The Art of Reviewing

All the time, we are reviewing things: movies, games, books, TV Shows, that one girl you really don't like, how awful that Christmas sweater your grandmother gave you is, and most importantly, how big your Christmas present box is, and how much of a let down that huge box is. As we review all these things, we find ourselves trying to come up with the best way to assess it, and I have recently found that, there is a secret and sacred art that we all must learn (for the book community anyways) and that is the art of reviewing.

Most of the time on Goodreads, you'll see hundreds upon hundreds of reviews for a certain book, whether it be a good or a bad book, just depends on who you ask. But,  half of the time you'll see hundreds of vague and unhelpful reviews (which is why Barnes and Noble's has a helpful review system where users can vote how useful a review is) and you'll also see many abundantly lengthy reviews that really get down into the nitty gritty of why a novel was so bad, because let's be honest, only the 3-1 star ratings are the really good reviews, the ones that really get your blood boiling and make you really want to sucker punch that person in the face for calling your favorite book an unimaginative, unrealistic, and unrelatable piece of crap, when you found it to be the most beautiful and creative masterpiece since Michelangelo's David. The vague reviews are the ones that sing the undying praise for a book without going into much detail, though sometimes, the negative reviews will be quite vague and serve no purpose other than to possibly troll. But, looking back at the lengthier reviews, we can the see the beautiful Art of Reviewing in action.

First we must ask, what is a review? A review is simply an oral overview including facts and opinions in order to create a viable conclusion towards a specific piece of work.

Next, what makes a good review? A good review has the following things:

• Upsetting, but true facts about the book 
• Humor, because like a book, you need a little humor to keep it light
• Keeps most of their undying praise or hate out of it, meaning, keep yo damn emotions to yo self
• Uses real evidence from the book such as quotes and page numbers
• Keeps the feelings about the author out of the review, we relates to bullet point number 3
• Gives some kind of recommendation

And a bad review?

• Vague and short
• Funny for the wrong reasons
• excessive GIFs
• Didn't keep it's damn emotions out of it
• Attacks the author
• Uses no evidence for their conclusion

Like writing, the art of reviewing comes with much practice, much patience, and the build up of a tough skin. Even when the review is done, you have to have a tough skin against those who are against your review. You have to be able to stand your ground and make sure that your opinion is kept throughout the entire grudge match, in addition this, you must also be open to new opinions, but only if they either agree with your opinion to work with your argument. Along with these things, I should talk about a review as an argument.

When you are reviewing something, you are stating an opinion that you have about something, meaning, you are arguing that Book is bad or good, and it becomes a 'debate' we shall say when someone negates your argument, and now you have to use your own review as your shield to help you stand your ground. In order not to sound repetitive, when arguing about your opinion, you must always keep your emotions out of it, which is where Bullet Point 3, Section 1 comes from--emotions are the humans weakest point, it is what causes them to lose wars, logic is what wins them

Here are some tips on writing a good review:

1. If you plan on using the phrase 'I feel' do not believe to yourself that you are stating something emotionally. 'I feel' is the opinionated phrase that sets up another part of your argument or review. Ex. I feel that eBooks will not replace physical copies due to....(state your argument here) 
2. When you are reviewing, imagine that you are writing a mini synopsis of the book before you start to write about what you think, in this synopsis, often time you can add small hints about your opinion of the book by saying something about the character or how cliched the town or the storyline is, almost as though you are creating a parody of the book and preparing to publish it
3. Imagine that you review is going to be published by the New York Times, by imagining this, you are more likely to put more memorable phrases and stronger phrases that support your opinion into the review, which helps greatly in trying to keep the readers attention, and maybe win them over if they are deciding whether or not they should read this book.
4. If possible, stay neutral overall, this means, staying friendly and not becoming overly harsh, and overly righteous with how you write things, don't become full of yourself: stay human. 
5. As mentioned already, add humor to what you write, make it fun and not so monotone and 'ugh', if you add humor your point will stand out more, and by making it stand out more, your opinion will seem more relevant. 

Hopefully this post will give you a little bit of guidance into the world of reviewing and how to do it well, and in doing it well, you will soon be able to write some of the best, most helpful, and your favorite reviews, possibly getting people to read more of the books you like as well as more of your reviews, garnering you a little bit more internet relevance in whatever community you are in. Cheers!

