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Books

Theme of the Week: Celebrating Authors of November

This week we celebrate authors of the past and present who had birthdays in the month of November. Check them out below.

november authors3

Row 1: (L-R) Adeline Yen Mah, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Leander Kahney, Albert Camus Row 2: (L-R) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, David Nicholls Row 3: (L-R) Roger Lancelyn Green, Jonathan Swift, L. M. Montgomery, Luke Rhinehart Row 4: (L-R) George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Richelle Mead

Albert Camus

(November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960)

Camus was a French Nobel Prize winning author, journalist, and philosopher. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.”

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Mark Twain

(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881) and Tom Sawyer’s sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

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Bram Stoker 

(November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912)

Stoker was an Irish author known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881)

Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky’s literary works explore human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. The Double was made into a film in 2013.

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Luke Rhinehart

(November 15, 1932 – )

George Cockcroft, known by his pen name Luke Rhinehart, is an American writer, most notable as the author of The Dice Man series.

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Richelle Mead

(November 12, 1976 – )

Mead is a bestselling American fantasy author. She is known for the Georgina Kincaid series, Vampire Academy. It was made into a film in 2014.

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Leander Kahney

(November 25, 1965 – )

Kahney is a technology writer and author. He is a former managing editor, and previously a senior reporter, at ‘Wired News’, the online sister publication of ‘Wired’.

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Winston Churchill

(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Churchill was a British politician and Nobel laureate who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and an artist. Churchill is the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since its creation in 1901, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

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Roger Lancelyn Green

(November 2, 1918 – October 8, 1987)

Green was a British biographer who became known primarily for his writings for children, particularly his retellings of the stories of King Arthur, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, and Robin Hood, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

 

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Adeline Yen Mah

(November 30, 1937 – )

Mah is a Chinese-American author and physician. Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter describes her experiences growing up in China during the Second World War.

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Jonathan Swift

(November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745)

Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet and cleric who is remembered for such work as Gulliver’s Travels.

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George Eliot

(November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880)

Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of several novels, including The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861)  and Middlemarch (1871–72), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

 9780141198910.jpg (258×400) 

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Robert Louis Stevenson

(November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894)

Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

  

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David Nicholls

(November 30, 1966 – )

Nicholls is an English novelist and screenwriter. His book, One Day, was turned into a film in 2011.

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Frances Hodgson Burnett

(November 24, 1849 – October 29, 1924)

Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86) and The Secret Garden (1911). Both were made into films.

 

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L. M. Montgomery

(November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942)

Montgomery was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Students

7 Animal Myths and Facts

Students-7animalmyths-giraffe

Animals do some pretty strange things. Giraffes clean their eyes and ears with their tongues. Snakes see through their eyelids. Some snails can hibernate for three years. But other weird animal tales are hogwash. National Geographic Kids finds out how some of these myths started—and why they’re not true.

Myth

Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they’re scared or threatened.

How It Started

It’s an optical illusion! Ostriches are the largest living birds, but their heads are pretty small. “If you see them picking at the ground from a distance, it may look like their heads are buried in the ground,” says Glinda Cunningham of the American Ostrich Association.

Why It’s Not True

Ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand—they wouldn’t be able to breathe! But they do dig holes in the dirt to use as nests for their eggs. Several times a day, a bird puts her head in the hole and turns the eggs. So it really does look like the birds are burying their heads in the sand!

Myth

Opossums hang by their tails.

How It Started

Opossums use their tails to grasp branches as they climb trees. So it’s not surprising that people believe they also hang from branches.

Why It’s Not True

A baby opossum can hang from its tail for a few seconds, but an adult is too heavy. Besides, says Paula Arms of the National Opossum Society, that wouldn’t help them survive. “Why would they just hang around? That skill isn’t useful—there’s no point.”

Myth

Touching a frog or toad will give you warts.

How It Started

Many frogs and toads have bumps on their skin that look like warts. Some people think the bumps are contagious.

Why It’s Not True

“Warts are caused by a human virus, not frogs or toads,” says dermatologist Jerry Litt. But the wartlike bumps behind a toad’s ears can be dangerous. These parotoid glands contain a nasty poison that irritates the mouths of some predators and often the skin of humans. So toads may not cause warts, but they can cause other nasties. It’s best not to handle these critters—warts and all!

