The mouse is mightier than the sword

Who should play George?

2010-03-06T13:05:00.002Z

In a bizarre parallel universe, David Tennant is not the lovely cheeky million year old Timelord with a penchant for suit and Converse and saving the universe, but a short, grumbling bindle-stiff called George Milton who bucks barley for his fifty and found. Along with his misleadingly named companion ~~Rose~~ Lennie Small he strives his own piece of the American dream which, like a mouse's home in a field due to be harvested, is precarious and easily lost.

On Sunday 7th of March David Tennant will star in a radio adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men on BBC Radio 4. It should also be available for a week after on the BBc iplayer.

2009-08-09T18:47:00.002+01:00

An interesting article in the Observer about post-apocalyptic films.

Word clouds

2009-07-19T20:46:00.005+01:00

Wordle is a great tool which you can use to make word clouds. These give a visual representation of the amount of times words are used in a passage...

Below is a Wordle created from the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. The common words such as thee and thou are taken out:

Book Review- Creature of the Night

2009-07-19T19:49:00.005+01:00

Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson

I didn't know what to expect with this novel: supernatural, real-life or an amalgamation of the two. Having read it, I suppose the third option is the closest. The book tells the story of 14 year old Bobby, a 14 year old tearaway from Dublin who moves with his mum and young brother to a tiny village in the Irish countryside. He hates it and wants to go back to the streets of Dublin where he spends his time drinking, smoking, stealing and joyriding. The house they move into was left unexpectedly unoccupied when Lars, the previous tenant, did a runner.
The country turns out to be very different from the city, especially when the new arrivals are told to leave a bowl of milk out for the fairies. Booby becomes torn between the pull of his old ways and the lure of something new, all the while dealing with his brothers new obsession with a "little old woman" who visits him in the middle of the night. Part supernatural thriller and part contemporary coming-of-age story, this will stay with you long after you've read it. There are no easy answers and the main characters are painted in a realistic, and at times, unsympathetic light which actually endeared them to me more than if they had been perfect.

A blisteringly good read that manages to marry two genres so successfully you never see the join.

Read a review from the Independent Newspaper or the Guardian

Extract from LoveReading4Kids

I told my ma I wouldn’t stay there. I told her when she first came up with the idea and I told her again when she tried to bribe me with the new Xbox. I said it to her all the way down on the bus. Every time she opened her mouth to talk to me I said it: ‘I’m not staying down there. You can’t make me.’ So after a while she stopped trying to talk to me and she just talked to Dennis, showing him cows and sheep and tractors out the window of the bus. He liked the
tractors but he didn’t know what to make of the cows and sheep. He stared at them like they were something out of another world.
Which they were.
Our new landlord met us at the bus station in Ennis. His name was PJ Dooley. When he seen how much stuff we had with us he made a joke and said he
should have brought the trailer. I said, ‘Ha ha,’ and my ma gave me a savage look.
‘It’s mostly theirs,’ I said to him. ‘I’m not staying.’
PJ Dooley looked at me and then at my ma, and Dennis said, ‘Can we go in the car?’ and everyone started piling in the suitcases and plastic bags and backpacks. There wasn’t much room left by the time me and Dennis tried to squash into the back.
‘Take him on your knee,’ my ma said, but I didn’t want him on my knee and I shoved him over on top of a big bag of duvets and pillows. He laughed and wriggled himself comfortable and said: ‘We going in the car!’ My ma didn’t have a car. She said there was no need for one where we lived because we could go everywhere on the bus, so Dennis had hardly ever been in a car
before. I was in cars all the time, though. Most weekends and some week nights as well, me and the lads would get hold of one. Sometimes we robbed two and raced them against each other out on the ring road or around the estates. That was class. It was what I lived for, the cars, and the Saturdays in the town centre, and what we bought with the money we got.

Shakespeare coming to Sheffield

2009-07-13T21:01:00.004+01:00

The Botanical Gardens will play host to Sheffield's first Shakespeare festival!

A Midsummer Night's dream will be performed on August 17 & 18th and Much Ado about Nothing on the 19th of August. Tickets are pricey at £18, but this looks like an amazing experience!

Both plays are fantastic, and I imagine that the setting is perfect for the wooded frolics of Midsummer Night's Dream!

Watch an easy peasy version here at Cbeebies!

Carol Anne Duffy is the new Poet Laureate

2009-05-09T17:44:00.005+01:00

Carol Anne Duffy has just been appointed the first female Poet Laureate after Andrew Motion's term came to an end. She will be in the post for 10 years and as well as being the first woman to have this honour she is also the first openly gay holder of the position in the 341 year history of the post.

