dimanche 5 février 2012

Stormbreaker and Class Library News






Stormbreaker
English Fiction (an invented story)

Stormbreaker is a best-selling novel by Anthony Horowitz.  It’s the first of several novels in a series about teenage spy, ‘Alex Rider’. 

Over the last couple of weeks we watched the film of the novel in English.  We also studied comparative adjectives (such as short – shorter) and the present continuous.  Year 4 are writing reviews of the film.




These are employees of the British Secret Service: calculating and ruthless.  They are willing to blackmail a fourteen year old boy into working for them.  They risk Alex's life to get what they want...are they as nasty as the evil genius, Mr Darrius, or is he nastier?



Who is Alex?

Played by Alex Pettyfer, Alex Rider is an orphan.  He lived with his Uncle and a housekeeper before his Uncle was killed.  He’s an expert in martial arts, who can abseil, parachute and scuba dive.  He was trained by his Uncle.  He also speaks several languages – English, French, German and Japanese.  

He agrees to work for MI6 so that his Uncle’s housekeeper is given a permanent visa to stay in the UK.  The Secret Service will send her to prison if he doesn’t become a spy because she is staying in the UK illegally.

What is ‘Stormbreaker’?

Stormbreaker is an advanced computer.  Multi-millionaire Darrius Sayle is giving them, free of charge, to all schools.

The British Secret Service does not trust Mr Sayle.  They do not trust him with reason.  Their agent, sent to find out why Mr Sayle wants to give Stormbreaker away, is Alex’s Uncle. He is killed because he found out too much. The Secret Service recruits Alex and sends him on training with the army’s special forces.  Then he goes undercover at Darrius’ factory in Cornwall to find out what his Uncle knew…



Why is Mr Sayle not a nice person?

Darrius Sayle was bullied at school.  The boy who bullied him is now the Prime Minister of the UK.  He called Darrius Sayle, Darrius ‘Smell’.  Now Mr Sayle wants to get his revenge on the world and especially on the Prime Minister. It is the Prime Minister (played by actor Robbie Coltrane) who will press the button that activates the Stormbreaker.  This will also release a deadly virus that kills many people if Mr Sayle’s plan works.



In a gripping story, packed with action, Alex ends up parachuting into London to save the world from a deadly virus, a type of smallpox....will he make it in time?




Class Library News

Stormbreaker and other books in the Alex Rider series are now available in the class library.

The Jeff Kinney 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' novels are also available in our class library.

Find out more about these authors and novels on these websites:



Classic Novels retold:

Still available are the Usborne series of books which are written in simple English.  These include classic novels and plays, some by Shakespeare, such as 'Macbeth' and 'Romeo and Juliet', adapted for children.

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