Top 10 first lines in children's and teen books | Children's books The boy and the old man arrived at the port at night. That's the first line in my debut novel, Close to the Wind, and I'm rather proud of it. The line doesn't shout out at you, but it does a lot of work establishing the tone of the book and giving you the setting and characters without any fuss. It's always difficult to know how to begin a book. Originally, I had a much bolder first line but during an editorial meeting it was suggested I lose it and start with the second line in. Of course, I objected. An opening sentence should draw the reader from their own head and take them somewhere completely different. It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the old North Sea. 1. Is this the best ever opening line from a children's book? The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. 2. A great book that's all about the voice and he nails it in the first line.
The Disorder That Leaves People Thinking They're Dead | Mental Floss UK Cotard’s Delusion is a mental disorder where people suffer the nihilistic delusion that they are dead or no longer exist. First reported in the 1700s, the disorder is still largely a mystery today. The underlying cause isn’t understood; it’s been linked to bipolar disorder, depression and/or schizophrenia depending on the patient’s age. Here, ten people who went to their doctors and complained that they were dead. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. {*style:<b>*}10.
My hero: Mary Shelley by Neil Gaiman The cold, wet summer of 1816, a night of ghost stories and a challenge allowed a young woman to delineate the darkness, and give us a way of looking at the world. They were in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva: Lord Byron – the bestselling poet, too dangerous for the drawing rooms of England and in exile; his doctor, John William Polidori; Percy Shelley, poet and atheist, and his soon-to-be wife, 18-year-old Mary Shelley. Ghost stories were read, and then Byron challenged everyone in the group to come up with a new story. He started, but did not finish, one about vampires; Polidori completed "The Vampyre"; and young Mary, already the mother of a living child and a dead one, imagined a story about a man who fabricated a living creature, a monster, and brought it to life. Ideas happen when the time is right for them. Brian Aldiss points to Frankenstein as the first work of science fiction (which he defines as hubris clobbered by nemesis) and he may be right.
12 Funny and Delicious Venn Diagrams | Mental Floss UK I haven’t done a roundup of Venn diagrams in several years. That’s a graph that shows sets and all possible overlaps of those sets. It works two-dimensionally when there are three or fewer sets. When you have more sets, or sets in which they don’t all overlap with each other, then you have an Euler diagram, which is a whole new set of fun. 1. A common way to make Venn humour is to label three sets as concepts, and their overlaps as specific situations. 2. A variation on the humour Venn diagram concerns sets that cannot possibly overlap. 3. However, it’s not always necessary to label all the overlaps, when you only need one punch line. 4. It is not necessary that the two or three sets of a Venn diagram actually have anything to do with each other, as long as you can come up with some justification for an overlap. 5. 6. Set diagrams about US TV can get much more complicated. 7. Any pop culture phenomenon lends itself to extreme critique that can be diagrammed. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
While Some Are Shocked by ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ Others Find Nuance in a Bigoted Atticus Finch “Whether you’ve read the novel or seen the film, there’s this image you have of Atticus as a hero, and this brings him down a peg,” said Adam Bergstein, an English teacher in Queens whose 10th- and 11-grade students read “Mockingbird.” “How do you take this guy who everybody looked up to for the last 50-plus years, and now he’s a more flawed individual?” In this version, Atticus is 72 years old, suffering from arthritis and stubbornly resistant to social change. He stands in sharp contrast to the gentle scholar in “Mockingbird,” who tells Scout, when explaining why he has gone out on a limb to defend a black man, that “I do my best to love everybody.” In “Watchman,” which comes out Tuesday, Atticus chides Scout for her idealistic views about racial equality: “The Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people.” After the initial shock, some writers and literary critics see added value in a more complex, and flawed, version of Atticus. Photo It is unclear why Ms. Ms. While A.