Carole Anne Duffy's poetry is incredibly popular and she is frequently studied by pupils at GCSE and A Level.

Recently she was in the news when a poem she wrote, Education for Leisure was removed from the AQA anthologies amid fears that it excused or glamourised violence, specifically stabbing.

One of Duffy's main ideas is to give a voice to women who have been overlooked or ignored in history. Her collection of poems, The World's Wife, presents events from the viewpoints of Anne Hathaway, Mrs Darwin, The Kray Sisters and the Devil's Wife.

She has a way of writing in a deceptively simple style which hides the fact that her ideas and images operate on many levels. One of my favourite poems, Valentine offers an onion up as the best symbolic love token. Duffy's skill lies in taking something as mundane and ordinary as an onion and turning it into something meaningful and beautiful.

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

A new twist on Jane Austen

2009-01-30T18:49:00.007Z

Do you like classic English literature?

Do you like tales of the walking dead? Then you'll LOVE Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Strange as it seems, this IS a real book. Author Seth Grahame-Smith has taken Jane Austen's original tale of manners and Marriage and simply inserted scenes of zombie carnage. Can it work? It remains to be seen,but this could be the start of a whole new genre.
A Tale of Two Vampires?
Much Ado about Werewolves?

Anew twist on Aus

2009-01-30T18:49:00.001Z

Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?

2009-01-07T21:30:00.002Z

Some interesting background on the actions if the servants in Act1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.

Sampson : I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they do bear it.

Abram : Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson : I do bite my thumb, sir.

Abram: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson (aside to Gregory): Is the law on our side if I say ay?

Gregory (aside to Sampson): No.

Sampson: I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I do bite my thumb, sir.

An interesting article on Body Language and Swearing [warning: contains some offensive language]tells us that biting your thumb was a rude and offensive gesture in Elizabethan times, similar to sticking two fingers up at someone now. It was closely linked to "giving the fig", which is where our expression of "not giving a fig" for something comes from.

This link here will tell you about NON VERBAL communication in other countries. It is written from a US perspective. Here is what they say about England:

1. To signal a waiter for the bill, make a motion with both hands of signing your name on a paper. Privacy is very important; do not stare. Tipping at bars is rare.
2. Loud behavior is considered rude. The victory sign with your palm facing in is considered vulgar.
3. Never cut in line.

This link discusses common gestures in the USA and says how they differ in meaning across the globe. For example:

1. Beckon with index finger. This means “Come here” in the U.S. To motion with the index finger to call someone is insulting, or even obscene, in many cultures. Expect a reaction when you beckon to a student from the Middle or Far East; Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It is more acceptable to beckon with the palm down, with fingers or whole hand waving.

2. Point at something in the room using index finger. It is impolite to point with the index finger in the Middle and Far East. Use an open hand or your thumb (in Indonesia)

3. Make a "V" sign. This means "Victory" in most of Europe when you make this sign with your palm facing away from you. If you face your palm in, the same gesture means "Shove it."

Jekyll and Hyde Coursework help

2008-12-27T12:17:00.004Z

The most important thing to remember is that all of the website I am listing are for guidance only. Plagiarism (passing off the work of others as your own) is a serious offence, and will result in all your coursework being refused.

Don't let that put you off using these sites, however. They have chapter summaries, explain the main themes and provide quotations.

The actual text
This site lets you search it, so if you can remember the odd word in a quote, you should be able to pinpoint it with the search function. Annoyingly, the chapters don't have their titles.
Online Literature
Chapter 1- Story of the Door
Chapter 2- Search for Mr Hyde
Chapter 3- Dr Jekyll was quite at ease
Chapter 4- The Carew Murder Case
Chapter 5- The incident of the letter
Chapter 6- The remarkable incident of Dr Lanyon
Chapter 7- The incident at the window
Chapter 8- The last Night
Chapter 9- Dr Lanyon's narrative
Chapter 10- Henry Jekyll's full statement of the case

If you want a chapter summary, try a site like Spark notes. This also has commentary and important quotations explained. Remember that your focus is on Duality in the novel, not retelling the story. Some of these American sites are not aimed at the academic level of A and A* GCSEs.
Cliff Notes is another American site with commentary and chapter summaries whch you may find useful.

Here is a mini-essay on the duality in the book, you might one to use it as a starting point to develop your own ideas.

Here are a few quotes from the book, and some more.

