The City of Thieves: Characterization 2

    Lev, one of the main protagonists in The City of Thieves, is one of the more timid and by far one of the most changing characters. He learns about many things from Kolya such as relationships and fighting skills, and he also serves as a great helper for Kolya. When times are tough, it always seems like Lev doesn't know what to do, however he always manages to help Kolya out wherever it is needed. Lev has changed a lot from the beginning of the text, to the end. In the beginning, he seems to be a very helpless character and he doesn't know much about the world and how to survive. He is also very worryful and can't seem to be less careful. An example is in the beginning of the book when him and Kolya encounter the monster cannibal. Lev just stands there and doesn't doing anything when the cannibal was trying to kill Kolya because he was too scared that if something went wrong, Kolya would blame it on him In the end of the book however, Lev is a hero and even Kolya admits to it. Lev advances the theme and development of the plot because he shows how characters can drastically change throughout a text.

The City of Thieves: Book Recommendation

      If you have read The City of Thieves and you wanted to read another book similar to it, you should try Night, a novel by Elie Wissel. The authors used the same strategies in their books, which was to incorporate real life events from World War II. However, not everything about the books was similar. In Night, the author tells a true story about his life and the hardships he had to go through to keep his father alive. These books are similar because they are of the same genre - realistic fiction, and they also both share plenty of action and tragedies for the main, developed characters. Both of the books are great and they're a good choice for people who want to read about the ways people lived and survived throughout the harsh times of World War II.

The City of Thieves: Reading Skills

    City of Thieves is a great book that you could make a lot of connections with, especially with World War II. A text to world connection that I could make with this book was how David Benioff, the author, incorporated all the general names, weapons, different types of people, and city names into his book. I thought it was interesting how he put it history into a novel like this. A text to text connection that could be made from this book was to another novel called Night. These books are similar because they both are about the lives of Jewish people that are on a journey risking their lives. City of Thieves is set during the time of World War II and the two main protagonists, Lev and Kolya, had to find a dozen eggs for their command general, otherwise they would be killed. Similarly, Elie Wissel, the main protagonist of Night, has to find help his father through illnesses  otherwise his father wouldn't be able to protect Elie and they would both be dead. Both of their paths were deadly and both groups came face to face with death multiple times. A text to self connection that I could make to City of Thieves, was that in the book, you have to stay with your friends or family at all times in order to stay alive. You all rely on each other like it's life or death. For myself, this instance can occur when we're on vacation somewhere and I don't know where to go, however it's not as extreme to be alone on vacation as it would have been in City of Thieves. A prediction that could be made from this book is that Lev and Kolya grew a stronger and stronger bond throughout the book as they got to know each other better and better. I can predict this because in the beginning of the book, they didn't like each other much and their thoughts were the exact opposite of one anothers, but by the end of the book they started realizing how they made it through everything and they recognized each other as heroes.

The City of Thieves: Theme and Summary

    One of the main themes of City of Thieves is patriotism, or pride for your country. Patriotism was big in City of Thieves because the feeling of being loyal to your country was one of the only things you had. One of the main protagonists, Lev, started off not liking the fact that he was Russian. He thought that it was bad to be Russian and he didn't like his nose because it was a "Russian nose". Later on in the book, however, he starts to enjoy himself for who he is and you can even see from this quote that he feels a surge of pure love for Russia: "I have never been much of a patriot. My father would not have allowed such a thing while he lived, and his death insured that his wish was carried out. Piter commanded far more affection and loyalty from me than the nation as a whole. But that night, running across the unplowed fields of winter wheat, with the Fascist invaders behind us and the dark Russian woods before us, I felt a surge of pure love for my country." City of Thieves is set in 1941 at a city called Leningrad. The city is surrounded by the German army and all the residents are starving to the point of death. In the beginning of the novel, Lev and Kolya find it extremely difficult to find food. They had even come across a cannibal relying on humans for food. This is how desperate the residents of Leningrad had become.

The City of Thieves: Characterization

            Kolya, one of the main protagonists in City of Thieves, is one of the more courageous and by far one of the most reckless characters. He teaches Lev about many things such as relationships and fighting skills, and he also serves as a great leader for both of them. When times are tough, it always seems like Kolya knows what to do, and how to make sure that him and Lev survive through their obstacles occuring from starvation and hunger. Kolya has changed a lot from the beginning of the text, to the end. In the beginning, he cares more about himself than anybody else and he doesn't find himself in a position to worry about the dangers that could come to him and Lev. An example is in the beginning of the book when him and Lev encounter the monster cannibal. He starts to yell at Lev for just standing there and not doing anything when the cannibal was trying to kill Kolya. In the end of the book however, Kolya forgives Lev and says that he was a hero no matter what Lev had actually done. Here's a quote on how Kolya was described by Lev in the beginning of the book: “Kolya was a braggart, a know-it-all, a Jew-baiting Cossack, but his confidence was so pure and complete it no longer seemed like arrogance, just the mark of a man who had accepted his own heroic destiny” (Benioff, 98). As we could see, Kolya used to be very arrogant and cocky, but he has changed into a hero that could be very much depended on.

The Lightning Thief: Theme and Summary 2

    One of the themes of The Lightning Thief is that maintaining healthy relationships between family and friends, can be destructive, yet inventive. This theme occurs many times within The Lightning Thief in many scenarios, an example of when a family is destructive is when one of the campers, Luke, feels unclaimed by his father, Hermes. This causes Luke to attempt to cause chaos between the Gods. An example of families being inventive is when Percy fights off the minotaur when they are entering Camp-Half Blood. What had happened was that Percy's mom was being attacked by a minotaur and so Percy fought the minotaur to help save his mom. However, his mom didn't make it, so Percy decides to take matters into his own hands and travel all across the country with Grover and Annabeth to help bring his mother from the dead.

