Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Review: The Village


The Village
Reviewed by Trisha Phillips, age 15

The MPAA rating for The Village is PG-13 for a scene of violence and frightening situations.

The Village is packed with seat wrenching scenes that will keep your attention throughout the whole movie. The villagers are mortally afraid of the ‘creatures’ that live in the woods surrounding the village. The creatures also keep them from traveling to the ‘towns’ outside of the woods. For the past several years they have had a mutual alliance with the creatures, the villagers don’t enter the woods and the creatures don't come into the valley, but lately they have been venturing into the village.

Most of the townspeople are content with living off the land, but when Ivy, blind from a young age, finds out that the only way to save her fiancé from mortal injuries is to travel through the woods into the towns, she takes on the challenge with only her heart and her father’s confidence to guide her.

Throughout the movie you find caring and loving people who all work together to keep their village safe and homely, but nonetheless they are extremely afraid of death and hardships. The end has a very surprising twist, but what else would you expect from the maker of Signs and The Sixth Sense?

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Review: Apologia Science


Apologia Science
Reviewed by Jade Blackview, age 17

Around 2000 Apologia came out with a science program for junior-high and high school students. Exploring Creation With . . . , written mostly by Dr. J. Wile, is a comprehensive, creation-based science curriculum. Covering science subjects from General Science to Physics to Advanced Chemistry, Dr. Wile explains God’s creations in a precise, easy to understand manner. All of his course include experiments, making it possible to use this program as a laboratory science. Home Science Tools, formerly Home Training Tools, offers not only the Apologia Texts and answer books, but also supply packages, making it possible to order all of the special supplies need for a particular course. Apologia makes science understandable and, most importantly, fun!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Review: End of Silence by Red


End of Silence
Reviewed by Kathryn Turner, age 14

The Pennsylvania-based Christian rock band Red begins their album, End of Silence, with a piano intro. Orchestral accompaniment eerily filters in. You really wouldn't suspect Red to be a hard rock band, but when the intro is over they kick into high gear with one of their hit songs, Breathe Into Me. The rest of the album is packed with gripping sound that I have never heard before. Their mix of piano, orchestra, and pounding electric guitar adds a very cool, unique sound to their music.

Michael Barnes, lead singer and pianist, puts full passion into the vocals. While he’s only a moderately talented singer, he surely doesn't overdue the screaming. He can make his voice soothing, and doesn't "burst out" very often, but when he does, he truly screams in the opportune parts of the song to keep you on the edge of their compositions.

"Are their lyrics really worth hearing?" you might ask. I think they are. Michael is crying out to God to be "broken down," "to give it all to Him." Even though they don't mention His name, it's clear that they try to send a message about Him, which is the approach of most Christian rock bands. Compared to bands such as Linkin Park, Kutless, and Muse, Red brings a refreshing new sound into Christian music.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Battle of Crecy


The Battle of Crecy
By The Elf, age 15

In the year 1346, a small force of Englishmen invaded France. Numbers were definitely not on their side; neither, in the opinion of the rest of the world, was weaponry, for they had very few horsemen. Thus, when on August 26 they were attacked by a French army by well over 100,000 soldiers, the results should have been decisive, as they were - but not in the way expected.

The English army had all the time they needed to prepare their position, and they did so, fencing in their baggage and organizing their troops - 11,000 with the young Black Prince, so called for his entirely black armor; 7,000 on the left, protected by a ditch; and 12,000 in reserve with the king.

The French, on the other hand, came to the scene of battle hungry and tired from a full day’s march. The order was given to halt, but due to their huge numbers, it was not passed on or obeyed. They continued forward all the way to the English lines.

Immediately, some French crossbowmen came forward to attack, but a small rain shower came at that moment, followed by the sun coming out behind the English. With their crossbow strings wet and the sun in their eyes, the French advanced very close before trying to shoot, and were met with such a hail of arrows that most of them instantly fell dead.

King Philip of France now gave an order, but not the one you might expect. He told his knights to charge right over the dying crossbowmen! This completed their destruction, and as they struggled, the English continued pouring arrows into the mix with their longbows . The other French divisions circled around this and attacked the Black Prince from both sides simultaneously.

Time and again they charged; time and again, their charges were stopped with pike and sword. Very soon, the French leaders were dead, and the remaining knights were now confused. But then another French division joined the fray, so it was now 40,000 men surrounding the Prince with only 7,000 foot soldiers (the rest of his archers had drawn back.)

At this time, the Earl of Warwick sent a messenger to the king, asking for reinforcements. After ensuring that his son was unhurt, King Edward offered the famous lines, “Let the boy win his spurs,” and remained where he was, giving all the glory to his son.

As the French charged again and again, fresh volleys continued to fall on them. An English longbow-man could fire around five arrows per minute with deadly accuracy, meaning 20,000 arrows were falling on the French every minute! No man or beast could stand this, and after Philip was wounded twice himself, they began to retreat.

