Eleanor Farjeon Award to Quentin Blake

The illustrator Quentin Blake has won the 2012 Eleanor Farjeon Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution to the world of children’s books by an individual or organisation. Last year the award was given to The Federation of Children's Book Groups.
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Best of the best award

Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter was recently named the best fictional work to have won the James Tait Black Prize since it was founded in 1919 in memory of publisher James Tait Black. Past winners of this annual prize have included D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, and Martin Amis. Nights at the Circus originally won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction in 1984. Two prizes, judged by scholars of literature, are awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh for the best work of fiction and the best biography published in the previous year. A third category - drama - is being introduced with the next prize.
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2012 Costa Book Awards shortlists

The shortlist have been announced for the 2012 Costa Book Awards. There are five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book. The winner in each category receives £5,000, and then one of the five winning books is selected as the overall Costa Book of the Year, receiving a further £30,000. The Category winners will be announced on 3 January 2013, and the Costa Book of the Year awards presentation ceremony will be on Tuesday 29th January 2013.
Costa Children's Book Award shortlist:
Sally Gardner - Maggot Moon
Diana Hendry - The Seeing
Hayley Long - What's Up with Jody Barton?
Dave Shelton - A Boy and a Bear in a Boat
Costa Novel Award shortlist
Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies
Stephen May - Life! Death! Prizes!
James Meek - The Heart Broke In
Joff Winterhart - Days of the Bagnold Summer
Costa First Novel Award shortlist
J W Ironmonger - The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder
Jess Richards - Snake Ropes
Francesca Segal - The Innocents
Benjamin Wood - The Bellwether Revivals
Costa Biography Award shortlist
Artemis Cooper - Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure
Selina Guinness - The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a House, a
Farm and a Family
Kate Hubbard - Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household
Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot - Dotter of Her Father's Eyes
Costa Poetry Award shortlist
Sean Borodale - Bee Journal
Julia Copus - The World's Two Smallest Humans
Selima Hill - People Who Like Meatballs
Kathleen Jamie - The Overhaul
Two graphic novels are included in the nominations: Joff Winterhart’s Days of the Bagnold Summer and Dotter of her Father’s Eyes by Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot.

Red House Children’s Book Award shortlist

The Red House Children’s Book Award is the only national book award voted for entirely by children. Children have been reading and reviewing books all year long and these are their favourite ten which make up the 2013 Shortlist in three categories.

Older Readers:
Eight Keys by Suzanne Lafleur
The Medusa Project: Hit Squad by Sophie McKenzie
The Lorien Legacies: The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

Younger Readers:
Gangsta Granny by David Walliams
The World of Norm: May Contain Nuts by Jonathan Meres
Operation Eiffel Tower by Elen Caldecott

Younger children::
Can You See Sassoon? by Sam Usher
Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates
The Spooky Spooky House by Andrew Weale
Welcome to Alien School by Caryl Hart

Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2012

Dark Lord: Teenage Years by Jamie Thomson won the prize for the funniest book for children aged seven to fourteen.
The other books on the 7-14 shortlist were:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Dragonsitter by Josh Lacey
Socks Are Not Enoughby Mark Lowery
Goblinsby Philip Reeve
Gangsta Granny by David Walliams

My Big Shouting Day by author/illustrator Rebecca Patterson was the winner in the six and under category.
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Kids' Lit Quiz - selecting OLA teams for the Oxford Heat

The preliminary rounds to select OLA's two Kids' Lit Quiz teams have been taking place during Year 7's and Year 8's Library lessons. Higher scorers will be invited to a further rounds taking place in their own time, and they will need to confirm their availability to take part.

This year the Oxfordshire & Berkshire Heat will be taking place on Friday 30 November in Oxford at St Gregory the Great School, Cricket Road, Oxford OX4 3DR, 14.30 - 17.30. It’s a great spectator event and super entertainment: put the date in your diary now!

The winning team of this heat will join 15 other Regional Winners in the UK KLQ Final on Thursday 6 December in Coventry. The National Champions will be invited to the Kids' Lit Quiz International Final in Durban, South Africa in Summer 2013.
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Recent awards and prizes

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel has won the Man Booker Prize 2012. It is the sequel to her prizewinning book Wolf Hall, set in Tudor England and focuses on the fall of Anne Boleyn.

The Chinesse novelist, Mo Yan, has won the Nobel prize in literature 2012. He is the first ever Chinese literature Nobel laureate.

The Hans Christian Andersen Prize Winner is Chilean author Isabel Allende. This Danish literature award is given to a writer whose works compare with those of Andersen, who lived 1805 - 1875 and wrote about 160 fairytales and poems.

Reading Festival Day 5

Katherine Rundell, Oxford academic and author of The Girl Savage, brought the week to an exciting conclusion. Her enthusiasm was catching, as she shared some of her childhood experiences in Zimbabwe with Year 7 and explained her personal rules for writing. She led a lively session exploring ideas for the beginning of a story and for improvements to the cover design and blurb for her next novel, Rooftoppers. We’ll have to wait until March to see if “rapscallions” makes it onto the back cover!

Some comments on the Reading Festival from pupils in Year7:
“I really liked all the authors. They gave me inspiration.”
“The best part was being told how to write a book well.”
“I think the authors are really great and have very interesting stories to tell.”

Reading Festival - Day 4

On her eagerly-anticipated return visit to the school, award-winning author Gillian Cross spent the day giving us an insight into her inspiration, research and writing methods.
Over 300 staff and pupils, from St Edmund’s, Dunmore, Carswell and The Manor schools as well as OLA Junior pupils from Years 5 and 6, enjoyed a lively session on The Demon Headmaster in which Gillian stressed the importance of reading as a creative process, using a range of cover designs from across the world.
Years 7 and 8 learnt about the inspiration and research for The Great Elephant Chase and how small details can spark important ideas.
Year 9 followed the creative journey that resulted in Wolf and Calling a Dead Man: a process that included the “magic moment when the whole book comes to life”, an encounter with a pack of wolves at London Zoo and some questions to surprised Army sources about the “squidginess” of plastic explosives.

