My Science School

Emily Brontë, in full Emily Jane Brontë, pseudonym Ellis Bell, English novelist and poet who produced but one novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), a highly imaginative work of passion and hate set on the Yorkshire moors. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the three Brontë sisters, but the record of her life is extremely meagre, for she was silent and reserved and left no correspondence of interest, and her single novel darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence.

Some of Emily's earliest known works involve a fictional world called Gondal, which she created with her sister Anne. She wrote both prose and poems about this imaginary place and its inhabitants. Emily also wrote other poems as well. Her sister Charlotte discovered some of Emily's poems and sought to publish them along with her own work and some by Anne. The three sisters used male pen names for their collection—Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Published in 1846, the book only sold a few copies and garnered little attention.

Again publishing as Ellis Bell, Brontë published her defining work, Wuthering Heights, in December 1847. The complex novel explores two families—the Earnshaws and the Lintons—across two generations and their stately homes, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff, an orphan taken in by the Earnshaws, is the driving force between the action in the book. He first motivated by his love for his Catherine Earnshaw, then by his desire for revenge against her for what he believed to be rejection.

 

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Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Although Black Beauty is looked at as a children's novel, Sewell did not write the novel for children. She said that her purpose in writing the novel was "to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses"—an influence she attributed to an essay on animals she read earlier by Horace Bushnell (1802–1876) entitled "Essay on Animals". Her sympathetic portrayal of the plight of working animals led to a vast outpouring of concern for animal welfare and is said to have been instrumental in the abolition of the cruel practice of using the checkrein (or "bearing rein", a strap used to keep horses' heads high, fashionable in Victorian England but painful and damaging to a horse's neck). Black Beauty also mentions the use of blinkers on horses, concluding that this use is likely to cause accidents at night due to interference with "the full use of" a horse's ability to "see much better in the dark than men can."

Black Beauty is considered to be one of the first fictional animal autobiographies. Originally meant to be informative literature read by adults on the norms of horse cruelty and preventions of these unjust acts, Black Beauty is now seen as a children's book. A novel narrated by the main character, Black Beauty is now read by thousands of kids worldwide.

 

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To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. To Kill a Mockingbird has become a classic of modern American literature, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.

One character from the novel, Charles Baker (“Dill”) Harris, is based on Truman Capote, Lee’s childhood friend and next-door neighbour in Monroeville, Alabama. After the phenomenal success that followed the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, some suspected that Capote was the actual author of Lee’s work, a rumour put to rest when, in 2006, a 1959 letter from Capote to his aunt was found, stating that he had read and liked the draft of To Kill a Mockingbird that Lee had shown him but making no mention of any role in writing it.

The novel inspired numerous adaptations, the most notable of which was the classic 1962 film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus. His Academy Award-winning performance became an enduring part of cinema history. Other adaptations included a Broadway play that was adapted by Aaron Sorkin and debuted in 2018.

 

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Jessica Townsend published her first book at the age of 32- the same age as her idol J.K. Rowling was when she wrote the bestselling "Harry Potter series.

Growing up on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, Townsend's sister Sally persuaded her to write a book. She came up with "The Three Koalas" and she enjoyed it so much that she made a wish: someday she wanted to become a famous writer

Her wish came true when she turned 18. One day, while attending a music conference, Townsend found the keynote speaker to be so boring that she began scribbling on the paper lying in front of her. She wrote down a story about a little girl who went to live with her aunt Morrigan, a slightly eccentric, but magical woman.

As she started writing the story, she realised that the aunt was actually much more interesting than the niece. So Townsend began writing her backstory, chalking out what the characters childhood would have been like and how she grew up and what turned her into this interesting person. And that's how Morrigan Crow was born.

The next “Harry Potter”?

The first book in the "Nevermoor" series, "Nevermoor Trials of Morrigan Crow", tells the story of Morrigan Crow, a girl who is born on the unluckiest day of the year. Everyone believes her to be cursed, which means she is blamed for everything that goes wrong, like local misfortunes and, hailstorms. To make matters worse, she is destined to die on her eleventh birthday. The only thing that can save her is a membership to the Wundrous Society. But that's not as easy as it sounds. Little Morrigan must pass through four difficult trials to emerge victorious. Each participant possesses a special talent that helps them sail through the trials. Will Morrigan be able to identify her special power?

"Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow was released in 2017. It bagged two major book awards - 'Book of the Year at the Indie Book Awards and the Gold Australian Book Industry award. So far, three sequels "Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow" and "Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow have been released. And, Townsend has already plotted out seven more books in her head.

DID YOU KNOW?

On the wildside

Before she became a writer, Townsend was working at the Australia Zoo run by Terri Irwin and her late husband Steve Irwin. Her job was to sell souvenirs and goodies to curious tourists at the gift shop. Irwin recognised her talent and promoted her to write for the in-house wildlife magazine "Crikey". Soon, Townsend became its editor.

The bidding war

It took nearly a decade for Townsend to finish writing the first book "Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow". Eight major publishing houses entered into a bidding war to acquire the rights for the book. Finally, Hachette Book Group managed to sign a three-book deal for the U.S., Britain and Australia for a six-figure sum. Simultaneously, the film rights were sold to 20th Century Fox.

