The Hobbit, also called There and Back Again

It has been a while since anyone posted anything. Since theres nothing new I'll just post a review on one of my favourite books. I can't remember the last time I read this but anyways...

For those who enjoy a bit of fantasy and adventure, this book might just interest you. Written by the author of the infamous Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, this book is filled with the main aspects of a traditional fantasy story i.e dwarves, orcs, fairies, goblins, wizards etc. The figurative language made it interesting and a game happened to be made for it too.
It made me read on and i hope it'll be the same to you too. Heres an extract from one of my favourite chapters in the book:

Riddles in the Dark

''I am Mr Bilbo Baggins. I have lost the dwarves and i lost the wizard, and i dont know where i am; and i dont want to know, if only i can get away.''
''what's he got in his handses?'' sadi Gollum, looking at the sword, which he did not quite like.
''A sword, a blade which came out of Gondolin!''
''Sssss,'' said Golloum, and became quite polite.''Praps ye sits here and chats with it a bitsy, my preciousss. It like riddles, praps it does, does it?'' He was anxious to appear friendly, at any rate for the moment, and until he found out more about the sword and the hobbit, whether he was quite alone really, whether he was good to eat, and whether Gollum was really hungry. Riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in thier holes long,long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains.

''Very well,'' said Bilbo, who was anxious to agree, until he found out more about the creature, whether he was quite alone, whether he was fierce or hungry, and whether he was a friend of the goblins.
''You at first,'' he said, because he had not had time to think of a riddle.
So Gollum hissed:

what has roots as nobody sees,

is taller than trees

up,up it goes,

and yet never grows?

''Easy!'' said Bilbo. '' Mountain, I suppose.''

''Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, My precious! IF precious asks, and it doesn't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? Weshows it the way out, yes!''
''All right!'' said Bilbo, not daring to disagree, and nearly bursting his brain to think of riddles that could save him from being eaten.

Thirty white horses on a red hill,

first they champ,

then they stamp,

then they stand still.

That was all he could think of to ask- the idea of eating was rather on his mind. It was rather an old one too, and Gollum knew the answer as well as you do.

''Chestnuts, chestnuts,'' he hissed. ''Teeth! teeth! my preciousss, but we has only six!'' Then he asked his second:

Voiceless it cries,

wingless it flutters,

toothless bites,

mouthless mutters...

Well i hope youve enjoyed the extract, there happened to be a game for but i do recommend this book if you like fantasy or any of J.R.R Tolkien's stories likeThe silmarillion, The Lord Of The Rings,Farmer Giles of Ham and The Father Christmas Letters.

shizzle

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Asylum-Seeking Daleks!!!

I love this poem, and I hope you will too. Its irreverent and accessible attack on prejudice and bigotry in all its forms is like a breath of fresh air. Even better, click here to hear the poet reading it live. (And you can visit the poet's website here.) Now for the poem:

ASYLUM SEEKING DALEKS!
by Attila The Stockbroker

They claim their planet's dying:
that soon it's going to blow
And so they're coming here - they say
they've nowhere else to go....
With their strange computer voices
and their one eye on a pole
They're moving in next door and then
they're signing on the dole.....

Asylum seeking Daleks
are landing here at noon!
Why can't we simply send them back
or stick them on the moon?
It says here in the Daily Mail
they're coming here to stay -
The Loony Lefties let them in!
The middle class will pay......

They say that they're all pacifists:
that doesn't wash with me!
The last time I saw one I hid
Weeks behind the settee...
Good Lord - they're pink. With purple bumps!
There's photos of them here!
Not just extra-terrestial....
The bloody things are queer!

Yes! Homosexual Daleks
And they're sponging off the State!
With huge Arts Council grants
to teach delinquents how to skate!
It's all here in the paper -
I'd better tell the wife!
For soon they will EXTERMINATE
Our British way of life.....

This satire on crass ignorance
and tabloid-fostered fear
Is at an end. Now let me give
One message, loud and clear.
Golf course, shop floor or BNP:
Smash bigotry and hate!
Asylum seekers - welcome here.
You racists: emigrate!

Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard

The heartrending story of a British boy's four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.

The book was the subject of an oscar-winning 1987 film directed by Stephen Spielberg (and starring a very young Christian Bale).

Here is the opening of the novel:

WARS CAME EARLY to Shanghai, over-taking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese bund.

Jim had begun to dream of wars. At night the same silent films seemed to flicker against the wall of his bedroom in Amherst avenue, and transformed his sleeping mind into a deserted newsreel theater. During the winter of 1941 everyone in Shanghai was showing war films. Fragments of his dreams followed Jim around the city; in the foyers of the department stores and hotels the images of Dunkirk and Tobruk, Barbarossa and the Rape of Nanking sprang loose from his crowded head.

