My Year 8 English Experience

While reading our new class novel ‘The Dons’, I have learnt a bit about different people’s characters, and have had a deeper look into people’s behaviour. One example I would like to talk about is a lady in the story called Zia Rita.

The first thing I will tell you before I start talking about Zia Rita’s character is the meaning of this word. ‘Zia’ is Italian for ‘Aunt’. I know that I went through the whole book without knowing the real meaning for this word, and I always thought it was just part of her name. ‘Nonno’ is also from the Italian, which means ‘Grandfather’. However, in this book we start to think of this word as Zia Rita’s father’s name.

Well with Zia Rita, the first thing I will say that will describe this lady is that she is like a book with a piggy bank on its cover. If you’re wondering why I have linked a human character to a book’s cover, then I’m just about to explain it all to you right now. This is where the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes in. Throughout the book, we get the impression that Rita is just a selfish lady who doesn’t care about her own father. It is her behaviour that makes us think that she’s just a selfish person, which is like the cover of a book. Have you ever looked at the front cover of a book and gone, “Gee, that book looks so boring!” because of the cover? However, if you read it, you may find that the book itself isn’t what it seemed like when you looked at the cover. This is exactly the same as Zia Rita! People make their mind up on what she’s like based on her actions (which is like judging a book by it’s front cover) instead of looking deeper into her inside feelings about the whole issue with Nonno. The piggy bank on the cover represents the selfishness that people see in Zia Rita, but it’s a completely different story when you look into the situation more closely.

So what is Zia Rita really like inside? Inside, Zia Rita was afraid of what might happen to her father (Nonno). She couldn’t cope with all the changes that were happening to her own father. It was this same person that used to laugh and talk to Rita when she was a child. It was this same person who would play the piano accordion and dance around the garage… the only thing that had changed was that Nonno was getting old. He was losing his mind, and Rita had no control over what was happening to him. She was confused, and afraid of what was going on. What was happening to her father that she always loved to socialise with?

So what was all the selfishness about? Why didn’t she show how she really felt about Nonno? Zia Rita loved Nonno so much that she didn’t want to face what was happening to him. She was so afraid of what was happening to him that she tried to escape the situation by avoiding the fact that he was losing his mind. She seemed like a selfish lady throughout most of the story because she continuously refused to look after Nonno, but it wasn’t Nonno who she was refusing to face; it was what was happening to him that she couldn’t understand.

But why didn’t Zia Rita talk to people about how she felt? Well I believe that this is an indication that gives a bit more information about her personality to the readers. Because she would not talk to anyone about her fear, she  striked me as quite a hollow person. The kind of person who cannot understand that it’s better to talk to others about how she feels instead of keeping it all inside her. This may be a problem of trust, or she may only be scared of what people would think of her.

However, there was one part of the book where Zia Rita did actually mention how she missed the old times she had with Nonno. The sound of Nonno playing his piano accordion brought back memories of her childhood. All Rita’s worries was swepted away by the music, allowing her to reveal how she missed the good times she had with Nonno.

Zia is dancing in the silence, her arms out over her head, her head to one side. It doesn’t take long for Nonno to start playing, and when he does Zia Rita grabs me by both hands and we whirl around her garage the way we did at family get-togethers before Dad died… I see Nonno hunched over his piano accordion. His head is rocking from side to side and his eyes are closed. There is a grin on his face and his right foot is tapping time. “Gee, I miss this stuff!” Zia cries as we lock arms and twirl and stomp our feet.

Zia Rita’s way of trying to cope with the huge change in Nonno was to try and block him out of her mind. She wanted to pretend that she had nothing to do with him anymore, instead of face that Nonno was not what he used to be. This approach is what makes her seem like a selfish person in the story, however, by reading this book, I have learnt to understand people’s actions and learn what causes them.

Her final decision to move away so she could escape the stress of Nonno was a selfish decision that proved how weak she was when it came to accepting reality. However, this was caused because of her inside fear of what is going to happen to Nonno. Therefore, I don’t consider Zia Rita as simply a selfish person, but only selfish on the outside because of her lack of understanding and dealing with the situation.

