The New Spy Kids

Authors note: I wrote this essay on I.Q. because it is a great action book. Along with the action there’s some mystery, surprising scenes, and a little secrecy to top it off.

What’s one terrorist attack that you remember? Most people would say that it was 9/11. In Roland Smith’s book I.Q. it seems like there are a lot more attempts not mentioned by the U.S. Angela’s mom was killed in a failed attempt to destroy the Independence Hall. The government covered it up, saying it was a gas explosion. During this book random things will occur and they surprise you. This book surprises anyone who reads it.

One thing people like in books is that they can really surprise you, which keeps them hooked throughout book. Within I.Q. there are some small surprise and some very big surprises. The small surprises are the little things that you don’t necessarily look forward to, but they keep you reading, like what the rebellious kids eat when their parents aren’t around. The big surprises are the ones that you look forward to and these may really put the book together at the moment or later in the book. These are the surprises people want, like how some of the characters in the book are not who you think they are.

Along with the action in this book it also delivers a little secrecy. The kids, Angela and Quest, keep small and big things from their parents. It’s not only Angela and Quest that keep secrets, it so happens that their driver, Boone, also keeps some pretty big secrets from everybody. Later on Angela and Q join in and they don’t tell their parents, because if they did they would cancel the tour. The secrets are pretty big and it’s a little unrealistic that the parents don’t find out.

There’s one thing that I didn’t like in the book which is when Angela, Quest, Boone, and all the other people they are with are at the warehouse, there was a bad guy right across the road. The warehouse is where they have their motor home.  The bad part was that they knew the bad guy was there and did nothing about it. They had a bad guy spying on them and they did nothing. What if she jumped out and started shooting everyone? I really disagreed with that part.

Not everyone is who they say they are. Sometimes when you find out what a certain person is really like under their walls of lies it may surprise you. You might have a great friend that you tell everything to and trust them with all your secrets and then he goes and tells everyone all your embarrassing secrets. The truth about some people can be very surprising. It may be how they act around other people or maybe when they talk about you behind your back. This book has a couple of those surprises and it definitely will keep you reading.

Deep In Deep Zone

Authors note: I wrote this essay on Deep Zone by Tim Green to prove to people why Tim Green is such a great sports writer.

What is the most surprising book you have ever read? Tim Green's book, Deep Zone., there are many surprises that keep your nose in the book. Tim Green, a retired NFL player, really creates exciting, suspenseful, and action packed sports novels. The author keeps the reader craving for more, never knowing what will happen next by creating unexpected surprises within this book.

If you’re a fan of Tim Green then you’ve read his two books Football Genius and Football Hero. In this book the two famous characters, Ty Lewis from Football Hero and Troy White from Football Genius, meet each other in this stunning novel. This is such a great idea, because many people have been awaiting sequels to both books. Many people love the fact that Tim Green is a great writer on and off the field. There’s almost a whole different story off the field or off the court and with those stories you will always be wanting more.

Tim Green can really write stunning books. Most sports book writers can’t write a very good action novel. In Deep Zone Ty is chased by gangsters who are hunting him down after his dad gave them up to the police. The other main character Troy is in search for his dad, and they both get kidnapped by the gang and Troy’s dad. A good handful of people probably pick up one of Tim Green’s books because of the cover. The cover of Tim Green’s books have sports freeze frames on it. This gets peoples attention if they like sports. Tim Green can really right a good sport and action book. It seems there’s almost three stories in this book.

The first story would obviously be the football games. The second story in the book would have to be Ty’s life outside of football, getting chased, protected by the FBI, and trying to contact his cousin Charlotte. The third one Is Troy looking for and thinking he sees his dad. You can never what’s going to happen next. A lot of people will be taken by surprise when they find out Mr. White actually is working with the gang that’s trying to get Ty. If you read a Tim Green book the saying “Never judge a book by it’s cover.”(Edwin Rolfe and Lester Fuller) really works, because you might think it’s a regular football story but it’s not. It has action in it too.

There is only one way that this book could’ve been better. Even though the idea of bringing these two great books together, Tim Green still only had Ty’s point of view. For the entire book everything was told through Ty’s eyes. There’s a book called Project 17 , by Laurie Faria Stolarz, where she took chapters and switched the point of views of the characters. There were about seven point of views in Project 17. This book could’ve been a little better if it had Troy’s point of view to know what he thought about things or just what he was doing. Even with that little flaw readers still recommend this book to their peers even if they don’t understand football all too much.

Even if you don’t know football that well you will probably be able to understand it a lot more in this book. Tim Green is good at making readers really understand what’s going on because he is a retired NFL defensive end drafted first round in 1986 by Atlanta Falcons, playing for seven years in the NFL, from 1986 to 1993. Since he had a lot of football experience he can really help the reader understand what is going on. The people that got this book because they heard about the good stories off the field can now know what is happening on the field.

