Christmas reading and listening

A Christmas stocking without a book? Surely not!

By now parents of students in Years 7 & 8 should have received, in the school mailing, my end-of-term list of reading suggestions - look out for the yellow sheets. Do keep them as it could be useful for future gift ideas.

I enjoy reading the books on my lists. I don’t claim to have read them all, but try to have read at least one book by most authors I’m suggesting. My suggestions come from reading book reviews in the literary press and online, magazines for librarians and teachers, visiting book shops, as well as listening to recommendations by colleagues, friends and, of course, the young people themselves. Students have seen copies of many of the suggested books in the last two weeks of term.

Parents sometimes enjoy reading the books their children are reading and the activity offers an opportunity to chat about shared interests, as well as help motivate reluctant readers. We have some excellent contemporary authors writing for young people, hence the first page of my Reading Suggestions listing only recently published titles.

I am also keen to promote listening to stories and I regularly promote BBC 7, one of the BBC’s digital networks. Do tune in if you have recently acquired a DAB digital radio. Stories can be heard live, but you can ‘listen again’ online to many of them. Not only is this an enjoyable pastime it also develops listening and concentration skills. Look at the schedules for BBC Radio 7 and you will see that the treats during the school holidays include:
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce, with a special online author talk about having LOTS of money!
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith;
Toro! Toro! by Michael Morpurgo;
The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo, with an online interview with Michael Morpurgo, What's the secret of writing a great book? Michael reveals all!
Thirteen Unpredictable Tales: there's no such thing by Paul Jennings.
Anthony Horowitz's popular Stormbreaker and Point Blanc will be coming up in the New Year.

Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2007

The winners of the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize were announced on 12 December. The Prize is awarded to the best work of fiction or poetry by a British author for children in three age categories (up to 11 years).

9 to 11 years category
Shadow Forest by Matt Haig

6 to 8 years category
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell

5 years and under category
When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor and Nick Sharratt

The Nestlé Children’s Book Prize celebrates the very best in children’s literature. It is one of the UK’s longest running prizes and has helped launch the careers of many of today’s top children’s writers, including JK Rowling and Lauren Child, who have each won the prize three times. For news about the prize and previous winners, visit www.booktrusted.com

Amazon buys J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard

At an auction held by Sotheby’s in London, Amazon, the online book shop, bought the book of five wizarding fairy tales, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which is mentioned in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, with the proceeds being donated to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity J.K. Rowling co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalised children across Europe.

The 157 pages of The Tales of Beedle the Bard are handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling herself. It's bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with silver ornaments and moonstones. Photos of the book and reviews of the tales can be seen at www.amazon.co.uk/beedlebard

Blue Peter Book Awards 2007

The Outlaw Varjak Paw won Blue Peter Book of the Year 2007. Varjak Paw is a a cat who has a secret power of martial art. His adventures are illustrated by Dave McKean's drawings.

The category winners in the Blue Peter Book Awards 2007 are:
The Book I Couldn't Put Down and the winner of the overall award, The Blue Peter Book of the Year 2007
The Outlaw Varjak Paw by SF Said, illustrated by Dave McKean

The Best Book with Facts
The Worst Children's Jobs in History by Tony Robinson

The Most Fun Story with Pictures
You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum by Andy Stanton, illustrated by David Tazzyman

Blue Peter films featuring the books shortlisted for this year's Blue Peter Book Awards can be seen on the Blue Peter website.
All the books are available for loan from the Library.

Costa Book Awards Shortlists

The 2007 Costa Book Awards Shortlists have been announced. The winners of the five categories will be revealed on 22 January, and the overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2007.

