November 2019 – JMAC- The Blog Experience

Book Series Review- The Raven Cycle- Maggie Stiefvater

When I first bought this book it was really just to tick boxes for a deal considering the synopsis doesn’t exactly sell it to me ( I’ll let you check that out in your own time its too long to paste in here).

I read it on a camping trip and was hooked from day one, I’ll tell you why.

Maggie Stiefvater has a wonderful way of using character development, so much so that you can easily fall in love with every character and relationship. These books in particular make you want to find a really close mismatched group of friends and go a walk in a ~magical~ forest to discover dead welsh kings , go a drive late at night in a bright orange 63′ Camaro, street racing, visit large stately homes or go travelling for a year.

Basically the way this friendship group -Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah- evolves over the next four books is what kept me obsessed with this series.

One character in particular is my favourite to read about. Ronan Lynch, the rebellious teen who inherited a lot of money off his dad when he was brutally murdered for essentially selling magical objects on the black market. Ronan hates school and only turns up to see his friends once in a while, other than that he spends most of his time harnessing his dreamer powers at his family estate or mulling over the fact that he is in love with his best friend- Adam Parrish. He shows these emotions by rescuing Adam from his abusive dad, paying his rent etc.

The second book in the series- Dream Thieves- focuses quite heavily on these aspects of Ronan and how he copes with his traumatic childhood and poor relationship with his brother. We shortly meet Ronans enemy- Kavinsky- in this book, as in the end- after an explosive ‘battle’- he dies. We see a weird relationship form as the boys bond over their love for street racing and their shared ability to create objects in their dreams. Kavinsky is an angsty, confused teen who has had a similarly bad childhood and also faces some feelings towards Ronan which he squashes in a cruel way in order to not lose his ‘status’.

The third book- Blue Lily’ Lily Blue- is my least favourite. It’s relatively slow and the characters spend most of the time in caves looking for the dead welsh king and Blue’s lost mother. What I do like about this book is that we find out more about Gansey’s anxiety and how it affects him. He takes a panic attack at school and ends up finding comfort in his new friend Henry Cheng who teaches him how to deal with his anxiety and face his fears. The team also make a massive discovery about Gansey towards the end of the book but I wont spoil it too much. This book also develops one of the main relationship in the series (Gansey and Blue).

The final book-Raven king- is a satisfying end to the series however only in the last few chapters does it get exciting. The book follows the ‘unmaker’ the villain of the series which only appears in physical form in this book. The villain poses a threat to Ronan’s dreaming abilities and also the magical forest. It plans to completely wipe out all of society and start afresh, itself as the overlord. I’d be completely spoiling the whole plot and sub-plot if I told you what happened in these last few chapters, so i’m just going to hope I managed to sell this series to you and you decide to give it a chance and not judge a book by its blurb.

P.S- if you like Ronan’s story the most then Maggie has just recently released the first of the three books in the Dreamer trilogy- a series centred purely around Ronan. The book is called ‘ Call down The Hawk’

Another Month, More Music

It’s November, therefore no Christmas songs from me yet- well except the tunes forced into my brain through band-. This past month I’ve become addicted to ABBA, Queens Of The Stone Age and early 2000’s hits. Quite varied I’d say.

I Can Talk- Two Door Cinema Club. An oldie but a goodie, after seeing them in concert at the beginning of October (which was excellent might I add). TDCC is just one of those bands where you can easily dance to any of their songs and this one certainly fits that criteria. I Can Talk
American Boy- Estelle and Kanye West. I’m pretty sure every Gen Z and Millennial can agree with me. This.Is.A.Bop. I think I know all the words and that’s perhaps one of my proudest achievements. American Boy
Falling For U-Peachy! and mxmtoon. Tik Tok is addictive and also sometimes a good way to find new songs. Such as this one. A bit of a change up this is a slow chilled out song. Falling For U
Does your Mother Know- ABBA. Dancing Queen is the theme of St. Aidan’s Sixth year but this one is probably my favourite ABBA song of all time. Does Your Mother Know
No One Knows- Queens of the Stone Age. I first discovered this song playing Band Hero on my DS Lite about 8 years ago and have only now grown to appreciate it in my teenage years. Give it a listen if you haven’t heard it before and prefer a bit more rock. No One Knows

BONUS SONG!!!

It Gets Better-Rex Orange County. Out of all the songs on his new album-Pony- this one (or Pluto Projector) has got to be my fave. Probably one of the more upbeat tunes on the album but I highly recommend any of his songs. I’m soo excited to go see him in concert next week! It Gets Better

Halloween Disco

On Wednesday, our fifth and sixth year pupils attended a Halloween Disco to raise money for our Victoria Park Christmas party . The pupils got to dress up, come along and have fun with their friends. The event was organised by our own sixth year Victoria Park Committee.

