Foul Play

Foul Play is available in the library. This review was written by Euan Watson

Lately, I have been reading a book called Foul Play. The novel is about a boy called Danny who wants to become a detective and he is obsessed with crime books and detective movies. Danny is also a very big fan of his local football team City, especially the star player Sam Roberts, City and England’s top goal scorer.

At the start of the novel Danny was onto a case involving a number of burglaries in the area. He was trying to film two men burgling a warehouse but as he was filming, they caught sight of him. Luckily he got away by the skin of his teeth but will they come back to haunt him?    

When Danny finds out his legendary hero is kidnapped, he is on the case straight away and using the skills of all the movies he has seen. Will he be able to save Roberts in time for the World Cup so he can use his magic for England? Is the “Sam Roberts” dilemma and burglars connected? You will have to read to find out!

I think the novel is a very exciting, extremely gripping and fast paced.  I would recommend it for any age but especially for early teens.

The novel was shortlisted for “the book I couldn’t put down” award, which isn’t very hard to believe because I just couldn’t stop reading it!

Foul Play is a very good story and an extremely clever novel and I hope if you read it you will feel the same way about it as I do.

The Rule of Four

The Rule of Four is available in the library. This review was written by Tom Dean in second year.


The Rule of Four is an engrossing novel that describes fictitious events, but is based upon a real piece of renaissance literature. It follows four students at Princeton University as they attempt to solve the riddles of the Hypnertomachia Poliphili, a cryptic text that has remained unsolved for over 500 years, and describes the hidden tale that they uncover as they delve deep into a dark renaissance secret. It also focuses upon the difficulty of balancing friendships and the struggle to discover priorities.
Having also read the Da Vinci Code I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two books, as both of them are built around shocking claims and historic conspiracies. Yet I felt that although The Rule of Four is without doubt a much slower paced novel than the Da Vinci Code it has a much deeper plot and is captivating in a different sense, but still if you enjoyed the Da Vinci Code you will definitely enjoy this!


“The Da Vinci Code for people with brains.”
 The Independent.

Tunnels Review

This review is by Moses Stubbs in Second Year. The book and series is available in the library!

The book “Tunnels”, written by joint authors Roderick Gordons and Brian Williams, was first self-published in 2005 under the title “The Highfield Mole, Circle in the Spire” but was renamed “Tunnels” to represent the editing in the book in 2007. It is the first in a series of five, the last being not yet published.

The main character is a fourteen year old boy, Will Burrows. He lives in Highfield in the south of England with his father, the Curator of the local museum, his mother, a screen addict who spends all day in front of the telly and his twelve year old sister Rebecca, who runs the home. Will’s father, Dr Burrows, often goes out on digging trips, archaeological digs for underground long-since buried train stations and such like. Will enjoys accompanying him on these trips and together they have a large collection of old antiques like show tickets from 1932 and ration billets from the Second World War. It is a fairly dull life for Will and the book has had a few complaints for its slow and lengthy start. And then Dr Burrows begins to notice a few things out of place in Highfield. Strange “men in hats” appear and he finds that some of the building structures are not quite right. Then a strange glowing artefact finds its way to Dr Burrow’s museum desk and there is the suggestion of something deeper. Suddenly Dr Burrows goes missing and as Will and his school friend Chester Rawls attempt to find him, they find that they too are dragged down into a huge secret that extends right to the deepest levels of the earth.

An exciting novel. It is well written and is very hard to put down. It is also very surprising and the end is quite unexpected. “Tunnels” is a great book and is aimed at boys from 12-17. It will make you desperate to pick up the next in the series!

Jonathan Meres Visit Stewarts Melville

Recently, Jonathan Meres visited the school to chat to the boys about his books - The World Of Norm. These very popular books concern Norm, a boy who can't understand why everything is so unfair. Jonathan signed copies of his latest instalment: May Contain Gas. His books are available in the library now!

