Art Attack (The College Collection Set 1 - for reluctant readers)

By Georgina Jonas

When five strangers are put together for a college project they have no idea of the adventures that lie in store for them.

Join Jim Jam, Woody, Anda, Luca and Nolan as they discover that college life is never dull.

The College Collection centres around five main characters, Luca, Anda, Jim Jam, Woody and Nolan. They are from different backgrounds and first meet at Parkfield College, where they are studying for a BTEC in Media Studies. They quickly become friends. The College Collection follows them through their time at Parkfield College and the adventures and adversities they experience there. Above all they work hard, have fun and their friendship shines through. The subliminal messages of overcoming failure, of acceptance and support run through all the texts, alongside messages of resilience and perseverance.

In each of the first five books in this set we meet a different character, and learn about their personalities, backgrounds and what they did before they arrived at Parkfield College. In Art Attack, they are thrown into a project together, which takes them on a surprising and challenging adventure.

This first set of six books in the reading scheme, The College Collection, is designed to support and extend the acquisition of reading skills, and the enjoyment of reading, through exciting stories and relatable characters.

The books reinforce high frequency words and the core phonic skills needed to access basic reading levels. Each set provides stories which bridge the gap between base level schemes and longer, more challenging texts. They are suitable for readers who still need a formatted reading scheme and are not yet ready to go onto free readers, but who still want interesting, engaging, real-life books. They are flexible, so no matter what other schemes you may be using, these books stand alone, enhancing and extending any reading experience.

The books provide developing readers with age-appropriate material designed to boost competence and confidence, engaging the reader and encouraging reading for pleasure. The books are also useful for reluctant readers or where the acquisition of reading skills has been identified as a problem. They have been specifically designed to consolidate young readers' skills and to improve the confidence of older readers who are still acquiring and developing reading skills.

Reading age 9-13 years, interest age 11+

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781785831515

Georgina Jonas

Georgina Jonas - the pen name for the collective talent and expertise of one full-time teacher, who has also been a children's storyteller, and one former headmistress who currently tutors and leads workshops to show parents the best way to help their children with maths and English.

Book preview

Chapter 1

A Dark Night

The evening was dark. Very dark.

The moon and stars were hidden behind the thick clouds that stretched across the sky.

With no breeze to stir the leaves, the silence hung heavy in the warm night air.

There was no sound at all. The frogs had stopped their croaking and even the crickets had given up and fallen asleep. It seemed as if the whole world slept.

Then a cool east wind picked up and came rippling along the ridge of the hillside. Soon the clouds parted, began to break up and drifted away.

The moon peeped out and shone its light on two men, crouching behind bushes, far below.

They were both dressed in black and seemed to be keeping very still, as though waiting for someone or something.

They didn’t talk. They just waited.

A sudden sound – a door opening and closing, and then the crunch of wheels on gravel – seemed to be what they were waiting for.

Two bright beams of light lit up the road in front of their hiding place, making them crouch lower and turn their faces towards the ground.

The car moved steadily down the drive and then away down the road.

As the noise faded the men got up, stretched and smiled large, toothy grins at each other.

One nodded to the other and they moved quietly towards the house.

Instead of going straight to the front door, the men circled the house – one went right, the other left – and slipped round to the back.

With a thumbs up signal, they indicated to each other that all was well and, after another furtive look over their shoulders, cracked the glass in a ground floor window.

Chapter 2

Parkfield College

Anda van Stratten, Woody Carson, Jim Jam Leverton, Nolan Banks and Luca Buncton sat on the bank outside Parkfield College and stared at each other.

The morning air had been sharp, almost frosty, but now the sun had climbed so they sat sipping coffee and eating biscuits in the unexpected warmth on this late autumn day.

It was the start of the third week of their first term at college and the newness of it all was beginning to wear off. However, earlier that morning each had left home with a certain amount of nervousness and apprehension.

Each term the students were presented with a multi-media project that they had to complete. The marks went towards their final grade.

For the first time at Parkfield College they were feeling the pressure.

Added to which, their year tutor, Mr Simon Pye, was going to put the students into small groups to work on the project. They had immediately nicknamed him Sweetie Pie and were hoping that he would live up to his nickname and put them in friendly groups.

Nolan Banks had arrived that day by bicycle. He had badly damaged his ankle in an accident the year before and was heeding the advice of his doctor. Riding a bike would put less pressure on his ankle than walking, and would begin to build up his muscles.

Nolan had made friends with a few others in his year and hoped that they would be put in a group together. He was loving the course and hoped it would build a career for him in sports broadcasting.

Jim Jam Leverton had taken the bus from her parents’ flat, giving her lots of time to think. The morning traffic was heavy so the bus had crawled along the road at a snail’s pace.

A few of her school friends were also at the college, but none of them were taking the same course as her.

Jim Jam was worried. She didn’t seem to make friends that easily and she was hoping that she’d fit in with the rest of her group.

Anda van Stratten was not worried about anything. She had caught her usual train from her aunt’s house and then walked up from the station. Anda made friends very easily. She had lived abroad for most of her life and had been to loads of different schools. Each time she’d had to make new friends.

Mr Pye could put her in