The Boarded Window: Murlock's relationship with nature

Taken from Sheldon Goldfarb:


From the beginning of the story we are told that Murlock lived alone in the forest. Of course, before his wife died, he lived with her, but it is interesting that the main events of the plot are set in motion by Murlock’s being away “gunning in a distant part of the forest” while his wife falls ill. He is perhaps too much apart, even from his wife.

He also seems to have an excessively antagonistic relationship to the natural world around him, as is indicated by his being off “gunning.” And earlier, in describing Murlock’s attempts at farming, the narrator makes him sound violent by talking of “the ravage wrought by [Murlock’s] ax.” The narrator also refers to Murlock’s zeal for agriculture as a “flame,” which makes him sound like a danger to the forest, although it is true that his flame is “failing” and “expiring in penitential ashes.”

Murlock had arrived in the area “young, strong and full of hope” and had begun “laying sturdily about with his ax to hew out a farm” while also using his rifle to shoot wild game. After his wife’s death, he lets the forest retake the land he had cleared for a farm, perhaps feeling guilty about his previous actions (hence the term “penitential” in describing what happened to his zeal for farming).

Perhaps what the story is trying to suggest in all this is that Murlock was both too much apart from other people (or civilization) and too antagonistic to nature. And what happens to his wife is then some sort of punishment, or a revenge taken by civilization and nature together. The panther is then a symbol of the world’s hostility towards those who fail to interact with it normally, who push it away or attack it. Similarly, the narrator’s throwing of stones at Murlock’s cabin seems to represents the world’s naturally hostile response to one who has kept himself too much to himself.

The Boarded Window: Unreliable narrator

This may interest some of you regarding the narrator's unreliability in The Boarded Window. Taken from Rena Korb, Short Stories for Students:

The words he chooses to share, however, prove the narrator to be unreliable. He constantly contradicts himself, thus subverting his own authority. He says that “every well-informed boy” knew Murlock’s cabin to be haunted by a ghost, but he doesn’t say how this knowledge — which would imply that others in the region knew of what had taken place there — came to be universal. In actuality, any neighbors had little knowledge of the wife. As the narrator states, she had “preceded” her husband in death “by so many years that local tradition had retained hardly a hint of her existence”; in fact, there was no longer even any “known record of her name.” The narrator also repeatedly emphasizes the mystery of the evening in question, declaring of the boarded window of Murlock’s cabin, “nobody could remember a time when it was not [boarded up]. And none knew why it was so closed.” Almost immediately thereafter he confesses, “I fancy there are few persons living to-day who ever knew the secret of that window, but I am one, as you shall see.” Finally, he reveals how he came to be privy to the information: “But there is an earlier chapter — that supplied by my grandfather.” Thus essentially ends the role of the narrator. The rest of the story focuses on Murlock’s sad tale, and indeed ends without ever returning to the narrator.

Readers are left with the question: What is the narrator’s relation to Murlock? How does he come to know this information that no one else knows. While the narrator proposes an answer to this question — that his grandfather “had known him [Murlock] when living near by in that earlier day” — this answer is far from satisfactory. For the narrator has already described the land upon which Murlock lived as “surrounded on all sides by the great forest.” Indeed, when his wife fell ill, her care rested solely upon him because there “was no physician within miles, no neighbor.” How then, is the reader to believe that this man who elected to live, and die, in such isolation would choose to reveal his horrible story to a seemingly random person? It seems unlikely that he even has a neighbor.

A reader could likely conjecture that the narrator’s grandfather is in actuality Murlock: the narrator is privy to facts, details, and knowledge that it would appear no other living soul has, not only about the night of the panther, but about Murlock’s feelings and thoughts. The narrator explains Murlock’s lack of reaction to his wife’s death as due to the fact that “[H]e had no experience in grief; his capacity had not been enlarged by its use. His heart could not contain it all, nor did his imagination rightly conceive it. He did not know he was so hard struck; that knowledge would come later, and never go.” Of these statements, only the last could be construed from the life that Murlock went on to lead. Clearly, Murlock was devastated by the death of his wife, otherwise he would not have retreated into his isolated state. The narrator, however, presents no plausible explanation for his knowledge about how Murlock deals with grief. He even emphasizes his illogical authority when he says, “We may conceive Murlock to have been that way affected... (and here we are upon surer ground than that of conjecture).” The mystery of the narrator’s relation to Murlock is never answered in any satisfactory fashion. Readers are left to form their own opinion, based on a brief text and insubstantial evidence.