Crtique of One Day by David Nicholls

“One Day” is a memorable read.  It relates to the changing patterns of the lives of two people who meet towards the end of their student days at Edinburgh University.  It traces their journeys through the following 20 years by identifying one day each year (15 July, St Swithin’s Day) to report on their progress.

The novel is deeply moving on account of its economy of language and its stark realism.  Some of the related incidents are shocking but all are easy to identify with because they are the incidents of typical, everyday life and they are scrupulously related to events of the time as well as to exact locations.

There is always a sense of foreboding associated with this novel and equally a desire in the reader that all will be well in the end, simply because the individuals described are flawed, tender, at times inconsiderate, desperate for recognition and lovably human.

There are many twists and turns in “One Day” but, on reflection, no more or less than in many lives when examined over a period of time.

It is difficult to draw conclusions from the novel.  It might be argued that life is futile or unfair and indeed one of the characters does seem to have an unreasonable share of good fortune and the other remarkably little, but on closer scrutiny, the reader notes that one may leave a substantial legacy to the world, where the other more fortunate individual may leave none and be left in his life only with a sense of enduring sadness.

David Nicholls shows in “One Day” how young people age, change and yet, in essence remain the same characters they were in adolescence: it is this acute observation of human behaviour which makes this novel so touching, tender and true to all of us who have read it.  I recommend it to anyone in S5 or S6 strongly.

This critique is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.

A copy of this book and the DVD is available in the SMC Library.

 

20 Search tips for Google Masters

Thanks to Matt Silverman on Mashable.com for this great presentation on how to use Google more effecitively...

Before I Go to Sleep - S J Watson

Here is the first in a new feature on the blog...video book reviews.

Book summary (taken from Amazon UK):

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

Thanks to Mrs Bakewell for doing out 1st ever video review!  Keep an eye on the blog for more video reviews over the coming weeks.  If you would like to read 'Before I Go to Sleep' copies are available from the SMC library.

Iain Banks: The Steep Approach to Garbadale

Iain Banks, a Scottish writer who is best known for his first novel “The Wasp Factory”, has, in my view, surpassed that landmark, in this more mature but, in many ways, shocking novel.  It charts the childhood, youth and early adulthood until his thirties of Alban Wopuld.  Its focus is on family life and the impact which early events can have on individuals, for better or for worse, for the rest of their lives.  Banks examines the changing views and awareness of Wopuld and considers the psychological make-up of those who “have” and those who “have not”, and raises questions about what we might consider to be normal, abnormal, eccentric, odd or unacceptable.  The novel is alive with a sense of guilt about origins and backgrounds and reveals the guilty secrets of the protagonists as the plot unfolds.

There is some wonderful characterisation in this novel, riveting description and a narrative which alternates between breath-taking pace, suspense and reflection.  And permeating the chapters is a sense of foreboding.

I can recommend this skilfully crafted novel to boys and girls in S4, S5 and S6.

Thanks to Mr Gray, Principal at SMC for this review.  If you would like to read the book, copies are available from the SMC library.

Take a breather

If you need a little break from studying spend 5 minutes watching this little video montage of funny video clips featuring libraries from TV and Films.

Carnegie Medal Shortlist

The Carnegie Medal, awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children, has just launched the shortlist for this years award.  There are 8 books in total on the shortlist and below are trailers or author interviews for 5 of the books.  The books not featured are...

My Name is Mina - David Almond
Everybody Jam - Ali Lewis
Small Change for Stuart - Lissa Evans

All of the books are all available to borrow from the SMC Library and Mrs Bakewell's S1/S2 book club are going to be involved in the Carnegie shadowing project.  (See Mrs Bakewell if you are keen to be involved in this.)

For more information on the Carnegie Medal visit http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/home/

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher

Between Shades of Gray - Ruth Sepetys

The Midnight Zoo - Sonya Hartnett

Trash - Andy Mulligan



Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

This is not a novel for the faint hearted, but is enormously rewarding.  Sometimes described as the greatest novel ever written, Tolstoy charts the lives of three families interlinked by marriage and particularly examines the consequence of intense human experiences: love, passion, hatred, jealousy, anger, melancholy, ambition.  The fate of Anna who shuns her husband, Karenin, on falling in love with Count Vronsky, a dashing aristocrat, is given particular scrutiny by Tolstoy, who, with typical, nineteenth century realism, examines the exquisite pain of the mother and wife, ostracised by Russian high society, denied a divorce by her high ranking husband, and access to her son, Sergei.

