Who should play George?

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.

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

Word clouds

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

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

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

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

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

Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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*

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!