Hanaka English Blog

Book Review  The Black Tulip , by Alexandre Dumas ( 1840s )    This week I read  The Black Tulip.  This story was sometimes sad , but interesting. I wrote down three quotes and will discuss them. The first one is: 'Who was Jacob Gisels?Jacob Gisels was Isaac Boxtel! Why was Isaac Boxtel in Lovenstein? He wanted the black tulip! He wanted to win 1000000 guilders!'  ( p.48 ) . I was wondering who Jacob Gisels was until then , but I finally found it here. He is an obscene man ,  so I didn ’ t like him. The second one is: 'This beautiful flower will be called "Rosa Van Baerle". Cornelius Van Baerle , here is your wife. You are free. Rosa , here is your husband. You have both won the prize of 1000000 guilders!'  (p.63).  I was glad because Cornelius could be free and the achievement of Cornelius and Rosa was recognized by Prince William. The last one is: 'I have read this letter and now I know the truth,' Prince William said to the people. (p.

Book Review   The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (1911) This week I read The Phantom of the Opera . This book is a horror story. I liked this story and I couldn’t stop reading because I was worried about its continuation. I wrote down three quotes and will discuss them. The first one is: “Then I will send a wonderful teacher to my daughter. I will send the Angel of Music to her.” (p.12). When I read this sentence, I thought what the Angel of Music is. Is its real angel? Is this story fantasy? Anyway, I still didn’t know what Angel of Music was. The Second one is: Raoul looked at the young woman on the stage. “I know her,” he said (p.19). I was surprised when I read this scene because Raoul and the young woman, Christine, met by chance for the first time in 10 years. At this time, I thought there were some reason why they met again and I wanted keep reading more. The last one is: “Yes, I can love you,” Christine said. “I sang for you. You were my wonderful tea

Book Review THE WRONG TROUSERS, by Bill Bowler (2003) This week I read THE WRONG TROUSERS . This book is a comedy story. There were some parts that I didn’t understand, but this book was interesting for me. I wrote down three quotes and will discuss them. The first one is: “The penguin had the control panel!” (p.17). From this point on, I found that the guest penguin was a really bad guy, but the scene where Wallace, a man, was controlled by the penguin was interesting. The Second one is: “A second later the penguin landed in the milk bottle and the diamond bag landed in Gromit’s other hand.” (p.36). I thought it was good the penguin that had done bad things so far was caught and the figure of the penguin caught in the milk bottle was so cute that I could not think it was a bad guy. The last one is: “That evening Wallace and Gromit sat in the front room. They were friends again.” I thought it was good that Wallace and Gromit were separated by bad penguin, but they could re

Book Review Sherlock Holmes THE CASE OF THE BLUE DIAMOND, by Conan Doyle (2002)     This week I read Sherlock Holmes THE CASE OF THE BLUE DIAMOND . This book is a mystery story. I enjoyed this book while reasoning. I wrote down three quotes and will discuss them. The first one is: “Sit down and look at that interesting old hat over there.” (p.1). From this word of Holmes, Watson was involved in the incident. The Second one is: “Excuse me, Watson. You do see, but you don’t think about what you see.”(p.4). I liked this sentence and was surprised by Holmes’ reasoning because he guessed the state of a man who just saw his hat and never met. The last one is: “It’s not my job to do the police’s work for them and young Horner’s going to be all right.”(p.36). I thought Holmes was cool because he solved the incident as a detective, but he didn’t catch the criminal because he thought the criminal was reflecting.    I want to recommend this book. I thought the story of Sherlock Hol