Jump! Mag

Language & Literature

My Favourite (Favorite) Book

Writer Susannah Leigh was born in Canada and moved to UK when she was eight years old. Jump! asked her about her favourite children’s book.

One of the nicest things about being an author (apart from being able to go to work in your pyjamas) is being invited to talk about books in schools. I love chatting to enthusiastic pupils about all things bookish. Usually the questions I am asked are ones I can answer easily.

‘How long does it take you write a book?’

‘Where do you get your ideas from?’

‘When did you write your first book?’

But at a school last week a student asked: ‘What is your favourite book?’

Now that’s a tough one.

I’ve read so many good books, how could I possibly choose my favourite?

And what if I haven’t read my favourite book yet? Indeed, what if it hasn’t even been written?

Language & Literature

The Yorkshire Shepherdess – Interview with Amanda Owen

Amanda Owen is a tweeting shepherdess from Yorkshire, who has written a book about life on a hill farm in England. We caught up with her while she was baking pies and scones to find out what it is like to live on a farm, and how she and her family cope with living in such a remote location.

School & Career

What is The Point in Learning … History

Have you ever sat in a Maths class wondering if you will ever have to do long division without a calculator once you leave school? Or silently cursed your Geography teacher while learning about the formation of oxbow lakes?

And History? That’s all in the past and irrelevant, isn’t it? In this series of articles, we will look at some of the subjects we learn at school, and try and answer the question: What’s the point in learning this?

Last time we looked at uses of Physics, both in day to day life, and in careers. Today we will focus on History – the study of the past and how our society came to be as it is. Here are some ways in which studying History is useful to us:

Critical Thinking

Thinking by Elisabeth Haslam

When we study history we don’t just learn lists of facts and dates off by heart. We read lots of opinions about what happened and why, and come to our own conclusion. We base these opinions on two types of material, primary sources which are texts and drawings created at the time of the history we are studying, and secondary sources which were written after the event.

Language & Literature

Should Kids be Taught the International Phonetic Alphabet?

Have you ever flicked through a dictionary to find a word, and then noticed that right next to it there is a set of symbols, some of which resemble the letters you are used to using, but some of which are completely different?

These symbols are there to give you a guide to how the word is generally pronounced, and they are part of the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA.

Writer Susannah Leigh was born in Canada and moved to UK when she was eight years old. Jump! asked her about her favourite children’s book.

Do you use Facebook? While it is officially banned for under 13 years, a survey last year showed that almost half of Britain’s pre-teens have a Facebook account. Joanna Bradey tells us what she likes about Facebook.

Amanda Owen is a tweeting shepherdess from Yorkshire, who has written a book about life on a hill farm in England. We caught up with her while she was baking pies and scones to find out what it is like to live on a farm, and how she and her family cope with living in such a remote location.

Have you ever sat in a Maths class wondering if you will ever have to do long division without a calculator once you leave school? Or silently cursed your Geography teacher while learning about the formation of oxbow lakes?

And History? That’s all in the past and irrelevant, isn’t it? In this series of articles, we will look at some of the subjects we learn at school, and try and answer the question: What’s the point in learning this?