Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

My favorite book out of all the four books that I’ve read for English so far is “The Railway Children”.

“The Railway Children” is a book about these three children who are siblings and their life gets turned upside down because their father had to leave. They went from riches to rags. They used to live in a large house with their parents, have maids, all the toys they could want, all the food they could want, and they didn’t need to worry about money.

But all of that changed when their father mysteriously vanished. They had to move to a small house far away from their old home and had very little money. They had to give away most of their toys, and had to watch their spending and ration out food.

The house was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The children took all this pretty well though, and all of them being only under 10 years old. Their new joy now was the train station that they lived near to. They would go there every day and made friends with the engineer and his family. Once they even saved a train by turning their red undercoats into flags to warn the train of approaching danger.

I really enjoyed the book, though I wish there was more mystery and action, and there were more chapters and that there would be one great adventure throughout the book that led to them finding their father again. But this book was written in 1906 so the writing style was different back then.

I give this book 9.5 out of 10. Because it could’ve used more mystery and action.

I hope that this book report has interested you in this book. It’s a very good book and I think that anyone young or old will enjoy it. I won’t say any more about the plot of the book because that should be a surprise for you if you ever get to read it. Thanks for reading!

 

The Swiss Robinson Family is a book about a family that gets stranded on an island with nothing but the clothes on their backs, supplies from their wreck, and their wits.

The family is on a boat to start a new Swiss colony when their boat gets caught in the middle of a storm. They try to brave through it with the boat crew, but eventually the crew gives up and takes all the lifeboats; abandoning the family on board, with no help, in the middle of a storm.

When the storm subsides the family is left stranded on their boat with no means of getting onto the nearby island. They figured out the problem by building a makeshift boat out of tubs on board. This carries them to the island. While on board they also built life jackets for some of the animals on board.

Once they get to shore they set up a tent that they brought with them from the boat. Then they scanned the beach for food. They found lobster, oysters, and killed an agouti. Even though they found all this food they still had instant soup and biscuits that they brought from the boat.

The next day the father and the eldest son, Fritz, mustered up the courage to explore the forest. They discovered coconuts (which turned into wine, then into vinegar due to the heat), sugarcanes, gourds (that could be made into utensils) and a baby monkey; which they took in and named Knips. For dinner that day they had fish which Jack, the third son, killed while his father and brother was gone.

As time goes on Father and Fritz would make frequent trips to the wreckage of their boat to get the rest of the animals and supplies. The tent on the beach became unbearable for the family so they built a treehouse as their new home, to get the wood for this project they blew up the wreckage! They used the leftover wood from the project to build cottages and “stores” all over their little island, which they named New Switzerland. They also named their treehouse Falconhurst and the beach where they landed, Safety Bay.

They also built a home in a cave which they named Rockburg. This home was for the “winter season”, when it would rain for a month continuously before calm weather came again.

10 years passed and the family still lived there. They built themselves a yacht and kayak, and a watchtower. The family also found an Englishwoman named Jenny Montrose, who was stranded after her boat crashed just three years before. She was taken in as a daughter and sister.

A little while later they caught the attention of an England. The captain was sent by Colonel Montrose, Jenny’s father, who had been looking for her for the past three years. The captain, Captain Littlestone, offered to take Jenny back to England and anyone else from the family if they wanted to.

Mother and Father decided to stay on the island, as did Ernest (the second son) and Jack. Fritz and Franz (the youngest son) decided to take up the offer and return to the outside world.

After that, well, we don’t know. Let’s just hope that the family lived happily ever after, wither they be on their island or in a house in England. Thanks for reading!

 

Boom! Crash! I get tossed into a life boat, landing with a hard “thud”! I bump into a pregnant lady carrying a young child. I barely get my balance before the boat speeds off in a hurry towards land. I look around the boat frantically, looking for my parents. They’re not here! I hear a noise behind us and see two more life boats carrying more passengers, including my parents. I sigh with relief. All of a sudden the boat loses balance and the boat capsizes.

My head comes up from under the water. I hear my parents from the other boat call my name. But they’re too far away from me to help. That’s   when I see the ironing board floating in the water, I grab onto it, gasping for breath. I hang on to the board and use it as a flotation device as I swim to my parents. They grab me and pulled me up; on the way we picked up other passengers from my boat and helped them on.

I see the pregnant woman that I bumped into earlier struggling to stay afloat, in her arms her young child is crying. Behind her there is an elderly woman who was also trying to come to us.

“We have to save them!” I scream as the boat turns away from them.