To Jim’s dismay, even the Dean of Shanghai Cathedral had equipped himself with an antique projector. After morning service on Sunday, December 7, the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the choirboys were stopped before they could leave for home and were marched down to the crypt. Still wearing their cossacks, they sat in a row of deck chairs requisitioned from the Shanghai Yacht Club and watched a year-old March of Time.

Thinking of his unsettled dreams, and puzzled by their missing sound track, Jim tugged at his ruffled collar. The organ voluntary drummed like a headache through the cement roof, and the screen trembled with the familiar images of tank battles and aerial dogfights. Jim was eager to prepare for the fancy-dress Christmas party being held that afternoon by Dr. Lockwood, the vice-chairman of the British Residents Association. There would be the drive through the Japanese lines to Hungjao, and then Chinese conjurers, fireworks and yet more newsreels, but Jim had his own reasons for wanting to go to Dr. Lockwood’s party.

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

The intensely moving sequel to Noughts and Crosses.

Sephy a cross,one of the privileged ones in society gives birth to a daughter who has a nought father.
Jude is a nought.The bitterness inside him blames Sephy for the losses in his family and has absolute hatred for her kind.
The sequel to the Romeo and Juliet like Noughts and Crosses takes a different turn unlike the prequel Knife Edge is the book of Hatred and if you thought there was a lot of hatred in Noughts and Crosses think again because that was the book of love.
Sephy has a baby Callie Rose and decides to live with Callie's grandmother Meggie McGregor Callum and Jude's mother.However now that the truth has come out about Sephy's life will she be able to cope and how will Jude take it that Sephy is living with HIS mother.

This is as exciting as the first book and I highly recommend it to everyone.

John Hegley

I was lucky enough to spend two hours on Saturday evening at the Stratford Circus (just between the Theatre Royal and the Stratford Picturehouse) listening to the poet JOHN HEGLEY perform loads of his poems to a delighted audience (one of whom was also my 7-year-old son, Thomas, who even performed one of the poems himself when John Hegley picked him out from the audience and asked him).

One of the poems Hegley performed was a variation on one of his most popular - essentially a simile poem about NEED. What I love about this poem is not only the wonderfully original approach he takes to composing similes, but also the fantastic way in which he subverts the conventions of RHYME to give the poem a rhythm that is typical of his idiosyncratic style.

Here is a previous version of the poem:

I need you like a novel needs a plot.
I need you like the greedy needs a lot.
I need you like a hovel needs a certain level of grottiness
to qualify.
I need you like acne cream needs spottiness.
Like a calendar needs a week.
Like a colander needs a leek.
Like people need to seek out what life on Mars is.
Like hospitals need vases.
I need you.
I need you like a zoo needs a giraffe.
I need you like a psycho needs a path.
I need you like King Arthur needed a table
that was for more than just for one.
I need you like a kiwi needs a fruit.
I need you like a wee wee needs a route out of the body.
I need you like Noddy needed little ears,
just for the contrast.
I need you like bone needs marrow.
I need you like straight needs narrow.
I need you like the broadest bean needs something else on the plate
before it can participate
in what you might describe as a decent meal.
I need you like a cappucino needs froth.
I need you like a candle needs a moth
if it’s going to burn its wings off.

Click here to visit the poet's website.

And click here to listen to the poet perform his poem, 'Jesus Isn't Just For Christmas'...

Noughts and Crosses

A thought provoking love story that adds racism and prejudice into it is a recipe for an engaging book.Winner of the Lancashire Children's book awards Noughts and crosses is definitely a book that I would recommend.
This book is about a black girl Sephy daughter of the most respected politician and about a white boy, Callum who is one of those in an under privileged society.Yes in this book the black people are in charge and the white people are not.
Sephy and Callum are childhood friends and say that even through thick and thin they will stay together.However the hierarchy gets too tough for some to handle and so the question is through thick and thin, will Callum and Sephy still remain Friends?
This book offers so many twists in the tale so for someone who doesn't like a soppy love story but one with a lot of strong emotions and twists and turns, this is the book for you.

The Breadwinner

Recommendations come at a highly profound cost. Seeing as everyone has a certain view of the world and how everything goes about it. Recommending a book with true emotion and depth is everything a person needs to relish themselves into, and that is exactly what I'm
doing.

The Breadwinner caught me from the first moment I read it. This book follows the life of Parvana, a young girl living in Afghanistan during it's Taliban rein and the difficulties that the ever increasing war has brought upon her. Her family care about and love her, but one Taliban abduction left her life torn and shattered in a way that no teenage girl would ever imagine. Her father.

Between the time that it took for the family to hit realisation, and the time it took them to understand, they had already fallen into the state of poverty. Minutes seemed like hours, and hours seemed like days.

But as time ran out for hope and wishes, someone had to do something. Parvana, with a heart of stone and a mind of matter, had to be the one to lift her life up.

With extreme circumstances and a brave heart, Parvana soon realised that life was for living, and she was never going to give it up.

