SE CHRONICLE 684

31 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Helping out at the Oxford Half Marathon and running a hockey coaching session for children from local primary schools in partnership with Oxford Hawks Hockey Club

T IME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

TIME TO READ

Katie Ross, OSE and former Governor Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Into Thin Air is the true story of the 1996 expeditions to Mount Everest. Jon Krakauer, a journalist and accomplished climber, shares his chilling account of the dreadful climbing season on Everest which went wrong. His broad perspective on the commercialisation that had just begun to rear its ugly head in adventure tourism and the harsh realities of extreme mountaineering are gripping. The storytelling in Krakauer’s account make this a book to recommend for any would-be adventurer.

Freddie Robinson, Fifth Form Animal Farm by George Orwell One of my favourite books of all time, Animal Farm , is ingenious and diverting. George Orwell pulls off a staggeringly convincing and successful stunt of anthropomorphism: representing the Soviet Union as a farm under the rule of the Communist Party leaders, the pigs. The story it tells, and its messages about power and society, can be considered controversial but, if anything, that’s what makes it an even more intriguing book. It makes you never stop thinking, and forming opinions, not just about the events that take place in the story, but also about the author’s aim and personal opinions.

Frank Sekula, Fourth Form The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief details the story of a girl, Liesel, who is displaced by World War II and goes through the struggles of walking alone through her home town, the rubble-ridden city of Berlin, her brother having died of pneumonia on the train ride home. The story tells of how those in the city’s Jewish population slowly lose their rights, one family ending up living in a basement with Liesel and her family. Narrated through the eyes of the grim reaper himself, we read about how Liesel starts stealing reading material from the local Nazi leader in her neighbourhood, leading to an unlikely friendship with his wife.