Harun al-Rashid

Was a Caliph(leader) of Islam and was strong politically,militarily, and intellectually. His political relations included China and Charlemagne. His intellect was great and he was a poet and scholar himself. One thing he sent Charlemagne was a water clock that had a little knight come out of a door each hour. His realm made Islam prosperous and he also visited Mecca several times as a pilgrimage all Muslims take.

Justinian I

Uncle Justin I became ruler and a while afterwords made Justinian I co-emperor of the Byzantine empire. His wife Theodora was not of aristocratic class but she still supported him. He filled his court with people based on their intellectual value and not social class. Hagia Sophia was a church he built that was burned down by a riot and rebuilt with whole new floor plan.

Lighting of the Lake.

All people in Pine Lake were invited to Lighting of the Lake on Dec.5, an event that include a play, songs, stories, and a cookie exchange. It occurred at the Beachhouse, with the final was when a Rudolph light up.

Pizza Party!

Last friday the Butera family had a pizza party at their house. Lots of people from Pine Lake were invited. Robert Butera picked up the pizzas and drinks on his way home from work. The reason for the party was that Gwyneth Butera wanted to have a party. Many people came talked and had fun.

Edward the Confessor.

Edward the Confessor became ruler after his brother. One very important thing about him is that he was predecessor to William the the conqueror(but he wasn't Harold). His rule was very peace ful and he came to terms with three very powerful earls. His mother married a guy other than Edwards father(the guy was king Cnut).His mother also exiled him and his brother to Normandy for a while(MEAN).

Gazoo got stuck up a tree!

The Butera family when their beloved cat Gazoo was missing all night. The next day Gwyneth Butera heard a meowing coming from a tree. Gazoo was found in the high branches of a tree, but was rescued by Rob Butera and Ivan their neighbor. Gazoo is now safe.

William the Conqueror.

Conquered England and defeated the ruler Howard Godwinson during the Battle of Hastings. Harold believed he would lose because at his coronation he saw Haley's comet which everyone though was a demon. The battle lasted 9 hours whereas most of that periods battles only lasted 2 hours which showed both sides had great determination. When William became ruler he was very harsh and gave the best stuff to the french.

Muhammad

Muhammad was orphaned at a very young age. as he grew older he took up meditating on Mount Hira, where the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him to repeat this verse:

Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not

and Muhammad took it upon himself to spread the word of god a lot like Jesus. He became the messenger of Islam and it's Bible was the Qur'an.

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone was born around 1267 A.D. He is known for his almost life like artwork.
When he was a boy his dad had him take care of the sheep and while he was watching the sheep he drew almost life like pictures of the sheep. He was discovered one day by a famous artist-Cimabue.
Cimabue offered to take on Giotto as a apprentice and both Giotto and his father agreed.

Later he went with his master to go help paint a church remembering St.Francis of Assisi and did a Lot of frescoes in it. Later in life he painted the Scrovengi Chapel with frescoes of the birth of Jesus and Jesus life.

The Legends of King Arthur

King Arthur is popular in literature because there is romance, adventure, and knights honor.Romance is popular in allot of story's because there is the knight in shining armor trying to save a damsel in distress. The adventure is always there sometimes it's a green giant challenging a knight or a black warrior killing all who pass. The knights honor is the code by which knights act and it tells them to act honorably.
one of the most popular story is
The sword in the stone
I hope you will read some tale of King Arthur after reading this.

Thank You

Attila The Hun

Attila The Hun was born in 406 C.E..
He scared his enemies by rolling his eyes really fast. When his dad died he had to share the throne with his brother, so he arranged a hunting" Accident "for his brother! Now as ruler of the Huns Attila and his band of Huns could come raging into villages and kill everybody(and I mean everybody all the little grandmas and babies too!)! Attila loved to conquer big things, so because at that time Rome was really important he decided to go conquer it.
Soon if they even approached a town the inhabitants surrendered. How he died is ultra gory on the night he got married to his seventh wife he got really drunk and was so drunk that he didn't notice he got a nose bleed so he went to bed and the next morning people found him droned in his own blood.

THE END

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was born in the year 742.
He was famous as a great war general and as a king. He forged many alliances with the popes.A couple months before he died he crowned his son as co-emperor.
He made many great monetary changes to his empire like create his own new system of money. At his palace he had many great scholars because he wanted to learn. One of his greatest failures is that he could not read or write. Many people say that he brought A sort of Renaissance to his empire I found that he was a very interesting person.

