FIRST SESSION GROUP M/J 17-19

As we did with the other group, we started the session talking about how books can open our mind. Then, the students talked about their books (summary, characters, authors, likes, dislikes, etc) in groups and they decided a name for their book club.

Here you can see the groups working:

After the discussion, the students wrote a summary of the session and posted it on Schoology. These are their ideas:

CRAZY FOR BOOKS BOOK CLUB

During our book club session, the first couple of books were about several short stories and the rest were thrillers.

We recommend Frozen Pizza and other Slices of Life and He Knows Too Much because they are so interesting and easy to read. They teach you to think in a possitive way. It helps you to understand other people's life.

We do not recommend Man from the South and Other Stories and Trumpet Voluntary because the first is so strange and the second is an incredible story really difficult to believe. It is a thriller that reflects different topics. 

Written by: Pedro Cortés, Virtudes Lázaro, Mª Carmen Mollá, Isabel Samblas

As Elena and Alexandra couldn't come to the book club session they posted the comments about their books on Schoology:

Elena: The book that I read is Brave New World. My first impression is that it is an interesting book to reflect how humanity could evolve and how mean we can become. To my taste, the rhythm of reading is a bit heavy. On the one hand, the vocabulary is not easy and on the other hand, reading the story becomes tired. However, the content is worth it. Perhaps, it does not leave you with a smile,but with a lot of food for thought.

In short, Brave New World is specially for those who show a special interest in philosophy and sociology, so it presents a futurist world which satirizes the society. Besides, reading this book in English requires a fairly good level of this language. 

I hope this opinion serves to my classmates!

Alexandra: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a mystery novel written by the British writer Mark Haddon. Undoubtedly, it is a must-read and highly recommended for teachers and psychologists. Despite being easy to read, the plot is really profound and thought-provoking. It is different because it is the best presentation of the Asperger's syndrome that has been written about in literature. The story is told by a teenager who suffers from Asperger and it gives us a better insight into the life of a person who is suffering from it allowing us even empathize with him.

THE BEAUTIFUL READER GIRLS BOOK CLUB

-Concha read Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah

Alem Kalo is a boy who leaves his homeland because of the war. He is from Africa and his father leaves him in England because he is afraid that somebody can cause him pain. He is welcomed in neither place.

-María read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

It is a love story about Pip, whose parents and sister die and he is sent to Miss Havisham’s house to entertain her, and there he meets Estella and falls in love with her.

-Fabiola read Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremy Harmer

It is a romantic story about a musician who is making a desperate search to find his wife, who leaves him just with a strange e-mail message behind her. His journey of discovery takes us across the world to Rio and deep into the human heart.

-Paquita read The woman in White by Wilkie Collins

It is a Victorian novel. The plot is complex, twisted, engaging but realistic and easy to digest. For a long time the reader is not sure about what is going on, but it is not a good thing and when the plot is revealed it is as interesting as you can supose.

-Rosana read Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

The plot is set in London 600 years in the future. Life on Earth has developed into a perfect society, where humans have been produced from test tubes. There is not disease, suffering or pain and nobody is dissatisfied with their position in a stable society.

-Encarni read Man from the South and Other Stories by Roald Dahl

It is a collection of short stories. But people and things are not always what they seem. Every story becomes strange and often dangerous. We have to wait until the last pages of each story to discover the terrible end.

Written by: Paqui, Rosana, Encarni, Concha, María and Fabiola

FROZEN-LEFT-HANDERS BY BIRTH BOOK CLUB

Together all the members of the Frozen Left Handers by Birth Book Club talked about the books that we read. 

Merce was the first, and she talked about Meteor and Other Stories. It is a book that has four science fiction stories and she focused on one of the stories that shocked her. The story talks about a trip of a ship in the space. She recommends the book to us because she found it interesting.

Reme read The Jane Austen Book Club. It is a book about six people who belong to a book club that reads books by Jane Austen. The most interesting thing that she found is that there is a coincidence between the book club of the book and our book club because there are five women and one man. She does not recommend reading this book because she found it complicated.

