Young Bond Competition

Are you a fan of James Bond? If you are you've probably heard of Charlie Higson's series about the famous secret agent as a boy. I've read SilverFin, the first in the series and really enjoyed it, especially the gruesome opening. I am assured by a lot of Y7 and Y8 boys that the others, Blood Fever and Double or Die are equally as good.

And now latest book in the series, Hurricane Gold is out in hard back. You can read an exclusive extract from it here on the Times website. The Times also has a set of all the books to give away in an exclusive online competition. Read extracts from the three books in an online dossier and email the answers in. You have until the 22nd of September to enter. Gook Luck!

Good reading websites

Two great websites to help you decide what to read next. Reading Matters is a website full of reviews and recommendations. There are 307 reviews for you to browse, and you can see what readers all over the world think about the books. There's also an Interactive Bookchooser where you fill in details about yourself and the kind of books you like and the Bookchooser recommends titles you might like. I did it and my recommendations included Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson, Underworld by Catherine McPhail and the excellent Kit's Wilderness by David Almond. This site also includes some great thoughts about the ideas in books, from magic to censorship to the power of names. It's a clear, easy to read site and full of great books.

Another good website that is much more interactive is Cool Reads, a website run by young people for young people. Tim and Chris Cross created the site in 2001 when they were 11 and 13. It contains over 2,500 reviews of books by both them and other contributers. Books are arranged into subject categories including Crime, Time Travel, Real Life and Romance. You can also read the latest reviews on the sites. Anyone can contribute, so why not send in a review if you've read a great book recently?

Key reads

I've read two books today, and they were both good, so I thought I'd do some recommending. They're both books for older teenagers, as they deal with some big topics.

Firstly, I read The Last Taboo by Bali Rai . Its the story of Simran and Tyrone, a couple that get together despite opposition from everyone. Here's what Bali says it's about:
You don't often see British Asian girls going out with British Afro-Caribbean lads. But Simran falls for Tyrone as soon as she spots him in a crowd. He's tall, handsome and funny. And he fancies her back too. The problem for Simran's family is that he is black. And for them that's the last taboo.

Blacks and Asians don't mix say the racists in Simran's life. They ain't like us and it just ain't right for an Asian girl to be mixing with some kalah. Where's the honour in that? But Simran chooses not to listen and heads straight into a world of grief, hand in hand with Tyrone.

Meanwhile Simran's brother David is having to justify being best friends with Dean, who is also black. David's uncles and cousins think he is too young to see the truth for what it is. But David ain't listening. For him, truth doesn't come with racism attached. On the streets, at school and at the football, serious tensions are building between the ethnic minorities and they are about to explode...

The Last Taboo is a novel which explores inter-ethnic conflict right here in the UK. It looks into one of the most underexposed aspects of our multicultural society - the conflict that exists between racists who are black and brown skinned. Can Simran, Tyrone, David and Dean overcome the conflict all around them or will it destroy their friendships. And when ethnic rivalry brings tragic results, can love for your fellow person, whatever their race, ever save the day.

Set mostly in the modern day, The Last Taboo also takes us back to the Leicester of the late 1970's - a time when neo-nazi skinheads hunted ethnic minorities in the streets - and weaves two stories together, as three generations come to terms with racial prejudice and abuse.
The book is pretty gritty- there's swearing and violence and quite a shocking ending, but you get to see events from the point of view of lots of characters.

The other book I read is Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. This book is FANTASTIC. It tells the story of two friends, Scarlett and Halley the summer they turn 16. Scarlett's new boyfriend Michael has just died in a motorbike accident and for the first time in their 5 year friendship she really needs her best friend, especially when she discovers that she's pregnant. But Halley's doing some changing of her own; she keeps falling out with her mum and she's started seeing the school bad boy Macon. Can the girls' friendship survive. This book is really well written, makes you think and care about the characters long after you've read the last page. The book was made into the film called How to Deal which also includes details from another Sarah Dessen book, That Summer. I'm going to try and read all her other books because I enjoyed this one so much.
I borrowed both books from Sheffield Library, so you don't even need to buy them, if you want to read them, just visit your local branch and put in a request.

Shakespeare Comics

Here at The Mouse we love Shakespeare. His plays explore those timeless human emotions such as love (Romeo and Juliet) , jealousy (Othello), ambition (Macbeth) and revenge (Hamlet) in some of the most exciting and beautiful language ever written. The trouble is, Shakespeare wrote those words nearly 400 years ago and language has changed since then. Words and turns of phrase which would have been easily understood by a 17th century audience are often incomprehensible to a 21st century one.

One way to make Shakespeare more accessible to a modern audience is to present the plays in a format with which they are more familiar. In the case of Self Made Heroes publishing house, that means producing Manga versions of Shakespeare. The comics, at the moment just Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, tell the stories using Shakespeare's words and Japanese style comic illustration. They don't use the complete text, but a lot of the meaning is conveyed through the illustration. There are some pages from the comics on their website of Romeo and Juliet here and Hamlet here.