THE END

St.Francis of Assisi

Francis lived around 1180-1225.
He was famous for teaching to be poor and loving the earth.
He was born as a rich merchants son who grew up pampered and spoiled. His becoming a person of religion started when he was taken as a hostage of war and began to have serious thoughts. When he came home he was going to be wed to a fair lady who he meant was lady poverty. He started nursing the ill and helping others more,sometime around then he had a vision where Christ went to him and said: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins" he believed that Christ meant the church he was in so he sold his horse and gave the Church's priest the money. His father was enraged and disowned him.

Francis devoted himself to a life of poverty and soon had many followers. The pope soon acknowledged them but St.Francis did not want to become a monastic order. One of the rules to follow St.Francis was that you could own no possessions expect for a scratchy robe.

THE END

St.Augustine

St.Augustine Lived around 350-430 B.C. . He is also know as Augustine of Hippo.
He came up with the idea of original sin which is that after the fall of man when Adam and Eve where tempted by the serpent and because of their sin a child has to be baptized to be rid of his or her sin.
When he became a priest he sold his family's estate and gave the money from it to the poor. But he did use his family's house as a church.
He believed that Christians should not consult diviners or astronomers because you may start to consult them instead of God.

THE END

Happy Dreamer.

Cat
Cuddly,Mischievous
Curled up on Moms Bed
Dreaming of Running and Playing Outside
Happy Dreamer

My Cat(Haiku)

Cat
Purring Cat
Sleeping Happily, Sweet
and Cuddly, Sitting in Lap
Cat

My Monastery.

Hi. This picture is of a monastery I made up for history. It was probably around 500 A.D. When it was founded. The patron saint is St.Alexis the patron saint of nurses. I got A lot of ideas for it from the Red Wall books. I hope you enjoy it.
Bye.

Chapter.14. Fight of the Leaders

Ha you will never get the book Bartholomew chuckles. Yeah I think I will, cause it is behind you I said. All I need to do is trap you in a ball of air an stride past you. No you will never get me alive he said.You wish I said. Fine fight me said Bartholomew . I think I will, I said (have you noticed a speech pattern in this chapter). so I fired out a blast of fire and Bartholomew made some shadow weapons to block it then he shot out some shadow weapons at me so i had to duck under the large box of magic items and threw some charms at him which made him duck so he won't get cursed.
Then he staled for a minute so I shoot a big blob of water at him and froze it so he was a big block of ice so that he was frozen and I got the book but the pages on healing were ripped out so I took the book and the ice Bartholomew into the worm hole to ask things of him.

Chapter.13.The Trap and Other Things.

The manor made me get the feeling that ice was trickling down my back and believe me it was not pleasant. Then just as we approached the large front gate winged black dragon approached us.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SENCE CONTAINS A LARGE AMOUNT OF KICKING AND AND THE WORD CRAP!
Well as you can tell its pretty not little kid friendly so I will make it pretty fast. Basically all the dragon could say was crap get away crap. Not very friendly so Elora and I jumped on top of him and kicked him till he was lying on the ground senseless. After that we just helped our self to his keys and jumped into a window. In the room we got into we found abed a bookshelf with book titles such as defeating heroes for dummies and monster s how to make them minions and otherwise.
Well I don't know about you but this has to be Bartholomew's room I agree I said. Well well well come to get your book I see said that voice i knew so well Bartholomew's.

Chapter.12.A short Chapter on The BadLands.

Then we were in a whirl pool of color,sounds,and smells. I looked at Elora and said wow. I must agree she said wow. Then we were in pitch blackness again and then it came alive with lava streaming down a lone scraggly cliff and a huge Gothic mansion towering up into the smokey clouds. The plant life was huge carnivorous plants. The inhabitants were small shadow fairies who scurried about and hid once they saw us. We strode towards the mansion that I mentioned earlier where The Evil Eye and chaoticus lived.

Chapter.11. In Which There is a Search and Debate.

The walk to was pretty simple because Miracula and Mystica transported us,
so we didn't really walk. The castle we approached seemed to fill the horizon(and blinded me because it was made of a metal gold). When we got to the entrance hall a very silly question came to mind, Has any one ever tried to steal a brick of the castle?
I asked. Why yes dear of course they have you see the castle is made from pure stars. But I thought stars were made out of a gas? Why dear people only say that because its true. Then what is the hall made from? Silly dear its made from gas that has been cooled so cold its condensed. Cool! every one said. Now can you find the worm hole said Astrid and Cassandra because Alexa is getting worse.

