Blood Pressure

60 Pages·2006·0.54 MB·English

Blood Pressure
Alan Gibbons
Introduction
New Windmills titles are supported by a 15-lesson study scheme including medium- and
short-term lesson plans, and Student, Teacher and OHT resource sheets. These resources
help students to engage with the novel and assist in your planning for close study of a novel.
Each set of resources includes a series of self-contained lessons which can also be used to
supplement your own teaching plans, or to provide extra support for specific teaching
points. Each activity is individually mapped against the Framework and Assessment
objectives. There are also guided reading and reading journal activities, plus suggestions
for further study areas including speaking and listening, writing, reading and drama
activities. If your students have enjoyed reading this novel, there are ideas for other
New Windmills they may like to read for pleasure.
Resources for Blood Pressure:
Synopsis
Activate prior learning
Activity sheets
– Student sheets
– OHTs
– Teacher’s notes
Reading journal
– General reading journal
– Blood Pressure reading journal prompts
Further study areas
Reading for pleasure
Activities by Mike Royston
The following pages can be downloaded and printed out as required.
This material may be freely copied for institutional use. However, this material is
copyright and under no circumstances can copies be offered for sale.
The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce copyright material.
Blood Pressure
Synopsis
Fifteen-year-old Aidan lives a comfortable, middle-class life in the leafy suburbs of
Surrey. But his past, about which Mum has told him nothing, is about to explode in his
face when she takes him to Liverpool to visit his dying grandfather.
Aidan meets Jade, an attractive Liverpool girl with whom he soon persuades himself he
is in love. Jade, utterly unlike Emily (his Surrey girlfriend), is self-possessed and
streetwise, and seductive and spiky by turns. Like everyone else in Aidan’s grandfather’s
neighbourhood, Jade seems to know more about Aidan than she is telling. Mum too
becomes edgy and secretive and is often away from the house. When Aidan sees her by
chance with a ‘man in black’ in an expensive BMW, he becomes convinced she is having
an affair.
Determined to discover the truth, Aidan confronts the stranger – only to become caught
up in the crossfire of a street gun battle, as a result of which he is bundled into the BMW
and driven by the stranger deep into the isolation of North Wales. The stranger is Sean
Deegan, a Liverpool drug dealer and career criminal. His assailant has been hired by a
rival gang, fighting Deegan for his ‘turf’, to eliminate him. And Deegan reveals that he is
Aidan’s natural father. He got Mum pregnant while she was still at school. She shared a
flat with him and her son for nearly two years before leaving for a new life in Surrey,
marrying a rich businessman who has brought Aidan up as his own.
After being on the run with his natural father for several days and surviving another
contract killing attempt, Aidan is returned safely to his grandfather’s house. Deegan
intends to escape to the sanctuary of Spain; his partner, Tony Morrisey, has failed to keep
the Liverpool turf safe. But spending time with his son has convinced Deegan that he,
Aidan and Mum can have a future together. He tries to enlist Aidan’s help. However, he
has risked too much by staying in Liverpool. He is shot dead by The Gunslinger, not in
fact a hired assassin but Tony Morrisey, the one man Deegan always trusted. Aidan
witnesses the killing of his ‘dad’ and picks up Morrisey’s gun to avenge his murder. Only
the intervention of his dying grandfather prevents him from using it.
Time passes. Deegan’s funeral is followed quickly by Aidan’s grandfather’s. After
graduating from university, Aidan returns to Liverpool to work as a journalist. He has
never forgotten Jade, who is now living as a single mother. In the novel’s Epilogue, Aidan
sets out to find her …
Activate prior learning
Blood Pressure tells a highly topical story about the ‘two nations’ of contemporary Britain.
Students need to be prepared for the stark contrast Alan Gibbons draws between family
life in the affluent middle-class south and the criminal sub-culture of a large northern city
where street terrorism is rife. The novel is a mystery thriller, often reminiscent of the
work of Stephen King. Some knowledge of this genre, both in fiction and in film, would
be extremely useful.
2
Teacher’s
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
1 The opening passage of
Blood Pressure
There was pressure above his eyes. Half in, half out of sleep, he let
out a low groan.
‘Aidan.’
It was Mum’s voice he heard, distant, as if eddying through metres
of dark water, getting lost in gluey currents. He was unable to rise towards
it, however. The dream held him fast in its grasp. That dream, the one that
never went away. There, beyond the black fathoms of sleep, he was a
small boy again, caught in a downpour, running along the slick, grey
pavement. Mum grabbed for his hand but he wriggled free. She was
calling him back, her voice echoing through the roar of the rain. He
wasn’t paying any attention. He wanted to see Dad. He loved his dad.
He loved the way he came in and threw him high in the air before
catching him again. Dad was in that house.
They’d spotted him from the street corner.
‘Aidan, are you OK?’