The shortlists:
Costa Children's Book Award
* The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley
* Crusade by Elizabeth Laird
* What I Was by Meg Rosoff
* Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick

Costa First Novel Award
* A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
* Gifted by Nikita Lalwani
* What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
* Mosquito by Roma Tearne

Costa Novel Award
* Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett
* Day by A.L. Kennedy
* Death of a Murderer by Rupert Thomson
* The Road Home by Rose Tremain

Costa Poetry Award
* The Speed of Dark by Ian Duhig
* The Space of Joy by John Fuller
* Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra
* Tilt by Jean Sprackland

Costa Biography Award
* Rudolf Nureyev by Julie Kavanagh
* Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre
* Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
* Fatty Batter by Michael Simkins

Three of the titles are by authors from Oxfordshire: poet John Fuller's The Space of Joy, the biography Rudolph Nureyev by the ballet critic Julie Kavanagh and Mosquito, a first novel by Roma Tearne.
http://www.costabookawards.com/awards/shortlist.aspx

Booktrust Teenage Book Prize

The only national prize for teenage fiction, the Booktrust Teenage Book Prize, was won earlier this month by Marcus Sedgwick's My Swordhand is Singing which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

The other shortlisted books for 2007 were:
Theresa Breslin The Medici Seal
Kate Cann Leaving Poppy
Mal Peet The Penalty
Philip Reeve Here Lies Arthur
Meg Rosoff Just in Case

The 2006 winner was Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan

More information:
http://www.bookheads.org.uk/
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article2792301.ece

Kids' Lit Quiz Oxford Heat

Well done to our two teams who took part in the Oxford heat of Kids' Lit Quiz . There were 32 teams competing, with over 75 adults watching.

Our Lady's Abingdon Year 8 team came third in a play-off, a sudden-death question, where Quizmaster Wayne Mills started reading the opening lines of a book, which had to be identified. They won £20 book tokens and books, to add to a set of books awarded earlier for winning the round on heroes.

The quiz is sponsored by Serco and John Essery from Serco Defence, Science and Technology presented the KLQ Oxford cup to The Cherwell School. The winning team also went home with £80 book tokens and books, and a place in the UK KLQ Final next month. Runners up Oxford High won £40 book tokens for the team plus books to take away. In between the rounds 10 happy adults won a £5 book token each for answering a question on an adult title. There were also £1 spot prizes for children in the audience.

As Wayne says in his blog "At today's heat in Oxford we had incredibly quick kids and a great turnout of authors." The authors present were: Dennis Hamley, Mary Hooper, Meg Harper, Rod Hunt, Mark Robson, Mini Gray and Rachael Wing, who were happy to sign autographs and copies of their books.

Full results of all the regional heats are on the website: http://www.kidslitquiz.com/UK/2007/results.html

Kids’ Lit Quiz

There is great excitement in our school as our two teams prepare for the Oxford Heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz on 13 November, at the White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre, Audlett Drive, Abingdon, 1.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. This is the fifth year that the quiz will be taking place in the UK, with its inventor Professor Wayne Mills, Senior Lecturer at Auckland University, New Zealand as Quizmaster.

There will be over 30 teams of four students from Years 7 & 8 who will be battling their wits answering questions about books and literature: 100 questions in 10 rounds, with prizes of books after each round. The winning team will win book tokens and a place in the National Final on 3rd December which will take place at The Seven Stories, Newcastle. The team winning the National Final will be invited to compete with teams from around the world for the World Title.

There will be several well known authors and illustrators present. Those who have confirmed are: Mark Robson, Meg Harper, Mary Hooper, Dennis Hamley, Mini Grey, and Rachael Wing. There will also be a bookshop which will, of course, be also selling our visiting authors’ books. (Think early for Christmas – a book makes a perfect gift!)

This will be a great afternoon of lively competition, and it is also a hugely exciting spectator sport. There will be some between-round questions and prizes for the grown-ups too! It is always a very entertaining and fun occasion and everyone present marvels at the young students' breadth of knowledge.

