The Reading Club Report

2.i

THE READING CLUB PROJECT

This year the 2nd-grade-commercialist students participated in this little school project led by their English teacher Marijana Puljar.

The project intended to activate English language teaching, encourage students to read texts in English and enrich the English language vocabulary used by students. We read the stories together. The students then wrote summaries of the stories, commented and rated the stories. The final result of our work is in this ebook.

We all hope this year's project is just the beginning of something beautiful, refreshing and beneficial that will continue next year.

THE STORIES WE READ:

THE APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA

IN YOUR HANDS…

TIDY DRAWER

MR STICKY

THE STORYTELLER

THE UMBRELLA MAN

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES

THE TELL-TALE HEART

THE HITCHIKER

SUMMARY

The story is actually an old Mesopotamian tale retold by M. W. Somerset Maugham in 1933. This is how the story goes: A man who worked as a servant to a merchant in Baghdad was sent to market on an errand. He didn't manage to do the chore he was sent to do because, on the market in Baghdad, he met Death. Death approached the man and looked surprised to see him. The servant ran back home and asked his master for a horse. He wanted to run far away from Death. The merchant gave the servant a horse. The servant rode the horse all the way to Samarra. He thought he was saved from Death when he met Death again in Samara. Death explained that she had been surprised to see the servant in Baghdad when she knew she had a meeting with him in Samarra.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 The way the servant travelled from Baghdad to Samarra.

 The way the story is told because not everyone believes in destiny. The story tells that it is impossible to run away from the life you are meant to have.

COMMENTS

 The ending was expected. It was not a surprise.

 The story is too dark.

 I did not really like it.

RATING (3/5)

Photo by Kevin Zaouali

SUMMARY

This story is an Oriental legend about a widower who had two daughters. His two daughters were curious. They always asked a lot of questions. The widower didn't know many of the answers to their questions, so one day he decided to leave his daughters with the wise old man. The wise old man always had answers to all the girls´ questions.

One day the two girls decided to trick the wise old man so that he might not have the answer to their question. One of the sisters caught the beautiful butterfly, and she was holding it between her hands. The sisters decided to ask the wise old man whether the butterfly in her hands was alive or dead. They planned to kill the butterfly if the old man answered it was alive, and they planned to let the butterfly go if he answered that the butterfly was dead. The wise old man had the right answer once more. He said that the butterfly is neither alive nor dead. The butterfly was in their hands.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked how he dealt with the girls. He is someone who I want to be!

 The way he thinks is so surprising because not everyone knows how to think and speak wisely… You can see such people only in movies or in China.

 The way the old man accepted challenge.

COMMENTS

 I would recommend this story to everyone

 I would recommend this story to children in Middle school.

 I liked it.

 It is a really beautiful story.

RATING (5/5)

SUMMARY

The story is about a Mum, her daughter and their everyday life. At the beginning of the story, Mum tells the daughter to tidy up her room, which she does very quickly.

After that, Mum tries to find her purse in one drawer where she keeps all the things which are still usable, but which don't belong anywhere else in the house. The little girl and Mum go through the things in the drawer and remember the situations when they used the things. Mum calls this drawer the tidy drawer.

In the end, we find out the girl didn't really tidy up her room. She hid all the things under the bed.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked the relationship between the mother and her daughter. They talk things over.

 I like the situation where the girl didn´t really tidy her room. I do it very often myself.

 I liked the part where they laughed at the nosy neighbour. It reminded me of my neighbourhood.

COMMENTS

 I would recommend this story to everyone.

 I would recommend this story to children in elementary school

 I liked it.

 It is a good story, but I like detective stories better.

RATING (4/5)

SUMMARY

The story is about a Mum, her daughter and the little snail who appeared in the fish tank one day. The girl, Abby, liked the little snail in the fish tank. She was also smaller than other children in her class, so she felt for the tiny snail. At school, the children were sometimes rude to Abby. It hurt her. She liked Mr. Sticky more than the other fish in the fish tank because he was so extremely small. One day, after they had cleaned the fish tank, the little snail disappeared. Abby was sad, but in the end, Mum and she found out the little snail was only hiding under the pond weed.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked the description of the bullying in the classroom. These things happen every day at school. These things should be mentioned more often.

 I like the situation where the girl and mother use the magnifying glass to find the little dot of a snail.

 I liked the ending – it made me feel good.

COMMENTS

 I would recommend this story to little children

 I liked it.

 The story reminded me of the picture book stories I used to read in elementary school.

 It is a good story, it talks about being different.

RATING (4/5)

Photo by Kevin Zaouali

SUMMARY

This is a short story about a group of people who share the same carriage on a train. The passengers are three children (one boy and two girls) their aunt and a man (the bachelor) who is not related to any of them.

