‘Percy Jackson and the battle of labyrinth’ by Rick Riordan

This story is about a boy whose name is Percy Jackson.

The story starts with Percy attending freshman orientation, at Goode high schooland founds that he had to fight two empousai with the help ofa mortal girl named as Rachel Elizabeth dare and goes to Annabeth who is annoyed with him in the company with a mortal girl. When they reach camp, Percy also encounters a middle-aged demigod named Quintus, who is the new sword instructor of camp half-blood.

Annabeth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the labyrinth. Chiron holds a council of war, and it is revealed that Annabeth and Clarisse have been working together under the suspicion that Luke plans to use this door as an invasion route. To do so, he will use princess Ariadne’s magical string, which is assumed to be in the possession of the ancient inventor  Daedalus. Annabeth is given leadership of the quest to stop him, and chooses Grover, Percy, and Tyson to accompany her and the friends starts their adventure

I liked this novel and recommend this novel to those who love adventure and I give  4 / 5 points for this novel and wish all of you read this review  and also read this story ‘Percy Jackson and the battle of labyrinth’.

Reviewed by Aleena Marry Ebby

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‘Inferno’ by Dan Brown

Inferno is a thriller written by Dan Brown, one of the four novels featuring Harvard Art History professor and famous symbologist Robert Langdon as the main character. It is a well researched novel. The descriptions of the monuments, buildings and various churches or Basilicas in the cities Florence and Venice in Italy and Istanbul in Turkey is so meticulous that the reader feels that he is actually visiting them. It can take us to that level that we will be absorbed in the History itself and begins to wonder how much wisdom is used in their creation.

Inferno (Italian for “Hell”) is the first part of Dante Alighieri‘s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth.

The story begins when Robert Langdon awoke to find himself in a hospital in Florence with apparent bullet wounds on his head and with a condition called retrograde amnesia. He had no idea why he came to Florence and had no recollection of any of the happenings in his life for the previous two days. There in hospital he was attacked but escaped with the help of young doctor, Sienna Brooks with exceptional talents. The mysterious object found in Langdon’s coat pocket, the origin of which he could not explain, was a small projector. It projected the digitally altered image of the painting of La Mappa dell’inferno(Map of the Hell) by the famous Italian painter Sandro Botticelli. With the clues he got from the image, Langdon and  Sienna embarked on a chase across the city of Florence. Langdon’s knowledge of the hidden pathways and ancient secrets that lie behind its historic façade helped them to escape from the clutches of  their unknown pursuers. He deciphered some codes which led him to Dante’s death mask and a few lines from Inferno written at the back of it was pointing to the threat to the world –the black death –  Plague.

Bertrand Zobrist a highly talented genetic engineer and transhumanist, who had followers worldwide- very powerful and wealthy and thinkers-  believed that human species is on the brink of extinction because of over population. According to his theory and mathematical calculations, the only way to prevent the extinction of human race is to kill half of the world population by creating genetically engineered Plague. Under the cover provided by the secret  private organization “ Consortium ‘ headed by a man known as Provost, he developed some virus and kept it at some secret place to infect the humans before plunging to his death. The SRS team of WHO(World Health Organization) could not catch him.  The only way to unearth his secret is to  decipher the sequence of codes left by Bertrand Zobrist-a  crazy for  symbolism- a few lines from Inferno by Dante, his favourite poet. To save the human race from its imminent havoc WHO and the Consortium joined  together and Robert Langdon to help them to find  the hidden place of Zobrist’s Plague.

Set against an extraordinary landscape inspired by one of history’s most ominous literary classics, Inferno is Dan Brown’s most compelling and thought provoking novel yet, a breathless race- against – time thriller  that will grab you from the first page and not let you go until you close the book.

Reviewed by Ms Valsalakumari M S, PGT(Physics)

‘ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J. K. Rowling

Summer Vacation !!!!! Time for Reading !!!!

During vacation I read my favourite book of the Harry Potter series,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows written by J .K.Rowling .Harry the protagonist of the series should have been studying his 7^th year in the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry , until and unless he had completed the task left by Professor Albus Dumbledore,the Destuction of Horcruxes. Horcruxes are materials which contains a part of a person’s soul [ here voldemort’s]. Voldemort is the antagonist of the book and his horcruxes should be destroyed , and then only he could be destroyed or killed completely for everyone’s goodness. Harry and his friends, that is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger however destroy most of the horcruxes . Then Harry realises that he himself  is also a horcrux of voldemort . He goes to Voldemort so that , no more people die for him . Then voldemort fires the killing curse on harry . But harry wasn’t dead , he lied on the ground as if he was dead. But voldemort’s part of soul in harry was destroyed , not harry’s .  But then voldemort declares to hogwarts that Harry Potter is dead and again a battle is fought between people of hogwarts and voldemort’ s supporters. Last horcrux , the snake of voldemort is destroyed by neville longbottom , a student of hogwarts and harry’s friend . Harry hides under the invisibility cloak and fires spells on death eaters [voldemort’s supporters] .Harry then comes face to face with voldemort and voldemort shot a killing curse from his wand on harry , but harry deflected the curse and it rebounded upon voldemort and  voldemort died.

