This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2012) |
Author | Theresa Breslin |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's novel, supernatural fiction |
Publisher | Methuen Young Books |
Publication date | August 1994 |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
Pages | 127 pp (first edition) |
ISBN | 0-416-19052-9 |
OCLC | 31078758 |
LC Class | PZ7.B7545 Wh 2007 [1] |
Whispers in the Graveyard is a children's novel by Theresa Breslin, published by Methuen in 1994. Breslin won the annual Carnegie Medal in 1994 [2] from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. [3] In a retrospective award citation the librarians call it "a gripping, powerful and haunting story". [3] [ citation needed ]
Richard Conlon and Theresa Breslin adapted the novel as a play, which was published by Heinemann in 2009.
WorldCat participating libraries report holding Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Thai, and Korean-language editions. [4]
According to the author, her work as a librarian exposed her to "parents asking for books about dyslexia, for names of help groups, names of special tutors etc." She attended a local meeting of the British Dyslexia Association and recognised the pain and frustration of children, their families, and educators. She determined to write a book featuring a boy, in the first person and present tense. [5]
She started writing without a story but "a ring road was being built in my home town, and to do this it was necessary to move the interred bodies out of an old graveyard which lay in the path of the new road. One of the graves included a mass grave of smallpox victims (children) When the news became public there was a big scare." [5]
Whispers in the Graveyard is about a 12-year-old boy called Solomon, who has a learning disability called dyslexia. Solomon has a very hard time with life as his mother left when he was young, his father is an alcoholic and everyone picks on him including a bullying teacher called Mr Watkins also known as Warrior Watkins
Solomon hears that bodies buried in a graveyard died of smallpox and if disturbed could spread the infection again, but the real danger is of a supernatural nature.
Solomon is a Scottish boy in the last year of primary school who is considered to be stupid and lazy, though he is actually dyslexic. He is bullied by his form teacher at school, and at home his father, who it is revealed is also dyslexic, drinks all the time and neglects him. Solomon often goes to the local graveyard for refuge.
Overhearing a discussion between a council official and Professor Miller, he is upset to hear that his special place is to become a construction site. When the graveyard's protective rowan tree is uprooted by workmen, he has bad dreams and hears mysterious whispers. Driven by his father's behaviour to spend the night in the graveyard, he witnesses one of the workmen being swallowed up by the ground after unearthing a mysterious chest marked with the word "Malefice".
He later discovers that the word means "witchcraft", and that a victim of the Scottish witch hunt is buried there. It seems she has awoken and is intent on vengeance. Amy Miller, the professor's young daughter, who has struck up a friendship with him, is drawn to the graveyard. Solomon follows to protect her from the evil presence which tries to possess her. With his father's help, he manages to rescue her and save himself.
With the encouragement of Ms Talmur, one of the teachers from school who has helped him throughout the book but leaves to get a promotion at the end, he begins to change his life, although he knows it will be an uphill struggle. His father agrees to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous class to perhaps change his life also.
Whispers in the Graveyard received many positive reviews, and was notably described in The Independent's Weekend Review as "one of those rare books that makes you want to put your life on hold for as long as it takes to finish it... formidably good writing, full of wit and wisdom, from which children will go away encouraged rather than demoralised at the possibilities of the human condition."[ citation needed ]
It is used in classrooms to promote good writing and also discussions about dyslexia and bullying. [6]
Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by English author Michelle Magorian, published by Kestrel in 1981. Harper & Row published an American edition the same year. Set during World War II, it features a boy abused at home in London who is evacuated to the country at the outbreak of the war. In the care of Mister Tom, an elderly recluse, he experiences a new life of loving and care.
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke is a children's story written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was first published in 1991, after Dahl's death the previous year, by Century.
Sharon Creech is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British Carnegie.
The Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever series of American children's books (2003-2010) by actor Henry Winkler and writer Lin Oliver, tells the story of a dyslexic child, Hank Zipzer. The series is based on Winkler's difficulties with school as a child, and are set in his childhood home. After finishing the main series, Winkler and Oliver created a prequel called, Here's Hank. This series explores Hank's life as a second grader. In addition, Winkler and Oliver created a television series called Hank Zipzer that ran from January 2014 to December 2016 on the CBBC channel. HBO Max began streaming all three seasons of Hank Zipzer in May 2022 and Hank Zipzer's Christmas Catastrophe in December 2022.
