Wait, a What?

Summary

Hi! During this week, I have been reading “The Sea of Monsters” from the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians written by Rick Riordan. The character that tells the story is Percy Jackson, who is a half-blood or a demigod, which means that one of his parents is mortal and another an Olympian god. Percy's father is Poseidon, the god of the sea. On the first chapter, Percy tells us about his nightmare: his best friend Grover, a satyr, was being chased by a monster while he was entering a bridal boutique saying things to himself like "I have to warn them." Then, Percy woke up and his mother told him that he had to hurry up for school and that there were problems at Camp Half-Blood Hill which is a place to train half-bloods were Percy had been last summer. There, he was taught how to fight monsters and then sent to a quest with Grover and his friend Annabeth to find Zeus' lightning bolt. When Percy arrived to school, he saw that there were new kids that were friends of the school bully. At P.E period, Percy was playing dodge ball with the new kids when they transformed into Laistrygoians, giant monsters capable of throwing fire balls. Percy's friend Tyson, who was a homeless kid that was bullied at school, helped him to escape from the balls, taking them and throwing them back to the Laistrygoians; Percy was amazed that Tyson didn´t die. When the monsters disappeared, Annabeth appeared and told Percy that they had to get to Camp Half-Blood as fast as they could. Annabeth called the Gray Sisters Taxi and they arrived as quickly as possible to the camp that was being attacked by two giant bulls when they arrived. Percy, Annabeth and Tyson helped the campers to kill the monsters and then saw that Thalia´s tree, that protected the camp from monsters, had been poisoned. Thalia was the daughter of Zeus who had sacrificed her life to protect Annabeth, Grover and a boy named Luke. She was turned in to a pine tree near camp by Zeus as she was dying. Percy was still impressed that Tyson had managed to fight the monsters and not die and Annabeth told him that it was because Tyson was really a Cyclops.

Quote 1

"I think Grover's in trouble," I said, and told her about my dream." (p.5)

Grover is a very important friend for Percy and I this quote demonstrate it. I think that Percy's dreams are signs that warn him or tell him about things that are going to happen in the future.


Quote 2

"Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed.”I'm sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you." (p.45)
 
Tyson was a homeless kid, and many children from school bullied him but Percy always stood up for him. This quote shows that Percy was very important for Tyson, just like Grover was important for Percy, and that he was thankful for his help. He risked his life trying to save Percy when he was fighting against the Laistrygoians and the bulls.


Conclusion

My prediction for the next chapters is that Percy, Annabeth and Tyson are going to go find Grover. I think that maybe Thalia is captured in some place and that’s why her tree was dying. I also think that Grover is captured in the underworld and that the monsters that were chasing Percy wanted to kill him because he is Grover’s friend and wants to find him. So far, the book is very interesting and it keeps me entertained and I look forward to keep reading it.  

The Best Act of All

When I began to read the last pages of the book, I realized my prediction was wrong. The army officer had served the countess´ husband before he was executed, because he was one of the men that wanted and tried to kill Hitler. She had a long private talk with him and when it ended, the officer and the soldiers left. After that, Mutti, Karli, Lizzie and Peter said goodbye to the countess and began their journey to find the Americans with the choir schoolchildren. As they traveled, the schoolchildren sang as well as Karli, Mutti, Peter and Lizzie. They had to share shelter many times with other people but it wasn´t so bad because they shared food with each other. After days of walking and singing, the Americans appeared! But they came so loudly and shaking the ground that Marlene got scared and ran away. Peter told one of the Americnas that they had to find Marlene. He said that they would find her for them but that they had to leave because it was to dangerous. Mutti, Karli and Lizzie begged them to let them look after Marlene, but they didn´t let them. Mutti, Karli and Lizzie were taken to a camp refugee for "displaced persons" but Peter tried all he could to stop the Americans from taking them to a bigger camp with more "displaced people". Rules were rules and Karli, Mutti and Lizzie had to be separated from Peter. Peter told Lizzie that he was going to write, that he would come back and find her and that he was going to keep looking after Marlene. In the camp, there were actors, singers and artists so they held plays and concerts were the choir schoolchildren sometimes got to sing. Mutti realized they needed a school so they decided to have one and Lizzie was in charge of the small children. Six months passed before the war ended and Lizzie, Karli and Mutti were allowed to leave because they were going to stay in Mutti´s cousin Renate´s house. When they were in the camp, Peter and Lizzie wrote to each other and Peter told Lizzie that when he was released, they were going to get married and live in Canada, but the writing stopped when Lizzie and her family moved, even though she gave Peter her new address. They found an apartament near Renate´s house were they could live and they got the good news that Papi was alive! He had been prisioner of the Russian army. Karli and Lizzie began school again and one day, when they were coming back from school, they saw Peter sitting on the front doorstep! Lizzie and Peter got married and sailed away to live in Canada and when Karli was older, he also moved to Canada. Papi came home years after Lizzie had moved to Canada. One evening, when Lizzie and Peter were about forty years old, they went to a circus from France. When the act of the elephant started, Lizzie recognized Marlene immediantly and it seemed like Marlene recongnized Lizzie too. After the show, Lizzie asked the owners of the circus were they had found Marlene and they said they had her from another circus. Lizzie was with Marlene for hours in the weekend the circus was there but when it was time for the circus to go, she knew it was alright becuase she was glad that she had survived and that she was fine.


