HITLER'S DAUGHTER- reading challenge

'Hitler's Daughter' is an informative and interesting book written by Jackie French. It's the sort of book which will keep you up till 1 am just to know the rest of the story, and will afterwards prohibit you from sleeping whilst hundreds of questions and thoughts tumble through your mind. Is it a true story? Did Hitler really have a daughter? How could he be so cruel to her? Just because she (Heidi) was his daughter, did that make her evil aswell? All these questions were also going through Marc's head, 24/7, between the 'matinal' story tellings of his friend Anna. Every morning, she'd tell a part of Heidi's rather tragic story whilst waiting for the school bus. Heidi was completely cut off from the world during WW2, and saw noone but Faulein Gebler (the woman who brought her up), her cook and Duffi -aka Hitler-, when he once every few months (is she was lucky) blessed her with a short visit. The novel follows Heidi's joruney out of Germany and Marc's thoughts on the story at the same time. It is quiet a fascinating novel; however, there were times where I was sat wiahing Jackie French could have skipped a few of the slow and painful passages about the rain, swamps and cows of Australia. A bit boring at times, yet the rest of Heidi's story is completely worth it.

Rating: 6.5/10

Homework (set Tuesday 9th November)

Please learn the following vocabulary list for next lesson. You will be tested on them at the beginning of the lesson (Thursday 11th November). You will be given one mark for the correct definition and one mark for the correct spelling:

‘slink’ = to move in a secret, guilty manner
‘concealed’ = hidden, covered
‘bore’ = gave birth to, (past tense of bear)
‘roam’ = to wander about
‘shed away’ = stripped away
‘hag’ = an ugly old women; a witch
‘knock-kneed’ = knees knocking together in walking.
‘trudge’ = to walk heavily or wearily
‘lime’ = a white, acid-like powder
‘guttering’ = To flow in channels or rivulets
‘Writhing’ = to twist or squirm because of pain
‘cud’ = partially digested food that is returned to the mouth
‘vile’ = sickening or disgusting
‘zest’ = lively enjoyment
‘ardent’ = extremely enthusiastic

Eat Pray Love

This brilliant novel was written by Elizabeth Gilbert about a long travel through Italy, India and ending the year in Indonesia (Bali). She describes how she tastes wonderful food such as spaghetti in Italy with such pure delightfulness with delicious toppings that you can just feel along your tongue. Spending around 3 months there learning the Italian language and how the language is like music floating through your soul. Afterwards she lands herself in India by calming her nerves with praying day in and day out from 3am till 10pm. Sometimes she ends up locked in her room by her room mate and climbing out the windows, landing in some bushes, bleeding endlessly but yet needs to go and pray her heart out. The journey slowly comes to an end in Bali, where she re-meets the man who taught her of her knowledge and the bumps in the road along her life.

I recommend this novel for anyone who likes to take a break and loves food. I really enjoyed this book because it's like a biography and yet is like an adventure. How there is one escape from reality and you can go along the road just exploring yourself and finding who you really are instead of relying on someone else all the time.

Year 9 English Homework:

Choose two of the poetic techniques below (that you have not already done) and write a DETAILED PEE paragraph for each (2 PEE paragraphs in total):

1) “Juliet is the sun.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
2) “Life’s but a walking shadow.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth.)
3) "Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle"
4) "Only the monstrous anger of the guns." (Owen)
5) “Everyday is a winding road…”
6) “Death lies upon her like an untimely frost.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
7) “England … is a fen of stagnant waters.” (Wordsworth.)

DUE: Monday 8th November

Year 9 Instructions - Tuesday 21st September

Is this a dagger I see before me?

Using your detailed annotations for Macbeth's soliloquy at the beginning of Act 2, you are going to complete a detailed analysis for 2 key images. Your analysis will be used for display, so it is important that someone reading your work understands your ideas fully - even if they have never read the play!

Use the following instructions to guide you:

1)Select 2 images that you think are the most powerful in presenting Macbeth's thoughts here.
2)Copy out the quotations in full, using quotations marks - eg."Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"
3)Underneath each quotation, you will complete a detailed analysis. Remember to focus closely on the language used by Shakespeare and think about the effect on the audience.
4)Once you have completed your detailed analysis, prepare each example for display by selecting appropriate images / colours to represent your chosen examples (One example per A4 page - use space wisely)

See below for an example:

"Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"

In this scene, Macbeth is alone on stage before he moves to murder King Duncan. He hallucinates and believes he sees a blood-stained dagger in front of him. Initially, he is terrified and tries to argue the vision away. Shakespeare uses a metaphor, ‘dagger of the mind’, to describe Macbeth's vision. In one sense it represents Macbeth’s hallucination: that he is imagining the murder weapon he will use. It also represents the deadly and dangerous thoughts that he has before killing Duncan...

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This thrilling and exciting novel is about a young indian boy named "Pi" which was short for his real name Piscine, named after a swimming pool.He lived in Pondicherry, he was going out into sea with his family until a huge storm crashed in and he had lost his family. He found shelter before the ship sank on a small yacht with a tiger, zebra who's leg was broken, hyena and a female orange-utan. Days after days they were left stranded on the boat with no food. The tiger had served himself with the zebra by taking out all its guts and enjoying the taste of it while the zebra was still faintly alive. Although after ages and ages all the animals had been eaten and served as the tiger's food, Pi had thought up of smart and tactic plans to lure the tiger onto the other side of the boat. He did this by giving the tiger new fresh fish all the time. This plan had worked out really well. Pi had indeed survived... read the rest to find out more! this book i will definitely rate it as a 10 because there is always an element of intensity and excitement.

Pretty Little Liars-Sara Shepard

Over the summer i read , the novel pretty little liars.The book is about five pretty girls,that all go to the same school, Alison,Emily,Hannah,Spencer,Aria.After their annual sleep overs for celebrating 6th gr.Alison goes missing...When they finally find her, she was murdered and berried in a hole from her back yard.They all had dark secrets,but Allison Knew them all.They started getting mysterious texts From ''A'' ,they all thought it was some kind of joke but if it was then why would ''A'' know EVERY thing...From their family secrets to their Private lives.Only Alison knew these things because, Ali was Ali ,she was manipulative, Beautiful,and mean.Every girl wanted to be her and every guy wanted to date her,she had a perfect life but nothing's really what it seems.''A'' tortured them for a very long time by messing with their heads.These 4 girls have a very un-lucky life they have to live through pain and constant stress.So basically this novel is a teen drama novel. It has many twist and turns Lot's of drama , and you always wanna flip the page because it's that interesting! -Tiffany