Research and Reading
Key parts in the plot
- Originally Meggie worked for the Hadley family. Her and Mrs Hadley were quite close. Sephy Hadley and Callum Mcgregor grew up together as good friends despite being a nought and cross.
- Mrs Hadley had an affair and Maggie McGregor unknowingly did not back up Mrs Hadleys story to Kamal Hadley so he hit Mrs Hadley. Mrs Hadley hated Maggie for not going along with the story and sacked her for it.
- Callum and Sephy discuss the world of Noughts and Crosses on the beach. Callum talks about the divide between the noughts and crosses whilst Sephy is hurt by this and doesn't think it is true. Callum does not want Sephy coming to his house and he is hesitant around Sephy's house, while Sephy prefers the laughter within Callums house.
- Callums family tell him to stay away from Sephy. They don't think noughts and crosses should mix. There are mixed views about Callum getting into Heathcroft High School however Callum is defiant and positive about going.
- Sephy hears her father angrily talking about the noughts and the new reform to let them into cross schools, she finds he is talking to someone else and that he wants the nought to infiltrate the Liberation Militia.
- Callum and his Mum discuss school, his mum is concerned but Callum is adament he is going. Lynette has an episode of believing she is a cross and Jude is angry however Ryan is protective over her.
- Harry takes Sephy to school a little distance away so shes not teased for being too posh. Harry is concerned for his job. There is a protest at school about the noughts, Sephy tries to stop it but says that the crosses are 'Worse than animals - Blankers' which Callum is upset about.
- Callums family see Sephy on the TV which angers the family more. Callum suspects Jude and Ryan are part of the Liberation Militaria. He later hears them discussing that Callum should be told the truth.
- Sephy sits on the noughts table and Callum is shocked. Sephy is told to sit somewhere else by the deputy headmistress.
- Harry has been sacked and Sephy has a new chefuer
- Stephy gets beat up by three cross girls for sitting on the noughts table
- Callum find out about Sephy and tries to see her , Mrs Hadley won't let him. Minnie tries to find out who hurt Sephy.
- Callum tells Sephy he tried to see her everyday
- Callum and Sephy are at the beach and organise to go to Celbration Park. They both remember the train journey last time where Callum was stopped by police who were suspicious of how he got the tickets.
- Callum goes home and there is a fight / argument between Jude and Lynette and she gets hurt. Ryan gets very angry and tells everyone what happened to Lynette. After the fight Lynette starts to remember what she is and what happened.
- Sephy plans her party and invites Callum.
- Callum argue with Mr Jason in History. Callum is angry about how influential noughts are not included in history. He is sent to the headmasters office. Mrs Paxton sees him there and tells him Mr Jason had a nought mother.
- Sephy finds out she has a brother and that her parents are getting a divorce.
- Lynette and Callum talk about him going to school.
- Sephy finds out her mother had an affair and that Minnie knew about everything.
- Callum confronts Mr Jason with what he knows.
-Lynny leaves dinner to go for a walk and Meggie wants to know what happened. Lynny is found by police officers she was hit by a bus and killed. Meggie thinks thinks its becuase of the fight.
- Mrs Haldey tries to take an overdose.
- Callum finds a letter from Lynette saying that it was suicide but that she wants her Mum and Dad to think it was an accident.
- Lynettes funeral takes place and Sephy visits the house to send condolenses. She is not welcome and finds out that Harry was sacked. Ryan changes and it scares Callum.
- Meggie is not talking to anyone, Jude and Ryan are organising something and Callum says he wants to help the Liberation Militia. Ryan wants him to stay at school.
- Mrs Hadley is drinking more. Callum and Sephy talk about them both going to the shopping centre.
- Callum tells Jude hes going to the shopping centre. Jude says he shouldn't go and Callum works out that something bad is going to happen. He runs to the centre to get Sephy.
- A bomb goes off at the Dundale Shopping Centre but Sephy and Callum escape, Mrs Hadley is also alive.
- Meggie confronts Ryan and Jude about it, one of them planted the bomb. She breaks her fingers from slapping him and needs to go to hospital.
- Sephy starts drinking
- Meggie tells Jude soemthing at the hospital. Callum and Jude have to give their IDs to get Meggie treatment at the hospital. Meggie is concerned about Jude having his details on the system and says she wants them deleted once she brings her own.
- Meggie wants Ryan and Jude to leave if they don't stop being part of the Liberation Militaria.
- Callum and Sephy meet at the beach he is angry she has been drinking.
- Callums family are arrested but Jude was not in the house.
- Sephy plans to go to boarding school
- Callum and Meggies are questioned. Callum denies any knowledge of anything. Callum finds out Judes prints were at the scene.Ryan confesses to the crime.
