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. 

First Love, Last Rites

Written by Ian McEwan
Vintage Books - 2006
Paperback – 157 pp.
(Review by Angélica Santi)

First Love, Last Rites is Ian McEwan’s first collection of short stories as well as his first published work. Available since 1975, these eight very different and sometimes shocking short stories are connected by the main themes of death, obsession and sex combined with a secondary theme of youth and adolescence, always from a male point of view. The author’s changing style can be considered a powerful device to appeal to a wide audience, although some of the stories are inexcusably disgusting. I recommend it for those who want to explore McEwan’s world from the beginning.  

Forum 2: The appropriate topics for children

As we read at the beginning of the year, Corbally sustains that “children’s literature is didactic (teaches/preaches); even the best of children’s literature is didactic.” This conception became apparent in the last essay analysed in class, too. And, of course, it's also something that came to our minds when discussing taboo in the TV show 'Ren & Stimpy'. So, if we agree products for children are supposed to ‘teach’, what do you think they should teach? Or, the other way round: what do you think they should not teach? What topics are proper or improper when children are the target?

Join the discussion!

The laws of life (by Reneé Fredes & Patricia de la Llera)

The weather was hot that morning in Ituzaingó city. The forecast announced that it was going to rain during the night. That was the reason why Mrs. Maria saw a long active file of ants carrying pieces of leaves to their homes. That situation worried Maria because she thought about her favourite roses. In desperation, she went to the garage to get the ant poison.

When Maria came back to the garden, she saw her roses completely eaten by the ants. Those roses have been the last gift that her mother had given her before she died. Suddenly, a feeling of gloom and depression involved her. She went to the kitchen and prepared some tea but instead of sugar she used the ant poison. Without hesitating she had two cups of it.

During the afternoon the hungry red ants entered Maria’s house as always and went around the death body.

“Why is she so quiet?” asked one of the ants.

“Oh! Mrs. Maria has died!” shouted another ant.

“What‘s wrong with that?” said little Red ant “It makes room for new people”.

Little Red Ant (by Melina Núñez and Florencia Villaverde)

Once upon a time, there was a family of red Ants who lived in a big tree in the forest. The family was made of: Father Ant, Mother Ant and their daughter, whose name was little Red Ant.

Everyday, they worked hard to get food because winter was coming. They got up very early in the morning and went to bed at midnight.

One day, little Red Ant was looking for food in the forest and suddenly discovered a very little ant, whose name was Rose Ant, sitting on a stone and crying. She asked her what the problem was.

“I can’t find my tree, I am lost,” Rose Ant answered. 

Little Red Ant offered her new friend to stay with her and her family until she found the tree where she lived. Rose accepted and went to little Red Ant’s home.

When they got there, little Red Ant’s father was not happy because they had not enough room for Rose to stay there. Little Red Ant suggested him to give some leaves that were in the living room to their neighbours in order to have more space for the new guest.

“I won’t give the leaves to the neighbours, dear daughter,” said Father Ant really angry.

“What’s wrong with that?” said little Red Ant. “It makes room for new people,” she added. “And you have always taught me to share with other people,” she concluded.

Her father realized that little Red Ant was right and allowed the new guest to stay with them until she found her tree.

Forum 1: Characterising the stories for our students

Two meetings ago we set to discuss the elements and characteristics that should make a story for children. Among other things, we arrived at the conclusion that audience age was determinant in conditioning any possible answer. Thus, it seems necessary to contextualise and specify our audience before advancing on this discussion. 

Having in mind that our aim this year would be to teach in primary schools, let us agree on Argentine primary students of English as a foreign language as our expected audience. This settled, then:

What elements should characterise the stories we choose or create for them?

You can join the debate by clicking on the 'comment' button and sharing your opinion with us.

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.

It was a dark, rainy day (by Palazzetti Ivanna, Albim Giselle, Bustingorri Guadalupe and Diquech Natalia)

It was a dark, rainy day. Autumn was about to come and the food they had collected during the summer was ready to be eaten, but it wasn´t enough for all of the ants. So the colony arranged a meeting led by Red Ant to decide who should stay and who should go.

It was a difficult moment for the whole colony. They had been working so hard, that all of them had the right to remain in their ants´ nest. But they could finally arrive at the cruel decision of sending the eldest people away.

A desperated voice was heard from the very back. It was a little ant whose grandma was about to be sent out.

“Why are you going to take my grandma away from me?” he asked.

“What´s wrong with that?” said little Red Ant “It makes room for new people.”

