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| Henry's Boots |
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As any teacher who has faced a 30-book high pile of "Extended Writing" books knows, "the football story" is a genre that is plagued with cliché. (No doubt a criticism that can be levelled at my book!) The trick is to build on to those clichés and try to reveal something new about them. (To find out what the parrot ate that made him so sick or to describe the view from over the moon!)
I tried to do this in two ways. Firstly, I took as a premise for this story a cliché that children don't want to think about. Namely, that there are countless children who, despite their ineptitude at the game, want desperately to be a footballer. (I know - I am that useless footballer. I am Henry!) There is a scene in the book where the team, just before the big final, listen as their teacher-coach urges them to make the most of their moment of glory so they could share it with their grandchildren - but all the children can think of is when they'll be back in a grown-up cup final in a few years time. To them their teacher is merely a failed footballer - something they don't even want to contemplate for themselves!
Secondly I based the background of the story on fact; the Munich air disaster when, in February 1958, eight Manchester United football players were amongst the 23 people who died as their plane crashed in a blizzard on its third attempt to leave the runway. Specifically I focused on one of those players - Duncan Edwards who, when he died aged 21, had already played 175 times for Manchester United and 18 times for England.
You don't need to know any of the above to enjoy the story, but it helps. |
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| Follow-up activities... |
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After acknowledging how daunting "the football story" can be to mark, I am loathe to suggest any follow-up activities to this book! But if you can face a few stories of two halves...
You might want to concentrate on the commentary aspect of the text. Henry (as I did, and countless others do!) could slip into commentary-speak very easily. Get the class to write in the style of John Motson (it'll certainly make a change from Roald Dahl or Anne Fine!) And don't just limit it to football - choose any topic. How's about "being late for school again!"...
...and in he comes, deftly sliding his bag under his desk and grabbing his reading book, hoping against hope that he's not been spotted. As the familiar list of names cascade from the register he struggles to find his breath. Eager not to sound like someone who had just sprinted across the playground like a charging bull, he waits keenly for his name.
"Robertson..."
"Yes Miss Masterson," he exhales slowly, calmly - has he done it? The crowd wait.
The tension is unbearable.
"Late again I see!"
Another angle could be the based-on-historical-fact approach. There are plenty of stories, myths and legends that make up Football Folklore! See if the children can do what I have done with the Munich air crash.
You could also ask your children to use their own family as a source of information. What was it like in your day granddad? Do you remember your first pair of boots? Who was George Best?
I could go on, but some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over - it is now! |
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