Book Reviews: Woodwalker

Hello, Creatures!

Okay, so today was supposed to be the review of The Last of August, and although the review is written, I have to consult with someone to make sure I'm not being too harsh. I mean, I don't want to make anyone who liked the book feel awful. So, instead, I am reviewing Woodwalker, by Emily B. Martin. By the way, sorry this post is up late.

Woodwalker is about a former Woodwalker, Mae, who has been exiled from her home. In the
Silverwood, Woodwalkers are the highest level of the Wood Guard (or Forest Guard? I can't remember.). When Mae suddenly comes across the monarchs of Lumen Lake, who were deposed when their country was annexed, she is offered wealth for one task: Get the royal siblings through the Silverwood. Risking execution, Mae, filled with longing for her home, accepts.

This book was a four star book. I loved it!

Pros:

I really enjoyed Mae's love of the Silverwood. I loved learning about the different plants and animals. I also loved the whole theme of the Light, and Mae's vigor in protecting it. I appreciated Mona's questioning, which made perfect sense, especially in her circumstances. The world Woodwalker takes place in is a wonderful world, one I wouldn't mind living in, and while each country is uniquely different, they all share the same wonder and base, the Light. I also loved the ending. I wish I could say more about the ending, but I really can't.

Cons:

This book has a slower beginning, and lots of traveling in the woods. I didn't mind this at all, but in a day and age where people are being conditioned more and more to see/read fast-paced movies/books all the time, I thought I'd better warn you. Also, Mae and the royal siblings fight quite a bit throughout the first main chunk, and I finally had to skip to the ending to make sure they got along eventually, because I so wanted them to. :) Then I proceeded to read the rest of the book. :)

I loved this book overall, and I loved the dynamic characters. I liked how they were all different, and all had unique perspectives. I also liked the pearl-diving and forest-protecting. I loved the Wood Guard's job, and I wish we could do the same thing in real life for all wildlife.

Have you read this book? What do you like about it?

Spruce Nogard

Attribution: https://www.amazon.com/Woodwalker-Creatures-Light-Book-1-ebook/dp/B017H7FUJO

Books: Favorites: Inkheart

Hello, Friends!

I haven't read Inkheart for a really long time, so I don't remember it exactly. However, I really like this book.

Inkheart is a book about books. That already makes it amazing, right? Meggie, 12, lives with her father, and her mother disappeared mysteriously when she was young. Both she and her father love books, and when a curious figure shows up at their house who seems to know Meggie's dad, she discovers that, whenever her dad reads out loud, the characters come out of the book. However, this has unexpected repercussions. . .

I loved Inkheart because, like I said earlier, it's a book about books. Also, it's really fun to have characters who love to read just as much as you do. This is kind of a spoiler, but not really: In trying to get characters back into their books, Meggie, her father, and her aunt get trapped in a book, and have to find their way out. Unlike we think, book worlds continue after the story is over, causing some interesting things to happen. . .


I really enjoyed this book, but it's the first of a trilogy. The rest of the trilogy isn't good. It's basically the same thing that happened in the first book over and over and over again.

Have you read this book? What do you like about it?

Spruce Nogard

Attributions: https://www.amazon.com/Inkheart-Trilogy-Cornelia-Funke/dp/0439709105

Dragons: Dragon Eggs

Hello, Dragon-Lovers.

The second part of this "series" is dragon eggs. You might be wondering how versatile eggs can be. I mean, yes, they can be different colors and sizes, but that's pretty much it. Right?

Nope. Dragon eggs can be very different from each other. Like dragons themselves, different authors have a variety of different portrayals of dragon eggs.

What are some types of dragons eggs?

Would they be smooth, and stone-like, like this one? This is Christopher Paolini's description of dragon eggs in The Inheritance Cycle.

Are they leathery, and get harder the closer they are to hatching? One of the main ways to tell how close a dragon egg is to hatching on Pern (Anne McCaffrey) is by their hardness.

Are they plain white, like this one?

Are they textured with designs snaking all over them?

Do they have scales like the dragons themselves?