Theresa Breslin is a Scottish author. Winner of the 1994 Carnegie Medal. Breslin is the author of over 50 books. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.
Sally Gardner is a British children writer and illustrator. She won both the Costa Children's Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Maggot Moon. Under her pseudonym Wray Delaney she has also written adult novels.
Barrington Stoke is a children's book publisher based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 1998 and publishes fiction and non-fiction adapted to different reading ages for reluctant, under-confident and dyslexic children and teens. The books are printed on cream paper to reduce glare and language-edited to increase readability. The text is a specially-adapted dyslexia-friendly font, with a considered layout and numerous chapter breaks.
Taare Zameen Par, also known as Like Stars on Earth in English, is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language drama film produced and directed by Aamir Khan. It stars Khan himself, with Darsheel Safary, Tanay Chheda, Vipin Sharma and Tisca Chopra. It explores the life and imagination of Ishaan (Safary), an artistically gifted 8-year-old boy whose poor academic performance leads his parents to send him to a boarding school, where a new art teacher Nikumbh (Khan) suspects that he is dyslexic and helps him to overcome his reading disorder.
Bad Girls is a children's novel published in 1996, written by English author Jacqueline Wilson and illustrated by Nick Sharratt. The book revolves around a ten-year-old girl called Mandy being bullied by three girls called Kim, Sarah and Melanie. She later befriends a wayward teenage girl called Tanya who is in foster care and battling her own personal demons.
This is a list of artistic depictions of dyslexia.
"Backwards: The Riddle Of Dyslexia" is a 1984 episode of the American television anthology series ABC Afterschool Special, about dyslexia. It shows how dyslexia is detected and treated. The episode stars 13-year-old River Phoenix in "one of his first major roles" as Brian Ellsworth. Joaquin Phoenix also stars as his younger brother Robby. According to allmovie, Brian Ellsworth is a junior high student "who has a habit of writing his words – and the letters – backwards. Brian's friends think he's kidding, his teachers think he's lazy, and his parents think he's slow. In truth, Brian has dyslexia and suffers from societal misconceptions and Ableist idiocy."
In 1767, the 11-year-old composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was struck by smallpox. Like all smallpox victims, he was at serious risk of dying, but he survived the disease. This article discusses smallpox as it existed in Mozart's time, the decision taken in 1764 by Mozart's father Leopold not to inoculate his children against the disease, the course of Mozart's illness, and the aftermath.
Dyslexia is a disorder characterized by problems with the visual notation of speech, which in most languages of European origin are problems with alphabet writing systems which have a phonetic construction. Examples of these issues can be problems speaking in full sentences, problems correctly articulating Rs and Ls as well as Ms and Ns, mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words, problems of immature speech such as "wed and gween" instead of "red and green".
Kate Griggs is a British social entrepreneur best known for her work in the field of dyslexia. She is the founder of the dyslexia charitable organisation, Xtraordinary People. Her public speaking has ranged from the Conservative Party Conference to appearances on television and radio.
Wendy Philips is a Canadian author. She grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia, and wrote her first book at the age of 11, and completed degrees in journalism, English, education and a children's literature degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. Her past jobs have included journalism, bookbinding and teaching English. She has lived in Lesotho, Ottawa, South Africa and Australia, but currently lives in Richmond, British Columbia with her husband, son and daughter. Phillips currently works as a teacher-librarian at MacNeill Secondary School in Richmond, BC. Phillips is also an author of young adult fiction, whose first book Fishtailing won the 2010 Governor General's Award for children's literature.
Judit Kormos is a Hungarian-born British linguist. She is a professor and the Director of Studies for the MA TESOL Distance programme at the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. She is renowned for her work on motivation in second language learning, and self-regulation in second language writing. Her current interest is in dyslexia in second language learning.
Beth Slingerland was an educator who developed a classroom adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham system for teaching dyslexic children.
Orbiting Jupiter is a 2015 young adult fiction novel written by Gary D. Schmidt, the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and Okay for Now. The novel focuses on a Maine family as they begin fostering a teenage father.
Margaret Byrd Rawson was an American educator, researcher and writer. She was an early leader in the field of dyslexia, conducting one of the longest-running studies of language disorders ever undertaken and publishing nine books on dyslexia.