Yet the novel is not just about the tortured outcome of an illicit love affair.  It also asks questions about the very purpose of life in an age in which science had sown doubts about the validity of religious belief.  It compares too the superficial and excessive lifestyles of Russia’s ruling and landowning classes with the humble existence of the peasantry and, perhaps unwittingly, anticipates the revolution which Tolstoy did not live to see.

No brief synopsis such as this would be adequate to describe the range of events, the close study of character, or the many reflections on the human condition, with which “Anna Karenina” proliferates.  The only answer is to read this great novel for yourselves.

This review is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.
Copies are available from the SMC library.

Kindles available to borrow from the SMC Library

As all, if not most of you know the SMC Library has kindles. The kindles are now available to borrow (just like a normal book, except only for one week or the whole of the Easter holidays).

The kindles now also have The Hunger Games trilogy on them. If you want more details please see Mr Wright or Mrs Garlick.

The Hunger Games - Film Review

Unless you have been living on Mars for the last month it's been impossible to avoid the ever increasing press coverage of the release of The Hunger Games movie. Based on the best selling book by Suzanne Collins the excitement amongst teenagers (and adults - myself included!) has reached fever pitch in the last week or so. 


And now the wait is finally over! The film goes on general release today, Friday 23rd March.  However I was lucky enough to get a ticket for one of last nights limited preview screenings! Does it live up to the Hype? Does it stay true to the book? Read on to find out...


Book Summary: The Hunger Games was one of the first in the current vogue of dystopian teenage thrillers.  Set in Panem, a near future version of North America destroyed by war, the country is now divided into 12 districts each ruled by the Totalitarian Capitol. Each year the districts are asked to send two tributes to compete in 'The Hunger Games' a reality TV, battle to the death and the Capitol's way of ensuring that the forgiveness they gave each district for the previous civil war and uprising, is never forgotten...


(Please be aware that if you have not read the book this film review may contain spoilers.)


Mr Wright's Review:
It can be a dangerous thing going to see the film of a book you have loved.  We have our own image of the characters, our own interpretation of events and can only hope that these are mirrored in what we see on screen.  Our dilemma becomes even more difficult if the film starts to receive rave reviews and the hype surrounding it reaches fever pitch.  Is it worth the risk of disappointment?  For fans of The Hunger Games the answer to this is a resounding yes!


Lionsgate and director Gary Ross have captured the essence of this book and brought to life one of the most exciting novels of this generation. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are both expertly cast as Katniss and Peeta, with each portraying an uncanny resemblance to how I saw them in the book. Katniss strong and rebellious and Peeta, brooding and deep.  Haymitch, previous  'Hunger Games' winner and mentor to Katniss and Peeta, is played brilliantly by Woody Harrelson whilst Donald Sutherland does a great job as the quietly spoken, yet dangerous President Snow. 


Other characters are equally well cast with  Lenny Kravitz capturing the tenderness of stylist Cinna and Stanley Tucci proving himself to be the expert chatshow host in his role as Caeser Flickerman.  Gale, Katniss' loyal friend back in District 12 and the other tributes also stay close to their book characterisation.  However it is little Rue who almost steals the show by ensuring the whole cinema has a tear in their eye with 'that' scene.


The images of District 12, the Capitol and the Arena itself are just as imagined in the book with the greyness and poverty of District 12 in evidence, just as the colour and greed of the capitol is. In fact at no point during the film was I ever thinking that's not how I thought it would be.  It's clear that Suzanne Collins has been involved with the screenplay as the film has not been hollywidised and stays almost entirely true to the book throughout.


