magazine

teachingenglish
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CONTENTS
POETRY COMPETITION
Senior and Junior Winners
Brief Guide to LC Texts
Notices
Ideas for Teaching First Year English
Novels for First and Second Year
The Class Novel – Ideas
John Clark Interview
Teaching English Magazine Crossword
Cover image: William Orpen The Wash House National Gallery of Ireland
Teaching English Magazine
POETRY COMPETITION
SENIOR WINNERS
Joint Second Place
st Place
Hark! The Harlequin Sound of Dancing Aristocrats
Fishwives Tales
Our feet: they are swinging to a scarlet symphony
Gliding turning twisting diving all is dancing
Maelstroms of colour red bleeding into yellow
bleeding into gold
blending into silver
We will rise and sink and rise in kaleidoscope
Electricityhued hurricanes are our bodies
Hands on waists the whirl of plumage dizzies
Dust dances!
We will dance our dust into diamonds
Air is dancing oxygen molecules batter themselves
into violets fuchsias
eyetightening artic blues Lurid silks and ribbons reach for our heads dangling
and tangling
Betwixt our legs so swift
As musicbound feet kick to crochets of crimson “Did you hear about the Baker’s daughter?”
Throw to the gutter
a slap as a fish hits the table
chop off the head and watch the eyes go misty
let spangled innards spew to the floor
“Is it true about the Baker’s daughter?”
Throw to the skinner
a slap as a fish hits the table
and he who peels with slimy distaste
can sense the grimace in shards of silver
“Such a story about the Baker’s daughter!”
Throw to the boner
a slap as the fish hits the table
press and prise the backbone apart
as it joins a pile of marrow graves unseen
Yet
He stands alone in a subdued centre
Green light duskily pulses
Peacock attired
His hair is stiff with champagne
“Tell me more about the Baker’s daughter”
Throw to the cutter
a slap as the fish hits the table
slice goes the silver as the blade rips flooded flesh
Let red stain the floor chunks of meat thrown to a
bucket
’The dance is unimportant” he will smile with a
charm that alarms
And the corner of his eye is stained with a yearning
It is our thundering lava of colour that he so longs to
suspend
To present to her in a rubyencrusted vial upon
pillows satin and secure
The fish is whole no more
Rebekah Mooney
Loreto Community School
Milford Co Donegal
Even though he is painfully aware
That for all her breaths she dances
Her own march to monochrome
(Inspired by the novel ’The Great Gatsby´ by F Scott
Fitzgerald)
Clíodhna Walsh
St Angela’s Ursuline Convent
Waterford
Joint Second Place
a mere twenty or thirty
its Russian flavour
is almost totally bastardized
bar the biting chill
that forces even the hardiest of farmers
into the fireside
where the kettle waits
It slips gracefully
through the svelte pines
as they reach out
with their battlehardened foliage
unaffected by the tenacious gusts
Still it migrates west
to the highlands and lowlands
of Scotland
where it’s pneumatic power
drives the kites of children
who freely roam the fields
well prepared for battle
with the invisible foe
armed with scarves and hats and gloves
It pitches and rolls
the car ferries in the Irish Sea
making unseasoned sailors
reach for a bucket
The sun is shining
in Donegal
but the wind retains a certain selfimportance
by refusing to warm
even slightly
It subjects the metal and steel
of ersatz highrises in Letterkenny
to the sound of a cavalry charge
It makes a chorale hum
as it passes the old brickwork
of Ramelton’s Plantation buildings
Finally it arrives
and swirls round me
like the most elegant
of cursive handwriting
stinging my face
as I watch the whitecapped waves
break on the shores
of Rathmullan beach
Airborne
The cold wind blows into my face
but this simple statement
does not do justice
to what went before:
a skindrying
eyeballwatering
and ultimately dead wind
ends its journey here
Born in the Siberian Plains the calloused east
it sweeps west
an infinity of nothing
Frozen and void
searching for the piece of exposed skin
respecting neither personal space
nor international boundaries
It is its own emancipator
free to travel where it likes
It crosses St Petersburg
whipping past the dreaming spires
where religion and art and history
all combine
It clutches at
and manages to grasp
the woody charcoal scent
of the streetvendors
and their braziers
It rushes on
to the seaport
at Riga
where the taste of fish
is skimmed by a low breeze
as if it is
a natural part
of the cobbled streets
A place where in the wet
even the buildings shimmer
as if made of scales
Across the Baltic Sea
it toys with boats
With little conscience
it forces the crew
of a tiny trawler
to batten down the hatches
and pray to any God that will listen
It does its part
for the jagged fjords
and tiny inlets
of the Scandinavian coast
where indeed many a boat
has met its end
in the towering inferno
and bonecrushing drop
of a thirty foot wave
As it moves
over small Danish islands
with populations of
Patrick Hull
Loreto Community School
Milford Co Donegal
Joint Second Place
Commended
Lines from Life
She sat
round as a stone
and content
Each night
she stared through me
at starless black
nostalgic and mistyeyed
from a mile of lines locked inside
Finn’s Wood
Each night
upon that splintered chair
rug on knees
veinsnaked hands clasped
her fingers smooth and thick
like warm ice
The Field
This is the gateway to heaven
A steep slope of radiant green descending
To a pheasant’s nest a rabbit’s burrow
Nestled along the ebbing tide of trees
I trudge into the unknown darkness alone
Yet generations goneby walk with me
Her face mapped cracked days
Tears smiles stories and advice
filled creases in her crinkled brow
Each moment in time
etched her aging appearance
with a line
The Brambles
A tangled mass of razor teeth
Grab and snatch at all in reach
This beast has entwined half my family tree
As it now entwines around my ankles
Experienced feet feel their way with care
Emerging triumphant from its lair
“Never walk in wet grass”
“Whatever is for you will not pass”
Tales told that seemed to go on
tunes that hummed long after the song
The musky aroma of Cusson’s talc
smoke and the murky grey of history
lay heavy in the thick air
The Stream
A delicate instrument tuned to nature’s song
Meandering without care without stop
A narrow tendril of life sharing its vitality
An artery and a vein to the green heart of the wood
Shining bright flowing defiantly an instant muse
And my guide through the chaos and confusion
This woman was born
she lived
and in a breath…
she was gone
But a ghost is left behind
in her splintered chair
to remind me
of the lines from life that were there
The Bluebells
They herald the approaching spring
Youthful shoots springing from ancestral winter mud
Baby blue heads swaying hypnotically left to right
Sheltered lovingly by grandfather oak’s stout
boughs
I step lightly over one then another
Passing with care through this nursery
Sinead Carr
Loreto Community School
Milford Co Donegal
The Hill
It rises before me pinnacle of the wood
All darkness and disorder falls way
In the wake of its sloping grace and golden hue
These sights are a living draught to my weary mind
As I sit upon its ancient peak and at a glance
See among these trees both my past and present
(In response to ‘Carrigskeewaun’ by Michael Longley)
Anne O’ Donovan
Colaiste no Toirbhirte
Bandon Co Cork
Commended
Commended
Sapling
Alternative Friendship
Skyline wombs split open
umbilical cords sway like nooses
Another fault is found
We stopped speaking then
Not a word and it hurt me All rapport ended
I have not chosen another path
In between blood and water
washed down the gutter
Olivia Laumenech
St Mary’s Secondary School
Newport Co Tipperary
Glorious misconceptions
abandoned intentions
Intently conceived
Commended
Little Skintight Boxes
Mother Earth and Father Christmas
Prioritized for sapling youth
Enigmatic eyes open
There are secrets to be kept
kept in dark little boxes
In your heart
In your head
Little cubes
Of secret shames
of hands and cloths
of eyes and moths
They see nothing at all
Flashes and prints
But there is nothing at all
In neoncoated aspirations
Our ideological afterbirth
Cutting the ties that bind
Great bare bonecoloured moths
dull brown and dustsmothered
Deadeyes and listless
Black and answerless
Insecteyes
Flashing before youthful eyes
they grow so tired
they droop and weep
They flutter
Make flutterby and soft pitter patters
A soft insufficient brushing
lifelike listless
And yet will grow frantic
with the draw of thought
Unfathomable apathy
Made so weak
so vulnerable
As eyelashes scratch your iris
It contracts
Another flower hiding from predators
The moths hold secrets
little dark secrets
In brown and silver boxes
But black
They are the most difficult to eat
They take longest
To be devoured
by deadeyed moths
Another beauty
Hiding from you
Alison O’ Shea
John the Baptist Community School
Hospital Co Limerick
Sinead Mercier
Coláiste Chroí Mhuire
An Spidéal
Co na Gaillimhe
Commended
Commended
The Last Years
“Do I know you?” he might say
While my mother sheds a tear
It’s not his fault he is like this – I know
She finds it hard to kill the pain
As the disease tightens its hold
I toss a coin time’s way
Can I buy her a few more moments please?
Now things aren’t the same
Can I buy a few more moments? Please
Moments where he remembers her name
The Optimist
David Cooke
Coláiste Choilm
Ballincollig Cork
The clock crawls
Like a small insect Stamp on it run it down
Yes sir no sir
Let me go sir
Wait… the beautiful bell sounds
Like the zoom of passing traffic
Commended
Broken
Our arrival and departure
It has left nature broken
Its heart broken Its people broken
Must get out fast
Slam the doors keys in pedal down
Away at last
The engine roars glad to be set free
I race I chase
Against the wind
Invincible
The wooden hull grated the stones underneath
Stepping out into the cold dark water
We approached the sleeping peaceful village
Twenty uniformed and royal pirates
Ordered to rape plunder and kill
No man on watch No man in bed No man on land
Need loud music quick
No no boring news
Tedious road deaths mangled metal
Like a first year’s engineering project
Eight one weekend nine the next
Reminds me of maths distant figures
Won’t happen to me
Five miles away Somhairle Buí received a messenger
The wind had carried the first crack of the rifle
And shortly afterwards the first scream
Defenseless mothers followed their tears to the
ground
Inside lifeless homes babies would no longer stir in
the crib
On the mainland Somhairle Buí watched flames
invade the night
Faster faster
Away from responsibility – a dirty word
It reeks of school and nagging parents
Get off you stifling seatbelt
Tying me down like rules and speedlimits
Break the rules eighty ninety
The dial swings faster than the clock
Silently we turn our backs and leave this island
But grown men will cry for their sins tonight
Hoping that theses troubles will end one day
I eat the road
A ravenous beast immortal
I close my eyes I’m flying
I’m up I’m away
Away from limits
Away from pessimistic people
Away from life
(Written in response to “Rathlin” by Derek Mahon)
Ethan Toal
Ballyhaunis Community School
Co Mayo
Laura Reaney
Schull Community College
Co Cork
Joint Second Place
JUNIOR WINNERS
First Place
Marmalade
We talk on late evenings
When the sky is copper rich with the descending
sun
I walk up a mossy pathway to you
Drooping shoulders from a day done
Sometimes I will catch your hand
Where meandering veins run deep blue
I love the likeness of our fingers
Waiting is the game I play
To cherish soft wrinkles like you do
A pot sits fat with oranges
And sticky sugar boiling
I help you find numbers on knobs
Put jars in the oven
Love Tears and Mourning
(In response to Book of Homer’s Illiad)
They mourn their loved ones’ death
Find comfort in each other
And cry tenderly
I listen for your heart to sing
It’s a gentle humming noise
And it warms me through
For I truly love to be with you
When you are making marmalade
Hut lit by soft candle light
To hide the harsh night –
A room full of pain
Claire Anderson
Carrigaline Community School
Cork
Emptiness is felt strongly
As each tear falls from his eye
Heartbroken forever
With a Trojan hero dead
A Greek companion lost
Enemies grieve
Hector’s motionless body
Is wrapped in a robe
In pity for old Priam
Now holding his lifeless son
Priam carries him to the cart
And rests him down
They are greeted with sadness
All wailing laments for him
Tamer of horses
A burial full of grief
A glorious feast
For Hector the great
Danielle Doyle
Gorey Community School
County Wexford
Joint Second Place
Joint Third Place
Me Myself and I
Me is my laugh
Me is my smirk
It is the way I perk my head up
And listen to things I shouldn’t
Myself is my sensible side
The one I often hide
The one I should consult
But rarely do
I is the part of me
That sees things clearly
The part that keeps my head down
And out of trouble
Fear
Without these three I am incomplete:
I am a circle with no centre
A cat with no claws
The sad lonely wind at night
(In response to Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Base Details’)
A tranquil field
Grass tilting in a slight sigh of wind
Turning into
Heavy breathing heart thumping
Noise
Confusion
Fear
Without these three
There is no buzz around me
I am a stranger to those around me
So just accept me the way I am
Mary Black
St Anne’s Secondary School
Tipperary Town
The jagged stump of a tree hidden in moss
The cheerful chirping of a blackbird
Turning into
Piercing screams the shriek of shells
Bodies
Darkness
Fear
Fifty years
The same field under the same
Crimsontinged sunset will always hold
Pain
Blood
A memory that’s more than just a memory
Noise
Confusion
The never ending nightmare from my past to my
future
Bodies
Darkness
More than just a memory
Fear
MarieClaire Twomey
St Aloysius College
Carrigtwohill
Co Cork
Joint Third Place
Commended
The Marines’ Mission
Literature
Bring your bombs bring your guns
Watch the fathers mourn their
Sons…
Respect their story
Respect their books
Respect any received glory
Respect their pen
Respect their ink
Respect whatever they may think
With each bullet with each shell you
Plunder more black gold to
Sell
Respect their mind
Respect their soul
Respect their knowledge
Respect their goal
With each battle with each fight
You further your ever ‘righteous’
Plight
In the desert fighting hard
Ignorant of the wounded killed and
Scarred!
