A Book Review—The Snake-Stone by Berlie Doherty

    The setting: Urban England (the cities), but also rural England (the countryside) including remote English villages.

    The theme: The main theme is a teenage search of self-discovery, in this case the search for a mother from whom the hero was separated at an early age. Its other concerns are love, getting on with others, being persistent and courageous and trying to deal with doubts, troubles and worries. As the book moves to a close, James' swimming coach says to him: “You are not like a kid obeying instructions any more. You are diving like a young man who knows where he is going.”

    The characters: James is the hero of the story. He is a championship diver, and has a comfortable life with his foster parents (养父母). Yet he also has the qualities to take him on a long journey to find his birth mother. The other characters in The Snake-Stone, James' parents, his diving instructor, best friend, the villagers, people he meets on his journey, are pictured realistically.

    The turning point: The turning point in the story comes while James' foster parents are away in London, and he wonders about the identity of his birth mother. The only clue he has is a fossil, “the snake stone” which she left behind along with a note on which she had written: “Take good care of Sammie. It was written on a torn envelope with parts of an address still there.

    The journey: Instead of going to London, James decides to find his birth mother. With help from his geography teacher, James sets out for the remote country village where his mother might be found. James has painful, challenging, but also humorous and happy travels. The mother he finally meets, Anne, has a minor yet powerful voice in the novel. He comes to understand why she left him at a stranger's door fifteen years before. Although the meeting is not long, it leaves him with a feeling of completeness. As a journey of self-discovery The Snake-Stone also provides its readers with a happy ending. Its hero says, on returning to his foster parents, “I was home.”

    If you are a teacher, join Youngzine and sign up your class for free today! Youngzine is an online News Magazine for school age children. It provides an educational, entertaining, yet safe way for kids and adults to get the latest news from around the world.

    Many educators have said that Youngzine is a perfect complement to academic material, and can be a great resource for teachers and their classes. Learning through current events not only makes students more aware of what's going on in the world, but also helps absorb concepts better.

    Moreover, Youngzine now provides a safe “blog” environment for classrooms—a constructive, creative and controlled way for teachers to create classroom assignments (任务) and push for discussions on current events!

    Youngzine provides special features just for you. If you sign up as a teacher:

    Each of your classes get a “Classroom Code” that identifies the students in that class. For each class, you get a “Blog” where you can post assignments and have students respond. You can include specific articles and quizzes in each assignment.

    For each of your classes, you get to see a foil report of each student's activities just by going to your classroom tab (标签): their comments, assignment, responses, points and quiz results.

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    You may have seen many pumpkins in posters and TV shows recently since Halloween came on October 31.

    Lanterns made of pumpkins, also known as jack-o'-lanterns, are often seen during Halloween. Many people in the U.S. like to make them and put them in front of their houses. People hollow out（挖空）a pumpkin, carve a face on one side and place a candle inside to make the pumpkin glow. The lanterns can look funny or scary.

    This is not the only way in which pumpkins are part of American culture.

    During the Thanksgiving holiday, pumpkin pie is a common food. It is made from pumpkins and has some delicious spices to give it a nice flavor. People often put some cream on top of it before serving it. It is one of my favorite things to eat during Thanksgiving.

    There is also “pumpkin chucking”. It's a competition where people build machines to throw pumpkins through the air. The person whose pumpkin flies the farthest wins the competition. The world record for pumpkin chucking was set in Utah in 2010. The distance for that world record was about 1.69 kilometers!

    Finally, there are also pumpkin growing contests. For these contests, farmers try to grow the biggest pumpkins they can. The person who has the biggest pumpkin will win the first prize.

    Jack threw the papers on my desk. “Next time you want to change anything, ask me first,” he said. I had changed a long sentence and corrected its grammar — something I thought I was paid to do.

    Several days later, he made me angry again. I went to his office, prepared to lose my job if need be, but not before I let the man know how I felt. “What?” he said nervously.

    Suddenly I knew what I had to do. “Jack, the way you've been treating me is wrong. And it's wrong for me to allow it to continue,” I said. “I want to make you a promise. I will be a friend.” The next day I brought some cakes to Jack's office. Every time I saw Jack in the hall, I smiled at him. After all, that's what friends do.

    One year after our talk, I was told that I had breast cancer . When I was in hospital, my friends tried to find the right words to say, but no one could. The last day of my hospital stay, the door opened and Jack walked over to my bed. “Tulips (郁金香),” he placed some bulbs  beside me and said, “If you plant them when you get home, you'll be there to see them when they come up.” Tears filled my eyes.

    In a moment when I prayed for just the right words, a man with few words said the right thing. After all, that's what friends do. Now, I have seen those tulips push through the soil every spring for over ten years.

    The world is a truly strange place waiting to be explored. In addition to offering a lot of extraordinary locations and people, it also offers interesting festivals celebrated by people in various parts of the world. Here is a list of the oddest festivals that can be found around the world.

    Cheese Rolling Festival: A festival that is surely going to leave you with a sore neck if not a broken one! Celebrated in England, the Cheese Rolling Festival is something that you would rather watch than take part in.

    Okay! Here's how it goes. Officials set a big cheese wheel to roll down a steep hill and participants run after it. The first one to catch it wins the competition and the cheese. Simple? Well, try it out and you will know!

    The Monkey Buffet: Now here's a country that actually feeds monkeys to their hearts' content instead of chasing them away. Celebrated in Thailand, the Monkey Buffet is an annual event that brings together a lot of locals who offer fruit and vegetables to over 600 monkeys. It's a great feast as the monkeys dig into almost 3, 000 kilograms of fruit and vegetables. The people of Thailand believe this is a way to honor the Monkey King called Hanuman.

    La Tomatina: Here's your golden chance to get even with your friends who sprayed(喷洒)paint on you on your birthday. Celebrated in Spain, the month of August has nearly 250 pounds of tomatoes go down the drain(被浪费掉)in what is perhaps the largest tomato fight in the world. The event is conducted in the town of Bunyol and attracts nearly 30, 000 tourists around the world in addition to locals. Truckloads of tomatoes arrive and you are ready to go. The entire area is covered with slush and tomatoes within minutes. It's a good time to have fun with friends and family.

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