“There’s no room.” The man who was guiding the boat said gravely.

Then, and idea came to me; the ironing board that I was using was still floating near the boat, I grabbed it and asked my Dad to hold onto it for a second, then I looked around the bottom of the boat and found a rope. I tied one end of the rope to the boat and the other end to the ironing board. I then told the man to steer to them, him seeing my plan agreed and steered.

“Hang on to the board!” I yelled to the people in the water. “We’ll get you to shore!”

They clung onto the board and away we went, heading for shore. On the way we saw that the third boat had picked up some passengers too, while others that were on my boat just swam to shore.

Once we got on land everyone climbed out of the boats and sat down on the sand, staring at the wreck of our cruise ship. I sighed, my very first cruise ending like this.

My parents sat down next to me and praised me for my quick thinking and ingenuity. I smiled but knew that we needed to get off the island fast and get back to the world. None of the survivors of the crash knew where we were or how the boat crashed in the first place.

All of our phones were either dead, because of the water, lost battery, or still on the wreck. There was no way to contact anybody. We all decided to think about all this in the morning, for now we needed to find a place to sleep.

I picked up the ironing board and untied it from the boat; this might make a comfortable bed! My parents were clever enough to make a thin mattress out of large leaves from the nearby trees, others followed suite. Some slept in the boats and some just in the sand.

One lady was fast enough to grab and few blankets, pillows, some food, rope, and water before the ship sank, so we made due of it all.

We made a fire and heated up the blankets for those who fell into the water. Our dinner consisted of bread, fruit, and warmed up instant soup. As we all sat around the fire we told each other our names. Including my parents and I there were 20 survivors in total. The elderly lady that we saved was name Gladys, the pregnant woman Mary and her child Lulu, the man who was steering my parent’s boat was named George, the man that was steering the third ship was named Fred, and the man steering my ship was named Luke. There was a family of five, Michael the father, Lily the mother, and their triplets Rose, Petunia, and Violet. The lady who brought the food was named Claire, and her sister Chloe. And finally tow young couples, Mark and Hannah, and Joey and Gabby.

After dinner we all prepared for bed, three fires were made and groups of us slept around it. We bathed in the sea and dried off using the pillowcases from the pillows that Claire brought. Then we all went to our “beds”. I was sleeping on the ironing board, which was surprisingly comfy! My parents were trying to talk me out of it, offering to make a leaf bed for me like the ones they made for themselves. But I didn’t accept. I like the ironing board, the one that saved my life, Mary’s and Lulu’s, and Gladys’s.

The next morning I had a plan ready on how to get off the island. During breakfast this was the number one concern that everyone was talking about. While I was helping hand out the bread and fruit, which was our breakfast, we heard a scream in the forest. I counted everyone and realized that Chloe was gone. I knew it had to be her. All of us got ready for an attack of some wild beast. Mary handed me her child and the triplets. I took them with me to hide. I was the eldest of the children so they followed everything I did. I hugged them close and told them to be quiet and calm.

Chloe came running out of the forest, there was a silence then a bear came thundering out, roaring with all his might. Lulu shrieked and the bear turned his attention away from Chloe, and towards the rock that I was hiding with the children! I put my hand over Lulu’s mouth and started breathing very hard. The rest of the adults had gone into hiding as well, so there was no one to distract the bear.

“When I say go, run into the water and hide there.” I said. “Okay?”

“But, we can’t swim!” Rose said.

“Okay. But just try, I’ll be right behind you to make sure you don’t go under, okay?” I said nervously.

The triplets gulped, but nodded. The bear started getting closer and closer. I told the children to be ready to run, when all of a sudden there was a great big racket from the other side of the beach!

It was my Dad! Trying to save us! The bear rushed towards him and bit him on the arm!

“No!” I screamed. I dropped Lulu, who I was carrying the whole time and ran towards the bear. I started beating his back screaming at him to let my Dad go!

The bear turned, his eyes full of savageness, but so was mine. I grabbed my ironing board which was at my feet and hit the bear right on his nose. The bear just stood there, dumbstruck by the pain.

Then everybody else came out with sticks and stones, beating the bear. Even the kids came out with sticks and was beating the bear with them! Finally he bear dropped by Dad who he was holding in his mouth the whole time and ran back into the forest whimpering.

Mary, my Mom, and Gladys came rushing to my Dad’s side to tend to his wound. Gladys used to be a nurse in the ER and knew exactly what to do. SO did my Mom and Mary, since they were in the Red Cross and knew how to deal with wounds. They took the First Aid Kit from the boat and before we knew it my Dad’s wound was wrapped up and sanitized.