Respect the talent they were given
Respect the grant that they received
Respect the dream that was within
Respect the point that they believed
Neale Keegan
St Killian’s Community School
Ballywaltrim Bray
Co Wicklow
Respect their muse
Respect their idea
Respect their right to confuse
Respect Shakespeare’s hands that wrote
Respect Dickens’s honesty
Respect any given quote
Respect Jane Austen’s bravery
Respect the poet
Respect the poem
Respect the truth as they know it
Respect their pain
Respect their sorrow
Respect the writers of tomorrow
Lucy Murphy Stratford College Zion Road Dublin
Commended
Night
As the sun sets
The darkness approaches
The moon savours
The time when the sun wavers
The earth is covered in a blanket of black
A small mouse scurries through a farmer’s shack
In this time nothing stirs
A cat looks at the stars and quietly purrs
And waits for the night to end
The sun rises to send
Its rays of light onto the sand
And the darkness retreats form the land
Philip Smith St Patrick’s College Cavan
Commended
Commended
Reconciliation
(In response to Book of Homer’s Illiad)
My Mother
Speedy walker
Constant talker
Soap lover
TV watcher
Tea drinker
Quick thinker
Fast knitter
Notasitter
Dish washer
Head wrecker
Phone hogger
Lipstick putter
Clothes shopper
Annoying singer
Happy smiler
Big hugger Enemies grieving together
A son a friend connected
Shadows from a candle tears
The moon shines the stars are bright
Outside a small stream trickles
Inside two kings
Grief is the victor and sadness
Their tears flowing together
A truce a tear respect
Sharing a meal foes no more
Honourable men feasting
King gazing at king
One old one young both worn out
My mother!!
Now that grieving has drained them
Sleep will spread its quilt
Rachel Sheridan
Scoil Mhuire
Trim
Co Meath
Aoife O’ Donnell
Gorey Community School
Wexford
Commended
Blank Canvas
My water colour ship sails on
brush strokes of green and white
the sun comes up and the moon falls
light The day grows long and like a
song the chorus of my painting forms
Finger prints of individual colour making
texture rougher bolder My mood then swings
and of all things on comes rage I’m painting red
right down the page I reach the end and
sign my name just another picture for another
frame
Áine Hennigan
Loreto Abbey
Dalkey
Co Dublin
A Brief Guide to Texts Prescribed for Leaving Certificate characters appear: an overbearing lord and a
whimpering slave A boy comes to deliver the
message that Godot will not come today but he
will come tomorrow The tramps resume their
vigil A few leaves appear on the tree Beckett’s
brilliant play with its pareddown dialogue sharp
sense of comedy absurdity and deep anguish A
play that can be enjoyed at many levels
Pride and Prejudice AUSTEN Jane
There are five Bennet sisters living at Longbourn:
the irrepressible Lizzie; the quiet beautiful Jane;
the wildly silly Lydia; the impressionable Kitty
and the pious and sententious
Mary Five sisters in search of
husbands; a ridiculous mother; a
longsuffering and neglectful
father; the proud Darcy; the
charming Bingley; the unscrupulous
Wickham; the comical Mr Collins
In short Austen at her brilliant best
Circle of Friends BINCHY Maeve
Although this is a long novel it is not a daunting
read Set in Ireland in the late s the novel tells
the story of Eve and Benny two friends from the
small town of Knockglen who go to Dublin to
attend university Their encounters with Jack
Foley and Nam Mahon teach them about true
friendship Binchy’s warm conversational style
as she charts the up and downs of the two friends
in life and love engages the reader and makes us
empathise with her heroines
Kepler BANVILLE John
Banville’s vividly imagined historical novel
captures the squalor of life in central Europe in
the th century during a time when magic and
superstition vied with science and reason to
capture the human imagination Banville’s genius
is to paint a portrait of a burdened unhappy and
in many respects an unappealing human being
who dares to imagine the world as we now know
it to be Apart from Kepler and his wife Barabra
the novel is peopled with a rich cast of
memorable and eccentric characters including
Tycho Brahe and Rudolf II The background of the
Reformation and the politics of power prestige
and patronage add to the rich mix
The Last September BOWEN Elizabeth
Set in Cork during Bowen’s novel charts the
last days of the Anglo
Irish gentry in Ireland As
the country undergoes
the war of Independence
Sir Richard and Lady
Myra Taylor carry on as
before They entertain
their guests including
their niece Lois Farquar;
the English visitors Hugo
and
Francie
Montmorency and the English army officer
Gerald Colthurst Amongst the party in the
house love and desire cause tension and
confusion while outside the political situation
grows less certain and the threat of the IRA hangs
over the soirees and tennis parties of the Big
House A comingofage novel; a comedy of
manners; a description of personal tragedy set
against the political upheaval of the War of
Independence and the decline of a whole class
Bowen’s novel brilliantly conveys a moment
(both private and public) that is poised between
tradition and change and the old and the new
Arthur and George BARNES Julian
The ‘Arthur’ of the title is the Scottish novelist
Arthur Conan Doyle ‘George’ is George Edjali a
provincial solicitor son of an Indian vicar and his
Scottish wife George spent seven years in prison
for a crime he did not commit and Arthur Conan
Doyle took up his case and
succeeded in having a pardon
secured for the innocent Edjali
Much of the novel alternates the
story of Arthur with that of
George until the two men
‘unofficial Englishmen’ finally
meet The novel based on a true
story is a good yarn an
interesting detective story and an
indictment of the prejudice and racism that
facilitated the miscarriage of justice
Waiting for Godot BECKETT Samuel
A bare tree some mounds of earth and the sky
Two tramps waiting for Godot They argue; they
sleep; they eat; they contemplate suicide Two
NEW TEXT
actors writers and directors Bogart’s world
weary Rick Blaine is one of the most iconoclastic
figures in cinema history and the famous ending
will generate plenty of debate and discussion in
class A genuine ‘classic’ movie
Wuthering Heights BRONTE Emily
Classic romantic novel of consuming passions
played out against the wild Yorkshire moors
Cathy and Heathcliff are the unhinged
tempestuous lovers who wreak havoc all round
them A dense overwritten overwrought tale of
passion jealousy and revenge A demanding read
but who can resist its peculiar madness: I am
Heathcliff! He’s always always in my mind; not
as a pleasure any more than I am always a
pleasure to myself but as my own being
NEW TEXT
Billy Elliot (Film) DALDRY Stephen (Dir)
A terrific comingof age story Billy Elliot tells the
story of the boy who dares to be different Eleven
yearold Billy is not like
his Dad He doesn’t want
to learn boxing or be a
miner Instead he is
fascinated by the grace
and magic of ballet and is
determined to dance Set
at the time of the miner’s
strike in England during
the Thatcher era the film
traces Billy’s fight against
the prejudice of his father
and brother and the northern community in
which they live The film is graced by fantastic
performances by Julie Walters and Jamie Bell
and a soundtrack featuring the music of Marc
Bolan’s TRex
In Patagonia CHATWIN Bruce
Chatwin’s account of his journeys in the southern
tip of South America first published in established a new kind of travel writing which
mixes evocative description amusing anecdotes
oral tradition odd bits of history and historical
narrative and accounts of local outlaws! A
genuine original from a writer who died
prematurely in Girl with a Pearl Earring CHEVALIER Tracy
The novel is set in Delft Griet is a sixteenyear
old girl who becomes a maid in the house of the
painter Vermeer Calm and mature beyond her
years Griet has a special eye for colour and
composition Gradually master and servant
develop an understanding In the hostile
environment of the household they share a secret
world that is not openly acknowledged until Griet
poses for the painting ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’
Lyrical and descriptive Chevalier never loses
sight of the social reality of Griet’s situation and
the choices she is forced to make to support her
povertystricken family
NEW TEXT
Hard Times DICKENS Charles
First published in Dickens’ attack on the
philosophy of Utilitarianism
and the dangers of unfettered
industrialization (and the
myth of the selfmade man)
seems as fresh and relevant
today as it was years ago
A blistering attack on
education conceived in terms
of
measurement
and
efficiency the novel asserts
the importance and imagination and the
emotions in education and the development of a
moral sensibility Although it falters in parts the
novel contains some of Dickens’ finest writing
Casablanca (Film) CURTIZ Michael (Dir)
Set in Morocco during World War II Rick’s
nightclub is a haven for refugees hoping to
obtain transit documents
that will eventually allow
them to reach the USA
Rick’s apparent neutrality
and his willingness to
entertain both Vichy and
Gestapo forces is called
into question when Ilsa
the great love of his life
and her husband Victor
Laszlo a famous Czech
nationalist and Resistance leader show up in his
bar For many Casablanca is the greatest
example of the classic Hollywood film It was
shot entirely in a Hollywood studio using studio
NEW TEXT
Dancing at Lughnasa FRIEL Brian
Friel’s heartwarming and heartbreaking play on
the lives of the Mundy Sisters in Ballybeg who
like the tramps in Beckett’s Godot always seem
to be waiting for things to happen A powerful
evocation of Ireland in the s this is a play of
private grief and vanishing dreams with that
memorable scene of uninhibited energy as the
sisters dance with Pagan abandon to the music
from their new wireless Dancing at Lughnasa
explores some of Friel’s recurring concerns:
memory; change; loss; and the identity that lies
beneath the restrictions of social and religious
convention
is a detective story of new money local
corruption dodgy developers love and heroism
with more than a passing similarity between the
Roman Empire and contemporary America to
amuse or irritate A readable stylish thriller and
historical novel
NEW TEXT
A Doll’s House IBSEN Henrik
Ibsen’s play on the need for freedom and the
oppressive affects of middleclass values in a
patriarchal society written in still packs a
punch There are enough symbols and symbolic
motifs to engage most students while Nora’s
decision to leave the insufferable Torvald is sure to
generate heated classroom debate on the
responsibility of the individual to herself versus her
responsibility to her family There are many echoes
of Ibsen’s work in Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa
North of Ithaca GAGE Eleni
North of Ithaca is New York journalist Eleni
Cage’s account of the rebuilding of her ancestral
home in a Greek village where her grandmother
had been executed during the Greek Civil War in
(Her grandmother’s story is related in Eleni
written by the writer’s father) Her decision to
restore the old house in the village of Lia close to
the Albanian border causes tension in the family
and raises the spectre of old hurts and division
The story of an American making a connection
with her Greek roots is comic and tragic (with the
predictable clash between urban cosmopolitanism
and rural traditionalism) and told with energy
and affection A story on the need to belong as
well as an interesting insight into modern Greek
history and society
Sive KEANE John B
First produced in Listowel in the play tells
the story of Sive a young orphan who lives with
