Anthony McGowan's "Lark" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Brief description of Lark:

This is the fourth in a series featuring two brothers Nicky and Kenny but you do not need to know the other books – this is a “standalone masterpiece.” It is an adventure story but so much more. 

 Nicky is the storyteller and the older brother who is fiercely protective of his brother Kenny who has some learning challenges. The boys are keen to escape tension at home and decide to have an adventure in the North Yorkshire moors, taking their old and grumpy Jack Russell, Tina with them. But this “lark” turns into a nightmare when the unpredictable moors weather becomes a blizzard and the story is then about survival. The moors are described with stark realism and the challenges facing the boys and Tina are evocative and engrossing. It is also a story about telling stories and the power of storytelling to makes sense of who we are and the world around us. 

Anthony McGowan has written over 40 books and is one of the most widely acclaimed young-adult authors in the UK. His books have won several major awards and been shortlisted for many more. He has also written highly regarded adult fiction, as well as books for younger readers. He has a PhD on the history of beauty and has taught philosophy and creative writing. He lives in London with his wife and two children. 

Distinctive features of Lark:

• Short chapters and the 110 pages can be read quickly
• This book has a dyslexia-friendly layout including a wide set font and specific paper stock (brightness, colour and thickness) so that even more readers can enjoy it.
• Winner of the 2020 prestigious CILIP Carnegie medal.
• Pared-down, tight focus on the two boys and the dog.
• Title: single word title of the bird and is also an effective recurring motif. The word “lark” is referenced 20 times- the first mention: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was meant to be a stroll, a laugh. A lark.”
• Realistic and evocative setting.
• Warm, authentic and endearing relationship of the two brothers.
• Strong, emotional ending.
• Fourth book in a series but Lark stands alone.

Did you know that …

• Black text on white paper can hurt sensitive eyes, while off-white paper helps?
• Careful spacing between letters and lines can help new and struggling readers?
• that justified text can mean readers get lost on the page?
• Many young readers feel more confident about opening a book if it has clear, manageable chapters to give natural ‘rest’ breaks?
• Illustration can help to carry the story forward and help struggling readers if they lose their place?
• Research has shown boys prefer books of 100 pages or under?

Source: https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/dyslexic-reluctant-readers/

Ways to use Lark in the classroom

• This is a book which needs to be read before any tasks can ruin it. Please allow your students the time and opportunity to read in your classroom.
• Watch Anthony McGowan as he summarises the story: https://vimeo.com/399732058
• To quickly pique student interest, consider the audio version which captures the Yorkshire accent in a delightfully engaging way. Or read the opening chapter to your class. Look at the success of the opening pages:
  • Straight into the story
  • Pacey dialogue 
  • Endearing and engaging
  • Introduces us to Kenny, Nicky and Tina

Narrative choices:

McGowan chooses to represent Nicky’s experiences and emotions through the first person:

• Consider the specific features of McGowan’s first-person narrative.
• Consider the advantages of this narrative choice. Is it as effective and efficient as the omniscient third person? 
• Discuss the effectiveness of the dialogue and the distinctive voices or each brother

Setting:

McGowan makes deliberate choices to set his story in a wild, inhospitable, challenging landscape. This is a common convention in literature and indeed, the landscape takes on deeper significance as a layer of commentary on human qualities like resilience, courage, bravery, fear and survival.

It would be valuable for students to view some images of the North Yorkshire moors. There is some useful information about these moors in the Teacher Resources at https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/kids-zone/content/uploads/1669213706-ckg-2020-reading-resources_lark.pdf

In groups:

• Find 3 evocative descriptions which your group think are effective and engaging examples of setting. 
• What role does each setting play in the movement of the narrative or developing the characters?
• As a group decide which of your three examples is the one you want to pitch to the class as the best example of McGowan’s creation of setting and why your group have made this choice. 
• Pitch your choice of setting to the class.

What is the novel about? Ideas, themes and  messages

The story of Lark incorporates many well-known literary tropes of adventure, lost in the wilderness, escaping conflict, confronting nature.

On a closer reading Lark is also about the human condition and challenging human experiences which is one of the joys of reading and exploring texts. By reading texts like Lark we come to understand our own frailties and strengths as well as gain insights as to what makes us human. Books like Lark are indeed, life-affirming. 

Task: Diamond 9 

Below are nine suggestions for what Lark is about.

Lark is about …

What other ideas could be included? Working in a pair, or small group, rearrange the ideas into a ‘Diamond 9’ formation, as shown below. Compare your ideas with other readers and discuss why some ideas were chosen as the most and least important.

Sustained task:

To celebrate the fifth year of Lark’s publication, the publishers are designing a new cover and promotion campaign. You have been asked to write the promotional blub to appear on booksellers’ websites and bookshop posters.

Write the promotional blurb of 150-180 words which includes a brief summary of the story and also provides insights to the richness of the novel’s themes and ideas.

The epilogue:

“Kenny’s eyes were closed now, but he nodded. 

And then his last words, so faint I could hardly hear them. Yet in another way so loud that they rang out like the ecstatic song of the lark in endless blue sky.

‘Tell me a story.’”

Form small groups and discuss the 4-page epilogue:

• Is the Epilogue successful as an ending?
• What features of the main story recur here?
• Would you have preferred a different ending?
• Share your group’s ideas with two other groups.

