Reading your way to language (part 3)

The third novel that I am going to review here is "Step By Wicked Step" by Anne Fine.

This novel is designated for form five students who are studying in Selangor,Kuala Lumpur,Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca. This novel is quiet unique because it follows the stories of different persona. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to five different characters that do not seem to have connection with each other. Claudia, Pixie, Robbo, Ralph and Colin are five students from Mordanger School. When they are staying in a "haunted" house, they found a secret passage that leads them to an old diary written by a person named Richard Clayton Harwick. They read the diary and suddenly realized how close their situation is with Richard's. Each of the school children began to tell their life story and how similar their experience is. This is where the novel developed into five different chapters with different stories for each of the children. What is the fate that had befallen to Richard? In what way are the children similar to Richard? All of these and more are available in the novel.

This novel is quite unique because it has nesting stories. The stories are told inside a story. Readers of this novel could at least relate to at least some part of the story. Apart from that, some of the stories by the children do not have any real resolution. This allows the reader to develop their own hypothesis on what would happen in the end. It also allows the readers to realize that a life story may not always have a good ending, but that does not mean we cannot cherish it. All in all, this is an interesting novel that contains several short stories weaven through simple plot. For those who are interested in the ideas behind this novel, you can view the note here.

Well, that's all. See you again in another post.

Reading your way to language (part 2)

Welcome back. Now, for the second part of this review, I am going to talk about the second novel in form five literature syllabus which is "Catch Us if You Can" by Catherine MacPhail.

This novel is dedicated to form five students who are studying in Perlis,Kelantan,Kedah, Penang and Perak. In this novel, the author tells the story of two relatives, a grandfather (granda) and his grandson (Rory). After the event where Rory's father left both them, all they have in this world is just each other. Rory always looks after his grandfather even if he has to sacrifice things that he like such as evening football with his friends.This harmonious way of living changed one day when the absent-minded granda accidentally set their flat on fire. A concern social-worker tells Rory that he is too young to look after his grandfather. He arranged so that Rory go to a children's home and granda go to an old folk shelter. Rory and granda diagree with the decision but when their pleas are ignored, they decided to run away from that place. On their trail, they encountered a lot of unexpected friendship, and a share of betrayal. With their faces displayed on the national television, their journey becomes more difficult by the minute. Will they be able to escape to being separated? Will they finally found their place of redemption? Will they find a happy ending? All this and more in the novel.

In this short novel, a lot human qualities are being portrayed. Hope, loyalty, belongingness, betrayal, and trust is among the qualities that are put forth in this beautifully written novel. Despite the fact that the background of this story is different from the target readers (Malaysian form five students), the themes that are present in this novel is fairly universal and I believe that the students can easily relate themselves with the themes. For those who have finished reading the novel or those who wants to know the gist of the story, you can view the notes for the novel here.

Reading your way to language

This is a review on the new novels for form five students in the literature component of Malaysian school system. I will begin with the novel "The Curse" by Lee Su Ann.

This novel is designated for form five students who are studying at Pahang, Johor, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan. This novel tells a story about a girl, named Azreen, who took a leave from her study in United Kingdom in order to visit her family back in the isle of Langkawi. However, unexplainable things started to happen when she arrived there. It all started with the shocking news about the death of her sister, Madhuri. As Azreen tries to solve the mystery of her sister's death, she faced a lot of challenges and also hindrance from the villagers. Will she be able to solve the mystery? Is there really a curse? Find out more by reading the book.

In my opinion, this novel is fairly easy and simple to understand. The language that the author use is not difficult. The setting of the story which is in Malaysia is also another 'plus' factor for this novel. The students can easily picture the scenery because they already have background knowledge on how a typical village looks like even if they never actually been to Langkawi before. Despite the fact that this novel is about mysteries and crime solving, there are a lot of moral values that can be gained from it. For those who have read the novel, or just want to know the gist of the story, you can read the notes about the story here.

That's all for now, until we meet again in another post.

Aiming for the top

In this lesson, we are going to explore one of the new elements of Malaysian KBSM literary items which is Graphic Novels. There are three different novels selected by the Ministry of Education and each of them is assigned as a reading material in different state according to their region.

1. Journey to The Center of The Earth

2.  Boscombe Valley Mystery

3.  Black Beauty

Based on my own experience, the language that is presented and used in these graphic novels are relatively easy. If the students come from an area in which English is spoken/used regularly, they will have no difficulties in learning and using this literary item. On the other hand, if the students come from an area where English is deemed difficult and hard-to-learn, the element of comic that is being used in this item can attract their interest in learning the language.

When you are reading these graphic novels, always keep in mind that the target group for this literary item is actually form one students. Therefore, if you are a form one student, I wish you all the best and hope you can enjoy one of these novels. If on the other you are not a form one students, you can still have a wonderful time reading these works and at the same time you can help your younger siblings and also school mates in understanding the works better. Together we stand.