Title: Leviathan #2: Behemoth

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Steampunk

Rating:5 out of 5

Blurb:The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's 

Thoughts: I read Leviathon a little while ago and really enjoyed it. I was excited to find the sequel, Behemoth, when I returned Leviathan to the library.

I like the way these books are written, taking real facts and twisting them to fit into this amazing story. I was delighted every time I recognized real facts.

Normally I'm good at guessing what is coming up in a story, but in Behemoth I couldn't. Most of the surprises were well kept, making it a very exciting read.

Have you read Behemoth? What did you think? Are you good at guessing plots?

Mum and I are in the car traveling to my orthodontist appointment. We are chatting as we drive along.

"Hopefully you'll have your braces off by Christmas," Mum says. I grin at the idea.

"I hope so. I will have had them around two years," I reply. It's hard to believe I've had them for so long. "What a pity they won't be off in time for Callum's wedding," I comment. My brother Callum is getting married in only a few weeks. It would be awesome to have nice teeth for the photos.

We arrive at the orthodontist. I sit down in the chair and wait while the orthodontist examines my teeth. He's very silent.

What have I done wrong? Did I forget to do something he asked?

The orthodontist clears his throat. "How would you like to get your braces off?" he asks.

I stare up at him in shock. He must be joking! I'm at a loss for words.

The orthodontist chuckles at my lack of an answer. "I'd have thought you would be eager to get them off," he teases.

I'm too surprised and delighted to say anything for the rest of the appointment.

Before we leave, the orthodontist sets a date and time for me to have my braces taken off. I only have to wait a week and a half!

As we hop into the car I find my voice again. "I can't believe it!" I cry.

Mum smiles at my excitement.

"They will be off in time for Callum's wedding," I realize.

"It's perfect timing," Mum says.

"I thought the orthodontist was joking when he asked if I wanted them taken off," I confess.

"I didn't know what he was talking about," Mum laughs. She's silent for a moment. "We will have to go up to Sydney to get them off. Do you think Imogen would like to come?"

I nod. "I reckon she would. Anyway she can navigate the trains better than we can."

Mum has an idea. "Let's not tell her you're getting your braces off. We will just ask her if she wants to come on a trip to Sydney with us. I wonder if she will guess what's happening."

I like the sound of her plan. I jiggle the whole way home in anticipation.

We pull into our driveway and I follow Mum inside the house. We head straight to where Imogen is practicing the piano.

"Would you like to join Sophie and I on a trip to Sydney?" Mum asks her.

Imogen looks from my massive grin to Mum. "Of course," she agrees. After a moment she adds to me, "You're getting your braces off, aren't you?"

"You guessed it," I cry. Imogen can't be fooled.

"I knew as soon as you entered the house," Gemma-Rose tells us. "Why else would you look so happy?"

In just ten days I will be traveling up to Sydney on the train. When I come back I'll have the perfect grin!

Have you had braces? What did you think of them?

The hardest part of creating a YouTube channel (apart from filming the videos) is setting your channel up. When I created mine I read millions of tutorials on how to make everything look awesome.

Today I decided to share what I've learned by making a series of videos on how to set up a YouTube channel.

Would you like to watch the first video is my series? In it I show you how to create playlists, add a channel trailer and many other things.

Once again I've been experimenting in the kitchen. Last time we went shopping, Mum bought goji berries. I had never tasted goji berries before and I was interested to see what recipes I could invent using them. Today I thought I'd share my first recipe: goji berry and chocolate scones.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups of milk
1 tbs of lemon juice
2 cups of plain flour
1/4 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
70 grams of cold butter
1 cup of oats
1/3 cups of dried goji berries
70 grams of chopped chocolate
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1/4 cup of rice malt syrup (or honey)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. In a small bowl mix milk and lemon juice together. Put this mix to one side.
3. In a big bowl mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
4. Rub in the butter until it becomes fine crumbs.
5. Tip in goji berries, chocolate, vanilla essence and rice malt syrup. Mix it all up.
6. Stir in the milk and lemon juice mix.
7. Knead until it becomes a dough.
8. Cut your dough into 8-12 scones.
9. Put your scones in the oven and cook them for 20 minutes.
10. Serve and enjoy!

If you try this recipe please tell me what you think! I hope you enjoy.

What was the last thing you baked? What is your favourite recipe? Do you like goji berries?

Visit her blog: Gebbles Writes

Life is very exciting at the moment, I don't have a single idle moment. I thought that today I'd share with you a few things I've been doing (or six snapshots from my life).


I've got a new blog design! I spent the last week setting the template up on my test blog getting it ready to go live over here.

This template was harder to set up than any other I've ever set up before, but I had a lot of fun. It challenged my knowledge of HTML.

I like how this template has so many different ways of showing off my posts. I've got a slider, a featured post in the sidebar on the main page, some posts in the menu and, of course, I’ve got my popular post gadgets.

Speaking of blogging and HTML, setting up this template made me remember Codecademy. Codecademy is a website that has FREE HTML lessons.

I was using Codecademy a few months ago, but I got busy and stopped doing the lessons. I wanted to go back and finish off the course.

I'm enjoying doing a couple of lessons a day. I hope that one day, using the knowledge I've learned, I'll be able to make my own Blogger templates.

While doing these lessons, I'm starting to realize just how useful it is to know a bit of HTML. I can now format my blog posts manually to make them look awesome!


Another thing that's going to look awesome is ME! My brother, Callum, is getting married in five weeks. Mum, my older sisters and I have been trying to find clothes to wear to the wedding.

We looked online and found a website selling beautiful dresses. After a long time looking through them all, we picked out one for each of us girls and ordered them.

A few days later, they arrived in the mail. Excitedly, we rushed to our rooms to try on our dresses. Imogen’s and Charlotte's dresses look amazing, but there was a slight problem with mine. It was too big. Much too big. The waistline hung around my knees, and it was very baggy.

We had to send it back and pick a new one for me. We're now waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I hope it will fit better than the last one!

Dress shops online are really useful. Recently I found something else online: Fitness Blender.

Fitness Blender is a YouTube channel that makes workout videos you can follow at home. Every afternoon I've been disappearing into my bedroom to do one of their workouts.

I'm finding myself looking forward to my workouts each day. There is nothing more satisfying than finishing a hard workout and rewarding myself with a shower, cup of tea and perhaps a good book.

I've got a lot of new good books I can read after my workouts. On Friday Mum and Charlotte had to go into town for an appointment. Mum suggested that Imogen, Gemma-Rose and I come with them and visit the library while they were busy. We jumped at the suggestion. I'm always eager to find some new books to read.

One of the books I found was Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. I borrowed the first book in the series, Leviathan, last time I went to the library. I enjoyed it very much, so I'm excited to have Behemoth to read now.

When Mum and Charlotte got back from their appointment, we all went to buy some lunch at a shopping centre food court. There wasn't a single free table to eat inside the mall so we took our cheese rolls and milkshakes down to the lake. I love picnics. Eating at the park turned out to be much more fun than eating inside. Perhaps it was a good thing there were no tables.

What have you been doing recently? Have you discovered anything interesting? Do you like exercising? What are you currently reading?