An unusual alarm (by Angélica Santi and Florencia González)

It was a sunny day at Ant Town. The Red family was enjoying their breakfast before going to work. Suddenly they heard the alarm. It usually signaled the beginning of a new working day. But today it was something different. A group of collectors, who were in charge of providing food for the community, had brought some tasty and unknown delicacy. However, it turned to be very dangerous, because it had been prepared with a new poison made by humans to destroy the ant colonies.

The alarm set off when these tricky devices exploded, causing death to many of the area personnel. After the commotion, the whole family discussed at home what had happened. The father said, “I’m sorry for the victims’ families”. “What’s wrong with that?”, said little Red Ant. “It makes room for new people.” “You are right”, replied the mother, “The colony is really crowded.”

Some days later, they heard that the Queen had decided to turn the place of the massacre into a monument to remind the new generations of the danger of experimenting with new attractive stuff and to preserve the traditions.

The Selfish Red Ant (by Belén Giamberardini and Gisela Koval)

It was almost midday when the big group of ants gathered at the anthill to revise all the work they had been doing up to that moment.

The Queen of the red ants started checking the amount of collected food. There was one grain, pieces of leaves, some grass, pieces of bread and cookies but she realized that the flowers were missing. The Queen got mad at the idea that some of the workers hadn`t done their job properly. “I want to see the ants in charge of the flowers immediately” the Queen said. But nobody answered or moved. “ I said I want to see the ants in charge of the flowers immediately!” she repeated. But again nobody answered. “They are missing!” One of the ants shouted. Everybody were horrified to hear what has happened, some of them burst into tears.

“What’s wrong with that?” said Little Red Ant. “it makes room for new people”. “What a selfish comment!” the Queen said angrily. Suddenly, one of the guards of the Queen entered the anthill and cried: “The ants in charge of the flowers were poisoned by the humans”. All the ants cried, even the Queen cried. Little Red Ant felt really sorry for her selfish comment and said: “I want to make up my mistake. I’ve been so selfish! From now on I’ll do my job as usual and I’ll also collect the flowers”. “Oh! That proves that your heart is still kind” the Queen said. And from that moment on Little Red Ant was in charge of the flowers.

Exquisite cadaver

Sometimes the results of working together can be really interesting. We’ve made an activity based on the surrealist game called Exquisite Cadaver in which we’ve assembled different ideas to create a new and fascinating piece of writing. Enjoy our productions! (Belén Giamberardini)
  

Suddenly, she slammed the door behind her. They had been arguing very strongly for the last three months but this time she got tired of her husband’s unfaithfulness. The turning point was when she found out that her best friend was having an affair with him. In tears, she wrote some lines, took the gun and went away. The letter was left there for him to find it so that he could know the reason of her act.

When she knew where the letter was she got desperate. She had to recover it as soon as possible but it was going to be a hard task because his house was plenty of guards.

She drove her car for many hours from the city to the forest where his house was placed. She managed to enter and get the letter but one of the guards realized about her and when he tried to reduce her, she escaped and ran quickly to the forest.

She had noticed that someone or something was following her.

When she finally stopped, she felt a cold breeze. She looked behind her and saw a strange shadow. She could not recognize what it was. She was so frightened that she tried to ask for help but could not scream or move her body. She was paralyzed.

After some minutes, she reacted and started to walk slowly. But it was too late. The shadow was very close to her. She thought something small and awful was creeping towards her.

The horrible and indescribable creature was coming nearer and nearer. Although she wasn’t able to see clearly what that disgusting thing was, she got very scared. She hurried up looking for an exit, but the place seemed to be a maze. There were many endless and gloomy corridors full of locked doors.

The chances of finding a way out were remote. She felt as if she were in the worst nightmare ever. Suddenly she saw a light coming from inside one of the rooms. She made her last effort and asked herself whether or not to grab the handle. Breathless, she finally opened the door and burst into tears.
After having heard about her fiancee’s affair, she decided to confront her friend. She knew she was involved in covering him up.
As she was listening to her friend’s version of the story, she glanced at the kitchen’s table and as soon as her friend pronounced her last word she took a knife and stabbed her several times. When she realized what she had done, she washed her blood stained hands and immediately after, a noise scared her. Suddenly, she slammed the door behind her.

Groups in order (phrases in bolt indicate connecting sentences used by two groups):

• Patricia De La Llera, Natalia Diquech, Renée Fredes 
• Pablo Barroca, Laura Dambolena, Belén Giamberardini, Gisela Koval
• Paula Heredia, Nancy Nieto, Melina Núñez, Florencia Villaverde.
• Agustín López, Giselle Albim, Adriana Astrada, Cristian Matas
• María Florencia González, Karina Moreschi, María Silvina Rago, Angélica Santi