SUMMER

1. SUMMER 2 Minutes to write down what you associate with summer!

2. WASPS 2 Minutes to write down what you associate with WASPS!

3. AQA Short Stories L/O: Can I explore and comment on the language and its effect on the reader?

4. When the Wasps Drowned P.9 That was the summer Therese stepped on the wasps’ nest and brought an end to our barefoot wanderings, when the sun shone every day and everybody commented upon it. Old ladies on park benches, fanning themselves with well-thumbed issues of Woman’s Own, would sigh, ‘Oh, isn’t it hot?’ And I, hungry for conversation, would sit tall on the wooden seat and smile as I agreed, eyes darting to see if they might say anything more. The heat was all anyone ever seemed to speak of, and I knew that when the weather changed we’d still be talking of the same thing, only then we’d be blowing at our hands and complaining of the cold. The chemist sold out of after-sun that summer, and flower beds dried up, and people had to queue to get into the swimming pool. With towels hung over their arms or squashed into carrier bags, we’d see them waiting along the wall outside, listening to the shouts echoing on the water within, envious of those who emerged coolly with hair slicked damp and eyes pinkened by chlorine, carrying bags of crisps from the vending machine. It was the first time the garden walls seemed confining, when finally I was tall enough to peer over their mossy tops and look across the line of gardens and see sheets, dried out in the heat, listless in the still air, and hear the tinny music of distant transistor radios, and the ache of cars moving slowly in the hot sun, their windows wide as if that might change anything. That was the summer they dug up Mr Mordecai’s garden.

5. Exploring the opening to the text. What do we learn in the first three paragraphs? What is the tone of the short story? How does it make us feel as readers?

6. That was the summer they dug up Mr Mordecai’s garden. What does this line suggest? How does this change the tone of the short story? What can we predict about the story?

7. Explore the ways the theme of growing up is presented and developed in a selection of short stories from Sunlight on the Grass.

8. Can you find any evidence of our theme? That was the summer Therese stepped on the wasps’ nest and brought an end to our barefoot wanderings, when the sun shone every day and everybody commented upon it. Old ladies on park benches, fanning themselves with well-thumbed issues of Woman’s Own, would sigh, ‘Oh, isn’t it hot?’ And I, hungry for conversation, would sit tall on the wooden seat and smile as I agreed, eyes darting to see if they might say anything more. The heat was all anyone ever seemed to speak of, and I knew that when the weather changed we’d still be talking of the same thing, only then we’d be blowing at our hands and complaining of the cold. The chemist sold out of after-sun that summer, and flower beds dried up, and people had to queue to get into the swimming pool. With towels hung over their arms or squashed into carrier bags, we’d see them waiting along the wall outside, listening to the shouts echoing on the water within, envious of those who emerged coolly with hair slicked damp and eyes pinkened by chlorine, carrying bags of crisps from the vending machine. It was the first time the garden walls seemed confining, when finally I was tall enough to peer over their mossy tops and look across the line of gardens and see sheets, dried out in the heat, listless in the still air, and hear the tinny music of distant transistor radios, and the ache of cars moving slowly in the hot sun, their windows wide as if that might change anything. That was the summer they dug up Mr Mordecai’s garden.

9. How is the theme of growing up presented in these lines? That was the summer Therese stepped on the wasps’ nest and brought an end to our barefoot wanderings It was the first time the garden walls seemed confining That was the summer they dug up Mr Mordecai’s garden.

11. How to write about texts: Make a clear point • if possible use the vocabulary from the question or successful connectives Select appropriate textual evidence • Use short quotes that suit the point you have made Explain your evidence in detail • Think about what you infer/deduce from the textual evidence Develop your ideas by: • Picking out key aspects of language and considering connotations and denotations • Think about the structural choices that have been made • Consider the effect on readers

12. How is the theme of growing up presented in these lines? The theme of growing up is presented by the change in the children’s actions “bought an end to our barefoot wanderings”. This suggests that until this time the characters were carefree as they would wander about ‘barefoot’. As readers we could infer that they are getting older as children are more likely to go around barefoot than adults because they are not aware of the risks like being stung by wasps. The end to their wanderings seems to happen abruptly “bought an end”, this mimics how quick being stung was and how quickly their views of the summer changed.

