Lifeline 3: Books for Sharing, Part 2
Books for Sharing
Books for Sharing is a list of books compiled for use as class readers in Primary and Secondary classrooms by Joan Barker and David Bennett. They are avid sharers of books with their classes and both convinced of the enormous benefits of reading together. Part One appeared in July.
Here are suggestions for titles for the second half of this term along with ideas for follow-up reading and activities. We hope that readers will try out books wherever they are appropriate to their own school situation and will explore and experiment with some of the follow-up work, ideas for which are not intended to be comprehensive but more to give a flavour of what might be done to further excite and engage the readers who share the texts.
LOWER JUNIORS
The House That Sailed Away
Pat Hutchins, Fontana Lions, 0 00 671452 8, £1.25
As soon as Grandma came to stay in London with Morgan and his family, it started to rain and it rained every day. Everyone stayed indoors trying to amuse themselves, when suddenly the house began to shudder and rock.
The deluge had washed the house from its foundations and it began to float away, down Willow Road, over the sea and away to foreign lands. On the journey Morgan, Grandma and the family have numerous adventures involving cannibals, pirates, buried treasure and the terrible villain, One-Eyed Jake.
This is a very funny book full of slapstick humour. It is easy to read aloud with lots of good cliff-hanger places to stop at, leaving the children wanting more. A book to readjust for fun but also one that offers lots of stimulus for creative work of all kinds.
Things to Do
1. Pirate Portraits. Choose a name for a pirate then paint or make a collage portrait to fit his name.
2. Make a sea of sailing houses. Paint house fronts, backs or sides and mount them on a combed paint and glue background.
3. Design your own island. Paint, make a plan, or make a model of an island.
4. Make a box model of the next door neighbours’ house showing what it looked like inside after Morgan’s house had floated away.
5. One-Eyed Jake is caught in a trap. The bait used to catch him is the Crown Jewels. Can you design a trap to catch a teacher? What bait would you use? Write a description of your trap.
More to Read
Follow That Bus
Pat Hutchins, Fontana Lions, 0 00 671480 3, £1.25
The Town that Went South
Clive King, Puffin, 0 14 03.0442 8, £1.25
MIDDLE JUNIORS
The Midnight Fox
Betsy Byars, Puffin, 0 14 03.0844 X, £1.10
Town dweller Tom doesn’t want to go to his uncle’s farm whilst his mother and father are on holiday. `I’ll probably be the only kid in the world to be stampeded to death by a bunch of baby lambs.’
But after three boring days he sees a black fox and becomes completely absorbed by her and her cubs. When his uncle goes out to shoot her for stealing a turkey, Tom has to try and save her.
Guaranteed to hold children’s attention; it is funny and sad, full of descriptive detail and appealing to a wide age range. I have always found it a winner. Take care not to break up the mood created by the book by only reading a chapter at a time. Chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17 together add up to one of the most sensitive pieces of children’s literature – emotional but not sentimental – and need to be read as a whole.
Things to Do
1. Have you ever felt abandoned or do you like to be left alone? Discuss the difference between being alone and being lonely. Write about it.
2. Choose an ordinary event that happens to you during the day and write a headline that makes it sound extraordinary. Write the event up as a newspaper article.
3. Read the description in Chapter 5 when Tom first sees the fox. Paint a picture of the scene.
4. Make up a questionnaire to decide what kind of a person you are. Use the one that Petie made up as a model.
More to Read
The Eighteenth Emergency
Betsy Byars, Puffin, 0 14 03.0863 6, £1.10
The House of Wings
Betsy Byars, Puffin, 0 14 03.0887 3, £1.25
A Dog So Small
Philippa Pearce, Puffin, 0 14 03.0206 9, £1.10
UPPER JUNIORS
The Thirteen Clocks and The Wonderful 0
James Thurber, Puffin, 0 14 03.0180 1, £1.25
Of these two very good short stories, it is the first one that I particularly want to recommend. The Thirteen Clocks is a fairy story with a princess to be rescued, a wicked uncle and a prince in disguise, but not to be despised by Upper Juniors.