This rounds me off to the cover of the book again where it has some small writing. I think that the whole issue of Zia Rita running away from her family to live in Sydney is one reason for this little sentence on the cover, as well as some other issues in the story. Really, when you think about, it all winds up to this very sentence on the cover of the book. This is the sentence that I never really understood until I finished reading the book. When I started talking about the family issues that have been faced in this book, everything begun to link up with this little sentence.

You can never escape family

In English, we have received another class novel. This book is called ‘The Dons’, and I have really enjoyed reading this fantastic book!

When I read books, I usually pick up a main topic in them. After reading The Dons, I felt a post forming in my head. This is the very post that I have been looking forward to writing. This post is all about memories.

If there was a house fire, and you got the chance to save a few items, what would they be? This is the question that formed in my head after reading The Dons. I decided to go around and ask a few people this question, feeling very curious about what their answers would be. I have listed their responses below, which I’m sure you’d like to read.

Mum- I would choose my oboe (a woodwind musical instrument) and photographs.

Grace- I would save my pet dog, and some objects that mean something to me like photos.

Mrs McLeay- I would save my computer and the baby photos of my kids.

You may have noticed that all three people have mentioned that photographs would be one of their choices to save. But why photos? Lets find out.

Why were photographs one of your choices?

Mum- You can never replace them.

Grace- They show what happened in the past and you can’t buy them.

Mrs McLeay- That time of my life can never be replaced. It’s a way of talking to my children about what life was like for us then- reminding them of things they’ve forgotten.

If you think about all the things you use a lot in your house, or items that cost a lot to buy, you would probably feel that it is a big loss that you no longer own them anymore. However, the biggest loss would be the things that you cannot buy/replace. These things include:

Your pets- Pets are amazing things. When you first meet your pet, you are unaware of all the mysteries within that very animal. You hardly know the pet, however you are willing to take it back to your home and care for it. You pet gives back what you have given to it, making every second you spend with it something to remember it by. Each time you play with it, look after it, and touch it, you grow closer and closer to that animal. The very same thing happens to it as well, and very quickly the bond becomes so strong that you both need each other. The fact that your best friend has perished in a fire would devastate you so much. Every pet is individual and no other pet that could replace it. Therefore, if you could, you would save your friend that you became attached to so that you can both continue your lives together and share the many pleasures of friendship together.

These three people also mentioned that they would save items that are quite valuable to them. These items include things such as computers. Your computer is like a personal information keeper. Data for work, programs that are quite expensive and other things you have spent ages working on for a reason would all be lost, causing you to become very frustrated. The computer itself would also be a loss as computers can do so many things. Access to the internet, music, blogs and videos can all be found on a computer. I can tell you now, I would be very angry if learnerblogs just cut out on me right now and I lost the whole of this post I have been writing.

Another thing that these people mentioned was special items. Most people have an item which is very important to them, like Grace mentioned above. My mum would choose to save her oboe as it is a special item to her. Besides the value and the use, this item means a lot to her. Her passion for music is expressed through her oboe, and by playing this special instrument, it also brings back memories. The whole side of her family’s all fond of their music, and losing this item would be quite a loss to her. In The Dons, one of the characters called Nonno (Paul’s grandfather), had a collection of aftershave bottles. These were his special items, and each bottle brought back memories of his past. When the bottles were smashed, the loss was so bad because those bottles had become a part of him.

This leads me to the final thing that all these people mentioned. Photos. Experiences, childhood, and other things that have happened in the past cannot be replaced. What you have experienced in the past is in your head. You can’t physically touch them, and you can never turn the clock back to do the whole thing again. What’s in the past, is in the past, but you can still remember many of these experiences in your head. However, not all of these experiences can be remembered this easily. This is where photos come in. Believe it or not, photos are a link to the past. They help bring back all those memories that are fading inside your head. Do you ever look back at your baby photos and you suddenly remember all those memories of when you were little? Without photos, your childhood may seems like a blur.