If you love something, set it free; If it comes back it's yours

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I know how you feel Ariel. Recently, I have had to do something that the title suggests. For nearly a year now I have been working on my longest, most ambitious, and greatest piece of fiction, in my opinion at least. In the opinion of others, well, not so much. The story was called Hero, and the need to write it blossomed after three months of  hard thinking and forming a story. I officially sat down to write--and got somwhere--on December 19th, 2012. I didn't know that I was going to write a book nearly 170,000 words long--and still writing--when I sat down that December Night a few days from Christmas. In fact, I thought it was going to fall short, and be just another 200 pager as I always write. If only it had been that, or rather, if only I had known it was going to be something so much bigger than that.

So, when I began writing, I wrote for hours, and days, the story gren and grew. Everyday when I came home from school, I would forget everything and I would have to return to the fictional town of Seadele, California I had created for the story. I didn't even feel like I was doing much work, the story told itself, it was like listening to an audiobook, trying to write down everything, but you just couldn't do it fast enough. That was the kind of book I was writing, soon after, I knew that's the book I wanted people to read. A book they just couldn't read fast enough, one that would keep them on the edge of their seat, cause them to stay up all night and maybe even miss the bus, in which they would rejoice because now they could finish without the distractions of life. It would be the one book I could honestly say I was truly proud off, and I would ave people just begging for the sequel. It would have been beautiful.

Of course, the problem with it was, most of that was a dream. Sure, I got to chapter 7 in a few weeks, did some light editing and chugged on. But, sometime around Chapter 9 I started to slow down. I had originally belived I would be able to finish the book sometime in April. Now it's September, and the anniversary of me starting it is almost upon me. And I think I still have probably 20,000 more words to write, if not more, to just finish the MS. Maybe 15,000 words of extra and stuff that should have been in there, and a lot of tousands of words taken out. Of course, I decided I needed a second opinion on it, since I've learned to use the phrase 'I feel as though I am writing a book only I will like very much.' to kind of qoute Jane Austen on Emma.

But, what every writer faces is that, sometimes, the second opinion--the review--is what breaks you. It's what disheartens you, and even though it does give you the motivation to do better and prove that you're more than some ridiculous writer who will never have a book on the shelves of even Wal-Mart, you still feel discouraged. And for the most part, I perservered through these negative reviews, but as they kept coming and coming, no one feeling that excitment that I felt when I was writing, it the story started to crumble, and I stopped writing 10,000 words per sitting, per week. Slowly, I could barely convey the simplest of metaphors without feeling tired and depressed. Soon, I was only writing 300 or less words per sitting before x-ing out of Word and watching Husky videos on YouTube. God I want Husky, you wouldn't believe.

Anyways, by the time I was on chapter 15, I was starting to look for a publisher for it, because I was still writing, chugging through as much as I could, but this was all before the many reviews that I got for it. I found an author consultant. It was happy, we were actually talking about executing this plan, actually making Hero a real thing. People would see it at Barnes and Nobles, and they would hear about it on the news 'That 13 year old kid who wrote a book on the New York Times bestseller list', people would be referencing the book and talking about it while I sat next to them blushing my ass off because they were talking about it. Yeah, you get all these magnificent dreams, and it only takes the smallest little rainstorm to make them crumble like a sandcastle at the beach. And you stare at the crumbled sancastle and cry because it took you so long to build it, you put so much work into it. You thought you could win the blue ribbon. What a lie, what a lie.

So, about three weeks after I talked to the consultant, and I was sure I was going to be able to finish and edit the book by December, have it rewritten by January, and starting to sent it off in the Spring, I started getting feedback from people who I sent it to so long ago, I forgot I sent it to them. Some had recently read it. My sandcastle was washed away. 'Boring' 'Ridicilous' 'After the first chapter, I had had enough.' 'Monotone' 'Stupid' 'Just...bad', it was the writing equivalent of a preformer getting booed on stage. It was humiliating, it was saddening, it was heartbreaking. Characters who I felt like I knew, a city that I felt like was my second home--I knew every street, where they lived, and who to go to for my Alegbra homework--a story that I felt like I would be able to carry on for most of my teenage years. It call came down around me, a shower of glass, the earth quaked, the sandcastle fell after bering ravenged by the harsh waves of critics.

And after weeping, screaming, and fearing to write for three days straight, I made a descion that would change the course of the next few months--well, it's going to anyways--I decided I wasn't going to publish it. I emailed my consultant, a good author friend of mine--he was the one who told me he couldn't read anything after chapter 1--and I just told myself, 'I've literally written a story I will only like very much. I have just written a book only I have enjoyed. A book that I can only finish, and the world will not.' I am very dramatic, so spare me, still, I decided I was going to keep this world in my head, and finish it, but only for my eyes to see. No one else would read it because they would never know my joy, only I understand it. And some people are going to say it's not that bad, but it's bad. Maybe not as bad as my first book, maybe worse than my first book, but it's nothing that I dreamed.

So, I let it go.  It's been nearly a week, and I haven't so much as opened the document on my flashdrive. Instead, I've been working on the sequel to my already published book, making sure it's better than the first so that I can make up for the horrible first novel, not to mention a novella I plan on publishing soon. And you know what? I think, I think I feel liberated. I feel like a strange weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, I feel as though everything is clearer, I feel free to write again. I don't feel bogged down by this anchor made of stone. I don't feel as bad about my writing, I don't feel like writing is a job anymore, it almost feels like the hobby it started out as.

Maybe I am still meant to write Hero, but maybe just not right now. Maybe, I'm meant to write and do other things before I write it. Maybe I'm supposed to finish the first series I started. There's even a chance I'm not supposed to write it all, maybe it's just something I needed to go through, something that I needed to elarn. I'm not sure what the lesson is yet, but I know that there's a reason I've gone through this process. And yes, I am a christian--a bad one, mind you--but, I don't beleieve that you have to believe in some kind of higher power to know that everything happens for a reason, that some things are random, but random for a reason. You don't have to believe in a higher power to know that some things you just have to learn from. It's like a baby learns not to touch a hot stove, or learns to crawl and walk, and to even talk. Everything is a learning, evolutionary process.

It just is.

The lesson that I want to bring to anyone who is an aspiring writer (I still am, but we can all learn from each other right?) is that, you need to learn that if you love what you've written, at some point you ned to set it free. This could mean sending it off to reviewers, it could mean just taking a break from it, it could even mean just stopping and saying 'no, not now'. If it comes back, meaning if you're able to bounce back, come back to the story 6 months later, or whenever, then it's yours. It means you're meant to do it. But, if you feel liberated, if you feel like you can suddenly see clearer than before now that you've dropped this project, then it's not yours. It's not time. Let it stay free, don't look back to see if it's coming. If it's coming, it will come, if it's not, then it will keep going.

Who To Listen To; And I'm back!

So, I have disspaered from Blogger for the majority of July and August, but now I'm back. In truth, I have had many, many blog topics that I wanted to write, but I never got around to writing them. But I truly have something that I want to talk about today, to whomever is reading this.

Anyhow, recently on my Figment.com account (Go there, search 'Jonnah Z. Kennedy' in users) I got a new review for some of my work. This is work that I haven't worked on in nearly a whole year, and pretty much forgot about up until this point. One of them is called Radio the other is one that I do want to finish working on, but procrastination is a writers best friend while writing--another post I'm going to write up this week. Anyhow, apparently, the guy who reviewed my work really did like my writing style, and at first I was thankful that he had reviewed it. But then he reviewed, Heart of the Hearth. Now, what bothered me about his review was the fact that he blantantly scolded it without remorse, that that is a bad thing--if you're a new writer, know that you're going to be scolded. A lot, so build up that self-esteem now, otherwise you're going to be working at Starbucks, dreaming about being that one guy who comes in and dosen't even order coffee, but is a New York Times bestselling author, so you get him a free coffee instead. But I digress--but what he did was kind of bad.

He told me what I had messed up on and how bad my grammar was, yet he didn't really help me. He just told me that he skimmed it because of all the errors and how my story didn't seem to be going anywhere. Now, I don't recomment trying to email this guy who does this--saying your story is going nowhere--because he dosen't know your plan yet, and he dosen't seem to know your writing style. Not many people will. There are tons of writer who don't get to the point of their book until halfway through, and most of the stuff before it was either fluff and buildup, either way, you know the story better than they do. Anyhow, he told me he didn't really know what the point of the story was in the first chapter--who does? I don't mean to sound prestigious or anything, but who knows the point of a book within the first few lines? Some Stephen King books I don't know the point of them at all, much less why the heck he wrote it aside from him having an idea. If he was talking about the plot, then again, who knows the plot within the first few lines of a book?

Another novella I'm writing--by the way, Heart of the Hearth is going to be a novella--called The Farm, about slaughterhouses in a dystopian futre (I know that dosen't sound very plausible, since it's the future, but it's my fiction, okay?) and for most of the first two chapters, I don't really show you what I'm trying to do, most if it is just building up to the climax of the book--which is also the end of the book and kind of drives it--and in all honesty, if you didn't know that I was trying to get across a point of morality with slaughterhouses, prior to reading it, you think it was just an overglorified gore fest that was going to get me arrested by PETA. I think I'm getting a little off topic of HotH though.

Anyhow, he goes on for less than three paragraphs about how he could barely get rhough it, and how in chapter two my family in the book wasn't medieval enough--though, I can understand that, still I think for the most part the story was very close to the era I was trying to portray--and then goes on to say that my story is missing the two things that make a book good: What does the protagonist want, and what is he willing to do to get it. This goes back to my earlier point, I know the story, he dosen't. And I get the feeling that he didn't read the synopsis, which clearly states what I'm building up to, I just happen to have other things to write before I get to that point. I'm sorry if I don't just start my fantasy like the Hobbit, and dive straight into the adventure, and I want to build up my world a little first. Sheesh.

The point that I'm trying to make, though, is know who to listen to when they review your work. A good review of your work should consist of what exactly you need to change, meaning excerpts from your work, and specifics, not just this broad overview of how much you didn't like it. Know a good review from a bad review. A good review isn't short, a good review is as long as many of my posts on this blog. A good review will be like a mini version of your book with comparisons and constructivism. Also, if your work has been cleared on grammatical errors numerous times by plenty of other reviewers, don't listen to that one guy who seems to just be trying to stick you with a thorn in the ribs. You're fine.

On Character Voice

This is going to be a short one, I promise.

Today, I wanted to take a moment to talk about character voice. We all know about finding our Voice, but sometimes even when we find that, it is hard to find your characters voice. For those of you who are probably confused about there, here is what I mean. When you are writing, you have a Voice. This is how you tell your story that is unique to anyone else who writes. There is no way in the world that your voice is going to be the exact same voice for any other writer. Everyone has their way of putting things, and as similar as one's voice might be to another's, their Voice is all their own. The only time a Voice will be the same is if you are literally rewriting--in the very sense that is copying--someone else's words. Now, let us move on to Character Voice. Character Voice is just characterization. What I mean by this is that, each character is a unique individual, not much unlike ourselves in the real world.

Now, Character Voice and Voice in general can conflict. Depending on your Voice, how you write, your Character Voice may be lacking. Characters should be believable, and not forced. They become forced when you write how you talk. This is what you should avoid. There is a way to write and there is a way to talk. When you write, you should pretty much because a whole other person. For instance, I sometimes write under the pseudonym Jonnah Z. Kennedy. What I have found is that, I seem to write better when I am writing as Jonnah and not myself. I seem to come up with better figurative language, and my voice ultimately changes because of it. This goes on to the point we have begun with. When you are talking, you do not use figurative language, you do not express things in a detailed and complex way, and when you are talking you certainly don't take into account what Point of View you are 'talking' in. You simply, talk. You use slang, you say things in a simple way, and you rarely use any words above 7 letters if necessary.

In writing, however, you will use FL, you are going to be detailed, complex, and striking. It's hard for me to write how I talk, because it's been so many years since I wrote in such a sense, and it has been so long since I wrote without consideration, but I will do my best:

Writing how you talk: "Donald ran across the road, and he almost got hit by a car. When he got to the other side of the road, he bumped into a lady walking her dog. The dog started barking, and Donald jumped when the dog started barking."

The writing is simple, it's not very interesting, and it's too 'this happened, this happened, Donald reacted. It's written like someone was literally telling you this story while on the phone, or something of the sort. Here is how it should be written:

"Donald sprinted across the road, and in the midst of this, he was nearly hit by a car. The car screeched to a stop, and he waved his hands out in front of it as to say 'sorry', of course the woman behind the wheel put on her best snarl to stare at him. Once across the road, he collided with a woman, and her dog began to yap at him in it's tiny, but vicious bark. It snapped at him, and he jumped at the snarling sound."

That one was written with Voice, with feeling. It's not written how you would tell someone on the street the story. If it was, we might actually be a seemingly smarter society because of the way we spoke.

Now, let us get into Character's speaking. Give each character a personality of his or her own. No character should even seem the same, they should all be interesting in their own way. Don't doubt, there will always been similarities between the characters, but each character needs to have a likable aspect about them, one that appelas to their personality. And going back to what I said earlier, do not force their Voice. Their Voice should come from their condition, the situation, who they are, and their personality.

If they are badly bruised, worked up on some kind of medical drug, or dying, take those things into account. Think about how the character would say it, humorously or sorrowfully. Then take into account some kind of real life aspect to this. Even though a character is funny, make their humor genuine and sweet. Don't make it 'You have to laugh or else'. Allow it to come naturally, make sure that the character is reacting naturally. If they do not react and speak naturally, then the flow is going to break. If you have a very serious flow, and now a character is dying, lighten the situation with a good smooth joke, that breaks back down quickly into seriousness. Have the joke be mildly interrupted by them coughing, bleeding, or groaning in pain. And then, remember to use descriptive phrases other than 'she said/he said/she replied/he replied'. In fact, sometimes go away from those things and start a whole new sentence, like this:

'"Do you remember that day, on the beach, when them seagulls was trapped in a plastic bag?" Eddie's eyes studied me, and I nodded. He licked his lips and went on. "And you remember-cough-how, even when we saved em', they still pecked the shit out of us?" He breathed a short laughed, and my face broke into a weary smile. Tears still streamed down the sides of my face, and Eddie's eyes were still dark with death.'

Do you kind of get it? make their words meaningful, make their words stand out, and make sure that the words that come after their words are extensions of them their characters. Sometimes in writing, it is true that action speaks louder than words. Let their actions coexist and improve upon their words. Allow their voice to be enhanced with the mood, and allow their Voice to coexist and imrpove upon your own Voice.

So, that was my little tidbit about Character Voice, and I hope that you are able to take something from this, and I hope that you enjoyed this little post. If I helped you, spread the word and link others to this blog, share it on Facebook and twitter, and follow me on Google+

See you guys!

Everything Eventual

The world is full of annoyances. Long lines at the supermarket, workers who don't take their job seriously, people who text and drive, cars not allowing you to cross the street while you are riding a bike in 103 degree heat, Rick Riordan trolling us. Yes, there are many things that piss us off. But I think that most important thing that we all can realize is that, we can't do anything about it.

Think about it, really. Can you help that there are practically a billion cars in your city, and you're only one out of thousands who ride bikes on a day-to-day basis? Can we really help that everyone buys things in bulk when they go to the store, whereas you only have one item--for me, that would be a book--and can we really help that Rick Riordan always manages to leave us with a cliffhanger of some kind? Well, maybe, we could always go down the Misery route and break his feet...but I am getting off topic.

The thing that I want to talk about today is patience. If you don't have it, then you are going to fail in life. I'm serious. Even though we live in an always moving world that is going the speed of light, we're still going as slow as that old lady in your lane who can't see through her headlight sized spectacles. The reason I chose this topic today, is because recently I have been sending off several emails to self-published book bloggers, and bloggers who review books in general. I have been trying advertise and promote my book which is nearing 3,000,000 on the Amazon sellers listing. I know that 2,600,000 isn't that great either, but I have been keeping in the 2,000,000 and up range for nearly a month now, so that has to mean something. In fact, one time I was as high up as the low hundred thousands, so that really has to mean something. But, I don't think I have done enough to build an audience outside of my family members, who are pretty much obligated to come no matter what.

Anyhow, because I have been sending off all these emails, they always tell you that they will get back to you in a matter of a week because of all the other billion emails they receive. Then on the advertising, you never knew who or when someone is going to see that advertisement, so only Apollo knows when you're going to get your book going off, like, really going off. Basically, if you're self-publishing, unless you have some really good connections with real publishers and some all-stars--which begs the question of why are you self-publishing in the first place--chances are, your book won't be the next Harry Potter, Eragon, The Hunger Games, or Divergent. And speaking of Divergent, it has come to my attention that a lot more young authors are publishing books, which is actually adding to the competition in the world of Self-Publishing. 1 in 100 people are probably going to actually get a nice fat royalty check from their book, 1 in 1,000 are going to see their book get some media attention, 1 in 1,000,000 of us will be the next Veronica Roth, making a steady enough paycheck to pay off student loans, rent, and still have enough to vaycay in Romania. So, just be prepared to keep that job you got at the corner store, the mall, and that internship at your parents job.

The only way your book is going to become known and popular is through the classic advice. You better work hard, sometimes you have to put off a whole host of other things including friends, other hobbies, and that Galaga game you were playing. If you actually care about this book, you are going to be willing to receive a few bad paychecks, and you are going to be willing to face the horrid music of the one star review. You are going to have be prepared to read other peoples books, who may be better than yours, spend a hefty amount of money, and you'd better be ready to get carpel tunnel syndrome. Because you're going to be writing more words than your whole book combined. I'm actually pretty lucky I don't have any friends to pester me, pets to love--bad as I wish I did--any real responsibility or pressure to write the next book, and I don't have a whole pack of summer homework. I have a book to read, and that's pretty much it.

No one is asking me to do this blog.
No one is asking me to write the sequel to this book.
No one is asking me to spend hours at a time trying to promote it.
No one is asking me to do any of this.
I'm doing it because I want my book to go somewhere. I'm doing this because I have a passion, and I want my story to be read. I'm doing this because this is what I was born to do, this is what I have to do. It's not optional for me, this is what I gotta do if I ever want to go anywhere, if I ever want to fulfill my dreams, I have to be willing to spend x amount of nights laboring over my computer blasting emails, working on my seemingly endless tome of fiction, and being the only kid in the store consulting grammar and writing books. If you're not willing to do those things without being asked or told, you aren't meant to be a writer. Plain and simple. But if you are, if you are willing to give up reality, spend several months--years even--without a good check, good reviews, or be the odd one out, then I applaud you, welcome you to the family of writers all around you, and I say--you keep on going on.

The last thing I want to say, though, is that, nothing is going to come fast. Nothing is just going to come to you unless you've just got it like that, which 90% of us don't. You'd better be ready to wait week after week for an email to be returned, or for that phone call to come. Don't expect a reply in a few minutes, it will come eventually. Everything eventual. Everything eventual, my friends. Because in the end, when all that time that it seems like you wasted is over, it's going to pay off. And it's going to pay off big time. Just make good use of that time, every second counts. Life is only so short.

The Maze Games Trailer

On Book Banning (On #2)

A/N: I wrote this almost two years ago, so it's not as fabulous as my most recent posts, but it will do.

"A story only lives if someone want's to listen." J.K. Rowling, Author of Harry Potter Series

Well you know what? I want to listen. For many years, for as long as anyone can remember, and for as long as we can trace back, Books have been banned. Book Banning is the banning of books for certain reasons-sometimes very idiotic reasons-and banning them from certain places or people as a matter of fact. Writers all over the world-including us-spend hours and hours working hard on that one book that's been nestled in the back of their mind forever now, and then when they finish they are immensely happy. They send it off and its published. They do a few interviews, people start to read it, and then Little John decides he wants to read the book to see what all the hypes about, and so does Miss Little John. When Little John finally gets around to reading the book, she screams her little head off because of the word damn. Mind you the book is a innocent children's book that's suggested for children Little John's age, but Miss Little John doesn't give two craps what its suggested for, she doesn't want other kids seeing this word, she doesn't want them saying that, she doesn't want to see this book. So she goes right ahead and gets a great flock of people like her, and bans the book. Now, Jason-who's been dying to read this book at last-can't read it because its not in the library, its out of print, its done. All barbecue Miss Little John read the word damn.