To really stretch your brain, here are some links to scholarly essays on Jekyll and Hyde. These are the sort you would read if you were studying English at University, so don't panic if you don't understand any of them. The first is on on The Psychology of Disassociation , in Jekyll and Hyde, where the author interprets the book using psychological terms. Another essay is by Anne styles and focuses on The Double Brain in Jekyll and Hyde.Both will give you a lot to think about!

A Common Language?

2008-11-20T21:15:00.003Z

English- a truly international language, understood by millions across the world, and now by your mobile phone. Google recently launched a voice recognition application for the Apple iPhone which allows users to access the huge might of the its search engine by speaking into their phones.

A fantastic development, you might think, except for the fact that it doesn't recognize British accents. An article in the Daily Telegraph explores this problem. They asked people with a variety of regional accents to say the word "iphone"and the voice recognition returned a variety of results, none however, were to do with the iphone!

A user with a Scottish accent found his phone opted to search for the term "sex" instead, and suggested a link to an adult web site. On a second attempt, the search engine looked for "sledding".Asked in a Kentish accent to search for "iPhone", it came up with "my sister" and "Einstein", while a Surrey user was offered "myspace" as well as "Einstein".A Yorkshireman was offered "bonfire" before managing to get "iPhone" - the only time the voice-recognition worked.The most unusual responses were to a Welsh accent, when the device interpreted "iPhone" as "gorillas" and "kitchen sink".

You can watch the video here

New Games

2008-11-18T21:48:00.003Z

If you look on the top right hand corner of this blog, you will see a two new games.

The first one is designed to build your vocabulary. You have to match the words which are similar. The words change daily, and playing this game will improve your vocabulary.

Below it is the Hangman game. Try to guess the word by typing letters in the box. Each letter which is in the Garbage Pile adds another section of the hanged man and his gallows. This will help with vocabulary, reading and spelling.

Jekyll and Hyde

2008-11-18T17:52:00.008Z

Recently, I've been noticing how often the phrase Jekyll and Hyde is used by newspapers to describe someone or something that can appear both good and evil.

This is from the Sun newspaper, about the Shannon Matthew's case which has gone to trial. Karen Matthews was accused of being sad one minute and cheerful the next.

It is used in another murder trial where a man is accused of killing his whole family. This article comes from the Telegraph

But it's not just murderers who can be described in this way. Football teams also earn this moniker.
Worcester City's manager is unhappy with the inconsistent and wildly differing nature of his team's performance:Finally,in a nod to pathetic fallacy, the city of Norwich is described as a Jekyll and Hyde place. A taxi driver was assaulted, he claims that the character of his town changes after nine at night.

Twilight Film

2008-11-17T21:34:00.005Z

The Twilight film is released in the UK on the 19th of December, 2008- a great activity for the last day of term, perhaps?
This is the US trailer- they've changed a few things, but it seems quite true to the book.

Young Minds 2008 Shortlist Competition

2008-11-02T21:13:00.004Z

Books have a certain magic about them. We can look to them to help us understand the world, our friends and our own feelings. The Young Minds charity aims to improve the mental health and well being of children and young people. They have launched a book award which will celebrate books (either fiction or biography) for young people aged 12+ which helps them to cope with the stresses and challenges of growing up. You can see the shortlist of books here.

If you want a chance to win them, all you have to do is enter a competition on the National Year of Reading site. Just describe a time when reading a book helped you to feel better.
The competition closes on the 14th of November, 2008

Twilight fans in need of a new fix

2008-11-02T20:51:00.004Z

WARNING! THESE LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS. ONLY CLICK ON THEM IF YOU HAVE READ ALL FOUR BOOKS IN THE SERIES.

If, like me, you have finished all of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and feel bereft, there is hope.

Stephenie has been working on Midnight Sun, which tells the story of Edward and Bella from Edward's point of view. Unfortunately the draft was illegally leaked on the internet, and so she has put the book on hold for a while.

However, all is not lost. Stephanie decided to release this draft online for all fans to see, knowing that they would otherwise be torn between reading it and obeying the law. She is anxious that people don't view it in the same light as her work:

I'd rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I've decided to make the draft available . This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place.

To read the draft click here. It is a pdf file, if it doesn't work look for the Midnight Sun Partial Draft link on Stephenie Meyer's page here.

Only love can break your heart: The Twilight saga

2008-11-02T20:23:00.009Z

Isabella Swan
Edward Cullen
Jacob Black

To the initiated these names will spark a rush of enthusiasm and outpouring of emotion; to the unknowing they are still just names.

Until this September they were just names I'd vaguely heard about, it was only when term started and 6 different people urged me to read the books that I began to take notice.