The Boarded Window

I am currently working my way through marking the responses that you made to The Boarded Window while I was conducting the Year 12 exams almost 2 weeks ago.

I haven't read all of them yet, but so far the answers have been rather depressingly literal in their interpretaion of the story and of the narrator....

Allow me to ask you all this: why does the narrator seem to know SO much about the events at Murlock's house?

Is it likely that panther has dragged away his wife?

What can happen to someone when they are experiencing acute guilt?

How might the title be symbolic? Look back at the previous question....

Please comment below. The more the merrier. Not just Aadit and Arisa please.

Spelling test

May I remind people that there will be a spelling/ definitions test tomorrow afternoon.

Be ready...

homework- due this Wednesday

Carefully re-read the ending of the story (from ‘The officers were satisfied’). How does Poe use writing features (sentence structure, vocabulary, imagery etc) to create a sense of rising tension toward the end of the story?
You should write a paragraph using PEE
You should identify at least three key features used by Poe and describe their effect in detail

hAHAHAHAHAHA- enjoy.

vocab

acute (adj.): sharp or keen
cunningly (adv.): clever or shrewd (usually by being tricky / deceitful)
profound (adj.): very great or severe
sagacity (adj.): showing a level of good judgement and common sense
hearkening (v): listening
suppositions (n): guesses or assumptions of fact
crevice (n): a narrow crack
mournful (adj.): showing grief or great sorrow
refrain (v): to stop yourself from doing something
Pulsation (n): the act of pulsating (to beat or throb like an artery or heart)
Precaution (n): a measure taken to avoid a mistake or something unwanted
Deposit (v): to put in
Scantling (n): a narrow board or beam
Suave (adj.): elegant and charming
Audacious (adj.): daring or reckless
Definiteness (n): certainty
Gesticulate (v): to use hand and body movements for emphasis (gestures)
Derision (n): the act of mocking or jeering in dislike at something
Dissemble (v): to disguise or hide one’s real feelings and thoughts

Ramose- Prince in Exile

This book takes place in Ancient Egypt. Prince Ramose is heir to the throne of Egypt but he is very very spoilt. Until one day someone tries to poison him in his food, but his loyal nanny and tutor save him before he eats any. Everyone thought that Ramose was dead but he was hiding in the role of a simple tradesman waiting for his turn to take the throne. Ramose soon begins to learn about the hard life in Egypt outside his castle and surprisingly makes some friends. the book ends with Ramose and friends go on a journey. Read the next books to know what happens next.

LIttle Prince

Little Prince

The author of this book is Antoine de Saint Exupéry. He's from France. He joined the WWII. He disappeared on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in July 1944. This book is about a pliot get lost in the dessert then he meet a boy. The boy came to him and said draw a sheep for him. For the many time the boy said that he doesn's like the sheep that the pliot draw for him.Then pliot got tired so then he draw a box for him and said that the sheep is in the box.Finally a boy become happy with it.Pliot asked about where he from.At first he didn't answer then later on he start to open up his mind. The most interesting thing that i have found out is that The little prince does't have the EAR!!!!!!!! Then how could he listen to what the pliot said? I think it's because he can hear it by the heart.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
This story is about a girl name Alice, who followed the white rabbit down to the rabbit hole. In the rabbit hole, she saw the bootle, the lable says "drink me." when she drank it, she grows big then she become smaller again.When she become smaller,she was swimming in a pool of tears. Alice continues to chase the White Rabbit.Later on she meets a hookah-smoking Caterpillar.He adviced many thing to Alice. For example he adviced the ways to go out from the wonderland. After she meets a hookah-smoking Caterpillar, she meets queen. She was playing croquet with a flamingo and a hedgehog......................
This is the first about half of book's content. If you feel interesting, try to read the rest of the book.

