Reading allows you to travel to different worlds, experience new cultures, and walk in the shoes of fascinating characters. It’s also a great way to help you improve your spelling and vocabulary – even during the school holidays! Here are some reading suggestions for the summer. Click on the title of any book to find the word list that goes with it. Don’t forget to try our Summer Spelling game! Year 7: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne: An emotional tale set during World War II that explores the unlikely friendship between two boys on opposite sides of a concentration camp fence. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman: A th...
April 23 marked Shakespeare Day in the UK and to celebrate we’ve picked characters from Shakespeare’s plays for this month's Word for Wednesday theme. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. Scholars believe his birthday and death day were both April 23. His work—which is still wildly popular today—includes 38 plays and over a hundred poems. Learn more about how Shakespeare influenced the English language here. So far we’ve looked at Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Falstaff who appears in four of Shakespeare’s plays. Our final Shakespearea...
April 23 marks Shakespeare Day in the UK and to celebrate we’ve picked characters from Shakespeare’s plays for this month's Word for Wednesday theme. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. Scholars believe his birthday and death day were both April 23. His work—which is still wildly popular today—includes 38 plays and over a hundred poems. Learn more about how Shakespeare influenced the English language here. So far we’ve looked at at Romeo from Romeo and Juliet and Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Today’s Shakespearean character is Sir John ...
April 23 marks Shakespeare Day in the UK and to celebrate we’ve picked characters from Shakespeare’s plays for this month's Word for Wednesday theme. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. Scholars believe his birthday and death day were both April 23. His work—which is still wildly popular today—includes 38 plays and over a hundred poems. Learn more about how Shakespeare influenced the English language here. Last week, we looked at at Romeo from Romeo and Juliet.Today’s character is Puck—a fairy who appears in Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Th...
April 23 marks Shakespeare Day in the UK and to celebrate we’ve picked characters from Shakespeare’s plays for this month's Word for Wednesday theme. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. Scholars believe his birthday and death day were both April 23. His work—which is still wildly popular today—includes 38 plays and over a hundred poems. Learn more about how Shakespeare influenced the English language here. The first character we’ve chosen to look at this month is Romeo Montague. Romeo is a title characters from one of Shakespeare’s early plays Romeo and Juliet which premiered in 1597. The play tells the ...
Although we don’t know the exact date of William Shakespeare’s birthday, he was baptised on April 26th 1564. Scholars believe he was probably born on April 23rd, and so every year, on this date, people in the United Kingdom celebrate Shakespeare Day. At Spellzone we’re huge fans of William Shakespeare – so much so that we’ve written about him many times over the years. Indeed, the Bard is a difficult subject to avoid because so many English words, idioms, and expressions were made popular by their appearance in his work. Here are some of our favourite articles and resources on William Shakespeare and his plays: Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare is famo...
Many English words, idioms, and expressions were made popular by their appearance in the works of William Shakespeare. Here are four expressions in which Shakespeare comments on the nature of love: 1. If music be the food of love, play on This expression is quoting Duke Orsino from Twelfth Night. Frustrated by his unsuccessful courtship of Countess Olivia, he says: ‘If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet ...
With Christmas less than a week away, it’s time to celebrate here at Spellzone. Today we’re looking at two famous Christmas songs and some characters who feature in them. Where do these characters come from? Are they based on real people? How long have their stories been around for? You can read our article about Christmas characters from books here. In the meadow we can build a snowman… The Christmas song Winter Wonderland features the following two lines: ‘In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown’. The Spellzone dictionary defines the word ‘parson’ as ‘a person authorized to conduct religious wo...
From sandwiches to wellington boots to the Nobel Prize, many words take their names from people or fictional characters, and these people and characters are known as eponyms. Today, to celebrate Halloween, we’re looking at three scary stories that have influenced the English language. Frankenstein Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus in 1818 when she was just twenty years old. In the story, Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who has discovered a secret technique for creating life, tries to build a man. His creation ends up more like a monster and turns against him. According to the Oxford English dictionary, it was the writer Charles Lamb who ...
Although we don’t know the exact date of William Shakespeare’s birthday, he was baptised on April 26th1564. It is believed that he was probably born on April 23rd, and so every year, on this date, people celebrate National Shakespeare Day. We’ve recently added word lists to help you get your head around spelling the names of the characters in some of Shakespeare’s plays. If you’re studying Shakespeare at school or university, you might want to check these out before an exam: Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream Characters in Romeo and Juliet Characters in Macbeth Characters in The Tempest Characters in King Lear Today, we’re ...
With Christmas just days away, today we’re going to look at three characters from stories about the festive season. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Although most of us recognise Rudolph from the popular song, he first appeared in a booklet by Robert L. May in 1939. The booklet was distributed by a Chicago-based retailer who bought and gave away colouring books every Christmas, and who thought they would save money if they printed their own. Initially the story idea behind Rudolph’s adventure was rejected because bright red noses had negative connotations in popular culture. While at the time red noses were closely associated with alcoholics and drunkards, now we’re more...