I read Twilight last month and immediately fell in love: with the characters, the concept, the setting, the DRAMA. There is something so overblown and luscious about these books that perfectly captures the exquisit feeling of falling in love for the first time.
Except in Bella Swan's case, this first love is more complicated than most, because Edward Cullen, her heart's desire, is in fact. a vampire.

17 year old Bella has moved to the rainy and gloomy tiny town of Forks in Washington State to live with her father Charlie, the town cop. Self conscious and missing the heat of her hometown, Phoenix, Bella is drawn to the other wordly Edward Cullen who is passing as 17 year old student at the high school.
This is the preface from the book:

I'd never given much thought to how I would die -- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months -- but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.

Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.

I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.

The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

A larger extract can be found at the Twilight saga fan site

To say much more would spoil the plot, all I can do is urge you to read Twilight and the other books in the quartet:

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

Fewer or Less?

2008-08-31T16:23:00.004+01:00

Supermarkets have been getting it wrong!

When you queue up with your basket in the "10 items or Less" aisle and look at the sign, you are observing a basic grammatical error.

The sign should read 10 Items or FEWER.

This is because we use "FEWER" for something we can definitely count e.g. "There are fewer than 3 chickens in the coop"

You use LESS when you can't specify the quantity eg "there is less air than before in the tyre".

After pressure from the Campaign for Plain English, Tesco is changing their signs to "Up to 10 Items", thus avoiding annoying people like me complaining about their bad grammar! You can read about it here. If you want more grammar hints, you can visit this lovely clear site.

Guardian Children's fiction prize 2008

2008-06-15T14:41:00.008+01:00

The longlist for the Guardian's annual Children Award has been announced. Going to the link here will give you reviews and descriptions of all the books listed. I haven't read any of them yet, but I will be checking some of them out over the summer holidays to read. The ones i like the look of include
The Bog Child by Siobahn Dowd (her earlier book A Swift Pure Cry is one of my favourites),
before i die by Jenny Downham,
Bad Blood (looks spooky!) by Rhiannon Lassiter
and The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

There is a competition open to under 16s . All you have to do is write a review of not more than 200 words on one of the longlisted books and submit it, with an entry form, to the Guardian.

Spelling reform- how do you spell fish? G-H-O-T-I*

2008-05-27T11:11:00.005+01:00

In Portugal, the government has voted to change how the language is spelt to make it more logical. All silent letters (the equivalent of our k in 'knight' or the w in 'write') are now banished. Could something like that ever happen here? Guardian columnist Marcel Berlins seems to think it should:

" Many thousands of other English words bear the burden of unpronounced consonants, whose only function is to confuse schoolchildren into even more spelling mistakes than is their custom. For instance, a recent report found that only around half of English 11-year-olds could correctly spell the word doubt. A survey a few years ago concluded (I could have told them and saved them the money) that the more a word was spelled like it was pronounced, the more likely it would be spelled correctly.

There is no reason why we should not copy their example. Instead of bemoaning children's waning spelling aptitudes, and blaming teachers, syllabuses and the malign effect of text messaging, let us put the blame where it belongs: an insane spelling system. I am not suggesting we impose a completely new alphabetical structure on English orthography, as George Bernard Shaw and others have advocated. Shaw's proposed alphabet was a complicated affair, almost impossible to learn. The Portuguese way is more of a tidying up operation, eliminating incongruities and inconsistencies. We could do the same, with the help of a few English profs, and if we ended up with a lot of seudo-sychopaths with soriasis and siatica writing a senario about rathful sychologists rapping reaths rongly - well, at least schoolchildren will be spelling better.
*How do you pronounce the word spelled "ghoti"? The answer is "fish" - the "gh" as in laugh, the "o" as in women, the "ti" as in motion."

If this seems tricky to you, think how tough it must be to learn English as a second language!

Spelling

2008-05-27T11:03:00.004+01:00

Spelling has been in the news a lot lately, so to test your skills here is a fiendishly hard quiz.

Shamefully, I only got half of it right, so it is back to the dictionary for me!

Guardian spelling quiz

Another important thing to learn is the correct spellings of homophones(words which sound (phone) the same (homo) but are spelled differently. The BBC has a quiz where you can check your skills

BBC Homophone quiz

Frankenstein

2008-05-19T21:58:00.004+01:00

Many of you have enjoyed reading the story of Frankenstein, and now know a bit more about this famous story. The original novel was written in 1816 by an 18 year old Mary Shelley as a result of a story telling contest. The internet has many resources to do with this novel. You can read the original here, or if that is too daunting, a good summary can be seen on this site.