Mothstorm

This is the last collection Philip Reeve’s steampunk series, called Mothstorm. This is the adventure when the Mumbys went to the Georgium Sidus, which was Uranus, because Edward’s friend, Cruet – a British missionary – had send strange pictures about a dark cloud at the far edge of the Solar System. Uranus was a planet that only covered in water. At here, the gigantic moths attacked the British aether ship and captured all the people on the ship, except for Art. Art luckily helped by the Georgium Sidus’s animal and Cruet’s daughter, named Charity. Cruet had been captured by the moth and had left Charity behind. Then the Sophronais rescued Art and Charity upon their ship, and they finally knew that the dark cloud was a huge storm of gigantic moths, which were driven by the Snilth – the same creature as one of the Sophronais. This storm of moths was controlled by another Shaper, who wanted to steal the Solar System from Art’s mother. This Shaper was not kind and friendly as Art’s mother; but so evil that she killed Art’s mother!!!!

Whether Art, Myrtle, their father, Charity and the Sophronais destroyed the Evil Shaper, the moths and the Snilth? The Mumbys had success twice, but would they success this time? Read now and find out!!! This is the most interesting collection out of three in the whole series!!!

Starcross

This is the second collection in the whole series of the Mumbys' great adventures, by Philip Reeve. After the adventure at Saturn against the gigantic white spider, the Mumbys (now had their mother with them) carried on another adventure on a tiny asteroid called Starcross. After had given the Shaper’s powerful machine to Sir Waverly Rain to be destroyed by his factory, the Mumbys good-bye the Sophronais, went back to their dear Larklight and started to redecorate their home. However, one day, they received an invitation to a new hotel on Starcross, hosted by Mr Tifter. They were totally persuaded by the pictures of the hotel and the interesting sea bathing. Edward Mumby could not go with his family, as he had a meeting at the Royal Xenological Institute.

After some pleasure day on Starcross, they met some new people and found out that the Sophronais were on the asteroid. They also found out that there were two Changeling Trees on Starcross and the mysterious sea bathing; which appeared when Starcross went back in time, to the Mars ancient times (Starcross once was a part of Mars). Art, privately, found a strange hat box in the hotel closet; and opened to be a strange unearthly creature, called Moob. Luckily, Art had killed the Moob, before it could get onto Art’s head and controlled his mind. Unfortunately, other guests of the hotel were under-controlled by other Moobs and captured Art and his mother. Although Jack and Myrtle escaped from the Moobs just in time, they had no choice but to go in the un-protection area of ancient Mars. While finding the way out of the dangerous area, they met several prehistoric Martian animals and Jack got injured. They got helped from the hotel guests, Delphine and her servant. But Delphine soon turned out to be a French secret argent and her country plan was to take over the British Space Empire. Back in the hotel, Art and his mother found out the Shaper’s engine had not been destroyed; but be brought to Starcross and used villainy by Sir Lancelot. With help from a well-intentioned Moob, Jack and Myrtle took over Delphine’s aether ship, tried to go back to modern time. After this, they rescued Art and another hotel guest and connected with the Sophronia. Their adventure had not finished yet, but just started...because the bad Moobs were planning to take over the entire human.

Would the Sophronais, Art, Myrtle and the good Moob rescue their mother? Would they have enough time, before the human race controlled by the bad Moobs? Read now and find out!!!

Larklight

This book is a steampunk novel, which is a sub-genre of science fiction, and is written by Phillip Reeve. In order to read this novel easily, you have to pretend that Sir Isaac Newton had his great discoveries about how to make the chemical wedding; which allowed the aether-ship to travel in space with the speed that even faster than light. This novel is about an adventure of the Mumbys in the 1850’s, when British men had started to explore the Solar System. Arthur Mumby is an Earth boy, who lived in an asteroid, called Larklight (actually it was a mechanic house - made by a super power of an unearthly creature, named Shaper). He had a sister, which always tried to be as most ladylike as she could, named Myrtle Mumby. Their parents were Edward and Amelia Mumby; their father worked for the Royal Xenological Institute and their mother had believed to die a few years ago.

