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Limericks :-)

Please post your limerick in the comments. :-)

Homework this week

Those who missed class on Monday. Your homework is to write a letter to C.S. Lewis. This is due by next Tuesday's class. Using the quotes or your ideas from watching some clips from the movie or from your own reading of Narnia, write to him giving your impressions or any questions you'd like to ask him if he were still alive.

Reading homework for this week is to read chapters 12-14.

Advice to people graduating soon

This article isn't directly relevant to this Sogo. But many of you are applying for jobs and most of you will graduate soon. Here is some advice from the CEO of a major American publisher. He says that "leaders are readers", so if you want to succeed in life after Kanda, then reading is a key thing you can do. Of course, you need to graduate first and you won't do that without doing all the reading you need to do for classes!!

C.S. Lewis

If you are absent today (Thurs 6th May) please pick up a handout from outside my office (4-316). Your homework is to research about C.S. Lewis before class on Tuesday. Here are some links to sites which might help you.

C.S. Lewis - Wikipedia

C.S. Lewis Chronology

C.S. Lewis-Biograpy, film review and more (warning don't read the section "faith and magic" if you don't want to know what happens in Narnia yet).

Which other famous author was a good friend of C.S. Lewis'?

Peter Rabbit Questions

Why did Beatrix Potter write Peter Rabbit? Both what inspired her and what purpose do you think the story serves?

List some words you can use to describe Peter Rabbit?

How do you think B.P. feels about Peter Rabbit (e.g. is he a bad rabbit)?

What do you think of Peter Rabbit?

Are there similar stories in Japan in which animals are portrayed as having human characteristics?

Did you have any pets when you were a child? Did you think of them as a friend?

Edited to add: Write 1-2 pages of typed A4. Either about Beatrix Potter and her life OR write a short children's story about an animal of your choice.

Some useful and interesting Beatrix Potter sites:

Beatrix Potter's Lake District Map

The World of Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter on Wikipedia

Evacuation and WWII Air Raids

Below are two links to sites with some information about life in Britain and the evacuation of children during the Second World War. Please check them out if you'd like to learn more about wartime Britian.

Evacuation of Children during WWII

Britain during WWII

Read Beatrix Potter Online

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a292

If you follow the link above you can find links to webpages containing all of Beatrix Potter's stories.

You can also listen to The Tale of Peter Rabbit here: Audio File.

Reading makes you a better person

According to research done at the University of Toronto people who read fiction are better at understanding people and emphasizing with them. Read the article here:

Those Who Read Fiction Better at Reading People

Welcome :-)

Hello and welcome to my Sogo class. I hope we're going to have some fun.

As you already know, my name is Kamsin and I'm from England. This semester we will be reading three full length children's stories as well as some short stories and poems. I really like this stories and read them or watched movies of them (or both) when I was a child. If you haven't watched the movies already, why don't you do so before reading the books?

First we will be reading C.S. Lewis's 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. You need to buy or borrow a copy of this book as soon as possible. I did not order any copies for Maruzen on campus, because I didn't know how many people would be taking this class. But you should be able to buy from any bookshop which has a reasonable selection of English books (e.g. Maruzen in Tsudanuma) or from Amazon (here).

But first, please leave a comment on this post to say hello, and tell us about some of your favourite books or stories when you were a child.