that it is hard to understand what is going on all the time, but if you can understand it, it is a really good episode to watch.  

Title: Percy Jackson And The Lightning Theif

Text type: Novel 

Author: Rick Riordan

Date read: 5/10/2019

Plot overview

In the 21st century, Percy Jackson discovers that greek mythology exists and that he is the son of a god named Poseidon.  He also discovers that he is the prime suspect for stealing Zeus’s lightning bolt, which is the most powerful god’s main weapon.  He is only twelve years old and he does what he can to prove he is innocent, including killing a lot of monsters with the help of his friends Grover and Annabeth.  

Characters I found interesting and why

The first character I found interesting in this text was Percy Jackson himself.  This is because he took a lot of time, effort and risks to restore the lightning bolt to Zeus and prove that he wasn’t the one who stole it in the first place and doing this he stopped a massive war from happening between the gods, which could have been catastrophic.  I thought this was a very brave and selfless thing to do. I found this hard to relate to because, if I was in his situation, I would probably not want to waste my time and have a very hard few years doing something where I would have a high likelihood of dying, just for the microscopic chance of succeeding.  Another Character who I found interesting, was Annabeth. This is because at one part of the novel, Grover gets left behind and could have died, but she went back for him and risked her life to save him. I thought this was a very risky and courageous thing to do because she was a much more important character than he was, and if she died, it would not be good.  I found what she did easy to relate to because I would probably have done the same thing for my friend.  

Messages I took from the text and why

The first message I took from the text was that perseverance is key.  In the text, Percy Jackson says “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself”.  He says this when he is persevering. In the end, he succeeds and saves the world from war, because he persevered.  I believe that persevering is very important. I found this hard to relate to because I am not good a persevering, which is shown when I am doing my homework, because when I am doing my homework, I will constantly take breaks because I can’t be bothered persevering.  Another message in the novel was that if you do good things, good things will come to you. Annabeth went back to save Grover, and later on in the text, Grover contributed to saving the world. This showed that since she did a good thing, something good happened to her.  I believe that this is a good message in the book because it is true.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

In the book Kronos says to Percy “If you join my side, I will keep you and your mother alive forever”.  Percy’s challenge was saying no to this because if he agreed to it, then the rest of the world would have erupted in chaos and war.  I thought this was a very self-controlled move because it would not have been easy to reject that offer of safety. I find this easy to relate to because I often do not have much self-control when it comes to turning down good offers, such as sometimes when I see good looking chocolate, I will have to have some.  Another challenge that a character had to face in the book was Annabeth when she found out that Luke was a bad guy and that she would have to fight against him. This was a challenge because she had been friends with him for years. I found this hard to relate to because I have never been in a situation this dire.  

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

‘Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief’ is the title of the novel because it is basically all about Percy getting the lightning bolt from the thief (Luke) and returning it to Zeus to restore peace and stop the war from happening.  

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

I would recommend this book to young teenagers, because it is all about fantasy.  I thought it was a really good book when I was about 14, so I believe many other young teenagers would enjoy it too.  

Title: Holes

Text type: Book

Author: Louis Sachar 

Date read: 7/10/2019

Plot overview

Stanley Yelnats is sent to a brutal camp for something he did not do, and he must do what he can to survive in the vicious desert surrounded by rattlesnakes and suspicious camp leaders.  He becomes friends with a kid named Zero who happens to be the least popular kid on the campus.  

Characters I found interesting and why

The first character I found interesting was Stanley Yelnats.  This is because during the book, he becomes friends with somebody called Zero.  Zero is known as the least popular kid in the entire camp, and after a while of being friends with him, Stanley starts to treat Zero as if he is not worthy of being his friend because of how much the other camp members make fun of him, but after a while, Stanley realized he was being a bad person, and became good friends with Zero.  I thought that this was a selfless thing to do because he was being friends with somebody of a lower status than he was. I find this easy to relate to because I don’t check how popular somebody is before I become friends with them. Another character I found interesting in the novel, was Zero. “In a way, it made him sad. He couldn’t help thinking that one hundred times zero was still nothing.”  This quote is said to show that Zero got his name for a reason, which is that he is worthless. I thought this would be really tough being known as Zero by everybody because of being dumb. In reality, although everybody thought Zero was extremely dumb, he was actually pretty smart in some ways, but he just did not show it. I found this hard to relate to, because I believe that if I was him, I would not have hidden being smart because it made his life so much harder, and even though he was scared of being mocked by others because of being illiterate, I would still have rather showed my strengths than my weaknesses.  

Messages I took from the text and why

One message I took from the text was to be friends with people, even though they might not be very liked by others.  In the text, Stanley stops being friends with Zero for a while, because everybody else bullys Zero. He later regrets this and becomes friends with him again.  I thought this is a good message because it would help the world a lot more if nobody was left alone without any friends. Another message I took from the text was to always look on the bright side.  This is because, Stanley mostly looks on the bright side in the book, which kept up his morale and I believe that if he didn’t look on the bright side as much as he did, he would have struggled a lot more in the harsh conditions he had at the camp.  I found this easy to relate to because one of my characteristics is to try and find the positive in things.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

A challenge that a character had to deal with in the text was that Zero was illiterate.  The way that Zero dealt with this challenge, was that he just didn’t talk to anybody and pretended he was really dumb.  I thought this was a strange way to cope with being illiterate, and I found it hard to relate to, because if I was illiterate, I would have tried a different approach on dealing with it, like focusing on my other strengths, or to just get on with my life and carry on as usual.  

