English In BDP - Your teacher's blog.

I'll advise any person interested in reading short books in English to read three books taken in the Ministry of Education list concerning the "oral de spécialité Anglais". I read them this summer and found them very enjoyable ! :)

• The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing.

This British novelist received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007 and this short book about the birth of a violent child in a family is very easy to read. You can try the French version : "le 5ème enfant".

• A Lesson Before Dying d'Ernest J Gaines

A very moving book whose main story is told by a young black teacher called Grant in the late 1940's who teaches in a Louisiana plantation. To put it simply, Grant as a cultured man feels trapped on the plantation and doesn't believe in teaching anymore. Yet his meeting with a young man sentenced to die will change his outlook on life. In brief, it's a book about redemption which will make you shed tears ... The French title is "Dites leur que je suis un homme. " and a film with the same title was shot in 2000 with Don Cheadle

and Mekhi Phifer (the latter also plays in the TV series E.R. :))

• How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston : (a title inspired by a nursery rhyme which has been translated by Si Loin de Babylone)

Another sad book about the friendship between two young boys in rural Ireland before and during World War I. If you are interested in class struggles, in the trench war and in Ireland, this is the book for you ! You can read an extract from the first chapter in French here.

Yet another moving book which is not in the official Educ Nat reading list but could well be :

• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (French title : le garçon au pyjama rayé)

This fiction is set during World War II and deals with the Holocaust seen by the eyes of a nine -year old child whose Dad is the Nazi commander in chief of Auschwitz concentration camp. A much-awaited film adaptation will be released in September 2008 in Britain. Keep your eyes peeled for its release in France. ;)

I know that all these books are not very funny but they are worth reading. You can borrow them from me if you want to tackle the original English versions. Take time to read them and enjoy yourself :)

Vocabulary help :

 shed tears: verser des larmes
 a struggle : une lutte  (the class struggle : la lutte des classes) => struggle with
 sad = moving => move somebody to tears
 a release : une sortie pour un livre ou un film
 striped = à rayures => cf Stars and Stripes (the nickname given to the American flag)
 Keep your eyes peeled : a slang phrase for "keep your eyes open" (slang = vulgar, familiar language )
 a nursery rhyme : a short, often repetititive children's song
 tackle : (ici) s' attaquer à