To engage school kids during this lockdown, Republica is organizing a Daily Contest where we have been publishing the best submission everyday in Republica. Meanwhile, here are other three top articles along with the winning article sent to us for Topic 4:

WINNER
Name: Rishaya Koirala
Grade: VIII
School: Pathshala Nepal Foundation


Reading Anne Frank's Diary provided me hope during this lockdown
The pandemic of COVID -19 has made many countries to impose lockdown as an attempt to mitigate or contain the spread of the virus. I am utilizing this time by engaging in activities that provide positive energy. Reading books is one of them. So far, during this lockdown, I have read four books (Gulliver’s Travels, Frankestine, The Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Diary of a Young Girl; Anne Frank). The most recent one is “The Diary of a Young Girl; Anne Frank”. It is a book from the diary, written in Dutch by a young Jew girl, Anne Frank while she was in hiding during Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne died of typhus in 1945. The diary was published by her father, Otto Frank, the family’s only known survivor. The diary has since been published in more than sixty languages.
This diary was given to her as a birthday gift on her thirteenth birthday and in the next two years she pours her heart out into the diary. She takes her diary as her new best friend and confides all her secrets and feelings to it. Although cut off from the inhabited world and confined to their ”Secret  Annexure”for so long, Anne’s entries are captivating and interesting. Here, she has innocently described themselves as “ Lucky Jews” for not being caught, murdered or tortured by Hitler’s men yet. However, she has also described vividly how difficult it was for her family and the van Daans, who had come to live with them in their hideout to remain undetected; always having to talk in low voices and walk in tiptoes. To keep herself occupied and sane, she read novels and translated them into different languages. It is really heart warming to read how Anne and Peter come to like each other and comfort one another in their difficult times.
While reading this book I could relate to Anne Frank in so many ways. She was in a hide out from the Nazi-Germans. I am locked-up at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I can imagine how difficult it must have been for the Jew families to remain in hide-out with the constant fear of being discovered. Mine is government imposed confinement while their was a necessity. I remain indoors without a fear whereas they lived in constant vigilance. Again, she was almost the same age as me. While reading her diaries I could identify with her emotions. This book has also been a window to the minds of the opposite sex: how girls feel and think. Although this was written almost a century ago, the growing up experiences described is just as we experience today.
Anne Frank’s diary has made me realize how a man with his ego and lust for power can turn into a monster. I now understand why the German dictator, Adolf Hitler is hated so much and am aghast at the terrible things that hatred can make us do. I feel like her problem was way greater than what we are facing right now.  At the end of the day, love triumphs over hate. Anne Frank and her diary is a poignant reminder of the indomitable human spirit.

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Top 3

Name : Prishal Ghimire
Class: 7
School: DAV School

Reading books for refreshment
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages bound together and protected by a cover.

The best book I have read is 'The Kite Runner.'The author of the book is Khaled Hosseini. In the book, there is a 12 year old characterf Amir and the story is set in Afghanistan in 1975. Amir is desperate to win the local kite flying tournament and his friend from same locality, Hassan is also participating the same. One afternoon, an event occurs in the life of Amir and Hassan aslo could not help Amir at that time. This event shatters their lives.

Then, after the Russians invade Afghanistan, their families are forced to flee to America. Many years after, Amir realises that he must return to find his world.

Here, I wrote a short review of the book which I like the most and we all also should read a book to make our mind fresh and books help us to experience a world that we might never experience and gain knowlege from the characters and settings.

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Name: Aarushi Sharma
Grade: Eight
School: Kathmandu Pragya Kunja

