1969

"A strange case of murder and corruption in the year in which the man reached The Moon." This is how Jerónimo Tristante, the author of 1969, describes his book. After I had read the book, I have checked that he is right. 
Jerónimo has created a story where there are characters that belong in different types of classes, with very different ways of thinking but all are limited by the Regime, because in those moments Spain were in a dictatorship where Franco had all the power. 
Alsina, a police, whose life wasn't important and spent the hours with a bottle of Licor 43, a strange case of a suicide suddenly changed his life.  He started to investigate the case, and a coincidence after another made him to discover things  that could cost his life and his friends' life.
This investigation made Alsina know new people and as himself said it made him "resurrect", because before this he didn't have ilusion to live, and thanks to it he stopped drinking and began to feel new sensations.
This book places us in a era where there were abundant hypocrisy and corruption. And join in only one story two topics that haven't anything in common like are the murders and the arrived of a man in the Moon.
The best is that the author was born in Murcia and in the book are mentioned a lot of places that I know, and it make me introduce in the story easily.  I think to enjoy a book is necessary introduce you in to the story and understand the characters.
For me, It is a entertaining book and I really have enjoyed it. If you want to have a good time, you should read this book. 

  
                                                                              Carmen Vera Torres.

The Shadow of the Wind.

Summer of 1945. At sunrise. Daniel Sempere is 10 years old, he has got a nightmare because he doesn’t remember his mother face. His father decide to take him to a magic place, The Cemetery of the Forgotten Books, a huge library with lots and lots of books that people don't want. No one knows about it. When they arrive Mr. Sempere, his father, tell him to choose a book. Daniel is surprised because he has never seen this amount of books together. He starts to look for a book and when he is going to give up he see a book that caught his eye. It is The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. He doesn’t know that that decision would change his life.

He reads the book and wants to investigate about the author, Julián Carax. Suprisingly, no one knows Julián, it's like he has never born. He discovers that someone set fire to Julián's books, someone called Laín Coubert who is the devil in The Shadow of the Wind.

With the help of his friend Fermín Romero de Torres, he is going to remove the past and find out things that would have been better not to know. 

This book is called the Shadow of the Wind. It was written by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It’s a part of a series of books, The Cemetery of the Forgotten Books, which is composed by four books. The Shadow of the Wind was published on 2001. It’s a mix of history, intrigue, love and suspense. It has won so many prizes. It is set at Barcelona, in the years after the Spanish Revolution.

Well, this book has been so strange for me. When I started it I thought it was going to be the best book I’ve never read because I saw the critics and they said that it was fantastic, that Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote a masterpiece, that it was going to be difficult to create a book like that, etc. But while I was reading the beginning I was bored, the book didn’t make me feel anything. It’s true that once the story advanced I was a little intrigued because it had lots of mysteries. The end surprises me a lot; I was reading it and in my mind I was thinking the possibilities that it could had, so I really enjoyed it.

In general the book is very good; it has got love, intrigue, a little bit of action… I think there are books better than that but it’s a great book and if you want to read something you can try with it, maybe you will like it more than me. 

                                                                                       Laura Vera Costa.

NICK A STORY OF NETWORKS AND LIES

I read this incredible book and I recommended to Chahida and she read and liked. Chahida and I have decided to summarize and we will recommend for you.This book is by Inma Chacon.

The story is about a girl called Dafne, she is 12 years old, she always go with her friends to the “chino” which is the place where the teenagers stay.

One day Dafne go to the chino to buy some candy and she saw a  handsome boy and she fell in love. The boy called Roberto and he has a nickname “El Rata” he always go with twins their nicknames are “El pichichi” y “El Zamora”. In that day Dafne wanted to know the phonenumber and the email of Roberto, she enlisted to her cousin Paula, She ask the ex girlfriend of Roberto and they know it. Roberto liked Dafne but she thinks that he loves her stepsister Cristina. Dafne and Paula plan make a nick in facebook and impersonate Cristina to annoy him, upload photos of her and so on, Dafne is jealousy, and she and her cousin make this plan in the summer holidays while the real cristina is in London. Many things happen in the story but has a happy ending.

Chahida Hadini and Ana Ros Vivancos

Dracula

Dracula is a novel written in 1897 by Bram Stoker who has become his main character in the most famous vampire.

A vampire is a creature that feeds of blood. He have a aspect like a person but slender, pale and longs fangs.

They fear the light of sun, christian crosses and garlic, because the galic is a natural coagulant.  

The tales begins when Jonathan Harker, a english lawyer

have to travel trough the Borgo’s coomb to go to Castle Dracula. The castle is in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. Jonathan wanted to close some sales with the Count. He become the host of Dracula.

The young english discover the his personality : Dracula don’t reflected on the mirrors, he don`t eat with Jonathan,

he do nightlife and is a despicable person who do became Jonathan a prisoner in his castle. But with the aid of Abraham Van Helsing, they may kill the vampire.

