Related Texts – List of Texts
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HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts Choosing related texts for AOS: Discovery Choose quality texts - texts of substance that ensure that you have something to write about Choose texts that give you an opportunity to discuss language features and conventions Choose a variety of types of texts Choose related texts that are of a different text type to your prescribed text Choose texts with similar ideas to those in your prescribed text Choose texts with contrasting ideas to those in your prescribed text. Note: you cannot use as a related text any text that is prescribed for the HSC, even if it is prescribed for a course different from the one you are doing. An Overview of the Texts This overview lists the texts under types. Below you will find, in alphabetical order, annotations on each of the texts. Some picture books Dragonquest by Allan Baillie and Wayne Harris. Walker Books, 2012 (1996). It's a Book by Lane Smith. Walker Books, 2010. Luke's Way of Looking by Nadia Wheatley and Matt Ottley. Walker Books, 2012 (1999). Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan. Lothian Books, 2013. Sounds Spooky by Christopher Cheng and wSarah Davis. Random House Australia, 2011. The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg. Andersen Press, 1993. Page 1 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen. Candlewick Press, 2012. The Watertower by Gary Crew and Steven Woolman. Era Publications, 1997 (1994). Some graphic novels Coraline: The graphic novel based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Stormbreaker: The graphic novel based on the novel by Anthony Horowitz, adapted by Antony Some young adult novels The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. Red Fox, 2006. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina. Walker Books. 2012 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Penguin Books, 2012. Girls Don’t Fly by Kristen Chandler. Penguin Books, 2011. Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Allen & Unwin, 2011 (2009). Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. Puffin, 1992. The Vanishing Moment by Margaret Wild. Allen & Unwin, 2013. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Allen & Unwin, 2014. Some adult novels Past the Shallows by Favel Parett. Hachette, 2013 (2011). Page 2 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Penguin Books, 2008 (2007). Some classic novels Emma by Jane Austen. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Silas Marner by George Eliot. Some non-fiction texts Book by John Agard, illustrated by Neil Packer. Walker Books, 2014. The Explorers by Tim Flanagan. Text Classics, 2013 (1998). The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Raphael Baker. HarperCollins, 1997. My Place by Sally Morgan. Fremantle Press, 1988. Paula by Isabel Allende. HarperCollins, 2005. Scurvy by Stephen R. Bown. Penguin, 2004 (2003). Some short stories 'Alien' by Nadia Wheatley. Available in Ten Out of Ten, Phoenix Education. 'Mrs. Sen's'. Available in Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. 'Vici' by Naomi Novik. Available in The Dragon Book edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Some poems Page 3 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts 'Beach Burial' by Kenneth Slessor 'Five Visions of Captain Cook' by Kenneth Slessor. 'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning Some plays Forget Me Not by Tom Holloway. Currency Plays, 2013. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. A play in three acts. A television documentary First Contact presented by Ray Martin and produced by Blackfella Films. 2014. Rated M. Some films Emma directed by Jim O'Hanlon. 2009. Rated G. The Invention of Lying directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson. 2009. Rated M. Longitude directed by Charles Sturridge. 2000. Rated M. The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir. 1998. Rated PG. The texts in more detail 'Alien' Page 4 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts Ten Out of Ten by Nadia Wheatley. Available in Ten Out of Ten, Phoenix Education, ISBN 9781876580483. This is an appealing story about a teenager whose family have recently undergone a sea change, moving from the city to a small seaside town. The story is told in the teenager's voice and the title, 'Alien', expresses the sense of being an outsider that most teenagers who have had to change towns and schools will recognise. The story gives a vivid description of the town as a warm, welcoming place, which makes the sense of alienation even more acute. In contrast to that sense of alienation, the narrator's parents have immersed themselves happily in every aspect of community life. The reading of this story involves a different kind of discovery from the other texts suggested here. It's a discovery on the part of the reader - and it only happens when you've finished reading the story and begin talking about it with others. Some readers will begin confidently talking about what 'she' felt and did; others will tentatively question how they've come to the conclusion that the narrator is female. Arguments begin, including the stereotype that 'She must be female. Look at the fuss she makes about her appearance'. For most readers it is an interesting discovery that they have made assumptions based on such stereotypes. Closer reading shows that there is absolutely no way of knowing the narrator's gender; Wheatley has cleverly structured her story so that it is never revealed. Page 5 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts There is another discovery, on the part of the narrator. His or her parents are both deaf. We've been told that school friends have often thought that strange, but it has always been part of the family life and has come to seem quite normal: No, I don't mind that Mum and Dad are deaf. That doesn't get in the way at all. But sometimes I do mind that they worry so much about me minding that they throw themselves into every possible school activity and community activity in order to show that I am just a normal kid with normal parents who can do normal things. (And of course they can do everything just like 'normal' people - whatever that word means. But do they have to? Why can't they just be selfish couch potatoes, like most parents?) So yes: I do mind the way they seem to connect onto everything, and into everything. The problem with my parents is - I am not like them. Sometimes I feel as if I've come from outer space. In the final moments of the story, the narrator for the first time experiences that sense of community that comes naturally to his or her parents. On the stage at the town's music festival, with guitar in hand and the decision made to sing an original composition, he or she feels 'as if we're all somehow connected into the one body. I mean, everyone. Everywhere.' 'Beach Burial' by Kenneth Slessor. This can be found online at www.poetryfoundation.org. It can also be found in many anthologies of poetry, including collections of Slessor's work. This is one of Slessor's best-known poems. In 1940 Slessor became Australia's official war poet. In 1942 an important battle was fought at El Alamein in northern Africa. Many Australian soldiers and sailors died. In this poem Slessor writes about the sailors from all navies who were drowned in battle and whose bodies were washed up on the beach. This is an exploration of the concept of discovery as exposure. Slessor was always fascinated by the sound qualities of words, and his use of sound in this poem enhances the sense of exposure. He begins by describing very quietly the scene: Page 6 of 67 HSC English – AOS Discovery – Section 4 – Specific Notes on Text – Related Texts – List of Texts Softly and humbly to the Gulf of Arabs The convoys of dead sailors come There is a jarring note with the word 'dead' in the second line. The word 'convoys' has always been used about ships full of live sailors. But the third line is also soft and reassuring: At night they sway and wander in the waters far under That line is longer than the preceding ones, and it has an almost hypnotic rhythm, enhanced by the half-rhyme of 'wander' and 'far under'. The sailors seem peaceful. So the last line of the stanza is a shock: But morning rolls them in the foam. This is exposure - harsh and cruel. They are no longer being rocked gently by the waves. They are now thrown on to the beach, exposed to the light of day. Notice how effective 'but' is, with its abrupt sound. If you substitute 'and' for 'but', the impact is different. When you read the stanza aloud, the difference in sound between the first three lines and the fourth is stark. Notice that apart from 'morning' all the words in the last line are monosyllabic, so that we read them quickly, with that hard cold sound of 'rolls' and 'foam'. The poem then goes on to describe the hurried and anonymous burial on the beach, with a series of harsh-sounding words, again mostly monosyllabic: 'pluck', 'bury', 'tread'. The sound of the gunfire is represented by words that reflect the feelings of that small burial party, rather than an accurate representation of the shots themselves: 'the sob and clubbing of the gunfire'.