This series of huge resin sculptures depicts water carriers of all kinds found in Kuwait, from jerry cans to clay jugs. They are actually modelled after public drinking fountains cast in these forms throughout the Gulf, and speak to the relationship to water in desert cities. A beguiling read, filled with warmth and humour, and a vibrant celebration of the power of books to change lives." A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Nowadays, when flood lights shine on a football pitch from all directions at night, players can cast four different shadows at once! Shadow Forest is told from the perspective of the reluctant hero Samuel Blink. Armed only with a strange book he has found in his Aunt's attic, Samuel must navigate, with the help of Ibsen the Elkhound, this new and terrifying environment... and at all costs he must avoid the evil Changemaker. Samuel begins the story angry with the changes forced upon him and as such he gives his Aunt Eda a very hard time -but as he journeys through the forest and faces his own fears he realises that he may have lost his parents but he still has a family.

Shadow Forest features lots of humour mixed in withwith some superbly gross parts (such as exploding heads). MattHaig's quirky style of writing make this an exciting and most enjoyable read. Haig has added some really nice touches such as including himself in the list of characters at the beginning of the book and indeed interjecting the ensuing chapters with little author's interruptions, which prove just as entertaining as the main storyrather than stalling the momentum. These "interruptions" add more substance to his fantastical tale. This book is a definite for any child who enjoys being fully immersed in a world of myth and magic. Mounira Al Solh, on the other hand, takes a dig at the expectation that artists from the region will mine its traumas in her series of portraits of female refugees, I Strongly Believe in Our Right to Be Frivolous. She also puts craft traditions to alternative use in her richly embroidered tent sculptures, inspired by the lavish shelters traditionally fashioned for Persian emperors. Her disassembled tent has been co-created with women in her home country, Lebanon. A choir including asylum seekers in Wales will perform at the exhibition opening.How will the new family find each other again in this big forest, how will they evade capture and how will they defeat the evil Changemaker that rules the entire forest?

pause the video. Students can do the activity by following the instructions on screen. Make a shape from a piece of scrap paper. Don’t tell their partner what it is, shine a torch through it and see if they can guess what the shape is supposed to be. Samuel Blink is a 12-year-old boy living in England with his family — his ten-year-old sister, Martha Blink, his Mother, Liz Blink, and his Father, Steve Blink. Whilst en route to a surprise location for his younger sibling's birthday, the parents are killed when a log falls onto the front section of the car, brutally and violently killing his parents in graphic detail. When the police show up they repeatedly beat Samuel Blink because he was crying that his parents died. And that’s pathetic. This was an enjoyable adventure for younger readers - albeit with a rather sad start. Samuel and Martha Blink are left orphaned when an accident kills their parents on the way to a 10th birthday treat for Martha. After this they must travel to Norway to live with their mysterious aunt, who has some odd rules - the oddest of which is that they must never enter the nearby forest. It is no surprise when this rule is ignored. The adventures that follow are imaginative and will especially appeal to younger readers. The author provides humourous asides, and the book has a slightly quirky feel that will again appeal to younger readers.Sam Blink and the Shadow Forest starts like a typical Disney movie does: you get rid of the parents in a violent way so the children can be manoeuvred around into a plot. ;) Women’s voices are foregrounded across other presentations. Alongside the Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo’s work in film, which explores the overuse of natural resources, she is exhibiting banners created by the Welsh Greenham Common protesters. Environmental pillage is also at the centre of Taloi Havini’s hard-hitting film and photography exploring Australia’s exploitation of the copper reserves in her native Bougainville. Storytelling is a potent tool used to question power in two other shows. Nguyen Trinh Thi’s installation using music, simple light projection and chilli plants to create a leafy shadow forest is a quietly effective meditation on violence. At the other end of the spectrum, Naomi Rincón Gallardo’s films show raucous upendings of the patriarchal colonial forces that have supplanted indigenous culture in Central America. The madcap characters in her darkly comic works are inspired by Mesoamerican myths and brought to life with plenty of facepaint and DIY sci-fi dress-up. I was given this book when I was 10 years old in return for a review, from a book club I was in. If only I still had that review to post here, 12 years later! Young me was an avid bookworm who loved to write (and could do so better than adult me) and had many opinions on books. But I'll dredge my (now scant) memories of reading this book here in lieu of that original review.