It is poetic, witty and exciting. The language is always apt, often direct and at times brutal but invariably full of imagery. The first chapter plunges you directly into character and plot and from then on nothing is quite what it seems. A book to read for sheer enjoyment, to stimulate imaginative work – writing, art, drama and craft; a book to encourage children to take delight in words. Because the plot is so fast-moving, I prefer to read the eight chapters right through at one go, but it could be read as a serial.
Things to Do
1. Hagga’s tears turn to precious jewels. Write a story to make Hagga either weep or laugh. Read the stories aloud in groups.
2. Make a model of Hagga’s cottage in pairs. Use the text to make sure that all the details are there.
3. `In the town below the castle, taverners, travellers, tale tellers, trouble makers and other townspeople were gathered.’ Make a list of groups of people using a letter of your choice – decorate and display the list.
4. Construct a board game based on the story, e.g. Zorn of Zorna’s trail to the jewels. Write the instructions and rules to fit in with the story.
5. A tour of Coffin Castle. Make a taped commentary with lighting and sound effects.
More to Read
Fairy Tales
Terry Jones, ill. Michael Foreman, Puffin, 0 14 03.1642 6, £3.95
The Paper Bag Princess
Robert N. Munsch, Hippo, 0 590 71126 1, £1.25
The Practical Princess and other Liberating Fairy Tales
Jay Williams, Hippo, 0 590 72170 4, 80p
SECONDARY YEAR 1
Thunder and Lightnings
Jan Mark, Puffin, 0 14 03.1063 0, £1.25
This award-winning novel has always had a great impact at my school, especially with the less able. It is Victor, the dummy of the school, who knows more about aeroplanes than doing projects on fish, who captures one’s sympathy and tickles the funnybones. Andrew, the bright boy new to the area, grows as he tries to adjust to the alien Norfolk surroundings and, more especially, the many aircraft which form the noisy backdrop for their friendship.
Quite a long novel which, in my opinion, needs a brisk treatment if it is to succeed. The dialogue requires practised handling if the full humour is to be realised. Girls might complain a bit that there are no strong juvenile female roles.
Things to Do
1. Talks on what the members of your class are interested in most so that you can find out about them and they about each other.
2. Making new friends and exploring a new place. Descriptions of experiences e.g. moving house, new school, holiday venues.
3. Victor’s school report alongside Andrew’s and the pupils’ own.
4. Library research on the aeroplanes mentioned with a chart for the classroom or a map of the area which the book covers using all the information from the story and adding labels with pins and cotton, illustrating key incidents and their location.
5. Dramatise what happened inside the Skelton household after the soiled sheet incident. Utilise all the information available about the attitudes and habits of Victor’s parents.
More to Read all by Jan Mark
Under the Autumn Garden
Puffin, 0 14 03.1248 X, £1.25
Handles
Kestrel, 0 7226 5857 5, £5.50
and two story collections:
Hairs in the Palm of the Hand
Puffin, 0 14 03.1441 5, 95p
Nothing to Be Afraid Of
Puffin, 0 14 03.1392 3, £1.10
SECONDARY YEAR 2
Under the Mountain
Maurice Gee, Puffin, 0 14 03.1389 3, 95p
Liven up the haul towards Christmas with some warm and exciting suspense/fantasy set in New Zealand. Rachel and Theo, red-headed twins, have an onerous task set by their other-worldly mentor Mr Jones. Their red hair and their twinship makes them the chosen instruments by which the Wilberforces, giant slugs, can be deterred from reducing the entire planet to mud.
In the suspense tale tradition there are many passages that invite the reader to make predictions and lots of ideas for further explorations, discussion and consideration. Not over-complicated or clever, clever, and its excitement and fast pace recommend it to any class that puts enjoyment at a premium. Whenever I have used it there are always pupils who then re-read it for themselves.
Things to Do
1. Predict whatever a story with words like ‘Rangitoto’, ‘Rotura’, ‘Maar’, ‘Takapuna’, `Pupuke’, `Manukau’, `Taumaruni’ and ‘Cormandel’ might be about.
2. Explore in descriptive or poetic writing the concept of `pebbling’ and `soundless conversations’. Perhaps set the results to music or organise an Art/English collaboration on these themes (pp 46-47) or `the Stones’ (pp 50-51, 85-97).
