Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched

I have read the first 170 pages of Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched by Amy Sutherland. This is a book about the world's premier school for exotic animal training. It contains the daily life of the students and what they have to do to graduate. It is amazing to read all that is happening in the book and what people are forced to do. The book starts off at the student orientation, where the students normally have to kill a pigeon by ripping its head off. However, due to an unexpected illness in the pigeons the school couldn't acquire the birds and they instead killed rats by putting them in a container and releasing toxic gas into it. This sadness is present through out the book, where animals have to be put down and students are injured. Also, there is a severe competitiveness among the students, everyone is trying to do their best and beat everyone else, people never know if they will be kicked out of the school and not be able to pursue their dream of becoming an exotic animal trainer. All the students have a pretty hard day, they have to be at the school's animal zoo promptly at 6:30am, if they are late they risk, when the time comes, to not be able to choose the animal they want to train, because the students with the best record choose their animals first. During the day they have to work nearly nonstop, they have to clean all the animal cages, make sure the animals are happy and healthy, and they have classes. While they are working temperatures easily reach over 100 degrees. The school is broken up into first years and second years. The first years have to endure, along with all their work of cleaning and classes, the hazing of the second years. Because the second years have been there longer, they have more experience and consider themselves above the first years. They will constantly show their superiority by telling first years that they haven't cleaned something well enough, or report first years that break a rule, even though the second years break many rules themselves. Furthermore, the first years can only have brief contact with the animals, not even being allowed to talk to the animals, unless given special permission, while the second years are free to talk to the animals all they want. Also, many of the students don't have much of a social life outside of the school, they don't have enough time. Many relationships ended when the person went to the school because they didn't have enough time to have a serious relationship with anyone. Furthermore the students are constantly in danger, and as the title implies, they are kicked, bitten, and scratched.
It's hard to imagine anyone who would actually go to this school, where they have to suffer two years of this grisly schedule. Especially when after all this work they won't even get a high paid job. It must take a very disciplined person who is willing to follow their dream, even though it means a lot of hard work and not very much money. After reading this book, anyone who wanted to become an exotic animal trainer would have to think twice about it. I can't imagine that the reward for being an animal trainer would be worth all of this effort, especially when you may not get paid very well for being an animal trainer.

Wildwood Dancing

Wildwood Dancing is a 400 page book by Juliet Marillier. It is a story loosely based on the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It is about five sisters who live in a manor by a forest and every full moon they go to another world where they meet several magical creatures and dance. However, they have an evil cousin who is trying to take over their manor since their father had to leave for awhile to help his health. Also, the eldest sister falls in love with a person from the other world.
The protagonist in this story is the second oldest sister, Jena. She is strong-willed and a leader. She is constantly fighting her cousin so that she and her sisters can keep control of their house. Jena does not like being ordered around is portrayed as the main leader of her family. Although she is kind and compassionate and is always trying to help her sisters and make them happy, she has a very hard time letting her eldest sister Tatiana leave their world and go and live in the other magical world so that she can be with her true love. Jena can also be quick to anger and can not forgive easily. But, overall Jena is a compassionate person who only has the best interests of her sisters in mind. This is best shown when Jena allows her eldest sister to leave and go to the other world without trying to stop her. Jena's intelligence and practical sense is nice because a lot of the other characters are not as practical and wise as she is.
It seems that a lot of the problems of the book are forced onto to Jena to try and solve. It is left to Jena to try and stop her cousin from taking over their manor and from trying to attack the magical world. All of her sisters let her deal with their cousin and expect her to solve all their problems. The eldest sister, Tatiana is to busy dreaming about her boyfriend to help and another sister only cares about the pleasures of life, such as eating nice food and having fun. Another sister is in some senses smarter than Jena, because she has classes and is a scholar, and though may give some advice now and then, she still leaves all the problems to Jena. The last sister is too young to be of much help. Although this casts Jena's sisters in a bad light, they do care about Jena and are kind, and are also a lot younger then Jena, except for Tatiana. The problems also could probably be best solved by Jena anyway.

Ithaka

Ithaka a 360 page book by Adele Geras is a novel about what was happening back in Ithaka while Odysseus was gone on his adventures for twenty years. It is a very interesting book containing many of the events that you know from the Odyssey happened in Ithaka. This included Telemachus sailing off to find information about his father, Penelope unweaving the shroud that she said she would finish and then choose a husband, and Odysseus coming back disguised as a beggar and killing all the suitors. The protagonist in the novel is Klymene, a maid to Penelope. Klymene is a character with a lot of depth, she has both good and bad qualities which make her seem very human. Klymene is a devoted maid and is always trying to help Penelope. Although Klymene is not always able to do much she is always there to give good advice and moral support to not only Penelope, but her twin brother Ikarios, and Telemachus. Klymene helps Penelope in many ways, she not only gives moral support, but she also helps to unweave the shroud, keep the affair between Penelope and Leodes a secret, and Klymene helped in Odysseus' plan of getting rid of the suitors. This shows that Klymene is a very compassionate and intelligent character, who is not afraid to do what she thinks is right. But, Klymene also has some human flaws. She is jealous of Melantho, a woman who dates Telemachus, a man Klymene has a crush on. Klymene also doesn't enjoy working in the kitchens with her grandmother and frequently tries to avoid those duties and do a more enjoyable job for her and help the queen. But, overall Klymene has an always willing to help attitude and is kind. Also, Klymene is forgiving, this is probably best shown when she is able to forgive Melantho for leading Ikarios into a fatal trap. All of these qualities make Klymene seem very real and human. She has good qualities as well as flaws that allow the reader to identify well with her character.