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Plot Overview
Jethro Creighton, the protagonist, is young and idealistic when the Civil War begins. At first he thinks the war will be neat, full of marching soldiers and demonstrative patriotism. He learns the realities of war soon enough as he watches his three brothers, his cousin, and his teacher go off to fight. One of his brothers, Bill, chooses to fight for the South in a decision that plagues him for a long time. Jethro and his family follow the progress of the war through the newspapers, but it is hard to tell exactly what is happening. Each day the paper is full of praise or criticism for one of the Union generals, and Jethro has trouble sorting out what is actually going on.
Read more at Sparknotes.

Betty Smith, Author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

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Of her career and upbringing, Burns once said, “It has been said that growing up in the South and becoming a writer is like spending your life riding in a wagon, seated in a chair that is always facing backwards. I don’t face life looking backwards, but I have written about past times and past people.”

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Here’s an interesting question I came across which was asked by a mother whose daughter has some reading problems. The source is The Desert Sun, California.
Question: Reading is a very hard task for my 6th grade daughter and her teacher suggested that I get books on tape for her to listen to this summer. My husband believes books on tape are not the same as reading and they are considered “cheating.” I’m confused, are books on tape really a form of cheating?
Answer: Although audiobooks can never take the place of reading aloud, many educators agree that audio books are considered wonderful tools for children for several reasons. Audio books are successful in providing struggling readers an opportunity to be exposed to literature they otherwise would not have been able to read. Reading is also about comprehending a story and audiobooks can help children develop strong listening and critical thinking skills.

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Those long summer road trips with kids in the back of the car, bored out of their minds and constantly asking : are we there yet?
Turn that trip into an adventure by giving the kids a selection of audio books they can enjoy. There’s plenty for the adults to choose from too.

Pygmalion, A Play by George Bernard Shaw.

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George Orwell Author of 1984 - The High School English Literature Curriculum
 
Who was George Orwell, the author of 1984?

George Orwell’s real name was Eric Arthur Blair.
He was born in Bengal, India in 1903. His father was an opium agent and worked for the Indian Civil Service. When he was four years old, his family returned to England. He attended the Anglican national school at Henley and later St Cyprian’s school in Sussex. Possibly due to the strict regime of these schools, he wrote some anti-authoritarian works including ‘Awake! Young Men of England’.
When he was fourteen, he won a scholarship to Eton College and made a name for himself as a contributor to many college publications. One of his teachers at Eton was the famous author Aldous Huxley (Brave New World).
At the age of nineteen, he joined the Burmese police and spent five years there. Although he enjoyed his time in Burma, he became disillusioned with the cloak of Imperialism and this may also have inspired his anti authoritarian views later expressed. On his return from Burma he moved to Paris and started to write short stories but success eluded him. Most of his work was rejected by the publishers.
He contracted pneumonia in 1928, an illness which weakened him considerably. After recovering, he returned to England in 1929, when he was twenty-six, and lived on the bread line for a couple of years as he wanted to experience the tough living conditions of the under privileged. To protect his family’s reputation, he adopted the penname George Orwell.
Subsequently he got a job as a sales assistant in a bookshop in London while continuing to write in his spare time. He married in 1936 and he and his wife went to Spain at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to fight against General Franco’s Nationalist party. He sustained a neck wound during the war. After the war, both he and his wife joined a Marxist party in Barcelona and were fortunate not to have been arrested or worse.

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - 5 things you should know.

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