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// Facey, A. B. (2005). A Fortunate Life. Camberwell: Penguin. //

 * <  Questions: ||< === Classic – Title: **A Fortunate Life**  ===

 -Author: **Albert B. Facey**
||< ** Modern – Title: The Necromancer ** ** -Author: Michael Scott ** || Albert's mother is not a very nice person as, to her, money is one of the most important things on earth. She did not accept Albert into her household when he, his siblings, and his grandma followed his mother into the souh-west. Albert's grandma is a considerate, caring, hardworking, principled, and selfless person that brought Albert and most of his siblings up when their mother left for the south-west and later when she did not accept them back into her house. She was energetic and strong-willed all the way up to her death, at more than nienety years of age. ||< The two main characters in a 'The Necromancer' are the fifteen-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh Newman. Sophie is good in class and at making friends, she also usually thinks before she acts. Josh, however, is reckless, and usually acts befor he thinks, he is not as good at making friends as his sister. Josh is, however, very loyal and he is very close to is sister. This is because their parents are archaeologists, and they are often away on trips or conferences, also, because of their job, Sophie and Josh's parents move around a lot, this makes it hard to make friends and increases the twins bond and their reliance on each other. Nicholas Flamel and Perenelle Flamel are more than 600 years old, they are a married couple, and Perenelle is ten years older than Nicholas. Nicholas Flamel is famous as __the__ Alchemyst, rumoured to have discovered the formula necessary to create gold and also discovered the secret of eternal life. Dr. Dee was born in the Elizabethan age, in England. He served two queens and it is said that he chose the coronation date of Queen Victoria. He is ambitious, intelligent, powerful, and insane. He fought fanatically for his Elder Masters, then, in The Necromancer, the latest, and fourth book in the series, he turned against them and began fighting against them for himself. Nicollo Machiavelli was born in Florence during the Renaissance, he manipulated European politics for centuries, he masterminded the Napoleonic Wars, and in the series, is currently French Minister of Foreign Affairs, the head of the Secret Service. He is cunning, ruthless, highly intelligent, and extremely dangerous. He is not, however, he is not a fanatic, he often questions his path in life, and the cause he is currently fighting for. || Albert's mother, however, left for the gold fields in the southwest when Albert was a small child. When Albert, his siblings, and his grandma followed his mother, she did not let the children move in with her, instead, their Aunt took them in. Later in their life, when the children were older and earned money, she invited them to live with her and her new husband in the city and attempted to obtain some of her children's hard-earned money. ||< John Dee and Nicollo Machiavelli are constant rivals, competing for their Elder Masters' favor, even though situations often require that they work together, as they are on the same side. Nicholas Flamel and Perenelle Flamel are a married couple and have been so for 600 years, they are completely devoted to one another, which has saved them many times in their long lives. In the series, they guide the Sophie and Josh as the twins are plunged into the ongoing, ancient, conflict between ever-changing factions of Elders and other equally ancient creatures. As Sophie and Josh have been moving from city to city for their entire short, lives, they have had a lot of trouble making friends. This has increased their reliance on each-other and has strengthened their twin bond. When the series starts, they are living in San Francisco while Sophie's best friend lives back in New York, on of the many cities they lived in in the last few years. ||  a) Find examples of; colourful adjectives, similes, metaphor, dramatic irony, etc..  b) Find a quote (with page number) for each example. ||< Albert Facey tells the story in a very direct way. He does not use formal language, instead using a combination of both. He uses some 'bush words' that are not as commonly used now. e.g. tucker.
 * <  1. Describe the **time and place** in which your novel is set. What clues within the book tell us this? ||< 1894-1982. The dates are listed in the book but other indicators are: the way that settlers were striving to make a better life in what was bush and is now the wheat belt, farms, etc., the modes of transportation used, eg. horses, steamtrains, and horse-drawn carriages, and the events described in the book, eg. the gold rush, or Gallipoli. ||< Current times. It says so in the book. Other clues are the modes of transportation used, such as cars, planes, etc., the technology used such as mobile phones, the internet, etc., the events that the characters recall, such as their trips to New York, and 9/11. ||
 * <  2. Who are the main **characters** in your book? List the names and a short description of their personality traits. ||< The main character in A Fortunate Life is Albert Facey. He is a straightforward boy that bounces back from hardships and sees the bright side of many things. He endured hardships yet still sees his life as a fortunate one.
 * <  3. Describe the **significant relationships** between the main characters. ||< Albert had a very strong bond with his grandmother as she took care of him and his brothers and sisters as well as any mother. Although they had to work hard to keep the family eating regularly and living with a roof over their heads, she genuinely cared for them and often attempted to lighten their workload. She also let the children keep the money they earned doing independent jobs for other families and businesses.
 * <  4. Who is your favourite character and why? **Or** - Who is the character that you can most closely relate to and why? ||< My favourite character is Albert, the main character and the writer of the autobiography. He suffered child abuse, mistreatment, and other hardships as a child, while as an adult he went through the gore of Gallipoli and many other ordeals. Yet he survived these hardships and ordeals with his hope and good humor intact, eventually marrying, settling down, and raising a family. Even in his old age, he remained active, drawing on his long memory and writing his biography with the help of his wife. He finished his autobiography after her death and died of old age a year or two after. ||< My favourite character is Nicollo Machiavelli. This is because he is extremely intelligent and cunning. He works behind the scenes, not enjoying the spotlight, and is calculating, and cautious. He is not a fanatic to his Elders, far from it, instead, he has devoted himself to discovering everything he can about the Elders and beast that have roamed the world for eons. He often doubts his path and has internal conflicts over his deeds. His motto is 'knowledge is power'. ||
 * <  5. Describe the **style of language** and **literary devices** that the author uses.

