Lion of the North is about a 16 year old Scottish boy who volunteers to fight in the 30 years war (which lasted from 1618 – 1648). He was raised by his uncle and when a few of his uncles old friends show up asking for men to fight with them in the war he volunteers and moves up in the ranks pretty fast.

Malcom is a nice kind hearted boy and was at first scared to hurt anyone in the war but quickly learns he has to step up and fight especially when soldiers are attacking his village. Things move pretty fast in this book but that is kinda common in Henty’s books. I enjoyed reading this book although his books can be very similar because the main character is always a male and always falls in love during his main adventure in the story. This doesn’t mean Malcom is a bad character I did enjoy how he starts off shy and gains his confidence but I did recognize how similar the story lines are.

Malcom was very nervous when he first joined the army and was intimidated by the way the higher ranked soldiers so often times he would talk and act like a veteran to help him fit in with everyone. This did help him move up in the ranks faster which helped in the long run because the other soldiers respected him more. Malcom did deserve to move up in the ranks fast because of how smart he was and was a quick thinker. He started in the army at the age of 16 and had a lot of mercy for everyone but learns he has to fight back early in the book when him and his soldiers are captured and killed by a group of Catholic soldiers. He took revenge by killing around 30 of them.

Malcoms personality can be hard for some people to like just because some times he can be painfully nice and comes up with some interesting ideas. I think why he was always trying to be nice and act like a veteran was because he felt a tiny bit pressured to join the war just because everyone else was joining including his uncle. There are a few things about this book that I particularly didn’t like but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend it to a kid or adult.

Nicholas Copernicus was an amazing man who changed the world forever. He was born in 1473 in Poland. Copernicus was the son of a Merchant but was raised by his uncle and got a good education. He was always learning and studying and came up with a new theory about the solar system. The world already knew about Ptolemy’s theory about how the planets and the sun revolved around the earth, but Copernicus had his theory on how the planets revolved around the sun. Ptolemy’s theory was believed for 1000s of years until the renaissance where a ton of theories were developed. Copernicus was the only one that who had his idea looked into. He ended up telling his friends his new theory and showing them his manuscript. He wrote a few books on his theory but ended up with internal bleeding and on the day he died he finally got to see his life long work be published. Copernicus’s theory is the one will still believe today and without him we wouldn’t have the knowledge that we know about the solar system today.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was born in the year 1475 in Italy. Michelangelo started off working as an apprentice in the best workshop in Florence, but left to pursue art. His most famous works were The statue of David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was in fact commissioned to finish the statue of David because it was left uncompleted. Another one of his greatest works is The Tomb of Julius II. Michelangelo was Catholic and dedicated all of his poetry to it. He would also never let money get to him and even told his apprentice that even though he is rich he will always live like a poor man. Right before his death in 1564 he designed St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Michelangelo is one of the greatest artist in history and will never be forgotten.

Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci was born in 1419 in Florence. His first known work was drawn in his 20s and it was a pen drawing of the Arno Valley. Although you probably know him because of his most famous art work the Mona Lisa. No one knows who the woman is in the painting is but there are a ton of guess’s This painting took him his entire life to perfect and is now show cased in a museum in Paris. Da Vinci was also considered a genius and would also work on many math and science projects. He believed that science and art were connected. We don’t know much about his personal life because even though he left 1000s of note book pages he never wrote about his personal life. Da Vinci died of what we think was a stroke in 1519. He is remembered as probably the best artist in the world.

What was it ?

The Black Death was an epidemic plague that first attacked Europe around the year 1348. This was a horrible disease that killed 60% of Europe’s population. It spread very far and fast because doctors didn’t have enough knowledge on germs to try and stop the spread of the Black Death. The sick patients were quarantined but that didn’t always help.

Europes economy suffered greatly because of the black death. Since most people including farmers were either sick or dying no one was harvesting the crops which caused famine in Europe. Symptoms of the black death were chills, swelling in your genitals or armpits, vomiting, aches, and many more. Since this was such a deadly virus and caused many deaths, to try and stop the spread they would cremate the bodies turning them into ash which is where the popular fraise ”ashes ashes we all fall down” that came from the song ring around the rosy which started because of the plague. The black death was mostly over by 1350 but did reappear in the 1800s although it was not as deadly.

