Charles DICKENS, A Christmas Carol

(1997) Black Cat, B1 1700 headwords

By José Ferrer Zaforteza, 1º Bachillerato EFL

Mr. Scrooge does not like Christmas. He hates it. He also hates people. All he cares about is himself and his money.
One night the ghost of his former partner Marley comes to visit him and says that three more ghosts will come to help him. The first ghost takes him to his life as a child and teenager. The second ghost takes him into a house where a child with a disease is about to die, and Scrooge is distressed by him. The third ghost shows him that he will die soon and that his servants will steal his clothes and curtains to sell them later.

Following the visit of the ghosts, Scrooge goes out to say “Happy Christmas” to everybody and he buys a turkey and will celebrate with his family. He is happy now.

I did really like the visit of the third ghost, because it’s in that moment when Scrooge changes completely. After this visit, he’s a new man, he won’t be unhappy and greedy anymore because he knows how important our life is.

I would recommend that book to everybody because it is for all ages.

This book has been recommended before (see March posts)

Meg CABOT, All American Girl (Ready or not)

By Eliana Lale Kahn, 2° ESO A

I found this book particularly interesting because, even though it has a teenage girl as the main character and deals with normal teenage problems, there was a bit of a twist that made the book more involved in politics (she saved the US President's life and therefore she had many duties).

Another good point is that every character had an individual personality that was very well represented when they appeared in the story.

So I recommend this book to girls aged 12 to 18 and give it 4 stars.

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Speckled Band and Other Stories, Macmillan Readers, B1, 1700 Headwords

By Álvaro Corral Suárez, 1º Bachillerato EFL

“The Speckled Band”

The story began in April, 1883, when a client, Helen Stoner, arrived at Holmes’s house and explained that her late mother had a lot of money, which would be given to her daughters in the case of getting married, but meanwhile it would be given to Helen’s stepfather. Helen’s sister would have got married two years ago if she hadn’t died in strange circumstances. Now Helen was going to get married, so she was afraid of being murdered like her sister. She suspected her stepfather, who had told Helen to move to her late sister’s room, where she had died. Holmes thought that Helen would be killed in that room, so he went to see it. He found a false bell cord near a false ventilator, so he thought that it would be used to kill Helen and he went to investigate.

“The Red-headed League”

This is a story about a man, Mr. Wilson who had red hair. First, there appears a notice in the newspaper and Vincent Spaulding shows it to his boss, Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson has a little business near Saxe-Coburg Square in London. His assistant is working only part time because the business isn´t going well, then Vincent convinces Mr. Wilson to join the Red-headed league. Mr. Wilson finally joins and goes to his new job every day, but one day when he arrives he doesn´t find anybody. Then he goes to Holmes´s house because he wants to tell him all about the red-headed league and about his assistant, too. Holmes began the investigation making questions to Mr. Wilson. Finally Holmes discovers the truth and stops the red-headed league boss.

I read these stories because I saw a film of Sherlock Holmes and I liked it. I have liked the book as well. I think that his books are interesting and I recommend them to people who like mystery, intrigue and adventures.

J.K ROWLING (1997) Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone. Bloombsury

By Fernando Alonso Pérez-Chao 1º Bachillerato EFL

Everything starts when Harry Potter, an apparently normal boy finds out who he really is: the most famous wizard in the world. Everyone knows him because he was the only one who survived to a Voldemort's attack (the most powerful dark wizard in the world). He's known literally by the name “the boy who lived.”

Once he discovers who he is, he will go to a magical school called Hogwarts, and there he will learn how to use his wand, how to cast a spell on someone, how to defend himself from the dark magic and lots of other spells. He will also make really good friends who will help him when he needs it.

The Harry Potter saga (formed by 7 books) is probably the best saga I have ever read. This book especially, which I read in Spanish and now in English is most likely the best one. It reminds me of my childhood memories when I used to dream with a world like the world where Harry Potter lives. It’s quite a long book (especially if you read it when you are a child) that takes you to a world of fantasy and magic where everything is absolutely different: lifestyle, school subjects...

I like the different relationships that we find in this book, and I specially love how Harry appreciates his real friends, in spite of their mistakes. He needs them to live, and he realizes it because he had lived the first 11 years of his life with no friends, and that's why he appreciates them that much.

I would recommend this book to all kinds of people, but especially to children and teenagers. To the first group, basically because if they read the saga while they are growing up (as I did) they will see the world in a different way, which is crucial to develop their imagination and appreciate the little things that childhood has. And finally to the second group, because sometimes when you are a teenager you don't realize that you used to be a child not that long ago, and reading this saga could help you to remember the child that you have inside, something that you can't forget.

This book has been recommended before (see March posts)

Mark BOWDEN, Killing Pablo

By Iván Ramírez 2 ESO A

Killing Pablo talks about the effort of the United States government and the Colombian government to stop the most powerful criminal in history, Pablo Escobar.

The book starts off by explaining the situation in Colombia and the whole of South America. At the time Colombia had become one of the scariest places on Earth, with planes blowing up in midair and policemen and judges being murdered by Cartels. At the helm of it all was Pablo Escobar.

It then talks about how Pablo got into so much power.

After talking about his life, the book starts getting interesting with the Colombian government and the United States government getting together to plan the killing of Pablo. They tried various times to capture Pablo but he kept on escaping.