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's stone

Recently I have read the book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The author of this book is JK Rowling. Harry potter is a series of fantasy novels. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard. Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.
The story begins with a description of the Dursleys, an utterly normal family in England, who are left with baby Harry Potter on their doorsteps. Aunt Petunia's sister Lily married James Potter and became a powerful couple in the wizard's world. They were killed by the evil Voldemort, leaving Harry with a large scar on his forehead and legacy as the only wizard to escape Voldemort alive. Head wizard Albus Dumbledore decides to have Harry grow up with the Dursleys until he is ready to attend Hogwarts, the premiere magic school in England. At age 11, Harry is whisked away to Hogwarts by the giant gamekeeper, Hagrid, to find himself lost amongst a new world of magic and power.
Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, where he retrieves some of his inheritance from Gringotts, the wizard bank, and purchases his books, wand, and robes from the Leaky Cauldron and Ollivanders. On the train to Hogwarts at platform nine and Three Quarters, Harry meets his new friend Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Everyone is amazed to meet the famous Harry Potter. On the train Harry also meets Draco Malfoy, a boy with whom he develops distrust and hatred. At Hogwarts, the children meet Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell, all professors and wizards. At the opening banquet, the Sorting Hat decides in which house the children live, sorting Hermione, Neville, Ron, and Harry into Gryffindor, and Draco Malfoy into Slytherin, the house run by Snape and known to have schooled Voldemort in years past. Harry becomes an expert at flying and is allowed to play Quidditch for Gryffindor’s team. One day Harry and Ron come across a large troll and rescue Hermione from death. Meanwhile, Hagrid keeps an eye on Harry and looks out for him. They visit Hagrid and meet his new pet dragon, Norbert. Norbert causes problems for everyone, as dragons are illegal animals. The three send the dragon away to Romania under Harry's Invisibility Cloak and are discovered out of bed doing so. They are branded and punished with detention and stricken of fifty points each. As detention the kids must help clean up the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. They find a unicorn slaughtered, with its blood scattered across the ground, and are frightened by an evil spirit.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover that Voldemort tricked Hagrid into revealing the method by which to get past the three-headed dog and to the Sorcerer's Stone. Ron gets everyone past the life sized Wizard's Chess board, while Hermione breaks the riddle that allows Harry to proceed to the ultimate chamber underground. He sees the Mirror of Erised, the same mirror that shows the hopes and dreams of the person who looks inside. He finds Quirrell in the chamber without his stutter. He admits to hosting Voldemort and trying to destroy Harry in the forest. Harry sees a double face on top of Quirrell's head - it is Voldemort. Harry discovers the Stone in his pocket.
Harry awakens in the infirmary to Dumbledore congratulating him. He saved the Stone, Hogwarts, and his own life. Because of their bravery, Gryffindor wins the house cup for the year.

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Name: Anushka Regmi
Grade: 7
School: Rato Bangala School

A book I read during this lockdown
I have been a book lover ever since I was a little kindergartener. However, as I climbed higher grades I became so engrossed in my school assignments and burdened by term pressures that I got limited time to read books.
This time during the Corona virus lockdown I took a solemn oath to use my time in reading the many unread books lying on my study shelf. In the last two weeks, the best book that I got hold of is ‘Wonder’. I remember that I had already read this book when I was in fifth standard and had that it was a complete page-turner.   I had forgotten many parts of the story in the two-years time gap, therefore,  I thought of reading it once again. Even during my second read, I found it to be as interesting as the first time.
The author of ‘Wonder’ is R.J. Palacio and this book is about the life of August- a boy with craniofacial disorder that led to deformity in his face and head. The way author Palacio empathized with August and ventured the many moments of the protagonist’s life and beautifully explained about the problems he was facing and the way August bravely dealt with them left me completely mesmerized.
 After reading the first 100 pages of this book, I realized one very important thing--No matter what, our family will always be there by our side. Having seen how August was supported by his family in almost every point of his life, I was also very silently praying for him to get enough strength to boldly stand up in the face of adversity and fight for his rights.
The second half of the book, in the meantime, comprises the different point of views of people regarding August and thus taught me how to see things from different point-of-views, and importantly how to value them. The second half portrays how his friends feel about him, how his over protective sister Olivia actually perceived him and why some people whole-heartedly detest him. One of his friends describes him ‘a cool and a great person to be friends with even though his face still scares everyone. Another friend described him ‘as smart’ and the reason many people dislike him is because they do not know him well. Similarly his sister mentions again and again how proud she is to have such a brave and daring brother. She also reiterates that even though she has fewer friends because of him, she will never feel bad for being August’s sister. Then, there is August’s classmate Julian who always bullies him. The whole story portrays him as a negative character who wants August to be a loser and continue to be the popular guy in the class. It was a bit painful to learn that Julian was not so evil and that his hatred was mostly due to the fact that he was having nightmares ever since he saw August in school.
With a myriad of people offering their own point-of-view on how August is, the book yesterday evening left me wondering  if there are such ‘differently-abled’  kids in Nepal and if there is anything small and wonderful I can do for them. 
 

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