Students as Writers

McGowan talks about his own experiences growing up in Yorkshire, hiking with friends and the ordinary adventures of his boyhood. Lark is not only an excellent model for student writing but its premise of the “ordinary” is an important way to encourage student agency in their own storytelling. Watch: Do you have any advice for young people who want to write themselves? (7.06) https://vimeo.com/399732058

In this interview, Anthony McGowan comments:

“Ordinary life contains massive scope for adventure, excitement and intensity … what you need to do is gaze with an objective eye on your own real existence, on the world around you, on your relationship with your friends in school and home… you will find some many potential stories there… look around you and you will find stories.”

Think about your own adventures. Choose one of these lines from Lark to start your own 500-word short story which you base on something that has happened to you. Think about how McGowan captures and sustains out interest and how you can emulate some of his style.

Story starters:

• But I was wrong.
• A few seconds later we reached it, and all the hope and excitement drained out of me. 
• Not so good was the fact it was getting dark.
• And the greyness closed in until it felt like the sky was down here, all around us.

Teacher Resources:

• https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NEW-DESIGN_LARK-Classroom-Resources.pdf
• https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/kids-zone/content/uploads/1669213706-ckg-2020-reading-resources_lark.pdf

Relevant details in relation to the new English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: Lark is a work of extended prose (novel) by a British author with cultural, social and gender perspectives, popular and youth cultures.
Looking for more classroom texts for Stage 4 students? Browse our Year 7 texts and study guides and Year 8 texts and study guides at Five Senses Education.

Below you can find some content that could be covered in a close study of the text.

Concepts could include Representation • Perspective • Characterisation • Theme.

Relevant details in relation to the new NSW English 7-10 syllabus content

Specific syllabus content points which would be addressed through exploration of this text:

Reading, viewing and listening to texts

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to read texts that are complex in their ideas and construction EN4-RVL-01

• Explore the main ideas and thematic concerns posed by a text for meaning
• Engage with the ways texts contain layers of meaning, or multiple meanings
• Read texts selected to challenge thinking, develop interest and promote enjoyment, to prompt a personal response
• Understand the ways reading helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world
• Reflect on how an understanding of texts can be enhanced through re-reading and close study
• Reflect on how reading promotes a broad and balanced understanding of the world and enables students to explore universal issues
• Reflect on own experiences of reading by sharing what was enjoyed, discussing challenges to strengthen an understanding of the value of reading

Understanding and responding to texts A

A student analyses how meaning is created through the use of and response to language forms, features and structures EN4-URA-01

• Understand how language forms, features and structures, in a variety of texts, vary according to context, purpose and audience, and demonstrate this understanding through written, spoken, visual and multimodal responses
• Analyse how figurative language and devices can represent ideas, thoughts and feelings to communicate meaning
• Recognise how texts engage and position the audience to perceive events, characters and ideas using narrative voice and focalisers, tense, sequencing and intrusion, and apply this understanding in own texts
• Understand how choice of first, second and third-person voice can establish different relationships between creator and audience, and experiment with changes in point of view in own texts
• Analyse how engaging characters are constructed in texts through a range of language features and structures, and use these features and structures in own texts
• Understand how the interactions of characters, such as protagonists and antagonists, might be perceived to represent aspects of human relationships, and experiment with interactions when composing texts
• Understand narrative conventions, such as setting, plot and sub-plot, and how they are used to represent events and personally engage the reader, viewer or listener with ideas and values in texts, and apply this understanding in own texts

Understanding and responding to texts B

A student: examines and explains how texts represent ideas, experiences and values EN4-URB-01

• Understand how repetition, patterning and language features used within a text communicate ideas about social, personal, ethical and philosophical issues and experiences, and demonstrate this understanding through written, spoken, visual and multimodal responses
• Analyse how engaging personal voice is constructed in texts through linguistic and stylistic choices, and experiment with these choices in own texts 
• Describe the distinctive rhetorical and aesthetic qualities of a text that contribute to its textual style, and reflect on these qualities in own texts
• Examine how different styles can be recognised by distinctive features of language and form in a range of texts
• Describe and reflect on how particular arrangements of language features in texts can be found appealing according to personal preferences
• Identify elements of an author’s work that represent their distinct style

Expressing ideas and composing texts A

A student creates personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by using linguistic and stylistic conventions of language to express ideas EN4-ECA-01

• Create imaginative texts for creative effect and that reflect a broadening world and relationships within it
• Compose texts that offer a cohesive consideration of thematic elements, including the development of a central complication or conflict
• Create imaginative texts using a range of language and structural devices to drive the plot, develop characters, and create a sense of place and atmosphere
• Experiment with unpredictable or unexpected structural features and explore how these can engage a reader

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts

Students could consider a reading challenge where they choose 2-3 other books to read:

1. Follow Nicky and Kenny’s stories in the other three of this collection: Brock, Pike and Rook

2. Students could choose another YA author whose narratives focus on adolescents and adventure e.g. Katherine Rendell, Gary Paulsen, Andy Mulligan and Katrina Nannested

3. Students could explore Through My Eyes Australian Disaster Zones: series on natural disasters and adolescents as well as the series set in Asia. 

4. Students could consider Non-fiction books about survival and adventure.