her grandmother her uncle and his bitter wife
Mena Mena conspires with the local
matchmaker to sell Sive in marriage to Seán
Dóta a “worn exhausted little lorgadawn of a
man” Despite the protests of Sive and her
grandmother the arrangement proceeds until
the evening before the wedding when Sive takes
her fate into her own hands with tragic
consequences A strong tale of innocence lechery
and betrayal Contemporary young readers will
question Sive’s willingness to proceed as far as
she does with the arrangements made for her
Pompeii HARRIS Robert
On the morning of August AD Mount
Vesusius erupted and destroyed the city of
Pompeii killing thousands of people Thomas
Harris brings this story to life in a novel that has
a very contemporary feel The last hundred
pages describing the destruction of the city are
terrific and though we know the end of the
story Harris creates real
suspense and drama The
Sherlock Holmes at the
centre of the novel is
Marius Attilius a young
engineer from Rome As
he sets out to discover
the cause of a water
shortage in the area of
Naples he finds himself
in the new town of
Pompeii on the slope s of
Vesuvius What follows
Richard III (Film) LONCRAINE Richard (Dir)
Loncarine’s fastpaced adaptation of Richard III is
set in an imaginary England of the s Richard
is the totalitarian dictator motivated by
ambition and a desire for revenge who crushes
all who stand in his way Richard is played with
real verve by Ian McKellen who draws you into
his schemes and amoral life with roguish charm
and wit A terrific film that really catches the
intoxication and smell of power desire and
ambition Loncraine’s film is certain to generate
discussion and debate
The Silent People MACKEN Walter
An historical novel set at the time of Catholic
Emancipation with the specter of famine
haunting the land Macken’s novel tells the story
Dualta Duane and his love for Una daughter of
an English Protestant Landlord and an Irish
Lies of Silence MOORE Brian
A thriller set in Belfast and London during the
Troubles Moore’s novel moves along at a terrific
pace A story of love and betrayal and the
intersection of the private and the public Lies of
Silence touches on important moral issues
without becoming heavyhanded or moralistic In
fact some may find Moore’s treatment of the
Republican paramilitaries too onedimensional
and simplistic The novel centres on the character
of Michael Dillon a young hotel manager whose
life is caught in a web of lies and silences Moore’s
novel has established itself as a popular choice
with students over the past eight years
Catholic mother Beset by legal restrictions
unfair laws and treatment poverty and famine
Dualta struggles to maintain his dignity and
sense of integrity A wellwritten fastpaced
novel The Silent People (first published in )
is intelligent enough to avoid a blackandwhite
approach to its subject matter while at the same
time exploiting all the dramatic potential of
nineteenth century Irish history A good story
written in an engaging style
Fly Away Peter MALOUF David
This short lyrical novel set during the First
World War contrasts the crumbling civilisation
of Europe with an Australia that seems like
Paradise on earth The hero is Jim Saddler the
birdwatcher and naturalist who befriends the
landowner Ashley Crowther and Imogen
Harcourt an eccentric English photographer The
novel contrasts their idyllic life in Australia with
the hellish life in the trenches where Jim loses his
life Episodic poetic and sad the novel succeeds
in being hopeful despite the ruins of war
A Whistle in the Dark MURPHY Tom
First produced in A Whistle in the Dark is a
tragic exploration of the Carney family imploding
at a family reunion in Coventry Michael is the
young Irishman living in Coventry with his young
English wife Betty Harry is his thuggish brother
who has never forgiven Michael for perceived
slights and insults and who with his brothers
Iggy and Hugo treats Betty with disdain Dada is
the fierce patriarch a domestic
King Lear foolish and aggressive
in equal measure who goads
his sons on A fierce study of
masculinity and inter and intra
family rivalry that hurtles to its
tragic conclusion Murphy’s
play described by one reviewer
as a clenched fist is as raw and
powerful today as it was in The Lonesome West McDONAGH Martin
McDonagh is an exciting voice in Irish theatre In
The Lonesome West Quentin Tarantino meets JM
Synge or JB Keane meets Father Ted in this black
comedy set in Leenane the “murder capital” of the
west Featuring fratricide sibling rivalry a
doubtingpriest and a toughtalking teenager girl
the play reveals McDonagh’s gift for language and
exuberant comedy Funny dark
surreal McDonagh will appeal to
many Leaving Certificate students
and provoke interesting debate on
the way ‘Irishness’ is represented
Is the play a satire? Is it a parody?
McDonagh’s work will be known
to many students through his
debut feature film In Bruges
NEW TEXT
Purple Hibiscus NGOZI ADICHIE Chimamanda
This debut novel by the young Nigerian writer has
been widely praised The story is narrated by the
year old Kambili She describes a life of apparent
privilege However her wealthy father is a fanatic
and his strict adherence to Catholicism makes life a
misery for his wife and family A kindly aunt alerts
Kambili to the possibility of a different kind of life
free of fear and free of domestic tyranny The
novel is grounded in the domestic world but
explores themes and issues which move beyond
the boundaries of the personal and the familial
Through the eyes of the young narrator we
witness the conflict between Catholicism and the
tribal tradition of animism and ancestral worship
We also witness the pernicious effect of religion in
a society that is crumbling and struggling with the
aftershocks of colonization Kambili’s voice is sad
poignant and hopeful
Lamb McLAVERTY Bernard
First published in the novel tells the story
of Michael Lamb a young religious brother who
shocked by the harsh regime in the Boys’ Home
run by his order flees taking twelveyearold
Owen Kane with him Posing as father and son
the two enjoy a brief interlude of happiness until
running out of time money and a place to hide
Michael settles on a desperate and tragic course
of action Short simple unsettling with a
shattering ending that will divide readers Lamb is
a powerful exploration of innocence and
goodness in a brutal world
Inside I’m Dancing O’DONNELL Damien
Two young men in wheelchairs determined to
live life to the full and escape from the institution
where they are treated as children For many this
is a really vibrant film on rebellion and the search
for love freedom and friendship with a good
script and excellent performances For others it
is clichéd in its depiction of disabled people as
emotionally immature and naïve A film that will
get students talking
In Asne Seierstad a Norwegian journalist
met an Afghan bookseller in Kabul and was invited
into his household to write a book about his
family In spite of war and a repressive regime the
bookseller worked to keep literature alive in his
native city Seierstad’a fictionalised account tells
the story of a cultured man who is also a tyrannical
patriarch in whose household women are treated
as little better than slaves Was the hospitality of
the bookseller betrayed by an ungrateful guest?
Was the bookseller undone by his own arrogance
and lack of selfawareness? Can a Western
sensibility look fairly on a society so far removed
from its own or is the stark truth that Afghanistan
is hopelessly mired in poverty with a society that
hates women? A fascinating read
Panther in the Basement OZ Amos
This comingofage novel is set in Jerusalem in
in the last summer of British rule before the
declaration of independence in which set
up the state of Israel Proofy is the twelveyear
old narrator who dreams of fighting for his
country by driving out the British and defending
the homeland from the attack of its enemies
Proofy discovers that the real world is more
complicated than his boyish fantasy of war allows
when he befriends a young British soldier who is
interested in learning Hebrew When Proofy’s
fellow wouldbe fighters learn of this friendship
they accuse Proffy of treason and of loving the
enemy Oz’s short novel captures Jerusalem in
as well as offering a humane morality tale
on love and friendship
King Lear SHAKESPEARE William
For many Lear is Shakespeare’s greatest play The
powerful king who is selfindulgent and open to
flattery; the foolish king who banishes his friends
and loving daughter; the powerless king who
suffers and grows wise; the wise king who fears
he is not in perfect mind and whose heart is
broken Add to this the acerbic wit of the Fool
and the machinations of the evil sisters and you
have one mighty play
The Tempest SHAKESPEARE William
Prospero is the unjustly usurped Duke of Milan
living on a magical island with his daughter
Miranda where he perfects his magical arts His
servants are Ariel and Caliban the son of the
witch Sycorax Magic comedy love and
reconciliation abound as Prospero employs his
powers to restore the losses he has endured
before relinquishing his magic and presenting
himself as an old man whose life’s work is done
The Tempest is a very rich play from the pen of
the mature Shakespeare
Bel Canto PATCHETT Ann
The story of a hostagetaking in an unnamed
Latin American country As negotiations on the
rebels’ demands drag on interminably the
captors and their international group of hostages
settle into an unlikely routine centred on the
daily practice of an opera diva For some of the
hostages and their young captors the time spent
in the besieged house is an idyll A story about
music and love that is brilliantly sustained to its
unexpected ending A literary novel with a sure
sense of plotting and suspense
II Postino (Film) RADFORD Michael (Dir) Described by one reviewer as a long poem of
beauty romance and tragedy Il Postino follows
the story of a shy lovestruck postman (Mario) on
a remote Mediterranean island who strikes up an
unlikely friendship with the exiled Chilean poet
Pablo Neruda Under the poet’s tutelage the
postman learns to look at life in lyrical terms and
masters the art of talking to women! Humorous
with warm characterisation and beautiful
cinematography Il Postino is underscored by
tragedy and a sense of political reality This film
has Italian dialogue and is subtitled
The Bookseller of Kabul SEIERSTAD Asne
Oedipus the King SOPHOCLES
Written almost years ago Sophocles
masterpiece relates the tragedy of Oedipus who
in attempting to escape the prophecy of the
Delphic Oracle (that he will kill his father and
marry his mother) leaves Corinth and the court
of King Polybus whom he believes to be his
father and heads to Thebes There without
knowing it he fulfils the prophecy by slaying
Laius and marrying Queen Jocasta Oedipus the
King opens with Oedipus as King of Thebes
unaware that the prophecy has been fulfilled The
play charts the inevitable tragedy as the true
facts of his life and actions emerge In the themes
of selfknowledge suffering sight and blindness
Oedipus the King explores many of the same
themes that appear in Shakespeare’s King Lear
is also a shrewd exploration of the natives’ reaction
to the arrival of the stranger Written in Synge’s
poetic inimitable style with terrific speeches and
setpieces The Playboy is an intoxicating mixture
of farce violence and lost opportunity Christy’s
transformation from a shy nervous fellow afraid
of his shadow into the boastful hero is wonderfully
done Hard to imagine now that the first
production led to riots and calls to “Kill the
Author!” A contemporary audience might well
view The Playboy of the Western World as a
cautionary tale on the fickle nature of celebrity!