Thomas Edison (who invented the light bulb!) made a short film in 1910 about Frankenstein. Obviously the quality is not that of today's films, but it makes for an interesting 12 minutes!

A Shakespeare game online

2008-04-21T20:07:00.004+01:00

The BBC has a fantastic MURDER MYSTERY Shakespeare game called the Seven Noble Kinsmen for you to play online. It has over 2 hours of game play and lots of mini games. You have to become a member bbc online which is very easy (and free!). You can also find out which male or female Shakespearean character you are most like.

This site has 4 games to play

How well do you understand Elizabethan English? Test your brain with the SAT—Shakespeare Aptitude Test.
Are you ready for Hamlet's Duel? Only your knowledge of Shakespeare trivia and quick responses can help Hamlet defeat Laertes (or else he'll be skewered by his opponent).
Think you really know Shakespeare's memorable quotes? Find out in Name That Play.
Truly, What's In A Name? Help Juliet find out as she plays a Shakespearean dating game to uncover the identity of three potential suitors

Could YOU have been a success like Shakespeare if you'd lived in the 16th century? This game will let you make the choices- see if you are a winner!

Another quick game to play, especially if you like figuring out words is this fill-in-the -gaps game. You can choose from several plays.

Happy Birthday Shakespeare!

2008-04-21T17:01:00.005+01:00

Wednesday 23rd of April is William Shakespeare's 444th birthday. Well, at least we THINK it is. We know that Shakespeare DIED on April 23 1616 because we have a record of his death, but we only assume his his birthday is on the 23 because he was baptised 3 days later on the 26th of April. It is probably no coincidence that St George's day falls on the 23 April as well!

Shakespeare wrote fantastic plays and poems, and is regarded as England's best and most famous playwright. Some of is most famous plays are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard III. You may even have heard some of his sonnets at weddings such as Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment..) or the very famous Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?).

One thing which Shakespeare did really well was reinvent the English language. He used 29,066 different words in his works in around 100,000 lines of writing- pretty impressive. Did you know tht Shakespeare actually invented a lot of words that we use today? Words like advertising, caked, compromise, elbow, eyeball, lonely, worthless and gossip. If you follow the link you can even see where abouts in his works they appear.
But it's not just words, Shakespeare also invented a lot of phrases we use all the time in our everyday speech. If you've talked about finding out the naked truth, talked about your flesh and blood or turned into a green eyed monster, then you've used a Shakespearean phrase!

Finally, entertain yourself by generating some genuine Shakespearian insults- lots of fun!

Book Review- The Ruby in The Smoke

2008-03-16T22:42:00.003Z

"On a cold, fretful afternoon in early October, 1872, a hansom cab drew up outside the offices of Lockhart and Selby, Shipping Agents in the financial heart of London, and a young girl got out and paid the driver.

She was a person of sixteen or so -alone, and uncommonly pretty. She was slender and pale, and dressed in mourning, with a black bonnet under which she tucked back a straying twist of blonde hair that the wind had teased loose. She had unusually dark brown eyes for one so fair. Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man."

That opening to Philip Pullman's first Sally Lockhart adventure, The Ruby in the Smoke packed a narrative punch. As soon as I read it, questions flooded my brain. I had been scared to read this as I enjoyed the Northern Lights trilogy so much that anything without Lyra and Will in seemed pointless. I didn't see the BBC adaptation of the novel, so I went in blind, my favourite way to read a book. The story is set in Victorian London and follows the adventures of the recently orphaned Sally Lockhart, 16 and a more unconventional Victorian heroine you could not imagine. Sally is clever, good with a gun, can speak Hindustani and balance an account book as well as an accountant. Her adventure starts when she receives a mysterious message from a friend of her recently drowned father who was involved in the world of shipping. The words "the Seven Blessings" lead to a world of secrets, Chinese gangsters, opium, riddles, extreme danger and of course, the mysterious ruby in the title. Along the way Sally is befriended by a photographer and his equally unconventional sister who try to help her make sense of the mysterious dangers that surround her.
This book gripped me from the start, and I was soon thrust into Sally's world. There is a real sense of danger and menace, this is not a Victorian world of lace curtains and tea shops; villainy lurks on every corner. I can't wait to read the remaining books in the series!

Hobbit book fetches high price

2008-03-16T22:14:00.003Z

A first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit sold for £6,000 at an auction in Norfolk. The book was first published in September 1937, and only 1,500 were ever printed. They sold out by December and so are very, very rare. ABEBooks sold a first edition in the original dust jacket for $65,000. If you look here, you can see how expensive these editions are. This article will fill you in on all the various editions. If you are interested in seeing various different covers, then this website has many different examples of cover art.