Their life would be the same as everyone else until...one day, the Mumbys received a letter, which said that a mysterious guest would come and visit their old house. However, the next day, they woke to find that their guest was not an Earthly person; but a gigantic white spider of the size of an elephant – Mr. Webster!!! The white spiders covered their Larklight with a thick layer of strong unearthly web; then they kidnapped their dad, Edward. Fortunately, Art and Myrtle were able to escape to the Moon in and luckily met some new friends – as they rescued Art and Myrtle from the human-eating Potter Moth. These new friends were a boy of about their aged, Jack Havock; with his crew – three were from the Moons of Jupiter and another was not from any places of the Solar System, but from somewhere in the Universe. Jack was known by the British as a horrible space pirate and an ugly man; but truly, he was just a normal Earth boy. Art and Mumby followed their new friends to their aether-ship, Sophronia; although Myrtle hated Jack and his crew. They travelled to Jack’s old home, which was on Venus, and here Jack told Art and Myrtle about his tragedy childhood on Venus with all his family changed into trees; then Jack was carried to from the Royal Xenological Institute and met his crew at there. As soon as the story was finished, the white spider sudden attacked Venus and kidnapped Myrtle. At this point, Art realised that all his family had been taken apart from one another and even their dear home! Therefore, the Sophronais agreed to help Art, finding his family back even they had to die.

Through this novel, you would find out more about the true friendships; the great adventure of the teenagers in the wide aether; the whimsy love between two main characters; and surprisingly ending! Read now and find out!!!

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

In this book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the idea of what he calls 'Thin-Slicing'. When your unconscious mind can make snap decisions, that are often better, with just one look or small pieces of information, rather than exploring and pondering upon your topic. He takes thin-slicing to the grassroots, using different scenarios upon different people to explain just how powerful 'thin-slicing' is.

In his first story, he explains how a Museum in Greece was thinking of buying an ancient statue (called a Kouros) for display in the museum. They had teams of experts to scientifically examine the statue from every angle, going so far as to check the layer of oxidized stone on the surface. They gave it the green light. Just before the museum shelled out for the million-dollar marvel, a greek statue expert took one look at it and dismissed it as a fake. He said he just looked at it, and knew it was a fake. The museum called in many other archeologists, museum keepers and statue-enthusiasts and they all confirmed that the statue was in fact, fake.

The book is filled with stories such as these, as well as experiments and real-world scenario such as the "Pepsi Challenge" and the 'New Coke".

Beware Of The Dog- Roald Dahl

This short story is about a young man named Peter Williamson. I think this story takes place during the second world war. I think this because Peter was driving a spitfire plane. He had recently lost his right leg and it was bleeding all over his plane. He falls unconscious and barely gets into his parachute. He wakes up a few days later in a hospital where he is told he is in Brighton. He soon finds out himself that he is in France. I think this story was good. It was quick and to the point, it had some action in it. Like some short stories it didn't have much detail. I researched his name and found out the Peter Williamson was sold into slavery, captured by indians before he joined the British army and after joining the army was imprisoned by the French.

Blurbs

Can we all remeber not to simply copy out a book's blurb- there is absolutely NO point in doing this!

My Family and Other Animals

This is an autobiography of a famous naturalist, Gerald Durrell, when he was a 10-year-old boy. In the early 1900’s, he lived on a Greek island of Corfu with his family. All the adventures of a little boy, observed the environment, got interested in animals and the natural, etc.

You might find his adventures are not very interesting; however, this book is a very educational book. You might find some new stuff that you never known before!!! Want to know more, READ NOW!!!

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

Angeline Fowl was just contaminated by a disease so called "Spelltropy" and Artemis Fowl cannot heal here with just magic. He found out that the cure was brain fluid for a Lemur in Madagascar. Unfortunately, the Lemur was extinct and the only way for Artemis Fowl to save her mother was to time travel 8 years back............

Read the book to find out more it is a great book and also this book has a sequel.

This book is recommendated to anyone who loves reading sci-fi, adventure and mystery!!!!!!!!