The Road to Memphis TAYLOR Mildred
This is the third of Taylor’s novels on the Logan
family who strive to maintain their dignity and
their land in the face of racist bigotry The Road
to Memphis is set in as Cassie the central
character is preparing to go to college and then
to law school Over three turbulent days her life
is thrown into crisis as she helps her friend to flee
to Memphis following a fight in which he injures
a while boy Set against the backdrop of
America’s entry into the Second World War the
novel charts Cassie’s growing pains as she enters
adulthood and seeks to join the political
movement against racism A dramatic story
written in a simple and accessible style
The Grapes of Wrath STEINBECK John
Steinbeck’s novel is
set during the Great
Depression and focuses
on the story of the Joad
family from Oklahoma
who are driven from
their home by drought
poverty and the indus
trialization of agriculture
Wooed by the promise of
work in a Californian
paradise the Joads join
thousand of other Okies
in the search for a new life in the ‘Promised Land’
The journey to California is marked by tragedy
and loss In California they fall victim to
unscrupulous corporate farmers and wages and
conditions are inhuman As in Of Mice and Men
the tragedy lies as much in the modesty of their
dream (a family a house a steady job) as in their
failure to make their dream come through A
masterclass in storytelling from one of the
greatest American writers of the twentieth
century The Grapes of Wrath has the feel of a
biblical epic and there are many images and
situation which echo biblical themes
The Blackwater Lightship TOIBIN Colm
Set in Wexford in the s Toibin’s novel
explores the tangled web of guilt recrimination
loss and love which binds Helen to her mother
Lily as she struggles to come to terms with the
illness of her brother Declan Written in a clear
unshowy style Toibin’s novel portrays an Irish
family struggling to face their feelings and
admit their needs as their beloved Declan falls
victim to AIDS A straightforward story written
in a simple style about
characters who are complex
and relate to each other in
complicated ways The novel
has the feel of a play as six
characters spend a short
period in the old family home
by the sea The crumbling
house and the disused
lighthouse are effective
symbols in a book whose
ending is sufficiently open to
invite speculation on the future lives of the
characters
Character
dialogue
and
introspection are the driving forces of this
Bookershortlisted novel
NEW TEXT
The Playboy of the Western World SYNGE JM
The young Christy Mahon appears in a shebeen
“near a village on a wild coast of Mayo” When he
tells Pegeen Mike the publican’s daughter that he
murdered his father the news spreads like wildfire
and he becomes a local wonder Synge’s
masterpiece on love and attraction and the
difference between a gallous story and a dirty deed
The Truman Show (Film) WEIR Peter (Director)
Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is the star of the
most popular show in the history of television For
days it has been on the air showing every
moment in every day of the life of one man
Everyone in “The Truman Show” is an actor with
one important exception: the lead character
himself Truman thinks the show is real However
when a former member of the
cast tips him off Truman begins
to suspect the truth Essentially
a satire on the power of
television The Truman Show is
also a touching story of a man
struggling to retain a sense of
himself in a false world Peter
Weir makes good use of
documentarystyle interviews
and footage to raise some interesting questions
about the nature of the reality portrayed by
television without losing sight of the comic
intention of the film
SOME NOTES FOR TEACHERS
Teachers and students should make sure that the
texts they are studying come from the prescribed
list for the year of the examination Candidates
who are repeating the Leaving Certificate course
should note that texts prescribed for one year may
not necessarily be prescribed for subsequent years
The Story of Lucy Gault TREVOR William
In in the wake of the War of Independence
and unrest throughout the country Captain
Everard Gault and his family prepare to leave
their modest county Cork estate of Lahadane
Having accidentally shot a local youth Gault
fears reprisals and decides to go to England
Trying to protect year old Lucy her parents
don’t tell her the full story behind their
departure Unable to understand what she sees as
her parents cruelty Lucy runs away When she
doesn’t return her heartbroken parents fear she
has drowned and leave moving from one place to
another in Europe and severing all contact with
Ireland Only Lucy hasn’t drowned and the novel
then becomes a story of regret and guilt Lucy’s
life in Lahadane where she is taken care of by the
former servants is that of a sleeping beauty
marking time in the enchanted house she didn’t
want to leave In a short review it is hard to do
justice to the beauty and simplicity of Trevor’s
writing and it is the quality of the writing that
makes us accept some of the unrealistic or fairy
tale elements of the story Covering some of the
same territory as Bowen’s The Last of September
The Story of Lucy Gault is a very readable novel
For students taking the Higher Level Papers the
study of a Shakespearean play is compulsory as
either a single text or as part of a comparative
study The study of a film adaptation of a
Shakespearean play does not fulfil this
requirement as the director of the film is
considered the author of the film text
It is also worth noting that three texts are
prescribed for study in a comparative manner at
both Higher and Ordinary level
As the syllabus indicates students are required to
study from this list:
One text on its own from the following texts:
BRONTE Emily
FRIEL Brian
KEANE John B
McLAVERTY B
MOORE Brian
OZ Amos
SHAKESPEARE W
STEINBECK John
TOIBIN Colm
NEW TEXT
Wuthering Heights (H/O)
Dancing at Lughnasa (H/O)
Sive (O)
Lamb (O)
Lies of Silence (O)
Panther in the Basement (O)
King Lear (H/O)
The Grapes of Wrath (H/O)
The Blackwater Lightship (H/O)
The Comparative Modes for Examination in are:
One of the texts marked with H/O may be
studied on its own at Higher level and at
Ordinary Level
Higher Level
(i)
Literary Genre
(ii)
The General Vision and Viewpoint
(iii) The Cultural Context
One of the texts marked with O may be studied
on its own at Ordinary level
Three other texts in a comparative manner
according to the comparative modes prescribed
for this course
Ordinary Level
(i)
Hero/Heroine/Villain
(ii)
Theme
(iii) Social Setting
Any texts from the list of texts prescribed for
comparative study other than the one already
chosen for study on its own may be selected for
the comparative study Texts chosen must be
from the prescribed list for the current year
Shakespearean Drama
At Higher level a play by Shakespeare must be
one of the texts chosen This can be studied on its
own or as an element in a comparative study
At Higher level and at Ordinary level a film may
be studied as one of the three texts in a
comparative study
At Ordinary level the study of a play by
Shakespeare is optional
Black Death in Dixie
Black Death in Dixie is a DVD resource with
teaching notes on the subject of the Death
Penalty in the Southern States of the USA
This documentary was broadcast on RTE of
part of the ‘What in the World?’ Series If you
would like a free copy of the DVD and
resource materials please contact the English
Support Service Office on or
english@slssie
Did you know that the English Second Level Support Service website has a host of
resources? Check it out on http://englishslssie/
Ideas for Teaching First Year English
Work with a Colleague
Work with a colleague and share ideas and
resources Select a new novel and discuss your ideas
on teaching it Keep notes on what worked well and
discuss questions and issues which arise such as
setting work for gifted students Don’t treat your
collaboration as a cosy chat but push yourselves to
develop ideas and record what happens We’ll be
happy to publish ideas and insights generated by
your work together (A useful website address for
ideas
on
professional
collaboration
is:
wwwprodaitorg/approaches)
Use a Film
Build a unit of work around a film Some good titles
are: Bridge to Terabithia; Bend it like Beckham; Stand
by Me; RabbitProof Fence; Holes; Whale Rider
Make use of the film’s narrative to help students
follow the journey of the main character(s) At the
end of the journey the character is older and more
experienced (time has passed things have
happened) and usually wiser (he/she has found out
things about themselves and the world) In other
words the journey is always one of growing up A
simple way to begin exploring a film is to look at the
key moments or points on the journey The study of
film can also help students to write better short
stories For example if you are studying Bridge to
Terabithia you might invite the students to write a
short story in which two friends find a secret
location and decide to make it their private world
Carefully plot the story using the structure of
Situation Revelation or Discovery Conflict or
Dilemma and Resolution or Aftermath
Teach for Understanding
Try a Teaching for Understanding approach
Developed by Howard Gardner and David Perkins at
Harvard along with hundreds of teachers with
whom they have worked Teaching for
Understanding pretty much sets out to do what it
says on the tin The diagram that follows these
notes summarises the main ideas Check out the
Project Zero website for more information and
ideas (wwwpzharvardedu)
As a pedagogic approach Teaching for Understanding
describes what many teachers do and the ideas which
underpin their practice Presented as a series of steps
it reads something like this:
Select interesting material
Ask interesting questions that are worth pursuing
Give students time to consider these questions
Make sure that work has throughlines that
connect one idea to another
Invite students to respond in creative forms
Give feedback to students on how they are doing
on an ongoing basis
Exploratory Talk
Use exploratory talk to help students develop their
ideas and gain access to their insights Exploratory
talk is a conscious attempt to develop thinking in the
classroom in a way that is both public and communal
Obviously it is closely linked to Teaching for
Understanding Two features are worth emphasising:
using extended exchanges to help students clarify
and express their ideas; and acknowledging students’
ideas by recording them (on the blackboard for
example) and attributing authorship by putting the
student’s name after the idea
Variety of Reading
Use a variety of whole class small group and
individual reading This can range from the
traditional class novel where everyone reads the
same novel to individual reading and reading sets
where five or six students read the one title and
discuss as part of a reading group The latter can be
useful in a mixedability class where you want to
match material to the reading age and the interest
of different sets of students
Multi Media Project on ‘My Place’
Many primary schools do local history projects so
avoid repetition However using digital cameras or
disposable cameras the students can capture
images of their local place and use headlinestyle
captions in labelling them The photos can also inspire
poetry as in the example of Dermot Bolger’s ‘Girl
Fifteen Walking in Ronanstown’ one of a suite of
poems he wrote as writerinresident for South Dublin
County Council (http://incontextsouthdublinie) The
project can also include short interviews with a
local resident or a report with photos on a local
news item Last year a number of teachers
incorporated work on Horoscopes into their media
project and the students had fun learning about
genre and register
Improvise
Give students a starter and encourage
improvisation in pairs or small groups Encourage
students to develop scripts for short scenes and give
them an opportunity to act then out You can start
with all kinds of things:
A Teenager wants to go to a party with a friend
A parent does not like the new friend the teenager
is hanging around with and refuses permission
A new boy or girl arrives in the school You think
the new student is terrific and want to include her
in your group of friends Your best friend doesn’t
like the new student
Two people sitting at a table Neither will look at
the other
A Prop
This can be as simple as a photograph or a key ring
know using graphic forms of organising their content
– spider diagrams graphs of a narrative venn
diagrams Avoid summary work Research carried out
in England by the Institute of Education at London
University found that students believed that:
Homework should be clearly related to class work
? There should be a clear pattern to class and
homework ? Homework should be varied ?