Losing the life you had before was never going to be easy, but;

Dressed as a boy in the market, I soon found out that I was not watching the life of this poor young girl, I was her.

Parvana is the breadwinner in the market.

And The Breadwinner is a truely amazing insight into what happens in places of war and anguish.

Capturing the life of an eleven year old girl, Deborah Ellis is one author that I have to say, may wonder into a topic which none other has tried to explore before. The minds of children and young adults are hard to capture and maintain, but Deborah achieves this with no extra help or power. The trilogy carries on, and I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to carry on reading. Since reading this in year six, I have always been aware that someone out there is always less better off than I am, and I can not recommend it enough.

Avenging Angel

I like to recommend this book which is called Avenging Angel by David Belbin,

This is a review about it:

This book is about a boy called Angelo who was riding his bike and suddenly he saw a car coming so fast towards him but he was too late, the car knocked over his bike and he fell on the road with his bike on top of him, and car drove away. It was a hit and run accident. All Angelo said before he died was the word 'blaze'.

His sister Clare cannot rest until she finds the truth who ran over him, so she tells her friend PC Neil. He finds two suspect, one of them had a colour green car that Angelo was killed with and the other had the same colour car and there was a bike shape mark on the car but when both of them was in court they both was proved innocent.

After two weeks she saw a group of young gang of Angelo's friend and one of them name was blaze, so she finally found the culprit.

Love is...

Here is a poem by Liverpudlian poet, the late Adrian Henri. When you read it, look closely at the wonderful (and original) use he makes of METAPHOR in the poem. Metaphor is something lots of students find difficult - unlike similes, which are easy. But you could do worse than look to this poem to teach you all you need to know about metaphors. And about love too... (Oh, and the picture is of a couple of manatees: can't animals love too?)

Love Is...

Love is feeling cold in the back of vans
Love is a fanclub with only two fans
Love is walking holding paintstained hands
Love is.

Love is fish and chips on winter nights
Love is blankets full of strange delights
Love is when you don't put out the light
Love is

Love is the presents in Christmas shops
Love is when you're feeling Top of the Pops
Love is what happens when the music stops
Love is

Love is white panties lying all forlorn
Love is pink nightdresses still slightly warm
Love is when you have to leave at dawn
Love is

Love is you and love is me
Love is prison and love is free
Love's what's there when you are away from me
Love is...

'Carrie' by Stephen King

I like to recommend a book and film called 'Carrie' by Stephen King. Here is my review on the book:

The book is about a girl called Carrie White, who is no ordinary girl. She has a gift called 'Telekinesis' this enables her to do things with her mind. The story starts off with Carrie in school in the school showers, something unusual happens, all the girls mock her. A girl called Christine Hargensen was the main ringleader and the starter of all the other girls mocking her. Another girl called Sue Snell who was part of this shame felt sorry for Carrie. Later in the story Sue Snell asks her boyfriend Tommy Ross to ask Carrie to the school prom. This is Carries dream, she rejects at first then she finally agrees. She tells her mother, her mother is an absolute freak she is so religious.

And throughout the story you would learn that on several occasions her mother has sent her to a tiny cupboard, which she calls the prayer cupboard. Carrie begins to prepare for the prom; she makes her own prom dress. Only of she knew the prom would take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night. Christine Hargesen and her boyfriend Billy Nolan switched all the prom winners’ cards to make Carrie and Tommy win prom king and queen. When they were going up to the stage, Christine and Billy were hiding underneath the stage with a rope in their hands leading to a bucket on the ceiling full of pigs blood, the blood splattered all over Carrie. Everyone started to laugh; to their horror she stood up using her gift she locked all the doors and windows of the prom hall. She set the entire hall on fire causing everyone to scream for his or her lives.

After everyone was burnt Carrie left, leaving a trail of pigs blood. As she was going home she was causing destruction all the way. She went home destroying everything as she entered; her mum was sitting in the kitchen with a knife. Carrie told her mum she was going to kill her, her mum said lets pray and began reading religious things. Carrie killed her mum then took her body to the prayer room and the whole house collapsed upon them. In my opinion Stephen Kings imagination is vast, he knows how to engage the deepest sympathies of his readers. This book is a horror book, and it can truly make the flesh creep and cringe.

Where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

When I was at Oxford university, one of the most eminent professors of English there came to our college one day to lead a seminar on someone he regarded to be the best poet writing in the English language for at least 150 years. Imagine our surprise, therefore, when he started off by playing a song by 1960s (and onwards) folk hero, Bob Dylan. However, if you look at the lyrics below, I hope you will agree they show as much depth and skill as anything else you have read of English poetry. And there are many more where this comes from too...

'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' by Bob Dylan (1963)

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Coram Boy

The harsh realities of 18th century life, of slavery, of prejudice, of tragedy, of corruption, of the haves and the have nots are woven together incredibly intricately and yet quite simply told too. Rest assured this book will have a significant impact on any teenager; and you may well find it impossible to put down...