Read to find out more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mondays are murder

This is a crime novel by Tanya Landman. This novel is about an adventure trip of a normal school girl – Poppy Fields. She lives with her mom and is a brave girl character (as she never believes in ghosts, zombies neither phantom). Until one day – at the end of summer holiday, a friend of her mother was asking Popper Fields for a free trip to a remote Scottish island. On the way to the island, she met several new friends a boy – her new classmate – named Graham Marshall. *This boy is a nerd though, hate all kinds of sport – thinks that they are all dangerous (even walking)!* Their instructors are Bruce Dundee, Mike Rackenford, Cathy Price, Donald Shaw and Isabelle. As soon as they arrived to the island, there was a quite heavy rain – i.e. the start for all terrible murders. The second day of the trip: Bruce’s death - while showing how safety the climbing ropes are. The next day: Donald’s death – frozen in the huge freezer. The forth day: Isabelle’s death – lying stone dead under many roses and on her dressing table was opened champagne. Poppy and Graham started their investigation by sneaking the office at midnight. They found out that before the trip, there were two more mystery deaths: first was Richard Robertson’s death – a climbing accident on the glaciers of the Andes; the second death was a death of a survival skills expert, named Steve Harris, in a local gym’s changing room.

So who do you think the murderer might be in one of those adults, or even those children? Remind: this is a quite scary novel!!!

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

When Cammie "The Chameleon" Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she's in for an exciting end to her summer break. After all, she's there to watch Macey's father accept the nomination for vice president of the United States. But when you go to the world's best school (for spies), "exciting" and "deadly" are never far apart. Cammie and Macey soon find themselves trapped in a kidnappers' plot, with only their espionage skills to save them.

As her junior year begins, Cammie can't shake the memory of what happened in Boston, and even the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women doesn't feel like the safe haven it once did. Shocking secrets and old flames seem to lurk around every one of the mansion's corners as Cammie and her friends struggle to answer the questions, Who is after Macey? And how can the Gallagher Girls keep her safe?

Soon Cammie is joining Bex and Liz as Macey's private security team on the campaign trail. The girls must use their spy training at every turn as the stakes are raised, and Cammie gets closer and closer to the shocking truth..

Secret life of the prince charming

Quinn is surrounded by women with broken hearts. Between her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother, Quinn hears nothing but cautionary tales. Then she gets dumped and starts to wonder if there really are no good men. It doesn't help when Quinn discovers that her selfish, womanizing father has stolen more from the women in his life than their hearts.

Quinn joins forces with the stepsisters she's never met and sets out to right her father's wrongs. Somewhere along the way, she ends up mending her own heart as well.

Envy - Anna Godbersen

Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana's side, however, those watching New York's favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city's most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope's finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope's social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune—and her fame—are anything but secure, especially now that one of society's darlings is slipping tales to the eager press.

In this next thrilling installment of Anna Godbersen's bestselling Luxe series, Manhattan's most envied residents appear to have everything they desire: Wealth. Beauty. Happiness. But sometimes the most practiced smiles hide the most scandalous secrets

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Ultimately rewarding, this novel about a high school girl who steps out of her role as "The Quiet Girl" for a summer of "passion and adventure... the stuff of the books at the Nine Mile Library where my mother works," shares both the strengths and pitfalls of Caletti's The Queen of Everything. When Ruby gets involved with handsome, motorcycle-riding and rich Travis, she likes that he sees her as fearless. But he is also dangerous, and spellbound Ruby gradually gets sucked into first reckless and then criminal acts. In a concerted effort to help Ruby break away from Travis, her librarian mother, who has just endured a betrayal of her own, begins overseeing Ruby's schedule and takes her to the book club she facilitates for feisty senior citizens, the Casserole Queens—which leads to a whole other story line involving one of their members, a stroke victim who may or may not have been the lover of a famous author. There is a lot of plot, often requiring the audience's leaps of faith over not especially believable moments, and Caletti's prose, laden with strikingly apt comparisons, can make this book feel dense. Even so, so much here is uncommonly vivid, especially the exchanges among Ruby, her mother and her younger brother. Readers who stay with it will find thoughtful and authentically inspiring messages about trusting in themselves enough to insist on a love that means more than being someone's "honey, baby, sweetheart."

The village of the vampire cat - Lensey Namioka

When Zenta and Matsuzo, two masterless samurai, arrive at the home of Zenta's old friend and former teacher, the two discover that the village has been tormented by an unknown force. A mysterious killer, known as the Cat because of his sharp claws, has already killed four young girls, now Zenta and Matsuzo must solve the mystery and put an end to the terror. Zenta and Matsuzo are wondering ronin (masterless samurai) with a skill and code of honor unlike the ordinary citizens of Japan. Together the stoic Zenta and carefree Matsuzo fall in and out of extraordinary adventures-solving mysteries that leave others baffled.