The real strength of the film lies in the fact that Katniss takes us on her adventure without ever saying very much.  It's almost as if we are out hunting with her, quietly watching as our prey stalks around us. This is not to say the film is slow or lacks the intensity or brutality of the book.  This is still very much on show and the collective gasp from the audience when Thresh breaks the neck of a fellow tribute was evidence of this.


So often the film adaption of a book can go wrong and spoil our memories of the story.  The Hunger Games is not one of those films!  Staying true to the book and capturing everything that made the book such an amazing read this is one film that you must go and see.  You will be blown away all over again by the story that Suzanne Collins has created. Happy Hunger Games and May the Odds be Ever in your Favour!


Marks out of 10: 9


Still can't make up your mind whether or not to go and see it?  Watch the awesome trailer for The Hunger Games...

John Betjeman: The Biography by Bevis Hillier's

John Betjeman was the Poet Laureate succeeding C Day Lewis in 1972 and continued in this role until his death in 1984. His life spanned most of the 20th Century but he was in no way a modernist although he was a close acquaintance of W H Auden, T S Eliot and Philip Larkin to whose poetry, his own was most akin. He was a poet of place who captured quintessentially English landscapes, buildings, customs and atmospheres. His poetry looked back to the 19th Century and poets such as Tennyson in its structure and use of rhyme and to earlier 18th Century poets such as Gray and Cowper in its evocation of the rural idyll. As a person Betjeman was an eccentric and much of this book is very funny and endearing in its recounting of this extraordinary personality who, through the medium of television, (he was an early exponent) made poetry popular and something to which the ordinary man and woman in the street would readily turn.

Betjeman’s father was an upholsterer but his son, John Betjeman, mixed with royalty, was a friend of Princess Margaret and deserted his own wife, whom he never divorced, for Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, Princess Margaret’s Lady in Waiting. The book is full of surprises, as Betjeman was, and is full of scandal, as parts of his life were scandalous, even by today’s standards. He was outspoken, outrageous, conservative, sensitive, hedonistic, sensual, melancholic, a brilliant mimic and he mixed with some of the great literary and political figures of the 20th Century. The book is worth reading as much for an insight into the social history of that era as for the poetry of Betjeman himself. Oh and he loved churches – and visited hundreds of them as part of his crusade as a conservationist. Indeed in this respect he was very modern and was largely responsible for our thinking that we should preserve and cherish our environment and the beauty which it contains. If you love culture, and people, you’ll love this book.

This review is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.

Keep Calm and Carry On

The Keep Calm and Carry On poster is one of the most iconic of the 21st Century.  But do you know the History behind the poster?  Watch this enchanting video and found out the fascinating history behind the poster...

Teresa Flavin - Author Visit

Review from James:

On Tuesday 6th March, Teresa Flavin came to speak to us about her books, The Blackhope Enigma and The Crimson Shard, her novels are about a pair of children who find a labyrinth that leads to a painting, you can then enter that painting by saying the secret word. She gave us a lot of background work on her subjects and presented it in an interesting and exciting manner.

She has a lot of expertise in what she writes about and from her showing us her inspiration, when we read the book, we will be able to relate to the things that are being talked about. She told us about the art that inspired the painting, the buildings that inspired the buildings and the people that inspired the people. It seems like a very colourful book and Theresa has advertised it very well. She engaged us from start to finish and showed us many interesting pictures of paintings, people and optical illusions which amazed us all. On behalf of S2 I would like to thank Theresa for showing us this excellent presentation.

Review from Aaron:

The Blackhope Enigma sounded extremely gripping and entertaining from the extract we were read, and Teresa also explained the novel very well. She also showed and explained to us her inspirations for the series. She also told us the story of how she started writing The Blackhope Enigma.

We were firmly in Teresa’s grip as she read an extract of her book to us. Everyone enjoyed it and we all really found it interesting and informative.

We would like to thank Teresa and all of the teachers for taking their time to organise and run this event.

Thanks to James Witherspoon of 2E and Aaron Semple of 2G for their reviews of the author visit.

