The Chronicles of Narnia (book review)

C.S.Lewis wrote a lot of books. Between 1949 and 1954 he wrote 'The Chronicles of Narnia', the seven-part novel. I have read four parts so far, but I prefer most a part called 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'.

At the start of the Second World War, four kids, Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy are evacuated from London to the house of Professor Kirke. 

One day, they discover a magic wardrobe, which is a passage to Narnia. There, they meet a faun (half-man, half-goat), a family of talking beavers and other interesting creatures.

Edmund meets the White Witch without the others and makes a deal with her to bring the others to her. At the beavers' house the children find out that they are destined to come and help Aslan, the great lion to defeat the Witch.

They are soon hunted by the wolves sent by the Witch. They nearly escape. Little by little, they are on the run to Aslan's camp. On the way there, Father Christmas gives them some weapons. At the camp, they meet Aslan. They all fight against the Witch's troop and win. The Witch then arrives claiming that Edmund is her property, based on the 'Deep Magic' of Narnia. It says that the traitor belongs to her as a lawful prey and that she must kill them on the Stone Table. Aslan negotiates with her and sacrifices himself for Edmund. He is humiliated and stabbed to death, but is resurrected because there is deeper magic than the Witch knows.

Aslan then brings all the available troops for the final battle. They win again and the White Witch is killed. All four kids are pronounced kings and queens of Narnia.

This is my favourite book because it is very easy for reading and is very imaginary.

Pavle Mandić, VIII2, 3 December 2008

Free Time (essay)

I’ve got little free time now, because I do many different things during the day.

My typical school day starts at half past eight, because i go to music school. I arrive home at about eleven o’clock, do my homework and study for my lessons. School starts at one o’clock and I usually have six classes. After school I am very tired.

When I have free time, I listen to music, play the piano, watch TV, read books and go to dance classes. Sometimes I visit my friends. I like music and I play the piano, but I would like to learn to play the guitar, too, so I am planning to go to the guitar classes some time in the future. I often listen to classical music because it relaxes me.

During the summer I have more free time and I spend it with my friends. We usually play badminton or go to the swimming pool. Even when I have little free time, I try to spend it in the best way.

Ivana Vuletić VIII2, December 2008

My spare time is when I finish my schoolwork and sports practice.

When I’m on my own, I enjoy listening to music or watching a good movie. I’ve got hundreds of songs that I like listening to when I’m bored.

However, I prefer spending some time with the people I care about. This often means talking to and spending time with my grandparents or calling my grandmother who lives away.

The rest of my free time, I enjoy spending with my brother and friends. We do different things together, depending on the season. In summer, we go swimming, cycling, we play volleyball and basketball, or other things.

Cycling has always been my favourite outdoor activity. I could spend every summer evening cycling round the town and just watching and seeing new things.

Volleyball is the sport I’m very good at. I also try to swim and play beach volley every summer.

During winter, my friends and I usually play indoors. We surf the Internet, or make pizzas, spaghetti or tortillas.

I really love late spring and summer when the warmth is great and when I have a lot of free time. Then I really enjoy.

Grigorije Grastić VIII2, December 2008

Save the Elephants! (essay)

The African elephant is classified as a member of the order Proboscidea and family Elephantidae. 

It is the largest land mammal. It has a heavy, grey body, four legs and a short tail. Its head is large with two huge ears, two small eyes, a trunk and two teeth called tusks. These animals are herbivore. 

The elephant's eyesight is not very good and it uses its big ears for ventilation and communication. It can weigh up to six tons. The trunk is used for breathing, smelling, drinking water, picking food, breaking branches and fighting. 

Elephants are ready to mate at the age of 15 or 16. The mating pair will often separate from the herd for a few weeks. After 21 to 22 months, one calf is born.

The African elephants live in Africa, south of the Sahara desert, in tropical forests, savannah areas, deserts and river valleys. They are endangered, because poachers kill them for their ivory tusks. 

In the prehistory, there were about 300 species of elephants, and now there are only two! We must do something to save them. We can put them in game parks with cameras around their necks. The law can also help by preventing poaching. We can ban the selling of ivory. 

If we prevent the elephants from becoming extinct, we will save many other animals, too. That is how the nature works!

Dunja Ilić, VIII2, November 2008

Sing a Rainbow (song)

This song has always been fun to sing, and here's how my 7-year-olds performed it in November 2008.

Here are the lyrics to sing along:

Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.

I1

I2

 

I3

Deadlock by Sara Paretsky (book review)

This is a murder mystery and the main hero is Vic I. Warshawski. She is a private investigator in Chicago, USA.

People imagine private detectives to be tired-looking men in raincoats, but Vic is a female. She is tough, beautiful, carries a gun - and goes on asking questions until she gets answers.

When Boom Boom, a former ice-hockey star, dies in an accident by falling under a ship, the city mourns. Nobody suspects murder. But, Boom Boom was Vic's cousin and she was very fond of him. She wants to know how and why the accidents happened, because she does not understand how a strong young man can just slip and fall into the water like that. 

Then she finds Boom Boom's girlfriend going through his personal papers in his apartment. And, Vic did not even know that Boom Boom had a girlfriend!

Soon Vic realises that she is conducting a murder investigation. Somebody else knows it too, because another murder quickly follows, and some rather strange accidents as well. But, Vic has a very personal interest in the case. Nothing is going to stop her!

If you want to know what happens next, if Vic finds a murderer, you have to read the book. 

I enjoyed reading the book because it is a murder mystery and I like mysteries.

Ivana Grubišić, VIII2, 2 November 2008

The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter (book review)

The name of the book that I have recently read is ’The Dead of Jericho.’ It is a murder mystery, written by Colin Dexter, which takes place in the old part of Oxford - Jericho.

When Chief Inspector Morse met a beautiful woman called Anne Scott, he did not know that she would hang herself only six months later.

He hears about the sad news and investigates it, even if it is not his case. He finds out a lot of things – that there were no curtains upstairs, that the front door was unlocked... He interviews most of Anne’s neighbours and the city’s blacksmith. He manages to get the key from Anne’s back door.

One night he gets into the house and notices a lot of details. When he finishes investigating, he goes out of the house, over the garden wall and then he gets caught. He is pushed into a police car. The man who catches him is Constable Walters, the helper of Chief Inspector Bell, in charge of the case. They drive to Morse’s home and exchange information.

The next day, while Morse is on the Summertown Bridge Club talk, given by Charles Richards, the second murder happens in Jericho. It is Anne’s neighbour, George Jackson, who gets killed.

Morse is puzzled, but the Assistant Chief Commissioner wants him in charge of the case. Morse takes the case and exchanges information with Bell once again.

In the next few days, he finds out about a blackmail, some letters and a lot of other details. In the end, he catches the murderers – Charles and Conrad Richards, Anne’s lover and his brother.

The characters of this story are Morse and Lewis, his Sergeant, Charles and Conrad Richards, Charles’s wife Celia, some members of the Bridge Club, the Murdoch family...

The main character is Chief Inspector Morse. He is intelligent, but he has three flaws: beer, Mozart and women. He is very much like an ordinary person, not like an inspector. That is what makes him so special.

I liked this book very much. It is interesting and exciting, but sometimes it can be scary and that is what I like.

Dunja Ilić, VIII2, 26 October 2008

Video games (project)

The following video clip deals with video games. The project was done by the boys in class VIII2, Pavle Mandić, Marko Draško and Marko Mišković, in October 2008. Although there are a lot of spelling mistakes, it's the effort that counts.