The Wind in the Willows

This is a young classic novel and is written by Kenneth Grahame. The novel starts of in the fine weather of spring, in an underground house of a friendly Mole. He was cleaning his house and soon started to be tired. Therefore, he dug his way up to the warm Sun and he reached a river, which he has never seen before. While he was observing around he met a water rat, named Ratty. They soon became dear friends and they decided to have a picnic near the gentle river. After a while of eating, they met two good friends of Ratty, named Otter and Badger. Otter joined the picnic with them, but Badger did not – as he hated crowd or party. After the picnic, Ratty asked Mole to come and live in Ratty’s little house and Mole agreed. Later on, in summer, Mole asked Ratty to show another Ratty’s friend, named Toad. Despite the richness and friendliness of Toad, he was boastful and obsessed about things, but soon got tired of them. When they reached Toad Hall, Toad invited them to take a journey with him in his new horse-caravan. On the last day of the journey, they were crashed by a passing motor car. This made an end to Toad’s craziness about caravan and began a start an obsession for motor cars. Later in the winter, despite all the caution of Ratty about the Wild Wood, where their friend - Badger – lived, Mole went into the Wild Wood himself without any protections or preparations against Weasels, Stoats and Ferrets. Ratty soon found his friend had been naughty and not listened to his caution. Therefore, Ratty soon got off to the Wild Wood with a stick and a gun. He soon found Mole, who was hiding frightened in a hole. He then set of to Badger’s house, after having some sleeps. While their times at Badger’s house, these little animals decided that they should carry some punishments upon Toad, to persuade him to stop his craziness and obsession for things in the spring. After using words to persuade their boastful friend, Toad; they found that no words could make Toad to change his mind. Therefore, they started to use some ‘friendly’ actions upon Toad. However, Toad escaped and started an adventure, which he himself will never forget…

As this book is quite dull at some parts and it is recommended for kids from 5 – 9, I rate this book 2.5 out of 5!!!

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod Ninth Grade Slays

This is the second book of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod and I think that this book is better than the last one. It is written by Heather Brewer and in this book, another vampire is out to kill Vlad. It starts off when Vlad is back at school and is dealing with the same problems as usual, social life, love life and his studies. What is more difficult is his vampire lessons which are being taught to him by his Uncle Otis through letters. When Henry's cousin Joss arrives at the school, he becomes best friends with Vlad. After a while, Otis decides to take Vlad to Russia to learn from a professional teacher. There Vlad finds out about the Pravus(legend tells that one day a vampire will be born and not created. He will enslave the human race and take over the vampire society and rule it. That is the Pravus). Vlad starts getting worried as he is the first vampire known to be born and not created so far. D'ablo also believes that Vlad is the Pravus and is trying to get him killed. So D'ablo hired a vampire slayer to kill Vlad. If you want to find out what happens then you just have to read the book. It is really really good. So... Read it!!!:]

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod Eighth Grade Bites

This book is written by Heather Brewer(I don't know why, but female writers like writing about vampires). This is a really good book and I think that everyone in our year should read it. This book is about a half-human half-vampire boy who goes to a normal school in Bathory. He has a best friend named Henry who knows he is part vampire. Being a vampire has its disadvantages, because Vlad is a vampire, he acts as one(unlike twilight, he can eat other things other than blood). Vlad's parents died when he was a ten years old so he lives with his Aunt Nelly who was really close to his mother even though they are not real sisters. As Vlad's diet mainly consists of blood, Nelly has to sneak blood from the hospital she works at so that Vlad has blood to drink. In school, Vlad is often bullied and picked on. Even though Henry is extremely popular, Vlad isn't. It bothers him sometimes that Henry ditches him for all the other kids. When his English teacher goes missing and a new teacher, Mr. Otis who is really weird replaces him, Vlad gets worried and thinks that weird things are happening. And that is saying a lot because he is a vampire and he can fly... Strangely enough, Mr. Otis appears to know that Vlad is a vampire. When Vlad overhears a conversation between Mr. Otis and D'ablo(president of the vampire council) who was planning on killing him, he starts getting really really really worried and tries to run. If you want to know what happens next you should read the book. This book is really good and I think that everyone should read it.