Beowulf

2008-03-03T22:42:00.004Z

Beowulf is one of the oldest poems in the English language. Written sometime between 800 and 1100 AD, it tells the story of Beowulf, a brave warrior who fought many monsters. The British Library holds the only remaining copy of the poem, pictured on the left. This was nearly destroyed in a fire in the 1700s, so it's a good job the library has digitised it!

Beowulf is written in Old English which looks very different to the Modern English which we use today.
If you listen carefully, you can hear some similarities with the English we speak 1,000 years later. The British library has a link to a reading of a passage from Beowulf in the original Old English here. In this passage, reproduced here from the website,

The Danish king speaks to Beowulf, telling him of the terrible place where Grendel's mother lived. He describes the desolate landscape: the wolf-haunted slopes, perilous paths through the marshes, a mountain stream that plunges into the earth, and a lake overhung with trees bound in eternal frost, whose waters burn at night with a dreadful fire. A stag chased by hounds allows itself to be torn apart rather than plunge into those waters. It is a dark, misty and fearful place. Hrothgar offers rich rewards of twisted gold if Beowulf can find and kill the monster and escape with his life.

Can you find any similarities with Modern English?

If you want to read a translation into Modern English, you can find several online. This one is known as the Gummere translation and was done in 1910. It is very poetic and uses a lot of alliteration, just like the oiginal.
Below is a selection from the text, describing Grendel's attack on Beowulf's men

He spied in hall the hero-band,
kin and clansmen clustered asleep,
hardy liegemen. Then laughed his heart;
for the monster was minded, ere morn should dawn,
savage, to sever the soul of each,
life from body, since lusty banquet
waited his will! But Wyrd forbade him
to seize any more of men on earth
after that evening. Eagerly watched
Hygelac's kinsman his cursed foe,
how he would fare in fell attack.
Not that the monster was minded to pause!
Straightway he seized a sleeping warrior
for the first, and tore him fiercely asunder,
the bone-frame bit, drank blood in streams,
swallowed him piecemeal: swiftly thus
the lifeless corse was clear devoured,
e'en feet and hands.

A very addictive game

2008-03-02T17:17:00.002Z

Multipopword is just like Blogger, except you are playig online against others. You have to drag your mouse over adjoining letters to create words, building up your score. You cannot stop at just one game...

Much Ado About Nothing

2008-03-01T23:20:00.003Z

SATS are fast approaching, and one of the biggest concerns for pupils is the Shakespeare Paper. Y8s and Y9s are studying Much Ado About Nothing this year, so I thought I would collate a few sites that might be worth a look.
Firstly, the 2 key scenes- the first one is from Act 4 Scene 1 and covers lines 196-325.
You can find it here, at the BBC bitesize website.
The second key comes at the very end of the play, Act 5 Scene 4 (the whole scene). You can find it here, on the previous site.

The Bitesize site also contains an excellent summary of the play.

If you find it helpful to listen to information when you revise, you may like these podcasts. They contain actors from the Globe Theatre's production of Much Ado discussing how the character feel and act in the key scenes. You can download them as MP3 files or listen to them on the site.

The SparkNotes sites has some good summaries and discussions of key themes and ideas in the play.

Finally, set your video/sky+/other gizmo to record the revision programme on Much Ado on the 13 March, 4am-6am on BBC2.

Romeo and Juliet quiz

2008-02-28T22:36:00.002Z

Click here for full screen version

Adventure stories Y7- Tolkien stories

2008-02-25T22:16:00.006Z

Some of my favourite adventure stories and poems.

I always say how fabulous Northern Lights trilogy by Philip Pullman is, simply because it's true. Over Christmas I re-read Northern Lights and the Subtle Knife, and I'm pleased to say that the film hasn't spoiled my love of them. I still see the characters in my head as I first saw them, not as the actors on the screen.

One film which I think is actually better than the books on which it is based it The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you want to quest for some background information, you could try doing the cyber hunt here. The Lord of the Rings was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, who also wrote The Hobbit.

One site that explains the background to the books is the Tolkien Trail, which has allsorts of games, explaations and interesting information about the author and the books. This section has lots of fun games to play based on the books; you don't need any prevous knowledge so just dive in! You may want a tour to familiarise you with the creatures of Middle Earth or their Weapons and Items. Middle Earth is, of course, the place where Tolkien's stories are set.

One famous scene in The Hobbit is where Bilbo Baggins( uncle of Frodo from LOTR) wins the ring from Gollum in a riddle contest. Visit this website for the rest of the riddles. The answer to this one is in white Text below it, so highlight it with your mouse to find the answer!