It was a well-deserved winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 2000.

'A fine lady went to Stowe Fair. She was pregnant for the first time and, keen to know what the future held for her, she consulted an old gypsy woman.
'"Why, my dear, I do believe you will have seven babies," said the gypsy woman studying her hand. The fine lady went away and thought no more about it.
'When the time came for her child to be born, a midwife was summoned to attend the labour. "What have we here?" she exclaimed as she delivered first one baby, then another and another.
'"Oh no!" cried the young wife, remembering the gypsy's prophecy. "That can't be so!" She wept. But sure enough, one by one, seven little baby girls were born and laid into a basket.
'The fine lady was upset fit to die. "I don't care what the gypsy prophesied; I will only keep one baby. Take the other six away," she begged the midwife. "Drown them in the river, but whatever you do, don't tell my husband," and she pressed a purse of silver into her hand.

To download and read the rest of the first chapter for free, click here.

The Fast Track BLOG is changing...

The GCSE results are out; the tears (of joy and of disappointment) have been dried; and a new Year 11 is in its throne. But the message - as far as GCSE English is concerned - is simple: the more challenging and frequent your reading, the higher your grade will be.

Last year, our average point score this year was the highest of all the core subjects; and we got over 10% more students to a Grade C or higher - a record improvement and wonderful news especially for those who desperately needed that magical C grade to get into their chosen courses at 6th Form College.

But there was NOBODY who achieved an A or A* grade in English - high B grades yes, but not a single A or A*. Why? Well, not enough of the most able students were producing enough timed essays; not enough were really stretching themselves; and not enough were making sufficient use of the wikis and blogs at their disposal. BUT I would say the BIGGEST reason was that not enough of the most able students in last year's Year 11 were reading - and I mean really reading - like their lives depended on it.

Reading is the answer. And, unlike much exam preparation, reading is fun. Choose the right book, and it simply doesn't feel like WORK at all, as you are whisked away to a parallel world and wrapped in a mesmerising narrative.

All members of the English Fast Track should be reading for a minimum of 45 minutes EVERY night. This should become part of your daily routine, something you would not miss out any more than you would eating dinner or cleaning your teeth in the morning.

And this BLOG? Well, I would like to hand it over ENTIRELY for book reviews. WHENEVER you finish reading a book, just spend 10 minutes or so writing a brief review of it on the Fast Track BLOG, so that other people can learn from your experience.

At the end of each term, there will be a £10 prize for:

1. The BEST book review of the term;
2. The MOST book reviews written.

To help you, members of the English Department will also post regular reviews of books we have read and enjoyed.

And you can also find a detailed reading list by clicking here and getting your parents to register. Not only will you then be able to download excerpts from ALL the books listed, but you will also be able to buy them at a special discounted rate, if you choose to do so.

So get reading straight away!

And we look forward to reading the first book review in the very near future.

The George Mitchell English Department

Look into my eyes

This poem was written by a Palestinian teenager and was later made into a song by Outlandish(which you can listen to on the internet).It is a very emotional poem and leaves you thinking about others less fortunate than ourselves.

Look into my eyes
Tell me what you see
You don't see a damn thing
'cause you can't relate to me
You're blinded by our differences
My life makes no sense to you
I'm the persecuted one
You're the red, white and blue

Each day you wake in tranquility
No fears to cross your eyes
Each day I wake in gratitude
Thanking God He let me rise
You worry about your education
And the bills you have to pay
I worry about my vulnerable life
And if I'll survive another day
Your biggest fear is getting a ticket
As you cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that has just left
Will turn around and come back

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Has our world gone all blind?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight
I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters

See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land (what)
And I'm the terrorist?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Has our world gone all blind?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

American , do you realize that the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day
So if I won't be here tomorrow
It's written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

Ohh let's not cry tonight I promise you one day is through
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!
Ooh shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!

The Brief Facts; Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.

Everyone has been waiting for the arrival of Harry's final journey, and sicne I woke up at 7o'clock in the morning on Saturday the 21st to get this book, I thought I might as well share my views on how brilliant Harry's ending was.

This is not a fully pledged review like your average one.
I have chosen to make it very thin, as not to reveal too much. I am sure people who have read it will agree with me.
I am only just giving you the facts that may help you understand the story. It took me a while to fully understand the many plots and twists. Once you do, you will also feel the way I do.

If the Half Blood Prince left you with many questions, be sure that your answers will be revealed.
The wonder of the Horcruxes has been enbedded in many minds, including my own. Know very well that the magnificent story plots reveal these. We were left with the knowledge of seven horcruxes. This was revealed very thoroughly by Dumbledore before his death.
The Horcruxes played a huge part throughout this book.
A Horcrux being this; An object that gave Voldemort the capability to place part of his soul into safe keeping. The horcruxes were mostly valuable items to Voldemort. Whether they were entwined in his life as a young student at Hogwarts, or something that was somehow involved with him deeply.
They could be hidden, anywhere. As we found out in book six.
I am only giving clues/facts that we already know from the past books, for I want to give a chance for those who haven't finished it yet.