James Killgore - Author Visit

Last Friday, James Kilgore came to talk to us for an hour about his new book, Soldiers Game. It is a novel about a football mad boy in the present and his grandfather who was a soldier in the past. James presented an extremely interesting and engaging Powerpoint about the truthful origins about his book, the story of his book, himself and even included some useful tips for our writing. He started off by telling us about himself and his books, this provided a very interesting insight into his world of writing. He then told us about his book and how he wrote it. It was a good book for a talk because it had a great background story to it which was extremely interesting to listen to. After this, he gave us a very interesting talk on the history of the Heart of Midlothian football team and their involvement in the second world war. To finish off, he gave us a few handy tips for our writing as a whole. Overall, it was a highly engaging and interesting talk and I would like to thank James on behalf of the whole of S2.

Thank you to James Witherspoon of 2E for his review of the visit.  if you would like to read a review of the book Soldiers Game have a look here.

Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography by Chris Waters

Fred Trueman, Fiery Fred as he was known, was the self-proclaimed best fast bowler ever. He was my schoolboy cricketing hero and his achievements were legendary. He was an outspoken rebel who spent much of his career as a cricketer, when not fast bowling, falling out with authority, or claiming that, on account of his working class background, he was unjustly treated. Yet this book is not about cricket. It is rather about character – how the son of a miner, one of seven children from South Yorkshire, regarded even within the mining community with disdain, as the underclass, through a combination of talent and singlemindedness, got to the top of his profession, gained global fame and, somehow, remained a household name until his death in 2006. But the book is also the story of a very human being, who was a mass of contradictions, flaws, virtues, strengths and weaknesses which allow us to identify with him. It’s very funny too. Trueman could talk and joke for England as well as play cricket for them. If you are interested in sport or in people, you’ll enjoy this book.

This review is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.

A copy of this book is available in the SMC Library.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

As a boy, I read “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque, the First World War seen from the German perspective and “Goodbye to all that”, the autobiography of the poet Robert Graves, who fought through the horrors of the Great War. Neither of these, however, compares with the intense immediacy of “Birdsong” by a man for whom the First World War is as much distant history as it is for me. Perhaps, on this account, he is able to write in graphic, vivid detail of the pre-war love experience of Stephen Wraysford, a young industrialist on secondment in Amiens, and then of his descent into the inferno which was the Somme and later Passchendaele. Some of the scenes describing the perilous work of the tunnellers under enemy lines came as close as what Dante, Shakespeare or Milton might have imagined Hell itself to be.

If you like history and love humanity, you must read this book.

This review is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.

Copies of this book are available in the SMC Library.

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

This was the best book I read in 2011. Eminently readable it tells the story of a remarkable man, adopted at birth, rebellious at every stage of his childhood and youth, caught up in the hippy revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, enchanted by the spiritual values of Zen Buddhism which influenced products like the iPod, iPad and Apple Mac in his insistence on their perfect cornerless shapes and simplicity. Steve Jobs was irrational, brutal, abusive and a genius, a man who believed at the junction of the sciences and arts lays designers whose job it was to translate the most complex, scientific and technological concepts into easy-to-use, beautiful products available to the public. Thanks to him we hve everything from instant booksto instant music. Read this book, you won't be disappointed. This man changed the way we live.

This review is by Mr Gray, Principal at SMC.

Copies of this book are available in the SMC Library.

SMC Book Festival 2012

ESM BOOK FESTIVAL Programme 2012

Book Review of Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

I recommend this book which simply, delicately and painfully tells the story of the consequences if a man's involvement in a freak accident in which a crashed, hot air balloon blows away with a child inside. The book combines the tensions of an eerily sinister thriller with the paranoia of a man who falls prey to the obsessions of a religious maniac who confuses God's love with his own fantasies. In parallel there are two genuinely durable love stories, that of the narrator's relationship with his partner, and that of the widow and her heroic husband who dies in the ballooning accident. This book asks questions about sanity, conscience and moral responsibility.

This review is by Mr Gray,
Principal at SMC

If you would like to borrow this book we have some copies in the library.