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Late Late Late
One of my least favourite things about being a librarian is when I have to tell students to bring their books back. I like to assume that every late book is not lost or fogotten but so well loved that the reader just can’t bear to part with it!
February has seen the latest batch of grumpy library letters go home to parents asking for the return of books that in some cases have been on loan for more than a year.
In many cases this is the first time a parent will know what their child has been reading as initial responsibility (and all of the reminders) go to the student first. This can lead to some confusion at home and occasionally, challenging enquiries sent to the library…
Is it worth the grumpy replies? Absolutely. Just one day after around 200 letters went home, 44 long term overdue books have already come back saving the school money but more importantly – putting books back on the shelf for the next reader to discover and love.
Carnegie is coming
The Carnegie Greenaway longlist announcement was made today. Follow this link to check it out and let us know what you think:
http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_2018_Nominations_Carnegie.html
Carnegie always inspires conversation in the library and some of this year’s selection is no exception. Can’t wait for the shortlist and shadowing to start next month!
Escape the Library
This week has seen some full scale rivalry erupt as students compete to be the first to solve the Library Escape Box.
A scaled down escape room, there is a set of drawers in the library, chained shut and secured with a variety of locks. In each drawer are more puzzles to solve until, finally you unlock the final box and win the prizes within.
Every day this week a new prize has been added and currently stands at three books, a £5 book voucher and, importantly, chocolate!
Neck and neck at the moment are year 13 student Connor, year 12 Jonah, year 9’s Noah and Eleanor and year 7 Delphi – with year 11 Sienna catching up fast, it’s still anyones guess who will win – watch this space…
Alex Bell Interview
Today Mrs Perchard’s year 8 English class (and a few specially invited super-fans) interviewed author Alex Bell via Google Hangouts. Sadly it is not always possible for our favourite authors to come to see us so getting the chance to chat to Alex online was a brilliant opportunity.
The students asked a wide variety of questions about her writing, her life as an author and of course, about her cat!
The full video is available on the school YouTube account here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvy9APGBpy0
Thanks to some brilliant technical support we will be looking at doing this kind of author visit again – taking suggestions now!
Award Winner’s Announced!
At 7:30 last night, the category winners of the Costa Book Awards were announced [the overall winner of Costa Book of the Year will be decided on 30th January].
Winner of the Chilren’s Book Award – Amazonian adventure “The Explorer” by Katherine Rundell.
The Costa prize has five categories:
Novel
Children’s Book
Biography
Poetry
First Novel
For a full look at all of the winners and their books check out the link below:
New Year’s Read-olution!
Here in the library we know what the research proves – that reading is one of the best things that you can do. Reading for pleasure has so many powerful positive outcomes: Reading impacts your health and wellbeing, intellectual, personal and social success.
With all this in mind, my New Year’s Resolution for 2018 will be to read more (same as last year’s resolution now I think of it!)
This year I will be trying to read 100 books and using the free Goodreads App to track how I’m getting on and rate the books that I read. You can follow my progress as WHATLibrarian at https://www.goodreads.com
Better still – why not set yourself a similar challenge?
Harry Potter Night
The fourth annual Harry Potter Night has now taken place and it was victory for team Cornish Pixies with a very respectable score of 84 out of 99 possible potter points.
44 teams competed for the prize – a very glittery Tri-Wizard Cup and it was a close run, right up to the tie break at the end between the Pixies and the Heirs of Hogwarts.
The event could not have run without the amazing volunteers; staff, students and adults who help every year to make this a real stand out event on the library calendar.
With many people already asking about the next one and some brilliant feedback from this it looks like HP5 next December will have a decidedly Ministerial feel…
Shadowing News
The Costa book award shortlists have just been announced and the library will be reading, reviewing and following the progress of the children’s titles during Tuesday Book Group. Why not follow the link below to find out more or pop along to the library Tuesdays at 2:10?
Loving Kids’ Lit!
Team A mid contest!
So we didn’t win, but we had a lot of fun!
Congratulations go to CNS, who won the 2017 Norfolk Heat and will go on to the UK final in London. We will keep our fingers crossed that, even if it’s not Wymondham this year, a Norfolk High School will go on to represent the UK in the world finals.
30 teams from around Norfolk took part in this year’s Kids’ Lit Quiz Norfolk Heat. It was a very hard fought and close-run quiz (only four points separated the top three teams!) Team A: Amelie, Abigail, Delphi and Imogen came 11th, Team B: Gideon, Amelia, Eleanor and Scarlet came 12th with Angelica and I cheering them on from the sidelines. We don’t need many excuses to read more but with the World Final next year to be held in Singapore, I guess we just found one more!
