THE pupils of Blacko County Primary School have been looking at some of the more unusual books in the shops this Christmas, and have sent us their opinions on two of these.

Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales, retold by Neil Philip, illustrated by Nilesh Mistry (Dorling Kindersley, £14.99)

THIS is a collection of fairy tales from around the world, many of them little-known and all wonderfully mysterious.

In addition to the stories and beautiful illustrations, we are given fascinating facts on every page with background information on the places, events and beliefs relevant to each tale.

The book can be read on many levels and by different age groups - either as pure entertainment or to discover more about people at other times and in other countries.

Younger children at Blacko CP School enjoyed listening to their teacher reading some of the stories to them while older pupils looked for more information in the facts alongside the stories. Reception class children and those from year one made these comments to their teacher.

"We enjoyed this book very much as it was so different to most books we usually look at. The pictures were old fashioned and very detailed and we liked the way they told the story."

"Some of the stories we found difficult to understand, but we were interested in the information on each page."

"It was good to be able to listen to stories from so many different countries because we could look for them on the globe. Georgia said that she thought the book was very educational."

Older pupil Emma Cooper, aged 11, said: "I Like the idea of it being fact and story with pictures around and facts underneath, about monsters and things.

"Some of the stories are gruesome, but I like how they are all from different countries and not just from England."

Simon Hamlow, aged 10, voted the book "suitable for all ages - sometimes very funny and sometimes very gruesome and gory."

The Amazing Pull-Out Pop-Up Body In A Book, by David Hawkins (Dorling Kindersley, £12.99)

THIS book was so exciting that lots of children aged 7, 8 and 9 in our school wanted to look at it. These are some of the comments they made: "My favourite thing about this is seeing such a big 3D picture of a human body come out of an ordinary sized book" - Luke Ormerod, aged 8.

"This book is a very interesting and fun way to learn about your body. I could not take my eyes off it all day" - Jessica Fay Howe aged 8.

"You can play with the body if you are careful, to find out more about it. It is great fun" - Rebecca Kearsley, aged 7.

"I am interested in the body and wanted to see what was inside. I found out about our lungs and that our heart pumps blood around our body" - Sally Stansfield, aged 7.

"The man who made it has made a really good book. I would love it to be mine and my sister's" - Scarlett Phelan, aged 9.

The outdoors, and sampling our heritage

FOLLOWING the two reports of school trips published last week, year 6 pupils from Sudell County Primary School, Darwen, sent us accounts of their own visits to Whitehough Outdoor Activity Centre and Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

Comments on their week at Whitehough include this report from Rowen Heys: "We did loads of exciting activities on our trip, like canoeing, MT biking, caving, problem solving and orienteering. "Unluckily, while we were going through a cave in the Yorkshire Dales, Ben fell into a pool. But he was able to laugh about it later, saying ' that water in the cave was freezing. When I came out I just couldn't stop sneezing'."

Meanwhile, back at school, other pupils were taken on another exciting visit to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

"During the morning" Paul Wilkinson reports, "we looked all around the museum, especially at the old machinery. Then we had lunch on an old railway carriage at the museum."

Pupil Zakia Khan writes that "the next activity involved splitting into groups to go through a dark room full of objects and obstacles to find out what it would be like to be blind. Then we discovered more about our five senses from a lady who works at the museum."

Emma Brown concluded that she "really enjoyed the fun- filled trip, and would like to thank all who made it possible."

TO all 66 schools who have been using our Spotlight On the Century local history and language resource this term - a reminder that if you have had any delay in meeting the December 1 deadline for all competitions in the supplement, please make sure that entries are in by Friday, December 5.

Don't forget that we have some great educational prizes for schools, including class visits to Helmshore Textile Museum.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.