19 Years Later ………..

Harry marries Ginny Weasley [ Ron’s sister] and their children are James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna Potter . Ron Weasley marries Hermione Granger and their children are Rose and Hugo Weasley.

Reviewed by Binisha Robert

‘Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix’ by J. K. Rowling

In this fifth book of Harry Potter series, Harry had to face two dementors at privet drive and narrowly escapes from being expelled from Hogwarts. After the incident he was escorted to Number 12 Grimmauld place by several aurors. After reaching there he knew that that place was his godfather’s property which was used by an association called ‘The Order of the Phoenix’. He wanted to know more about the association but he wasn’t allowed to know more than what he was told. Then after some few weeks they were escorted to the railway station by those same aurors. Then he came to know that their new defence against dark arts teacher was a member of Ministry of Magic, Dolores Jane Umbridge, who was there for Harry’s hearing that day and he also noticed that Hagrid was missing from the staff table. He disliked Umbridge the very first day of their class. He had several detentions because he told that he saw Voldemort return.

After a few days she became the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Everyone knew that Umbridge won’t teach them proper defence against dark arts. So Hermione came up with an idea that Harry will teach them defence against dark arts. So they started a group named Dumbledore’s Army (in short DA). After several meeting of DA they saw a notice in the Gryffindor common room informing them that students are not allowed to form any groups or association including Quidditch groups. But they still continue to have their DA meeting at Room of Requirement. Then he knew that Hagrid came back, all drenched in blood and he was having bruises all over his body. Then Hagrid told him that he got all those cuts and bruises he got was from other giants. After some days he saw a vision from the eye of a snake that Mr Weasley has been attacked. Through that vision he was able to save his life. Then he spend Christmas with his godfather, Sirius who was so happy to have him back. After seeing the vision he was asked to learn Occlumency from Professor Snape. Then Hermione made him attend an interview with Rita Skeeter, who was the editor of Daily Prophet. She also called Luna Lovegood, whose father was the editor of a magazine, The Quibbler. They both took their interview and published those in the following edition. Umbridge got outraged by this and she cancelled all his Hogsmeade and informed that any student using The Quibbler will be expelled from the school. By this notice everyone in the school was curious to know what was in the magazine. And all student used different tricks to read The Quibbler. And finally, each and every student at the Hogwarts read The Quibbler. And few days later, there was a news in the Daily Prophet telling that there was a mass breakout from the Azkaban. And one day when they were conducting the DA meeting Dobby came to warn them that Professor Umbridge is coming to get them. But before Harry could run he was caught by Draco. Then he was taken to the Dumbledore for starting a group without the permission of the High Inquisitor. But Dumbledore told them that it was his army, not Harry’s. Then he escaped from there and Umbridge became the Headmistress of the Hogwarts. One day while having his Occlumency he saw Snape’s worst memory and he was asked not to come again for his lessons. After that he saw a vision that Sirius is been attacked by Voldemort and he confirmed that by using Umbridge’s fire but he was caught by her. Then he said to Snape that Voldemort got Sirius at the department of mysteries. Hermione lies to Umbridge that they were making a weapon against the ministry and it is kept inside the forest. She made Umbridge follow her to the forest and she lead her to the centaurs and as Umbridge hated half- breeds, she behaved badly to them and she got carried away by the centaurs. By that time others also escaped from the Slytherins. They used the thestrals for travelling to the Ministry of Magic. When they reached there, they came to know that Sirius wasn’t attacked but this was a trap to get them. The Death Eaters wanted a prophecy about Harry. But accidently Harry drops the prophecy and it got destroyed. After some time aurors along with Sirius came and fought with the Death Eaters and Sirius was killed by Bellatrix. And Voldemort appears in front of the Minister of Magic and they all knew that what Harry told was true. After reaching the school, Dumbledore tells him that he knew what was in the prophecy. It told that a boy will be born in the end of July, to the parents who had denied the dark lord three times. Only that boy could destroy Voldemort. Dumbledore told him that Harry wasn’t the only boy, the other one was Neville Longbottom. But Harry was the Chosen One.

Reviewed by Suryasree

‘Sita: an illustrated retelling of the Ramayana’ by Devdutt Pattanaik

The book is a retelling of the Ramayana. Mythologist and illustrator Devdutt Pattanaik retells the Ramayana drawing attention to the many oral, visual and written retellings composed in different times, in different places, by different poets including Thai Ramakien, Malaysian Hikayat Seri Rama, Javanese  Ramayana Kakawin etc.

