The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams

The Chosen One is about a girl named Kyra who lives in an isolated community with her father, his three wives, and twenty-one children. She is then chosen by the Prophet, who is said to be ‘God’s Anointed’ or
‘God’s Chosen’, to marry her sixty-year-old uncle who already has six wives. As you can see, the title is very significant to the story. She is ‘the chosen one’ in her family; though she is not the oldest, her older sister, Emily, is not right in the head, so she is chosen to marry her uncle. She knows it is wrong, so she plots to run away. But no one disobeys the Prophet. She worries that her family would be punished, along with Joshua, a boy she has fallen in love with and would chose to marry her if he had the choice. Before she is chosen though, she worries that she had already defied the Prophet by reading books from a bookmobile, which is forbidden. Kyra also worries that her thoughts are not her own. She secretly plots to kill the Prophet and worries that people have heard her whispers and her secrets.
When I first saw the title for the book, I thought that it was anything but this. In Harry Potter, he is the chosen one; Luke in Star Wars is kind of the chosen one. But a thirteen-year-old girl marrying her uncle because a person from God says to? That is not something God would make you do.

Canned music is like audible wallpaper. - Alistair Cooke

Last night I went to my brother’s choir concert and it felt so weird not being up on stage singing with the group. I was in choir all four years and LOVED it! So I told my brother that he had to be in choir also and do all of the extra activities that he could, like Madrigals, Chorale, Fall Play, and the spring musical. It helped that he was in choir in junior high and that he wanted to be in it.

But the choirs sounded awesome last night! The first group that sang was Madrigals, an auditioned, accapella group. Watching Madrigals was the weirdest because I sang in that group for two years and know everyone in it. It was nice to hear two songs that we had sang my first year though.

Treble Choir, the all-girls choir, sounded wonderful. I’m normally distracted by the ugly dresses they wear, but I wasn’t! Seriously though, you don’t understand the dresses. I had to wear them for two years and they are horrifying! Chorale, an extracurricular jazz choir, sounded amazing as well. They sang “Eleanor Rigby”, “Seasons of Love” from Rent, and “One Day More” from Les Miserables. My brother had a solo for “One Day More” and I thought he sounded great.

The newest group at the high school is the Bum Bums, an all-guys, accapella group. They sang “Jesse’s Girl” and “That’ll Be the Day”.A few of guys’ girlfriends recently started a group called the Bumbettes, which is mostly a fan club for the Bum Bums. It’s really just a joke that they started, but a few of us made t-shirts and wore them to the concert last night.

The last group was Chamber Choir, the mixed group, and, as they always do, they sounded fantastic! I was really impresses that they sang three pieces in different languages, because there were a lot of newcomers and singing in another language is difficult.

I had a great time getting to see everyone and I can’t wait until the Madrigal Dinner in December!

The Hunger Games....More Like the Cruel Games

A couple of years ago, two of my friends fell in love with the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Ever since then, they have been hounding me to read it. Well, I needed a book to read last week when I had nothing else to do, so I went to my Reading class's Novel list to find a book. I saw The Hunger Games on there and thought What the Heck! It also happened to in the back right on the top shelf at the library. I fell in love with it! I just finished part 1, and found so many funny, yet weird parts.
I love how Katniss, the main character, had never been in a car or a train, and had never had hot chocolate. I absolutely love how she volunteered herself so that her sister wouldn't have to be in the games.
If you haven't read the book, it is about the Hunger Games, a televised event where the participants, or "tributes", must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena until only one remains as punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol. The participates, or "tributes", are one girl and one boy from ages 12 to 18. On the day the tributes are selected, Primrose, Katniss's 12 year old sister, is chosen and she volunteers herself to save her sister. The boy who is chosen, Peeta, we find out, had earlier saved Katniss and her family from starvation, and Katniss feels like she owes Peeta.
Another character that we meet is Haymitch, a winner of the games and a drunk. He makes many side remarks that I think are occasionally funny, but mostly just hurt Katniss. One thing I find weird is that when the participates arrive at the Capitol for the games, they are given "make overs" and are in a parade to show off all of the participates. Each pair wears a, i like to call it, costume that represents their District. Then, they are sent off to training, where they meet all of the other participates. The last thing they do is and interview, where they are dressed very nice and try to gain audience support, because they are permitted to send gifts to favored tributes during the Games, which can be crucial for survival.