Myth

Mother birds will reject their babies if they’ve been touched by humans.

How It Started

Well-meaning humans who find a chick on the ground may want to return the baby bird to the nest. But the bird is probably learning to fly and shouldn’t be disturbed. The tale may have been invented to keep people from handling young birds.

Why It’s Not True

“Most birds have a poorly developed sense of smell,” says Michael Mace, bird curator at San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. “They won’t notice a human scent.” One exception: vultures, who sniff out dead animals for dinner. But you wouldn’t want to mess with a vulture anyway!

Myth

Penguins fall backward when they look up at airplanes.

How It Started

Legend has it that British pilots buzzing around islands off South America saw penguins toppling over like dominoes when the birds looked skyward.

Why It’s Not True

An experiment testing the story found that penguins are perfectly capable of maintaining their footing, even if they’re watching airplanes. “But the reality isn’t funny,” says John Shears, who worked on the survey. “Low-flying aircraft can cause penguins to panic and leave their nests.”

Myth

Bats are blind.

How It Started

Often associated with darkness, witches and black magic, bats have a lot of mythology and are very misunderstood, making them seem like scary creatures of the night. Because of this, people often think bats are blind due to their hunting only at night.

Why It’s Not True

The fact is that all species of bats can see, although their vision is very poor. Instead, they have excellent senses of smell and hearing, and are able to use echo-location and sonar abilities to navigate and hunt at night. Their sonar abilities are so exceptional that they’re often better than military sonar, which is amazing for such small animals.

Myth

Owls are the wisest among birds.

How It Started

Perhaps the earliest known link between owls and wisdom is their association with Athena, as the Greek goddess of wisdom is often depicted holding an owl. With their overly large eyes and the constant serious, almost thoughtful look on their faces, owls give off the impression of wisdom, of being a cut above the rest. From legends, folklore, children’s tales to Hollywood, owls have always been the night watchmen – sometimes sinister, always smart.

Why It’s Not True

Unfortunately owls are actually placed on the lower-end of intelligent birds, with the common crow considered the wisest among birds.

 

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Books

Book of the Week: We Will All Go Down Fighting to the End by Winston Churchill

Nov 20 - Churchill

Wars are not won by evacuations

We will all go down fighting to the end

We can take it!

Westward look, the land is bright”

This collection of speeches from one of the great modern orators includes Churchill’s famous words on the declaration of war with Germany, as well as his rousing call to the British in June 1940 after Dunkirk, and his immortal tribute to the young men fighting in the Battle of Britain.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

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Books

Which Book Would You Read?

To celebrate Francis Hodgson Burnett, we’d like to ask, which book would you read?

secretgardThe Secret Garden

Author: Francis Hodgson Burnett

ISBN: 9780194791298

Though Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote more than forty books, none remains so popular as this miraculous and magical masterpiece. Has any story ever dared to begin by calling its heroine, “the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen” and, just a few sentences later, “as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived?” Mary Lennox is the “little pig,” sent to Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors, to live with her uncle after her parents die of cholera. There she discovers her sickly cousin Colin, who is equally obnoxious and imperious. Both love no one because they have never been loved. They are the book’s spiritual secret gardens, needing only the right kind of care to bloom into lovely children.

Mary also discovers a literal secret garden, hidden behind a locked gate on her uncle’s estate, neglected for the ten years since Colin’s birth and his mother’s death. Together with a local child named Dickon, Mary and Colin transform the garden into a paradise bursting with life and color. Through their newfound mutual love of nature, they nurture each other, until they are brought back to health and happiness.

Price: 8,5 GEL

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little lordLittle Lord Fauntleroy

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

ISBN: 9780194789295

At the age of sixteen Frances Hodgson Burnett moved to Tennessee with her bankrupt family and began writing for American magazines as means to support herself. Over two decades later Burnett published Little Lord Fauntleroy, modeling the character after her son, Vivian. Burnett’s text and Reginald Birch’s original illustrations helped popularize a very romantic style of dress for boys — a velvet suit with a broad lace collar — in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

At a very early age an American boy named Cedric is told that he is the sole heir to a British earldom. So, he leaves New York to take up residence in his ancestral castle, where, after some initial resistance, he is joined by his middle-class mother, ”Dearest”, the widow of the late heir. His grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, intends to teach the boy to become an aristocrat, but Cedric inadvertently teaches his grandfather compassion and social justice, while the artless simplicity and motherly love of Dearest warms his heart.

