TRA Celebrates World Book Day
Last week, An Post launched Scéal Eile, a creative writing competition in association with the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation (INTO). Students from junior infants right through to sixth year are encouraged to take their favourite stories or beloved characters on a whole new adventure, creating a direction they’ve always wanted to see in their favourite books. Scéal Eile will see students revisiting some of their favourite books with the task of creating their own alternative storyline or ending, so TRA decided to get involved and some of the team members have shared their versions of their much-loved childhood tales.
Stephanie Caslin: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has always been my all-time favourite book growing up. It’s one of those books that you could read again and again and pick up on something that you didn’t spot or notice before. That said, if I was going to change anything about the storyline of any of the characters in the novel, I would love to see the story from Boo Radley’s point of view and delve a little deeper into his world and how he interprets the world (or town) around him. With the focus on racial hatred and prejudice that was apparent in 1930’s America, I would like to change the timeline to modern times and find out if the story would be any different if it was set in present day.
Rory O’Connell: Harry Potter was, and always will be, my favourite series of books. My own copies are all falling apart from being read and reread so many times. However, I never understood how J.K. Rowling could be so cruel as to rob us of Harry escaping the Dursleys and going to live with Sirius Black after his third year at Hogwarts. As soon as the possibility was mentioned I could imagine all the fun and excitement that Harry would have in fully integrating into and living in the wizarding world, and I have never forgiven J.K Rowling for sending him back to the Dursleys!
P.S. I am also amazed that Harry married Ginny Weasley when he clearly should have married Hermione.
Rebecca Myles: The classic that is Cinderella has always been a favourite of mine growing up. At some point most little girls have dreamt of what their “fairy tale” life would be like but why is it that in most fairy tales a prince or some male-like hero always comes to the rescue and saves the day... or the girl? My alternative storyline is quite simple. The story can stay the same but the characters change. 2018 was dubbed the year of “women”, so it is time that some of the classic stories get a revamp and future stories to come showcase women as the strong and independent forces that they are. Eric lives with his evil stepmother and two step sisters, where he has to do all the housework. An invitation arrived from the King, to say that he was hosting a ball to introduce his daughter to the village. At this ball Eric meets the princess and they fall madly in love, as anticipated. The clock strikes twelve as the original tale goes, and as he runs out the door - he drops his white glove! The next day the king’s men trawled the streets to find the owner of the glove and eventually Eric was united with the princess and they lived happily ever after – And so on and so forth!
Nicole Fenner: I absolutely adored reading (and watching) Matilda as a kid. Seeing her stand up to bullies so much larger than she was taught me that using your smarts is the best way to solve a problem. I loved how clever and powerful she was but most of all I loved her bravery. With such an awful home life Matilda still found the strength to do what she really loved – learn. I always wondered how Matilda’s parents felt after she went to live with Miss Honey. Did they realise how awful they had been? Did they ever think about her? Did they ever change their ways? If I were to rewrite the ending of Matilda, I would show the ‘Life after Matilda’ staring her family. I would show her parents and brother realising how wonderful Matilda truly was and how their actions caused her to leave. I would make a point of highlighting that neglecting children has consequences, because let’s face it the Wormwoods got off lightly in the true ending!