These dragon eggs my aunt made for me. She lined up 250 (each) thumb tacks in styrofoam strips and painted them with nail polish. Then, she started at the bottom of a styrofoam egg, and spiraled the thumb tacks all the way to the top. She is 100% amazing. :)

What are other types of dragon eggs?

Spruce Nogard

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 5

Now for the final Build-A- Bear World installment!

Today, all we have to do is put all the previous Build-A-World installments into one. If you missed the previous parts, here they are:

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 1
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 2
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 3 
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 4

Part 1
Time of Year: Early Summer
Seasons: Fall, Windel (windy), Winter, Rainur (rainy), Spring, Summer
Environments:
Woods
Farms
Cities
Caves
Mountains
Deserts
Valleys

Part 2
Gov: Depends on area
Forest is not governed by a government.
Some areas: Monarchy (partially constitutional)
Has minor problems:

• Common people do not always have a say in government
• Supplies not always distributed equally
• Multiple levels of society (gap between rich and poor)
• And more (too many to list)

Part 3
Races of intelligent beings:

• Dragons
  
• Elves
• Dwarves
• Fey folk (Fairies)
• Humans
• Werewolves
• Vampires
• Centaurs
• Brownies
• Gargoyles 
• Nymphs
• Mermaids
• Fauns/Satyrs
• Pixies
• Sphinxes/Manticores
• Sprites
• Shapeshifters
• Naiads
• Dryads 
• Talking, poison-spitting, fire-breathing, cats with bat wings
• Probably more, not counting spirits, and of course, non-intelligent creatures (In this case, I'm not considering Unicorns etc. as intelligent)  :)

I don't think I'm going to include spirits like ghosts and things, although Dragomir would be excited about that. . .

Major Characters:
1) Elf
-Male
-Round
-Unsure about static or dynamic
2) Fey
-Female
-Round
-Unsure about static or dynamic
-Type of fey: feyish

(I'm not doing minor characters.)

Part 4
Main character: Revenelil
Gender: female
Race: Feyish
Description: long, dark brown eagle-like wings attached to back reach heels, brown hair the same color as wings, tall, pale-skinned, forest green eyes with gold flecks in them, wears soft, gold and green dresses the color of eyes, loose fitting, does not wear shoes, has strong magic, does not have many friends from intelligent races (elves, humans, etc.), is an adult
Background: lives in enchanted forest, has no restraints/class like kingdoms do, has no parents (knows nothing about them), lived in forest entire life, grows garden,
Personality: slightly mischievous, kind, loving, caring, has a temper,dignified, imaginative,
I could go on, (type of magic, stories about her, etc.) but, alas, it's only a snow globe.

I'm only including my main character. I hope you had fun with this exercise! Post about it below!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://pixabay.com/en/tree-forest-summer-nature-970508

https://pixabay.com/en/gargoyle-carved-stone-grotesque-372674/ 

https://pixabay.com/en/forest-woods-waterfall-water-fall-1209910

 

Genre of the Month: High Fantasy

Hello, Friends!

This month's genre is High fantasy. High fantasy takes place in a world completely unrelated to our own, with no access to our world. This is unlike portal fantasy in that portal fantasy contains portals to completely different worlds.

Some books I have read that are high fantasy are: Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, The Hobbit, and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (which I post about here.)

Christopher Paolini's Alagaesia is full of elves, dwarves, dragons, humans, well known fantasy creatures, as well as creatures he made up, like urgals.

Middle-earth is J.R.R Tolkien's amazing fantasy world, while the world in which The Enchanted Forest Chronicles take place is never named.

To learn more about types of fantasy, read Erin's post about fantasy here.

What books have you read that are high fantasy?

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-There-Back-Again/dp/061815082X

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 4 (Character Constructing)

Good Day, Friends!

Today, to continue with our Build-A- Bear World series, we are going to create specific characters. To start, think about last week's Creative Complex. Use these two Creative Complexes to help you: Character Constructing: Evil Villain and Character Constructing: Minor Character.

If you missed the first three installments of this series, here they are:
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 1
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 2
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 3

Next, pick one main character. Keep in consideration:

• Gender
• Race (elf, etc.)
• Upbringing
• Class

After this, choose a background for your main character. Remember, we are constructing a snow globe world, so you only need to create a basic background.

Even a Pegasus can be a character.