Dracula is based in Vlad III/ Vlad Tepes, a wallachian price  who like impale thieves and traitor. One day Vlad do a feast next to a group of impaled this was the reason why Vlad Tepes is considered a vampire.

Álvaro Romero Mtnez

Not without my daughter.

Betty Mahmoody, an American woman, was married with an Iranian doctor, Moody. They had got a four years old daughter called Mahtob. One day a Moody’s cousin arrived at their home to stay there for a month. Mammal, the cousin, proposed them to travel to Iran. At first, Betty didn’t want because she was scared, but finally she accepted. She thought this would protect Mahtob to not return to Iran. Her family and friends warned her because they thought that Moody will kidnap them in Iran, but she didn’t hear, she knew how Moody was and she couldn’t accept this idea, Moody was the perfect husband and father.

When they arrived to the airport all the Moody’s family was there. Betty wasn’t comfortable; the air, the smells, the clothes she had to wear… They had to stay at Ameh Bozorg´s house. Ameh was the Moody’s sister, who brought up him when their parents died. The house was extremely dirty and the smell was horrible. The first days, Moody ignored Betty and Mahtob. Betty was confused, she didn’t know what was happening to Moody, she didn’t recognize him, and she didn’t know where its sweet husband was. Both, mother and daughter were counting the days to return to America. The last day they were excited because they will leave Iran, but when Moody entered in the bedroom their hopes disappeared. Moody told them that they will stay in Iran. Betty didn’t believe it, her suspicions come true. That day started their nightmare. No one supported her, no one understood her. Escape was difficult because in those countries women are treated like animals, but she found people that help her.

Not without my daughter is the biography of Betty Mahmoody, it tells how she got over all the obstacles of the way. Her only incentive was safe Mahtob from her father and his family. The novel is situated in the Iran of the 80’s. It denounces the women’s situation on the Islamic countries and the few resources to denounce something if you don’t have power in the society.

I like so much the book because I knew that those countries were very racists with women but I didn’t know that the situation was so extreme. It makes me reconsider because not only the women that born there are condemned to life in this conditions also women that get married with Islamic men. Maybe the majority of the men are good persons and they wouldn’t do anything that could damage their wives, but some others hust and kidnap their wives.

                                                                                                    Laura Vera Costa.

A little bit of history, a little bit of art and a little bit of culture.

“Maus, a survivor’s tale” is an alternative comic created by Art Spiegelman whose argument is the pursuit of the Nazis to the Jews. The narrator, in that case, the comic book artist, tells us his father real story, Vlader Spiegelman, in a concentration camp in Auschwitz. The comic has two different parts: first, Vlader is telling Art his story, and then, there are flash-blacks to narrate the experience during the war. Some reviews say that it’s a masterpiece because of many reasons: the originality, the use of “flash-back”, the fact that it’s a comic and the fact that it’s a type of fable. Yes, it’s a fable, a fantastic fable! Art Spiegelman has drawn the characters as animals! The Jews are mice, the Nazis are cats, the Poles are pigs, the Frenchmen are frogs and the Americans are dogs. For all these reasons and more, “Maus” is considered one of the best comic of the history; it’s the only comic that has received a Pulitzer Award. A Pulitzer Award isn’t given to anyone, it’s considered as the higher distinction for the works published in the United States. “Maus” also received a grant from the “Guggenheim Foundation” and it caused an exhibition in the “Modern Art Museum” of New York. 

                                           

This masterpiece combined history, drawing, literature and culture, and also a lot of powerful feeling like merit, strength and courage. Art Spiegelman has managed to move a lot of people with that fantastic work. Good job Art, very good job!

MARÍA CABEZAS GONZÁLEZ

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

It was a winter night. Snow was everywhere. I was in a party, with my old friend, Paul. The richest woman in the town had invited us and other many neighbours to have dinner in her mansion.

Her name was Karen. She was an old and friendly lady. She never mentioned the amount of money she had, but everybody knew that she was very rich. Karen lived with her new husband, Brian Green. But there was a strange legend related to Karen.

Twenty-five years ago, she had a beautiful daughter, her name was Miranda. Her hair was blond and brighter than the sun and her eyes were green, like the leaves of the healthiest tree. She was the happiest and prettiest girl in the town. Everyone liked her. But suddenly, two years ago, she completely disappeared. Karen was extremely sad and she panicked several times. So every single person in the town started to look for her for days and for weeks, but they never found her.

The dining room was enormous, just like the table in it. It was extremely long and there was only one chair at each end. Karen sat at one of those ends and I sat at the other one. The table was so long that I could not see her properly. There was a great window behind her. The time passed and a blizzard started to cover the garden with snow.

The time passed and people began to leave. But I did not leave. Paul asked me to wait for him while he was going to the toilet. I waited and waited. The time passed slowly, but it passed. Everybody, including servants, left the mansion. but I did not. I had to wait for Paul. While I was waiting I fell asleep on an armchair.

 More or less ten minutes later Paul woke me up. "I am sorry. I got lost. This mansion is enormous! I could not find the toilet, and then, I could not find the way back!" He said. "There is something more I have to tell you. Doors and windows on the ground floor are blocked. But do not worry, Karen says we can sleep here for this night." And then we went to sleep.