Slytherin's Locket (enclosed) is the first locket that Harry destroys in this book, since it was left off from the last book. But with what I am not saying.
During the last six books, two of the horcruxes were already destroyed. Tom Riddle's Diary (Chamber of Secrets) and Graunt's Ring (Half Blood Prince), the one Dumbledore had the pleasure of wearing.
The remaining four will slowly reveal themselves, one clue to help solve some; Hufflepuff.

The idea of the Hallows intrigued me very much, it proved that J K Rowling was more intelligent than I thought she was. Clever enough to place side by side this one question; Hallows or Horcruxes? I will not explain the Hallows, for I believe it is one of the more important sides of the story, and it is for you to unveal.
The clue for this one; The cover. At the very top of the spine. That is all I will say.

Two deaths? J K Rowling knew that these deaths would effect us all. It shocked me also when one of my friends told me before I had read the part. It seems sad, that we all suspect the main characters, who I will not announce, to die. But it is even more upsetting when we find out the people who did die, who gave their life to save one person. Prepare yourselves, death may mourn your minds as well as the characters.

Despite all of these large plots, the journey that Harry, Ron, Hermione and co. go on is the best. Love, tradgedy, failure, sucession, just some of the things you will feel.
You will truly feel the power of Lord Voldemort, and the hate and anger he brings to the world of magic. You will see the mind of the 'boy who lived' and understand why his journey has been such a long and tiring one.
I enjoyed it so very much. More than I imagined. I plunged my heart this book for three whole days just to find out the glorious ending that came across Harry. It does also upset me, that there will not be another story to intrigue me anymore. I feel a sense of loss, for over these past ten years or so, I have always had something to look forward to.
I give my praise to J K Rowling, a brilliant author and one that we should all praise for years to come. This is by far the best book, the one that carries the answers and the burden to our questions and hopes.
I do hope you all love this book, for one thing can be sure; Harry is truly, the boy who lives.

Even teachers need a holiday...

I will not be posting on this blog again until the end of August.
But that does NOT mean it NEEDS to remain EMPTY...

Why not post a BOOK REVIEW of one of the books I have recommended during the year. Click on 'Recommended Reading' in the bar on the right to go back over all the books I have suggested to you.

Or why not post a FILM REVIEW, of one of the many movies I have urged you to see over the past few months. Click on 'Film and Television' to remind yourself.

Or perhaps you could post some of YOUR FAVOURITE POEMS - maybe even by some of the poets I have recommended in the various 'Poem of the Week' posts. Or, better still, post some of your OWN poems instead - and see what some of the other bloggers say about what you have written. Click on 'Student Writing' to read some students' work from a few months ago to inspire you!

All I am saying is that this BLOG belongs to ALL of you, just as much as it does to me. So if the long summer holidays start to drag, there are worse ways to pass the time than to BLOG. :)

And if that is not enough, you can always browse some of the amazing work being produced by students in the English Workshop at wordvoodoo.blogspot.com...

Movies for your Summer Holiday

Fill your summer with films!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Website
Review
Trailer



The Simpsons Movie
Website
Review
Trailer



Transformers
Website
Review
Trailer



Breach
Website
Review
Trailer



The Bourne Ultimatum
Website
Trailer




Evan Almighty
Website
Review
Trailer



1408
Website
Review
Trailer

I used to be a book burner...

Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
All our dream-worlds may come true.
Fairy lands are fearsome too.
As I wander far from view
Read, and bring me home to you.

This poem was written by Salman Rushdie as the dedication at the beginning of his novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Highly recommended itself (see the previous blog entry here), the novel is particularly relevant now, in the light of all the furore over Rushdie's knighthood.

Notice the acrostic in the poem, which spells the name of Rushdie's son, to whom the novel (and the poem) were directed. In both, he is trying to explain to his only child the madness which erupted around him after the fatwa was announced, and the enduring power of stories to transcend political or religious ideologies.

Why not read more about the furore surrounding Rushdie's knighthood at The Guardian's blog (commentisfree):
Freedom to Offend and I used to be a book burner (both by Inayat Bunglawala, Assistant Secretary-General at the Muslim Council of Britain)
Tender is the Knighthood
Unhelpful Outrage
Sir Salman's Long Journey
He should have realised...

Brick Lane

Mymensingh District, East Pakistan, 1967

An hour and forty-five minutes before Nazneen's life began - began as it would proceed for quite some time, that is to say uncertainly - her mother Rupban felt an iron fist squeeze her belly. Rupban squatted on a low three-legged stool outside the kitchen hut. She was plucking a chicken because Hamid's cousins had arrived from Jessore and there would be a feast. 'Cheepy-cheepy, you are old and stringy,' she said, calling the bird by name as she always did, 'but I would like to eat you, indigestion or no indigestion. And tomorrow I will have only boiled rice, no parathas.