Creating unexpected surprises in a book keeps the reader hooked throughout the novel because they never know what's going to happen next. Tim Green did a great job of creating suspense, not only on the field, but also off the field.

“A good reputation is easier kept than regained” ,Sam Ramlow

    Authors note: I made this quote when I was looking for other quotes and I found one similar to mine and came up with this one.

    This quote means that you shouldn't act stupid or be bad. If you don’t care about what you do and if it’s bad or if you do a lot of bad things on purpose you build a bad reputation. With a bad reputation your friends might turn their backs on you and people will dislike you. You’ll be standing there wondering, “Where the heck did my friends go and why have they stopped talking to me?” I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. It would take a long time to regain a good reputation but that might not even happen. Then some things might also go onto your permanent record. Then colleges see that so keep a good reputation, don’t ruin your reputation.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is awesome with all those crazy tricks the pros do. It looks really risky though, any second they could miss the board and easy get really hurt. In the X games there’s this huge drop and then a really big jump. It looks dangerous and fun at the same time! One really cool thing about skateboarding is that you can make up your own tricks. There’s so many tricks which makes it really hard to make new ones up. I've always wanted to learn and be good at skateboarding because it;s really fun. I guess I'll just stick to my bike for now.

The Nail Biter

    As my team and I were stretching out of the football field my pre-game jitters were setting in. We were facing the undefeated team Franklin. For two years the have been undefeated except for their one tie, against us. I watched as the timer started counting down from one minute. Our team ran over to the field goal post and lined up with our numbers going least to greatest.” 26 Sam Ramlow,” I ran out onto the field hearing nothing but my teammates screaming. I ran by my teammates and slapped their hands. I couldn’t hear anything with everyone screaming so load. We went to the middle of the field. Brandon, Mike, and I were all captains. We won the toss and chose to receive. As we walked back to the sideline I looked up into the stands to see some of my friends in the bleachers.

    Then I was on the field pumped up and ready to play. Once they kicked I watched the ball spin over my head and into the hands of Mike. I ran back to him and turned around, we ran together and around the 30 yard line somebody was going to take a shot at tackling Mike but I wasn’t going to let them. I quickly put that guy on his butt and watched as Mike was finally pulled down at around the 45 yard line. Now it’s time to play offense.

    “Huddle up! 921 dive on two, ready BREAK!” I walked up to my spot and waited for the words.” Red set GO GO!” I was off as fast as I could go, I took the hand off and ran towards the one hole which is right in between the left guard and the center. “Crack!” My shoulder pads slammed into a guy and he was now on his back. I looked up cut left and was caught after a 15 yard gain. I came back into the huddle and heard a play called for Mike and I. After the hike I took off to the left on the outside and slammed into a guy. Mike got the pitch and ran to the left of my block.

    After 25 yards they gang tackled him and after just two plays we were on the five yard line. My turn, I went to the line and waited for the hike. Once I got the ball my legs were chopping and I didn’t stop until I was in the end zone. I had to shed at least two people to get into the end zone. “Sam Ramlow fights to get the hard yards for a Pirates TOUCHDOWN!!” When everyone got out and got in we lined up and kicked the PAT.”It’s good!” I jogged to the sideline with all my other teammates. Right away I had to get into a huddle before the kick.

    “Pirates READY!?” “READY!” Aiden kicked the ball perfectly so it was bouncing out of control. They grabbed the ball and looked up only to be completely demolished by Piercen. “Injury timeout” We waited a couple minutes for the injured player to be carried of the field. Then I walked off the field because I wasn’t on defense this half. I watched as Franklin drove up the field for a touchdown. It was now 8-8.  Now we were all set to receive the kick, and so they kicked it. From the looks of it, it was coming towards me.

    I pulled the ball in and took off looking for a seam. I cut to the outside, sidestepped, and stiff armed a guy. I got to about their 40 and walked to the huddle with pride. Jacob called a screen pass to me on the right side. “ Red set go!” I ran to the sideline not looking back. After about 10 yards I turned, caught the ball, and ran up field with my legs going as fast as I could. One of the fast linebackers got in front of me so I lowered my shoulder. I was tackled put punished him for it.

Then I got to sit out for I bit and have Brandon play for the rest of the half. I was taking swigs of Gatorade while I watched Brandon and Mike run all over the place. Mike got the ball and just took off. “GO! GO!” Mike was running down the sideline in a footrace with a guy from Franklin, but he wasn’t fast enough. “Mike Walters runs 70 yards for a Pewaukee TOUCHDOWN!” After that Franklin scored and then kicked a 25 yard field goal. It was 19-16 Franklin at half.

“Now let’s go out there and win this thing!” Our Coach wrapped up his little speech and we all ran over to our bench and got ready to kick to Franklin. “Pirates Ready!? READY!” The kick was a high end over end kick. I raced down to find whoever had caught the ball. The person who did seemed to be running around everyone. When he was in the middle of a juke I decided to crush him. I took one really hard step forward and launched myself at him. I slammed my should into his stomach. When we both hit the ground I heard screams of pain.

