Kidzworld's Official Blog

Hey guys, hows it going there?

Finally, everything seems to be going back to normal. After all that tension and drama last week, I feel a bit relaxed now. Everything happens for a reason, that’s what I believe in. So maybe there’s a reason behind what happened last week? Maybe…

Anyway, today was the last day of our classes for this month. It’s rather boring when that happens. I know most people love it when they’re off from work, but I don’t. Work is the only way I can get away from certain things and have fun, so I love it. Plus it is really, really fun. It’s always good to love what you do. So, I’m going to be a little depressed and bored this week again, I am assuming since I don’t have any classes to do. But that shall not keep Asmi from writing and expressing and trying to do something in life! I have a bunch of movies to watch and I will watch them this week when I have nothing to do.

Which reminds me.. I watched Date Night! Yep, it’s really, really, really cool movie! You guys should definitely watch it. It’s a great entertainer. Steve Carrel and Tina Fey.. Oh my god.. The best couple ever! They’re like a match made in Heaven. I loved their work. I’m not going to tell you the story, you guys should just go and watch it (and I’m also a little lazy right now).

Apart from that, I am in a good mood right now, for some reason.. So I’m going to leave you guys with a bunch of song titles and you should definitely listen to them.

Wait, I’ll just leave you guys with some links.

Here’s a picture of me attending Ms Reem’s (a friend of mine) Art class. Boy, it was sooo much fun.

P.S Avril’s cover for The Scientist sucked badly, specially the ending.

Wow, this week I read some truly amazing teen books. It was a nice mix of horror, historical fiction and mystery.

Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale (author of the Pendragon series) is an incredible teen horror book. It follows Marshall Seaver, a guy with exactly one friend, Coop. But when Coop’s parents send him to his cabin for the summer, Marshall doesn’t know what to do. That’s when strange things start happening: a three-ring pattern keeps appearing, he sees blood all over the walls, and worst of all, the supervillain he created comes to life. And he wants to kill Marshall! Marshall needs help. But with his dad away on a business trip, he’s all alone. He tries to get a hold of Coop, but he finds out that Coop has gone missing! Did he run away? Or is Coop somehow connected to the horrifying things that have been happening to Marshall?

Shadow by Jenny Moss is an invigorating historical fiction novel. It follows a girl known as Shadow, who’s one and only job is to be the queen’s shadow. But when the queen dies in her sleep, Shadow must escape the castle before she is accused of murder. She leaves with a handsome Knight named Sir Kenway and sparks start to fly. But their different status in society makes a relationship impossible.

Finally, The Sight: Premonitions and Disappearance by Judy Blundell is a two-book collection. The mystery follows Gracie, a teenager who gets premonitions. In the first book, her best friend goes missing and Gracie is sure she’s been kidnapped. In the second book, some local boys find a dead body just around the same time Gracie’s dad, who left when she was 2, arrives in town. Gracie uses her premonitions to investigate the crimes, and winds up in serious trouble.

Without a doubt, I recommend all three of these books, especially The Sight. It may not be a paranormal fiction book like everyone is reading nowadays, but it’s just as good.

This week I had a couple of quick and exciting reads. Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky is a fantastic companion book to the popular owl series. It describes the lives of six guardians before they came to the great Ga’Hoole tree. In a sense, it is a short story collection, but the book comes together nicely with Otulissa, the tree’s historian, providing commentary at the beginning of each piece. Even if you didn’t read the series, you’ll enjoy this book.

The second book, Gecko & Sticky: Sinister Substitute, is fast-paced and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The villainous Damien Black has disguised himself as Dave’s substitute in order to find out who Dave, a.k.a the Gecko, is and to retrieve his powerband. But where is Dave’s real teacher, the scarastic and hated Mrs. Krockle? Is she really sick? Or has Damien Black kidnapped her? It’s up to Dave to find out.

I’d recommend both books, but for different audiences. If you’re the type of kid who likes a classicly-written story or a tale with animal characters, then The Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole is your cup of tea. If you’re more into the modern, fast-paced stories with quirky characters and funny illustrations, then Gecko & Sticky is right up your alley.

This week, we talked about the new FIFA World Cup game. Given my limited expertise in international soccer, I’m going to go ahead and predict the results of the entire World Cup, right here, right now. Not by simulating it in-game, no, I’m just going to guess. At least no one can really laugh at how terrible the picks are until July. Two teams advance from each group.

Read the rest of this entry »

Monster Hunter Tri came out this week for the Nintendo Wii, so here’s a quick rundown of all the game’s weapon classes for those who are interested.

• Bowgun: Projectile weapon with all kinds of different ammunition and all kinds of different uses.
• Sword & Shield: Sounds traditional and normal, but actually takes the most smarts to use, because you can use other items while still having your weapon out, so items are vitally important.
• Hammer: For those who don’t even care about blocking, and would rather just keep smashin’ ’til the job is done.
• Long Sword: Like a really huge, awesome katana.
• Great Sword: Powerful and able to block, but very slow.
• Lance: Shield that can’t be stopped combined with a huge long spear. Pretty tough for monsters to get around that!

Last night I watched a movie called My Sister’s Keeper. It was a wonderful movie.. But.. It was kind of depressing. It has Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin (the girl from Little Miss Sunshine), and they did a really good job in it. Its about this girl Anna who was brought into the world to be a genetic match for her older sister Kate who suffers from cancer. So, in other words Anna helping her sister live and when Kate goes into renel failure and again needs her sister, Anna sues her parents for medical release and the rights to her own body. The movie is really good, I loved it, but it can a bit too depressing for some people. I was crying from the very begining till the end, but I still loved it.

