This month our story comes from WordPowered, a new website that aims at promoting the connection between ELT and literature. It is a contemporary piece of writing which tells the story of a group of friends growing together in Wales.
    
     I really hope you enjoyed as much as I did :) and I look forward to reading your comments.
    
     You can download the story clickcing here Fire Ballons

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Hi everyone
    
     First thing I consider particularly interesting about this story it that it was written by a teacher :)
    
     Secondly, is the rich imagery in it and, what I perceive, as a highly symbolic description of the landscape in which the kids grow up. I don't really think this is just a story of teenage friendship, for me it is more like a narrative of a rite of passage, that could perhaps go beyond the border between adolescence and adulthood. Perhpas it could also be seen as the passage between concrete and imaginary understandings of life.
    
     Looking forward to your comments :)
     Chris

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Hi Chris,
     With the same zest and spirit as yours, I have received this lovely but culturally hermited tale. As an Arab reader I did not perceive well the cultural dimension of "jumping the fire" or "releasing the ballons in the air" until I did make a brief research on this type of cultural or anthropological rite. Amazingly enough, in my local culture, we do also ritually jump over the fire every once a year but according to the lunar calendar. I asked my mother about the reason ( the same way Sean wondered in the tale) of jumping, she replied " girls jump to be very fertile when married, boys do to be initiated to adulthood"! Isn't that amazing? Cultures do meet though geographically far might they seem. Herein lies the significance of literature which must be used to fuse peacefully all parts of the world.
     You are right Chris I also see that the tale sheds light on the shift from adolescence to adulthood
     to be continued
     Mostafa

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Fire balloons with Sean and Scat ... linking names to create an image of character in this story is an effective technique ....... well done!

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Lovely story of "young adults".Extremely well-written.Keen observation of boys and the girl. Would it be wrong to suggest that the baloons represent teenage hopes and fears, excitement and longings and the quiet acceptance of Fate when things dont turn out as they expect.I love the dragon, seen in outline, at the end.Very artistic and highly imaginative.
     There are layers and layers of meaning, feelings and relationships here.Students will love to offer their own explanation.Red balloons, orange fires and the dark of night..what a painting with words!
     Iris

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Hi All,
    
     Thanks Chris for the story and for leading us www.wordpowered.org site and also to Kritya journal. Thanks Sanghita and congratulations for your "Thus spoke Eve…". I´ve something for the weekend now!
    
     Tanguene

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Dear Tanguene and other friends
     First of all my apologies for being a dormant spectator to the forum for the last couple of months. Please forgive me - I hope to be active once again within two months :)
    
     Thanks Tanguene for your kind words - you have always been very supportive to my creative writing ventures. In fact our discussions helped me a lot getting back to my writing once again. I had almost lost it and now I found it again.
    
     Love
     Sanghita

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Dear Sanghita
    
     I'm really really happy to have you among us again. Be sure we all missed your comments and your incredibly beautiful poems.
     Welcome back my friend!
    
     Love - Chris

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Hi Mostafa & All
    
     This is really interesting because in the south of Brazil, were I was brought up, we also had this tradition to jump over the fire in St John's night.
     This was a traditional festival, which I suspect has it's origins in the Celtic tradition of the Beltame fires, which happen in the summer solstice, but which in the south hemisphere is, consequently, in mid- winter. However, it's a tradition that has pratically died out. Shame...
    
     In your opinion, what does that strange cottage in the story mean?? Why were the balloons clusttered around it?
    
     Cheers - Chris

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hi chris
     sooooo sorry for being inactive for so long
     i love stories , In essence, a story is that raises unanswered questions or unresolved conflicts; characters may encounter and then resolve a crisis or crises. Stories engage our thinking, our emotions, and can even lead to the creation of mental imagery.
     Stories Create Interest by the suspense that chain of events can create. Telling the story without immediately providing resolution, will motivate class to think of their own approaches to solving the problem. They can share in the sense of discovery. Understanding the process of solving a research problem can generate excitement
     Characters are the human (or animal) face on theories and issues listeners identify with, and thus might be better able to relate course material to their own lives The Emperor's New Clothes" demonstrates social influence principles; the interactions between Iago, Othello, and Desdemona in Shakespeare's play Othello provide a powerful illustration of the importance of perceptions over objective reality i found the fire baloon interesting and deep in meaning
     thanks for sharing

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Hi Chandella
    
     Interesting what you said about the process of solving a problem...stories always put us in such a position, don't they? There are always words, images, complexities in the plot and dialogue that make us engage in an active processes of making sense of the words on the page.
    
     Take a look at the garden in the 'Five Balloons'...I can visualise it as thousands of other backgardens, apparently without anything special, but if you connect it to the idea of 'Garden' and how it serves as a sort of sanctuary for the children then you have all the other Gardens we can possibly think of, from the Garden of Eden, to Blake's garden of love and so on and so forth... It is all a puzzle :)
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Metaphor and myth, or legends galore! Possibly universally culturally applicable .. but the poetic language creates a reflex attitude to
     /frolicsome puppy/
     /swelled by the rhapsody of movement and colour/
     vivid imagery contests our cultural views I guess!
     SM Thompson Southampton: UK:

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