Issue 11 December 2003

Editorial Team: Lauren, Charlotte, Rona

Editorial

Kemback School has had a busy term. they are loooking forward to a visit to the REp in Dundee to see Peter Pan. At Christmas their own play is called the Hoity Toity Angel and tells the story of an angel who could not lower herself to visit the shepherds or the satble or Mary but who was humbled by seeing Jesus. WE have had great fun this term running a business caleed Kemback Krafts. we have been makinmg and selling cards, calendars and birdfeeders. We have a truly 'spectacular' actor for this angel! Our special topic in The Ferret is The Big Read.

The Kemback Ferret editorial team asked some local residents which were their top ten favourite books. Thank you to all those who so kindly sent us their top ten books (not necessarily listed in rank order).

'A really good book should allow the reader to experience life so fully and so powerfully that there is a sense of loss in finishing the book. It should also be really well written' (T. Gordon).

A wide variety of books and topics were selected. Favourite authors included George Eliot, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Graham Greene. Favourite children's books included Biggles, the Arthur Ransome books, Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter. Two books were favourites with both the adults and children and are the BIG READ Favourites in Kemback : The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy.

The Professionals

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Northern Lights by P. Pullman
Lucy and Tom's Christmas by Shirley Hughes
Jane Eyre by C. Bronte
The Mill on the Floss by G. Eliot
Pride and Prejudice by J. Austen
Collected Plays by A. Chekhov
The Empty Space by P. Brook
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
The Little White Horse by E. Goudge

P. Essler

Persuasion by J. Austen
Bleak House by C. Dickens
Wives and Daughters by Mrs Gaskell
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Power and the Glory by G. Greene
The Regeneration Trilogy by P. Barker
The Reader by B. Schlink
Bad Blood , A Memoir by L. Sage
His Dark Materials Trilogy by P. Pullman

T. Gordon

Middlemarch by G. Eliot
Jane Eyre by C. Bronte
The Magic Mountain by T. Mann
The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald
Samuel Pepys: the Uneqalled Self by C. Tomalin
How not to be the Perfect Mother by L. Purvis
Tristram Shandy by L. Sterne
The Complete Works of Lord Byron by E. H. Coleridge
Portrait of a Lady by H. James
The Leopard by G. T. di Lampedusa

N. and J. Roe

The Grown Ups

Wasp Factory by I. Banks
The God of Small Things by A. Roy
Fugitive Pieces by A. Michaels
Four Letters of Love by N. Williams
Of Mice and Men by J. Steinbeck
Enduring Love by I. Mcewan
Brighton Rock by G. Greene
To Kill a Mocking Bird by H. Lee
No Great Mischief by A. McLeod
A Time to Keep by G.Mackay Brown

J.Young

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
Wind in the Willows by K. Graham
Huckleberry Finn by M. Twain
Bevis: The Story of a Boy by R, Jefferies
Biggles by Capt W. E. Johns
Stig of the Dump by C. King
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Paddington Bear by M. Bond
The Jungle Book by R. Kipling
Swallows and Amazons by A. Ransome

S. Withams

The Former Pupils

Lord of the Rings by J. R. Tolkein
Lord of the Flies by W. Golding
His Dark Materials Trilogy by P. Pullman
Wind on Fire Trilogy W. Nicholson
Mortal Engines by P. Reeve
Martin the Warrior by B. Jaques
Eagle Strike by A. Horowitz
The Elenium by D. Eddings
Equal Rights by T. Pratchett
Biggles by Capt W. E. Johns

M. Findlay

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by R. Adams
Artemis Fowl Trilogy by E. Cofer
I Capture the Castle by D. Smith
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
Huckleberry Finn by M. Twain
The Hobbit by J. R. Tolkein
Witch Child by C. Rees
The Marguerite Henry Misty Treasury by M. Henry
Finn Family Moomintroll by T. Jansson

K. Withams

The Pupils

One Hundred and One Dalmations by D. Smith
Hitty her First Hundred Years by R. Field
Swallows and Amazons by A. Ransome
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by A. Ransome
My Family and Other Animals by G. Durrell
Adventure Stories by E. Blyton
The Little House in the Big Woods by L. I. Wilder
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Charlotte

Christmas Reading

We also asked everyone to suggest a book for Christmas.

Suggestions were:

E. Cofer Artemis Fowl Trilogy (Puffin, 2001-2003, £5-00 approx per volume) because 'it is funny, imaginative, exciting and makes you want to read on' (Katy Withams)

J. Eclair Camberwell Beauty (Time Warner, 2001, £4-79) because 'it's hilarious, rather rude and perfect Christmas reading' (J. Young)

A.Garner Thursbitch (Harvill Press, 2003, £10-49) (Sounds rude but it is a Cheshire place name) because I loved Alan Garner's books as a child and Thursbitch is the first book he has written in years and it appears to be a cracking good mystery. I haven't read it yet but I have already sent off to Sri Lanka as a present! (P. Essler)

B. Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything (Doubleday, £10-00) because 'it is accessible, interesting and lively'. (T. Gordon)

P. Reeve Mortal Engines (Scholastic, 2002, £5-99) because 'it is fabulous perception of the future'.(Malcolm Findlay)

J. and A. Ahlberg The Jolly Christmas Postman(Viking Children's Books, 1999, £9-09) is great for younger children because 'I love the way they present people's Christmas post in envelopes attached to the page'. (Charlotte)

N. Roe Leigh Hunt - Life, Poetics, Politics (Routledge, 2003, £55-00)because 'it is a fascinating recovery of a complex figure from the Romantic Period'. (N. Roe)

The national Big Read is to be found at www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread

All prices are from Amazon www.amazon.co.uk

Happy reading!!!!