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

The title of the novel was ‘Holes’.  This abstractly foreshadowed what would happen in the book, because when you read the title, you wouldn’t have been able to guess that they would have to dig holes in a camp, but you would later see that the title makes sense after reading some of the text.  

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

I would recommend this book to young teenagers.  This is because they would be able to relate to the main characters just like I did.  I believe that it is a book that a few young teenagers could relate to because of the struggles they have in their lives.  I think that ‘Holes’ is a good book and that many people of all ages, not just young teens would enjoy it quite a lot.  

Title: Hong Kong Anti-Government Protests

Text type: Newspaper article

Author: BBC News 

Date read: 8/10/2019

Plot overview

A massive chunk of Hong Kong’s population is protesting against the government and Carrie Lam (Hong Kong’s main leader).  Earlier this year (June) there was talk of a law being created that would allow Hong Kong citizens to get extradited to China.  After a lot of protests, Carrie Lam suspended the bill, but Citizens continued on the protest until the bill was completely withdrawn.  The protests have been getting increasingly violent, with police using tear gas and the protestors storming parliament.  

Characters I found interesting and why

I found Carrie Lam interesting in this text.  This is because she resisted withdrawing the bill for a long time, which caused a lot of protests to continue, and then eventually she gave up and got rid of the law.  I think it was an intelligent thing to do because she saw that Citizens were getting hurt and the damage to Hong Kong was getting out of hand so she tried to put a stop to it.  I found this easy to relate to because if I were in her position, I would also have ditched the law after a while because of the harm it is doing to my country. I have been in situations similar to this but on much lower scales.  “A small minority of people do not mind destroying Hong Kong’s economy. They have no stake in the society which so many people have helped to build and that’s why they resort to all this violence and obstruction, causing huge damage to the economy and to the daily life of the people.”  Carrie Lam says this because she is trying to show that Hong Kong citizens are doing way too much damage to Hong Kong. I think that this is a smart thing to say because it will make the protestors feel bad about destroying their own country. I find this easy to relate to because I used to live in Hong Kong, and I would not be happy if people were destroying the country.  

Messages I took from the text and why

A message I took from the text was, that if something is going downhill, try and stop it as soon as possible and don’t wait very long because it will get worse.  This is shown how Carrie Lam and the rest of the HK government took a very long time to listen to the people and withdraw the law, which gave the protestors a lot of time to do a lot of damage to HK and make things worse.  I think that they should have withdrawn the law earlier because there was no way that the Hong Kong citizens would have let the law be created without going down with a massive fight.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

A challenge that a character had to deal with was Carrie Lam deciding whether or not to abolish the extradition law.  On one hand, the government and China wanted the law to be created and on the other hand, Hong Kong citizens were protesting.  Carrie Lam had to react to the situation by getting rid of the law, and I believe that this was the smartest thing to do because things could have gotten a lot worse if she had not done it.  

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

The title of the article was ‘Hong Kong Anti-Government Protests’.  It was named this because it straight away shows the audience that there are protests going on and it immediately gives the audience the feeling that the government is in the wrong in the situation.   

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

I would recommend this article to people who live all around the globe in places outside of Hong Kong because I believe that the rest of the world should know what is going on and form their own opinions on it.  

Title: ‘I have a dream.’

Text type: Written Speech

Author: Martin Luther King Jr

Date read: 10/10/2019

Plot overview

During the March on Washington for jobs and freedom, Martin Lutherking Jr’s speech explains how he has a dream to end racism.  His dream says that he wants all people to be equal and judged on their character, not their skin color.  

Characters I found interesting and why

I found Martin Lutherking Jr interesting because he was a brave activist who is willing to work really hard and possibly risk his life to help end racism.  I think he is a very respectable person because he is able to stand up for what he thinks is right. I found him hard to relate to because I would struggle to work that hard and put my life on the line, but I also found him easy to relate to because I agreed with everything he had to say and I think that he was right and that all races should be treated equally.  

Messages I took from the text and why

A message I took from the text was that people should be judged by their character, not their skin color.  “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  Martin Lutherking Jr says this and he means that people shouldn’t make instant opinions on somebody based on their skin color, but they should wait and get to know the person before they start forming their opinions.  I believe that this is an important message and that everybody should keep it in mind.  

Challenges that characters had to deal with and your response to these 

Martin Lutherking Jr was a black man who struggled because he lived in a place where black people were not treated as equals.  He dealt with this problem by becoming an activist and standing against racism. I believe that he was a very good man and deserves to be known worldwide as somebody who changed history for the better.  I found his choice of writing this speech easy to relate to, because if something is unfair for me, I will normally protest. I also found it hard to relate because I feel like it would be hard to work up the courage to create a speech and openly rebel against people who think they are superior.  

Discussion about the title of the text and why it was appropriate 

The title of the text is ‘I have a dream’.  The reason that it is called this is because in the speech, he continuously talks about how he has a dream about his hopes of one day his children and the children of white people holding hands and being equal.  I think that the title is a good summary of what he talks about in his speech.  

Who would you recommend this/these stories to and why

“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”  When Martin Lutherking Jr says this he is saying how happy he will be if he reaches his goal.  This makes people who read his speech feel really empowered because they will believe that they can make a change and succeed.  I would recommend this speech to anybody who wants to be inspired to make the world a better place or protest against something that isn’t fair.  This is because reading the speech can make people feel like they can do anything.