Things to think about:

• Age
• Where they live
• Past experiences that influence their beliefs and actions (ex. in the new Cinderella movie, right before Cinderella's mother died, she told Cinderella: "Have courage, and be kind." This influenced Cinderella's decisions for the rest of her life.)
• Personality (you can look up lists of personality traits online.)

Then, do this for a few of your other characters.

You are almost done with your snow globe world!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://pixabay.com/en/pegasus-composite-horse-animal-1253359/

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 3

Hello, Builders! Are you ready to continue making our snow globe?

If you missed the first two installments of this series, here they are:
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 1
Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 2

Today, we are focusing on characters. Start with deciding if there are more than one race of intelligent beings.

Examples:

• Elves
• Dwarves
• Humans 
• Make up your own!

Also, decide if there are intelligent creatures that are not human based. For example, are dragons one of your races?

Next, pick one to five major characters, and one to five minor characters. A major character is a character that is very important in a story, but is not the main character (ex. a friend of the main character), and a minor character does not play an important role in the story (ex. the milk man, who delivers milk every morning, says hi, and that's about it). If you are confused, ask questions in the comments.

Then, one character at a time, decide if they are:

• Static
• Their character (beliefs) stays the same no matter what experiences they undergo

• Dynamic
• Their character (beliefs) change depending on the experiences they undergo

 and

•  Flat
• Usually minor characters, you know very little about them; and they have a very basic personality

• Round
• Usually major characters, you know a fair bit about them and they have a complex personality

Leave comments below!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://pixabay.com/en/fantasy-fairytale-elve-man-owl-1481591/ 

https://pixabay.com/en/beast-dragon-flying-monster-1296506/

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 2

Hello, Friends!

Today, we are continuing with our Build-A- Bear World series! If you missed the first installment, read it here.

Who likes government and politics?

Continuing with our high fantasy theme, you will need a government system for your mini world, to hold up to scrutiny. Think of it like this: we're making a snow globe world. It needs the basics, but no more than the basics. Government is essential to any world you are creating.

There are a few basic types of government:

1) Democracy

Basically rule by the people, for the people. The people vote directly on pretty much everything.

2) Republic

Kind of like a democracy, but instead the people elect representatives to vote on laws for them. This is like the US's government.

3) Monarchy

Basically rule by a monarch (king, queen, emperor, etc.)

4) Aristocracy

Rule by the wealthy people (aristocrats). The middle and lower classes have no power.

5) Dictatorship

Rule by one person. Dictators are usually bad leaders, such as Hitler.

6) Communist

A communist government is where everything in the country is owned by the government and the government distributes everything according to people's needs (supposedly). People do not get paid for their jobs; they  get the supplies they need to live (ex. food) instead. Communist governments usually do not work this way. Instead, they become corrupt.

Pick a government. Then, decide if it:

• Functions correctly 
• Is corrupt
• Is not corrupt, but has minor problems 

If you picked one of the last two options, decide what the corruption looks like or what problems the government has.

We are one step closer to making our very own snow globe! If you would like, tell us what government your world has in the comments below.

Spruce Nogard

Source: http://depts.alverno.edu/dgp/GEC/Types%20of%20Government.html

Attributions:
https://pixabay.com/en/crowd-people-democracy-community-296520/
https://pixabay.com/en/crown-king-emperor-royal-royalty-42251/

Creative Complex: Build-A-World Part 1

Greetings, Neighbors and Friends!

How lovely to be back! (I was just on a trip, so all the posts had been prescheduled by a ways.)

Today, we are having the first part of the Build-A- Bear World series!

We are going to start very, very, basic, so as to not overwhelm you.

First, pick a general setting. Today's setting theme is High Fantasy.

Things to consider:

• What time of year is it?
• What are the seasons? Are there seasons?
• What types of environments are there? (Ex: city, farm, etc.)

 
There are many other things to consider in the setting, down to the quality of the air, but this is meant to be a fun little activity, not a complex world building guide. (After all, there are whole classes on world building.)

If you like this Creative Complex, answer the questions above in the comments below.

Relax and enjoy yourselves!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://pixabay.com/en/treehouse-forest-composing-fantasy-1308108/