“Seems that ironing board of yours is a real life saver! Eh?” George said half relieved, half impressed.

We carried out with breakfast and I told everyone my plan: “We go back to the ship in our boats and grab supplies and such for ourselves, and then we try looking in the captain’s cabin for something that could contact the world for help.”

“I like that plan.” George said. “It’s practical.”

“Yes, it its.” Agreed Fred. “But, we only have two boats, one of them to stolen in the night by something in the water.”

I looked at where we parked out boats, and Fred was right.

“So, we only take a few people with us. George, Fred, and Luke should come. They know the ship better than any of us since they worked there. Claire can come, since she’s resourceful. Now we only need a child who will wander off and find things. Maybe if Mary agrees we can take Lulu with us!” I said.

“I really like your plan, but Lulu is not going. It’s too dangerous!” Mary replied.

“Okay. I already know that if one of the triplets go all of them want to go and we can’t take care of three fast kids.” I said rationally.

“You should go!” George suggested. “This is your plan, and you’re a child!”

I smiled. I really wanted to go. I asked my parents and they agreed. So the five of us set out for the ship. As we were leaving I added my ironing board.

“What are you bringing that for?” Claire asked.

“Well, this board has a tendency for saving lives. And, we might bring back a lot of things, so I’ll swim back on this so the boat won’t be too heavy!” I said.

The others laughed, but agreed that the plan was reasonable and we set off.

Once we got on board George took Claire to show here where all the medicines and food are, Luke went to the captain’s cabin, and Fred followed me so I wouldn’t get into a scrap without help.

After 15 minutes of scavenging we met back at where we docked our boat. Claire got lots of food and medicine for my Dad and for other occasions that medicine might come in handy. I found more pillows and blankets and some of the survivors belonging that I thought they might want, including toys for the children and my favorite bright sequin, neon pink scarf. And Luke came back saying that he successfully contacted the nearest Navy base, he said that they should be coming for us within the next few days.

We loaded everything on the boat, and like I said it was too heavy for me to be in it, so Fred tied the ironing board to the boat and I trailed behind them the whole way. Another useful thing that the ironing board can do.

When we got back everyone hailed our arrival. We enjoyed good food for meals for the next few days, there were no incidents and we kept clear of the forest unless we need wood for the fire, then we always had a squad with us to protect each other.

A few days passed and no one came to take us off the island, and we were running low on food. So Fred, George, Luke, Claire, and I headed back to the wreck, this time with the other boat. I planned on putting a lot of stuff that belonged to the survivors on it. Claire gathered food and Fred and I gather personal belongings. Luke came back and told us that the Navy couldn’t come so they’re sending helicopters.

I rode back to the island on by ironing board and told everyone the news. The next day we were woken up by the loud noise of wind, not just any wind, helicopter wind! The helicopter couldn’t see us though. How are we going to get them to see us? I remembered my pink, neon colored, sequins scarf. I quickly tied that to my ironing board and climbed up the highest rock on the beach. I started yelling and screaming while waving the ironing board with all my might.

The helicopters finally found us and picked us up, including all of our belongings.

As we were heading back to the world I sighed contentedly. Who knew that an ironing board can save so many lives if used in the right way?

This week I’ve been reading Tanglewood Tales, and for this essay I’m going to talk about how the Greeks way of thinking of themselves affects their stories.

In all the stories that I’ve read there is one reuccuring thing: Giants, scary creatures, and strong heroes. I think that the Greeks saw themselves as the strongest humans. In “Dragon’s Teeth” when the character planted the dragon’s teeth in the ground mighty soldiers came up, ready to fight. Maybe this is how the Greeks wanted to be portrayed? But later in the story when the main character threw a rock into the midst of them they started fighting each other, assuming that their neighbor threw the stone. Only the strongest of the men survived. Does this show survival of the fittest? Or does it show how violent the Greeks can get?

In all the stories the heroes try to prove themselves by doing something dangerous, or something that is considered impossible to earn respect. Is it showing that the Greeks need to prove themselves?

Most characters have bad tempers too, like in “Dragon’s Teeth” the king outcasts his sons to go find his kidnapped daughter. His sons were only boys! In “Pygmies”, the pygmies scared out Hercules after he killed Antaeus, their brother. What does this show?

I’m thinking that the Greeks either thought of themselves very highly, or the writers have an amazing imagination. Thanks for reading!

