Carrie's War # 1

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vmbo t
• Leerjaar 3

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Lesson goals - Carrie's War

By the end of this lesson....

• I know what the the plot of the story is?
• I can understand the setting of the story
• I can identify most of the characters in the book
• I can understand the themes of the story

TIP: Take notes throughout the lesson 

.....if you have not read the book, this is your opportunity to find out what the book is about and write notes in your book. You can also  join bijles today at 14.30 in BNC02 where we can look at the answers in the worksheet.

.... remember to reread the first 3 and last 3 chapters of the book again to understand the storyline better!

.....the test is tomorrow and counts 3 times. 

....you may use a dictionary during the test. 

.....DO NOT FORGET YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK FOR DURING THE TEST

....the Padlet link is on the next page but also in your Magister mail! 

padlet.com

Carrie's War

Als er in de Tweede Wereldoorlog bijna dagelijks Duitse bommen op Londen vallen, worden veel kinderen op het platteland in veiligheid gebracht. Carry komt zo terecht in Wales, waar ze zich diep ongelukkig voelt. Tot ze Albert ontmoet, een lotgenoot, die in een geheimzinnig huis in het Druïdendal woont. Beiden zijn ze dol op Hepzibah, een vrouw die hen met veel warmte omringt en prachtige verhalen kan vertellen. Als ze weer terug moeten naar Londen, doet Carry iets waar ze zich jaren schuldig over blijft voelen.

How the book starts....

CARRIE had often dreamed about coming back. In her dreams she was

twelve years old again; short, scratched legs in red socks and scuffed,

brown sandals, walking along the narrow, dirt path at the side of the railway

line to where it plunged down, off the high ridge, through the Druid’s

Grove. The yew trees in the Grove were dark green and so old that they had

grown twisted and lumpy, like arthritic fingers. And in Carrie’s dream, the

fingers reached out for her, plucking at her hair and her skirt as she ran. She

was always running by the end of this dream, running away from the house,

uphill towards the railway line. 

But when she did come back, with her own children, the railway line had

been closed.  The sleepers had been taken up and the flat, stony top of the

ridge was so overgrown with blackberries and wild rose and hazelnut

bushes that it was like pushing through a forgotten forest in a fairy tale.

How the book starts....

 The tangled wood round Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Pulling off the sticky

brambles that clung to their jeans, Carrie’s children said, ‘No one’s been

here for hundreds of years ...’  

‘Not hundreds, thousands ...’   

‘A hundred, thousand years. 

A million, billion, trillion ...’   

‘Only about thirty,’ Carrie said. She spoke as if this was no time at all. ‘I

was here, with Uncle Nick, thirty years ago. During the war – when

England was at war with Germany. The Government sent the children out

of the cities so they shouldn’t be bombed. We weren’t told where we were

going. Just told to turn up at our schools with a packed lunch and a change

of clothes, then we went to the station with our teachers. There were whole

train-loads of children sent away like that ...’

‘Without their mummies?’ the little ones said. ‘Without their dads?’

Chapter 13 ....

Albert said, ‘It’s not nonsense. He took it then, if you don’t like the word steal. Took it without saying anything. And he’d no right to do that, until it was all settled up. All the estate! That’s the law, Hepzibah! I read it all up in the library.’ He looked at Carrie and his eyes sparked with triumph. ‘And if he took the ring, he might have taken something else, mightn’t he?’‘That’s enough, Mr Sea-Lawyer,’ Hepzibah said.‘What’s a sea laywer?’ Nick asked, looking up.‘Someone who’ll argue the hind leg off a donkey just for the sake of it.Now, d’you want that old story, or don’t you? It’s all one to me but time’s getting on and your Auntie’ll want you back early if you’re to be up at crack of dawn in the morning.’  Carrie said slowly, ‘I’ll put the skull back first, shall I? In its box in the library.’She wanted to be alone for a minute, away from Hepzibah’s kindness and Albert’s triumphant look. Of course, he’d been right all along! Mrs Gotobed had made a Will and Mr Evans had stolen it. Stolen it out of meanness and greed. He wanted Druid’s Bottom and he didn’t care what happened to Hepzibah and Mister Johnny. That was the worst thing, worse than stealing a ring, or even the Will. He didn’t care about anyone; he’d turn Hepzibah out and live here himself, where he’d no right to be ...Carrie felt stifled. The library window was open and she went to stand by it, gulping in air. The evening breeze cooled her forehead and ruffled the surface of the horse pond in the yard. The horse pond was bottomless, Albert had said, when he threw the stone in.Carrie’s thoughts were like bits of a jigsaw, whirling round in her head.Separate pieces but all fitting in, one to another. Albert throwing a stone and it falling. Bombs falling on cities, houses crumbling like sandcastles. Horrible, but somehow exciting to think of. Walls crumbling – and the curse the African boy had put on Druid’s Bottom if his skull ever left it. 

How the book ends....