Price: 7,5 GEL

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Books

Theme of the Week: Frances Hodgson Burnett

francisburnett1

The theme for this week is about Frances Hodgson Burnett, who was an English-American playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.

Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden have had many film adaptations, plays and musicals made from them since publication.

Enjoy the trailer of The Secret Garden film:

And enjoy a clip from the 1936 film version of Little Lord Fauntleroy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRZ_YDGw7Rg

Books

Inspirational Quotes

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Students

What do you know about deserts?

About 20% of the Earth is a desert. Deserts are places that get very little precipitation (rain or snow) each year, and that makes them extremely dry. Deserts cover big areas of land. The biggest desert, the Sahara, extends from North Africa to Southwest Asia and is 13 times the size of Texas. Some parts of the Sahara get as little as 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) of water a year.

Since water is scarce, animals that live in deserts have ways to find, save, and use very little of this precious liquid. Camels store fat in their humps. When they burn the fat for energy, the make water for their bodies. Cacti have wide and shallow roots so that when it does rain, they drink up as much water as possible.

Not all deserts are dry, dusty, and hot. The Antarctic is also a desert. It may be cold, but, just like the Sahara, the Antarctic doesn’t get very much precipitation.

desertice

Did You Know That?

  • It hasn’t rained or snowed in some places in the Antarctic for hundreds of years?
  • The biggest desert in the United States, the Mojave Desert, gets about 13 centimeters (5 inches) of rain every year?
  • Kangaroo rats are desert animals that hardly ever drink water? They get all the water they need from the foods they eat.
Books

Book of the Week: Middlemarch by George Eliot

Nov 6 - Middlemarch

Often called the greatest nineteenth-century British novelist, George Eliot the pen name of Mary Ann Evans created in Middlemarch a vast panorama of life in a provincial Midlands town. At the story’s center stands the intellectual and idealistic Dorothea Brooke—a character that in many ways resembles Eliot herself. But the very qualities that set Dorothea apart from the materialistic, mean-spirited society around her also lead her into a disastrous marriage with a man she mistakes for her soul mate. In a parallel story, young doctor Tertius Lydgate, who is equally idealistic, falls in love with the pretty but vain and superficial Rosamund Vincy, whom he marries to his ruin.

Eliot surrounds her main figures with a gallery of characters drawn from every social class, from laborers and shopkeepers to the rising middle class to members of the wealthy, landed gentry. Together they form an extraordinarily rich and precisely detailed portrait of English provincial life in the 1830s. But Dorothea’s and Lydgate’s struggles to retain their moral integrity in the midst of temptation and tragedy remind us that their world is very much like our own. Strikingly modern in its painful ironies and psychological insight, Middlemarch was pivotal in the shaping of twentieth-century literary realism.

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Books

Book of the Week: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Oct 30 - Frankenstein

Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering “the cause of generation and life” and “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter,” Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation, genetic engineering and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.

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Books

Summary of The Queen’s Necklace by Italo Calvino

QueensNecklace

Writer, essayist and journalist, Italo Calvino was born in 1923 in Cuba, of Italian parents. He spent his early years in San Remo, and studied at Turin, where he worked as a publisher. Calvino’s whimsical and imaginative fables made him one of the most important Italian fiction writers in the 20th century. He died in Siena in 1985.

This book contains The Queen’s Necklace and The Workshop Hen.

‘The inspector ordered that the bird be searched. One of the agents stalled saying it made him feel sick, and after some fierce pecking another withdrew sucking a bleeding finger.’

In these two stories from an inventive, comic master of the form, old friends and friendly rivals Pietro and Tommasso discover a treasure lost by the side of the road, and become suspected of abusing a blameless chicken for devious ends. Italo Calvino’s writing explores the fringes of these small, unusual scenes and finds incalculable wisdom and humor there.

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