THE READING CLUB

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 THIS YEAR:

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)

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)