One of my alltime favorite books is The Glass Sentence by S.E Grove. The Glass Sentence is a about a world that was broken and transformed by what is known as “The Great Disruption,” a scramble of all the times and eras. Pretty much the world broke. The east coast of the United States could be in the 1800s, while Australia could be in the future, and parts of Europe are in the dark ages. Many people attempt to map this great expanse of eras, or ages as they are called in the book, along with Shadrack Elli, a world famous cartographer and uncle to Sophia Tims. Sophia Tims comes from a long line of explorers and cartographers including her parents, Minna and Bronson, who left on an urgent mission to help a fellow explorer when Sophia was little, and never returned. In addition New Occident (the east coast of the United States), and where Sophia lives they have decided to close the borders and not let anyone in or out. Shadrack had planned to take Sophia on a mission to find her missing parents when she got older, but now there was only a few weeks before the borders closed. Shadrack had to teach Sophia rapidly how to read maps before they started their expedition, and it became a great interest of Sophia’s, but when Sophia came home one day, Shadrack was gone. All Shadrack left Sophia was a note that said to go to Veressa, of whom Sophia knew nothing of, and a glass map that she couldn’t read. Little did Sophia know that the glass map Shadrack left her held the secrets of the world.

                Last year, as an assignment for Spanish class we made and did a presentation on a Latin American treat.  While I was looking up ideas for what I could make,  I came to a traditional Guatemalan dessert called Guatemalan Sweet cakes. I decided to make them because they sounded pretty easy to make and who doesn’t like a sugary little cake  every once and a while. When I was looking for a recipe for the sweet cakes I can across something kind of confusing. On a lot of the websites they were called quesadillas, which didn’t make sense to me. Later I found out that the tortilla and cheese quesadillas, us Americans consider quesadillas aren’t the only type. Actually in some Latin American countries a quesadilla is just something with cheese in it. I know what you’re thinking now. Ew cakes with cheese, gross. Don’t worry it’s only cottage cheese and actually I think that is what makes these cakes so good. They are very light and spongy and just in general delicious. I really recommend this recipe, so try it out sometime.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 7 tablespoons of butter
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl
2. Mix the butter, eggs, sugar, and cottage cheese into another bowl
3. Mix both of the mixtures together into one bowl
4. Put the mixture into cupcake liners in a muffin tin
5. Leave in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
6. Take the sweet cakes out of the oven and let them cool for 15 minutes

Enjoy!!!

 

        The Crimson Skew by S.E Grove is the third and final book in the Mapmakers Trilogy. Before I tell you about The Crimson Skew I’ll have to explain a little about the other two books. They all take place in a world that was broken and transformed by what is known as “The Great Disruption,” a scramble of all the times and eras. Sophia Tims has gone on many great adventures throughout this trilogy, and in the beginning of the third book, Sophia is heading home from her previous adventure to Ausentina with her friends she met along the way. A lot has gone on since she left home. An evil man named Broadgirdle gained control of almost everything, her uncle Shadrack has been forced to work for him, and her dear friend, Theo, has been forced to fight in the full fledged war Broadgirdle started while she was away. Sophia, has to make sense of all of strange happenings and attempt to stop Broadgirdle before it’s too late.

        I absolutely loved The Crimson Skew just as I had The Glass Sentence and The Golden Specific. It is so amazing how the author has created such a unique world for the setting of the story. I can’t tell you the specifics without giving away something, but the concepts of this book are imaginative, other worldly, and interesting. If you want to read this book I highly recommend you read the other two first because they are all connected and are such amazing books as well. If you love reading about intriguing mysteries and creative, fantasy worlds then this is a great book for you.