She pulled some more feathers and watched them float around her toes. 'Aaah,' she said. 'Aaaah. Aaaah.' Things occurred to her. For seven months she had been ripening, like a mango on a tree. Only seven months. She put those things that had occurred to her aside. For a while, an hour and a half, though she did not know it, until the men came in from the fields trailing dust and slapping their stomachs, Rupban clutched Cheepy-cheepy's limp and bony neck and said only coming, coming to all enquiries about the bird. The shadows of the children playing marbles and thumping each other grew long and spiky. The scent of fried cumin and cardamom drifted over the compound. The goats bleated high and thin. Rupban screamed white heat, red blood.

Hamid ran from the latrine, although his business was unfinished. He ran across the vegetable plot, past the towers of rice stalk taller than the tallest building, over the dirt track that bounded the village, back to the compound and grabbed a club to kill the man who was killing his wife. He knew it was her. Who else could break glass with one screech? Rupban was in the sleeping quarters. The bed was unrolled, though she was still standing. With one hand she held Mumtaz's shoulder, with the other a half-plucked chicken.

Mumtaz waved Hamid away. 'Go. Get Banesa. Are you waiting for a rickshaw? Go on, use your legs.'

Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a man considerably older than her - a man whose expectations of life are so low that misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor: more able to deal with the ways of the world, and a better judge of the vagaries of human behaviour. She makes friends with another Asian girl, Razia, who is the conduit to her understanding of the unsettling ways of her new homeland.

To read a review of Brick Lane by Monica Ali, click here.

Fighting baddies, aliens, thieves... and yourself

In cinemas this week:
Die Hard 4.0 - Bruce is back, as John McClane gets his own back. Again.






Out on DVD this week:
Them - Terrifying French thriller that will put everyone off buying a nice place in the country...
Flags of our Fathers - Award-winning war movie, in which director Clint Eastwood explores both sides of WW2 in Japan.



And on TV this week...
Fight Club (Today, 11.30pm, BBC2) - Seminal, disturbing movie which explores the dark underside of the modern male psyche.






Open Range (Tuesday, 10.35pm, BBC1) - Beautiful, epic, Kevin Costner western.
The Pink Panther (Tuesday, 6.50pm, Film4) - Hilarious original version of Inspector Clouseau's first accident-ridden outing.
Panic Room (Tuesday, 9.00pm, FiveUS) - Gripping thriller in which Jodie Foster and her daughter are trapped in their own house.


Jean de Florette and Manon Des Sources (Wednesday, 6.40pm & Thursday, 6.50pm, Film4) - Epic and beautiful pair of French films about a precious spring and how it divides and destroys a rural community.
Election (Wednesday, 9.00pm, ITV2) - Satirical high-school movie about a group of teenagers fighting to be school president.
Men in Black II (Thursday, 9.00pm, FiveUS) - Back in black: Will Smith returns to fight lots of slimy aliens.

The Hole in the Sum of my Parts

'The Hole in the Sum of my Parts'
by Matt Harvey

Part of me is punctual - it turns up right on time
Part of me is functional - though slightly past its prime
Part of me is criminal - it's quite against the law
Part of me's subliminal - and kind of either/or
Part of me is lowly - it lows just like a cow
Part of me is holy - at least holier-than-thou
Part of me is actual - ly more solid than it seems
And part of me is factual
But most of me is dreams

Part of me is truculent: don't look that way at me
Part of me is succulent - suck it and you'll see
Part of me's detestable - or so people have said
And part of me's suggestible - or so people have said
Part of me's competitive - it only wants to win
And part of me's repetitive - or so people have said
Part of me's interminable - it goes on and on and on
And on and on and on and on and on and on (and on)
This part of me's prolific - it writes reams and reams and reams
And part of me's terrific
But most of me is dreams

Parts of me are distant - and yet can seem so near
Parts of me are whispers - which the other parts can't hear
Parts of me are broken - and tremble to the touch
And these parts can be spoken - but I don't speak them much
Part of me is pensive. - I think. But I don't know.
Part of me's defensive .......... so?
Part of me's celestial - it gleams and beams and gleams
And part of me is bestial (grrrrrr)
But most of me is dreams

Part of me is tiny - but not the part you think
Part of me is shiny - and a pleasing shade of pink
Part of me is laudable - it's for a worthy cause
And part of me's inaudible - (like imaginary gorse*) *mouthed silently
Part of me is hairy - to be honest not a lot !
Part of me's contrary - No it's not
Part of me's co-operative - it plays so well in teams
And part of me's inoperative
But most of me is dreams

Parts of me are latent - lurking dormant underneath
Parts of me are blatant - for some reason they're called Keith
Parts of me have stamina - because I do Chi Gung
And part of me's my anima - according to the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung
Part of me is piddling - yet full of cosmic yearning
And part of me is fiddling - while the rest of me is burning
Part of me is fluent - it flows as sure as streams
While part of me plays truant
But most of me - as I've tried to emphasise here - is dreams

To visit the poet's website, click here.

