Books to Read over Christmas
Books to Read over Christmas
Books to Read at Dusk
My Year 7 English class and I did not read this at dusk, but you might be braver than we were. We started the year with Gothic tales, so it was fitting to end the term, by circling back to Poe's 'Tell-Tale Heart', from our copy of 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination'.
'A Christmas Carol', has to be on the list. The 'BBC Sounds' episodes, with clear, well-read narration and character voices to transport you to Scrooge's London, can be found here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07l9rkl/episodes/player
If you want to stick with Dickens, try his short ghost story, 'The Signalman', made more interesting by his own experience of the Staplehurst railway crash, in 1865, a year before he wrote this story.
Books to Read any time
Mrs Kay introduced me to Carol Ann Duffy's Christmas poetry books. I think any and all of these make for the perfect Christmas read: https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/literary/christmas-poems-by-carol-ann-duffy
This choice was gifted by Mrs Phillipson; each of the English department teachers received a book for their classroom. This was mine. Any book with a map in it is definitely a book to read. The stories are familiar, but the way they are told is not. The visit to 'Mertopolis', the Kingdom of the Sea people, will also allow the children to reminisce about their own evening, under the sea.
Books to Read to provoke thought:
Somebody recently questioned why schools keep revisiting books, books that they read 'when they were at school'. We are lucky to have a 'Wish List', compiled by children and staff at Mowden, which helps us do our best to keep stock up-to-date.
'The Iron Man', however, still holds a roomful of attention - with ease. It inspires opinions that run over lesson time and is a catalyst for individual and openly creative writing. This copy was published in 2010, and won the 'V&A Best Illustrated Book of the Year'.
Chicken House publisher, Barry Cunningham, dares you to imagine, "a world populated by child mechanicals, determined to protect their friends and discover a meaningful life." If you read 'Tin', you can decide if you agree with him that, "strangely, it's in fantastical stories about impossible creatures that you find the truest sense of what it is to be human". Thank you to Eddie (Year 6), for this recommendation; it is a 'can't put downable' book for me.
It is a fantastical time of year, so these are all fantastical choices, that I hope you enjoy.
Happy Christmas reading, from Mrs Hadfield.