3. Set a story in the 100 years hence that will come to pass if the Wilberforces are not stopped now.
4. Warning posters with full technical details and data on the slugs (pp 80-81).
5. Read p. 100 and p. 155 ff. and discuss the methods by which the author has conveyed and built up suspense.
More to Read
The World Around the Corner
Maurice Gee, Puffin, 0 14 03.1580 2, 95p
and another fantasy in a New Zealand setting:
Children of Fire Mountain
Graeme Farmer, Magnet, 0 423 00770 X, £l.25
SECONDARY YEAR 3
Fireweed
Jill Paton Walsh, Puffin, 0 14 03.0560 2, 95p
This Second World War novel is in its teens but age hasn’t altered its poignant theme, which centres on the developing relationship between rich girl Julie and poor boy Bill, two resourceful runaways during the London Blitz of 1940. The fun and daredevilry of their early days turn sour and dangerous when nosy adults start asking questions and the pair are forced to move above ground into bombed buildings and shattered alleys, which marks the beginning of the end of their happiness and freedom.
Bill’s evacuation to Wales at the start is best dispensed with quickly, but then allow the historical detail, the sharply observed incidental characters and the vivid reality of children adrift in wartime to take over and capture the attention of the readers. Like The Silver Sword I’ve known it used with all kinds of classes from Year 1 through to C. S. E., but I’ve always found it most successful at this Year 3 level.
Things to Do
1. A class project to collect together war reminiscences from their older relatives and friends and to present these alongside memorabilia as a programme for another class, partially dramatised, partially as documentary and partially as visual/graphic material. Bill and Julie could take part.
2. `Below us the water of the river was a sheet of orange and gold . . . it seemed like the end of the world’ (p63). Select and rearrange in an illustrated poem.
3. Devise a poster for the film of the book and write the publicity material that might be sent to cinema managers to persuade them to screen it.
4. If Chapter 11 was Julie’s ending to the story, what might she have written?
More to Read
The Dolphin Crossing
Jill Paton Walsh, Puffin, 0 14 03.0457 6, 95p
The Machine Gunners
Robert Westall, Puffin, 0 14 03.0973 X, £1.25
Dawn of Fear
Susan Cooper, Puffin, 0 14 03.0719 2, £1.10
Carrie’s War
Nina Bawden, Puffin, 0 14 03.0689 7, £1.10
SECONDARY YEARS 4/5
Z for Zachariah
Robert O’Brien, Fontana, 0 00 671081 6, £1.50
Ann Burden survives the nuclear holocaust in a valley which is so geographically situated as to avoid the horrifying effects of radiation. The peace and solitude of her situation is shattered by the arrival of Mr Loomis, who staggers in from the outside wearing a special radiation-proof suit. A fatal error on his part leads him into severe illness and reveals his past sins as well as his present fanatical plans, in which Ann must play a vital part or die.
The awful reality of a post-nuclear situation is never far from the surface as the Eden-like valley becomes corrupted and spoilt, but there is hope at the end in the birds circling overhead in the distance.
The diary-form makes compulsive reading and underlines the humanity of this important novel, which should form the basis for exploring the issues that surround its very controversial subject matter.
Things to Do
1. As a pre-reading exercise make a Survival Priority Game. On each of 20-30 pieces of card write one different activity of post-holocaust survival, e.g. find fresh water; try to grow a variety of crops; breed livestock; make generator. Groups of pupils then arrange these into columns of top, mid-term and long-term priority and discuss with other groups their final conclusions. )Good to use with Lord of the Flies too!)
2. Make a chart that shows the order in which things first become, and will increasingly become, irreplaceable in the valley.
3. Draw a map of the valley, labelling points where key events might have occurred.
4. Look up Zachariah 14 v. 12-13 in the Bible and discuss how far these verses might have been an inspiration for the novel. What is Ann’s reason for the title?
More to Read
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Robert O’Brien, Puffin, 0 14 03.0725 7, £1.50
Adam’s Ark
Harold Hodgson, Macmillan Dramascripts, 0 333 18244 8, £1.15
Your Attention Please
a poem by Peter Porter, much anthologised
When the Wind Blows
Raymond Briggs, Hamish Hamilton, 0 241 10721 0, £4.25