lunes, 6 de febrero de 2017

Star of Deltora: Book 2 | MercatorNet

Star of Deltora: Book 2

Britta struggles to complete her quest.

Jane Fagan | Feb 6 2017 | comment

Two Moonsby Emily Rodda
written for ages 9-12 | highly recommended
published in 2016 (2015) | Kane Miller | 165 pages

In the second of the intriguing Star of Deltora series, the stakes are raised as main character Britta struggles to complete her quest to win the coveted title of Rosalyn apprentice and start her trading career.

Once again I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the flawed characters who seemed so much more realistic due to their lack of perfection!

The Keeper of the Crystal will not allow the Star of Deltora ship to anchor on Maris Islands due to the presence of an evil, lurking somewhere… The strained atmosphere provides for mystery and drama where it seems everyone could potentially be a traitor. Have you ever met a cunning trader who has taken advantage of you through an unfair price or worse still, as in this story, when the seller attempts to steal back the item sold from the buyer?

Someone somewhere it is known, is trying to sabotage and destroy the others fair trading competition.

Who is Britta able to trust?

Standing up for a fellow acquaintance gets her nothing but ridicule and shame. When that ridicule and rejection comes from the friend herself, it becomes a silent suffering Britta must bare.

Just as the reader is led to believe there is no trust possible, our heroine falls into a trap and is required not only to trust but to risk her own life to save others.

There are several extremely memorable scenes such as the beautiful and enchanting island of Two Moons. As the ship nears the island sailing through a sea of "blue-green glass" Britta feels sleepy and drawn to it by a strange power she cannot understand.

The language and invention of dramatic scenes is a captivating and engrossing read. At one point, Britta finds herself waking up on a boat driven by giant slugs. The giant slugs begin fighting to the death, throwing their huge pulsating bodies about as they wrestle viciously with each other and then try to kill a human by suffocating him in the mud. Read on to find out if Britta is strong enough to save the human and escape unhurt and how she fares with the “turtle people.”

A former children's librarian, Jane Fagan is currently a full-time wife and mother of two

- See more at: https://www.mercatornet.com/bookreviews/view/star-of-deltora-book-2/19306#sthash.EZIRn6Kc.dpuf

Congratulations to the New England Patriots for their thrilling 34-28 overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Even down here, deep in the Southern Hemisphere, the improbable fourth-quarter come-back was pretty riveting.

What intrigued me, apart from Tom Brady’s amazing ability to keep cool under pressure, was how easily the game can be spun politically.

The Patriots recently won the trophy as America’s most disliked NFL team, by a margin of 2% over the Dallas Cowboys. As a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote at half-time, “If Patriots rally to win, I will move to Mexico and start to build the border wall myself.” And at full-time: If it were my call, the United States would secede from New England.”

I predict that the amazing game will be used by Trump supporters as a parable for the victory of their improbable and disliked candidate.

But Boston is a city where Donald Trump got about six votes, five mailed in from registered voters who are working in Wyoming and one from Tom Brady, who is a friend of Mr Trump. It’s a place where Patriots fans say things like “In such a time of darkness, this is so light, so good.” So maybe the analogy is not that strong after all.

But one thing is sure: the Patriots have made New England great again.