Short story competition

You may have heard about this on the radio or seen the posters in the Library, but if not here are the details!
Radio two DJ Chris Evans is running a short story writing competition for young people aged 13 and under. All you have to do is write a story 500 words long and submit it via the website before 7pm on 22nd February. The judges are: Jacqueline Wilson, Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Charlie Higson, Richard Hammond and, of course, Chris Evans. The first prize-winner receives the height of Chris Evans in books AND 500 books for the school library!! Now, that is A LOT of books.

Want to take part? Then click on the link for all the details: competition details.

Costa Book of the Year Award

The winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2012 announced last night was Bringing up the bodies by Hilary Mantel. So sadly Maggot moon missed out on winning this prize. Hilary Mantel's book, set in the Tudor period and charting the downfall of Anne Boleyn, had already won the Booker Prize as had her previous novel Wolf Hall, a huge volume, set in the 1520s.

Book of the week 28th January

 

Maggot Moon 

by Sally Gardner 

The book of the week this week is Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner. This book won the 2012 Costa Children's Book Award and is therefore up against all the other category winners for the Costa Book of the Year Award which will be announced tomorrow- 29th January.
 Maggot Moon is set in a dystopian society- a 1950s England where the race to be first to the moon is all important to the ruling regime. It is a harsh society where people regularly disappear and those who are different are treated at best with disdain, more often with violence. The hero of the book -Standish Treadwell has different coloured eyes AND is dyslexic and so is bullied mercileesly at school until a new boy -Hector- befriends him. But it is not long before Hector disappears. Standish and his grandfather decide that they will take a stand against the harsh regime.
Maggot moon is an excellent book.The chapters are short and the pace fast-moving. Although the book is touching it is full of black humour and pulls no punches in its depiction of the harsh reality of the regime and the Motherland. An imaginative and compelling book.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

Holocaust Memorial Day falls on 27th January each year, this date was chosen because this is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. This day is used to remember the victims of the Holocaust and of subsequent genocides and to learn from these events and understand the importance of religious and ethnic tolerance in the modern world.

In the Library there is a small display with non-fiction books about the Holocaust and genocide and some fiction books set during the Second World War.

HMD 2013

Burns Night

To celebrate Burns Night - Friday 25th January - there is a display in the Library featuring one of the Bard's longest and best loved poems -Tam o'Shanter.

Burns was born in the family cottage in Alloway on 25th January 1759. In his short life - he died in 1796 aged just 37- he wrote over 500 poems and songs, worked as a farmer and an excise man and travelled all round Scotland.So, before you tuck in to your haggis and neeps come to the Library and learn a little more about the life and work of Robert Burns - Scotland's national poet. The display even has a recipe for making your own haggis should you need one!

S4 Parents Evening

The Library will be open for S4 Parents Evening on Thursday 24th January to allow parents the opportunity to see the resources available for study and revision. Please feel free to drop in, look round the Library and the Careers Library, and ask questions. A Careers Adviser will also be available for consultation, she will be based in the Opportunities for All Room from 5.15pm.

Book of the week - 21st January 2013

 The first book of the week - 'Slated' by Teri Terry - will appeal to those of you who enjoyed 'The hunger games' and who like thrillers.
'Slated' is set  in a dystopian Britain where young criminals are given a second chance to live different lives and become good citizens - by having their memories and personalities completely erased. Kyla has been slated and sent to live with a new family. She has to relearn everything - that knives are sharp, how to wash dished even how to stroke a cat. But Kyla suffers from nightmares in which she remembers things from her past life, this makes her different from all the others who have been slated and makes her a danger to the state. Who can Kyla trust and will she ever find out the truth?

This book is a real page turner, it is exciting and creepy but there is humour and romance too (just!). The only thing that disappoints is the ending which leaves many questions unanswered - a sure sign that there is another book to follow ('Fractured' is due out in April 2013!).

Born this day...

A.A. Milne the author of the Winnie the Pooh books was born on 18th January 1882 and is worthy of a mention because he is the creator of one of my favourite fictional characters - Eeyore! Milne had published many novels for adults, non-fiction books and articles before all of that was forgotten as a result of the success of 'Winnie-the-Pooh' which was first published in 1926. Eeyore is described in the books as an 'old, grey donkey', he has a detachable tail, which he tends to lose, eats thistles and lives in the Hundred Acre Wood in a house of sticks - 'Eeyore's gloomy place:rather boggy and sad'. Eeyore does have a tendency to be quite sarcastic and does not really rate many of the other animals and his gloomy pessimism is often quite touching. But more often than not he makes me laugh!

The original Eeyore as drawn by E.H. Shepherd

The Disney version of Eeyore

 

So, Happy Birthday A.A. MIlne and thank you for Eeyore!

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy died on 11th January 1928 at the age of 88. He was an English novelist and poet, his novels tended to focus on the decline of English rural life. Although best known for his novels - some of which have been adapted for film and television- Hardy considered himself primarily as a poet. His works are still studied in schools today. Amongst his most popular books are: The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the d'Ubervilles and Jude the Obscure.

London Underground

Today (10th January) marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first part of the London Underground. A set of commemorative stamps have been issued by the Royal Mail. For more information about the history of the  London Underground.

Image of the London Underground Commemorative stamps from the BBC website.

Like being underground? Why not read Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams