About Me: I'm Back!

 Hi all, so sorry for the long wait but I have finally finished my exams (or at least I will be done tomorrow once I sit my final A-Level Maths exam). This has been one of the hardest times of my life and I have had to give up so much in order to be able to achieve the grades that I need to make the life I have dreamed of since I can remember a reality. I stopped reading and I stopped watching TV, which were the only 2 things that made my life bearable. I dedicated every moment I could to revising and preparing for what some people say are the biggest exams of your life. These determine my future, where I go to university and what course I am able to do, so I revised between 6-9 hours every school day and nearly 12 hours of weekends, something that, only now I realise, was the most insane thing I could do. This took an extreme toll on my mental and physical health, but now that it is all over I can relax. Now I just have to wait nearly 2 months for the results and hope that I didn't do all of this for nothing. 

Now I hope to release book reviews once a week, starting from next week, and I am just so excited to start reading again. I know that many are unfamiliar with the love of reading that I possess, however my goal is to try to convince as many of you as possible to pick up a book and finally embrace the magic that they contain. Books transform you and teleport you to worlds that will never appear on a real map or on a screen, worlds that contain creatures and magic that seems impossible. However, books make anything seem possible and to this day I still believe there is magic in the world because books exists. Books are what made me who I am today. Books are what help me get through the tough days. Books are always there for me and I know they always will be. Even when I feel completely alone, like no one understands me, a book is always there to make me feel like I belong. And that is a feeling everyone deserves. Giving all this up nearly killed me, but now I am back and hopefully for good. 

About Me: Update

Currently I have been studying Law, Economics and Maths and this year I am actually going to sit my A-Level exams. I have been dreading this moment since I started college in September last year, however it still came and a lot quicker than I had expected. Because these exams determine my entire future and whether or not I actually get into university, I have been spending 95% of my life revising and making sure that I am as prepared as I possibly can be when May comes and I have to actually sit the exams. Unfortunately, because my life now revolves around my studies I will not be posting any book reviews until I finish my exams at the end of June because if I continue to read I will always have that as an option that will keep me from properly revising for my exams. To some this may seem ridiculous and excessive but I know that if I continue to read and then my results aren't what I wanted I will feel like it was all my fault and I could have avoided it all by just using the time I spend reading to revise. Now I have my mocks coming up and I need to do as well as I possibly can to prove to myself I can do this. Giving up reading, one of the things that brings me joy and makes existing more bearable, is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do and I don't know if I will survive without my one escape. However, I know it will be over soon and once I finish my exams I will have all the time in the world to escape this mundane world and discover a new extraordinary one. 

About Me: Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I know that this is rather odd, but I just felt like saying something this Christmas, mainly because I am always reminded of books and why I love to read around this time. When the weather starts to cool and it becomes too cold to go outside for walks without coming back freezing, it is the perfect weather to stay indoors and do nothing other than curl up under the covers with a book. Not only that but I also have to give people suggestions on what to get me for as a Christmas, which for me means taking out my trusty list of books that I don't yet own but would love to read and adding another couple dozen on there. 

To me, Christmas means books, especially because my family is Spanish and we also celebrate 'El Día de los Reyes Magos' and always get books on that day. This means that when I get back after the holidays I just talk a ridiculous amount about all the books I read and got as gifts. You would think that after getting 30 books for Christmas it would no longer seem so special to get gifted another, but to me getting books will always be special because they simply thinking about them and the adventures I have gone on and have yet to experience makes me feel so happy. I will always appreciate another story because every story is different and the best thing about books is that I get so much use out of them because I can read them multiple times over and also lend them to my friends. 

In reality, people who give me books are giving me so much more than just words on paper – they are giving me the best gift imaginable: an escape from reality. Which brings me to why it is that I read when so many people claim that it is boring and it would be much better to watch TV: I read because I get to experience the adventures the characters go on as if I was one of them and I get to visit worlds that will never make it to a screen because no matter how many movie adaptations they make there will always be a book that will never become a movie or TV show and those who don't read will never get to see what I have seen. Not only that but I get to escape reality when I read and I completely forget about all my worries. Reading is the best thing this world has ever given us and the only true magic on Earth. I am proud to call myself a reader and I hope those of you who read my reviews are too. 

So Merry Christmas and I hope you all get all the books you wished for!

Reviews: Update

Recently, I joined a program at college (Aspire program) whose aim is to help those high achieving students to be able to make it into the more competitive universities (like Oxford and Cambridge) and into the more challenging career paths (Law, Mathematics, Medicine, etc.). As I have decided that I will most likely pursue a career in Law, I signed up for this Aspire program to specifically help me to gain more knowledge on how to stand out on a university application. 