Okay everyone lets find that wormhole!
We searched and searched. But the castle seemed to go on forever. We even asked the butlers and maids for help. Then as I strolled through the dungeon I saw a circular shadow about the size of a watermelon. I yelled to every one to come down to the dungeon not including Cassandra and Alexa .Then we all held hands and jumped the every thing went dark.

Chapter.10.The Worm Hole.

The one thing I knew about the Badlands was pretty depressing. It was huge black barren waste land and was always night so I didn't think it would be a very fun trip. But before we left the goddesses dimension Miracula came to me to say: Do you see that worm? I looked down there on the ground was a small cute worm wriggling into a hole. I nodded. Well would you like to know a short cut to the Badlands? She asked. I yelled yes what is it? Well the she told me in my castle there is a worm hole to the Badlands . Awesome I said can we take it? Yes dear but first you have to find it. Okay I said but do you know where it is? Of course not that's why you need to find it. Now go tell Astrid and The Mystics dear.

Chapter.9.The Last Dimension.

Now dears let me tell you about the book The Evil Eye took shall we? Why I asked why ,why, why do you want to tell us about the book while Alexa is in mortal peril. Well my dear you certainly have got your skirt in a knot. But to answer your question well if your looking for the book you must know what it looks like of course. Okay I said quietly but still would you know where they have it at least? But that's something for me to answer said a more common sense sounding voice.
Then Mystica appeared saying because I am the one who sees everything but I could not find it for it has been hidden in the last dimension oh of course the badlands I said.Yes oh course she said it wouldn't take a genius to get that the Evil Eye had hidden it with Chaoticus. So now go said Mystica. Yes my dears go said Miracula.

Hiccups

I've got the hiccups
and i want them to go.
But they go away so
slow slow SLOW.

a-one-two-three-four

I tried eating sugar packets
tried eating a bass
tried asking my freinds
to make a monster face.

(make a monster face)

a-one-two-three-four

I tried drinking backwards
but i just got wet.
And all i did was turn blue
when i held my breath.

(hold breath)

a-one-two-three-four

I'VE GOT THE HICCUPS
(dramatic)

I Wished.

I wished upon a star and learned
wishes really do come true.

When i wished upon a star i
knew it might no come true.
But know i know theres
luck out there for me and you.

Now its come true il tell my wish to you.
What i wished upon a star.

I wished that boys and girls could
have their wishes come true.
Including me and you.

Now my tale is done it really happened.
So good bye night sky.
The sun is shining bright
Good morning.

Chapter.8.A New Quest.

As we climbed up the walkway of truth we had our mouths open dumb founded the only one who wasn't amazed was Alexa because she was poisoned asleep and almost dead. Then we heard a voice almost like the tinkling of bells say to us snap out of it will you dears. We looked up there floating above us was a the goddess Miracula. Well dears now that your here lets get straight to healing Alexa! Okay I said but where is the magic good berry and how do we heal Alexa? First I have a basket full of the berry's at The Castle of Magic and second there is a book devoted to to all kinds of healing including this kind.Then she whispered oh dear i forgot those naughty little Evil Eye boys stole it yesterday. Oh great I yelled do we have to go on a quest for every little thing!!! If you will calm down dear me and Mystica will tell you what to do said Miracula.

Chapter.7. The Mountain of Ancients.

As we approached the mountain we were amazed at its size size for it was about the size of a hill you would roll down. Astrid turned to me and said this is the mystical Mountain yeah I said cause this is a fairy mound and fairies are the most ancient thing alive even though they look about our age. How can you see them she said to me sceptically well stand on one foot and shut one eye I said to her jokingly no but really you have to want to see them to see them.So now what asked Astrid well we have to get to that bridge over there without setting foot on the hill .Which I added looks pretty easy but is super hard to do but cant you and me hover in the air and The Mystics could fly Astrid said well I said I hadn't thought about it that way what do you think of it. Elora what do you think I like it she said but wouldn't they have some kind of spell to stop us from doing that I don't know i said but lets try it And it worked wonderfully so now all we had to do was walk apon the walkway of truth and go talk to our goddesses.

Webcast!