At three o'clock in the morning Paul woke me up and he took me to the Greens' bedroom. "This is a great opportunity for us," he said. "Why?" I asked. I was very confused and a little afraid. There were not any lamps in the corridor and I could hardly see anything. It was also quiet. I could hear my own heartbeat. But he ignored me.

He opened the door very very slowly. Then, he quickly took a knife from his pocket and killed Karen and Brian Green. I was shocked. Meanwhile, in the garden, a hand came out of the snow.

"What have you done!?" I said - another hand came out of the snow. "Are you serious?" He said - a very pale face came out - "Now,  we are going to be rich," - and now, the whole body came out.

Paul started to search in the wardrobes and cupboards in the bedroom. A door on the ground floor opened - while he was putting some jewelry in a bag, I stood looking at him. I could not move - the body went upstairs.

"Do I really know you?" I said - it crossed the corridor. He answered "What are you looking at? Have you seen a ghost?'' He started laughing, but his laugh did not last too long. He dropped the bag and the knife. He opened his eyes and his mouth. Just at that moment lightning lit the room. I turned round and I saw her.

Her hair was blond and brighter than the sun and  her eyes were green, like the leaves of the healthiest tree. It was Miranda! But now she was not smiling. Her body was cold. It was as white as snow. But her eyes were like fire.

Paul immediately knew what Miranda wanted to do. She wanted to kill him. Pretending to escape, he opened a window and jumped out. When I looked out of the window he was not moving. There was a spot of blood near him. He was dead.

I turned round and I saw Miranda looking at me. The blizzard became even stronger. The lightning sounded louder. The whistle of the wing was painful and so strong that it could break the windows. I could see anger in her eyes. I could smell my own fear. I was so afraid that I could not move. Terror paralyzed me.

Then, she turned round. She left the room. She crossed the corridor. She went downstairs. She opened the door. She left the mansion and disappeared in the snow. Then, Paul was dead. Then, revenge was served and Miranda could rest in peace. Then, there was silence.

David Pender Villalvilla.

The masque of the Red Death.

     The masque of the Red Death is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer who had a terrible life. Her wife and his parents died with the same illness. He got mad and he started to drink. Finally he died in the street because of the alcohol.
We're going to explain the story with a little summary:

     An illness called the Red Death which hadn’t got cure and which was mortal arrives to
 Prince Prospero’s country. He didn’t want to get ill, so he isolated him and his courtiers into his castle, with enough food and drink. He made a masque to forget the illness. The castle had seven rooms, each one with a different colour; the last room was black with a red glass’ window with a clock that sounded every hour. When the clock bell sounded, they stopped dancing and eating. At the twelfth stroke, they saw a strange person. Prince Prospero wanted to kill him, and when he followed the person to the last room, the man looked Prince Prospero and he died. Then, all the people in the masque also died and the Red Death became the ruler of the castle.

Personal comment.

Álvaro Jara: In my opinion, I don't like the story because is so unreal, and finally I don't like the end,it is very short and predictable.

Carmen Vera: I don't like this story because of the end. Because the writer makes the description of the situation too long and then it ends in a short and terrifying way.

Laura Vera: I like and I don't like the story. I like it because it is original, it talks about the dead and the diseases like the others stories, but at the same time Poe expressed it in a different way. And I don't like it because when you read it, there are lots of short sentences in which the author expresses lots of feelings and it makes me feel nervous.


                                                                                      

                                                                Álvaro Jara, Carmen Vera y Laura Vera.

Mortadelo and Filemón

     Mortadelo and Filemon are two characters of a team called T.I.A (Technical Research Aeroterráquea). The director is The Super, with an especial doctor, Bacterio.

It is a humorous cartoon series created by the spanish author Francisco Ibáñez in 1958. He was inspired by the stories of detectives.

     Filemon is a choleric person and Mortadelo is a tall hairless man with an ability to dress up very well. His humor is based on the slapstick. The characters are hit with heavy items, deposit boxes, pianos, or falls.

     At first the stories were an one page in black and white, and following a simple structure :  Someone contracted the services of the agency, but when trying to accomplish the mission, it is produced a mistake and the mision failed. At last Mortadelo and Filemon were persecuted.

     Then the stories were longer than the others.They enter in the T.I.A. and have an influence of Superagent 86, stupid spy, hide entry, and shoesphones. Also incorporates other characters, El Súper, Miss Ofelia and the doctor Bacterio.

Finally, the theme of the stories are events today, resulting albums as :

The implementation of driving license by points : ” El carnet al punto”

The Tv program Triumph Operation:  “Misión Triunfo”

The encephalopathy bovine: “Las vacas chaladas”

There are resources very common as:

Mortadelo y Filemon always assigned the most dangerous missions, so they try to escape.

The T.I.A. has secret entry in the most unusual places.

When Bacterio testing an invention with someone always is produced an escape, a fight, or a death. 

Created by: Álvaro Romero