One thing that the program heavily focuses on is on helping us with our super curricular activities, which are activities beyond what we learn on the school syllabus that help us broaden our knowledge on our chosen subject. So far I have watched TED Talks, read articles and now I have begun to read books linked to Law and have to review them. 

There will now be some slightly different reviews on my blog, as I have to follow the layout that my Aspire teacher wants me to use, however I will also try to add some more information about the books I read in case any of you would also like to read them. For me it's both annoying and exciting to get to read books not only for enjoyment, but also for my education. Anyways, I hope you all are still keeping up with your reading and as always I hope that my reviews are helping you to find more books that make reading feel like a escape from reality, rather than a punishment. 

About Fabiola: Update

I am extremely excited to inform you all that little sister, Fabiola, has finally begun to read chapter books! She told me about this just the other day and she was over the moon. She has always been a fast learner, always eager to go to school and do work (which seems like a difficult thing for me to wrap my head around because who would ever want to go to school and learn). She was so excited at the prospect of finally being able to read books like me that she begged to start a review immediately after finishing her first book. 

Unsurprisingly, I was so glad to have her review books, and longer ones, too, because as you all know I am constantly falling behind on my reviews and, hopefully, with Fabiola's help I should be able to catch up quickly and maybe even get ahead. I can't wait for you all to see her first proper review, which will be published next week. Hopefully you guys think its as amazing as I think it is – she really did work incredibly hard and I am so proud. 

Stay positive and keep reading! (And maybe try to encourage your little siblings – or older ones – to read more too!)

About Me: Merry Christmas!

Hi all! I know that this is completely random, but I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to anyone who is reading my blog. I hope that around this time of year, my blog is a little more useful than usual because now you are all probably trying to add things to your Christmas List and are looking through my blog for anything you may find of interest. The majority of the books I review are those that I get gifted around this time, so I hope that a lot of you are also hoping to get books for Christmas, though I know that the number of teens reading is quickly diminishing and soon there will be only us strong readers. 

I also wanted to say, as a reminder to you all, why I continue with this blog, even after finishing my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award (which, by the way, I finally got after completing it 2 years ago). I keep reviewing books because books are my passion and right now I feel like I don't have any purpose in life because I truly have no clue what to do in the future. But, when I read, all of those feelings disappear and its just me and the characters of the story going on an incredible adventure. It is while I'm reading that I feel completely unstoppable as I fight dragons and demons and sorcerers, which feels so much easier than facing reality. Books are my escape and all of the books that I review here, and all the ones from my childhood, are a part of me. 

Lots of people tell me that what I read isn't real and that I should stop thinking about it. But these people just don't understand. To me, and any other reader you encounter, books are not just words on paper; books are adventures just waiting to begin and characters waiting to take you on them. Deep down, I know that magic isn't real and that all the fictional stories that I read will never be truth. However, I will never admit to having these feelings because for me, books are real and all the characters I have read about are real, because they live through me.

I hope you guys understand what I am saying, and if you don't yet, then keep reading because I am sure that you will find the answer to every question buried somewhere within a book. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish you all the best for next year. 

About Me: A Levels

Now the real reason I am writing this is because of how behind I am on my book reviews, but I do have some things to update on. 

Firstly, just the other day I went back to my secondary school for what had to be the most stressful and embarrassing day ever. It was an awards evening for the last academic year, meaning the Year 8s would get awards for Year 7, the Year 9s for Year 8 and so on – so us Year 12s were getting our official GCSE certificates and awards from the school for attainment and progress in each subject. My mum had gotten an email saying that I was going to get an award, but in the end I came home with my official GCSE certificates, my Bronze Duke of Edinburgh certificate (which is why I started this blog to begin with) and 3 pieces of paper from the school – one for attainment in Maths, another for attainment in History and the last for excelling academically in all my subjects from Year 7 all the way to Year 11. And that wasn’t all, I also went home knowing that my name is on a plaque on the wall in my school there for all who go there to see because I am that academic year’s Dux, which is apparently the highest academic award that any pupil can ever achieve. It was quite stressful to have to go up in front of everyone, but I suppose I am quite glad that the school finally recognised me for all I have done.

Now it is time to explain the new parts of my life as I finally move on from my secondary school and will (hopefully) never have to return.

As I said previously, I started my A-Levels this year and I am doing Law, Economics, Maths and Spanish (only as AS-Level) and it is all way harder than I had previously though. 

