Due: 5/30

Flush
by Carl Haaisen

The main conflict in the book Flush is the spat between Paine Underwood and Dusty Mulemen. Dusty and Paine were old boat neighbors, both of them were captains of smalls boats to help tourists. Then Dusty got rich and started a casino boat in an Indian reserve , that never had to go anywhere. He was suspected to have been keeping more than his fair share, and dumping the content of his sewage tank into the bowl. The sewage then washes down to the Thunder Beach where kids play, and turtles nest. Making dumping sewage not only gross but dangerous. The major start of the conflict was when Paine decided that he personally had to do something about Dusty since whenever the Coast Guard checked, Dusty was being tipped off. The best thing that Paine had thought to do was to sink the Coral Queen (Dusty's casino boat). And that wasn't such a good idea, since, it landed him strait in jail.

Not to say that Paine minded being in jail, he might have even enjoyed it. But his wife Donna did not, neither did his children Noah and Abbey. They all were worried and desperately wanted to help his cause. As time goes on more and more people get wrapped up into the conflict. And the plot gets more and more complicated. It's revealed that Noah's long lost grandpa is alive, when all thought he was and buried in South America. The Underwood's got a great help from an unlikely source in a trailer park. And, there are friends in unlikely places.

But in the end it's Paine and the Underwood family that pulls ahead. The Coral Queen finally got what it deserved, shut down, re-opened, and finally burned down. They suspected Paine originally of course because of the rivalry between the two. But then found all the Underwood's and the actual offender was the son of Dusty Mulemen himself!

Due: 5/23

I got a winning ticket!

Due: 5/16

The Fire Within', Book 2: Icefire
By Chris d'Lacey

David Rain a long time tenant of the Pennykettle household has become more evolved in the Pennykettle family. In doing so he also got wrapped up in the business of dragons which is exactly what Liz Pennykettle does. She makes and believes stone dragons.

There are many myths about dragons, Liz and her daughter Lucy believe that the reason no one has proved the existence of dragons is because there are none left. Also the ones that have died off leave no remains so their bodies just decompose into clay. And, that all clay comes from dragons. Liz sculpts dragons from clay, those dragons move in the mind of whomever named them or is their master. The dragons can do special things depending on how they are made.

David is still going to school though. Lately he has been given the opportunity to travel to the arctic to study poler bears and other arctic animals. The teacher that is giving him the opportunity, I think, he's up to no good. Every student is assigned the task of writing an essay, each student has a different topic to write about. The best essay wins a free trip to the arctic to study, all the others must pay for their trip. David's topic is dragons, he has to write 2000 words about the subject. But I think that the professor is too curious to be .

So now David is trying to squeeze as much information about dragons out of Liz as possible. As he really needs the scholarship. He's learned that dragons like high cold places, and during his quest he's been having weird feelings and seeing things. Like tracks in the snow and stuff outside the window.

I predict that David will win the scholarship on the expedition (because he's the main character) and on the trip he'll find the real last dragon. A dragon of the ice.