Charlie Friesen

Charlie Friesen
The Red Pyramid
Rick Riordan
Fantasy
Holiday
pg. 70

1. Right now in my book, a brother and a sister named Carter and Sadie have just had their lives turned upside-down. Carter and Sadie have rarely seen each other. When their mother died, their father and their mother's parents got into a huge argument and a lawsuit followed. In the lawsuit, Sadie was to stay with her grandparents while Carter would stay with his dad. Sadie can see Carter and his father twice a year. One of those times, Carter's dad, Julius, takes both Carter and Sadie to the British Museum because that is where Sadie lives. There, Julius had a special tour arranged by the curator. But, Julius tells Carter and Sadie to lock the curator in the closet, while he goes to examine the Rosetta Stone. Julius does something strange, and this huge, fiery man appears and locks Julius in a sarcophagus, and then the Rosetta Stone explodes. So Carter and Sadie are left to the police, who believe that their father was a terrorist who wanted to destroy the museum. But in the end, the police deport them, because they are both American, back to the U.S. But, they end up traveling, by magic on a mysterious boat with Julius' brother, their uncle, back to New York, where he had this mansion. I left off just as they were getting to the mansion.

2. Right now, the book is already very interesting. I know that I have not gotten very far, but so far there has been a lot of action. Also, there have been so many questions that have been posed in this book, that I am anxious to read more and find out what this is all about. I have not even gotten far enough into the book for the plot to really appear yet, so I am still waiting for that. But I am very excited to start reading and find out all the answers to the questions that I have. Also, I like how Riordan formatted the book. The whole book is a transcription of a tape recording, and every couple of chapters, the narrators switch. So the first two chapter are told by Carter, and then the next two are told by Sadie. This is interesting because both characters have very different personalities and tell the story each in their own special way. Overall, this is very good.

3. A theme that I have noticed so far is not knowing what is going on. When Carter and Sadie were in the British Museum, and their dad was doing weird incantations and gestures around the Rosetta Stone, both had no idea what he was doing,or that even Julius would do something like that. Also, Sadie seems to have some kind of special power of being able to read hieroglyphs and this had just turned up when all this crazy stuff started happening. Sadie has no idea why or how she is able to do this. Also, when the police were talking to Carter and Sadie, the police chief had in mind to put the kids in jail. But then, all of a sudden, the apparently changes his mind to deport them, but it is very peculiar in the way he does this. He got a blank stare, and I think that their uncle was brainwashing the chief into deporting them so that he can get them, but Carter and Sadie do not know this.

4. My favorite character is Carter. He is my favorite just because of his personality. He is very smart and knows a lot about Ancient Egypt, which is something that I can relate to because Ancient Egypt interests me too. Also, Sadie picks on Carter for being a nerd and knowing everything, so I sort of feel bad for him. He is also the one who seems to be the most calm about everything that had been going on because he knows a lot about Egypt and is most comfortable with it. So later in the book, I think he will be very important in figuring what to do. Overall, he is my favorite just because there is this feeling in my gut that tells me that he will be a great and important character.

5. My least favorite character is the entity that Julius summoned when he was casting spells on the Rosetta Stone. Julius had obviously not wanted to summon this being, because that being ended up locking Julius in a sarcophagus and sending him underground. This has not only ruined Julius's plans to do what he wanted, but also caused a lot of trouble for the children. I can already tell that he will probably be the bad guy of the story. He was in one of Carter's dreams. The being was standing outside of Phoenix, Arizona, with some other Egyptian mythological creatures, discussing some ominous to build a temple and destroy the city. So is he is the bad guy, then he is my least favorite character.

6. My prediction is that Carter and Sadie will spend some time at the mansion in New York City for a while, training. Julius' brother mentioned something about the kids having to train before they can go out to do what they need to do. So Carter and Sadie will train, probably honing in some kind of supernatural power, like Sadie's power to read hieroglyphs. After that, they will probably have to go on some sort of quest in order to save the world from the wrath of the Egyptian gods, like the one that locked up Julius. Their quest will probably take them all over the Ancient Egyptian mythical world, sort of like Percy Jackson, since this is the same author.