Ever since starting at Godalming College, it has been a hectic whirlwind of homework after homework and then exam after exam; I feel like I never have a spare moment. I wake up at 6:00 every morning and don't come home until almost 6:00 in the evening, and it takes me more than an hour to get to college and another to get back home. And if that isn’t bad enough, I also have to learn giant textbooks full of information in less than 2 years and then do some exams in May 2024 which will determine my future at university and for the rest of my life. I thought I was stressed for my GCSEs, but this is more stress than I can handle. 

The worst thing about this all is that I literally just did my GCSEs last year and had been literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown and this is going to be even worse and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to cope. I just wish it was possible to just pause time so I could truly recover from all of my exams last year and feel truly prepared for my A Levels in less than 2 years’ time. 

Currently, there is only one thing keeping me going: the fact that I am actually close to figuring out what I want to do with my life. I am still not entirely sure – which is extremely stressful because in less than a year I need to start applying to university and deciding the course that I want to spend 4 years of my life focusing on – but I have a feeling that I may go into Law. There is no other subject out of the ones that I am doing that is calling out to me like Law and, as soon as I started learning the content, I absolutely loved it (even though my teacher is the most irritating woman alive and there is so much work to be put in). I just hope that when the time comes for me to submit my applications for university all my doubts have been cleared and I know for sure Law is what I would like to do. 

Anyways, I will keep reviewing books for as long as I am and I will continue to update you all as I go along with my A Levels and prepare for the next giant step in my life – university! 

Keep reading and keep working hard – I promise it will all be worth it in the end. 

About Me: Results

Hi guys, I hope you all had a great summer and are ready for another year of school and hard work. I just wanted to let you know (though I'm sure many of you don't really care) that I got exactly what I wanted for my GCSE results. There were a couple of subjects that I got one grade less than what I wanted, but overall I am very pleased and proud of how I did. I am glad to know that all my hard work was definitely worth it and now I feel like I could achieve anything and that I can definitely ace my A levels if I work just as hard as I did for GCSEs.

For my A levels I will be doing Mathematics, Economics, Law and Spanish (only as AS level). Traditionally you only do 3 subjects, but somehow I was convinced, when I went in for enrolment at my college, to do a AS Spanish as well. I am still a bit concerned that it will be too much, but I am fluent so hopefully it all turns out alright. 

I hope all of you who have done exams this year got what you wanted and any of you who will be doing exams in the future are ready and achieve what you want and need for later in life. Good luck and keep reading – it is a great way to escape reality for a little while, forget all your troubles and go on wonderful adventures that would never seem possible on planet Earth.

About Me: Update

Hi everyone. As you all know, I started this blog for my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award 2 years ago. I kept it going throughout year 10 and 11 due to my love of reading and how it really helped me process and consolidate what I had read. I have decided I'm also going to use this blog to share any experiences that I think might help other people and to show that although I try hard to live life like the magical fantasies I read about, life is just not like that. So I'm going to begin by explaining the most hectic year I have had.

This year I went through one of the most stressful times I've ever known: I completed my GCSEs. For those of you who don't know what GCSEs are, they are set of exams on all the subjects you were taught in secondary school that occur in May-June time. For the past two years I've been studying towards these exams hoping and dreading that they would be cancelled like in previous years due to the pandemic. I'm not sure if I was fortunate or unfortunate by the fact that I did sit my exams, but either way I sat 28 exams starting from the 16th of May and finishing on the 23rd of June. 

I spent year 10 and 11 in my room revising every second that I had because I was not going to fail my exams or get low grades because I didn't work hard enough. I know that I might have been a bit hard on myself but at least this way I know I did everything I could to make sure that I got the grade that I deserved. Now I know it's still not a really good representation of what you are like as a person and what you could really achieve, but these exams define everything and I was not about to let them define my future in the wrong way. 

For the past few months I have been told by friends, family and even teachers that I should not work as hard as I am working and that I should relax a little bit, but they don't know is that you can't achieve the top grades by only doing a couple of hours of revision a day. So, as a result, I sat down at my desk and revised for over 6 hours every evening, which is basically all the time that we have after school. For a while I lost all confidence in myself and all motivation, but I kept reminding myself that the main goal was to see those grades and know that I deserve them and hopefully they were what I wanted.

Another thing that really kept me going was the fact that one of my friends was working equally as hard as me and I always knew that, when I was sat at my desk, she was also sat at hers and, when I was struggling to keep going, she was also struggling. I know that there were probably many other people who were also working just as hard as me and if you're one of those people who is able to work that hard and to keep going then all I can say to you is to not listen to what anyone says because in the end it's your grades and it's your life, so you work as hard as you want and as hard as you can because in the end it will all be worth it because you will be able to achieve anything through hard work. It may take you a while and it might lead to many sleepless nights or nights where you just cry yourself to sleep because, believe me, it is not easy, but I think and hope that it is going to lead to success in the end. (My view may change when I get my results though!)