This week I was taught about the true dangers of sugar and I thought I would share what I know because of how bad sugar can be. It’s very easy to consume to much sugar since its in almost all processed foods which is a big part of an average Americans diet. Sugar is very hard to stay away from because of how many foods its in such as soda, cake, flavored yogurt, candy, juice, and so many other foods. We simply consume way too much sugar which can cause a lot of health problems including heart disease. An average man will consume 24 teaspoons of sugar which equals to 384 calories just from sugar. This doesn’t mean you have to stop eating sugar all together but it does mean you should probably cut back. Since sugar isn’t required in our diet its hard to say but about 6 teaspoons is a more reasonable amount of sugar. To help with not consuming too much sugar avoid things like.

Subtracting Sugar

Honey

Corn sweetener

Malt Sugar

Corn syrup

Fruit juice concentrates

High-fructose corn syrup

Invert sugar

Molasses

Ways to keep track of the amount of sugar you’re eating are to read the labels and keep track of what you’re eating during the day. Fruit is a great way to help when you’re craving sugar because all the sugar in fruit is natural. It’s not going to kill you if you eat a slice of cake at a birthday party but always make sure your staying healthy.

William Tell is a famous story on Swiss Independence that we still don’t really know if its true but is still an amazing story to tell. William Tell lived in Austria and the town he lived in was governed by Gessler where his hat was hung in the town square and any citizen was supposed to bow if they walked past it. William thought this was dumb and refused to bow to the hat or Gessler himself. William was arrested along with his young son who was walking with him. William was a very skilled bow hunter and when Gessler found out about this he told him to make a special shot to prove it. He agreed to make the shot but when Gessler told him that the shot was to shoot an apple off of his sons head he was shocked and fearful that he was going to hurt his son. William had no choice since Gessler told him if he didn’t make the shot he would kill his son. William made the shot and was successful in doing so but Gessler then noticed that there was two arrows in Williams shirt and he asked why. When he answered he said one of them was to make the shot the other was shoot you if anything did happen to his son. When Gessler heard this William was immediately taken to his punishment which was going to be to get sent to Gessler’s dungeon. William was put on a boat with a few other guards to make sure he didn’t escape. On the way there they got hit by a very bad storm so William took this as an advantage to escape. William told the guards he would lead them to safety if he was untied. He lead them to safety but since he was untied he tricked the guards by using the second arrow to kill one of them and then ran. Once he escaped he plotted his revenge by getting an army to regain their independence which he did in 1499.

I started a book this week and the main character has just been stranded on an island which made me think what if I was stranded on an island. This is a pretty big fear of mine even though it’s not very likely that its going to happen but I know I would be scared but my survival instinct would kick in. Since the main character was ship wrecked he managed to get two things from the ship that won’t really help him get off the island but will help him survive so I’m also going to put myself in that situation.

The materials I hope I would have are a knife and any type of fabric. I would first find food or depending on where I’m shipwrecked some coconuts because not only can I drink the water but I can also eat the coconut meat. It would probably be getting dark soon so I would try and build a shelter using the knife to help get some wood and the fabric to make a tarp like cover. Then I would make a fire because the chances are I’m going to be really cold. The next day I would try to do as much stuff as I could during the day like fishing, advancing my shelter and finding more wood for the fire. I don’t know if I would be this successful at surviving but I sure hope so.

Leah was getting ready for archery practice when she heard her mother calling and telling her to come downstairs. Coming mom, I’m just grabbing my bag. Leah grabbed her bag and came downstairs, where her mother was waiting for her with her water jug. Are you ready to go asked her mother? Sure am mom lets go. They hurried to the carriage and were off to Leah’s archery practice. They arrived after about 20 minutes, where Leah got out of the carriage and waved goodbye to her mother. Leah, then put her things down and grabbed a bow and a few arrows to get ready for archery practice. Hello Sunny wonderful to see you are you ready for practice said Leah. Wonderful to see you too I hope you’ve been well said Sunny. Oh look it’s the boys soccer team I really hope they don’t come over here they are never nice to me said Leah to Sunny. Oh, I am very sorry about that which is mean to you said Sunny. All of them are very unkind, especially Jackson Smith. He is always picking on me ever since we were little I find him very annoying to deal with said Leah. Oh why, hello Leah long time no see said Jackson. Jackson please go away. I don’t feel like talking to you right now said Leah in disgust. Oh, calm down said Jackson I just want to talk to your princess self said Jackson in a mocking tone. Leah, filled with rage, was about to scream back but then heard the loud voice of her instructor. Leah and Sunny walk over while Sunny tells her that there’s no need to be mad at Jackson. He’s just a rude person.