I remember looking back at all the photos of my early life. The photos of me up a tree, our old car, my pram with the big yellow balloon attached to it… And then I remember looking at the photos and going, “Is that me?” Those memories were fading, and without the photos, I may never have found out what life was like for me back then. The huge 1 year old birthday cake, the bucket of wooden blocks, the people I still know now, but younger… Those photos brought back so many memories of being a baby, and without them, my childhood would just be a blur. All the good times I had need to last, and with the help of photos, I can look back at them even when I’ve finished school and all of the memories will flood back into my head again. This is exactly what Mrs McLeay was talking about above, and this is the reason that photos would definitely be one of my choices to save as well.

Feel free to explain what you would save if there was a house fire through a comment, as I’m curious to see what other people would choose. Also, if you get the chance to, pick up a copy of The Dons book and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

I’ve just finished reading a great book called “Girl Underground” by Morris Gleitzman. I’ve read quite a lot of his other books and I really enjoy them. I’ve been reading his books that are on the “Premier Reading Challenge” list, hoping that I have a chance of compleating the challenge.

This book has a some strong, clear messages. One of the messages I picked up from reading the book is, “No matter what other people think, stand up for what you believe in!”

This book focuses on an important issue that’s still part of our country today. My English class have been talking a lot about this issue lately. Refugees in detention centres. In the story, Bridget and Menzies are determined to rescue Jamal and Bibi from the detention centre. Bridget’s family history involves some crime, and even a family member being locked up behind bars for stealing. Can Bridget and Menzies save two innosent children, Jamal and Bibi from a desert detention centre, or will they end up behind bars too? I really like it how it says on the back cover of this book, “Sometimes, to help a friend, you have to dig deep.”

The story teaches you about what it’s like for refugees inside the detention centres through the letters that Jamal and Bibi send Menzies. I’ve give you a sneak peak at some of the letters Jamal and Bibi wrote.

“The Australian government say we are queue jumpers, but it’s not true. In Afghanistan everyone made queues except the people who were shot. In this detention centre we also queue. For soap, for food, for water. People with headaches have to queue for pills. But we don’t complain because if we do the guards shout at us and that’s not good for the people with headaches.”

“At home I saw people who hurt children and they weren’t sad.
They put their arms in the air like a winning team.
I think there are people like this in Australia too. I am sad
because I thought Australia was a kind place.
You are kind Menzies.
You give me wings.
I wish they were real.”

After reading this book I feel more determined for refugees to be let out of those detention centres. I want them to be set free! Like it said in this book, they haven’t done anything wrong! They traveled all the way to Australia, and then they are locked away in a detention centre.

When you were born, you didn’t have the choice of what colour hair you got, or what gender you were. It’s exactly the same for refugees. They didn’t have the choice of what country they were born in. And when they manage to get out of their terrible conditioned country, they get locked up in one of these detention centres, which is worse than a jail! In this book I read that people in detention centres are treated worse that criminals in jails! They just happened to be born in a country with terrible conditions! I don’t blame them for wanting to get out; their life is at risk everyday! Think of it this way. Just say you were born in a city, where there’s noisy traffic and polution. You didn’t like this, so you move to the country side where there’s fresh air and lots of bush. THEN, you get locked up in a place, where your treated like your some kind of criminal, just for moving away to a place with better living conditions! This is what it’s like for refugees. But they have to get out of their country because their lives are at risk! Worse that just living in the city huh?

So this is why I believe that it’s not right for people to be locked up in a detention centre. I learnt a lot about what it’s like inside a detention centre by reading this book. I found out that the refugees are identified by numbers, instead of their names. That they never know when they will be let out. A character in this book said that the only think that keeps him going in jail is knowing when he’ll be out of the place. The difference between refugee centres and refugee’s original countries, such as Sierra Leone, is that their life lives aren’t at risk of being killed in the detention centres like they are in their own country. But it’s probably nearly just as bad having to live a miserable life, locked up in a place (like being locked up in a cadge). Why can’t they be let out? Is it because then more people from these bad countries will want to get into Australia? (like mentioned in the book). This question, “Should refugees be locked up in a detention centre or be allowd to live in Australia” is a question that hasn’t got an easy answer. But it’s not fair to lock someone up and treat them so badly like what they’re doing in detention centres! I bet you would have a very straight answer to this question if you were a refugee. I’ve put myself in Jamal and Bibi’s shoes (two children stuck in a refugee centre in this story). I see the fences of the detention centres as separaters, separating the cadge (refugee centre) from freedom in Australia. I would LOVE to see that fence knocked down, and see the happy faces on the refugees as they’re set free! As the door to the cadge has opened and the refugees have access to freedom, like us! So they can enjoy the rest of their lives happily, and are open to do much more things! Can you imagine us being locked up in a detention centre now? There’s one word that every refugee wishes for. Just one word. And that’s freedom. To live safely, and happily in a country of peace.

