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Throwaway Daughterred midnightChildsoldiers Photostory

childsoldiers-photostory

Nominated for the 2009  Snow Willow awards, this is a powerful novel of child soldiers in Uganda. Our grade 8 class read novels which centred on different world cultures. They chose the basic need they felt was not being met for their character; did some research on that country, and then created a photostory in a documentary style.

The grade 3/4 class read, evaluated and voted for their favourite Shining Willow award book. They then wrote a book-talk about their favourite book based on criteria we established together.  They next created a podcast of their book-talk; now on this site for your listening enjoyment. As you read, please feel free to make a comment for us.

Pamela\’s talk

isaacs-booktalk

anthonys-book-talk

erins-book-talk

Arika\’s talk

Jesses-talk1

daniels-book-talk

brynns-talk1

danielles-talk1

callums-book-talk

erika-s-2

chiaras-book-talk

hunter2

Heidi\’s book-talk

Jack\’s book-talk

Treyton\’s book-talk

Kyle\’s book-talk

Mitch\’s book-talk

Liams-book-talk

Matthew\’s book-talk

Kelly-Jeans book-talk

Taylor’s book-talk

Sam\’s book-talk

Emma\’s book-talk

Brigit\’s book-talk

Edan\’s book-talk

Marshall’s book-talk

Nathan’s book-talk

Kasia’s book-talk

This book is reviewed by Austin Abbey. Please see comments below to read his review.

Discussion held on June 18, 2008. Here are some of the group’s comments.

Recommended by Josh B.

This novel centers around India’s war for independence from Britain. Sixteen year old Jack has been sent from Canada to live with his aunt and uncle. Being a half-caste himself, he is torn between the prim and proper worlds of his aunt and the caste system of India. The writing in this is graphic. You will experience the smells, sights and sounds of the bloody events of the 21- day siege. The writing is powerful and graphic. This is a book to keep you awake at night.

Well-known author of the Bruno and Boots series, the Island, Dive and Everest trilogies, Korman has written a funny and yet heart-warming novel about a young man, Capricorn, who has been raised in a commune and is suddenly thrust into the real world. When Capricorn’s hippie granmother breaks her hip, Capricorn has to attend school for the first time in his life. The kids who run Claverage Middle School always choose the biggest geek to be the school president, and then proceed to make his life sheer torture. Hugh Wionkleman has the job sewn up until Cap arrives on the scene in his home-made sandals, hemp clothes and his habit of performing tai chi on the front lawn. Who could be a better president than that? Capricorn is duly elected and then is subjected to all the worst forms of cruelty and bullying. Where most students would break, Cap seems to be unfazed by them until one act goes a little too far. Prepare for some good laughs, some sad moments and the surprising ending.

This reminded me somewhat of the Alex Rider books, only with an even more unlikely hero. Alfred is orphaned and goes to live with his uncle. He is a large, unwieldy boy who does not seem to have any particular skills. This all changes when his uncle enlists his help in stealing a sword, which turns out to be the sword Excalibur. Why is it that Alfred’s power seems to grow when he wields the sword? Why are knights and thugs all after him? Who is Alfred anyway?

This is a page-turner adventure for those of you who like a little of the mystical thrown into modern day life.

You might also enjoy Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton.

Two amazing author’s have worked together to write this book. Many of you will know Ellis as the author of Breadwinner and many other great novels. Walters has written more novels than I can count, one of them being Run, which was the fictionalized telling of the Terry Fox story.

Now we have a story that takes place in a large city high school where clashes take place among the different nationalities and the various cliques. In the aftermath of the Twin Tower bombings, certain nationalities are more suspect than others and the story begins with the arrest of one young student in the school. Rumours begin to fly and tension heats up.

This book is written in chapters alternating between Jay, one of the school jocks, and Haroon, one of the boys of the same nationality as the arrested student. See if you can figure out which author took on which character’s voice.

This is very thought-provoking and a real eye-opener to the world we now live in.