Immediately, the English army gave thanks to God for their victory. There was no feast or celebration, just a simple mass giving the glory of the battle to the Lord.

The next day, however, was quite foggy, and many more French were killed by the victorious English when they stumbled upon each other in the fog.

In all, 33,000 French died, including 90 of the highest nobles, while the English lost only a few hundred foot soldiers. This battle began what took another hundred years to finish; namely, the discovery that the knight was not indestructible, and that one archer could be more than a match for one knight. This led to the end of the Middle Ages.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Review: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves


Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Reviewed by Jade Blackview, age 17

I’m sure we’ve all read that dry grammar text, muddled through the adjectives and adverbs, and suffered through the dissection of a sentence. Boring right? Wrong! The face of grammar is beginning to change. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss makes grammar much more interesting. Kids who grumbled over apostrophes and semicolons will be begging to read this book.

Truss takes a novelistic approach to this dry subject, making it come alive through real-life stories and funny scenarios on how improper punctuation can make things sound totally different. She gives instruction on how grammar is to be appropriately used as well as a bit of history about names and origins. Grammar has never been so well treated before.

Are you: Confused by Commas? Addled by Apostrophes? Puzzled by Periods? This book is for you! Pick up Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss today for an exciting ride down grammar street!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Silvan Elves in The Lord of the Rings


Silvan Elves in The Lord of the Rings
by: The Elf , age 15

Hello, mortals. I am here to enlighten you on the history of my people – the Silvan Elves. I, personally, am an Elf of Mirkwood – excuse me, Greenwood the Great – but the Elves of Lórien are my kin. Silvan Elves are descendants of those Elves who set out for the land of the Valar with Oróme, but stopped before they even crossed the Misty Mountains. There are two kingdoms of our Silvan race, as I said: Lórien and Mirkwood.

Lórien’s first remembered ruler, even among the Elves, is Amdir, who was king during the Second Age. He joined Gil-galad’s army during the War of the Last Alliance, and fell in the Battle of Dagorlad.

After Amdir died, his son Amroth became king, and ruled in happiness for nearly two millennia. Then those stupid dwarves released Durin’s Bane, the Balrog of Moria, and many Elves of Lórien fled Middle-Earth through their haven on the Bay of Belfalas. Amroth’s beloved, Nimrodel, was one of them, and Amroth followed her but, unfortunately, ended up drowning. Even though that haven is now a city of men, it has ever since been called Dol Amroth.

At that point, Galadriel and Celeborn became Lady and Lord of Lórien. With her ring, Galadriel kept the woods safe until the War of the Ring, turning back three sieges with her might. After the war and the downfall of Sauron, she left Middle-Earth. Her husband, Celeborn, remained as king of Lórien (and part of Mirkwood… more on that later) for several years, but became bored and left for Rivendell, and from there, doubtless, he passed overseas.

The kingdom of Greenwood, on the other hand, was founded by Oropher, a Sindarin Elf born in the first millennium of the Second Age. Originally, the king’s dwelling was on the hill of Amon Lanc in the southern tip of the forest. But as the power of the Dark Lord grew, we Elves retreated farther and farther north. Oropher, like Amdir, died in the Battle of Dagorlad fighting for the Last Alliance.

Oropher’s son Thranduil then became king. He was witness to Sauron’s building on Amon Lanc, the hill where the Elves once lived, a tower known as Dol Guldur, the Hill of Black Magic. Greenwood then became known as Mirkwood, for Sauron’s creatures filled it and Thranduil’s kingdom moved to the far northeastern corner of the forest. This was the situation until the War of the Ring.

During the War of the Ring, orcs and foul beasts from Dol Guldur attacked Thranduil’s kingdom and set the trees on fire, but they could not penetrate the magically sealed doors of his halls and, when Thranduil sallied forth, we drove them from our kingdom.

Near the end of the war, Thranduil’s victorious army met up with the Elves of Lórien. The combined forces assailed Dol Guldur, and Galadriel, by the power of her ring, destroyed its foundations and collapsed its underground pits. Mirkwood was again renamed, now being known as the Wood of Greenleaves. The southern part of the forest, around Amon Lanc, became known as East Lórien; and even when Lórien proper was emptied of Elves, East Lórien’s Elves lived in prosperity with those under
Thranduil.

Something needs to be said here about Legolas, the most famous Silvan Elf of all time. His fame springs from his part in the Fellowship of the Ring and his heroic deeds in the War of the Ring, which are so well known that I needn’t elaborate. After the War, however, he ruled a kingdom in Ithilien, where Elves from the Wood of Greenleaves lived alongside Faramir’s men. He sailed overseas with his friend Gimli, the only dwarf ever to do so.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

March for Life Reports


Recently, several homeschooled teens traveled to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. and wrote about their experience. You can read their accounts HERE. There are thirteen in all.