Here the narrator is Hanuman. A ring slips from Ram’s finger and falls into a crack in the palace floor. Ram requests Hanuman to fetch it for him. Hanuman reduces himself to the size of a bee and slips into the crack which leads him to Nagaloka. There Vasuki [the king of snakes] asks hanuman who Sita is –  whose name is whispered by the root of every tree that enters the earth.  Vasuki agrees to point the ring if hanuman would tell him about her. So hanuman narrates the story to all the serpents gathered around him.

This book approaches Ram by speculating on Sita- her childhood with her father Janaka, her stay in the forest with her husband who had to be a celibate ascetic while she was in the prime of her youth, her interactions with the women of Lanka, recipes she exchanged, emotions they shared, her connection with the earth, her mother, her sisters, with nature, her role as the goddess in transforming the stoic prince of Ayodhya into God.

After each sub plot in the story the book give details of various sources available for that subplot. The reader is able to get an idea which source is used by the author and various other narratives available for the same part of the story. The author also gives detailed explanations regarding certain rituals and practices of those times and also the reasons for the differences in the various narratives. The reader is therefore truly enriched as they get an insight regarding the various versions of Ramayana.

Reviewed by Ms Asha Devi, PGT (Geo.)

 

‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ‘ by J. K. Rowling

On my summer vacation, I read the book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets written by J.K Rowling.

After a marvellous year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter is stuck spending summer break with his awful aunt and uncle. His summer is going down the drain—until a little house elf from the magical world appears in his room. Dobby, the house elf, warns Harry that danger awaits him back at Hogwarts. No matter how charming Dobby may seem, Harry doesn’t want to believe him. .The Dursleys lock him in his room, but soon afterwards he is freed by Ron and his twin brothers and is taken to The Burrow in an enchanted flying car. It is time to return to school. Harry and Ron try to get through the portal at King’s Cross Station, but find it closed. So they steal Mr Wesley’s car and fly it to Hogwarts, only to crash into the Whomping Willow. They escape being expelled but are given detention. Inside the castle Harry is the only person who hears a mysterious voice threatening to kill. After a Halloween party, Mrs Norris the cat is found Petrified. The students are scared; everyone is talking about the Chamber of Secrets and the monster within. Professor Lockhart starts a Dueling Club. When Draco Malfoy sets a serpent against Harry, the wizard stops its attack by speaking in Parseltongue. The students are terrified and suspect Harry of being the heir of Slytherin. Ron and Harry find an empty diary. Harry is curious and starts writing in it. The diary was enchanted by a boy called Tom Riddle; through it, Harry sees Hagrid, fifty years earlier, accused of setting a giant spider onto a girl and killing her. When Hermione and another girl are Petrified,  During a visit to Hermione, Ron and Harry find a piece of paper in her hand bearing the word ‘basilisk’. Their friend had discovered the identity of the real monster. The teachers panic when Ginny Weasley is abducted, and they send the students home. Ron and Harry decide it is time to act, so they take Professor Lockhart to Moaning Myrtle’s toilet and there they find a secret passage through one of the sinks. The boys and their hapless teacher go down the passageway. Lockhart tries to bewitch them but the curse falls on himself. Ron and Harry are separated, and Harry decides to enter the chamber alone. The young wizard finds Ginny Weasley alive, but he also meets Tom Riddle. The latter admits that he is Lord Voldemort, the last heir of Slytherin, and he sets the basilisk onto Harry. Dumbledore’s Phoenix enters the chamber and drops the Sorting Hat in Harry’s hands, whilst it punctures the basilisk’s eyes. In the Sorting Hat, Harry finds Gryffindor’s sword and with it kills the snake. The wizard destroys Tom Riddle by pushing the basilisk’s poisonous fang into the diary. Back in Dumbledore’s office, Harry tells his story. Lucius Malfoy, furious that the headmaster is back, is accused of giving Ginny the bewitched diary. He is also tricked by Potter into freeing Dobby. The students celebrate with a midnight feast and Gryffindor win the House Cup for the second time.

It is a wonderful book.I recommend this book to all of my friends who love Harry Potter.I rate it 9/10.

Reviewed by Aishwarya Pradeep

‘Summer Term at St Clare’s’ by Enid Blyton

The book Summer Term At St Clare’s is a fantastic book written by Enid Blyton. It’s a beginning of a new term at St Clare’s. Five new girls have joined their form. There is an American girl called Sadie, who is obviously quite rich and elegant. There is a wild looking girl called Carlotta, who is half Spanish. There is a naughty but very likeable girl called Bobby [Roberta]. The last new girl is Pamela, who is very hard working but also very shy. This time Sadie is kidnapped. Prudence has a hand in that. How are they going to rescue Sadie? There would be going to be a drama and action.

I recommend this book to everybody who loves school days and adventures. I give this book 10 on 10.This is a fabulous book. I like this book very much.

Reviewed by Bhavya V.