Martyn Pig

'Did I hate him? Of course I hated him. But I never meant to kill him.' With his father dead, Martyn has a choice. Tell the police what happened - and be suspected of murder. Or get rid of the body and get on with the rest of his life. Simple, right? Not quite. One story leads to another. Secrets and lies become darker and crazier. And Martyn is faced with twists and turns that leave him reeling. Life is never easy. But death is even harder.

To download a free extract from this Carnegie and Branford Boase prize winner, click here.

To find out more about the author, click here.

Hail, King Shrek!

In cinemas this week:
Even though the reviews are not very good, you might not be able to resist the green allure of everyone's favourite ogre in:
Shrek the Third (PG)






Out on DVD this week:
Nicolas Cage playes stunt rider, Johnny Blaze, who sold his soul to the devil and is now finally having to pay the price in:
Ghost Rider (15)






And on TV this week:
Stealing Beauty (Sunday, 9.00pm, Film4) - 'Coming of age' drama starring Liv Tyler (and directed by the legendary Bernardo Bertolucci)
Die Hard 2 (Monday, 11.0W0pm, ITV1) - 'Die Harder': John McClane is back for more edge-of-your-seat action
Falling Down (Monday, 9.00pm, ITV2) - Violent and disturbing look at the effect of repressed aggression in modern America, starring Michael Douglas.
Road to Perdition (Monday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Bonds of loyalty are put to the test when a hitman's son witnesses what his father does for a living.
Wimbledon (Friday, 8.30pm, ITV1) - Lightweight romantic comedy, which should at least provide an antidote for those fed up of the tennis!

The Children in the Playground

Tonight I am going to see a poetry performance at the Purcell Rooms in London's South Bank Centre, and one of the poets performing is John Hegley. So I thought that I would post another of his poems as this week's Poem of the Week...

The Children in the Playground

In the playground
the children are playing a game of kiss chase
and one of the children
who seems to want to be chased after
calls out above the screams and laughter
don't chase me!
don't chase me!
and nobody does

A Swift Pure Cry

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd is a beautiful, lyrical novel about teenager, Shell, whose life begins to fall apart when her mother dies. Tired of looking after her younger brother and sister and bored by the routines of school and church, Shell skips school and hangs around with her friends smoking and cracking jokes and looking for chances that will confirm their growing up.

But what follows is not a simple transition into adulthood but the tragedy of Shell’s hidden pregnancy and the stillbirth of her baby, amid the hypercritical and chaotic thinking of the small Irish community in which she is growing up. No wonder this was also the winner of a prestigious prize this year - the Branford Boase Award 2007.

Click here to download a free extract from the novel.

A televisual movie FEAST!!!

Nothing particularly special out this week at the cinema or on DVD, but that is certainly not the case on TV. This week's television listings boast LOADS of excellent films, of which these are just a selection. (*As always, however, please check with your parents before you watch any of these, as some of them have adult content your parents might not want you to watch.)

The Green Mile (Sunday, 9.00pm, Film 4) - Starring Tom Hanks, this critically acclaimed prison drama was based on a Stephen King short story, just like The Shawshank Redemption (showing at the Film Club in July).
28 Days Later (Sunday, 10.00pm, Channel 4) - The sequel to this terrifying, British 'Zombie' film, 28 Weeks Later, is in cinemas now; see how the 'rage' first began...
The Silence of the Lambs (Sunday, 10.00pm, ITV2) - Terrifying and certainly not for the faint-hearted, this film immortalised Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, and his taste for human liver...with "a nice Chianti".
Die Hard (Monday, 11.00pm, ITV1) - Die Hard 4.0 is out in cinemas next month; see how it all began, when Bruce Willis' John Maclane was first 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Tuesday, 9.00pm, ITV2) - Kenneth Branagh brings Shelley's gothic horror to the big screen, with a monster made real by Robert De Niro.
East Is East (Tuesday, 10.00pm, More4) - Wonderful film version of Ayub Khan-Din's comedy about a Pakistani family in Salford, and their struggle against the strict Muslim ways their father is trying to preserve.
The King (Tuesday, 10.45pm, Film4) - Gael Garcia Bernal (Babel) plays a prodigal son returning to a Texan town to find his estranged father, with disastrous consequences for the whole family.
Gladiator (Wednesday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Ridley Scott's epic, Oscar-laden depiction of Russel Crowe's Roman 'gladiator' wreaking revenge on the prince who killed his family.
The Magdalene Sisters (Thursday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum: provocative but compelling.
Out Of Sight (Friday, 10.20pm, ITV2) - Fans of Oceans 11/12/13 will love George Clooney's stylish turn here as an escaped bank robber entwined with Jennifer Lopez's Detroit cop.
The Big Lebowski (Friday, 11.10pm, Film4) - You might not like this one, but I couldn't let it pass without bringing it to your attention; it is one of my top 10 films of all time.