This is what happens when a book is banned. Books are banned for reasons, yes I understand that, but sometimes book banning isn't necessary. As most of you know I am a very descriptive, graphic, and raw author, and I like it that way. Some people believe my writing is a bit to harsh for some readers-The Maze Games for example, which needs to be toned down a bit-and that some people shouldn't be reading it, moreover I shouldn't be writing it in fact. Some people, on the other hand, believe my book is wonderful and they have no problem with my raw and real style. Now, mind you that most of the time I write books for teenagers or 12 and up because of the raw material in my books. No, I don't think a seven year old should be reading The Maze Games, No I don't think that a parent would very much recommend The Maze Games to a seven year old. But that's just because the book wasn't made for a seven year old. This is why some books get banned, because parent hounds it down and decides that no one should be reading this kind of stuff. This is where I bring in another novel that was Banned for obvious reasons, compare the two as I do. Rage is a novel by Stephen King under the pen name Richard Bachman. King/Bachman wrote Rage as the first Bachman book. Rage is a physiological Thriller about a teenager who kills his teacher and holds his class hostage. About a year after Rage was released a string of events based on the novel Rage appeared, with teenagers across the country doing just as the book did, reading it like an instruction manual on how to get revenge on your enemies. King and Libraries banned the book because what happened in the book happened in reality and had the book been still in print today, then there would have been a lot more killings. King says he regrets ever writing the book as well, but to my point. The Maze Game is a book that, quite frankly, you can't replicate at all or try and get people to do stuff, The Maze Games is when they get powers and have to escape a Maze while the Main Character battles with a dark creature as well as his own mind(you'll see what I mean when The Maze Games is published- nothing there for people to actually do something bad with. But Rage was a book that had to be banned, because people were copying the actions in the book. This is why I do not agree with book Banning because there is a certain degree until you just have to ban it.

Harry Potter-believe it or not-is actually a banned book in some states and some countries. Parents whose children read Harry Potter were afraid that their children would start doing witchcraft, or that JKR was influencing witchcraft through her books, as well as why her books were so popular. Harry Potter is the story of an orphaned boy who finds out that he is a wizard, goes to a school called Hogwarts, School for witchcraft and Wizardry. He also must battle Voldemort who wants to not only destroy Harry Potter but also anyone who comes in his way of getting what he wants, Harry being the only one who can stop him. The first thing that Harry Potter was banned about was the promotion of Witchcraft in children. This reason is not understandable by any means to me. Harry Potter is much like Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, etc., etc.. It is, moreover, an innocent Fantasy story made for the entertainment of people around the world. Harry Potter in fact is a Once upon a time story, that you can read a child to bed at night. There have been no such reports that children began to actually do magic, that they went on a secret satanic train to a school called Hogwarts, or did something similar. It is just a Fantasy and nothing else. The next thing is that Parents believed that the tales of Harry Potter were much darker with years 4-7. Yes, I do agree with that. But, this is nothing to fret over. I've seen some of the last Lord of the Rings movie, and that was pretty dark itself, but has anyone complained over that? No, still hundreds of fans continue on and on with LOR. Years 4-7 of Harry Potter follow Harry beginning the battle with Voldemort, meaning that bad things will happen, also Harry was getting older in those years. Subjects would of course become darker. Matters would get worse. And there would be more deaths. This may well be the only thing that I have to say Harry Potter wouldn't be recommended for kids on. The Dementors would possibly give kids Nightmares, Voldemort and Snakes would probably cause parents to think of Satan, and the deaths of good people would make children very...puzzled? But, Harry Potter should not be banned because overall they are a children's story, and they have brought much joy to kids around the world for years now, the Potter books deserve a seat on the shelves of libraries everywhere. Potter is a children's tale, children's tales should not be banned.

Parents who buy their children books have the right to dictate what books they do and do not read, and I respect this. But these parents should not go on a book ban because they saw it not fit for their child. Just because a book is not suited for you does not mean it will not be suited for everyone. Not many people like Stephen King's rawness, but maybe the next person does. There is no reason you should ban a book because you don't like it. Yes you have the decision to not read the book, but not the decision to not let everyone else read the book. Most books that are banned shouldn't have been banned, and that's why only a few have been taken off the banned reading list such as-Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird. Every writer who writes a book like our writer Henry, who wrote the book with damn in it has the right to write that book and keep that book on the shelf. No writer should have to be guilty of writing a book that's been banned over stupid or immature reasons. I'm not saying that writers should protest to have their books to be put back on shelves, but I'm saying that they should have never come off the shelf at all. A book is a book. No one's ever made a huge deal over a bad movie, no ones ever made a big deal over the 'Internet Video's' that show stuff that should not be seen, no one has ever made a say in certain comic books, but they have the audacity to ban a perfectly good book that deserves it's seat on the shelves of libraries of the world?

Again.

"A story only lives if someone want's to listen."

And Little John want's to listen.