Reading response

The book I read for this book response was 'The Killing', the fourth book in the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore.

CHERUB is a secret government organisation that uses children under the age of 18, as undercover spies. The children have to go through rigorous training and drills before they are aloud to go out on missions. The missions usually consist of infiltrating homes, hacking computers and obviously bringing down the bad guy. The series follows a certain boy named James who becomes part of the organisation after his mother dies. CHERUB is so successful because a criminal never expects a child to be the one that catches them out.

In this instalment of CHERUB, James (15) has to find how Leon Tarasov, a small-time crook has come about his riches; after he starts splashing big money around. In James mission brief he is told that he must befriend Leon's children, infiltrate his home and dig up some leads so the cops can bust him. James moves into Leon's home town Palm Hill with another CHERUB agent; Dave (18), under the story that they are orphans who have just come out of foster care.

Dave and James become good friends with Leon's children and they start hanging around the house quite a lot. Dave and James play the broke, cash-hungry orphan persona very well and eventually Leon gives them a proposition. He tells them that if they are looking for a bit of cash they have to steal a car for him so he can strip it and sell it for parts. Leon gives the boys an address and tells them to have it in his lockup by the end of the day. They end up stealing the car, earning some cash and more importantly earning Leon's trust.

Leon's nephew Will Clarke, a reclusive 'pot-head', had jumped off a building 1 year ago in front of Leon's daughter Hannah, she ended up keeping a lot of his stuff after Will's parents got rid of it. Hannah then asked James if he wanted Will's computer because it was only collecting dust. James took it back to his apartment and plugged it in, when it started it up it started spewing smoke out of the back panel. James quickly turned it off and found a bag of marijuana and a piece of paper with various amounts of money written on it. James took the piece of paper to his mission controller and she ran it through her database. The amounts of money written on the paper were an exact match of the amount stolen in casino robberies over the past year. James then had to find if Leon was linked to Will and possibly his death.

James then plants listening devices all over Leon's house and lockup. From the recordings he finds that Leon has numerous 'crook' cops on the force and also had many associates working at the casinos at the times of the robberies. He also finds that one of the 'crook' cops thought that Will Clarke was going to release the information about the robberies so he arranged to meet Will at the top of a building and pushed him off; whereas everyone had thought that he had gotten so high that he didn't know where he was and stumbled off.

Leon and all of his associates end up in prison with charges linked to the death of Will Clarke, grand theft auto and numerous casino robberies. James and Dave return to the CHERUB campus where they await their next mission.

All in all I really enjoyed this book, even though I had to read it within the space of 3 weeks and I don't particularly like reading, it was still really good. I found it interesting because it was about kids my age who get to go round picking locks, stealing cars, busting bad guys; so on and so forth. There is also something about the way it is written, it grabs your attention and makes you really want to read it, Robert Muchamore is a great author.

Macbeth draft

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth kills his king, Duncan in order to become king. At first he did not want to be ends up being persuaded by his wife; Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth kills Duncan it is a huge turning point in the play.

In the beginning Macbeth and Banquo are riding along a path when they stumble upon a group of witches. When the witches see Macbeth they say “All hail Macbeth! Thane of Glamis! All hail Macbeth! Thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth! King of Scotland!”. This is the point in which Macbeth finds out his fate.

When Macbeth returns to Duncans kingdom he realizes that the witches were right, because Duncan names him the thane of Cawdor, but when Macbeth is expecting to be named the next king of Scotland he was angered, as Duncan named his son, Malcolm, to be the next king. This is another big turning point in the play because Macbeth realizes that he must kill Duncan and his sons in order to become king.

Macbeth then invites Duncan to his castle; planning to kill him. While Duncan is sleeping Macbeth stands outside his chamber, contemplating if he should kill him or not. As Macbeth is standing there he invisions a dagger in front of him that leads him to Duncans room. When Macbeth arrived at Duncans bedside he stabbed him until he was sure he was dead. This was probably the biggest turning point in the play, for it was the first of Macbeths kills and it showed that he was capable of something so evil.

All these moments in the play are big turning points and they make the play what it is.

They also have an impact on Macbeths eventual fate.

The Cave

"The Cave" is a story about survival in the days of the Neanderthal.

In this chapter a tribe of Neanderthal get attacked, and all the fires are extinguished. In those days they could not start their own fires. So the tribe sent out three warriors on a quest for fire.

As the men were searching for the fire they come across a cave where they decide to take shelter. As One of the three men Gow, was taking his turn as watchguard, he spots a mysterious figure off in the distance. As the figure becomes more and more clear, He realises it is the great Grey Bear; said to be the strongest animal in the land. It has been told that a grey bear can bring down a horse with its paws. At this point I felt scared for the three men as I knew the bear was most likely coming for them. Gow wakes up Naoh and Nam; the other two of the three warriors, warning them of the approaching threat. They continue to stay in the cave unsure if the bear was headed in their direction or not. They built a stone wall over the opening of the cave in anticipation of the bears arrival. They waited. The bear approached the cave and found that the entrance to it's cave had been covered over, so it went around the side and stuck its snout through a small opening, for it only to be clubbed by the awaiting warriors. Enraged, the bear threw itself at the makeshift wall. I felt fear for the mean as they knew the bear would soon break through. Eventually the bear knocked down the wall and the mean were cornered. But Naoh hid in the shadows waiting for the beast to approached and when it got close enough he struck the bear on the top of it's head, creating a loud crack. Knowing the bear was weakened he continued to club the bear until he knew it was surely dead. The other two men looked at him in awe, for he had defeated the fabled Grey Bear. I felt a bit of disgust in the way that the bear was killed, but I understood Naohs actions as it was for the sake of survival.

Favourite Subject

My favourite subject at school is probably, Economics. I like learning about how the economy works, with things like Barter and Demand. The first topic we had was about Demand. Demand is when you want something and you are able to afford it, but if you want something and you are not able to buy it then you have no demand for it. We had to do a Demand powerpoint and we had to include all the different sub-topics, including: Price, Income, Substitute goods, Complimentary goods, Peer pressure and Rules and Regulations. For the all slides we had to show how that sub-topic affected the demand. For example Price; If an item was rather expensive then less people would have demand for it, but if an item was rather inexpensive then more people would have demand for it. The end of this term and all of next term we are learning about Barter which is the trading of two equal goods. I like Mr Gibb as a teacher also. He is really good at teaching and often lets us have free time when we finish our work. I also like what periods I have Economics. They are 5th on Thursday and 6th on Friday. This is why Economics is my favourite subject (not English).