13. How is the theme of growing up presented in these lines? The theme of growing up is presented by the change in the children’s actions“bought an end to our barefoot wanderings”. This suggests that until this time the characters were carefree as they would wander about ‘barefoot’.As readers we could infer that they are getting older as children are more likely to go around barefoot than adults because they are not aware of the risks like being stung by wasps. The end to their wanderings seems to happen abruptly “bought an end”, this mimics how quick being stung was and how quickly their views of the summer changed.

14. The theme of growing up is presented by the change in the characters actions “bought an end to our barefoot wanderings”. This suggests that until this time the characters were carefree as they would wander about ‘barefoot’. As readers we could infer that they are getting older as children are more likely to go around barefoot than adults because they are not aware of the risks like being stung by wasps. The end to their wanderings seems to happen abruptly “bought an end”, this mimics how quick being stung was and how quickly their views of the summer changed.

15. WASPS L/O: How can I explore and comment on the context of the short story?

16. On her writing… ‘When the Wasps Drowned’ is part of Wigfall’s debut short story collection, The Loudest Sound and Nothing. Often, the characters in Clare Wigfall’s stories appear to be searching for something and as they go about their seemingly ordinary lives, a dark or sinister aspect of life is revealed. The idea of absence and things lost appear in her writing. Even when lost things are found (like the body in ‘When the Wasps Drowned’), a happy ending isn’t forthcoming because the findings are connected to hidden crimes. ‘When people ask what my stories are like I want to say they're like old folk songs. Spare and beautiful on the surface maybe, but with a dark undercurrent if you listen closely to the lyrics.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXkYKUGPFDs

17. Settings Themes Characters

18. Settings The back garden Mr Mordecai’s garden before Mr Mordecai’s garden after The house

19. Themes Growing up Relationships Death

20. Characters Eveline Tyler Therese Mum Mr Mordecai The police officers The dead girl

21. The Dead Girl- what do we know about her? Why does Eveline keep the ring?Why does the dead girl not have a voice? What comment on society is Wigfall trying to make?

23. 850,000 children are lost each year. In the UK it is estimated that 140,000 cases of missing children are reported annually. Breaking these statistics down, we can see that an average of about 1,800 children are reported missing every day! That is one child every 40 seconds! And these are just the reported cases. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zUFviSuFx0

24. Holly and Jessica. 4th August 2002. Bodies Found 17th August 2002. 10 years old. Sarah Payne. 1 July. Body was found 17th July. 8 Years old.

25. Vicky Hamilton (Disappeared Feb 1991. Aged 15. Body found in 2007) Angelika Kluk (Disappeared Sept 2006. Aged 23. Body found Oct 2006) Dinah McNicol (Disappeared August 1991. Aged 18. Body found in 2007)

26. Jessica Marie Lunsford (October 6, 1995 – February 27, 2005) was a nine-year-old girl who was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida in the early morning of February 24, 2005. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 47-year-old John Couey who lived nearby.

27. On the evening of June 9, 1995, Morgan Chauntel Nick was kidnapped while playing with friends just yards away from her mother during a little league game in Alma, Arkansas.  A massive investigation ensued, and continues, but Morgan Nick remains missing.

28. 3rd May 2007. 4 Years Old. Still missing.

29. Straight away I knew what it was I could feel, but I told Therese to run in and find the torch. She came back a moment later and we angled the light. At the end of the tunnel, a pale hand reached towards us. We said nothing as we looked. The skin was mauve in places, the fingernails chipped and clogged with soil. Suddenly the day around us seemed unbearably quiet, as if everything was holding its breath. She held out a photograph of a late-teenage girl. A holiday pic. The girl was sun-browned, smiling at something beyond the camera lens.