I learn by going where I have to go...

'The Waking'
by Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

from a Portrait of Theodore Roethke (by Mike Nease),
which hangs at Seattle's Blue Moon Tavern

• To see more poems by Theodore Roethke, click here.

• To find out more about the poet himself, click here.

• To read a difficult but fascinating essay about the poem, click here.

The best ever Carnegie award winner!!!

This week, this year's Carnegie Award winner was announced. The Carnegie award is the country's premier prize for teenage fiction. The 2007 winner is called Just In Case and was written by Meg Rosoff (who also wrote How I Live Now - last week's recommendation).

This is what the Carnegie judges had to say about the book:

A story that deals with anxiety, depression and coming of age that has real emotional resonance. This is a distinctive and outstanding book written in an intelligent, yet spare style. There is an ‘edginess’ to the way the author writes; the result is clever and bold. The character of the teenage boy is conveyed in an interesting way and is not at all stereotypical. This is a story of survival in the modern world that is utterly compelling.

Also, this week, the Carnegie panel looked at ALL the Carnegie award winners over the last 70 years, and decided on the ONE book which they felt outshone ALL the others: the Carnegie of Carnegies! And this prestigious and unprecedented prize went to Northern Lights, the first of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.

An extraordinary journey into a fantasy world, it follows Lyra, accompanied by her daemon, Pantalaimon, on a quest to find Lyra's friend, Roger, who has disappeared. Their travels lead them to the bleak splendour of the North where a team of scientists are conducting unspeakably horrible experiments. The novel is soon to hit the silver screen, with The Golden Compass due in cinemas in December.

You can download an EXTRACT from both of these prize-winning novels by clicking here.

To view the whole list of the Top 10 Carnegies EVER, click here.

This week's films...

Not many great films on TV this week, but I can highly recommend:


Memento (Tue, 9.00pm, Film4) - The story of a man, suffering from short-term memory loss, who uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife; but the amazing thing here is not the story itself, but HOW it is told.



Not much to celebrate at cinemas this week either, but, if you like your action blockbusters, you could try:


Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (PG) - The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus.




And new on DVD this week:

Blood Diamond (15) - Leonardo DiCaprio film about a fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen who match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond, this is a ruthless indictment of the illegal trade in 'conflict diamonds' which is ripping apart much of the developing world.

...the solving emptiness

'Ambulances' by Philip Larkin

Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.

Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,

And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;

For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there

At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable inside a room
The traffic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.

To read more poems by Philip Larkin, click here.
To find out more about the poet himself, click here.
To watch a Sky TV News piece about Larkin's 'lost tapes', click here.

...everything changed because of Edmond.

My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go.

But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins everything changed. Part of that was because of the war, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can't remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn't count in my book, which this is.

Mostly everything changed because of Edmond.

And so here's what happened.

• Click here to read the rest of this extract from How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
• Click here for an excellent review of the novel.
• Click here to read about the responses to the book by three different Reading Groups, including one from a secondary school in Debden, not far from Leyton.

Cops and robbers (and some very dangerous monkeys)

New at cinemas
Ten Canoes (15) - rare, beautiful movie about Aboriginal culture, storytelling (and a bit of romance)
Oceans Thirteen (15) - George, Brad and Matt return with their oh-so-cool band of thieves for a third time



New on DVD
Hot Fuzz (15) - The 'Shaun of the Dead' team return with this hilarious action spoof (which also manages to be a great action film in itself too).
Apocalypto (18) - Mel Gibson does 'the end of the Mayan civilisation' like only Mel can.



On TV this week
The Butterfly Effect (Sat, 10.15pm, Channel 4) - complex, teen sci-fi about chaos theory and the power of time travel
The Last of the Mohicans (Sat, 9.00pm, Film4) - epic, award-winning portrayal of life within warring Native American communities
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Sun, 3.55pm, More4) - classic, oscar-winning, 1961 romance starring Audrey Hepburn
Outbreak (Sun, 6.30pm, ITV2) - virus-spreading thriller, and Dustin Hoffman tries to contain the threat
The Talented Mr Ripley (Mon, 9.00pm, Film4) - gripping thriller about duplicitous, machiavellian master-of-disguises, Tom Ripley
Jack and Sarah (Wed, 6.55pm, Film4) - Jack loses his wife in childbirth, and this romantic comedy sees him learning to be a father - all on his own
Phone Booth (Thu, 9.00pm, Film4) - totally gripping thriller where a rather nasty (and clever) terrorist keeps Colin Farrell literally hanging on the line