Thrillers for young adults

(Review by Laura Dambolena)

“Zombies. Encounters with the hungry dead” is John Skipp’s recollection of dread tales, which includes “Dead men working in the cane field”, a short story written by W. B. Seabrook, the zombies-of-the-old-school-tales author. This particular text belongs to a series by Seabrook himself in which he goes to Haiti to understand the country’s folklore. One night, his host, a peasant called Polynice tells Seabrook a well-known Haitian history about some men brought, from afar, by a man who send them to work for low salaries in a cane field. Polynice suspects them to be zombies, as he saw something strange in them he cannot define. The protagonist does not believe in supernatural events so he looks for a very reputed scientific who says that the story may be truth.

The book, with its dreadful bloody cover design, promises, from the very beginning, all the adventure teenagers are seeking for. “Dead men...” in particular deals with several issues: the fact–fiction dichotomy, the “romantic” concept of death, cultural differences, folklore, reincarnation, and mystery, among others. It is highly recommended for young adults from thirteen to seventeen years old. They will find this tale very interesting as the story develops a scary thriller, leaving teenagers with a dilemma in an unexpected and surprising open-ending.

TT Show (TV show proposal)

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are pleased to write you in order to put under your consideration our new project, entitled “TT Show”. It has been developed taking into account teenager’s needs and interests.

The format of the show is based on a contest. The contestants will be casted several times according to their skills in different artistic categories. The prize will consist in a full scholarship to the best institution for artists. The assessment will be carried out by famous teenagers. The participants chosen by the jury will be exposed to the decision of the audience, who will cast their vote via mobile phones.

We are convinced that the combination of a stimulating competition for young people and the participation of the audience as a central figure in the destiny of the contestants will appeal to teenagers. “T.T Show” is a solid project which can be attractive for teenagers and young adults who want to express themselves artistically. We, as a group of young producers, see the necessity in the Argentinean television network to have an space to share our young people‘s artistic abilities. Therefore, we consider the best way for that to happen is by carrying T.T Show out.

With the purpose of providing you with detailed information about this project, we would like to have the opportunity to arrange a meeting.

At your disposal for further explanation and looking forward to favourable  response.

Yours faithfully.

Aesop's Fables

Aesop   

Thomson – Heinle / Baronet Books, Ney York - 2000

(Review by Laura Dambolena)

The recollection of fables by Aesop is one of the basic books any person should read because they can learn very useful facts of life and morals that will be unforgettable. Fables are short stories which illustrate a particular moral and teach a lesson to children. These fables are such a well known source in educative literature that most of the morals Aesop’s fables taught in the 5th Century B.C. are still applied for current social life and many of them became current sayings or proverbs. “The Tortoise and the Hare”, “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”, “The Boy who cried Wolf”, “The Lion and the Mouse” and “Father and Son”, are, among others, examples of Aesop’s fables whose morals became proverbs or sayings. In this edition, each page has on the one side the text- fable- and on the other side a black and white drawing that helps children to picture the situation and understand the general idea. Aesop’s Fables are highly recommended because they are adequate to satisfy children’s curiosity and interests and, at the same time, they can keep this book the rest of their lives. 

The new beginning (Laura Dambolena and Cristian Matas)

It was a rainy night. It was barely possible to see the surroundings. It was raining so heavily that the entrance of the ant-hill was flooded.

It was such a disaster that the ants had to run away in order to escape from the water coming. The water invaded the place all over. There was a dense feeling of desolation, so the only motivation for them to move away was the basic instinct of survival. Then, the leader, the red ant, guided the group to a new cave that was not finished yet.

It was an enormous place. Other colonies of ants were gathering there. Although at the beginning the little red ant had thought that all the colonies would fit in the new cave, she realized that they could not. The groups organized themselves in order to finish the construction of the “new home”. Soon, they figured out that they would have to build up new rooms. The ants asked the red ant for the reason why she was doing those kind of reforms. “What’s wrong with that?” said the little red ant. “It makes room for new people”.

Finally, they could make this place big enough for all the community and now they live as only one colony.