Apart from that, I just checked out the whole new Boards on KW (thanks to Huge told me about it), and I think it’s really cool. I like the little pictures of something thats related to the catagory (i.e. Football pic for the sports section), that’s really creative and attractive. Although, I might have to agree with some of users that the site kind of looks a little infantile; maybe they could change some of the colors or something. I heard some users are quitting because of the look, which is really weird in my opinion.

This is just a suggestion, but, maybe you guys should get some suggestions from some of the KW members; they might have some interesting ideas. Regardless I hope Kidzworld maintains it’s charm and continues to help kids in some way or the other.

Anywho, that’s it from me. I am gonna go walk a little and then go to bed. Its late here.

Bye guys.
Asmi.

This week was all about snarling, drooling, howling, prowling wolves! And I’ll bet you’ll be surprised to hear that neither one was a story of werewolves, especially with the whole “Jacob Black” craze going on. Instead, these two books took a different approach. Wolven by Di Toft is about a whole new brand of superpowered wolves called, you guessed it, Wolven! Whereas Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf by Kathryn Lasky is about wolves in the traditional sense of the word.

Wolven follows Nat Carver and his new “dog” Woody. Only Woody isn’t exactly the dog that Nat was expecting. He’s huge, mangy, and Nat was sure Woody sent him a telepathic message. There’s something different about that dog. Nat and Woody develop a close friendship and Nat discovers Woody’s secret: he’s a wolven–a.k.a the opposite of a werewolf. He is a wolf that transforms into a human instead of the other way around. If that isn’t troublesome enough, there is a top secret government organization who is experimenting on wolven…and they’re after Woody.

Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf, a new series by the author of Guardians of Ga’Hoole,  follows Faolan, a wolf pup who is abandoned by his pack because of a slight deformity in his paw. A grizzly bear finds him and decides to raise him as her own. But the grizzly doesn’t know the ways of wolves. And come winter she’ll have to hibernate. And Faolan will be left on his own.

Both books target young adults, ages 9-13. If you like books with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of fast-paced excitement, then definitely check out Wolven. If you’re more into realistic stories about how animals live in the wild, then Wolves of the Beyond is the one for you!

Yes, it has been an extremely boring day for me.

No movies to watch, no more books to read; even though I have around 6 unread books in my room, none of them interest me at the moment. All I wanna read is something romantic. I don’t know why, but lately I’m a sucker for Romantic-Comedies. Whether its a book or a movie, I just want to have a good time and not worry, or feel sad at the end. Right now I’m downloading My Sister’s Keeper. I’ve wanted to watch this movie for a while now, its a Drama I think.

I’ve been listening to some real great songs late; thanks to my friend Sam. And that is one thing that’s keeping me from going into temporary depression. Yes, I go into depression when my music collection isn’t increasing. Or if my knowledge in movies and Anime isn’t moving upwards. Which, by the way reminds me that I have a lot of Anime to catch up on. I might get my friend to lend me her hard drive so I could watch all the anime I want.

So apart from all this nonesense, unimportant stuff that I’m blabbing about, that’s all for now.

Will see you again, hopefully, on the next episode of, not-so-boring Asmi’s Universe.

Bye for now.
Asmi

Today I felt that even after knowing my friends from U.S.A for over 2 years, and them knowing how I live, how the Middle East is, that people still, no matter think that this part of Planet Earth is scary. Or odd, and not normal. I really don’t understand why everyone thinks that. I have lived here, grown up here, traveled to other countries close to here and yet I’m still okay, and living.

I personally think its wrong that kids out there are being influenced that no matter what, any country in the Middle East is dangerous. I know we all see that stuff on T.V and believe it. My own relatives thought that in India. They always get surprised when I tell them about my life here in Kuwait. The expect us to be living like in the 50s or something, for some reason.

But let me tell you, from my experience and knowledge. It’s not that terrifying to live here, at all. Or in the U.A.E. Although I haven’t lived there for long, I have a brother and his wife living there and I don’t think they’re having a hard time or anything. I think they’re living a great life since there are so many fun stuff you can do there such as clubbing etc.

So if you guys think that life might be so hard over here, its not. We’re quite use to the rules and regulations and we enjoy our lives here.

Here, I’ll post a link to one of my old blogs about Kuwait.

http://blog.kidzworld.com/asmi/2009/07/09/about-kuwait-2/

Let me know what you guys think about this blog, or what your opinions or whatever it is that you guys might like to say.

This week had a nice mix of young adult magic and real teenage life. The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone and Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson were both exciting for different reasons.

The Sixty-Eight Rooms is a magical adventure for kids ages 8-12. The story follows best friends Ruthie and Jack as they discover the magic of the Thorne Rooms located in the Chicago Art Institute. The Thorne Rooms are small replicas of historical rooms built in the 1930′s. But when Ruthie and Jack find a magical key, they learn that there’s more to the Thorne Rooms than meets the eye.

Scarlett Fever is the sequel to Suite Scarlett. This story for teens follows 15 year old Scarlett as she lives her crazy life in Manhattan. She works for a demanding theatrical agent, her brother–an actor–gets his big break, she’s working with a new client whose brother is an utter pain in the behind, and she can’t seem to get over her sort-of-ex-boyfriend. Oh, and did I mention she lives in a hotel!