I'm one of the co-organisers of the Oxford Heat. The three of us organising it are volunteers, but we all agree that it is such a fantastic event that it deserves wider recognition in the UK. In New Zealand the Final is shown live on television! Visit the website www.kidslitquiz.com to find out more. Quizmaster Wayne Mills will be blogging as he travels the country, so read the details about each regional heat at http://kidslitquiz.blogspot.com.

Sophie McKenzie on Richard and Judy

Do you have any of Sophie McKenzie’s books in the Library? “Yes, several copies,” I reply, “but they’re all on loan: I can put your name on the reserve list though.” There is no doubt that an author visit genuinely increases reading in our school.

In addition Sophie signed about 100 copies of her books, which were sold during her visit. Girl, Missing has a waiting list of 4-6 weeks on Amazon, so we were lucky to have plenty of copies of this award-winning title, thanks to our local book shop, The Bookstore.

As well as winning the Longer Novel category of the Red House Children’s Book Award in June, Girl, Missing is now on the shortlist for Richard and Judy’s Children’s Books for Fluent Readers.

Richard & Judy's Best Kids' Books is on Channel 4 at 8pm on Thursday 25 October.

Sophie McKenzie will be on one of their live Author Chats this coming week, see the list below for details.

Read more at www.richardandjudybookclub.co.uk/childrens and an article in The Times.

Live author chats
Monday 22nd October 2007
Robert Muchamore - 10.15am
Author of CHERUB: The Recruit

Kevin Brooks - 1pm
Author of Lucas

Derek Landy - 3.30pm
Author of Skulduggery Pleasant

Wednesday 24th October 2007
Mark Walden - 9.30
Author of H.I.V.E: Higher Institute of Villainous Education

Roderick Gorden & Brian Williams - 11am
Authors of Tunnels

Sophie McKenzie - 3pm
Author of Girl, Missing

Friday 26th October 2007
Michael Lawrence - 11am
Author of Killer Underpants

Author Visit

Sophie McKenzie, winner of the longer novel category of the Red House Children’s Book Award for Girl Missing, will be visiting Our Lady’s Abingdon on 16 October. She'll be talking to Years 7 & 8, plus leading writing workshops with Year 9 forms. Our local book shop will be supplying any books ordered, and copies will also be on sale during the week.

Open Morning

A mini Kids' Lit Quiz will be taking place in the Library during Open Morning this Saturday, 13 October. Members of Chatterbooks reading club will be demonstrating this fun event from 11 o'clock for about 15 minutes.

It's also hugely entertaining, and spectators will also be able to take part. There will be two rounds of 10 questions on books and reading. The teams collaborate and write down their answers, so no-one is 'put on the spot'.

Everyone always enjoys the experience, and discovers new authors, books to try and like-minded friends along the way.

www.kidslitquiz.com

Guardian children's fiction prize

Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine has won the 2007 Guardian children's fiction prize.

It's a hugely enjoyable read which leaves you thinking, and our copy in the school library has already been enjoyed by many borrowers.
Read more by clicking here.

Blue Peter

The BBC's Blue Peter programme is a great promoter of reading and books for children, and each year presents its own awards, see the list below for this year's shortlist.

Book mark the BP Book Club area! It's worth visiting regularly. This week, for example, you could post questions on the Message Boards for these authors: Michael Rosen, Eoin Colfer, Malorie Blackman, Charlie Higson, and today Jacqueline Wilson.

Star Author Justin Somper, author of the Vampirates books, has spent the last 20 weeks writing a blog for Blue Peter. It's a fascinating read. In it he also explains how his books are published, and answers questions about writing.

In Meet the Writers top authors give tips and advice: Andy Stanton; Anthony Horowitz, Cathy Cassidy, Jeremy Strong and Jacqueline Wilson.

The Blue Peter shortlists
The Book I Couldn't Put Down:
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Bad Spy's Guide by Pete Johnson
The Outlaw Varjak Paw by SF Said and Dave McKean

Best Book with Facts:
Why is Snot Green? by Glen Murphy
The Worst Children's Jobs in History by Tony Robinson
A Little Guide to Wild Flowers by Charlotte Voake

The Most Fun Story with Pictures:
Melrose and Croc Together at Christmas by Emma Chichester Clark
Charlie Cook's Favourite Books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
You're a Bad Man, Mr Gum by Andy Stanton and David Tazzyman.