Ever since we started watching iCarly on Netflix my mom has wanted to make a web show.
Well yesterday we made that dream a reality. We made our own web show called gbk zoo.
it talks about lots of awesome stuff so our first webesode had stuff on cooking us dancing and cool stuff about new kids music. We have lots of cool stuff coming up like we might show off tricks on my mom's bed and see where our cat goes with a camera we attach to our cats collar and then my favorite because my sister annoys me allot I'm going to count the number of times she annoys me and announce it on the show!!

If You Want To See The Show
Click here

Chapter.6.The Forest of Chronos.

As they entered The Forest of Chronos everything became black for their torches and candles suddenly went out. I cried out now how will find our way? Astrid then said well duh can't you and me talk to the trees? thanks I said now lets talk. As we found our way in(our spirit of course) to the mind of the tree we found a map of the forest in the trees mind. Then I asked the tree why we could not use fire that he said is because of a time long ago when the forest once burned down.
Oh I said but me and my friend can make non burning fire well the tree said I will let you go with that fire. this I told my friends as we passed through the forest. The only bad thing about the forest was the was a huge amount of giant spider trying to eat us and there was allot of will o the wisps.
At last we got out of the forest and saw ahead of us The Mountain of the Ancients.

Chapter.5.The Swamp of Time

Well out of the library we went to the place that has no time and is the gateway to the walkway of truth:The Mountain of the Ancients. As Cassandra flew along with Alexa in her arms we trotted along singing 100 little ducks( a long very boring song). Then we entered the Swamp of Time a place if you got fully submerged in the water you would end up in another time. But minutes before we could step foot in to it two giant skeletons emerged from the mists of the swamp. They said Halt in the most toneless voice imaginable it made me very bored!!! Then I told Astrid to destroy one of them for she really wanted one of their bones fine she said but your helping me okay I said i really wanted to fight one any way. Then I said hey Elora do you and Katrina gang up on one and we fight the other? Sure said Elora as see and Katrina flew up and started doing martial arts to the head of the skeleton and it started crumble up and the whole skeleton fell in to the water and vanished as if it had gone back in time before our skeleton burned in to ashes incidentally me and Astrid were using fire Astrid snatched a bone from the arm and rinsed off the ashes it fell in and vanished too. well we got through the swamp of time without any more accidents apart for Astrid almost falling in because she was so busy looking at the bone then we saw it the forest of Chronos.

Chapter.4.The Library.

As we entered the huge and musty library of Acomandra the ancient sorceress. The librarian told us to shush and keep quiet. While we were walking in the library we felt a silencing spell come upon us but as we approached the front desk the spell slightly lifted and the librarian said what do you want?! I said we wish too have all the books on the magic evil berry. Ah she said that is a hard request for we only have one book on it and it is not very thick but I will get it And do you also want the companion book about the magic good berry. Yes I said I bet that will be of great use too.
As Elora and me read the books while Cassandra,Katrina, and Astrid tended to Alexa.
Elora and Me reached the end of the books at the same time and Found the same kind of message that said the magic good berry is the only cure for the magic evil berry. And the place to find the magic good berry was the realm of Miracla and Mystica but almost never were we invited to vist there realm so we had to find the passage of truth a magic walkway to the goddesses kingdom.

Chapter.3. A Talk and A Poison.

As I stepped out the front door with my sword in had and firing blasts of fire out the other a huge troll like stepped in front of me and said well how do you like my steed as I looked up i saw Bartholomew of all thing sitting on top of that huge trollish thing. I said well it certainly makes you look taller but it still doesn't make you a easy target for Alexa. He said well thank you and what was that about Alexa? just as Alexa somersaulted on to Bartholomew's back. Then like a blur he shoved a dagger into her pinkie all it did was make a scratch but it hurt her really bad. Then he rode away saying i just poisoned her with a magic evil berry bwa ha ha ha...

Well right after that I called together The Mystics and The Dragon Warriors to see if Cassandra could help heal Alexa but Cassandra couldn't heal her and Astrid's pastes would only stop it from hurting for an hour so we all went to the great library to look up the magic evil berry.

The Dog's Bark.

The little puppy whines and then barks.
The kitten mews and hisses.
The hamster goes rattle rattle on its wheel.
And the little duck goes quack quack.

The Cat's Sneeze

The little cat sniffs and blows.
The dog wheezes and whines.
The duck wipes its slimy nose.
And at last the guinea pig squeaks.