P.S. I don't know why but I seem to pick up all the vampire books -.-

Homework for Friday

Righto chaps and chappesses- here's your homework for Friday. Do try to really go in depth on some of these- no answer is straightforward; they do invite analysis and discussion! Feel free to comment on how awesome this homework is- haha!

1.Describe the narrator in detail. What is your first impression of him?

2.What specifically is it about the old man that troubles the narrator? Why does it trouble him?

3.What does the narrator do every night? Why?

4. How does the narrator feel after he commits the murder? Is he worried about being caught?

5.Why does the killer confess?

6.Name 3 details, descriptions, or actions that the author uses to create an atmosphere of horror.

7. Choose a memorable scene from the story (example: the murder scene, the confession scene, etc.) and illustrate it in colour. Give an explanation of the picture - what is happening in this scene? Be as specific as possible. Finally, you must include two kinds of figurative language, which you come up with on your own, to make your description more interesting (choose two: alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, idiom, and personification)

Short Stories- Welcome back!

Hello chaps, and welcome back to school! Following today's lesson, check out this website- it's a fantastic resource for you to acquaint yourself with a range of short stories.

http://www.classicshorts.com/author.html

I would like you all to read one and write your ideas about how you found it on here by Friday's lesson please.

once by morris gleitzman

The year is 1942. Felix is the son of Jewish parents who run a bookshop in Poland, after his parents could no longer afford to keep him. They said they would come back for him at the orphanage when they had got over their financial problems. When the Nazis destroy the small library in the orphanage, Felix uses this opportunity to escape and search for his parents. Leaving the orphanage behind, Felix as a lone Jewish boy searching around Poland for his parent. Not for long, he befriends Zelda, a little girl whose parents have been shot. Together they meet Barney, a dentist who is protecting a group of children in a Jewish ghetto. It was not for long until they all got caught and was sent to the Nazis death camp by train. One of the boys was able to knock down the door on the speeding train and this could be their only chance to escape the death camp. But will Felix and his friend have enough courage to make it out alive?

The tide knot by helen dunmore

This is the second volume of the book Ingo. Sapphire and Connor are learning to cope since the disappearance of their father, Matthew Trewhella, into the sea. Mum has moved the kids from their cottage on the cove to the bigger town of St. Pirans. Mum and Connor are getting on well with the new environment, but Sapphire is unable to adapt to her new life and having trouble to forget about disappearance of her father, she is now spending more time beneath the waves with her Mer friend Faro in the world of Ingo.
On her adventures with Faro, she meets his wise teacher Saldowr and is shown the Tide Knot - a large stone which controls all the tides in Ingo.
One night, however, the Tide Knot is loosened and a major flood rushes into St Pirans, trapping the Trewhella family indoors! Will Sapphy and her family escape? Will faro and the Mer come to help or will the Mer take revenge against the humans for what they have done to the watery world?

ingo by helen dunmore
Sapphire and her brother Connor have lost their father to the sea. But no one knows what happened to him. At the beginning of this book. Sapphire’s father tells her the story of the Mermaid of Zennor. Many years ago, the mermaid fell in love with Mathew Trewhella, and he chose to abandon his life to live with her in the Mer kingdom of Ingo. Mathew Trewhella is also her father’s name. When their father disappears on his fishing boat one calm night, everything changes for the family. The villagers accepted the death of Mathew Trewhella after several attempts of searching around town, but Sapphire and Connor don’t. Did their father drowned? Did he run away with another woman or did he to abandon his life to live with her in the Mer like the fairy tale that use to tell Sapphire?

No Time For Goodbye

Twenty five years ago, Cynthia discovered that her entire family disappeared, mother, father, and brother, gone from home. Her family didn't leave anything for her, to tell her that they're fine or not. And never return for her. Police thought that she murdered her own family, she even wondered why her family didn't bring her. Twenty five years later, she's happily married, with a daughter. Every chapter holds another case, and discovery, what happen to Cynthia's family. There would be clues, about her family, unknown phone calls, unknown objects from the past coming back to her. This book would always give you questions. I recommend this to everyone in our year. It's really acceptable to everyone. Well not kids, i don't think they'll understand.