Now, if you're the kind of person who doesn't work and thinks that they can just cram all of their revision into the night before the exam then I have a very different piece of advice for you. Work and work hard because in the end it will be worth it and even if you are thinking that you can't get any good grades because you're too dumb or just don't have the motivation, but you will be able to do it if you just set a goal. My goal might be impossible in some people's eyes and I might have extremely high expectations myself, but each person is different and if you are just aiming for a pass, then work for it and don't let anything stand in your way. 

Some of you may be thinking that I'm only saying this stuff because I have a very clear idea of what I want to do in the future and I have a clear goal, so it's not that hard for me to stay motivated. However, my life is completely different and I don't know anything about what I want to do in the future. I try so hard to think about what I may want to do, but it is impossible. I don't know what I like, when I'm good at, what I want to do, and I don't know how I'm going to figure out what job I want in the future, especially at this age. There is so much pressure on teenagers and most people don't see it. But I know that if I work hard and I try my best that maybe, when I get to the point where I actually know what I want to do, that I have the grades that I need for it and all my life wasn't just wasted. So if you know what you want to do, don't let anything stop you from achieving your dream, but if you are in the same situation as I am in and you have no clue and you don't know when you are never going to find out, then just keep going and just keep hoping that one day you'll find out.

I will be getting my GCSE results on the 25th of August (I have to wait 2 months and it is torture!) and I can't stop thinking about what I will see when I open them. If you don't know, the grading system for these exams is numbers. The highest you can get is a 9 (above an A*) and the pass grade is a 4 (a low C). I want all 7s, 8s and 9s (As and above). This may seem like a lot or little for some people, but everyone has different expectations, so you aim for what is right for you. 

While I was revising and preparing for my exams, I made the decision to not read as it would have just made things a lot more stressful as I would have had a lot less time to revise. However, I don't know if it would have actually been better if I did read, but I am glad that now all my exams are over and I can finally pick up a book and read like I've been meaning to the past few months. If you've been following my posts then it may seem weird to you that I carried on posting a review every week on Wednesdays as I normally do, but the main reason for that is due to the fact that during the summer holidays I spent the whole time reading and I read practically a book a day, so I ended up with so many book reviews this summer that I decided to have them scheduled to publish each week. So by the time I finished my exams I had caught up to the point where I had my scheduled reviews, so the next review will be in real time and will be the first book that I have picked up since December. 

I hope you continue to enjoy reading my reviews and they help you find a book you love. I also hope that you find this helpful and if you are struggling in school with anything at all that this helps you stay hopefully. So my final message to you all is to be brave and stay strong because, even though things seem tough, it will all be worth it in the end.  

ABOUT MY SISTERS!

My 11 year old sister, Aldara, has never liked reading, but, despite her constant complaints about books, she finally found a book - a murder mystery that I recommended - which she absolutely loved. Aldara quickly sped through the book eagerly updating me on all the mysterious clues and who she suspected the murderer was. As she neared the end of the book, I decided to ask her if she wanted to write a review. Aldara has always liked writing and she immediately agreed to it, looking forward to adding her own reviews to my blog. She has just begun to start writing her first review and it will soon be published. She hopes to read a range of books and write as many reviews as me!

My youngest sister Fabiola is 5 years old and has only just started to learn how to read. Fabiola has always been a very determined and independent little girl and when she decided that she wanted to read, my mum was happy to help. She recently started learning her phonics last year and has advanced so much. She know reads short books with ease and is way beyond the level required at her age. When Fabiola heard that both me and Aldara were writing reviews on my blog, she begged me to help her write her own. Fabiola focused for a very long time typing out everything she could to make her review as good as ours (even though they are a lot shorter). In a few days I will publish her work of art, and maybe she will want to write another review soon. 

ABOUT ME!!

Hi, my name is Jimena and I am a year 9. I decided to start this blog as the skills section for my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. My goals are to share my reading experiences with the world and to read as many different genres of books to find out which ones I like or dislike, I really want to try books that I have never heard of before. So far my favourite types of books are mystery books, especially murder mysteries. I like to find out who the murderer is before the main character does and, when I read these books, I always feel as though I am there with the characters or sometimes I feel that I am the main character. I hope to practice explaining why I love some books and why I find other books less interesting or appealing and I hope to help other children find books that they enjoy reading. I know that for some people reading is a punishment and I hope to be able to change these peoples’ minds and share my love of reading with everyone I can. I enjoy reading because it is a way to escape from the real world and discover new magical adventures where you don’t have to worry about anything else, and I think that others deserve to try this wonderful experience. I hope that my blog is helpful for you and that you find a book that you enjoy.