Homework should be manageable ? Homework
?
should be challenging but not too difficult ?
Homework should allow for individual initiative
and creativity ? Homework should promote self
confidence and understanding ? There should be
recognition for work done ? There should be
guidance and support
Assessment
Encourage students to do self assessment and
correct recurring mistakes
There is growing acceptance that peer and self
assessment is important in helping students improve
their standards of writing and presentation However
helping students to get it right is no easy task
Teaching the mechanics of language is something
I’m continually trying to make enjoyable I try to
incorporate it into what else is going on in class but
this is not always successful However if it is taught
separately students … tend to see it as a
completely separate item
A Line
You have some nerve
Who do you think you are?
Who let you in here?
We might as well give up!
As one teacher of firstyear said: The students
absolutely love doing improvs and all kinds of
interesting work comes out of it whether it be
creative writing or responding to a novel short
story or film
Shadow the Bisto Awards Scheme
Children’s Books Ireland have a terrific scheme that
allows class groups to read the shortlisted titles in the
annual Bisto Awards CBI have prepared support
material and a range of suggested activities
Full information is available from:
wwwchildrensbooksirelandcom
Reading
Read a short story or a novel aloud to the students
just for the pleasure of it The students love just to sit
and listen to the story
Presenting Work
Give students opportunities to present what they
(These ideas arise from a pilot project on teaching
First Year English The English Support Service
would like to thank the English teachers in Manor
House School; Collinstown Park Community
College; and Gorey Community School Thanks also
to Statia Somers Aileen Ivory and SLARI)
Fiction for First and Second Year
Would you like to create a new class library for your
first or second year students? Here are fifty
suggestions Many of these titles have been used in
Irish classrooms and have proved popular and
successful with students and teachers alike The
reviews are taken from the website of Booktrust
(wwwbooktrustorguk) a UKbased charity which
promotes reading The Teaching English magazine is
grateful for permission to use the reviews Thanks to
the teachers in Manor House School Collinstown
Park Community College and Gorey Community
School for their feedback on individual titles Thanks
also to Statia Somers for her advice and to Aileen
Ivory and SLARI for their help
Please note it is always recommended that you read
a novel before deciding to use it in class A theme
situation or reference that I deem appropriate for
my class might not be deemed appropriate by you
for your class
Skellig by David Almond
Michael and his family move to
a new home Exploring a
ramshackle garage with his
newfound friend Mina he
discovers a strange parthuman
‘creature’ Skellig as the
creature likes to be known is ill
mannered with questionable
personal
hygiene
but
persevering in their kindness
towards him Michael and Mina
find a bond forms between
them that will change their lives forever This is an
unusual intriguing and captivating winner of both
the Carnegie Medal and Whitbread Children’s Book
Award (both )
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
When three mysterious letters are
sent to three strangers a set of
events are set in motion that bring
together two young students on a
quest to find a missing painting
Petra and Calder are both clever
students who love school and their
new teacher Ms Hussey Inspired
by Ms Hussey’s ability to shirk rules and explore the
unexplainable Petra and Calder set out to solve the
mysterious disappearance of Vermeer’s ‘A Lady
Writing’ Filled with secret puzzles encrypted text
colourful characters and a surprise ending Chasing
Vermeer is a brilliant story told from the ingenious
perspectives of its two yearold protagonists The
story’s hidden clues and interesting plot twists leave
the reader in eager anticipation for Petra and Calder’s
next adventure
Reading Age Interest Level: Granny the Pag by Nina Bawden
Catriona lives with her chainsmoking motorbike
riding grandmother However as she gets older her
careerminded parents soon realise that she might
be more of an asset than a burden and want her
home – but Catriona isn’t so sure A witty and
ingenious story superbly illustrating the way it is
possible to love the relatives one also finds
infuriating and embarrassing
Reading Age Interest Level Playing Against the Odds by Bernard Ashley
As soon as Fiona joins his class Chris can’t stop
thinking about her and blushes every time she is
near However as people’s belongings start to go
missing a gold ring a personal organiser and an
expensive flute all suspicion falls on the new girl
How can Chris ask her out when all the evidence
points to her being a thief? An intriguing tale of
conflicting teenage emotions ideal for older
reluctant or dyslexic readers
Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks
Martyn Pig leads a fairly dismal life living alone
with his drunken abusive father During a violent
outburst Martyn pushes his dad in
selfdefence and accidentally kills
him When his friendly neighbour
Alex discovers his awful secret
she takes charge helping him to
dispose of the body and
entangling
Martyn
in
an
increasingly complicated web of
deceit In his debut novel Brooks
successfully combines suspense
humour and an unexpected twist
to create a darkly comic thriller that will grip
readers right up to the final page
Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level Sara’s Face by Melvin Burgess
Sara is a beautiful but troubled teenager desirous
of fame at any cost Despite her good looks and the
attention of a boyfriend who loves her for who she
is Sara is riddled with insecurity about her
appearance During a stay in hospital Sara is visited
by the legendary pop star Jonathan Heat whose
constant experiments with plastic surgery have
destroyed his face Heat invites Sara to live at his
mansion offering her plastic surgery and the
chance to gain her own singing career and the fame
she craves The narrative told through a series of
journalistic interviews and extracts from Sara’s
video diary soon reveals Heat’s motivation is more
than simple altruism; he wants Sara’s face for
himself A chilling sometimes shocking tale of
contemporary obsession with beauty and celebrity
Reading Age: Interest Level: All American Girl by Meg Cabot
Teenager Sam is the All
American Girl of the title a
privileged youngster with
caring parents and two
sisters all of whom live in
comfortable middleclass
Washington DC One day
quite by chance she just
happens to save the life of
the President This brings
her instant fame and
changes her life in ways she
never imagined; in the
process she learns a lot
about herself and those around her This very ‘girly’
book is full of talk about clothes hairstyles and pop
stars but it also tackles the serious issues of loyalty
and consideration of others Fluffy and fun
Reading Age Interest Level Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
A fifth episode in the ongoing saga of Colfer’s
teenage criminal mastermind
in which the renegade fairies
the Demons begin popping
up in unexpected places and
Artemis feels the first stirrings
of adolescent emotion for
(and meets his match in)
another juvenile genius
Minerva Paradizo As ever
Artemis sidesteps trouble
with the help of his bodyguard
Butler and fairy assistance
from Holly Short The formerly disgraced Holly has
now been recruited to a covert organization designed
to keep tabs on Fowl Once more Colfer combines
wit humour action folklore and fantasy in a rip
roaring spy story which nonetheless encourages
readers to debate some serious issues Fowl’s move
into fullblown adolescence adds extra interest and
possibilities to this enthralling instalment
Reading Age Interest Level Replay by Sharon Creech
This wonderful book uses
the genre of drama to
explore the adolescent
world of Leo and how as
individuals we come to
understand ourselves
Leo finds refuge from a
big family and teenage
reality by playing at
being someone else
through acting and his
fantasy life as a hero
Using theatre as a
metaphor for life Creech shows how as in
rehearsals we repeat patterns of behaviour in our
lives both in the way we relate to people and in the
traits we inherit from our parents A book that
looks at all the elements that make us who we are:
age gender family and experience whilst exploring
the impossibility of ever completely knowing
someone The novel values remembering
reminiscing and storytelling in all its forms
Reading Age Interest Level The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson
For generations a spell cast by a powerful wizard
has protected the Valley from the Emperor’s
destructive army However when the magic begins
to weaken Tilja and Tahl along with their
respective grandparents embark on a dangerous
journey in an attempt to restore it Tilja gradually
comes to learn that she has magical powers which
can be used to counterbalance the evil magic that
they encounter on their quest This rich fantasy
adventure takes the reader on an exciting magical
journey with many surprises along the way
Reading Age: Interest Level: Holly Starcross by Berlie Doherty
Holly Starcross is having an identity crisis She lives
with her mom Henry (her
mother’s partner) and her half
brother and sisters She has a great
best friend and a crush on the
cutest boy in school but she keeps
asking herself the question ‘who
am I?’ When her long last father
turns up out of the blue Holly is
forced to face up to her past and
reassess her future This is a
beautifully told story about the confusion of
growing up and the pain caused by family
separation and torn loyalties
Reading Age Interest Level Wilderness by Roddy Doyle
Teenage Gráinne is meeting her mother for the first
time since she walked out when she was a child To
allow her some space for this momentous encounter
her stepmother and stepbrothers Tom and Johnny
have left for a holiday in the Finnish wilderness Whilst
Gráinne comes to terms with her own conflicting
emotions her brothers are forced to grow up quickly
when the excitement of their Finnish adventure turns
sour with the disappearance of their mother on a
sleighing expedition As ever Doyle’s tone is warm and
inviting; the juxtaposition of the parallel stories works
well with believable realistic exchanges between the
cheeky young brothers and the innerconflict of their
sister adding emotional depth to the story
Reading Age: Interest Level: The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
This timely novel is simply and effectively written
for readers in senior classes of primary school and
junior classes in secondary school but is worth
reading by everyone
It makes very clear why women at least have reason to
rejoice at the overthrow of the Taliban rulers of
Afghanistan Parvana is eleven and unlike her older
sister Nooria has not yet begun to develop sexually so
when the family comes to the edge of starvation
because her father is in prison and women are not
allowed to leave the house without a man she has to
dress as a boy and go out to earn money and buy food
Her adventures in the market and the graveyard where
she and a friend dig up bones to sell are alarmingly
believable and the feelings expressed – her mother’s
paralysis of grief the quarrels with her sister the
importance of her baby brother are deeply familiar
Reading Age Interest Level The Cinnamon Tree by Aubrey Flegg
Stepping on a landmine remaining from a civil war
Yola loses her leg below the knee In her culture she
has become unmarriageable Then Yola meets
Hans sent to demine the area and travels to
hospital in Ireland for treatment where she meets
Fintan and discovers the extent and power of the
international arms trade controlled by ruthless and
dangerous people thousands of miles away from
the conflicts A deeply thoughtprovoking and
compassionate novel with a powerful and
engaging heroine whose experience underlines how
little we understand about the values and
sophistication of African culture Readers will also
realize the high degree of involvement of European
arms dealers in distant wars and the terrible
outcomes resulting from their selfish actions
Reading Age Interest Level Coraline by Neil Gaiman
One day Coraline unlocks a mysterious door that
opens onto another world a twisted parody of
Coraline’s own dimension She discovers something
very sinister about her ‘other mother’ who has
trapped her real parents and plans to keep the family
there forever As Coraline tries
to escape she is faced with a
fantastical series of macabre
and
bizarre
situations
Excellently
written
and
superbly original Coraline is
well suited to those who enjoy
reading about the weird and
the wonderful with a dash of
horror and humour It is
destined to become a classic
modern fairytale
Reading Age Interest Level The Bull Raid by Carlo Gebler
From early boyhood Cúchulainn knows he will die
young but he doesn’t mind because he knows he is
destined to become a legend As he grows up the
young man performs heroic deeds singlehandedly
defending Ulster against an invading army But he
isn’t all good: he won’t listen to advice treats his
wife badly and kills his own son Gebler’s subtly
humorous retelling of the Táin can be read simply as
an exciting yarn but this portrait of a flawed hero
is also a moral tale that addresses the obsession
with celebrity as well as the consequences of
arrogance and greed
Reading Age Interest Level Tales of the Otori I: Across the Nightingale Floor
by Lian Hearn
This is the first novel in the outstanding Tales of the
Otori trilogy An epic fantasy story set in a feudal
Japanese society it is an exciting tale of treason
violence and death Tomasu is a young boy from the
Hidden clan all but wiped out by Iida Sadamu the
cruel Lord of the Tohan clan Saved then adopted
educated and renamed Takeo by the goodhearted
Otori Shigeru the boy grows up to love and respect
his guardian However when Shigeru plans to
marry in order to promote peace between the two
clans Takeo has an opportunity to avenge himself
on Iida This is a taut compelling tale in the Samurai
warrior tradition
Reading Age Interest Level: Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse
This hauntingly beautiful verse novel describes the
experiences of the Aleutian people who were
evacuated from their island during the Second
World War and made to live in camps on the
mainland The teenage narrator describes the
difficulties of being in a totally alien environment
far removed from her way of life: ‘abandoned in the
dark suffocation of the forest … we cannot from
any corner of the camp catch a glimpse of open
water’ Many Aleutians fell sick or died and almost
all were unhappy unable to earn their livelihood
deprived of their culture and unpopular with the
‘white’ people Karen Hesse tells her tale
sympathetically and realistically without resorting
to sentimentality Her language is simple but the
imagery of her loose verse is rich and enhances the
description of the islanders’ stoicism patience and
courage
Reading Age Interest Level difficult and dangerous so it’s a relief to have the
help of some unusual and mysterious allies This is
an engaging and lighthearted thriller about issues
that matter: justice family and the environment
The Paine family are welldrawn and likeable the
pace easy and flowing and the villains not quite as
wicked as we suspected
Reading Age Interest Level Coming Home by Gaye Hicyilmaz
Elif is thrilled when she and her brother are allowed
to live with their relatives in Turkey However she
has difficulty adjusting to the unfamiliar culture
and fears for her young brother’s safety as he is
drawn into a rightwing political group led by their
fascist brotherinlaw Refik Bey A gripping and
thought provoking read
Reading Age Interest Level Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz
In trouble with the law and facing prison Matt
Freeman opts for an experimental fostering
programme But Lesser Malling is eerie the villagers
decidedly hostile and his new ‘mother’ emanates
menace Desperate to escape Matt finds everyone
he turns to ends up unpleasantly dead Matt slowly
uncovers a story of ancient dark powers held at bay
by the mysterious Raven’s Gate the villagers hell
bent on releasing them Only Matt the four
shadowy others he encounters in recurring dreams
and the shadowy Nexus group can stop them
Horowitz aimed for ‘shivery horror’ and he’s
succeeded! Suspense pervades Raven’s Gate with its
snaking plot of sinister twists and unpleasant dead
ends Matt is likeably believable and the final pages
definitely leave the reader wanting more!