 

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Do you love reading ghost stories, but hate being scared? Well, get ready for some spine tingling adventures of your favourite Wimpy kids, Greg and Rowley. But instead of getting spooked, the book will have you rolling on the floor with laughter. Author Jeff Kinney is diving into a new genre known as 'comedy horror, with his latest book, "Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories".

The new book, which released on March 16, follows Greg's best friend, Rowley Jefferson's imagination, and it is packed with zombies, vampires, ghosts, and many more spectres! Got goosebumps?

Keeping up his series of safe book tours during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kinney will embark on a haunted house-themed drive through book tour across the U.S for his latest book. He plans to also stop at Casper (the friendly ghost from the 1995 eponymous film comes to mind).

 

Ever since the first book in the series hit the stands in 2007, the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" has become wildly popular with young readers, who can relate to Greg Heffley the protagonist. A prolific writer, Kinney comes up with at least one book every year.

All about comedy horror:

You might think that horror and comedy are as different as dalk and cheese. One is about scary monsters, and the other is about delightful goofs and wordplay. And yet, when you put these different themes together you get something even better.

Comedy horror as a genre originated after the publication of Man Shelley's "Frankenstein". Many authors came up with parodies on the classic, and the trend picked up. In children's literature, R.L. Stine's Goosebumps" series made the genre popular.

Comedy horror books tickle your funny bone, but make you want to sleep with your lights on!

Socially distant tours

To keep fans entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic Kinney devised fun, but socially distant book tours. In July 2020, Kinney gave out signed copies of "Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure via a custom-made 96-inch trident: That's not all Kinney hosted a pool party-themed drive-through for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End in October. Sounds fun, right?

From Igdoof to Wimpy

Right from childhood, Kinney loved to draw, but he wasn't very good at it. So he developed his own drawing style - with stick figures and bug-eyed characters.

Drawing inspiration from his surroundings, he created comic strips about the life around him. One such comic strip was "Igdoof', which Kinney ran in his college newspaper at the University of Maryland. However, his work looked too juvenile and so he never received any offers from big newspapers. In 1998, he came up with the idea for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". Kinney worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher. The series started off online on Funbrain.com in 2004 and made its print debut in April 2007.

 

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Born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Bihar, Orwell spent a part of his childhood in India. Later, he moved to England for schooling but he hated school. He was often pulled up for playing pranks. He was expelled from grammar school for sending a birthday message attached to a dead rat to the town surveyor, according to Sir Bemars Crick's "George Orwell: A Life. And while studying at Eton College Orwell made up a song about John Crace, his school's housemaster, in which he made fun of Crace's appearance and his liking for Italian art

Orwell or P.S. Burton?

Orwell was disillusioned with the British Raj, He realised that the British government was oppressing people in the colonies and also in England. So he began exploring the backward areas of London on foot sometimes even dressing up like a beggar and adopting the name P.S. Burton to hide his identity. He recorded his experience as a low-life in his book "Down and Out in Paris and London" published in 1933.

A teacher and a journalist

Orwell moved to Paris to focus on writing. He became a successful journalist writing for Le Monde, a political and literary journal. Later he worked as a teacher, His stint As a teacher didn't stop him from pursuing more adventures. On one occasion, as part of research for a novel, he tried to get arrested so as to be able to interact with the prisoners But he could not succeed in his attempt as he was released 48 hours after being taken into custody. A few years later, he gave up teaching to become a full-time writer.

IN ORWELL'S WORDS

• Doublespeak: It is a language that deliberately distorts facts and confuses the readers. The term "doublespeak" derives from two concepts in Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four, "doublethink" and "Newspeak", though the term does not figure in the book. Doublespeak is often used in politics, media and advertising to misrepresent the truth. The word downsizing (used instead of "lay-offs") is an example of doublespeak. Doublespeak is so commonly used by politicians and the media that the National Council of Teachers of English in the U.S. in 1971 founded the Doublespeak Award as an "ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self centered." Its recipients are usually politicians, government officials, or departments.

 

• Cold War. Orwell used the term 'Cold War in his 1945 essay, "You and the Atom Bomb", written two months after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the term 'cold war referred to some of Hitler's policies, Orwell was the first to apply the word to conditions that arose in the aftermath of World War II. With much of Orwell's speculation about the geopolitical effects of a nuclear bomb coming true, the term Cold War began be used to describe the prolonged state of hostility between the U.S. and the Soviet.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Orwell's book "Animal Farm" was the underlying source of inspiration for Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals Roger Waters used Orwell's animal imagery to criticise capitalism through his songs.


• Orwell considered using his old pseudonym. P.S. Burton to write novels, but decided against it and settled on George Orwell instead He chose the name as he thought it would make people take him seriously.

Orange marmalade

The British Council rejected his food essay, which contained a recipe for orange marmalade. In 1946, Blair was commissioned to write an essay on British cuisine. Days after submitting the essay, he received a letter stating that his recipe for the marmalade was bad. "Too much sugar and water" it read. More than 70 years after the incident, the Council in February, 2019 sent a letter to the author apologising for rejecting the essay, but not the recipe.

Soldier, spy!

In 1949, he compiled a list of artists he suspected to be communists and passed it on to the government. This list included names of Charlie Chaplin, Katherine Hepburn, John Steinbeck and Orson Welles.

 

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