The government has the power to grant their wish. Menzies father is a politition in this story. I’m not sure what he really wants, but he says that he can’t allow the refugees to leave the refugee centre. He says he’s just one voice. Menzies then gets very angry and begins to yell at his father. “You can help them if you want to,” he shouts accusingly. “You’re a minister. You’re important. All you care about is staying elected.”

Part of this is true! The government has the most rights! They can do something about this if a whole group of them get together. But the very person who’s guaranteed to make a difference is the federal leader of our country. He’s guaranteed to make a difference to those poor people in the detention centre… if he tried. But the thing is, he doesn’t want to. I bet it would be a compleatly different story if he was the one in the detention centre. It’s kind to let them stay in Australia instead of forcing them back to their own country where their life will be at risk everyday, but locking them up in a detention centre is just making their life un-happy!

If I could bowl down that fence surrounding the detention centres I would. I’m glad that the cake stall my English class held raised to much money, and I’m now certain that it should go towards making the condition in detention centres better. If the federal government leader won’t let the refugees out of those detention centres, then I will try and make the dentention centres better! My english class have raised money that I’m sure will help.

This story faces important issues and I’m glad I took the time to read it. I really enjoyed reading it and it’s taught me a lot more about refugees and detention centres.

Well I have now finished reading Goodnight Mister Tom. Although some parts of the book were slow, I really enjoyed reading it. It’s very well written, and towards the end of the book it gets really sad. I put myself in Will’s shoes and imagined how he must have felt. It’s depressing how he gets beaten by his mother and locked up in a cupboard. It’s very sad that terrible wars such as World War 1 and 2 claimed so many innocent lives. This is shown in the book, when the war killed many lives, including one of Will’s good friends. I felt my eyes water when I read this part.

Mister Tom proves to be the perfect father for Will. He’s a kind, soft-hearted man, and he and Will grow to love and trust each other in the story. The story’s very emotional, with some parts being very happy and other parts very sad. I’m really glad that I’ve read this book because it was a great experience and taught me a lot about the World Wars. They were very tragic and this story shows exactly what happened during the wars.

There are many secrets to find out by reading this book. Why is Will afraid of dogs? Why has he never had any friends before he met Mister Tom? I recommend this book to anyone willing to read a long, emotional story about a young boy with a terrible past. This lovely story, set during World War 2, will touch anyone.

My class have just started reading a novel called “Goodnight Mister Tom”. Every student in the class got a book to read. The story is set around about 1938-1940, so they didn’t have many of the appliances that we have today. They didn’t have any televisions and other things that are normal or every-day appliances that we use today. 

The first chapter was about a timid boy called Willie who had been sent away to the country side, which was a safer place, by his mother because of the war. His mother had made Willie be near a church, so this is how Willie ended up being looked after by Tom Oakes. Tom’s wife and baby had died, and ever since, Tom has kept to himself and become quite grumpy towards other residents in the town. However, Tom begins to change when he looks after Willie. Hints in this chaper tell that Willie’s mother wasn’t very nice. She beated him, which caused Willie to have bruises all over his legs and told him that he was a bad boy. In the next chaper it reveals that she also whipped him. She sounds like such a horrible mother! In the beginning of the story, it seems like Tom is just a grumpy old man, who doesn’t want to look after Willie. However, it begins to show that he is very kind and has a soft heart. Willie is very timid, shy and quiet in the beginning, but in the next few chapters, he begins to get a little more comfortable and relaxed, and more trusting with Tom. Some strange things about Willie are revealed in the first few chapters. Firstly, he’s afraid of dogs, cows and horses. And he’s never slept in a bed before. These are strange fears. And then Tom gets sent a letter from Willie’s mother. She sounds terrible! Willie’s past life in London with his mother has shaped Willie’s personality to be scared and nervous. She also told Willie lies such as that he was a bad boy, that only dead people slept in beds and the the colour red is a sinful colour. If I was Willie, I would never want to go back to his mother again!

