Another World Book and Copyright Day

"As a lad," the elderly bookseller reminds, "we all queued up at midnight for a book about a wizard. It was the vogue."

The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling; Robinson Crusoe, by Defoe; Moby Dick, by Melville; Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson; The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, by Tolkien; Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl; Frankestein, by Mary Shelley, Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.. .These are some of the classics in English literature I have remembered today with my 1st year ESO students:

And my 2nd year Bachillerato students have also reflected on the power of words and reading:

Reading and enjoying The Canterville Ghost

Some of my 2nd year ESO students (Compulsory Secondary Education) have read and enjoyed Oscar Wilde´s The Canterville Ghost.  They have drawn some comics, an amusing tool to foster their written expression and communicative skills, and searched about the great Irish writer´s work. Good excuse today, Saint Patrick´s Day, to show it to you.

"Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin. After that he wrote lots of plays like The Duchess of Padua, poems like Ravenna and tales like The Canterville Ghost." (Irene Cagigas)

"Nobody wanted to live in that house because they said that it was haunted. But Americans are very practical and the Otis family didn´t believe in ghosts" (Selena Martín)

"The tale teaches you many lessons but it is disappointing too." (Sara Cecín)

"Strange things happen and it´s exciting." (Nahia Martínez)

"It´s fantastic to practice my reading in English." (Paula Arce)

"When you read you feel in another place. With books you can travel around the world. When we read we can´t see the words, we see pictures, we see the story in our head. Books make you think about the world, the humans, the animals and our future. Books are our world, our culture, our past, our present and our future... Don´t stop reading, please!" (Cristina Pérez de las Cuevas)

Books always make great gifts

Here is Christmas time again, the holiday gift-giving season par excellence. And if all of us always strive for the best and most special present for our nearest and dearest, why not a book this year? A print book, I mean.

Electronic books could also work, but the emotional connection is greater with paper ones. In fact, we usually keep good memories of each single book we have in our home libraries: where and when we got them, who bought them to us... Besides, isn´t it a really depressing image seeing us more and more pushed towards a screen all the time? Wherever we look nowadays, we see everybody attached to their smartphones and digital devices, obsessed with downloading the latest mobile apps or snapping selfies, for instance. 

Books are affordable, they last a lifetime and they can provide hours of emotions, whatever the reader´s age. There are lots of must-reads in the market (and not necessarily the bestsellers of the moment; on the contrary, I´d be ashamed of getting some of these!), ranging from ageless classics to contemporary ones.

Books fire the children´s imagination and they also broaden the teens´ minds. Helping them to understand and deal with this increasingly complex world, they are essential for their growth and development process. But in today´s digital environment, where most of them would rather play a video game or surf the net chatting with friends or updating their Facebook profile, getting them to read may be a challenge. Their love of words and stories can be fostered introducing them to books that match their interests and hobbies. Once they discover they can travel through time, back and forth, with both historical and science fiction or they can become an expert on that subject they are mad about, books will become allies in their pursuit of adventure and learning. Furthermore, they will also realise that any dream can come true within the pages of a book. Can you imagine a more wonderful present than a world of dreams wrapped in pretty colourful paper?

Happy Christmas and happy readings!

Cinema and Literature: The Brönte Sisters

The interplay between literature and cinema is as old as the medium of celluloid. Transferring novels, short stories, plays, and even poetry, to the screen has always played a crucial role in popularizing literature. Books usually provide films with the raw material, with a narrative line and characters which are already described. Anyway, books leave more to our imagination and films may not be completely faithful to their plots. 

Having just watched Emily Brönte´s Wuthering Heights  may make me reread this masterpiece of elemental and universal passions. Sweeping love, hate, revenge... Set against the Yorkshire moors, a landscape as wild as the relationship of the main characters, the novel is considered the heart and soul of the romantic spirit. The film is full of really powerful scenes, one of them when Heathcliff tears Catherine´s grave open, removing one side of her coffin. Gothic elements also appear in Charlotte Brönte´s Jane Eyre and the new adaptation released a few months ago. There are persecutions, a threatening atmosphere, a gloomy manor house, madness and cruelty. But this 19th century novel also heralds a new kind of heroine, one whose independence, persistence and virtuous integrity let her triumph over class barriers to win equal status with the man she loves.

Obviously, watching a film is not the same as reading a novel. They are different aesthetic genres with different conventions. Each of them has its own language and art of seduction, but both can explain the meaning of the world, who we are and what we are like. Both have the ability of entertaining, appealing to our emotions and moving us. They are simply good allies and, however good or bad an adaptation may be, it is always good news if it sends viewers back to the literary source.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)

Inspired by The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, hurricane Katrina and a love for books, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore praises the imaginative and captivating power of stories and the magical way in which books feed our soul. It has won the Oscar Academy Award for best animated short film in 2012.

Books fill our life. Every time we open one and we get wrapped up in a good story, we are taken on a extraordinary journey. We are quickly transported into a time and place where nothing else exists. Our minds are broadened and nourished. Books are meant to educate and inspire us, to lift us from our current states of indifference. Our existence is given life only when we start reading.