They get ready for archery and as Leah is about to shoot her arrow, she hears a loud annoying voice coming from Jackson. Oh wow, a girl doing archery that is just hilarious said Jackson! Leah, filled with anger and rage, turns her arrow pointing at Jackson and lets it fire. The arrow hit Jackson directly in the chest killing him. Everyone is terrified of what just happened and runs away as far as they could grabbing their things and continuing to run. Leah is in shock as to what she has just done, she grabs her things and runs in to the woods where no one else was even thinking to go. Leah ran deep into the woods when she realizes what she has just done she sits down crying and in fear of what’s going to happen. She tries to calm down and is thinking of what to do next. She looks in her bag to see what she, has which isn’t much, all she had was a jacket, two granola bars, her water jug, and a pen. She then hears police sirens and is even more fearful and her next thought was to go to her mother, so she got up, grab her things and tried to find her way out of the forest.

It toke her a few hours before she made her way out, but when she did, she was on a somewhat familiar road where she put on her jacket so no one could recognize her and made her way to her mother’s house. She arrived at her mother’s house where she saw police surrounding it, so she hid in a bush, watching through a window where she saw her mother being questioned. She didn’t know how long they were going to be there or how long they have already been here so she sat there and waited until they left which took until dark. When she knew they were gone and saw no one else in the house except her mother she walked up to the back door and walked inside very carefully. Her mother screamed when she saw her and started crying asking her what she had just done and why. She didn’t know why she had done it so she had no answer for her mother all she said was I’m sorry I’m sorry over and over again her mother begged her to go to the police station but Leah was scared that she was going to be sentenced to years in prison since her since her 18th birthday had just passed a month ago. When she told this to her mother, she didn’t care and told her to get in the carriage. Leah refused and ran to her room and locked her self inside. She got a bag and started packing clothes, hygiene products and a few other things she might need. Her mother was banging on the door begging her to open it, so all she said was I’m sorry I can’t it’s for the best She kept on asking and told her it’s gonna be OK but Leah was too scared. Leah got out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a note to her mother she put it on the desk then unlocked the door and said I love you as she jumped out her window and started running. Her mother opened the door after realizing it was unlocked and saw Leah running outside. She broke down in tears and didn’t know what to do. After a few minutes she looked up at the desk and saw the note.

Dear Mother,

I am deeply sorry for what I have done but I am too scared of going to prison and for that reason I’m going to run away I don’t know where exactly I’m gonna go but wherever I go I will never ever forget about how much I love you and how much you love me. If you do tell the police where I am going, I won’t be mad. I know how much you love me and you’re only trying to help me. I don’t know if I’ll ever return, but if I do, you’ll be the first person to know. I love you so very much and wish you the best. Love, Leah.

Leah put on a jacket and glasses as well as keeping her head down so no one will recognize her. She went to a train station where she was planning on traveling somewhere far away. She got on the train and was so focused on thinking how upset her mother would be, but then snapped back into reality when she heard the train conductor say that the train leaving England what is now departing.

When you read the title of this post you may think of the fun game that you probably have played with your family or friends but Marco Polo was also a famous traveler. Before Marco was born his uncle and father traded with the city of Surai and do to the wars they needed to take a different route home where they were captured for 3 years before Kublai Khans men rescued them. When they were rescued his soldiers they ended up convincing them to visit china before they left because Kublai Khan had always wanted to meet Latin Europeans. He was very nice to his guest so Marcos father and uncle had a wonderful time in China but when they did leave Kublai Khan gave them a letter to give to their Pope asking for holy oil and 100 monks. Marco was born in 1254 living with an aunt and uncle before his dad came back from China. About age 15 Marco met his father for the first time. It took 2 years to gather everything Kublai Khan asked for but when they got everything together they set off to China taking Marco with them. During the trip Marco saw so many interesting things along the way that he wrote down in his journal which sparked an interest in traveling. When they arrived they were treated like royalty, especially Marco because Kublai Khan really did like him and thought of him and his family as his own family. Marco later grew up to travel all over China and other places.