In class we read some information about children that were evacuated during the war. This was also related to the story “Goodnight Mister Tom”. Afterwards, we answered some questions about it. I’ve listed the questions below (which are some frequently asked questions about this topic) and my answers.

How many children were evacuated during the war? More than one million children!

Where were the evacuees lined up? In the school playground.

How could the children be identified? Identification labels were attached to their clothes.

What did they take on their journey with them? They had a gas mask, a packed lunch and a small suitcase with them.

Why was evacuating good for poor children? The poor children would probably get a better life-style with wealthier people (Just like Willie, because Tom is much wealthier than Willie was back in London). They were better fed and cared for than they were at home. The country side offered fresh air and was full of fun and freedom for them!

Why was it hard for richer children? The richer children had to live a less-wealthier life during this time. They were horrified to find out that they had to use an outside toilet and they were forced to bathe in a tin bath in the kitchen in front of everyone.

What did the local children call the city children? The local children would tease the children evacuated from the city and called them “the invading hoards” or “vackees”.

Why was it hard for parents to visit their children? Because the fathers were away fighting, and the mothers found the journey long and expensive.

When I first saw this book, I was shocked to see how big it was! But I’m really enjoying the book so far, and can’t wait to read more!

Today I finished reading a book called “Second Childhood” by Morris Gleitzman. The story’s about a boy called Mark Smalley. His father was always pressuring him to do well in school and be a somebody, but looking at Mark’s grades, the chances of hom being a somebody was very slim. However, things change when Mark, his bother Daryl, and his friends Pino, Rufus and Annie find out that they had once been a famous people people and animals in history through “reincarnation”! But they soon realise that they were responsible for several of the world’s problems. Inventing cars (Which are part of making pollution) and being a racehorse (Which started people’s gambling habits) were some of the big problems that they had caused. Well Mark, his brother and his friends decided that they had to make up for these things they had done wrong in history. Together, they came up with plans to make up for their terrible mistakes!

I often think about “reincarnation”. Did we have another life in history? Well, it really is a mystery to us right now…

I enjoy reading Morris Gleitzman’s books. I really like it how he adds humour into his stories, to make them funny and more enjoyable. When I picked up the book, I looked at the front cover. An important moral is to never judge a book by it’s cover! Even though there’s a picture of a horse on there, doesn’t mean the story is about a horse. A lot of books have a picture of an event in the book as the front cover. I love it when you reach the part of a book where you can tell straight away that that particular event is the picture illustrated on the front cover of the book. I turn back to look at the front cover when I read this event and think, “That’s the picture on the front cover. So that is what the front cover is all about!”

Recently, I read this great book called Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman. I found the book quite sad, but it also is based on things that happen in real life. When Colin found out that his brother Luke has cancer and was going to die, he decided that he had to do something to cure it. His parents sent him off to England to stay with his aunt, and Colin decided that he was going to visit the queen and make her find the best doctor in the world so that Luke could be cured. Colins’s crazy ideas to save Luke were quite amusing. Then one day, Colin met a man crying in the street outside a cancer hospital in London called Ted. Colin got to know this bloke quite well, and found out that he had a good friend with Cancer who was going to die too. Colin does all he can to try and help his friend get through his troubles. Although Ted was very upset and knew his friend was going to die, he kept on visiting his friend everyday. Towards the end of this story, Colin realised that he needed to be with Luke. He used his determined personality to get back to Luke in Australia, and this is how the story ended.

I really like how Morris Gleitzman used his imagination on the front cover of the book. Each letter of Two Weeks With The Queen was made into an event that happened in the book. For example: The “T” was made with the shoes that Colin got for Christman in the beginning of the story.

There was one part of the story where Ted was giving out chocolate frogs in the Cancer hospital. He did this to clear away people’s Misery Guts. One of Morris Gleitzman’s other books is called Misery Guts. I think this was quite creative of him to do this.