Reading Age Interest Level Flush by Carl Hiaasen
Noah’s dad can be very
impulsive and when he
finds out someone is
illegally dumping sewage
in the sea spoiling the
beaches and endangering
the wildlife he sinks the
boat responsible With
their Dad in prison it is
up to Noah and little
sister Abbey to put
together a plan to clear
his name and stop the
dumping Noah’s plan
proves to be both
A Nest Of Vipers by Catherine Johnson
We meet Cato Hopkins in Newgate Prison in
September on the morning of the day he is due to
be hanged for fraud Cato is a boy criminal part of
Mother Hopkins’ adopted family and as he relates the
story of how he came to be on the verge of paying for
his sins with his life Cato takes us on a journey through
the underworld of London in the
eighteenth century Poverty
slavery and social injustice are
just a few of the issues to which
Cato exposes us but this is not a
sad story On the contrary a
lively writing style plenty of
humour and the bad guys
getting their comeuppance
make this a cracking read for
both boys and girls
Hana’s Suitcase: A True Story by Karen Levine
When Fumiko Ishioka curator of a Holocaust
Education Centre in Japan received an old suitcase
with the name Hana Brady written on it she became
determined to find out more about its owner She
discovered that Hana was born in a small town in
Czechoslovakia and that her parents and brother
were taken to concentration camps But what
happened to Hana? The book interweaves chapters
about Hana’s life with the story of Fumiko’s search
for the truth Suitable for readers not yet old enough
to appreciate The Diary of Anne Frank this book
which is illustrated with blackandwhite
photographs will help children to understand
concepts of hate xenophobia and intolerance
Reading Age Interest Level The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
Haoyou feels powerless when the man responsible
for his father’s death demands to marry his mother
Determined to support her himself the young boy
joins a travelling circus Strapped to a kite he takes
to the skies and amazes audiences across the land
including the feared Kublai Khan Set in thirteenth
century China this is a fascinating and exciting
adventure about greed loyalty and friendship
The View from Saturday by ELKonigsburg
‘The Souls’ are a group of friends brought together
by a madcap wedding a mission to protect sea turtles
and by a mysterious invitation to afternoon tea But
how they were chosen to be a quiz team is a
question that their teacher (who uses a wheelchair)
answers differently each time she is asked As Noah
Nadia Ethan and Julian correctly answer questions
for the Academic Bowl Quiz the story shifts to their
personal narratives to show the moments when they
acquired the knowledge for their answers And so we
piece together the quirky amusing and vulnerable
twists of their lives This Newberry Medal winner is a
wonderful complex book brilliantly told It has
memorable characters and themes: life is a journey
no part of our experience is lost and our friendships
are our salvation
Reading Age Interest Level Apache by Tanya Landman
Fourteen yearold Siki is an orphan of the Black
Mountain Apache tribe Her father failed to return
from an ambush in Mexico while her mother was
killed by raiding Mexican soldiers Siki already has a
fierce hatred for the Mexican warriors but when her
little brother Tazhi is brutally slain in front of her she
vows with all her heart to become an apache warrior
and avenge his death This is a moving and powerful
story of one woman’s determination and courage in
a world of great suffering and hardship It is a
fascinating view of the Native American struggle and
makes for a thrilling if at times uneasy read
Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level My Funny Valentine by Karen McCombie
For
Shaunna
the
whole
conventional
‘engaged/married/
children’ thing is a nono
When her sister Ruth gets engaged to Boring Brian
and the wedding is planned for next Valentine’s
Day Shaunna is horrified to realise that the
bridesmaid is going to be her!
Shaunna wants romance to be
unpredictable
dangerous
exciting: and when she
glimpses The One stargazing
in the park she’s convinced
life’s got more in store for her
than a Tesco’s Club Card But
as Shaunna’s diary reveals for
her for Ruth and her friends
the course of true love never
did run smooth… By turns
funny and honestly selfaware
McCombie captures the emotional roller coaster
that accompanies first forays in the quest for love
Hugely readable and entertaining!
Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay
Families don’t come much stranger than Saffron’s
The children are all named after paints on a colour
chart their mother spends most of her time locked
in the garden shed and the family home
(inexplicably named ‘Banana House’) is teeming
with guinea pigs A few years previously Saffy
discovered that her brothers and sisters are actually
her cousins (her real mother died when she was
small) but it is her grandfather’s death that
suddenly triggers distant memories Aided by her
wheelchairusing neighbour Sarah Saffy starts to
investigate This is an uplifting story about an
eccentric family encased in chaos but also full of
intense warmth and loyalty
Reading Age Interest Level The Worm in the Well by William Mayne
In a story which constantly confounds expectations
Robin and Meric set off into the forest on a fishing
trip that has profound implications on their lives as
Robin’s son Alan finds himself battling with the
Worm to undo the past Mayne writes with power
and wit creating an imaginative story with
elements of horror magic and fantasy set in
medieval times Mayne’s style is deceptively simple
making this a challenging story for younger readers
However the richness and originality of the writing
makes it an enjoyable and worthwhile read
Reading Age Interest Level Billy Elliot by Burgess Melvin
Billy Elliot’s not like his Dad He doesn’t want to
learn boxing or be a miner Instead he is fascinated
by the grace and magic of ballet and is determined
to dance Set at the time of the miner’s strike the
story traces Billy’s fight against the prejudice of a
northern community and family
Interest level Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
Set in the First World War Private Peaceful charts
eight hours in the life of
Tommo a young soldier at the
Front as he looks back over
the formative events of his
life: his father’s early death his
relationship with his loving
mother and brothers Big Joe
and Charlie and their beloved
schoolfriend Molly – all set
among an evocative and
beautifully realised rural
landscape Passionate beguiling and moving the
book is also an unflinching examination of the
horrors of war and the injustice surrounding the
execution of soldiers by firing squad on the – often
false – grounds of desertion or cowardice
Reading Age Interest Level The Wind Singer by William Nicholson
This is a stunningly original fantasy set in the
mythical city of Aramanth where every household
is judged solely on its members’ ability to perform
in examinations Only one family has the strength
to rebel fighting the system and in doing so risks
all Leaving their parents and baby sibling behind
Bowman and his sister Kestrel embark on a
dangerous journey in search of secrets which will
make the ‘wind singer’ sing once again thus
restoring normality to their world Their epic quest
is depicted with a perfect balance of drama
tenderness and a touch of humour
Reading Age Interest Level Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
Matt Donaghy has always
been a big mouth but it has
never got him into trouble –
until one day when two
detectives escort him out of
class for questioning The
charge? Matt has been
accused of threatening to blow
up Rocky River High School
Ursula Riggs has always been
‘an ugly girl’ In other words
she has no time for petty high
school stuff like friends and dating Ursula is
content with minding her own business And she
doesn’t even really know Matt Donaghy But
Ursula knows injustice when she sees it and she’s
not afraid to speak out
Reading Age Interest level Something Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson
Jake likes encyclopaedias He also likes thinking
talking football and fish So he’s really not at all
prepared for the changes in his world when a new baby
sister arrives making his stepdad a father Neither is
he prepared for meeting Stella her eccentric and
numerous family and their neighbour old Mrs
Kennedy Hanging out with Stella leads to unexpected
uncharacteristic things happening to Jake like
heroically saving a child from drowning
But then something truly dreadful happens and
Jake realises he doesn’t really know anything at all
Siobhan Parkinson’s elegant constantly surprising
language perfectly captures Jake’s personal interior
life in this thoughtful delicately devastating and
beautifully paced novel The book ultimately
explores what it means to discover “something
invisible” that connects you to family or friends
food on the table the resourceful Skiff hatches a bold
but risky plan pitting himself and his tiny skiff
against a mighty fish and even against the
treacherous ocean itself In this gripping tale about a
boy who faces life’s challenges with determination
and skill Philbrick movingly delineates the harsh
beauty of life in a fishing community
Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level Bridge to Terabithia by Katharine Paterson
Jess Aarons’ greatest ambition is to be the fastest
runner in the fifth grade He’s been practicing all
summer and can’t wait to see his classmates’ faces
when he beats them all But on the first day of
school a new girl boldly crosses over to the boys’
side of the playground and outruns everyone That’s
not a very promising beginning for a friendship but
Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable It doesn’t
matter to Jess that Leslie dresses funny or that her
family has a lot of money – but no TV Leslie has
imagination Together she and Jess create
Terabithia a magical kingdom in the woods where
the two of them reign as king and queen and their
imaginations set the only limits
Reading Age Interest Level The Penalty by Mal Peet
Carnegie winner Peet reintroduces us to Paul
Faustino South America’s top sports journalist
who is reluctantly drawn into investigating the
disappearance of San Juan’s teenage football
prodigy El Brujito As the story of corruption and
murder unfolds he discovers the bitter history of
slavery and the continuing power of the occult in a
twentyfirst century world A gripping thriller
aimed to engage a teenage male audience this
novel addresses historical and cultural issues which
underpin the heritage and attitudes of vast areas of
the world today Faustino encounters not only evil
but prejudice superstition and ignorance and Peet
shows that these are powerful forces against
rationality and justice A taut narrative with a
tough and thoughtprovoking message
Reading Age Interest Level Lobster Boy by Rodman Philbrick
Since the death of his mother Samuel ‘Skiff’
Beaman’s father has spent his days lying on the sofa
