The Amber Spy Glass **SPOILER ALERT**

I actually really enjoyed reading The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman. I think it’s better than The Subtle Knife by a long shot, but The Golden Compass will always be my favorite in the series. I really liked it when Lyra narrated, because she has really strong feelings, and she had a very interesting view on things.

            I miss Pantalaimon. He was such a big part of The Golden Compass, but when Lyra stopped narrating, he fell into the background. Lyra’s relationship with Pan is a truly remarkable thing. The way they feel about each other is adorable, and I didn’t get that from them in the book, except when she has to leave him alone when she enters the world of the dead. Even after that, she soon puts Pan at that back of her mind and focuses more on getting all the ghosts free.

            I can’t imagine having a daemon. I am not much of an animal lover, and I find it hard to think about what animal my daemon would be. When people say they wish they could be invisible, I raise my eyebrows. To be able to fly would be the most amazing thing I can think of. Because of my long for flight, I would like to think my daemon would be a bird. I don’t like the idea of a bird as a pet, but a daemon is much more than that.

            In one of the last few chapters, Will is talking to Lyra about Pan taking a permanent form. he seems glad that he doesn’t have a daemon of his own. I agree with him. Anyone who first reads the book envies Lyra for having a daemon, but when you think about it, having your daemon in it’s true form is kind of like brandishing your personality on your sleeve. I get along fine without a daemon, and I think that after your daemon takes a true form,  having a daemon would not be good. 

Because I Am Furniture

Im reading Because I am Furniture, a book written in verse about a girl who is ignored by her abusive father. He goes around doing horrible things to her older sister and brother, but he completely ignores her. Some might think, well, isn’t that a god thing? I would rather be ignored then abused! Well I guess thats not the way fourteen year old Anke thinks. I guess in a way, Anke has a point. By ignoring her, her father is practically telling her that she isn’t worthy of even the worst sort of attention. The thing is, there are people with normal parents that ignore them anyways. It seems like its a lot better to be given no attention from a crazy man that abuses his children then a perfectly nice man. I mean, Anke's father isn’t nice to her or her siblings, its like no one is worth of the good kind of attention from him. Maybe its just that he thinks that Anke is the most likely of his three children to tell on him. Who knows. I just don’t think it really makes sense that Anke is complaining about not being abused by her father. I bet is she traded places with her older sister, she would realize how mush better it is to be ignored.

Personally, I think it would be a lot more hurtful if I was ignored by a father who loves my two older siblings. In Anke's situation, her father has proven that he is not capable of loving anyone, but Anke takes it personally. I think that by him ignoring her, her father is actually showing that he loves Anke the most. He loves her too much to be able to hurt her the way he hurts the other two. Anke's father is obviously a little off his rocker, and Anke shouldn’t take offense.

A thing about the book that I don’t really understand is why Anke's father is the way he is. She makes references to the way he was when she was young, nice and playful. His change in ways isn’t explained in the book. It seems like he just changed for no reason, but that doesn't happen to people. Anke doesn’t explain a gradual change in her father, she just refers to how he was before, and how he is now. It really doesn’t make sense, and it's not very realistic.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

This blog post is about squirrel seeks chipmunk by David Sedaris. It is a collection of short stories about animals. I think that these stories are a lot like Aesop's fables, they teach a lesson. My favorite one so far is about a vigilant rabbit, who is supposed to guard a section of the forest so no animals can come in and disturb the peace. Some animals come and try to get over the fence the rabbit built, and are rude to him in the process, so he kills them. It is a brutal tale. One day, a unicorn comes to the fence an tries to convince the rabbit to let him by, but the rabbit, determined to keep the forest safe, refuses to let the unicorn enter the woods. When the unicorn jumps over the fence, instead of staying by the fence, guarding against real dangers, he chased the unicorn, watching as the unicorn uses his horn to heal the wounded, grow flowers, and making dead grass a fresh green color. Even though the unicorn was obviously doing amazing things for the forest, the rabbit only cared about the fact that the unicorn came into the forest without his consent. While the unicorn slept, he gnawed off his gleaming horn, leaving the unicorn weaponless, and magicless. When the unicorn woke, he was just an ordinary horse. Then, the rabbit spit out a diamond because the horn was magical. He was busy staring at it, and then the wolves came. Thats how it ends. The story. I dont much like the ending, I think it's depressing, like why cant the rabbit spit out a million gems, and then make the forest better by building a stronger barrier around it, or buy plant seeds so that there is tons of food in the forest, but then he wouldnt learn his lesson, would he? I guess thats what the whole story is about. I think that the whole moral of the story is that you have to look at the big picture as well as the small picture. I can relate this story to mocking jay, the third book of the hunger games trilogy. President coin was so focused on defeating the capitol, she forgot what the whole point of the rebellion was to begin with! She started using weapons against the capitol that harmed innocent people, but harming innocent people was something the rebels were trying to stop by overriding the capitol. I think that when you do something, instead of focusing on one little part of you job, you have to keep in mind the whole point of the job in the first place.

I really like the way a lot of David Sedaris's short stories end. They give you a lot to think about. Instead of giving you a happily ever after, he leaves the story open ended, so that you have to think about what is going to happen later on. A lot of times when I read a book, I dont really have to think about what happens after the story is over, I just think, oh, that was sad, or oh, that was happy, and I don't have to think about what will happen later on. For this story, there are a lot of things that could happen. Maybe the wolves take over and eat all the animals, leaving the forest a desolate patch of trees, not a heartbeat to be heard. Maybe the forest animals all work together to get rid of the wolves and the forest is safe once again. Maybe the wolves see the diamond and just stop in their tracks, gazing at the magnificent gemstone, and the cant take their eyes away, and they die of starvation, because how can they hunt! They must stare at the gem until they cant stare anymore. After reading the book, I felt something different about it then I ever had about a book. It was weird. I almost felt like the book was mine! That I had wrote it! That there was a little part of me in the book. I love David Sedaris.