The book is full of action but it contains language and content that could confuse some younger children, so I would recommend it to an older audience.

DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor, Crime & Punishment,

C1, 3000 headwords, Penguin

By Alicia Pliego, 1º Bachillerato EFL

Fyodor Dostoevsky tells the story of a young boy called Raskolnikoff, who lives in Saint Petesburg. The writer explains, in great detail, the situation of poverty that was lived in that period, using many adjectives to describe it. The perfection the author narrates the story with, makes you feel the same as the characters feel, especially Rodion Raskolnikoff, who at first thinks he could face all the problems that a crime entails. However, the crime he had committed, makes him have to face a hard punishment, harder than going to jail. The biggest problem is the guilt that Raskolnikoff feels inside. It is nice how, despite being such a hard book, full of pain, loneliness and bitterness, its ending is so sweet and romantic.

I would recommend this book to 16+.

This book has been recommended by another student (see March posts)

Lewis CARROLL, Alice in Wonderland, By Álvaro Corral, 1º Bachillerato EFL

Alice was sitting in a tree next to her sister and she was very bored when, suddenly, a dressed up white rabbit appeared and entered into its warren. Alice decided to follow him just out of curiosity and she entered into its warren. It was very long and at the end, Alice arrived at a very absurd world, Wonderland, where, for example, there were animals that could speak, drinks that made you grow or shrink, etc. Suddenly, Alice woke up next to her sister and she realised that everything had been a dream.

The theme is the confusion that a child suffers when he/she tries to understand how adult people live. Even if we think that children don’t have an order in their lives, they do have, they live their way, and when they start behaving like adults, they feel disconcerted because they don’t understand the adults’ way of life. For a child, the adults’ world is like Wonderland for us. But Alice is growing up so throughout the books, little by little Alice learns to understand Wonderland; she is learning to understand the adult world.

I recommend this book for all ages because when you are a child you understand a childish adventure and when older people read it, they will see a lot of metaphors that make you think and reflect about a lot of things in life.

This book has been recommended by other students (see March and April posts)

FIELDING, Helen. Bridget Jones's diary, by Cristina Alvarado, 1º Bachillerato EFL

This book is about a young woman who is thirty years old and works in a publishing house. She looks for a boy friend but she thinks she will never find one. Bridget spends her time watching TV on her sofa with a drink and her cigarrettes. Her family tries to get her into a relationship with a man, in this case with Mr Darcy, but they are not similar. She finds a man, Daniel Cleaver, who is her boss. Everything began with a mobile text message. But he is definitely not the man of her life because he is a womanizer. At the end of the book Mr Darcy reappears and...

I recommend this book to young people who are 15, 16, 17, because it is very entertaining and I think it is for our age, not for boys or girls who are younger than us.

This book has been recommended by another student (see March posts)

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, Address Unknown.

By Alicia Pliego, 1º Bachillerato EFL

Address Unknown is a very interesting book, easy to read. This short novel is made up by several letters that two old friends, Martin & Max, sent to each other. It is a story based on a real one, which can help you to understand the great power that the Nazi movement had in Germany after the First World War.

The two friends lived in San Francisco and they had a business, an Art Gallery there. One day, Martin decided to go back to Germany, the place where he was born and raised, to bring up his children. The two friends stay in touch through their letters and they keep sharing good moments.

But when Martin arrives in Berlin, he sees the incredible social instability of the German society after the First World War. At the same time, Hitler’s power grows and Martin gets very influenced by these Nazi thoughts and, unexpectedly, from one letter to the next, he changes radically. He doesn't want to exchange any more letters with Max. One of the most striking moments is when Max's sister, Griselle, who is an actress, goes to Berlin to act and she says she's Jewish in the midst of her acting...

I would recommend this book to those interested in the situation in Germany when Hitler was in power.

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, C1, 3000 headwords, Penguin

By Helga Puigdomenech San Joan, 2º Bachillerato EFL

Brave New World is about a futurist view of society. The story is set in London, where the population is divided in five different casts (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon; each one has subcategories: Plus and Minus). Everybody has undergone several hypnotic and chemical programmes in their fetus "decanting bottles", where the psychology or the physical formation of the body and brain was manipulated, and also in their childhood. Thus, society has developed a new idea of reproduction. Marriage, natural birth, parenthood and pregnancy are considered too obscene to be mentioned in a normal conversation.

The main character, Bernard Marx, is an Alpha Plus worker who has an inferiority complex because of his short height, his different way of thinking and his different behaviour in his free time. He will turn out to be a problem for the stability of this perfect society.

The book talks about social problems, government power and corruption, human behaviour and weakness against the established political system, dreams of change, freedom, etc.

I would recommend the reading of this novel to those people who enjoy a futurist point of view and those who like to debate and criticise these themes, because there is a lot to talk about. In the book there is a wide range of vocabulary and grammatical structures, so, it can become a very hard read for those who have problems in understanding English.

Lost in Paris

By Camilo Cañaveral Alzate

2° ESO A

Time Flies

by Vanessa Porras

1 ESO B

Beating the Bus

by Ines ineda

2 ESO A

Cold

Yaiza Martinez

4 ESO

Travelling in Time

by Vanessa Porras

1 ESO