Recommended English Books

[The Alternative Story]

Brenda10:

Thank you for your comments.

I was quite impressed when dd showed me a drawing of a parrot picking the cards in one of the pages in this book. It is regarding a parrot astrologer in little India which helps people to predicts the future. This brought back her memories on psychic octopus Paul as well as psychic parrots Mani of their amazing predictions during the world cup. :lol:

Hi Brenda,

I think because the book is set in a local context, it helps the children to
make links with real life situations more easily. I think your dd is also
quite a pictorial kind of person so pictures kind of get her thinking.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Leanne:

Hello TAS,


I have been following your thread and learnt alot from you, esp the kind of story book that my nephew loves to read.

In particular , he likes the story book by michael grant, particularly Gone, and he loves to read stories that has unicorn in it, I dont know why.

Do you have more interesting books to recommend?thanks in advance.

Best Regards,
Leanne

Hi Leanne,

Glad to hear that our threads helps you with your nephew

Unicorns invoke a feeling of magic and an 'anything is possible'
belief. I think children are extremely attracted by that

We would like to recommend a book that throws up many
thought-provoking questions. It is a very good book
to get children to broaden their perspectives and introduce
critical and creative thinking to them. If at a young age,
they are able to extract concepts from a reading material and
link them to issues that the world faces today, it helps
to develop depth and maturity in their thinking.

It is very good to develop these skills as they would need them
in secondary school for their argumentative essays and for GP
in JC. But more than that, these skills will follow them for life.

**However, a note of caution: In order to fully enjoy the book,
the child should be of above average reading ability. It is
more suitable for primary 5 and 6 kids. The child should
also be able to grasp ideas and concepts fast. It is
actually a very good book for GEP students. Nonetheless,
of course, non-GEP kids can also enjoy it.

This book is \"Genesis\" by Bernard Beckett.

The story:

It is set in the future where wars have destroyed much of the world.
A man, Plato, foresaw all these happening, built an empire for
himself on some islands. He sealed it off from the rest of the world
where millions died as plagues decimated the rest of the world.

Plato then builds a republic where children are separated from their
parents and groomed to take on different roles in society. Any
outsiders who come near to their islands are destroyed. Then,
one day, a manm Forde, revolts against this control and they punish
him by putting him with a machine that has artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence has long been seen by the republic as something
that can help them advance but the machines prove unstable and
they need to do further research and they decide to experiment
on Forde by incarcerating him with Art (machine with artificial
intelligence)

The whole story is written from the point of a girl who is sitting for an
entry test into the prestigious academy-the government that controls
the people. In the interview which is the whole book, she argues
for Forde. The writing is gripping and although it may seem a boring
concept to have a book based on a interview, you will find it hard
to put down the book. At the end, there is also an interesting twist.

The main issue the book brings up is 'Machine vs Man'

The powerful thing about this book is that it throws up a lot
of interesting and thought-provoking issues.

Some of the issues (which can be discussed at home to flesh it
out)

1a) What defines the human spirit?

1b) Why is curiosity and hope (optimism) so powerful? Without
it, what would happen to human beings?

1c) What kills hope?

Quote from the book:

\"Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future
with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can
be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it
is fragile. It can be blackened by fear, and superstition. By the
year 2050, when the conflict began, the world had fallen upon
fearful, superstitious times.\"

Discussion point:

- How curiosity brought change to mankind?

Curiosity to explore: man can go beyond the world we know and
explore the world beyond. Man is able to explore the possibility of
living on other planets if our own natural resources die off because
of curiosity which machines do not have.

\"This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind\"
-Neil Armstrong, when he took his first step on the moon.

Issue:

2) What sets the human apart from the machine?
- Humans can think of new ideas while machines have to rely
on existing data

Quote from book:

\"The only thing binding individuals together
is ideas. Ideas mutate and spread; they change their hosts as
much as their hosts change them.\"

Discussion point:

Think of ideas that changed the world.

Idea: That one day there will be equality among the races.
(Martin Luther King)
This idea changed the way the African Americans were treated in
USA.



There are numerous powerful parts of the book that can be used
to spin off a lot of debate and discussion especially on this one main
point: Can Machines one day take the place of Man?

