Dialect and accents

Although it is important to be able to speak and write in Standard English, that doesn't mean that the way you naturally speak and write is wrong. The British Library has a great section on it's website about Accent and Dialect. This website has recordings of over 70 regional accents from across the UK , information about language change and also details of activities you can participate in, including sending a recording in of your own accent. This site might be of interest to you if you are thinking about studying English Language at AS level.

Poetry

There are so many amazing poetry sites on the web, as well as some really awful ones. One good place to look is the Children's Poetry archive which has tons of poems for you to read, a chance to hear the poems being read aloud by the poets, information about poets like Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen and the chance to find poems by theme or poet.
If you like Michael Rosen, there is a good interview with him in the Independent Newspaper. He talks about what inspires him, and also how the unexpected death of his son Eddie has affected him and his work.

If you are interested in entering your own pots in competitions, there are always plenty of them around. This page is updated regularly with details of competitions all over the country.

Thursday the 4th October is National Poetry Day- this year the theme is Dreams. Some peoms about dreams, all from the vast Poemhunter.com site. Firstly, a poem by one of my favourite poets, Langston Hughes, Dream Deferred Take a look also at a short but sweet poem by 17th Century poet Robery Herrick, Dreams. Those of you studying Skellig with me in Y7 will recognize this poem The Angel by William Blake which is all about how powerful dreams are in childhood. And finally, a beautiful poem by W.B. Yeats which reminds us that dreams are often the most valuable thing we have.

If you fancy increasing your knowledge of poetry you could sign up to emule.com's weekly poetry mailout- a selection of classic poetry emailed to you each week.

I'll leave you with a link to one of my favourite poems, Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll.

Harry Potter and the end of an era

Have you read the final installment in the saga of the Boy Who Lived?

I read it from cover to cover in around 6 hours.

I won't post any spoilers here without warning, but a lot of loose ends were tied up, and there was the demise of one of my favourite characters.

SPOILERS IN LINKS

If you want to read a bit more WITH SPOILERS here's an interview with J.K. Rowling where she fleshes out the epilogue.

Rowling also answers a lot of fans' questions about the book and the series in general on this web chat.

I hope you have all looked at J.K. Rowling's web site, because it looks amazing and has a lot of input from her as well.

She also mentions that she will write a Harry Potter encyclopedia with lots of background information from the Potter world.

Looking for a good Book?

If you want to read a good book, but don't have a clue there are several things you can do:

1. Ask or email me- I've read loads of books, and not just girly ones.
2. Ask a friend, they may have read a really good book lately. You never know, they may even lend it to you.
3. Ask a librarian Sheffield Libraries website has loads of ideas.
4. Go on the British Arts council's enCompass site which has a really great tool for picking a book. You choose the type of books you like and it will give you a list of recommendations.