Mum’s voice quivered a moment, opening a window in the gloom,
then swam away from him. Aidan was that little boy again. He ran
indoors. The house creaked around him, seeming to sag under the weight
of the heaving wind. His heart was pattering with unease at the strange
surroundings, but he ran on. He was aware of Mum following. At the end
of the hallway the door stood open, a slash of darkness beyond. What was
Dad doing there? Then there was another voice, an angry voice. Somebody
was in there with Dad. Warring voices boomed off the walls. Was this
man trying to hurt his daddy? A sliver of ice gouged his insides.
Stop it. Don’t hurt him!
‘Aidan!’
He turned towards Mum’s voice but the dream was thick around him
like fog, drawing him back to a time when she was younger. Then she
stopped, that younger self, seeing something. The boy glimpsed her
expression, wide eyes, mouth twisted in horror. The face he knew so well
seemed to fade leaving nothing but fear. The way her hands flew to that
pale, dissolving face made him scream. Then he had the impression of
something roaring, spitting fire. The explosion seemed to suck the air out
of the room. After that something loomed in the rolling smoke, a white
figure crucified on a cross of flame. A scream of agony flew past the
terrified boy, then there was a heavy thud as something fell to the floor.
‘Aidan, wake up!’
Mum was shaking him.
‘Wha …?’
The shaking went on.
‘You’re having a nightmare.’
3
OHT
© Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
2 Three extracts from stories
belonging to different genres
Name: Date:
Read the three extracts below, and decide which primary genre they belong to.
Give reasons for your choice.
1 A chilling metallic sound rattled behind them … creak, crackle. Their
hearts beat faster, breath-holding, pillow-clutching, and then the metallic
rattling again … creak, crackle. It was the handle of the door. Neither of
the girls could move or scream or think. A hand stretching into the room
was lit by the green glow from the television and then … the lights went out.
Primary genre:
How do you know?
2 May 25th, 7:00 a.m. Telephone call to Clark Forthcue, Forthcue Mansion,
Long Island:
‘Mr Forthcue, don’t talk, listen. Telephone calls can be traced easy,
letters can’t be. This will be the only telephone call and it will be short.
We have your step-daughter, Imogen. For more information check the old
rusty mailbox in front of the deserted Garver farm at the end of Wood
Road near your property. Check it tonight. Check it every night. Tell the
police or anyone else besides your wife about this and the kid dies. We’ll
know. We mean business.’
Primary genre:
How do you know?
3 The probe-mission ship locked into orbit and began its sensor-scan of the planet
Echo. Seated at his post on the bridge, Mission Commander Richard Tasman, United
States Navy, checked out the data processed by the technical teams of his crew.
Beside him Lieutenant Ted Gilbey, his second in command, nodded approvingly.
‘Looks good,’ Gilbey said. ‘Looks very good.’
Primary genre:
How do you know?
4
Student
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
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5
Student
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
4 Typical features of stories
and films belonging to the
genre of Mystery
Features Mystery
Typical
things that
happen
Typical kinds
of character
Typical
settings
(where the
events
happen)
Typical
endings
6
OHT
© Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
5 Notes for Aidan’s letter to Chris
Name: Date:
Events Aidan’s impressions Aidan’s feelings about
of Liverpool the people he meets
First sights of the city as
Mum drives through the
suburbs (page 8)
First glimpse of Jade
(page 8)
Meeting Gran and
Granddad (page 9)
Eating breakfast in the
supermarket café
(page 11)
Being stopped and
questioned by the
policeman (page 13)
First meeting with Jade
plus going swimming
with her (pages 15–16
and 38–40)
7
Student
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
6 A version of part of Aidan’s
letter to Chris
Dear Chris,
Please excuse me for not writing to you before. I have
been very busy adjusting to my new way of life.
Liverpool is an interesting city. Of course, it is very
different from Surrey. There are some famous places to
visit, such as the Maritime Museum and the Tate Modern.
I intend to go to both of these in the near future.
My grandparents have given Mum and me a warm welcome.
Unfortunately, Granddad is suffering from a lung disease
called asbestosis so he does not get out much. Gran is an
excellent cook and I have thoroughly enjoyed the
substantial meals she produces.
So far I have met several people. There is a girl called
Jade living in Elmwood Street who seems to have read a
lot of books. We are interested in the same films so we
will have plenty to talk about as time goes by.
Good points about this letter Bad points about this letter
8
OHT
© Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
7 Character-gram for The
Gunslinger
Name: Date:
Below is a partly completed character-gram of The Gunslinger. Complete the character-
gram using evidence from ‘The Gunslinger’ passages (pages 28, 42, 87, 168).
Evidence
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9
Student
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006
Blood Pressure
8 A grid to show Aidan’s
changing relationships with
Jade and Mum in Part One,
Chapters 4–8
Name: Date:
Aidan and Jade Aidan and Mum
4
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Student
Sheet © Harcourt Education Limited, 2006