"But I´m sure it was Marlene who was the saving of them because Marlene made them laugh. They loved to watch her splashing in the streams, loved to feed her by hand whenever they could and, like Karli, loved to have a good giggle whenever they Heard her . . . how can I say this politetly? . . . letting off - which was often, and it was sure smelly too!" ( p. 177)

Marlene had a very big heart, she seemed to understand people and people undestood her. I think she knew how to make someone happy when they were sad. With her company, the choir schoolchildren forgot they were tired and hungry, they had a good time with her as well as Peter, Lizzie, Mutti and Karli.


"The star of the show was an elephant, and I knew as soon as I set eyes on her that it was Marlene. And the extraordinary thing was that she knew me. As she was led around the ring in the grand parade, she stopped right by me where I was sitting in the front row, and reached out her towards me." ( p. 193)

It was amazing how, about 35 years later, Marlene and Lizzie met again and that they could recongnize each other. Mutti, Karli and Lizzie had a big impact on Marlene´s life, they took care of her before and during the war, gave her food, found her a shelter, and most important, they accepted her in their family. I think that's why Marlene could recognize Lizzie in the circus.


I have enjoyed this book very much and I would recommend it because it´s entertaining and it teaches and reminds you very impotant things for life. For example to never give up and fight and keep going to get to your goal. Sometimes everything seems lost but like Mutti said in the book, "put one foot in front of the other", and maybe, you´ll find the answer. I hope my blogs have been interesting an fun to read. It has been a great experience to share them with you.  

 

During my summer vacations, I went to a circus in Denmark called Cirkus Arena were there was elephants. When I reached the part of the book were Lizzie and Peter went to the circus, I thought it was a very fun coincidendce and connection to the book.

Fell in the Wrong Hands

Continuing to read the story, Lizzie, Mutti, Karli, Peter and Marlene traveled following Peter´s compass that only pointed in the right direction. On their journey, they met people from other refugees that they shared shelter with and shared their stories with. Karli got sick, very sick, so they had to find a doctor. They reached a big house in the middle of the night, were an angry man opened the door; he didn´t look so pleased when he saw Mutti, Karli, Lizzie and Peter, but a woman appeared from inside the house and told Hans, which was the man’s name, to let them in. She also told Mutti she was going to find a doctor. Then, Lizzie followed Hans into a stable were Marlene could stay, and when she went into the house, she saw it was full of people, that had escaped from the bombing. She immediately understood why Hans did not want more people in the house. When the doctor arrived, he said that Karli had to be kept warm because of his fever and that he had to take some medicine he came with. After the doctor left, the woman that was with Hans introduced herself and said they could call her countess. Peter gave Karli his compass so he had something to look at while he was recovering. Karli made sure that Peter knew it was his compass and that Karli was going to give it back. When Karli began to feel better, he escaped from the room they were staying in and the others had to find him. When Lizzie found him, he was doing his juggling tricks on top of Marlene while a group of choir children and many other people from the refugees were watching. Karli stopped to juggle for a moment with his two balls and showed everyone his big brother's compass and said it was magical. Then someone told Karli to juggle with it and many other people began to encourage Karli to do it, so he did it. At first, he seemed to be very good at doing it but with all the crazy audience around Marlene, she became uncomfortable and made Karli loose his balance until he dropped the compass. Lizzie tried to catch it but she couldn't but luckily, Hans cached it. He began to examine the compass and when he opened it, he realized it was an British or American compass, not German. He asked Karli were he got the compass from but Mutti answered for him and said it was a gift from Papi to her that he had got from a British pilot that got killed when he was fighting the war in France. Hans was not very sure about the answer but he said that it wasn't a toy and that children should not have it. Mutti said that she agreed and then they left. When they were back in their room, the countess came in and told them that Hans didn't believe their story, neither did she, and that he wanted to call the police. She also said that Peter had an American accent and she knew it because her nephews were half German half American. She also didn't believe that he had asthma because he looked strong and healthy. She knew Peter wasn't German. At last she said they had to leave as soon as possible and she asked Mutti if the children of the choir could leave with them. Mutti agreed and the countess gave them and the children enough food for the journey. As they were about to leave, Hans came in from the front door bringing an army officer and some soldiers with him.


"But there were times when he came back with very little: a few nuts and some half-rotten vegetables. Several times he returned empty-handed altogether. Then we just went hungry, and those days were the days, with no food inside us, when it was hardest to keep ourselves warm, even if we could manage to make a fire." (p. 148)

Before Peter, Mutti, Karli and Lizzie found the big house, and they didn´t have any food left, they had to look for food in the forest or in little houses in villages. Sometimes Peter found many things to eat, but sometimes he didn't, that´s why we have to be thankful for having a home and enough food to survive because there are people in real life that don´t have anything to eat. Luckily, Marlene could eat whatever plant or grass that she found on her way.


"Everywhere I looked, every centimeter of the floor space was occupied. People were lying fast asleep, in the corridors, on the landings, and, I presumed, in every room." (p. 157)

I can imagine how hard it must have been for the countess and Hans to make sure all this people had somewhere to sleep and food to eat.  But on the other hand, it was very kind of Hans and the countess to open her house and help those persons who had lost everything and were fighting to survive.

The book is coming to an end and I think that Peter is going to get caught and Mutti, Karli and Lizzie are going to be in problems too. But maybe Lizzie, Mutti and Karli are not going to go to jail because of Marlene, because they have to take care or her. I also think that Peter is going to give Lizzie or Karli his compass before he is taken away by the soldiers so they can find their way to a safe place.   

 
Here is a picture of how a compass from the Second World War looked like.