Had he had access to the elixir of life, William Shakespeare would have been 450 years old today. However it was (to be or) not to be... Known as 'The Bard' his popularity today remains immense and to illustrate this he was recently voted to be the UK's greatest cultural icon in an international survey conducted by the British Council. Where does the word bard originate? Of Celtic origin, it was a derogatory term for an itinerant musician or poet (the Scottish Gaelic 'bardos', Irish 'bard' and Welsh 'bardd') who recited verses about the exploits of their clansmen. It eventually became the word to be associated with any poet who wrote verse of a he...
Over the year, a few of our blog posts have mentioned words that derive from people or fictional characters: ‘quixotic’ from Don Quixote, ‘malapropism’ from Mrs Malaprop, ‘puckish’ from Puck, ‘July and August’ from Julius and Augustus Caesar, and many more. This week I thought I’d take a look at Charles Dickens, the famous nineteenth-century author, after whom the word ‘Dickensian’ was coined. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Dickensian’ as an adjective used to describe something that is ‘reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically re...
Here in Britain, we love nonsense words - our children’s literature, in particular, is full of them. A few weeks ago I looked at the nonsense word ‘Quidditch’ from the Harry Potter series and my last post was on Roald Dahl’s inventive use of language in The BFG. Here are three more examples of children’s writers who have invented nonsense words: Edward Lear, the poet and author, is well known for his creative use of nonsense words. My personal favourite example appears in a few of his works, the most famous being his poem The Owl and the Pussycat: ‘They dined on mince, and slices of quince Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in ha...
Today is Roald Dahl Day, an event dedicated to celebrating a man whose stories have frightened and delighted both children and adults alike since the 1940s. This year, the theme of the day is ‘celebrating all the tricksy characters that fill Roald Dahl’s books’. For my post today, I’ve decided to take a look at a character who has been my favourite ever since I was a child, a character with a very big heart and a rather tricksy way with words…the BFG. If you’re unfamiliar with Roald Dahl, or with The BFG, let me give you a quick overview of the story: when Sophie, a young girl who lives in a miserable orphanage, is snatched away from her bedroom by a g...
Over the last few posts we’ve been looking at words with roots in literature – make sure you check out our articles on words from Harry Potter, the word ‘quixotic’, and the word ‘malapropism’. Today, we’ve chosen to look at the word ‘puckish’. ‘Puckish’ is an adjective that describes someone who has a mischievous, playful sense of humour – like the fairy Puck. Unlike Don Quixote and Mrs Malaprop, Puck does not come from one specific text, but is a type of character from English folklore, also known as Robin Goodfellow or Hobgoblin. The word Puck refers to both an individual mischievous wood sprite or fairy, and a grou...
This month we’re looking at words that originate in the literature. We started off by celebrating J.K. Rowling’s birthday and taking a look at Four Made-Up Words from Harry Potter - and, because we love magic here at Spellzone, we also used the word ‘Wizard’ for our weekly Word for Wednesday. We then went back in time took at look at the word ‘quixotic’ which comes from the title character in what is often described as the first ever modern novel: Don Quixote. This week, we’re going to look at a word that comes from a lesser known character, but which describes a rather easy-to-make mistake! Today’s word is: ‘malapropism’. Who is...
Following our post about words from Harry Potter, we will spend the next few weeks taking a look at words that originate in Literature. These words are often taken from the names of characters and are used to describe people with similar traits. First up: Quixotic. The word quixotic is an adjective used to describe someone (or something) so idealistic that their aspirations are unrealistic and impractical. It originates from the Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, the book was published in two volumes – the first in 1605, and the second in 1615. It is regarded as the most influential work from the Spanish G...
July 31st marks the birthday of possibly the most famous children’s book character of the last twenty years: Harry Potter. The birth date is also shared by his creator, J. K. Rowling, who was the first person in the world to become a billionaire from writing books. As it happens, I have spent the last few weeks rereading the Harry Potter books, and it is J.K Rowling’s invented words that, for me, really make her world of wizards come alive. It makes sense that wizards would have their own language to refer to things that we non-magical folk have no idea about. Let’s take a look at a few of these words: Apparate – One of the perks of being a wizard is the abili...
Author of “Things Fall Apart", the most-widely read book in African literature and of whom Nelson Mandela once hailed “in whose company the prison walls fell down.” ...
American vs. British English
Common Mistakes
Commonly Confused Words
English Idioms Explained
English Literature
Exams & Tests
Grammar & Punctuation
Mindful Spelling
Spelling at School
Spelling Games
Spelling Homework
Spelling Tips
Spellzone Tips & Tools
Supporting Adult Learners
Supporting Dyslexic Learners
Supporting EAL Learners
Word Origins & Stories
Writing & Vocabulary
"I ran the trial with a small group of students over three weeks before the summer holidays," she says. "I quickly saw the benefits, and signed up."
King's Leadership Academy, Warrington
Connect with us at: 