Then I stood up and looked down at my victim who seemed to have hurt his ribs. “opps,” I said and walked away. “3 5 max and rover attack. READY BREAK!” I was really anxious for this play because Brandon and I were on a blitz. “Hut Hut HIKE!” The quarterback dropped back to pass and Brandon and I sprinted after him. Right as Brandon nailed the quarterback he pitched it to his tailback. I dragged him down after about a 1 yard gain. After that play they threw two incomplete passes, they punted the ball and Brandon was on offense.

Late in the forth quarter We were still down by three. Then Brandon broke threw the line and ran for a 20 yard touchdown. Now it was 24-19 Pirates. We were about to win we just needed to stop them on defense. There was two minutes left in the game. We kicked it to them for a touch back, so they have to go 80 yards in two minutes. It was the game deciding play, third down with 5 yards to go. It was a toss to the right side and Brandon was running straight at him. Brandon rolled his ankle and went down hard grasping his right leg.

The Franklin running back was finally brought down after about 30 yards. They were at the 50 yard line. “Hut Hut HIKE!” The quarterback took the snap and dropped back. Two seconds later he launched a bomb down field. The ball was perfectly thrown and it dropped right into the hands of a Franklin receiver. Touchdown Franklin. We all thought it was over until piercen blocked the field goal and that gave us hope. It was now 25-24 Franklin. The only two fullbacks on our team were Brandon and I, Charles wasn’t hear today, so after the kick I would have to go out. The kick was a touch back.

“828 pitch on two. Ready. Break!” Everyone walked up to the line and got set ready for the play to be called. “Read Set GO GO!” I took off looking for the pitch, once I felt the leather against my arms I looked ahead to see which one of my blockers I was going to run off of. Ryan looked like he was doing a great job at blocking his guy. I ran to his left made a cut and sidestepped a guy. I had one more person to beat and he was really coming at me fast.

Then I noticed he was standing straight up so I lowered my shoulder and nailed him. He rolled over my back as I straighted my back out. I was off to the races. Then I noticed there was someone really close behind me so I cut to the side, bad choice. It slowed me down so then I was in a foot race with one guy and another now had a perfect pursuit angle. I had to dig deep into myself to find that extra charge. I had found the fire in my belly and I got just enough speed to pull myself away from the defender.

“ GO GO GO!” I was listening to my teammates scream to me and that gave me the will to get running. I had about 30 more yards to go and the other defender looked like he might get me. I kept running as hard as I could. The defender was closing in and by the time I was at the two he was right in front of me. I leaped into the air, my arms outstretched with the ball and landed on my back in the end zone. When I jumped I had hit him and it sent me flying out of control. I got up slowly and looked at the scabbard. 0:00, Pirates 30 Franklin 24.

After the PAT my teammates ran onto the field and mobbed me. We shook hands with Franklin and walked away with our heads high. This undefeated team wasn’t undefeated anymore.

Nightmare On The Moon

Authors Note:  I wrote this little preview of Apollo 18 to give readers a little part of the movie into their mind which will make them want to watch the movie.

Apollo 18 is my favorite movie, it is a horror movie.  I didn’t think it was that scary but the people i went with thought it was pretty scary.  It’s about a secrete launching to the moon that the public is not allowed to know of.  It isn’t present time but it is not too far back in the past.  The three astronauts go up into space and when they can two of them go down onto the moon.  While they are there mysterious things happen.  Over night the U.S. flag that they put up is torn apart and their moon rover gets tipped.

Later while they are walking exploring they find a huge crater, and they walk over by it.  One of them gets dragged down into the crater, then the other guy runs down and uses his flashlight but this is a flashlight that has to power up and flashes.  While he is walking around flashing his light he flashes it on a Russian cosmonaut that is dead and has a cracked helmet.  He gets scared but still finds his friend in the crater.  This movie keeps you on the edge of your set waiting for something scary or exciting to happen.  This is a great movie that is a must see if you like horror. 

The Basketballs Life

Authors Note: I wrote this to try and to convince people that if they see a lonely basketball on the shelf to buy it.

Here I am alone, I was once with all my friends talking all day.  Life used to be fun, I had even scored a sweet 28.5 girl ball.  Me and my 29.5 boy balls would always hang, but then Christmas and they were all taken but not me. So now I'm sitting here alone on a rack.  Yes! Finally here someone comes. before I knew it I was out the door heading to my persons house.

“Help! I’m afraid of the dark!” It’s been like this for days, ever since I was wrapped in wrapping paper. I can’t wait until I am given to my new owner, I’m sure he or she will use me a lot. Wait, I can feel the floor coming up from under me.

Rip! “Finally the light! It’s not dark anymore!” It’s been five days since I was open and now I am about to get used. As I flew threw the air I screamed with joy. Every time he made a swish it made this amazing sound. I can’t wait until he plays with me again.