Maria Eugenia read A monster Calls. It is a book that helps teenagers and young adults to face a trauma or difficult situations and she recommends it because it is a story that makes people think about what is important in life.

Antonio read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time. The book tells us the story of a young boy who has Asperger syndrome and he has to grow and overcome his fears. He recommends the book because the plot is interesting and original, even really surprising. Moreover, it can help us to understand the spirit of achievement.

Marisa read Frozen Pizza and other Slices of Life. She thinks it is a very good book which tells us eight different stories about different people who show us the same country, England, but from their own point of view. The stories tell us about different themes such us food, the media, immigration, student life, football hooliganism, inner city problems, leisure activities and the countryside. She recommends it because it lets you know more about human feelings, about England and its history.

Cristina read How to be Ggood. It tells the David's story, a man who used to be always angry until one day when he discovers that his wife has been cheating on him, so he visits a healer who helps David to become a new person, a good person. She recommends the book because it is a book that makes the reader reflect about what being a good person really is at the same time that the reader has a good time.

Written by: Reme, Merce, Eugenia, Marisa, Cristina and Antonio. 

THE CURIOUS READERS BOOK CLUB

Great Expectations: The book tells the story of an orphan boy called Pip. It begins when he was a child and helped a convict to survive. After that, he visited Ms. Havisam’s mansion in order to entertain her and play with her adopted daughter, Estella, who he would fall relentlessly in love with. Years later, Pipen is given a hefty inheritance and begins a gentleman life in London. The secret of his luck surprises him and he keeps waiting for Estella his whole life.

Sergio doesn’t recommend this book because it is too long, with many parallel plots, a kind of soap opera written in the nineteenth century. As a result, it is difficult to be followed by current readers.

The Joy Luck Club: This is a story about four Chinese women and their four daughters. The book is divided in chapters where each woman tells her story lifetime in a difficult period of time, during the World War II. The story tells the relationship between mothers and daughters as an example of differences between generations. Readers can learn about how difficult is to adapt to a new country and culture with the story of the Chinese immigrants to the United States. It is a short book, easy to read that Carlos recommends it for women with daughters.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon: This book is a murder mystery novel whose main character is a 15-year-old boy, Christopher, who has Asperger syndrome. Christopher is very good at maths, he has a photographic memory and he lives in his own world. Nevertheless, it is not a novel about Asperger, but it’s true that the plot invites you to think about this problem. The book describes different situations that Christopher has to solve, and finally he discovers he is able to do more things than he thought.

About the author, he is a British writer who was born in 1962 in Northampton, and nowadays he resides in Oxford. He has written several books for young people and adults, and recently one poetry volume. It is worth noticing that the novel won in 2003 the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year. Also, in 2004 the author received the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book and in 2005 The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.

Manuel considers that it is a good book that allows you to improve your English, with a comprehensive vocabulary that encourages you to keep reading. Due to the fact that it is structured in short chapters, you can read it in short breaks along the day.

To be honest, Manuel considers the book has been more amazing than he had expected at the beginning. His evaluation is 8, and he recommends it to you.

The Woman in White is a mysterious story about a strange woman that nobody knows, but she knows horrible secrets about some of the characters and that can change their lives. It is an easy and short book to read if you like this kinds of novel.

Dear Nobody tells the story about a teenager who realises that she is pregnant. She doesn't want the baby at first and she doesn't tell anyone about that. But, finally she speaks to her parents and her boyfriend. They don't want the baby and her mum takes her to the hospital to have an abortion, but she escapes because she has deciced to have the baby. She writes a letter to the baby each month, and she starts the letters with Dear Nobody.

It is a very sad book, but with an emotional end. The vocabulary is apropiated for this level and for this reason it is not difficult to read. I recommend this book to teenagers to prevent a pregnancy that they don't want.

Written by: María, Carlos, Ramona, Manuel and Sergio.