He uses a lot of descriptive words when describing new places and relates his private feelings and opinions in a descriptive way.

When Albert wrote A Fortunate Life, he was 88 years old. Writing the book was extremely hard for him as he never had an education because he started working on farms at the age of eight. ||< The story is told using casual, as opposed to formal, language. A lot of words, terms, and names used are from different civilizations across the globe and through history. One such term is:

p.196. Macuahuitl: Aztec sword which resembles a club inlaid with small, flat, sharp, objects. Macuahuitls are often carved and inlaid with precious minerals. || 1. It appeals to all ages. The people who sent letter to Albert after A Fortunate Life's publication were from six-year-olds, to old people. 2. It has stood the test of time. People have continued reading it since it was published because it paints such an accurate picture of the time at which Albert Facey grew up and gives insights on the lives that people led then. 3. It teaches. It gives insights and paints pictures of how life went on then and the hardships people went through. ||< The Necromancer is an example of modern literature because: However, it has many features which makes it __very__ likely that it will become a classic.  Describe **//your feelings//** towards the novel.  Did you **//enjoy//** it, why or why not?  Did you find it easy to get into? Did you like it the more that you read it?  Would you read more books by the same author, or of a similar genre? ||< I think that A Fortunate Life is an excellent book. It is well written and Albert Facey really wrote from his heart, describing his personal feelings and views freely.
 * <  6. Is your book an example of ‘**classic’ or ‘modern’ literature**? You must use evidence to back up your stance. For example; has your book stood the ‘test of time’? Are there theme’s that will transcend time? ||< A Fortunate Life is a classic because:
 * 1) It is an extremely recent book, having been published in 2010. However, it has a significant chance of becoming a classic and surviving the test of time.
 * 1) It appeals to a wide audience range. Its audience range is from ten+.
 * 2) Since the story uses words, objects, history, and is set in many different countries from across the globe, it appeals to a wide range of different cultures and has been translated into many different languages. ||
 * < <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> 7. After reading the book, write a short note to a friend **__describing the book__**. Include a description of the **//genre//**, **//setting//** and **//difficulty level//**. You need to also include the following information; What were the main **//themes//** in the book? What was the **//central conflict//**? How was it resolved?

He paints a vivid picture of his surroundings and the times the autobiography takes place in, giving us valuable insights on how people lived and worked, how society was structured then, and the hardships that the country people faced on a daily basis.

I really enjoyed reading this book, even though sometimes, I could not understand his reactions to various events. For example, when the Australian government was trying to recruit men to fight in World War 1, Albert chose to join the army. I would never even think of doing that. The differences between the two reactions are because, today, we are better informed of what takes place during wars and other armed conflicts. Another reason I enjoyed the book, was how honestly and freely Albert talked about his feelings, impressions, and opinions towards different things.

This is an example of the type of book that, once you start, you cannot put down. A Fortunate Life absorbed me up to the very last page.

I would be very willing to read more books of a similar genre because autobiographies like that really feel like the main character is telling the story, and when told in such a honest way, the story is enthralling and impossible to put down. ||< I think that the Necromancer is an excellent and masterfully written book, just like the rest of its series. The series is one of my favourite, and I am convinced that the series will survive the test of time.

The story is written in the 3rd person and is a narrative. I rank its difficulty level at about ten years and above.

The series is set in the modern world. The story revolves around an ancient conflict between the many ancient Elders and Next Generation that have lived on this world for eons since the fall of Dani Talis, their island paradise. When the island sunk beneath the waves, many Elders, beasts, and creatures even more ancient escaped, along with the ancestors of the Humani, the humans, who served as slaves on Danu Talis before it fall. Many ages passed after that, with the Elders being worshiped by dozens of ancient human civilization. But the humans only grew great after Abraham the Mage created of the Codex, a volume which contains all of the world's knowledge, a volume made up of ever-changing letters, with some parts only appearing at specific dates. The Codex is 21 pages thick. Weaving a spell that he himself had written into the Codex, Abraham banished the Elders from the Earth, the ones that chose to remain had less power than they used to. Further weakening them was their aversion to iron, which was toxic to most of them. To combat this, they used human agents that they made immortal themselves. This is the world that Sophie & Josh Newman have landed themselves in. In one swift afternoon, everything changed; they found that the couple which they both admired, Nick and Perry Fleming, revealed that they were actually called Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel and are over 600 years old. This and an ancient prophecy inscribed in the Codex thrusts them into the ancient battle between Elders.

The story has not actually reached its resolution in //The Necromancer//, and two more books are coming out in 2011 and 2012.

The story is an excellent read and I strongly recommend it to other people, be it a boy or a girl. ||