All the time she was talking, she was setting the table with egg cups andmugs, and cutting bread and butter. Eggs were boiling on the stove; shelifted them out and said, ‘Come on now, you must be hungry.’The eggs were beautiful; firm whites and dark, runny yolks. And thebutter, thickly spread on crisp bread, was like no butter they had ever tasted:smooth, but leaving a grainy, salt tang behind on the tongue.‘Was Albert an orphan then?’ Carrie’s daughter asked. ‘She didn’t say!’‘Who’s she? The cat’s mother?’‘No, mine,’ she said, grinning at Hepzibah.‘Little Carrie,’ Hepzibah said in her soft, remembering voice, and thismade the children laugh.‘She’s ever so tall for a woman,’ the oldest boy said. ‘Our dad used tocall her a bean pole.’

He felt Hepzibah’s eyes on him and buried his face in his mug. He hadsaid used to! Would Hepzibah start poking and prying? Most people did andhe hated it – hated having to explain that his father was dead. But Hepzibahwasn’t ‘most people’, he realized suddenly. She hadn’t once asked any ofthe ordinary questions. ‘Where is your mother?’ ‘What are you doing here,by yourselves?’ ‘Does she know where you are?’Hepzibah said thoughtfully, ‘It’ll be good to see little Carrie. She mayhave grown taller, but she’s the sort doesn’t change other ways. Nor yourUncle Nick, neither. How is he, now?’‘Fat,’ the little ones said and looked at each other and giggled.‘Well, he always had an eye for his stomach. Mister Johnny, d’youremember Nick? How that boy used to eat!’Mister Johnny looked blank.‘It’s a long time for him to remember a name,’ Hepzibah said. ‘Thoughhe’d know Nick at once if he saw him, he doesn’t forget those he loves.He’ll know Carrie when she comes.   

How the book ends....

 Does she still like her eggs boiled fiveminutes?’The children sat quiet. Then the oldest boy said, ‘She won’t come,Hepzibah. I mean, she’ll come when we go back and fetch her, but she’s notcoming now. She’s too – too afraid ...’Had always been afraid, he thought. More afraid than most mothers. Notstopping them doing things, she wasn’t silly like that, but you would look ather sometimes and see the fear, holding her still. Especially when they werehappy. As if she were afraid of a happy time stopping.He thought, perhaps because this happy time had come to an end allthose years ago, and she blamed herself for it ...Hepzibah was smiling at him as if she knew what he was thinking: as ifshe understood everything. But she couldn’t understand – she was just aclever old woman who had persuaded Carrie to believe her old tales.Hepzibah had taken his mother in with her spooky nonsense, the oldest boythought, and felt, all at once, rather indignant.Hepzibah turned to the stove and put a brown egg in the simmeringwater. ‘That’ll be timed about right,’ she said. ‘You go and meet her. Tell

her all’s well and her egg’s on the boil and Hepzibah’s waiting. Run alongquickly, she’ll be half way down the mountain by now!’Her voice had a clear command in it and the children stood up and wentmeekly out of the kitchen, past the old, ruined house, past the horse pond ...

How the book ends....

As they crossed the yard the oldest boy stopped being indignant withHepzibah and felt sorry instead because she was so foolishly sure and wasgoing to be disappointed. She thought she knew their mother was coming,and she couldn’t possibly know! She wasn’t a witch; just an old womanwho was quite good at guessing, but had guessed wrong, this time.‘There’s no point in hanging about,’ he said. ‘We’ll wait a minute toplease Hepzibah and then we’ll go back and finish our breakfast. I daresayone of us can eat an extra egg!’But the others were younger than he was and so still believing, stilltrusting. They looked at him, then at each other, and laughed. And ran ahead to meet their mother, coming through the Druid’s Grove.

Themes

• Separation
• Growing up
• Friendship
• Bullying
• Kindness 
• Family
  
• Relationships, jealousy, greed, misunderstanding and beliefs

Setting

- Second World War - probably somewhere between 1942 - 1945

- Welsh coal-mining village

- Mr Evans' house 

- A grocery shop

- Druid’s Bottom

- Glasgow

- London

Mister Johnny

Mrs Dilys Gotobed

Frederick Evans

Hepzibah Green

Carrie Willow

Nicholas Willow

Albert Sandwich

Mr Samuel Evans

Miss Louise Evans (Auntie Lou)

The woman who looks after Mrs Gotobed

A distant cousin of the Gotobed family

Carrie's younger brother

The grocer who takes in Carrie & Nick

Mr Evan's younger sister

The central character

A friend of Carrie & Nick, a fellow evacuee

Mr Evans older sister

Mr Evans’ son

Characters

Carrie Willow

the central character

Nicholas Willow

her younger brother

Albert Sandwich

their friend, another evacuee

Mr Samuel Evans

the grocer who takes them in

Miss Louise Evans (Auntie Lou)

his younger sister

Mrs Dilys Gotobed

his older sister

Hepzibah Green

the woman who looks after Mrs Gotobed

Mister Johnny

a distant cousin of the Gotobed family

Frederick Evans

Mr Evans’ son

Reading Time (Carries War)

Read the information on the next page (see link) ( 5 mins)

Afterwards, the rest of the lesson will be spent answering the questions at the end of the book.

novellist.nl

Reading Time (Carries War)

Read the information on the next page (see link) ( 5 mins)

Afterwards, the rest of the lesson will be spent answering the questions at the end of the book.

The rest of the lesson will be spent reading the information on this website and then reading the book.

Link on the next page.