drinking immobilised by grief A fisherman by trade
he is unable to rouse himself even when his boat
sinks taking his livelihood with it In order to keep
Shylock’s Daughter by Miriam Pressler
Set in the th century and based loosely around
characters from The Merchant of Venice this is an
engaging tale which focuses on the miser’s year
old daughter Jessica In love with a young
Christian Jessica yearns for the glamour and
freedom of life outside the Jewish ghetto but soon
finds that it does not bring all she has hoped for A
memorable and highly original read
Reading Age Interest Level Witch Child by Celia Rees
This is the gripping tale of
Mary the granddaughter of a
witch After seeing her
grandmother burned at the
stake Mary is rescued and sent
overseas to America to live
amongst a Puritan community
However with her background
and gifts this is not always the
safest place to be Set in the
midseventeenth century this wellwritten powerful
story is perfect for confident readers
Reading Age Interest Level Just In Case by Meg Rosoff
Fate is watching David Case and the fifteen yearold
soon becomes consumed by the fear that it is going
to catch up with him David feels doomed and even
changing his name to Justin and adopting an edgy
new image does not seem to protect him entirely
from its clutches In trying to escape fate Justin
embarks on a voyage of self discovery finding
solace in the company of beautiful and eccentric
photographer Agnes his baby brother Charlie and
his imaginary dog Boy But will he find the strength
to fight fate in one last terrifying encounter? This
quirky offbeat novel acutely depicts the feelings of
pain and alienation felt by many adolescents At
times both surreal and existential this is a gripping
second novel from the acclaimed author of How I
Live Now
Reading Age Interest Level The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
A fantasy adventure narrative that follows the
destiny of yearold twins Josh and Sophie
Newman who are the subjects of an ancient
prophesy Scott weaves his mesmerizing and
energetic plot around a mythological framework
Interest level Undercover Angel by Dyan Sheldon
Twelve yearold Elmo is embarrassed by his
environmental activist mother and wishes he had a
‘normal’ family He is excited when the Bambers
their wealthy neighbours adopt a child from South
America but his dreams of befriending the child
and persuading the Bambers to also adopt him are
shattered when Elmo discovers that not only is she
a girl but she is an undercover angel sent to ensure
Elmo helps his mother to save the planet! A very
funny tale with an environmental message
Reading Age Interest Level The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Feather Boy by Nicky Singer
Robert is having a tough time at school being bullied
by Nicker; he’s also trying to deal with the breakup
of his parents’ marriage He feels like it’s just his luck
to be landed with ‘a spooky old bat’ called Edith
when his class takes part in a project with the local
old people’s home However in attempting to solve
the mystery of her son’s death he confronts both the
bully and his own fears The reader is drawn through
this novel by some wonderfully moving moments of
humour tension and sadness
Reading Age Interest Level Desperate to be accepted by the ‘incrowd’ David
helps to steal Old Mrs Bayfield’s cane but is
immediately wracked with guilt When everything
in his life starts to go wrong he becomes convinced
that Mrs Bayfield has put a curse on him He is
taunted by his classmates and his best friend Scott
makes fun of him to gain popularity with the
bullies To make matters worse he is smitten with
classmate Tori Williams but unable to ask her out
in case the curse strikes again Luckily his new
friends Larry and Moe are on hand to help him
confront the ‘bullies’ and overcome the ‘curse’ This
is a funny thought provoking insight into the mind
of an anxious teenager David is an immensely
likeable protagonist and his relationships with his
family friends and enemies is thoroughly
convincing
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Stargirl Caraway arrives at her new school with a
unique dress sense and a ukulele After some
debate the bemused students decide that she is
actually quite cool and for a while she even
becomes something of an idol However the book
deftly predicts the fickle side of human nature and
its suspicion of anything which refuses to conform
Despite her contemporaries turning against her
Stargirl’s innocent appeal and consideration for
others never falters Meanwhile narrator Leo
struggles with his deep affection for the captivating
Stargirl and his need for acceptance from his peers
A memorable read which leaves the reader with a
lasting sense of having been touched by someone
very special
Reading Age Interest Level Reading Age Interest Level The King Arthur Trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliffe
Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig
Tenyear old Bamse is asleep on Henry the V’s
throne when the German’s invade Copenhagen Son
to one of Denmark’s most famous actors Bamse
grows up in a world of drama and makebelieve but
during the Nazi occupation everything that was
once comfortable and familiar is threatened and his
way of life is changed forever This story uniquely
portrays the war through the eyes of a child stuck
between the need for safety and the desire to help
Hitler’s Canary ultimately is about the courage and
heroism of ordinary citizens in a time of danger and
strife Bamse himself stands as a metaphor for the
extraordinary efforts of the Danes to save their
Jewish countrymen: in the face of courage and
goodness power and size will remain fallible
Reading Age Interest Level One volume combines Rosemary Sutcliffe’s three
classic books about King Arthur and his knights
Beginning before Arthur’s birth and ending with the
disintegration of the brotherhood of the Round
Table this mystical retelling of the ancient legends
takes readers on a magical journey through the
England of the Dark Ages The story of the Sword in
the Stone and of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
may already be familiar to young readers but how
many will know the tragic tale of Tristan and Iseult
or recognise Beaumains the Kitchen Knight?
Positively bursting with heroic quests damsels in
distress and chivalrous deeds along with a fair
smattering of magic courtesy of Merlin and the
Lady of the Lake this is an ideal introduction to the
Arthurian stories from a respected author whose
work has stood the test of time
The Wind Eye by Robert Westall
The Studdards go on holiday to Northumberland
Each member of the family nurses a need a fear or
a hurt that needs resolution and as a result they are
Reading Age Interest Level Annan Water by Kate Thompson
Michael leads a bleak unhappy existence working
for his parents’ horsedealing business occasionally
attending school and trying to come to terms with
a family tragedy Then he meets the vibrant and
rebellious Annie who lives the other side of the
mysterious River Annan and the two become close
This novel evokes a strong sense of place and is a
compelling exploration of the issues of young
adulthood: the search for love loyalty
independence and meaning
all unhappy constantly arguing and provoking
each other Some of the family find a very old boat
like a small Viking ship This boat has the power to
take them back thirteen hundred years into the
past to the time when St Cuthbert lived Many
stories surround this ancient character and each of
them must meet Cuthbert in their own way Will
they survive the encounter? Will he help them or
destroy them? This apparently simple mystery
becomes an unpredictable and intriguing mix of the
supernatural history and human nature
Reading Age Interest Level: Reading Age Interest Level Fourteen Ideas for Working on a Class Novel
“Narrative is a primary act of mind
transferred from life to art”
culture or identifying the emotions at the heart of
a text in a way that everyone can understand
Barbara Hardy
The following ideas may help you meet the
challenge of making the pleasure of reading a
novel available to everyone in your class There
are not ‘new’ ideas but they have been tried and
tested by different teachers in different contexts
Hopefully you will find something here that
interests you You might find something that you
used to do but have forgotten about Now is your
chance to remember Have fun!
Introduction
What happens when we read a novel?
One answer is that we create a world in our
imagination in response to the words on the
page Within that world we respond to
characters their situations and dilemmas and
their feelings When a novel grabs out attention
we enter into its world and lose ourselves in it
When the spell is broken when we stand back
we can consider how the illusion was created
If this is the case then the questions we ask
students might usefully concentrate on a) the
imagined world; b) our response to that world; c)
the means by which the world is created
Often as readers we don’t have an immediate
response to a novel and it takes some time for us
to settle on one If this is true for experienced
readers it can be doubly so for younger ones For
many students it is only when they engage in
imaginative tasks (drawing painting talking
acting storymaking freeze framing …) arising
out of a novel they have read that they begin to
find their own response
Experienced readers make sense of the book
they’re reading by reference to other reading
experiences – we read a book and recognise it as an
example of a particular genre; we recognise the
human emotion being explored and compare it to
the way it is explored in another book we’ve read;
we encounter a situation in a novel and
understand it by reference to a foundational myth
like the story of Oedipus These frames of
reference enable us to encounter a book with
confidence Experienced readers are also conscious
of the way in which the rhetoric of a book tries to
force us to read it in a certain way and we either
allow ourselves to be led or we resist the leading
Students will not have the same depth of reading
experience that we experienced readers have but
they do have wide experience of ‘reading’ from
fairytales to film and television One of the
challenges of teaching is to help our students find
a frame of reference within which their reading of
a text makes sense This can involve the teacher
moving nimbly between popular and literary
Response Journal
Encourage each student to keep a response
journal a growing changing tentative account
of their response to the novel as they read it The
entries in the journal are like diary entries –
essays at understanding The style is personal
Entries can be condensed – written versions of
inner speech – questions or snatches of creative
or imitative writing
You can direct the students with a small number
of general questions:
Were you surprised by what happened?
What do you think will happen next?
What were your feelings at that moment?
You can use one of the thinking routines
associated with Teaching for Understanding:
What do you see?
What do you think?
What do you wonder?