- Meggie and Callum visit lawyers and find one. Ryan finds out hes been lied to and that Jude is on the run.
- There is an anonymous benefactor that funds the Mcgregors new cross lawyer Kelani Adams. Callum thinks Sephy is paying for the laywer.
- Callum is suspended from school because of the trial. Callum leaves and doesn't intend to come back.
- Sephy and Minnie plan to go to boarding school to get away from everything.
- Ryan pleads not guilty.
- Sephy is called up for the trial
- Callum denies any knowledge of the Liberation Militaria in court, however a tape is played of Sephy and Callum running from the shopping centre which suggests he knew what was going to happen. Kelani counteracts this to suggest Callum was avoiding Mrs Hadley.
- Sephy is questioned
- Mr Stoll from the cafe backs up Sephy and Callums story
- Ryan is found guilty despite the evidence
- Sephy is told to wear her best dress becuase the Hadley family are going somewhere. When they arrive Sephy realises they are going to see Ryans hanging. She tries to leave but Mrs Hadley stops her.
- The hanging is stopped at the last minute and Ryans sentence is changed to life imprisonment. A riot starts.
- Sephy is angry at her mother for making her go. She finds out that Mrs Hadley paid for Ryans lawyer.
- Callum and Meggie visit Ryan who says he's going to get out of prison.
- Callum visits Sephy by climbing up the ivy to the balcony and stays the night.
- Sarah hides Callum's shoes to stop Mrs Hadley knowing that Callum was in the house.
- Ryan is electrocuted trying to get over the electrified fence.
- Callum is visited by Jude where he works. Jude asks him whether he wants to join the Liberation Militaria and Callum agrees.
- Sephy writes a letter to Callum to ask him to move away with her and gives it to Sarah to give to Callum.
- Callum packs to leave to meet his brother and Meggie works out where hes going, whilst Sarah drops the letter off at the house. Callum doesn't read the letter.
- Sephy gets ready to leave for boarding school and waits to see if Callum is coming.
- Callum reads the letter and tries to meet Sephy before she leaves but only sees her going.
- Sephy starts boarding school and she enjoys it and joins a group where Crosses were fighting for change in the system.
- Callum works his way up in the Liberation Militaria but doesn't see his brother for a while. However Jude joins them for a mission.
- Sephy comes home and Callum writes a note to arrange to meet her.
- Sephy meets Callum but is kidnapped by the group.
- She is taken to a cabin in the woods and held hostage
- Callum has to cut a piece of Sephy's hair, take a picture of her with a newspaper and cut her finger to stain her T shirt. This will be sent to Mr Hadley.
- The deputy of the Liberation Militaria comes to see how the operation is going.
- Sephy recognises his boots
- Callums team organise the collection of the money, Callum is to stay and guard Sephy
- Callum tells Sephy that he tried to go with her when she left
- Callum and Sephy are found together by Jude and Morgan
- Two of the team are captured or dead as the mission goes wrong.
- Sephy escapes into the woods, Callum finds her but lets her go before the others see her. She tells him that the man that visited workd for Mr Hadley.
- Sephy is found and goes back home but won't tell anyone what happened
- Callum tells the group about the mole. They decide to split up for a while.
- Minnie asks whether Sephy is pregnant. Sephy checks and finds she is. Minnie tells her parents.
- Callum hears about the baby on the radio at his work. He leaves.
- Sephys parents want her to have an abortion but she refuses.
- Callum tries to meet Sephy n the rose garden. He is caught and taken to prison.
- Jude tries to root out the mole by placing an article in the newspaper.
- Mr Haldey visits Callum in prison. He wants Callum to confess to the kidnap and he will allow him to get out of prison early. He also thinks this will stop Sephy keeping the baby. Callum refuses.
- Mr Hadley talks to Sephy and says Callum will hang if she doesn't have the abortion. She refuses.
- During the execution Callum tries to find Sephy in the crowd but doesn't see her. Instead he hears her call out which puts him at peace.
- A birth announcement declares the birth of Sephy and Callums daughter which will have the surname McGregor.
Other notes form the author
She wanted Callum and Sephy to go down certain paths during the story however the characters pulled her down other routes as well.
She describes the book as dealing with racism, terrorism and the class system.
She higlights the artificial divides that are between ourselves and others.
She considers how the Callum and Sephy's lives may have been different if they had made differnet choices.
Fans have questioned what would have happened if:
- Sephy had chosen Callum over her baby
- Whether the ending was a plot by Mr Hadley and that Callum wasn't actually dead
- if Callum had read Sephys letter in time.