National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day is a campaign to promote and celebrate poetry, of all kinds and in all sorts of places.

For one day each year the enthusiasm, passion and skill of poetry readers and writers is channelled into a national celebration. There is a different theme each year. Past themes include Britain, Food, and Identity; this year the topic is DREAMS, with an opportunity to explore the legendary lyrics of Bob Dylan.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second.
I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet. Bob Dylan

More information www.nationalpoetryday.co.uk

Book Swap 2 - 4 October

Next week there will be a Book Swap in the Library at lunchtime on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

How does it work?
- Bring in a book in reasonably good condition that you no longer want, which is suitable for your age group
- Receive a token in exchange
- Exchange that token for another book.
No money changes hands.

Each day there will be different books, depending on what people bring, so it's worth a visit every day. You can also keep your token for the next Book Swap (or I can keep it for you).

Booked Up

This autumn every 11-year-old in England will be able to choose a free book from a list of 12 specially selected titles. This is a new national programme called Booked Up, supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. This week I will be giving girls a magazine with all the details. We also have a set of the books to help the girls make their choice, and we will spend time discussing the titles. In order to meet the ordering deadline I will need to know each girl's selection by 26 September. There is more information at http://www.bookedup.org.uk.

A Year of Reading

Congratulations to the many Year 7 girls who have made a fantastic start to their reading year by completing the summer reading challenge. It’s the best year ever! However it doesn’t matter if you didn’t do this, as we’re now continuing with the Reading Olympics where you still have the opportunity to record summer reading.

Reading Olympics is a promotion which I devised to try and encourage wider reading, progressing from bronze to silver, then gold level. Many will soon be reading towards their silver level. The scheme will run until the end of June 2008, and continue into Year 8. Certificates will be awarded for each stage, with Gold Certificates presented at Junior Prize-giving, in front of the whole school, in July.

Each girl in Year 7 now has a Reading Olympics record card and will be encouraged to complete any remaining activities. Like the summer reading challenge the record card has spaces for readers to note the author and title of each book. It doesn’t have to be a school library book.

I would be grateful if adults or older brothers or sisters at home could help to sign the record card. All that is needed is a brief discussion about the book or a few simple questions to ascertain the book has been read. Support for reading at home can be a great motivator, and I do hope the scheme will encourage the girls to read more widely and to try new authors and genres. Parents and carers - perhaps you would even like to shadow your child’s reading during the forthcoming National Year of Reading which will run from January to December 2008.

Online reading lists

A selection of my reading suggestions, for Years 7, 8 and 9, is now available online.

The service is provided free by a website called Lovereading4Schools.co.uk, an online bookshop. The lists are very attractive; book covers are featured, a brief synopsis, and author information is also given for each book. Many opening extracts are available too.

This is another way of disseminating lists of recommended reads I already send home regularly to various year groups, and and they can't be thrown away! Should you wish, the books are available to buy at 25% discount. Lovereading4Schools is endorsed and supported by the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations.

To see the online lists go to:
http://www.lovereading4schools.co.uk/viewschool/1870/favourite

You will be asked to register. It's free. You need to give an email address, and a password that you can remember. Once you have registered you will need to LOGIN each time you visit the school reading lists. After registration you will be sent to the library's book page and there just click on any of the book lists to browse the books in those lists.

Don't forget to bookmark the page to make it easier for you next time you visit the site.

New name, new look

Welcome to the new look Library News from Our Lady's Abingdon!

Since the school's name has changed I decided I would take the opportunity to change the look and name of the Library's weblog.

This follows on from http://olcsslib.blogspot.com/ where you can still see the archive of past news.