Interesting Factoid the Second

So today's installment of "Interesting Factoid" is all about the mysteries
of your FINGERS.

Did you know that there are no muscles in your fingers? There are muscles
in your hand and wrist and forearm. These are connected to tendons that go
through your fingers. For motor movements in your fingers--or what I like
to call 'light lifting', the smaller muscles in your hand are responsible
for those movements. Try it now. Wiggle your fingers, but look at your
hand or palm.
For bigger movement--'heavy lifting'--the stronger muscles in your forearm
are used for these. Try this too. Grab onto a staircase railing and hold
it tight. Look at the inner part of your forearm(same side as your palm)
and also look at the sides. You'll be able to see the muscles working, but
there are no muscles in your fingers.

This concept also applies to your toes.

This has been the second installment of "Interesting Factoid."
We hope you learned something new.

Book Review!

Okay, so here is the first book review on our blog. The book is called The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker. It's about this girl, Kate Lowry, who gets an email one day from her best friend... who died a year ago. Kate goes to a girl-boy private school called Pemberly-Brown Academy, where there is the typical drama that goes on in every high school. But there is also a ton of secrets hidden beneath the walls, and what Kate is sure is not just an accidental death. She is searching, along with her geeky neighbor, Seth, and an insanely cute boy, Liam, and trying to prove that there is more to Grace's death. She finds out, though, that some serious effort has been made to cover the tracks...

I don't want to give out anymore info about the actual plot and everything, so I will now just write my review, no summary. To start off with, this is a more modern mystery novel, kind of like Nancy Drew, but with, well, modern things, like cell phones and email and stuff. It's more of a teen/young adult book (it has a lot of... um... humorous language which really just makes it all the better) and the narrator, Kate, is really funny. I love how she is not a "normal" teenager, what with her pink hair and crazy ideas, and how she makes the reader laugh out loud on pretty much every page. It also has some romance in it, but not filled with it. Kate's sarcastic personality makes her hard to get and all the more awesome. There is suspense at the end of every chapter and if this were to be read aloud, and with long times between the chapters, people would die because it's impossible to not want to know what's going to happen next. Like literally, I was moaning out loud towards the end (ok, to be all English-y, at the climax) and I couldn't read fast enough. I'm mad right now because there isn't another book that's supposed to come after it, unless they are writing one right now, which I don't think they are. And it was an ending that made you want more, like a mini cliffhanger that you are supposed to finish with your imagination. But besides that, I really loved it and it was fun trying to make my own guesses before Kate figured things out. So yeah, five star book that you must read! You will catch yourself lying on the couch for hours just to finish it!

--ViolinRockstar--

Interesting Factoid the First

Today's installment of Interesting Factoid is--
FEMALE PIRATE LIFE!
Particularly the followings of Anne Bonny.

Anne Bonny wanted to be a pirate. However back then, it was considered
vulgar and horrible for a female to do anything but cook, knit in the
corner, and basically become part of the wall. Anne knew this, so she
disguised herself as a boy and boarded Calico Jack Rackham's ship. No one
of the crew knew she was a girl EXCEPT Jack Rackham. They had a baby
together, which they dropped off for a nanny to look after in Cuba. A new
pirate joined them and HE was a female too--Mary Reid. A short time after,
Calico Jack's ship was caught by the British Navy--the whole crew was put
on trial. All of them were found guilty and were sentenced to hang. But
Anne Bonny and Mary Reid wormed their way out of this by "pleading their
bellies"--they both said they were pregnant. Since it was illegal to
execute a pregnant woman(for religious purposes I think), both women just
got jail time for life. This prison was in Spanish Town (the old capital
of Jamaica). Mary Reid died in prison only a few months later, but no one
knows what happened to Anne. Some people think that since her father was a
big thing in South Carolina that he managed to spirit her out of prison
and she lived under a different name and worked an ordinary job for the
rest of her life.

I learned this from the 39 clues book 9 and also my Pirateology book.

Ficklemaster's Book List

I completely agree with every book on ViolinRockStar's book list below (that I've read, of course), and I would like to add (sorry if I double up on anything):

Legend by Marie Lu
Maximum Ride (series) by James Patterson
Inkheart (in a series) by Cornelia Funke
The Goose Girl (in a series) by Shannon Hale
The Shadow of the Bear (in a series) by Regina Doman
The Roar (in a series) by Emma Clayton
The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett
Witness by Karen Hesse
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
The Sight (in a series) by David Clement-Davies
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Dragonlance (series) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Things that See (in a series) by Andrew Clements
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Crash by Jerry Spinelli
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
39 Clues (series) by several authors...the first is by Rick Riordan
Chasing Yesterday (trilogy) by Robin Wasserman
Narnia (series) by C.S. Lewis (if you haven't read these, put down the computer...or the iPad...or whatever else you have...and run to the library.  I mean it.)

Perhaps I'll add more later.  If you have any book suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

ViolinRockstar's Book List

Okay, so on our blog we are going to be posting a lot of things, especially about books. Here is a book list of books that I have read and highly recommend to other bookworms.        

The Secret Life of Bees   by Sue Monk Kidd
Graceling (in a series)      by Kristin Cashore
Divergent (in a series)      by Veronica Roth
Fablehaven (in a series)    by Brandon Mull
The Kane Chronicles (series)  by Rick Riordin
The Heroes of Olympus (series)  by Rick Riordin
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (series)  by Rick Riordin (Rick Rioridin is                awesome)
Hunger Games (series)  by Suzanne Collins (duh!)
Just Listen                       by Sarah Dessen
The Truth About Forever  by Sarah Dessen
Lock and Key                 by Sarah Dessen
Uglies                              by Scott Westerfeld
Harry Potter                    by JK Rowling (again, duh!)
The Giver                        by Lois Lowry
Walk Two Moons           by Sharon Creech
Because of Winn-Dixie  by Kate DiCamillo
A Child Called It (in a series) by Dave Pelzer
Gone (in a series)            by Michael Grant
Matched (in a series)       by Allie Condie
Holes                               by Lousi Sachar


Classics That I've Read and Actually Liked:
Little Women  by Louisa May Alcott
Jane Eyre  by Charlotte Bronte
To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee
Where the Red Fern Grows  by Wilson Rawls
The Secret Garden  by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Anne of Green Gables  by L.M. Montgomery
Old Yeller  by Fred Gipson