Quotes from the book
'An inspired take on Romeo and Juliet... Unforgettable ' Independent
'Real good friends. No barriers.No boundaries. Not yet anyway' pg 7
'What if a virus wiped out ever single Cross and not a single nought? or 'What if there was a revolution and all the crosses were overthrown?' pg 8
'What if Callum and Sephy' pg 9
'You were deep in thought there. Penny for them?'
'God only knew that being around Crosses was like walking on egg shells' pg 10
''This place isn't so bad, is it?'
'Depends on your point of view'
'You're on the inside, Sephy. I'm not.'' pg 21
'Being in and being accepted are two different things' pg 22
''There's more to life than just us noughts and and you Crosses'
'Us noughts and you Crosses'
'It makes it sound like you're in one place and I'm in another, with a huge, great wall between us'' pg 25
''If only Callum wasn't a nought' pg 31
'He never called them Crosses. They were always daggers.'' pg 33
''We don't need to mix with them'
'What's wrong with mixing?'' pg 35
'What would satisfy all the noughts and crosses who felt the same as Mum? Seperate countries? Seperate planets? How far is far enough?' pg 36
'You'll be representing all of us noughts at the school' pg 37
'Four noughts, including Callum, were starting at my school' pg 40
'God spare us from liberals and blankers' pg 42
''I've got to go to Heathcroft now and nothing, not even dynamite, is going to get me out again' pg 48
'I shouldn't be here. I'm not one of you. I'm a cross.' pg 50
'I'm the only one of the three of us who knows what he is an accepts it' pg 51
'NO BLANKERS IN OUR SCHOOL...' pg 54
'I'm not a blanker. I may be a nought but i'm worth more than nothing. I'm not a blanker. A waste of time and space. A zero.' pg 57
'Political terrorism which results in the death or serious injury of even one Cross always has been and always will be a capital crime. Those found guilty will suffer the death sentence, to two ways about it...' pg 66
'That plasters a bit noticable.' pg 73
'They don't sell pink plasters. Only dark brown ones' pg 74
'Get back to your own table - at once' pg 74
'The Crosses were meant to be closer to God The Good Book said so. The son son of God was dark - skinned like them ...' pg 79
''But your just like everyone else. 'Crosses and noughts shouldn't be seen together. Crosses and noughts shouldn't be friends. Crosses and noughts shouldn't even be on the same planet together'''. pg 81
'You sat on the blankers table.' pg 83
'They're blank by name and blank by nature' pg 85
'Blank , white faces with not a hint of colour in them. Blank minds which can't hold a single original thought. Blank, blank, blank' pg 85
'I started watching people - noughts and Crosses. Their faces ... the way they spoke to their 'own' kind. The way they spoke to others who weren't the same. There were so many differences they swamped the similarities. Nought relaxed around each other in a way they rarely did around Crosses. And Crosses were constantly on their guard around noughts' pg 116
'All our lives criss - crossing but never really touching.' pg 116
' when you're floating up and up in your bubble, that bubbles have a habit of bursting. The higher you climb, the further you have to fall.' pg 151
'The new year had started and here we were occupying opposite ends of the compass' pg 186
'Callum and I were two sides of the same coin' pg 231
'They found an empty can of drink near to where the Dundale bomb went off'
'reckon they cross referenced it with the print on his ID card' pg 233
'Just make sure Jude stays lost so the daggers can't get hold of him' pg 244
''Twelve good Cross men and women of course.' pg 262
'Sephy, it's time you learnt that if you lie down with dogs, you're bound to get fleas.' pg 265
'You paid for their lawyer?' pg 298
'I want to smash you and every other dagger who crosses my path. I hate you so much it scares me' pg 306
'...if I'd managed to reach her car before it sped away from me. I might've been very much alive, instead of ice - cold inside' pg 378
Existing Book Covers
All three of the designs use circles and crosses as visuals to represent the noughts and crosses within the book. The use of two hand written typefaces creates a sense of personalisation to the cover, perhaps simulating the writing of Sephy and Callum the two main characters. Both the nought and cross are multicoloured suggesting how Sephy an Callum see themselves as the same and friends despite being a nought and a cross. The use of red for the typeface reflects the danger and deaths that happen on both sides within the book.
In both of these covers the designs are split into two halves, black and white reflecting the the noughts and crosses. This creates a sense of contrast and separation between the two. Placing the title on either side of the central line emphasises the divide between the two in society and highlights how they don't mix.
The use of the red circle for the nought illustrates how the nought characters within the book are either killed or in danger.
Some of the main things to avoid using too heavily within my own designs are the use of black and white and the noughts and crosses. Keeping these to a minimum will allow for a more original interpretation of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.