| maɪ rɪˈvjuː |

 



 

Marcella Was Bored
by Robert Byrd

 

Presenting a simple book for primary school children, Marcella Was Bored tells and shows the story of Marcella, a personified cat that is tired of her boring daily life. With this reader-friendly book, the well-known writer Robert Byrd provides an excellent tale for children to think over the value of the things they have.

 

Resembling a spoiled little girl, Marcella is a kitten who has got many things, such as a happy family, a comfortable house, a bedroom full of toys, a storyteller grandpa and a lot of friends to play with. But she is bored of all those things, and she hates doing similar activities every day, for example, going to dance classes or jumping the rope. She also considers many of her relatives as bothersome. Tired of her repetitive and monotonous days, she walks away from home, but she gets lost in a forest. She does not have a good time being there, and the animals she comes across in the woods do not like her. Feeling alone and rejected, she realises the value of those “tedious” things she disregarded. Finally, she finds a way back home, and her attitude towards his relatives and friends turns completely positive.

 

As the narration flows, readers perceive Marcella’s moods and attitudes, which are clearly expressed in the perfect illustrations of the book. Although the ending is quite predictable, the simplicity of the writing and the visual input of the meticulous drawings make an excellent combination for a delightful book.

 

This is a perfect tale either for school lessons or for laptimes. Marcella is a character many children will empathise with, not only girls b buut also boys can feel mirrored by her. So this book is a good option for parents and for teachers who deal with overindulged children. Thoroughly recommended.

 

Review by:  Andrés Lema.

/wel /ˈpiːpl̩ /
/pliːz / də fiːl friː tə ˈmeɪk ˈeni ˈkɒment ɔː səˈdʒestʃən / aɪl ˈrɪəli əˈpriːʃieɪt ðæt /
/həv səm naɪs ˈwɪntə ˈhɒlədeɪz /
Andrés.

Rocio Soledad Gonzalez * L.W.E III * Blas Bigatti * I.S.F.D N° 30

WHICH OR THAT?

      Which and that can be used in different constructions. The confusion usually arises when they are being used as relative pronouns to introduce adjectival (or relative) clauses. Remember that a clause is simply a group of words containing a subject and a verb.

      In order not to make mistakes, always have in mind that which clauses are usually used non-restrictively (non-essential), while that clauses are usually restrictive (essential). Notice the following examples.                                                                                                                                                     1. Our house (that has a red door and green shutter) needs painting.
 2. Our house, (which has a red door and green shutters), needs painting..                                                 3. The classrooms (that were painted over the summer) are bright and cheerful. 
 4. The classrooms, (which were painted over the summer), are bright and cheerful.

Sentences one and three are restrictive clauses. Here we are adding information about the noun because we want to talk about something that we have. But, as we have many we use the restrictive clause in order to differentiate it from the rest. That is to say, we are talking about a particular thing, and not other. However, sentence two and four are what we call non-restrictive clauses. Here we add extra information or non-essential. So, if we leave out the information in that adjectival clause, the sentence would make sense anyway.

      To sum up, Non-restrictive clauses are separated from the rest of a sentence by a pair of commas or by a single comma if they come at the end. .Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition) tells us that “…it is now common for which to be used with either kind of clause, while that must be used only for restrictive clauses.”

SOURCE: “A university Grammar of English” by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum; “A comprehensive Grammar of the English language” by Geoffrey N. Leech; and an extract from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition).

Compound modifiers

How can you turn a whole phrase into a modifier?

A compound modifier is a combination of two or more words. Compound modifiers are grammatically equivalent to single-word modifiers and can be used in combination with other modifiers.  

Compound modifiers that appear before a noun phrase must include a hyphen between each word in order to avoid confusion. Without hyphens, a reader might interpret the words separately, rather than as a phrase.

The hyphen helps the reader differentiate a compound modifier from two adjacent modifiers that modify the noun independently. Compare the following examples:

·         "small appliance industry": a small industry producing appliances

·         "small-appliance industry": an industry producing small appliances

Review: "Los Secretos de Julieta"

Los Secretos de Julieta

In 2008, Chicos.net Ediciones first published “Los Secretos de Julieta”, a didactic book about sexual education to work with not only at school but also at home. Through Julieta, Czarny, Reiman and Urban, reflect upon how children should manage in different types of abuse in modern society. Furthermore, the illustrator gives meaning to the plot with colourful images.

In this story, Julieta's mother explains her that there are two kinds of secrets. The ones that you can keep and the ones you must tell to an adult you trust.  The book shows different situations in which Julieta has to decide to keep a secret or not. For instance, if someone touches her in an inappropriate way, it is a secret she must share, and if someone tells her secrets about a surprise party or news about a sibling coming, she can keep them for herself.

The book has the didactic potential to introduce sexual issues as well as physical, verbal and psychological violence to children by using real life examples. The language used is friendly and appropriate for the topic and the illustrations are very colourful. Julieta's facial expressions clearly show her feelings at every moment and situation. Another aspect to take into account is that in the book the abusers are men.

We highly recommend this book because of the gripping topics which are developed. These delicate issues are really relevant in the whole society. That is why they must be dealt carefully and with a lot of responsibility not only by teachers but also by other adults. We have to distinguish that abuse has no gender. 

Inversion of order

Inversion of order is used after certain expressions such as "no sooner", "not only", which are placed first in the sentence in order to give emphasis.
It means that the verb or auxiliary verb of the first clause is placed before the subject and after those expressions.

No sooner had I cleaned the house than the guests arrived.

Not only did he cook but he also washed the dishes.