You can invite students to respond by taking a
word or a related series of words phrases
image(s) moment(s) or piece of dialogue and
writing in response to it This can be free writing
in any form they wish responding in an intuitive
way to what they have read
You can also offer areas to consider:
Emerging Ideas or Themes
The Relationship between Writer and Reader
Relationships in the Novel
The Central Character
Key Moments/Turning Points
Powerful Symbols
The Writer’s Art
The response journal is not something to be
assessed – it is a means by which a student
explores and engages with a novel
students can prepare boxes as part of a group
exercise Each prop must be relevant to the
character and to the story and have symbolic
value Prop Boxes can be used to develop
scenarios for the students’ creative writing A
simple homework is to invite the students to
speak in character about the items or props in
their bag and explain their significance This can
be done in diary or letter form
Spider Diagrams
Late Late Show
Spider Diagrams (Tree Diagrams) can be used to
chart relationships in a novel and can be
developed as the novel unfolds The diagram
begins by recording the basic relationship
between two characters but other adjectives can
be added to fill out the description of the
characters and the relationship
This is a good activity for reviewing a central
character The classroom becomes a TV studio
The teacher may choose to play the TV Host The
‘programme’ is a celebration of the life of the
central character or an investigation into the life
(depending on the plot of the novel) The
students must decide on the guests to invite
Each guest is interviewed by the host There is
scope for creative dialogue but characters must
stay true to the spirit of the novel Guests can
interrupt and challenge each other or make
accusations against each other based on the
contents of the novel Characters who did not
play an honourable part in the life of the central
character may try to change their story to show
themselves off in a good light It is up to the host
or the other characters to set the record straight
Encourage an explorative approach – writing in
character or addressing a character; creating a
parallel text to the original Anything that strikes
an imaginative chord with a student and keeps
him or her engaged
Spider diagrams are very useful for revision and
for assembling information in a simple way They
are also good for building up a descriptive
vocabulary for characters and relationships
Freeze Frame
Take a chapter (A scene) and invite students to
freeze frame a moment that gets to the heart of the
chapter Students are invited to read the image The
students who create the image can speak in
character if requested to do so The group who
creates the image can add their comments and
explanations after the other students have
interpreted what they have seen The students’
response to the image and the issues raised can be
incorporated into the response journal or written
up as homework The freeze frame should not be
overdone However it is a useful way of exploring
students’ understanding and it extends the ways in
which students make meaning and create ‘text’
In this as in all class and homework the purpose is
to allow students to show what they understand in
as interesting and imaginative ways as possible
Prop Box
A good way to introduce or revise a novel is to
create a Prop Box for a number of key characters
The teacher can create the boxes and invite the
students to read each of the entries or the
Another version of this technique is to set up a
trail situation with witnesses called in the
defence or prosecution of a character
Blame Game Honour Game
Another device for establishing honourable
characters and disreputable characters is to create
a set of character cards which groups of students
must arrange in order of honour and disrepute
The different groups compare the way they have
arranged the cards and explain their choices This
is an interesting way of generating a moral or
ethical interpretation of a text and of opening up
the degree to which literary interpretation is
linked to moral and ethical values It lays the
groundwork for more sophisticated discussion
around aesthetic judgement
Plot Line/Journey Line
Invite students to chart the journey/plot of the
novel using a river/snake diagram or a graph
drawn on the horizontal axis This allows for a
visual representation of the turning points in the
journey of the central character as well as
allowing the student to chart the trajectory
upwards or downwards of the novel If the river
diagram is used the students can invent names
for various episodes and fill these in on the ‘map’
The river diagram can form the basis of an
allegorical version of the novel with different
topographical features being used to symbolise
different events in the story
Plot Summary
Invite the students to tell the story of the novel
in ten sentences When they have done this they
select a short quotation of image from the novel
to match individual sentences This kind of
exercise may help students to distinguish
between commentary on a text and overlong and
unnecessary summary in their response to novels
You can also encourage students to make causal
links in their summaries Dad died Jim left These
are two statements of fact When Dad died Jim
left These two statements are now linked by
time and put in sequence They are heading
towards a plot It was because Dad died that Jim
left Now we’ve established a plot
Empty Chair
The central character is represented by the empty
chair Groups of students (up to a maximum of )
circle the chair while the teacher sets the scene
Each of the circling students is a character in the
novel When the commentary is finished the
characters speak about the central character
moving clockwise at all times As they circle the
students create a parallel creative text based on
the text of the novel
A followon homework can be to write up some
of the parallel text they have created This is
another way of developing ‘creative modelling’
Design a Cover
Give students an opportunity to create a cover and
write a blurb for the novel An excellent way of
demonstrating the power of symbols and the nature
of semiotic codes without labouring the point
Character Diary
Encourage students to create diary entries for a
character Sometimes it is useful to use a minor
character who can give a slightly different
perspective to the one provided by the narrative
focus in the novel Sometimes an entire novel can
be read and commented on through this device
Newspaper & Newspaper Reports
Rewrite key scenes in the form of a newspaper
report with headlines and subheadings There is
scope here for exploring the limits of the
language of information You could encourage
two different versions of the same event by
asking students to select different pieces of
information for inclusion in their article
Another way of creating a class response to a text is
to create a newspaper based on that text The news
items can include articles based on the plot of the
novel; the horoscopes can be referenced to
characters; the photographs can capture the setting
of the novel; you can also include an agony aunt
page; a page of reviews that fill in social background
Alternative Scenes/ Dialogues
If only Things happen in novels which the reader
would wish otherwise Things turn out in ways that
disappoint a reader Encourage the students to
become the writer to devise alternative scenarios
to write different endings to compose alternative
dialogues Keep tasks short and specific This is an
excellent way to explore different writing styles in
a novel and to practice creative imitation
Short Stories & Poems
Novels create a richly textured imaginative world
Use the exploration of this world to encourage your
students to create similar worlds in their writing by
creating parallel stories drawing on characters
settings or situations Take key moments and invite
your students to turn them into short stories
changing the narrative voice or the narrative
perspective Invite students to respond to key
moments through composing a poem Encourage
free responses striving as much as possible to
take away students’ inhibitions about writing
Encourage them to let rip imaginatively
Writing music Writing Poetry
Clonkeen College is an all boys’ secondary school in
County Dublin Last year’s winning senior poem in the
Teaching English ‘Write a Poem’ competition came
from Clonkeen student Eoghan Carrick
particular have very fine poetic sensibilities and as
this year’s course went on they found someone who
would sing for them
PK Give us a sense of how you move through this
process
JC At the start of the year I cover music theory
only insofar as it is applicable to what we’re doing
Even without any musical training the boys can apply
the theory we do in class After theory we move on to
vocal exercises Then we look at different styles such
as Baroque Renaissance Romantic and we work
forward to contemporary song so the students are
exposed to music other than their own The creative
writing gets going around January We have three
periods a week Some of the writing is done in class
and some after school After school is when most of
the recording is done
John Clarke has been teaching English and music to TY
students there for the past six years In this interview
with Pauline Kelly of the Teaching English magazine he
talks about his song writing class and how the students
compose an album entirely of their own making both
for performance in the school and for recording on CD
PK Does their reading influence the lyrics they
write?
JC Yes I teach fiction and poetry in TY We study
the poetry of World War One From this starting
point some students are now writing lyrics on the Iraq
war Of course the students are free to write on
subjects of their own choosing
PK John tell me about the work you’ve been doing
in English with your TY students
JC Well we do a year long TY course which is optional
where students can use the writing skills they have
learned in English over the past three years to write song
lyrics It is an opportunity to write poetry without
putting the name poetry on it because sometimes boys
have a resistance to the idea of writing poetry The basic
aim is to get the boys to write original songs
PK Do they tend to write from their own
experiences or from something they’ve read?
JC The boys tend to have a perception of what
songwriters are and they try to reach for that So
there’s a lot of love lyrics and lyrics about their
struggle to get through and the difficulties of
teenagers and so on Also they write lyrics that they
don’t consciously understand but that sound good and
poetic and they like the sound of the individual words
Sometimes thy write just for the pleasure of hearing
the rhyme rhythm and sounds:
When we began some boys came to me with poems
they had written in rd year and I asked them to write
lyrics that we could use as songs They brought in those
lyrics and we made some recordings of the lyrics to
music With our TY funds this year we bought an
eighttrack digital recording machine It’s a small piece
of machinery a multitrack device that can record their
instruments first and then they can sing over the
recording Two years ago we went to a commercial
studio but from a cost point of view having our
recording equipment is much better So our studio is
not a place it’s the eighttrack digital recording
machine And we can record students while they are
performing
Seraphim hate you now
Jealousy has taught them how
To envy you so much
Your ecstasy at every touch
Ciarán McIlwee
PK So would you say that the learning of the music
and the rhythm of the music has an impact on how
they shape the lyrics?
JC Well we look at different ways that people write
songs For instance some people come into a studio
with a set of lyrics already written but they have no
melody so if they learn a scale you can show them
how to tap out a scale and make up a melody on that
scale using just a few notes Many songwriters work
like that including the Beatles They mightn’t know
how to write music but they know how to tap it out
They know the sound that is in their head and they
find a melody on the guitar or the keyboard that
captures that sound So it’s actually melody and
PC So what comes first the lyrics or the music?
JC Some of the boys come with complete songs
Some go in and it’s a workshop situation while one is
recording another is writing lyrics or changing lyrics as
they listen
PK Do they work in pairs or in groups?
JC They arrange themselves in groups Some of
them play music outside of school Three or four in
harmony they learn first The rhythm is something
that we look at later on
talking about what inspired them to write the lyrics
they did
PK Are there challenges in bringing the full
composition together?
JC Most of the boys want to play guitar Getting a
singer is more challenging At first so as not to
frighten them off I teach the students to sing in a
group You find then that if someone has written the
music and the words they also want to be the singer of
the song as in this example from the track Dilemma
on the album
Now I see you standing there
Innocent and unaware
A silent crime
You’ll never know
Buried deep I’ll never show
PK This course must create an interest in writing
that can be difficult to generate otherwise I can see
how your students coming into fifth year have an
appreciation of the craft of writing and sees it as a
natural process
JC Yes and I try to make it as natural as possible
This process takes away the intellectual barrier that
stands between the students and poetry They don’t
usually hear the ‘music’ in poetry for want of a better
word
A bittersweet gift to me
That I must have your company
PK Does everybody in the class write lyrics?
JC Some of the boys write instrumentals but most
write lyrics The overall aim of the course is that the
students will use the writing skills they have learned I
leave the themes to them
Not surprisingly there are
a lot of songs on the
theme of love (I scan the
lyrics not just for
language but for content
too!) The students tend
to write at home and
then we tidy the lyrics up
in the classroom But I
stay out of it as much as I can because as well
intentioned as you might be as an adult the boys have
made those lyrics themselves I encourage them to
write the music first to put the headphones on and let
the music suggest words The sound even of a few
guitar chords can suggest the mood or tone of the song
which in turn suggest the words
There’s a saying in music that good composers borrow
and great composers steal So they can learn the chords
of a famous song and just change the sequence of the
chords and change the rhythm and then as they play
that they find it suggests a new song
PK This must make for a bonded group with a
common purpose
JC Yes because they have a purpose you get their
commitment The boys also do the sleeve work for the
album themselves They write the sleeve notes they
write and rewrite the blurb and come back to me to
ask if they can write it this way and so on
PK So they learn to draft and edit and they learn a
sense of register They also have a sense of an
audience for their compositions
JC Yes this all leads to a performance of the full
album in the school hall We’ll have all first year
second year and fifth year We also make CDs and
any money we make goes to our school’s ThirdWorld
project Two years ago we used the profits to buy a
top class PA system which we’re using now
PK So they’re using the terms we use in writing
about poems? Does this have an impact on how they
think about other people’s writing?
JC Yes! Because they don’t hear poetry spoken as a
popular medium it doesn’t have a life for them it’s just
words on a page When they’re writing their own
poems/songs they get into the poetry of their words
There’s something about lyric writing and the shaping of
it that becomes poetic for them When they appreciate
the sounds of poetry they begin to appreciate the
meaning They are naturally artistic so it’s a question of
giving them a place where they can do it
The Timeless Year Music Class / CD Project
album was released in May of this year and
performed by its TY composers in the Clonkeen
College assembly hall on Wednesday May th
At this live concert euro was raised for the
school Third World Fund
PK Have you found ways to inspire their creativity in
songwriting?
JC We watch some DVDs about well known bands
and how they made a great album We listen to them
teachingenglish
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Take some time out of your busy day to relax with a cup of tea and our crossword
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