One is One and All Alone by Nicholas Fisk is about a girl named Trish, who is the only child on a spaceship to Trion, with the setting took place in 2045. She is a lonely, 11-years-old girl, and in need of a friend her age before arriving at their destination in 2047. Her father is an important figure working on the spaceship, and her mother is working on Trion. Her only companion is VP, her VoicePrinter which acts as her diary, teacher and instructor, as well as a 'friend'.

This story is about her and her discovery on having a secret friend, aka making a clone of herself.

Sounds interesting, isn't it? This story is one of two short stories for the new Literature Component for English Language (Form 1 -3), aside from Flipping Fantastic by Jane Langford.

While the story itself sound interesting, and very... well, futuristic, what with the high-tech stuff going on with cloning as its theme, I definitely would not be stupid enough to actually suggest it to my 13-15 years old secondary students for leisure reading (let alone compulsory reading texts), no matter how easy it is to digest the language and what is actually going on in the story. Unless I really sure that they are able to think critically for themselves and not just taking anything for granted.

( What is the best way to teach your students that yes, it is alright to kill your other self? )


I prefer to teach the stupidly sweet and cheesy, full of family values Flipping Fantastic rather than this story. Anytime.