Crowvus Book Blog

"Childish Spirits" by Rob Keeley "When Ellie and her family move into Inchwood Manor, Ellie quickly discovers strange things are happening. Who is the mysterious boy at the window? What secrets lie within the abandoned nursery? Who is the woman who haunts Ellie's dreams - and why has she returned to the Manor, after more than a century? Ellie finds herself entangled in a Victorian mystery of ghosts and tunnels and secret documents - and discovers that life all those years ago isn't so different from the world she knows today...Rob Keeley's first novel for children brings out all the ingredients of the classic ghost story within a recognisable modern world setting. Readers of his short story collections for children will find in Childish Spirits the elements which made his past books such a success - strong and contemporary characters, inventive twists on traditional themes, and a winning combination of action, suspense and humour." Available from...

Happy Weekend, Teachers! Have a lesson plan for a suggested class novel to celebrate. If you'd like to read a bit about the novel, click here . "Children of Green Knowe" by Lucy Boston The Curriculum Experience and Outcome for this lesson is: I am developing an interest, confidence and enjoyment in using drawing and colour techniques, manually or electronically, to represent ideas in different learning situations. TCH 1-15a Having evaluated my work, I can adapt and improve, where appropriate, through trial and error or by using feedback. TCH 1-14b / TCH 2-14b This novel is all centred around the castle-like house Green Knowe. It is a very old house which has been added to at various times in history. Because the house and the garden are the setting for the entire story, there is a lot of description of the rooms, and the outside of the house itself. Test your class' design skills with this lesson. Learning Intention To understand how to u...

Here is the first lesson plan I'm posting on this blog! Hopefully, it will be the first of many. "First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts" by Lari Don The Curriculum Experience and Outcome for this lesson is: Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a / EXA 1-18a / EXA 2-18a For each topic, I try and do a composition lesson. The class have to create a piece of music in their group that is inspired by their topic. Why not do this with a book too? Learning Intention: To understand how to work in a group and create music for a book. Success Criteria: I can use my body to make 4 different sounds. I can talk about my feelings towards the book. I can listen to others in my group. I can create a 1 minute piece of music about the book. Introduction Talk about different ways you can make sound with your body (clappin...

As promised, here is my 2nd class novel suggestion for a primary school classroom. It has been tried and tested in my own classroom and the children loved it. "Children of Green Knowe" by Lucy Boston is a really great story to read in the lead-up to Christmas. Here is the blurb from Goodreads: ""Tolly" Toseland 7 is rowed up to great-gran Linnet Oldknow by servant Boggis - there has always been a Boggis at Green Knowe. The real "castle" is over 900 years old. Gran tells old family stories, and songs. Over the generations there have been many who can see, hear, and feel the ghosts, evoked by white-on-black illustrations. Toby 14, Alexander, and Linnet 6 linger after the Plague, as does the cursed topiary Green Noah." While it is my policy to use the blurbs from Goodreads on my blog, quite frankly, I don't think this blurb does the book justice. It seems to have been written by someone who is trying to bring the book up to date...

Tomorrow (Thursday 1st March) is World Book Day! At school, we are supposed to be dressing up as book characters but we had a snow day today so I'm wondering if school will open tomorrow. To honour, World Book Day, I thought I would write about 2 children's novels (1 today, the other tomorrow) that I have serialised for my Primary 4 class. I will also write a lesson plan for each, which I will post on Friday. The 1st novel I read to them was "First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts" by Lari Don. This is a great book for adults and children (I first read this when I was studying at university and loved it!). It is about a girl in Southern Scotland who meets a young centaur and his friends who have done something foolish that could threaten fabled beasts and humans alike. It's a book full of suspense and adventure. Here is the blurb from Goodreads: "Helen has absolutely no interest in becoming a vet like her mother. So she isn't best plea...