 

Have you ever heard of the giant Cassia? The daughter of Mother Earth, the unknown sister of Antaeus and the Pygmies. You haven’t? Well then, settle in for a nice story.

Cassia was the daughter of Mother Earth, a giant, like Antaeus. She was the unknown child, until now. Cassia felt like a loner, she thought that she was the only one of her kind. She didn’t know she had brothers, she didn’t know that there were fellow giants out there.

One day Cassia was planning move from her dreary and dull home in Egypt and decided to move to the middle of Africa, a hot, hot place. We don’t know where exactly, but it was near the Pygmies (we don’t know where exactly the Pygmies are either so, bear with me).

Cassia moved successfully and made a home for herself. One day she was resting in the sun, when she felt a shadow pass over her. It was a tremendous shadow as tall and as long as her body and she was a giant! Cassia sat up and saw, in the distance, another giant!

Cassia was over taken with excitement and started to pack her things, she was going to follow this giant. For how long? She didn’t know, she only knew that she was following that giant.

After a five day walk she lost him! I know what you’re thinking: “How can she lose a giant?! It’s a giant!” Well, how she lost him was pretty simple really. While tailing him she got tired and fell asleep. While she was sleeping the giant kept on going and hence, Cassia lost the giant. She followed his footsteps in the sand for a few days, but eventually her footsteps and his mingled and she got confused and lost him.

Cassia was devastated, she almost found one of her own! And she lost him. Cassia being exhausted from walking for days fell down onto the sand and started crying. She cried so long and so hard that it flooded the Pygmies’ city! The Pygmies sent a boat full of their bravest warriors up the river of tears to find the culprit who did this.

When the boat finally reached Cassia she was all tired out from crying and was lying in the sand sleeping. The Pygmies were shocked! They didn’t know that a third giant existed in the world. They only knew of two giants, Antaeus, their late brother, and Hercules, Antaeus’ s killer and the giant that Cassia was following!

“Excuse me!” yelled the Pygmies from their boat. Cassia woke up from her slumber with a  start and looked down at the little creatures that were talking to her.

“Yes?” Cassia asked

“Could you kindly stop crying? Your tears are flooding our city!” The Pygmies called

“Oh! I’m ever so sorry dear little creatures! I will stop.” Cassia cried

“Thank you for not crying. Goodbye then!” The Pygmies said as they boarded their boat again preparing to head home.

“Wait!” called Cassia. “I was looking for a giant, have you seen him?”

“There is only one giant, but he left.” The Pygmies said mournfully.

“Why do you say that so sadly dear creatures?” asked Cassia kindly

“We had a brother, Antaeus, a child of Mother Earth, like us. He was slain by another giant by the name of Hercules.” The Pygmies recalled sadly

“I’m a child of Mother Earth!” Cassia yelled excitedly. “And I will avenge the death of my dear brother Antaeus!”

The Pygmies were overjoyed by this. They begged her to go with them to their city so that they may tell their king this good news.

Cassia followed them to their city and met their king. He praised her for this good deed and wished her well. She then set off in pursuit of this Hercules.

She walked for 11 days and 11 nights until she found him asleep under a great oak tree. She crept up behind him and yanked a big branch off the oak tree and swung the branch down on him.

Hercules jumped up in pain and in surprise. He looked at Cassia with surprise.

“May I help you? Young maiden?” he asked kindly

Cassia ran at him and started beating him with her branch.

“ I will not hurt a maiden!” Hercules half grunted half yelled while trying to defend himself from Cassia’s branch.

“Too bad! Because I’ll hurt you!” she yelled

After a few minutes Hercules was tired and so was Cassia. Cassia then dropped the branch and started walking away. She didn’t know how many giants were in the world. There was no point in killing one of her own, and she was exhausted.

She walked all the way back to the Pygmies city and told them that she hurt Hercules and that he will never disturb them again. The Pygmies thanked her and asked her to be their new guardian of their city. She accepted and moved her home next to the Pygmies.

Cassia then spent the rest of her life guarding the Pygmies and being their protector. She lived happily ever after.

Well now you know about Cassia, the giant daughter of Mother Earth, unknown sister of Antaeus and the Pygmies, and the protector of the Pygmies.

If I was like Phileas Fogg and wanted to travel around the world I would do it my way. What’s your way? You may ask, well, that’s what the essay is for!

I would have to start from Singapore since that’s where I live, and I wouldn’t do this whole thing on a time limit. What’s the fun of going all around the world and not actually sightseeing and being a tourist? There’s no fun in that!