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

Time

What's your daemon?

2007-12-10T21:15:00.000Z

The Golden Compass, the first in a trilogy of films based on Philip Pullman's exceptional Dark Material trilogies (Northern Lights, The Amber Spyglass and the Subtle Knife) has hit cinema screens. Although there have been criticisms levelled at the films, mainly for not being as critical of religion as the books, it appears that the mystical world which Lyra inhabits has been recreated flawlessly. One fantastic feature of the books is the daemon which each person has. Part soul, part conscience, part adviser and part friend, these animals are an intrinsic part of each persons' make up. When you are a child your daemon can change shape and form, reflecting the as yet unformed personality. On the website of the film you can do a quiz which helps you find out who or what your daemon is.

Mine is an ocelot. What's yours?

The site also has an Alethiometer to play with which will reveal some beautiful drawings to use as desktop wallpapers. I currently have the London one as mine.

Poe in pictures

2007-11-23T20:56:00.000Z

If you like The Tell Tale Heart and Berenice, then you may want to get this book, a graphic novel adaptation of some of Edgar's most famous stories and poems. Here's what Michel Faber, writing in the Guardian, had to say about The Tell Tale Heart:

Slater also tackles "The Tell-Tale Heart", transplanting Poe's allegory of guilty conscience into a more morally ambiguous, post-Silence of the Lambs landscape. Annie, the female protagonist, is blind and works in a support centre for people who've recently lost their sight. She becomes convinced that a new arrival is supernaturally evil and must be killed. Annie's heightened sensitivity to touch and sound is rich in narrative potential which Slater only begins to exploit before allowing the story to lapse into predictability. Alice Duke's artwork - her first published comic - is superb and, unusually for this book, employs a subtle, luscious range of grey tones rather than stark black and white. A talent to watch.

Feed the world whilst feeding your brain

2007-11-11T16:58:00.000Z

A fantastic way to help the world's hungry as well as enlarging your vocabulary is to visit the freerice.com website. This simple yet addictive website gives you a word and then 4 possible meanings. If you click on the correct definition it donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations to help end world hunger. The program operates at a level that's right for you. If you get the answers wrong, it makes the starting words easier and if you get them right, it makes them harder. I donated 400 grains of rice in one sitting I got so addicted. Give it a go and save the world!
Example
Does sever mean divide, inform, pay out or extrude?

I want to read this book

2007-10-26T23:03:00.001+01:00

I got sent a poster for the new Skulduggery Pleasant book, and so did a bit of investigating. There's a fantastic video on the website that you can send to your friends, and on the Richard and Judy kids Book award page there is a chapter of the book to download.

Richard and Judy best Kids Books

2007-10-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

Last night Richard and Judy presented the Best Kids Books award show to try and find the best books for children of all ages. I was watching with interest because 2 children I teach were appearing on it, talking about books for fluent readers. The group, chosen from book groups all over Sheffield had to read 4 books and decide which ones they liked best. They also had quick interviews with Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Phillip Pullman. In the video, Jacqueline Wilson talks about her favourite character and where she gets her ideas from.

There is also a forum where you can discuss books with other kids who love reading.This is part of Channel 4's Lost for words season, where their aim is to get kids reading. You can watch celebrities talking about their favourite books on the website. Here, Chris O'Dowd from the hilarious IT Crowd reads from Winnie-the-Pooh.

Poe death mystery solved?

2007-10-25T18:32:00.000+01:00

There have been many theories as to how the American Gothic poet and author Edgar Allan Poe met his death. Some say he was killed as a result of a drink or opium binge, others that his depression caused him to commit sucide. There are other, stranger theories that he was suffering from rabies, epilepsy, diabetes or that he was the victim of a "cooper" gang. These were gangs of thugs, in pay to politicians, who beat up strangers on the street to force them to vote for their employer.

An American writer, Matthew Pearl researched Poe's death for three years whilst writing his book, The Poe Shadow. He thinks that he knows the reason Poe died so young, and also why he suffered from amnesia, hallucinations and fits: brain cancer. This article in the Observer newspaper explains how he came to his conclusion and it involves something dear to Poe's own heart, namely digging up a corpse.

When Poe's body was exhumed to be moved to a better spot in the cemetery, observers talked about being able to see his shrunken brain.

It was described as being 'dried and hardened in the skull' in an 1878 article in the St Louis Republican newspaper, whereas a letter in the Baltimore Gazette claimed that: 'The cerebral mass... evidenced no sign of disintegration or decay, though, of course, it is somewhat diminished.'

