Cranford_Review_June_2011

Book Buzz
Ten year 8 students; Roshini, Janvi, Caisha, Fizza, Mariyum, Amy,
Pariksit, Guled, Abdirahman and Saginthan were chosen as the
LRC’s top year 8 readers to represent Cranford at the reading
conference BookBuzz held at the Paul Robeson Theatre in Hounslow.
BookBuzz is an event to promote reading in schools. Schools were
asked to present a book they thought was good for young adults and
teenagers. This was also a competition to see who could produce the
best presentation. Our group had to choose from the Saga of Darren
Shan, The Hunger Games or Percy Jackson and the Lightening
Thief. In the end we chose The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
We spent time making a presentation with some acting and started
rehearsing our parts.
On 10th February 2011, the big day, everyone was really excited
but also really nervous as we did not know what to expect from the
opposing teams. The presentations were the main thing, but we also
spent the day doing mini activities with people from other schools.
We got to discuss books, do some creative writing and test our
knowledge on books with a little quiz.
In all there were seven schools taking part. Everyone did their
presentations in different styles and after it we rated the group
and asked questions. We were confident about presenting and
everything went fine even though there was a slight technical hitch
as the soundtrack did not work (that may have cost us the first
place). Anyway it was really fun, especially when we had to answer
questions from the audience.
At the end of the event when all schools had completed their
presentations we were told to vote for the best one. The votes were added
and while they were announcing the winner, we were really nervous.
We were extremely
disappointed that we
only came second.
Even though we came
second we were happy
that we came in the
top three.
By Amy, Fizza,
Mariyum & Roshini
(year 8)
Year 9 Trip
to Hounslow
Teen Read
On Friday 18th March
2011 year 9 students went
to Paul Robeson Theatre in
Hounslow. Hounslow Teen
Read is a scheme where
students all over the borough
read newly published books
shortlisted by the librarians and
then vote for their favourite.
At the same time an author
is invited to announce the
winning title and to give a
talk to the students. We had
the chance to meet Rachel
Ward. She has written the
book “Numbers”, which is
now a trilogy. The first book
is about a girl who can tell
your death date by looking
into your eyes. Rachel told
us about what books she liked
and what you have to do to be
published. Overall it was a good
experience and I enjoyed myself.
By Gugandeep Banga
(year 9)
Trip
to meet
María
Guadalupe
Harris
I think the trip to see and meet Rachel
Ward was very fascinating. Rachel Ward
talked about a lot of things; how she got
her ideas and why she started writing.
We had the chance to ask questions and
talk to her while she was signing books.
She did tell us that her most recent book
“Numbers 3” is going to be released
around June. Rachel also told us about
her book becoming into a film, however,
she’s not 100% sure they will produce
it. Even if someone buys the rights to
a film, there is no guarantee it will be
released. Overall, I think that the trip
was exciting and fun and I definitely
think that we should arrange more trips
like this.
By Karanveeer Kang
(year 9)
In February I was fortunate to meet the author Maria
Guadalupe (M.G). She talked about herself and her
Mexican roots. She then went on to talk about her
first book that is called “Invisible City”. This book’s
main character is a boy called Joshua who finds out
that his father has died in a plane crash. But he does
not believe it as his mum told him that there was no
head and the body was burnt. He comes across a UFO
sighting at the same spot as the plane crash. This
makes Joshua believe someone is hiding the truth
about his dad. Is his father dead or alive? You will
have to read the book to find out!
Once you have finished the first book you can continue
reading this very popular series. Right now Maria
is busy writing book number 5 and book number 4
called “The Dark Parallel” which came out in April
2011.
Faheem Uddun year 7 had this to say; “ I felt that the
trip to meet M. G Harris was inspiring ”
Carlos Donnelly year 7 described his experience like
this; “ I enjoyed meeting and listening to M.G.Harris.
I enjoyed the trip because it was nice to
meet the author and we had lots of fun
on our way there. The author’s talk was
interesting and l liked it when the author
signed the books and post cards for us.
By Ajmeer Monir
(year 9)
The trip to see the author Rachel Ward was amazing because it gave me
a chance to see what type of job a writer does. Rachel Ward has been an
inspiration to me because it makes me think about becoming a writer.
She talked about how she got rejected a lot of times but she did not
give up and she kept on writing for herself (pleasure writing).The way
that she describes the characters in her books is as if they were real life
characters. I am now reading her book and
I hope it will be worth it I’m sure it will be.
By Yasmin Mohamed
(year 9)
It was the one of the nicest trip that I have
never been to. I got really interested in
Rachel Ward’s books and I liked her talk
as well.
By Georgia Nahar
(year 9)
She talked about her ideas and how she travels to
different countries, she showed us her pictures. Her
books seem really interesting and so far the first one
is really good.
All the students had a lovely time and would not forget
this lovely experience.
By Rimsha Amjad (year 7)