Connie McMahon, chairperson of the Victoria Park committee commented “I think the night was very successful! Myself along with the other chair people- Niamh Jamieson and Matthew Mooney- and all of the committee have been preparing for this event for around a month now. It was so nice to see both fifth and sixth year contribute to a night for a really good cause. Also, a big thank you to Domino’s for generously donating pizza on the night.”

At the end, prizes were given out to the best costumes of the night. Christopher Corr won the prize for best costume, while Rebecca Mackie and Samantha Reynolds won the best group prize for dressing up as Bob Ross and one of his paintings.

Sixth year pupil support teacher, Miss O’Neill, commented, “The committee who organised this event were exceptional and are a credit to themselves and the school. We raise well over £430 and I know that this will be used for organising gifts for the young people at Victoria Park. I’d also like to thank the JMAC team for organising a photo booth.”

Credit to -,Jack McClung and Eilidh Kinsman

Edited by- Daphne Miller

Photos credited to-Daphne Miller and Sophie Farrell

Being Dyslexic

I didn’t know I was dyslexic until I was primary five or primary six but my first memory of struggling with it was when I was six and I was copying from the board and I ended up missing words and writing down the start of the word but not finishing it. Everyone thinks that being dyslexic makes you stupid and special needs, but it doesn’t- it just means you can’t write and spell very well and sometimes counting is an issue too. But it’s not- dyslexia is not about being condemned to stupidity- Albert Einstein was dyslexic, and he was one of the most accomplished scientists in history.

I have struggled my whole life with dyslexia whether it be the disability itself, teachers assuming I can’t do the work. My first memory of being dyslexic was in primary two but my mum claims that I couldn’t spell my own name until primary one but to be fair it is a nine-letter word. One of my biggest struggles with dyslexia was my teacher in primary four I asked her how you spell ‘one’ and she took me round to the primary ones and had them spell it to me.

I also have vivid memories of getting put into detention for not being able to do the handwriting practice and not passing the spelling tests. But my most vivid memory was when I was listening to her teach and then she claimed i was playing I don’t know how I was sitting on the floor but then she grabbed my arm and dragged me along to the play room and said if I wanted to play in here. I just stood and cried. I am one hundred percent sure that this is what has led to my hatred of authority and my mistrust of teachers.

When I first started high school, I was given an iPad to help me cope. This definitely did help since my handwriting is god awful and the auto correct really helped with my spelling. But I always felt different and I used to have to go get in between classes now I have permanently so it definitely helps now. But I would bring the iPad out and I would just different I don’t really know how to describe it. Sometimes I did wish I wasn’t dyslexic as it seemed easier as I used to think writing was faster than typing but now that I am a touch typist, I’m definitely faster than most are writing. But I used to get really annoyed that I couldn’t get my round things that other people could easily.

I have also been underestimated time and time again like when I was in my fourth year of high school my music technology teacher put me at national four level before we even sat the prelim. If my mum and dad hadn’t complained I probably wouldn’t have sat the exam which I got an A in and I am now doing advanced higher music technology. I have so many more examples of not being given the chance but one that really annoys me was when I was made to sit national four in English when I could have easily done the national five in fourth year and done my higher last year I should have been writing this last year. I can even tell you how the odds were rigged against me by whoever chooses what level you sit as in third year I was helping some of my friends that were allowed to sit the national five. But I also know when that I’ve been fairly put at a lower level like when I did math I definitely could not have done national five the first time round but when I did sit my national five I got an award of endeavour and an award of attainment. Another time I can prove my academic worth with dyslexia is when I crashed national five History purely because I there was nothing else, I could have taken in that column and I got a B and an endeavour award. I think one of the worst things about being dyslexic is the patronisation when I do well. People act like I’m puppy that has done a trick.

My whole entire life has been me getting underestimated and having to prove those who underestimated me wrong. But I don’t think it’s all bad as this is what has given me a sense of determination, a drive to succeed, to show that I’m capable of so much and that all I need is an iPad or a scribe and some extra time. And I’m not the only one as there are so many other successes story’s like Keanu Reeves who is a pop culture legend and star of movies such as The Matrix and John Wick. He credits his acting skills to his dyslexia as he would try to pretend that he understood however this got him expelled (another case of the schooling system being byest against dyslexics) so he decided to focus on his acting career. Another successful dyslexic is Albert Einstein who as I’m sure know is famous theoretical physicist who is mostly known for his discovery of E=MC2 so if a dyslexic can do that does that not mean that we can be as smart as everybody else?

So, in conclusion I don’t think that dyslexia is as understood as most will tell you it is. I also think that primary schools need to change if they haven’t since I left. Because teachers actually try and install fear into children and go off their head at them for falling behind. My dyslexia has limited me and helped me in so many ways. it’s somewhat shapes who I am it’s given me my thrust for knowledge my drive to succeed. Dyslexia isn’t bad on it’s own, it’s only bad when someone stacks the odds against you. Throughout my whole life I’ve proved people wrong and I’ll probably have to keep proving people wrong even after I leave school.