I would start by flying to China and seeing the mountains and villages, and then I would fly to Japan and go to museums and such. Then another flight to Pakistan to visit family, then another flight to France to see the Eifel tower, then ANOTHER FLIGHT to see Africa, see the pyramids and go to an elephant orphanage. Then, yet another flight to South America to just look around, try new food, etc.… Then another flight to the US and head for NYC to see shows on Broadway, visit the Statue of Liberty.

Then I would fly all the way back to Singapore and enjoy all the things that I bought and saw. And maybe gloat to my friends, JK! Kinda… Thanks for reading!

After Chebron, Jethro, Mysa, Ruth, and Amuba reached Rebu Amuba claimed his rightful throne and married Mysa. And Chebron married Ruth.

Years passed and now Amuba is a great leader with a wise queen at his side. Jethro and Ruth have two children a boy, Amon, and a girl, Skylar. Amuba and Mysa had two children as well, twins! They were named Nour and Gamal.  The children grew up side by side and treated each other as siblings.

The people didn’t think that it was right that the king’s children’s names were Egyptian names, but they loved their king and eventually let the matter go.

Amuba reigned for 30 years, peace and tranquility was how Rebu stayed. Amuba then gave the throne to his sons. Nour and Gamal couldn’t decide who should reign so they reigned side by side. Rebu had for the first time, two kings at the same time. With Amon as their consultant.

While Jethro all this time loyally served as Amuba’s general, close friend, and father figure. After Amuba stepped down from the throne Jethro fell sick and died.

After the great adventure in Egypt, and escaping to Rebu Mysa, Ruth, Jethro, Chebron, and Amuba lived and died happily.

When you go to prison you want to get out right? What if you’re in Alcatraz, the unescapable prison? Then what?

Many prisoners tried to escape Alcatraz, but all failed. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice; twenty-three were caught, six were shot and killed, two drowned, and five are listed as “missing and presumed drowned”.[1]

April 27, 1936 

The first attempt to escape Alcatraz was Joseph Bowers; he was burning trash at the incinerator when he tried to escape. He was calmly working then suddenly ran and began climbing the chain link fence at the edge of the island. When he was caught he refused to listen to the officers and was shot. He fell over the fence which was 50 ft and died from the fall.

December 16, 1937

The second attempt to escape was by Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe; the two had filed through the iron bars in the prison’s mat shop. They escaped on a very foggy day, which made it hard for the guards to see them. They jumped into the water and were presumed dead, though no bodies were found.

This was one of the first incidents that gave Alcatraz a bad reputation leading to its closing.

May 23, 1938

The third attempt to escape was by Rufus Franklin ,Thomas R. Limerick, and James C. Lucas. The three of them attacked and killed a guard, Officer Cline, with a claw hammer in the woodwork shop. Then proceeded to the roof, where an armed guard shot Franklin and Limerick. Other guards arrived at the scene. Lucas was cornered and surrendered to the guards. The Officer Cline died of his injuries the next day. Thomas Limerick also died, mostly likely due to the gun shot.[2]

January 13, 1939

The fourth attempt to escape was by Arthur Barker, William Martin, Rufus McCain, Henri Young, and Dal Stamphill, they were supposed to be in the most secure unit, D-Block; they managed to escape and reach the shore in the night. While they were building a makeshift raft they were spotted and fired on by a guard that saw them from the watch tower. Arthur Barker was killed, Dale Stamphill was wounded, and the other three were sent to solitary confinement.

May 21, 1941

The fifth attempt to escape was by Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle, and Lloyd Barkdoll. They were working in the industries area when they jumped the guards that were on duty and attempted to saw through the window bars to reach the shore. But the bars held up and they surrendered when they realized that. Joe Cretzer and Sam Shockley would try again at the Battle of Alcatraz, the biggest escape of all time, nobody escaped though.

September 15, 1941

The sixth attempt to escape was by John Richard Bayless, he was working on garbage duty and managed to elude the guards and reach the Alcatraz shore. He jumped into the water and tried swimming to San Francisco, the nearest mainland, but quickly gave up.

There were eight more attempts, but all failed. No man ever escaped Alcatraz. Unfortunately Alcatraz shut down due to reputations and financial reasons. You can now go visit Alcatraz in San Francisco today. They turned it into a museum! Thanks for reading!

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alcatraz_escape_attempts#Escape_from_Alcatraz_(triathlon) retrieved Nov 27

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alcatraz_escape_attempts#Escape_from_Alcatraz_(triathlon) retrieved Nov 27