Ms Ware says…

After spending some time working on a Native American reservation in South Dakota when I was 19, I became really into modern fiction written by Native writers.  Sherman Alexie is one of my favourites as he tackles really difficult and sometimes tragic issues with great humour.  This is his first book aimed at children rather than adults.   It should make you laugh and cry!

It’s about a normal 13-year-old boy, who has all the interests and problems of 13-year-old boys everywhere, except that he’s also from a tough background on an Indian reservation and his family have decided that sending him to the all-white school 30 miles away will be a good idea.  As you can imagine, this gives him a whole new set of problems.

If you’ve ever wondered what modern life is really like for Native Americans / Indians, rather than what it was like back in ‘Cowboys and Indians’ days, then give this book a read!

Mr Felfeli says…

I like to be teleported  to places I love, and books are often a fantastic medium for  this kind of travel. If the narrative is honest in detail and the fiction believable than I can be lost  in a book for hours. Shantaram achieved this balance superbly. I know India well especially Mumbai where the majority of the book is set. I am familiar with the cafes , bars,  trains and taxis, the slums and even aspects of the underworld that book makes much reference to.  The honest detail and  realistic fiction make teleportation almost possible.

Ms Freeman says…

I love ‘I am David’ by Ann Holm. It tells the story of a young boy who, with the help of a prison guard, escapes from a concentration camp in Eastern Europe in Bulgaria, and journeys to Denmark. Along the way he meets interesting people and has many adventures. It gives a real insight into World War two, beyond the facts that we hear so much about, and is a real page-turner.

Mr Baker says…

I loved this story as a child because of the struggle between good and evil, and the depiction of a world where thinking and understanding could lead to a kind of power.  It’s about a child who has magical power and trains to become a wizard.  He is so gifted that he is able to unleash an evil spirit by accident, during an argument with other student wizards.  He then has to repair this damaging act, and during this saga meets dragons, fights with them, and later befriends them.  There is an element of Zen Buddhism in the background in this book, which interested me as a child.  The story is set in a wonderful world of islands (“The Archipelago”) with great names like Havnor, Jessage, and Karegto-At.

Ms Malik says…

I took this to Hawaii last summer and honestly I could not put it down much to the headache of my partner- It gripped me from beginning to end and I ravished it in 3 days!  It’s about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s.  The Telegraph review of the novel says:

“Kathryn Stockett’s first novel is narrated by three women: Aibileen and Minny are both black maids working for ladies from the cream of white society, while Miss Skeeter is the 23-year-old daughter of one of those pillars of the community. Aibileen has raised 17 white children, but her own son has been recently killed in an accident at a lumber yard; Minny is forever losing jobs because she talks back to her employers; and Miss Skeeter, so called because she looked like a mosquito when she was born, is ungainly and unmarried and seemingly the only one of her class able to see there might be something unjust about their society. While Aibileen and Minny are just trying to get by, working all the hours God sends them and then, in the case of Minny, putting up with a drunk, wife-beating husband, Skeeter is in the enviable position of being able to try to make something of her life. She wants to be a writer.”

Ms Hutchinson says…

I loved this book. I did not want it to end and cried even before it did.

Mr Short says…

I’ve always been fascinated by the stories of different immigrants and how they have attempted to integrate themselves into English life – the vast majority of people living in London can probably trace their ancestry back to another country. This was certainly true of my own family who arrived here from Germany in the last century. This book focuses on a family who have arrived in Britain from Iran, and charts their encounters in what is a very different society. The book title suggest this is a purely humorous account, but it also deals with more serious themes when the terror unleashed by the new ruler of Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini, begins to directly affect the author’s family.

Ms Hutchinson says…

I loved this book, I loved reading it to my children, I loved the illustrations, I loved Dogger.

Ms O’Riordan says…

I have recently read these books to my kids and they have loved every minute of them. The books appealed because they were already so familiar with Roald Dahl’s fiction, that they were genuinely interested in him and his life experiences. Of course, the books are wonderfully crafted and very engaging but they also draw the reader into a past world…..one where anaesthetics did not exist, driving tests were not necessary and schools were much harder places.

Those of you in Years 8 to 13 may remember this blog, which was set up during last year’s Book Week.  This year, we’ve renamed it Screen Reads Week, and the focus is all on books that have been made into films (and vice versa, though there aren’t many examples of the process happening the other way around).

On this post, please comment on your opinions of books and films.  What’s your favourite book to film, or film to book?  Which do you usually like better, the book or the film?  Why? 

Use the categories on the left to find books in the genres you most enjoy.  You can also go to the categories for Easier Reads and Harder Reads to find books that suit your reading ability.  Click on the Screen Reads category to see all the books that have been made into films.  You can post comments about any of the books you have read , or any of the films you have seen, at the bottom of each review.   Your comments won’t appear immediately, as they need to be moderated by a teacher first - but keep checking back and you’ll see them!  No rude or silly comments please – they won’t be published and they waste our time.

Older students (years 11 to 13) may find this article interesting – it’s from the Guardian and discusses whether an adaptation (of anything, but particularly books to films) can ever be better than the original.

There are screenings of films based on books in the Study Centre every lunchtime this week – see posters around school for details (you must get a free ticket in advance from Ms Constantinou).  There is also a Screen Reads quiz, with a prize of a £20 Amazon voucher and a prize draw, with the prize of a £10 Amazon voucher.  Plus you will be able to vote during the week for your favourite book to film.

Enjoy the week and get involved!