Blue Peter - Best Book of Last 10 Years

Blue Peter viewers have voted for the Best Children's Book of the Last 10 Years. They chose their favourite book from a shortlist of the 10 best-selling works of children’s fiction from the last ten years, which allowed one book per author.
FIRST PLACE: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
SECOND PLACE: Candyfloss, Jacqueline Wilson
THIRD PLACE: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling
FOURTH PLACE: Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo
FIFTH PLACE: Mr Stink, David Walliams
SIXTH PLACE: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket
SEVENTH PLACE: Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend, Francesca Simon
EIGHTH PLACE Alex Rider: Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
NINTH PLACE: SilverFin: A James Bond Adventure - Young Bond, Charlie Higson
TENTH PLACE: Theodore Boone, John Grisham
Full details

World Book Day - 1 March

World Book Day (WBD) is on 1 March, and there will be several activities to celebrate, starting with a Book Fair on Tuesday 28 February at lunchtime.
• World Book Day itself will end in 15 minutes of peaceful reading at OLA. The afternoon lessons are shortened by 5 minutes so that everyone in school can spend the last quarter of an hour with a book.
• £1 WBD vouchers will be given out by Form Teachers and these can be exchanged in book shops for special £1 books which includes a Skulduggery novelettte. They can also be used like a book token towards a purchase in most book shops or the new Cover2Cover magazine. The vouchers are valid until 25 March.
• Book Quiz. Collect a sheet from the Library or download it from the school intranet. Hand it in by Monday.There will be prizes for each year group.
• If you have a smart phone there is a brand new free World Book Day app which has six brilliant short stories written especially for World Book Day by some of the best Young Adult writers, including Charlie Higson, Malorie Blackman and Sophie McKenzie.
• And if you need some reading suggestions then come into the library and pick up an idea from one of the 'Inspiration Mugs' for Junior, Young Adult and Senior Fiction.

Red House Children's Book Award winners

The winners of the Red House Children's Book Award have been announced.
Books for Older Readers and Overall Winner:
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Books for Younger Readers:
The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon
Books for Younger Children:
Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice by Chris Wormell

Visting authors

The Two Steves, writers Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore, entertained Year 7s on 9 February at the Joint Schools’ Author Visit, organised by the Librarians of OLA, Abingdon School, the School of SS Helen and Katharine. In front of a large audience which included pupils from other local schools, the children were, at first, unsure that were allowed to laugh since the duo were performing like a comedy act. But whilst telling anecdotes they revealed how experiences can feed creative writing. These authors of over 130 books entertained and inspired whist talking about three of their most popular series: the Challenger series which features daredevil teen hero Luke Challenger, and the iHorror and iHero series which are interactive stories where the reader is the Hero/Hunter and decides what is going to happen in the story. The Luke Challenger series take classic stories (The Lost World, King Solomon’s Mines and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea) and brings them into the 21st century. These would suit a reader with stamina, whilst the iHero series, with fantastic manga illustrations by artist Sonia Leong, will be ideal for reluctant readers. Many of their titles are also available as ebooks.

The Best Children's Book of the Last 10 Years

Blue Peter viewers can vote for the best children's book of the last decade. The shortlist is made up of the 10 bestselling children's fiction books of the last 10 years, with authors only appearing once:
Alex Rider Mission 3: Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz
Candyfloss by Jacqueline Wilson, illustrated by Nick Sharratt
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling
Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend by Francesca Simon, illustrated by Tony Ross
Mr Stink by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
The Series of Unfortunate Events: Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
Theodore Boone by John Grisham
Young Bond: SilverFin ─ A James Bond Adventure by Charlie Higson

More details on Blue Peter's website For the next three weeks, until 23 February, children under 16 can log on with their BBC iD and vote for their favourite.The winning book will be announced on Blue Peter on 1 March, on a special show tied in with World Book Day. The Blue Peter Book of the Year Award winner will also be revealed.

Author Visit 9 February

Each year the Librarians of the three independent schools in Abingdon organise an author visit, and take turns at hosting the event. This year we have two writers, Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore, better known as 'The Two Steves'. All of Year 7 will enjoy hearing this entertaining duo on Thursday 9 February.

Costa Book Awards

The Costa Category Winners have been announced ahead of the overall winner later this month.
The Children's category has been won by Blood Red Road by Moira Young, a story set in the future where the main character is searching for her kidnapped twin brother.
This year's Novel Award winner is Andrew Miller for his sixth book, Pure, about a young engineer charged with demolishing a Paris cemetery in 1785. Matthew Hollis has won the Biography Award with Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas. Carol Ann Duffy's has won the Poetry Award for The Bees, her first collection of new poems since becoming Poet Laureate. Christie Watson's Tiny Sunbirds Far Away won the First Novel category.
Each category winner receives, £5,000, with the Book of the Year taking the £30,000 prize.
More information
24 January - The Costa Book of the Year was won by Andrew Miller for Pure.