But the brain, as a pathologist whom Pearl consulted pointed out, is one of the first parts of the body to rot away. What the people who saw the corpse saw might well have been a calcified (hardened) brain tumor. This tumor would have been responsible for Poe's mood swings, his thirst, his depressions and erratic behaviour. But it was these strange moods and feelings which produced many of his memorable works, so I will agree with poe himself when he says,

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."

Benjamin Zephaniah

2007-09-29T23:32:00.001+01:00

Benjamin Zephaniah is a poet, musician and author from Birmingham. He is a man that defies categories; Rastafarian, vegan, animal rights protester, playwright, and kung fu enthusiast.

He left school at 13 but was always writing poetry, at 22 he published his first book o poetry, Pen Rhythms. He made his name in the performance of Dub Poetry a type of poetry heavily influence by reggae rhythms. Dis poetry is a great example of this type of poem, it wants to be heard out loud, not just read from a page. He writes about things he feels strongly about including being a vegan. His poem Talking Turkeys! pleads with the reader to to stop eating these birds at Christmas

Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don't eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate, an not on your plate
Say, Yo! Turkey I'm on your side.

If you want to see him perform you can watch his music videos here.

Benji, as he likes to be known, is also an author. He has written 4 books for young adults; Face, Refugee Boy, Gangsta Rap and his new novel, Teacher's Dead. They all explore hard-hitting urban subjects and are written to celebrate and educate teenagers. He manages to write in a voice that is authentic and never patronising but is accessible to teenagers and adults alike. You can read an extract from Gangsta Rap here. He is talking about his new book at Sheffield's Off the Shelf festival of reading, and will be performing on Tuesday 13 November if you fancy seeing him in action.

Benjamin Zephania has a Sheffield link, too. He created 3 poems which are carved into metal plates on student residences behind Division Street. Next time you are in the city centre have a look for them.

International Talk like a pirate day

2007-09-21T18:09:00.001+01:00

September 19th was International Talk like a Pirate day. Everyone should talk like a pirate every once in a while.
Tips for speaking like a pirate

Double up on all your adjectives and you'll be bountifully bombastic with your phrasing. Pirates never speak of "a big ship", they call it a "great, grand ship!" They never say never, they say "No nay ne'er!"
Drop all your "g"'s when you speak and you'll get words like "rowin'", "sailin'" and "fightin'". Dropping all of your "v"'s will get you words like "ne'er", "e'er" and "o'er".
Instead of saying "I am", sailors say, "I be". Instead of saying "You are", sailors say, "You be". Instead of saying, "They are", sailors say, "They be". Ne'er speak in anythin' but the present tense!

This website gives you instruction on how to talk like a pirate and this one gives you a list of pirate slang. This includes everyone's favourite :

Shiver me timbers! - akin to "Blow me down!", an expression of shock or disbelief, believed to come from the sound the ship made when 'shocked' by running aground or hit by a cannon blast.

A great book with a famous pirate is Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. This website lets you learn about the book and its characters as well as providing games and quizzes. There are also links to lots of sites about pirates.

Book review- Freaky Green eyes

2007-09-10T18:07:00.000+01:00

I read Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates recently. I've read a lot of her work for adults (her novelisation of the life of Marylin Monroe, Blonde, is a great book for mature fans of the doomed actress), but this is the first young adult novel of hers that I've read. Like her adult books, it's not a cheerful read but the story is is full of suspense and mystery and it grips you all the way through.
Frankie seems like she has it all: her dad is a former sports star turned popular TV presenter, she lives in a beautiful house in the exclusive part of town and her family does everything together. But there are cracks this paradise- why are her mum and dad rowing so much and if they're so happy why is her mum spending more and more time away at the family cabin by the coast? Everybody knows that Frankie's dad gets upset when his family isn't together, why is Frankie's mum causing problems? If she only would do what he wanted there'd be no need for her mum to wear long sleeves and scarves round her neck all the time. Only Freaky Green Eyes, Frankie's inner voice, dares to ask and seek out the answers to these questions.
Tim from the cool reads website gives a great review. You can read the first chapter here. This is yet another book that I checked out of Sheffield public library- hurrah for free reading!

Young Bond Competition

2007-08-31T12:20:00.001+01:00

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

2007-08-28T11:06:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-20T18:16:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-17T10:16:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-16T11:51:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-14T13:25:00.000+01:00

"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

2007-08-10T15:46:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-10T08:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-01T11:44:00.000+01:00

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!

Dialect and accents

2007-07-30T16:59:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-30T09:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-27T10:33:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-07-25T14:00:00.000+01:00

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.