The children are restless and ask many questions while their aunt scolds them frequently. During the train ride the aunt tries to tell the children a story but they don't want to listen to her story because they are bored. Then the bachelor tells his story, which is somewhat inappropriate but quite captivating for the three children.

The bachelor tells a story about a „horribly good” girl who was invited into a Prince’s garden because she was so good. As this „horribly good” girl called Bertha walks around the garden, which is for some reason full of little pigs, she is caught and eaten by a hungry wolf.

The aunt is shocked by the story, but the children love it.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked the garden with little pigs, and the conversation the aunt and children had about the sheep.

 I liked the unexpected ending of the story that the bachelor told the children.

 I like the storyteller because he wanted to help the aunt to calm the children down.

COMMENTS

 I didn˙t like that the kids were pretty much annoying. I also didn˙t like the way they talked to a complete stranger.

 The story is not that bad but I don˙t like the annoying children.

 I didn˙t like the way the children treated their aunt and the batchelor.

 All things considered I think the story is not that bad.

 It is a good story.

RATING (4/5)

SUMMARY

This short story is about a mother and a daughter who met a strange old man while they were trying to get a taxi during a storm. The mother and daughter felt cold and uncomfortable because they were in the rain without an umbrella. The old man approached them and offered them his own umbrella for a small sum of money. The mother was mistrustful at first, but in the end, she agreed to a transaction. Both mother and daughter saw the old man´s strange behaviour and decided to follow him to see what he was going to do next. They saw him entering a pub, and they watched through the window inside to see what was going to happen. The old man used their money to pay for whiskey. He drank the whiskey and went out of the pub. Before he left the pub, he took somebody's umbrella out with him. In the last scene of the story, the mother and daughter saw the old man in the street selling the stolen umbrella to somebody else. After that, he went in another direction for another pub.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked the story. It is full of unexpected twists and turns.

 I liked the unexpected ending of the story.

 The way the old man tricked people. If you think about it, he didn˙t hurt anyone.

COMMENTS

 This is one of the best stories I have ever read.

 I recommend this story to everyone.

 I liked it.

 It is a very interesting story.

RATING (5/5)

SUMMARY

The writer tells a story about the saving of nature. It is about a man who made a difference and silently changed the environment and people's lives for the better. The writer met the main character - a French shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, for the first time when he was hiking in the French Alps as a very young man. The writer lost his way in the mountains, and Elzéard Bouffier helped him. He stayed with Elzéard for a few days and saw that the man was trying to plant a forest by planting one acorn at a time. Five years later, after the First World War, the author returned and met Elzéard again. His oak trees had grown tall. The forest was growing. The last time the writer met Elzéard was in the hospital. He was old and unaware of the change in the world he managed to make.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I liked the way the old man planted trees.

 I liked the ending. It makes me think we can do the same for our environment.

 The old man was quiet and patient.

 I liked the fact that the old man became a bee keeper because he thought sheep could harm his trees.

COMMENTS

 This is one of the best stories I have ever read.

 I recommend this story to everyone.

 I think people should plant trees.

RATING (5/5)

SUMMARY

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that follows an unnamed narrator who is convinced that he is not insane, despite having murdered an old man. The narrator is disturbed by the old man's eye, which he describes as resembling that of a vulture. The narrator eventually kills the old man and dismembers his body, hiding the pieces under the floorboards. The narrator is later driven to confess his crime after he hears the sound of the old man's heart beating beneath the floorboards. The story explores themes of guilt, madness, and the human psyche.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 We wanted to read the crime story and this story met our expectations.

 I liked reading the story by Edgar Allan Poe.

 The way the criminal reveals his crime himself.

 It is a horror crime story.

COMMENTS

 The story is a masterpiece.

 It is a good story. It is very dark, so people who don˙t like murder stories should avoid this story. RATING (5/5)

SUMMARY

The writer is driving his new car to London. On his way there, he picks up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is going to the horse racing. The hitchhiker in this story is a very interesting character. During their journey together the hitchhiker persuades the writer to test his new car – to drive it faster and faster. After some time, not unexpectedly, they are stopped by the police. The police officer is very rude and writes both their names in his two books. The writer gets very worried about the possible fine. However, in the end, the hitchhiker reveals that he stole both police officer´s books, so the police officer doesn't have any evidence against them.

WHAT THE STUDENTS LIKED:

 I enjoyed it. It is an impressive story. I mean, he is a thief but you need skills for that. If I stole things, I would probably get caught. The hitchhiker didn˙t…

 If I could do what he did, I would do it for fun.

 Everything.