The Happy Hippo Readers

       Hi! Welcome back to my blog! In this blog, I will review They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. Similar to all the other books I read, this book was also suggested by my best friend. In fact, she let me borrow her copy of the book to read it. And no- I still have not returned it to her, but during Thanksgiving break, I will be spending time with her and returning her book (let's hope I remember!). Anyway, I read this book recently, and it was such a good one.     They Both to Die at the End is about two friends, Mateo and Rufus, who meet through the app, Last Friend, which is an app that helps you meet someone to spend your last day with. They signed up on Last Friend because Mateo's father is in a coma and his mom died in childbirth, and he didn't want to die in front of his best friend, Lidia. Rufus, on the other hand, signed up on this app because he's a foster kid (his family died in a car accident), only having his friends who were in foster ...

 Hello, I am Samuel Troconis, and this is my review on the book All Quiet on the Western Front      The book starts off with Paul, a young German boy who lied about his age to fight in the first world war along with his friends. They are all sent to fight, all of them filled with joy, thinking about the adventure they will experience, but they would later be shown that they are face to face with death, experiencing the horrors of war. Paul witnesses the death of all of his friends, who die one by one. Paul gets the news about the end of the war on the 11th of November at 11:00 AM. So he is sent for an attack to end the war in a victory. Near the end of the book, Paul dies, minutes before the end of the war. The book ends with the phrase "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who even though they ...

     Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the conflict between the Hamas group and the Israeli government. By writing this blog, I hope to educate you about the history between Palestine and Israel, from an unbiased standpoint. I myself didn't really understand the motives and causes for this conflict when I first heard about it, so hopefully you find this helpful.     This chronicle starts all they way back in the early 20th century, close to the end of World War I. In 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration, promising to make Palestine "a national home for the Jewish people". At the time, Palestine was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and so after the war ended the region of Palestine was conceded and given to the British Government. The handing over of territory was a mandate from the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations), but at the time faced criticism for ignoring the Palestinian voices, who inhabited th...

  A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books. It is an amazing sci-fi story that has interesting characters and an even more interesting plot. The story follows Meg, her brother Charles, and her friend Calvin throughout their journey in space on a mission to rescue Meg’s father. The main antagonist of the book is an entity known as The Dark Thing or also IT a very powerful creature that takes many forms and represents darkness. One of the best parts of the way the book gives incredible descriptions of unsettling creatures like IT and the surrounding world. I believe that this is one of the reasons the movie version of A Wrinkle in Time was such a letdown for me. The incredible images I had made in my head while reading the book were nothing like the ones shown in the movie. This was not only due to a difference in interpretation but also what seemed to me a complete disregard for the book’s detailed descriptions. Furthermore, the movie version cut out some of the most importa...

       Hi! Welcome back to my blog. Today, I will be discussing the book Wonder by R. J. Palacio. I read this book in fifth grade, which if you think about it, wasn't that long ago. I remember hearing my peers enjoying the book in previous years, so I decided to give it a read. When I read it,  I was immediately attached to this book. Even to this day, I can still remember a decent amount of detail from this book, even though I read it four years ago.     Wonder is about August ("Auggie") who deals with a genetic condition called Treacher Collins syndrome, which affects how his face develops. This left Auggie to be homeschooled his entire life, up until his fifth grade year. He was enrolled in a private school called Beacher Prep, where started to get bullied by his peers. Despite his bullies, he ends up making friends at the school as well. In Wonder,  the author mainly focuses on Auggie learning how to be independent.     I really...

 Hello, This is my review of the book Moby Dick by Herman Melville.      The Book starts off with Ishmael, a man from New York who loves travelling, and hopes to travel in a ship one day. One day, at an Inn, he meets Queequeg, a man from New Zealand, who would introduce Ishmael to the crew of the ship he is part of. He meets the Crew of the Pequod, a whaling ship. When he meets the captain, Ahab, he learns his search for revenge against Moby Dick, a whale who ripped off his leg. Him and the Pequod's crew travelled many times in the search of the white whale. When they find it, the crew battles against it. The ship is destroyed and the crew loses their life, leaving Ishmael as the only survivor.      This book was a great read for me. This was an action and thrill packed story, with many ups and downs and many turns and twists. It has many elements of classic literature, and although I usually find old books not interesting, this book was truly the comp...

     The short story "The Monkey's Paw" was written by W.W. Jacobs, in 1902. It follows the White family, after they invite Sergeant-Major Morris to their house for dinner. Sergeant-Major Morris, who had recently come back from military service in India tells the Whites about a mummified monkey's paw he acquired there. The magic paw, which was enchanted by an old fakir grants 3 wishes to anyone gets it. After Mr. White spends the evening convincing the Sergeant-Major to give him the paw, and eventually he gives in, but not before warning the White family that "he [the fakir] wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who tried to change it would be sorry".      After the Sergeant-Major leaves, the White family jokes about the paw, believing what the Sergeant-Major said to be a fib. Eventually, they jokingly wish for 200 dollars, enough to pay off their house. However, when Mr. White makes the wish, he is startled when he feels t...