Shugo Chara:A Book Report. By:Camille Butera

The manga series Shougo Chara! is about Amu Hinamori.
A girl who every one at her school thinks is very cool. But in fact she is very unsure of herself and is shy. One day she wishes very hard to be herself and the next day she finds 3 eggs in her bed! After that her life is filled with adventures including guardian characters and a magical egg called the embryo.

This series is a good read for people who like adventurous magical books staring girls!

The Story of Iphigenia.

In the Iliad Agamemnon offended the goddess Artemis so he could not go to troy and rescue Helen.
The only way out of being stuck in Greece was to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis.
His wife Clemestria was so mad at him that when he came home from troy she killed him.
After that she killed his second wife who was a princess of troy Cassandra.
Later her other children Orestes and Electra killed her.

The Pretty Little Kitten.

The kitten bats at a toy mouse,
that is in a dollhouse.
A girl picks up the cat,
and places on her a hat.
Now the cat jumps,
and stretches out like a hump.
This is the life of a little cat,
who wears a hat.

Town in the sky. A Odd And Crazy Story.

Flying high above the clouds in a place were peace is great.
There is a person who can be a hero or menace and who makes people do penance.
Many people live in happiness and joy.
Others live in kitchens making and sampling kings food.
Some people live in palaces with people waiting on them hand and foot.
Most live in wonderful houses filled with happy people.
So this world is odd and crazy but these people don't care they think it normal.
Maybe they think our world is strange.

Moses and the Escape from Egypt. By:Camille Butera.

Moses was born as a Hebrew in Egypt. At the time he was born the Pharaoh of Egypt hated Hebrews and used them as workers and threw Hebrew babies in to the Nile. To protect Moses his mother made him a little basket that she put him in and floated down the Nile. His sister Miriam was watching him and saw when the princess of Egypt found him and needed a nurse for him. Miriam got her and Moses mother the job as nurse. When Moses grew up, he fought strongly for the Hebrews freedom. To prove that the Pharaoh must let the Hebrews go god sent 10 plagues to the Egyptians. Here they are in numerical order:
1.The Nile was turned to blood.
2.Frogs ran around every where.
3.Lice and Gnats rose out of the ground.
4.Swarms of Flies came.
5.The Egyptians Animals got sick.
6.The Egyptians got huge incurable boils.
7.It rained fire and hail on the Egyptians crops.
8.Locusts came and ate the remaining crops.
9.For three days it was always pitch black.
10.The death of every Egyptian first born.
At last the Pharaoh was fed up with Moses and let him and the Hebrews go free.

One great thing Moses did was to bring from God to the Hebrews the ten commandments at Mount Sinai.

Ben Franklin. By:Camille Butera.

Ben Franklin was one of the most amazing geniuses ever. Ben was born in the year 1706. He grew up being educated and reading all the time. Later he was apprenticed to his brother as a printer. Then he ran away to Philadelphia. As an adult, he had many parts to play in the making of America. One of the most important things he did was to sign the Declaration of Independence. Once the war had started, he was sent to France to encourage the French to be allies of America and to help fight the British. While he was in France, spies were watching him. He knew he was being watched so he decided to never do anything in private that he wouldn't do in public.

Apart from helping out in the war, Ben Franklin invented numerous things and had many ideas: Bifocals,glasses that had nearsighted and farsighted in lenses in each frame;
the Glass Armonica, a musical instrument mad up of 27 glass bowls that makes a beautiful noise.
Poor Richards Almanac, an almanac full of humor, wit, and wisdom;and how lightning is electricity, which he discovered in a storm when he was flying a kite with a small metal bar on top.

The Beginnings of a Nation. By:Camille Butera

The Americans were angry at the British for they were being taxed for tea without a representative in the Parliament in Britain. Some of the more angry people gathered together dressed as Native Americans, and boarded a ship to throw boxes of tea into the water. Many people called it the Boston Tea Party. Another incident happened in Boston - the Boston Massacre. One snowy day in Boston, a local threw a snow ball at a British solider. Soon, armed and confused soldiers were firing wildly into a crowd of locals. Five people were killed. These two incidents probably spurred the people of America against Britain even more. Things were also happening in the city of Philadelphia.

People were writing the Declaration of Independence. What was it? Well it was a very polite way of saying America is free,free,free! After that many battles were fought and only after great effort with the help of the French,the Americans won! After the war important people wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to give Americans rights.Two very important people are Thomas Jefferson, one of the writers of the Constitution, and George Washington, a general in the Revolutionary war army and the first president of the United States.