BookFlix: The Audio Series: Recent Episodes
The Norwood School
This series will consist of weekly episodes where your teachers will read a selection of short stories from a range of different cultures and perspectives to you all.
Once you've listened to the story, you can send your thoughts and feelings about the story to Mr Galea directly galea.k@thenorwoodschool.org. Your views may even be shared on the next episode!
BookFlix is back with an audio series dedicated to the reading of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Each week a different student will read a couple of chapters of the book for your enjoyment.
If anyone in your form would like to take part, please direct them to Mr Galea - all year groups are welcome!
BookFlix is back with an audio series dedicated to the reading of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Each week a different student will read a couple of chapters of the book for your enjoyment.
If anyone in your form would like to take part, please direct them to Mr Galea - all year groups are welcome!
BookFlix is back with an audio series dedicated to the reading of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Each week a different student will read a couple of chapters of the book for your enjoyment.
This week we have Otone Yee-King from 8HRO.
Lamb to the Slaughter is a short, sharp, chilling story from Roald Dahl about a housewife turned murderer!
Tove Jansson’s much loved short story, The Invisible Child, is an important reminder of the power of caring, and it works beautifully as a vehicle for helping children learn about empathy and about how important it is to see and to be seen.
The short story “My Polish Teacher's Tie” by Helen Dunmore focuses on the theme of belonging and identity.
In the story War of the Clowns, Couto describes a knock-down, drag-out fight between two clowns in a town square.
The Sniper is a short story written by the Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty. Set during the early weeks of the Irish Civil War, during the Battle of Dublin.
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator attempts to prove his own sanity in the wake of having murdered an old man.
'Give it Up' by Franz Kafka is a short story that is read to promote the 100 words flash fiction competition in the English department at the moment.
If students want to get involved they have to email Mr Galea or ask their tutors to drop me a line.
The Hitch-Hiker is a short story by Roald Dahl that was originally published in July 1977 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, and later included in Dahl's short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.
The story is about a man who picks up a hitch-hiker whilst driving to London.
Manjeet Mann reads to us from her Carnegie nominated text 'Run Rebel'.
Amber is trapped - by her father's rules, by his expectations, by her own fears. Now she's ready to fight - for her mother, for her sister, for herself. Freedom always comes at a price. Run, Rebel is a trailblazing verse novel that thunders with rhythm, heart and soul.
This week we have Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick reading a chapter from her Carnegie shortlisted text On Midnight Beach on our school podcast.
About the novel: In this beautiful, epic coming-of-age novel, an old tale is rewoven as a stunning YA story by well-known Irish author/illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. I kept clear of Dog Cullen. Till the summer we turned seventeen, the summer the dolphin came to Carrig Cove ...
Donegal, 1976 When a dolphin takes up residence in Carrig Cove, Emer and her best friend, Fee, feel like they have an instant connection with it. Then Dog Cullen and his sidekick, Kit, turn up, and the four friends begin to sneak out at midnight to go down to the beach, daring each other to swim closer and closer to the creature . . . But the fame and fortune the dolphin brings to their small village builds resentment amongst their neighbours across the bay, and the summer days get longer and hotter
But the fame and fortune the dolphin brings to their small village builds resentment amongst their neighbours across the bay, and the summer days get longer and hotter ...
There is something wild and intense in the air. Love feels fierce, old hatreds fester, and suddenly everything feels worth fighting for.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.
This year, the following books have been shortlisted:
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
Run Rebel by Manjeet Mann
On Midnight Beach by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho
The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson
Each year The Norwood School shadows the different books in our very own Carnegie Book Club. You will read a book every few weeks and discuss some of the big ideas in each text as a group.
It’s a great way to read some of the best new fiction aimed at young people.
A boy gets his photo taken at a train station, in a sinister photo booth which produces pictures that foretell future events. The picture he gets shows a grown up with a hideously deformed yellow face. The train he boards crashes and injures him severely, leaving him with the same yellow face as the one in the photo.
'The Flowers' is a short story by Alice Walker that explores a young girl named Myop's time as a child ending when she discovers the body of a violently murdered man. This story's setting is during the summer on a sharecropper's farm, placing it after the American Civil War.
In "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde, a young man has feelings for a girl who promises to dance with him at a ball, should he bring her a red rose. The boy is upset because he doesn't have any red roses, and a Nightingale overhears. The nightingale desperately tries to find a red rose, but she cannot. Eventually, she sacrifices her life, using her blood to stain a white rose red, but her sacrifice is in vain.
‘I Used to Live Here Once’ is a haunting short story penned by West Indies born writer Jean Rhys.
Rhys lived a bohemian lifestyle in London and Europe. She is remembered for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea. She always felt an outsider both in West Indies, her place of birth, and England, where she moved to gain an education. This sense of alienation can be seen in the short story ‘I Used to Live Here Once’ penned by Rhys. Here too, there is an element of separation, separateness, and alienation of the narrator. She is unable to contact or speak to two white European children, standing under a mango tree near a house in West Indies where the narrator claims she had lived.
"Button, Button" is a short story about a husband and wife, Norma and Aurthur Lewis, who are offered a deal by a Mr. Steward for $50,000. If they choose to push the buttonsomeone they don't know will die, and they will receive the money. The husband and wife receive a box containing a button.
The book “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman is an exciting and dreadful book. The main idea that the author explores from the book is about child upbringing and family life. The family is an essential part of our social life and children should be brought up in a culturally accepted manner.
“Loose Change” is about a woman - the I-narrator - who is helped out by another foreign woman in the bathroom when she needs coins for the tampon machine, while all other women in there just leave. The I-narrator wants to give her back the money in some way and invites the other woman - Laylor -, for a cup of tea.
“The Pedestrian” is a dystopian short story that describes one night in the life of Leonard Mead, resident of an unnamed city in the year 2053. Mead enjoys walking the city streets alone every night. As he walks the empty streets, he passes the homes of other citizens, who are inside watching television.
Ted, a 12-year-old boy, sets out to search the long-extinct Truffula tree to impress the girl of his dreams. However, in his journey, he has to overcome a number of obstacles.
The Paradise Carpet depicts the story of a group of child slaves attempting to weave a lavish carpet for a wealthy gentleman. Gavin portrays the theme of enslavement through Ishwar and the other boys, using techniques such as metaphorical language, imagery and repetition, as well as repetition.