The Missile whale and other stories - Jo Phillips

These thirteen stories have been chosen with the intention of intriguing and stimulating 14-17 year-olds working towards their GCSE in both language and language/literature dual certification. The stories are ideal for promoting ideas for coursework that will cover a number of the criteria for language/literature assignments of the various examination boards. The stories will also assist the teacher in tackling many of the requirements of the National Curriculum. This selection is also suitable for students re-sitting their GCSE who are already familiar with some of the great short story writers and feel, therefore, that they do not want to go over old ground. The stories have an adult content but are, at the same time, about young people. The stories do not necessarily have to lead to written work, but they should stimulate interesting comment and debate. The Talking Points and Suggested Assignments at the end of the stories encourage many skills and criticism techniques, including: re-telling in a variety of modes, insight and investigation into other cultures, comparison between different stories, appreciation of language and tackling social problems.