How To Stay Alive In British Soap Operas | Mental Floss UK Any EastEnders character blowing out the candles on their 46th birthday cake should start looking out for the Grim Reaper. So treacherous is existence in Albert Square that the average life expectancy of an EastEnder is just 46 (compared to 79 for men and 83 for women in real life London). It’s not only Walford that presents a severe health risk to its residents, but Weatherfield, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks too. Here are our tips for surviving the parlous world of the UK soap opera… Stay away from the chip butties at Roy’s Rolls Heart attacks are the biggest killers in Coronation Street history and responsible for almost 22% of total deaths in the show. Be a Dingle woman Or any kind of woman for that matter. Avoid transport of all kinds. The second most frequent killers on all four soaps are vehicles. Move to heart-healthy Hollyoaks But if you do, keep an eye out for murderers... ...And fatal accidents Don’t marry, get engaged to, be related in any way to, or go fell walking with Janine Butcher
70+ book picks from TED speakers and attendees The tables in bookstores can be overwhelming: Every book cover looks appealing, every blurb glows with praise. Sometimes, you just need a recommendation from a human, someone you trust. Below, 10 members of the TED community — with very different points of view — share the books they think you’ll enjoy this summer. Their selections are wonderfully untethered to new releases and bestsellers, with a little something for everyone. Mind-bending fiction, picked by David Eagleman David Eagleman is a neuroscientist whose sensory vest may just expand the limits of human perception. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. The Bear by William Faulkner. The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive by Brian Christian. The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. Things That Are: Essays by Amy Leach. Books on art and race, picked by Anne Pasternak
12 Post-Potter Revelations J.K. Rowling Has Shared | Mental Floss UK Any proper Harry Potter fan will insist that the series didn’t truly end with the release of the seventh and final book in July 2007, nor did it end with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in theatres in July 2011. There’s no more obvious testament to the wizarding world’s enduring legacy than J.K. Rowling herself, the author who has so much left to give to fans who are always eager to hear more. She continues to release new material via the Pottermore website and has yet to quash rumors of a forthcoming authoritative Harry Potter encyclopedia (though she hesitates to use the e-word). But some of Rowling's most surprising insights about the fates of Harry and friends have come straight from her own mouth in various interviews given since Deathly Hallows closed the book on their stories. 1. Harry Potter Wikia 2. Harry Potter Wikia 3. Authors are allowed to change their minds, but when it comes to matters of a character’s life or death, there’s a lot to consider. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
12 Banned Books Every Woman Should Read While it would be great if we were past the whole “banning books” thing, the fact remains that hundreds of books have their places in libraries or on school reading lists challenged each year. According to the American Library Association, books are most commonly challenged for being “sexually explicit” or containing “offensive language.” But some of the books that are most often challenged are also literary classics, containing storylines that almost everyone can learn from. In honor of Banned Books Week 2014, we’ve pulled together a list of controversial books that every woman should read. They cover sexual freedom and women pushing back against prescribed roles, oppression against women and people of color, and what it means to be a woman in different places and times. Above all, they are stories well told. Here are 12 banned, censored and commonly challenged books every woman (and person) should read:
19 Amazing Details from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter | Mental Floss UK Over the course of seven books and eight movies, the Harry Potter series has transported readers into a magical world. Universal Studios has sought to make at least part of that world into reality with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida (and soon in Los Angeles as well). The first park, within the Islands of Adventure, opened to the public on June 18, 2010, and allows park guests to walk throughout the shops of Hogsmeade and into the Hogwarts castle. 1. The park hired a large number of its team members directly from Britain in order to make the experience as authentic as possible. 2. J.K. 3. Waiting in line for the Dragon Challenge roller coaster, just as you cross the bridge and enter the castle, you can get a glimpse of Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia, which Ron and Harry crashed into the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 4. 5. 6. In the books and movies, this London pub serves as a gateway between the muggle and the magical world.
Ted Ed on hero story & Joseph Campbell The Hero Archetype in Literature, Religion, and Popular Culture: (along with a useful PowerPoint presentation teachers can download at this URL: )Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (users embark on their own hero's journey): American Masters Lesson from PBS for Teachers on George Lucas, the Power of Myth, and the Hero's Journey: an interactive approach to the Hero's Journey: of course, information about Joseph Campbell's works on the subject, on the Joseph Campbell Foundation site:The Hero With A Thousand Faces Hero's Journey (semi-biographical film):