The Lightning Thief: Book Recommendations 2

      If you have read The Lightning Thief and you wanted to read another book similar to it, you should try The Red Pyramid, another book by Rick Riordan. Rick used the same strategy that he used on The Lightning Thief, which was to incorporate mythology involving Gods into the book. However, he didn't use Greek Gods in The Red Pyramid, instead, he talked about Egyptian Gods. These books are similar because they are of the same genre - fantasy fiction, and they also both share plenty of action for the main, developed characters. Both of the books are great and they're a good choice for people who want to learn about Egyptian mythology, or Greek mythology, and want to read an educational, yet entertaining book.

The Lightning Thief: Reading Skills 2

    The Lightning Thief is a great book that you could make a lot of connections with, especially with Greek mythology. A text to world connection that I could make with this book was how Rick Riordan, the author, brought up all the Greek Gods and parts of their ancestry. I thought it was interesting how he incorporated ancient history into a novel like this (the picture below is the Parthenon, a temple built by the Greeks) . A text to text connection that could be made from this book was to another novel called The City of Thieves. These books are similar because they both are about a group of kids that are on a journey risking their lives. The City of Thieves is set during the time of World War II and the two main protagonists, Lev and Kolya, had to find a dozen eggs for their command general, otherwise they would be killed. Similarly, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, the main protagonists of The Lightning Thief, have to find a lightning sword otherwise they would be killed. Both of their paths were deadly and both groups of kids came face to face with death multiple times. A text to self connection that I could make to The Lightning Thief, was that Percy and his group had to travel all over the country. My family and I also love to travel and have been to some of the places that Percy had been too, such as New York City and Las Vegas.

The Lightning Thief: Reading Skills

          Overall, I would rate this book an excellent rating of 10/10.  As I was reading The Lightning Thief, in the beginning of the book, Percy talks about how he always gets kicked out of many schools because he has the worst of luck. I could relate to this because when I went to elementary school, I would also have bad luck with my teachers. I remember in second grade when I dropped my pencil, but my blind teacher thought I had taken my partners pencil, and thrown it on the floor. Like what?! Another conection I made from The Lightning Thief was to the Harry Potter series. I could connect these books together because they both had the same types of conflict, man vs society (Harry Potter also had a bit of man vs man). In The Lightning Thief, the conflict was man vs society because he was faced with the problems of having to find a lightning scythe within a certain amount of time. He faces many problems along the way creating tension between himself and the environment around him. Harry Potter was a man vs society conflict because Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, have to get through their dangerous school without dying, as well as having to beat Lord Voldemort. This is actually pretty hard to do considering they're being attacked by death eaters, trolls, and even their classmates when they duel. A text to world connection from The Lightning Thief was that the Greek Gods that were mentioned in book also show up in Greek and Roman religion. They both believed in the same Gods that were brought up in the book, and they also have the same powers. The book also has mythical creatures like Medusa and minotaurs that were believed to have existed by the Greeks.

The Lightning Thief: Book Recommendations

         The Lightning Thief is one of my favorite books and if you like it, you should try reading the Harry Potter books. They both have two boys and one girl go on a mission to accomplish something. Whether it be finding a stolen lightning scythe, or defeat a dark, evil wizard, both books are great and deal with fantasy and adventure. They are also both fantasy fiction books. Anyway, both this book and Harry Potter are great and filled with figurative language, allusions, sensory details, and a lot of connections you could make to other texts, to yourself, and to the world.

The Lightning Thief: Theme and Summary

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is about a courageous teenager named Percy Jackson. He has been kicked out of many schools simply because he has the worst of luck. Most of the time he was kicked out of a school, it was just really bad luck. When Percy arrives at his new school, Yancy Academy, in New York, he meets a new friend named Grover. Anyway, one day, he's on a school field trip and his whole life twists within minutes. He is called on by one of his grouchy teachers and out of nowhere, she starts flying and ambushing Percy! She was actually a Fury from Hell and had come after Percy to snatch away a sword, which was said to be stolen by Percy. Percy had actually not stolen it and he was rescued using a pen-sword called Riptide, which later became his weapon. Later, Percy goes home and his mom takes him to a place called Camp Half-Blood. This is a camp for special demigods who have one God parent and one normal parent. Afterwards, Percy goes across the country to discover more about his dad, save his mom, find the lightning sword, and to go on an adventure.

            One of the themes of The Lightning Thief  is that you can get betrayed by anybody, even people you trust very well or loved ones. This theme showed up in The Lightning Thief when Percy talks about how his father had abandoned him and his mother. This action by Percy's father had caused Percy's life to be somewhat miserable. Percy had to live with a super  lazy, annoying, commanding, bossy, fat, horrible "dad" named Gabe who was around to "protect" Percy. Percy's father leaving had also made Percy go to Camp Half-Blood. This had prevented Percy from being able to live a normal, everyday life. In the book, Percy had many troubles through school. We could infer that Percy may have had these issues because he had only one parent to help him through his tough times.

 

Summer Reading Novel

My summer reading novel was City of Thieves out of ten, I would rate it 8 or 9. I would give it this rating because it kept me hooked, and it had an unusual plot which the author carried out well. The plot was that two "criminals", Lev and Kolya, either had to face persecution, or go around Russia on a mission to get a dozen eggs for a wedding cake. Throughout their journey, Lev and Kolya come across many challenges and obsticles such as cannibals and German soldiers. Also, they face hunger and the cold of a Russian winter. One of the main themes of City of Thieves is patriotism. Lev is a Russian, but he doesn't like to let people know of it. He keeps it secret to himself, but over the course of the novel, he changes the way he feels about his country and he feels a different kind of passion for Russia.