One last quote:

\"You mock me for the shortness of my life span,
but it is this very fear of dying which breathes life into me.
I am the thinker who thinks of though. I am curiosity,
I am reason, I am love and I am hatred. I am indifference.
I am the son of a father, who in turn was a father’s son. I am the
reason my mother laughed and the reason my mother cried.
I am wonder and I am wondrous. Yes, the world may push your
buttons as it passes through your circuitry, But the world
does not pass through me. It lingers. I am in it and it is in me.
I am the means by which the universe has come to know itself.
I am the thing no machine can ever make.
I am meaning.\"


Where to get it: We are bringing it in a few weeks' time. You
can also get them from Amazon.

TAS

[Fongg]

Hi TAS,


Tks for the detailed description of the book, it sounds cheem but good,
do you provide worksheets to go along as I may not be able to come
up with all those discussion pts. :?

[sgkliew]

Hi TAS


What are the types of books you will recommend for a 6 year old boy?
His aunt gave him an Avatar book to read (thin paperpack, not thick book with small words) and he seems to enjoy reading it. What are the types of questions i should ask him to ensure that he knows what the story is about, or rather to get him to tell me more about the storybook that he read.

Thanks!

[jasmineong]

Hi TAS,


Do you have any recommendation for books that can make my kids think, as in that they can read and reflect kind…but not as profound or difficult as Genesis haha I think my kids would not get it…

[The Alternative Story]

Hi parents (who asked about the books and wksheets),


We will come to you soon (by today or tomorrow) about the books
you asked about

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Fongg:

Hi TAS,


Tks for the detailed description of the book, it sounds cheem but good,
do you provide worksheets to go along as I may not be able to come
up with all those discussion pts. :?

Hi Fongg,

Yes we will have a Think Deeper worksheet for the book. The worksheet
provides discussions points that can be used with the book.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

sgkliew:

Hi TAS


What are the types of books you will recommend for a 6 year old boy?
His aunt gave him an Avatar book to read (thin paperpack, not thick book with small words) and he seems to enjoy reading it. What are the types of questions i should ask him to ensure that he knows what the story is about, or rather to get him to tell me more about the storybook that he read.

Thanks!

Hi sgkliew,

Do you mean it is a book based on the movie 'Avatar' or something
else altogether?

What is his reading ability like? For most 6 year olds, they will
like the Usborne Young Reading series or Usborne First Readers
series. Have you heard about them?

Before you ask the questions, you could look through parts
of the book, and ask him 2 main types of questions:

1) Literal

These are just questions to check if he can understand the story
at a basic level.

Eg: 'They all lived in Cauldron Woods, deep in Magic Wood'.
taken from The Three Little Witches by Georgie Adams

Qn: Where did they live?

2) Inferential

Qn: Why do you think they live in Magic Wood?

Possible Ans: They are witches and witches use magic.

This helps him to think deeper and make connections between
2 ideas at a young age.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

jasmineong:

Hi TAS,


Do you have any recommendation for books that can make my kids think, as in that they can read and reflect kind..but not as profound or difficult as Genesis haha I think my kids would not get it..

Hi jasmineong,

'The boy in the striped pajamas' is a good book to get children to think.

We have recommended this book before, this is what we wrote
about the book:

This story is written from the point of Bruno, a 8 year old boy
whose father is a high-ranking German official.
They live in a huge house in Berlin. However later
the whole family moves away to a place called Out-With
(which turns out to be Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz).

His father is one of the main officers running the camp.
Bruno does not know this. He has no friends his age to play with
and is always bored at his new home. He sees the concentration
camp from afar and sees people in 'pajamas'(striped uniforms
that the Jews wore in the concentration camps) inside the
enclosed area and thinks that he can find friends there.

Later on, he explores the woods and comes upon the fence
enclosing the concentration camp and he meets a Jewish boy
his age (Shmuel) on the other side of the fence. They become
friends and later on Bruno helps Shmuel to try to find his father.
(His father had been gassed to death). He puts on a pair of
striped pajamas that Shmuel lends him, digs a hole under the
fence and goes over to the concentration camp. The ending is
very poignant.

Issues to think about:

1) Do you think Jews deserve to be treated in this way?

2) How does racism affect people?

Possible answers: It makes people blind to the individual traits
the a person has. It breeds hatred in a community.

You can share with your child about the consequences of the
Holocaust.

TAS

[pixiedust]

TAS,


These are surely still very cheemmmmm for me ! :?

Anyway, I would like to know if your programmes are for up to P6 only ? Do you run classes for secondary 1 or 2, English/GP/literature ?