Another new company which produces Shakespeare comics is Classical Comics. They are bring out Henry V in November, with Macbeth coming out in early 2008. The interesting thing about these comics is that they have 3 versions- the original Shakespearean text, a plain text which translates the words into Modern day English and a quick text version which condenses the meaning into as few a words as possible. This version is probably closest to the true graphic novel as you can see more of the artwork, and the image is as important as the words.

The Original Text




















The Plain Text




















And the Quick Text

Get your name in print-Review opportunity

I received the following in an email from the publisher Walker books and thought it might be of interest to some of you. You get an advance copy of a book that won't be published until february so long as you write a 50 word review that could be in the book itself!

Spread the book buzz
Buried: the bodies... the secrets… the TRUTH. Will Peterson's Triskellion is a real 'keep you up all night' adventure. Is there a dark heart beating beneath the thatched roofs of the picturesque village of Triskellion? Join Rachel and Adam on this archaeological adventure with a startling paranormal twist and let us know what you think.

Triskellion is out in February 2008 and we're looking for reviews to feature inside the book! If you know a child aged between 10 and 12 who would like an exclusive advance copy, simply email us at webmaster@walker.co.uk with 'Triskellion' in the title. After they've read it, please email their review (no more than 50 words) to the same email address, as well as their name and age. The best reviews will be used on the first page of the book itself!* (Closing date 14th September.)

Words can get you into trouble

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is a familiar playground chant to many, but it's not strickly true. Words can get you into a lot of trouble, especially when they are printed on a T-shirt for everyone to see. This BBC article examines some of the problems people have with offensive (or implied offensive) words on T-shirts. The discussion came about after a Cambridgeshire man was handed an £80 on-the-spot fine for wearing a T-shirt that said " Don't piss me off, I'm running out of spaces to hide the bodies". Other people have been fined for having swear words or overtly sexual references on thier clothes. Clothes shops have been asked to cover up or move stock after complaints from members of the public.

Meanwhile, TV companies get in trouble for broadcasting swear words before the 9pm watershed. But why does swearing cause such a fuss?

Johnathon Green, who has written loads of books on slang and swearing tells us how the worst swear words used to be to do with religion, "There have been three stages of swearing in modern English. From about 1500, swearwords were simply euphemisms for blasphemy: oddsbodkins - God's body, cor blimey - god blind me; bloody - by our lady. Today's swear words were perfectly acceptable, apart from the c-word.

"From 1700, blasphemy lost its potency, and as England became a world power, there was an effort to clean up the language. So then words for parts of the body and what you do with them, such as defecation, became taboo. You wouldn't find them in Dickens, for example.

"In the past 40 years, young people have become less concerned with the traditional swear words. Now it's racist, sexist, homophobic language - the sort my father's generation wouldn't think twice about using - that are totally forbidden.

"The right to swear is a necessary human expostulation. I've no qualms about swearing, although I would tame my language depending on who I was speaking to."

Language skills could get you arrested

A sixteen year old French boy was arrestedthis week for posting his own translation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows online. The book is only out in English at the moment, so foriegn readers have to wait until the official translation is published. Below are some of the translations used in the official version:

Parlez-vous Harry?

Wand
Baguette magique

Nearly-Headless Nick
Nick Quasi-Sans-Tête (Nick Sort-of-Without-Head)

He Who Must Not be Named
Celui dont on ne doit pas prononcer le nom (He whose name must not be pronounced)

Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks
Pétards Mouillés de Docteur Filibuste (Dr Filibuster's Damp Squibs)

Radio Programmes

The BBC radio site has all sorts of prgrammes hidden away that you might enjoy. You can either listen to them as they are broadcast (but you will need a DAB radio) or listen again on the BBC site for up to a week afterwards.

You might enjoy:
Big Toe Books on BB7. Each day at 7am you can hear a book being read. The daily reading is on the website from 8am. At the moment, they have one of my favourite books, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They also have a messageboard where you can talk to other kids about books,authors and, of course, Harry Potter .

Another great programme, which is on Radio 4 every Sunday evening at 7.15, is Go4It, a weekly show all about books, authors and writing. You can listen to the programme through the website for up to a week afterwards, and there's lots of extra information on the fun and games section.

If you like Poetry, Poetry Please on Radio 4 is on Sundays , 4.30- 5.00. You'll be able to hear old and new poems being read, and this can really bring the words to life.

Key reading or Mrs Key Recommends

I'll also use this blog to tell you about any books i've read recently which I think some of you might like. I've just raced through Siberia by Ann Halam, a science-fiction/fairytale hybrid of a book. It concerns Rosita/Sloe's epic journey across the frozen wastelands of Russia to protect the "magic" secret she learnt from her scientist mama. This book is really exciting and also scary at times, but it makes you look at all the life around you differently. i borrowed it from the library, so there's no need even to buy it.

I enjoyed this!