Reading Festival - 3 more writers visit OLA

Christopher Lloyd, author of What on Earth Evolved?: 100 Species that Changed the World, was a guest speaker on Day 2 of OLA's Reading Festival and bought along his 8 metre long wall book.

He spent a busy day speaking to nearly all the year groups. Ms Edwards, Head of Biology said, "A fantastic day of inspiring and engaging talks with a first-class speaker. The main focus was “100 species that changed the world” through natural and artificial selection, illustrated by so many weird and wonderful examples, finishing with the significance of biodiversity. "

Day 3 saw two further visitors.

Rebecca Emin, a former pupil of Our Lady’s Abingdon, came to talk to Year 8 and Year 9 about her school days and her books, New Beginnings and When Dreams Come True. She said afterwards, “ I really enjoyed coming back to the school and seeing how things had changed. It’s great to see the school putting so much emphasis on literature. I was delighted to take part in the OLA Reading Festival. Enjoy the rest of the week!"


An audience of 200+ enjoyed a fun and memorable evening with Clarissa Dixon Wright.

It was a pleasure to listen to her serious and humorous anecdotes about her life, TV series and passionate support for country life. Thanks to Mostly Books for organising her visit.

Jo Cotterill at the OLA Reading Festival

Well-known children’s author and former pupil, Jo Cotterill, got the OLA Reading Festival week off to a great start, with an informative and entertaining talk to Years 7 and 8. She outlined her development as a writer, from the age of six, with her story of the “Chismus tree”, to her current “Sweet Hearts” series. Her amusing account of the creative process, from initial idea to published novel, was followed by a lively question-and answer session.

OLA Reading Festival 24-28 September

Six writers will be visiting Our Lady's Abingdon next week, and nearly all of our students will have the opportunity to hear at least one author's talk. Two former pupils who are now published authors, Jo Cotterill and Rebecca Emin, will be talking about what makes them write and how they go about it. Dynamic scientist Christopher Lloyd will bring his 8m long wall book and a variety of objects to illustrate the history of science. Carnegie Medal winner Gillian Cross is revisiting OLA and will have three sessions, including a talk to pupils from local junior schools. Young author and Oxford University fellow, Katherine Rundell is also making a welcome return to OLA and will certainly make some new fans among Year 7, and give older pupils some of her advice about studying English at university.
On the evening of Wednesday 26th, we are hosting Clarissa Dixon Wright. Refreshments from 7.00 for 7.30. Tickets from Mostly Books in Abingdon.

Man Booker Prize 2012 Shortlist

The Man Booker Prize 2012 Shortlist has been announced:

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
Umbrella by Will Self

The winner will be announced on 16 October.
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Welcome back!

What have you read during the last two months?

Over the holiday I hope many of you will have enjoyed spending some of your leisure time reading. New Year 7s - bring in your OLA Summer Reading Challenge, your Diamond Jubilee Reading Passport or your Story Lab record for a commendation. Years 8 and 9 - a book review will earn you a commendation. Bring it or email it to the Library. Also wanted - your photos of where you have been reading

This term in the school library: the start of the Reading Olympics and reading buddies, book clubs, Kids' Lit Quiz heats, book chains, a book swap, 'poetree',and, of course, much more reading.

And very soon - 24-29 September - the OLA Reading Festival!

It's not just the cake!

The joint schools' Abingdon Carnegie Forum took place at the Guildhall Abingdon. Ninety students attended, from the six secondary schools. They have been avidly reading the eight books nominated for the prestigious children's book award, the Carnegie Medal. This event was the culmination of over 12 weeks of reading and reviewing, all conducted in their own free time, and gave them the opportunity to celebrate the best books of the year with other keen readers.

The day began with our special guest, young author Rachael Wing, who spoke with passion about her love of reading and writing. Published aged 15 whilst at Didcot Girls' School, Star Crossed was followed by Love Struck before she went to university to study Drama and Creative Writing. And Rachael is only 21 years old - inspirational!

All over the country students have been shadowing the Carnegie Medal: reading the shortlist and posting their reviews on a special website. Students from OLA met other keen readers to discuss the shortlisted titles and, in nine mixed school groups, present a visual review of their favourite book in front of a panel of judges and VIPs including Mayor of Abingdon Councillor Monica Lovatt and OLA's incoming Principal Mr Stephen Oliver.

The judges had to decide which presentation would convince them to read that book, and also decided on the best book reviews. Prizes were given: book tokens and books. The students also voted for the Abingdon Carnegie winning book and shared a celebration Carnegie cake, which was made up of six cakes, with each school's named on the spine. Note the detail - an Olympic torch carrying pencils and Olympic rings bookmark. Many thanks to local cake maker Suzanne whose delicious cakes were most capably created to our design.

At the end of the Forum the chair of the judges, who were from the worlds of publishing, bookselling and education, spoke about how much they had enjoyed the day. They were impressed by the presentation of the shadowers' own responses to 'sell' the book to the readers of their reviews. The judges applauded the reviewers' excellent work which made them want to read all the books.

OLA Prizewinners:
Sam and Ellen received prizes for their Highly Commended book reviews. Charlie and Phoebe received prizes for Best Contributor in their Group.

Group presentations, lasting no longer than four minutes, took a variety of forms from TV chat show to key scenes. These were of a high standard and were exciting, interesting to watch, and involved all the students in each group, who took part enthusiastically. Hard though it was choose the judges decided that the Best Group Presentation should go to 'The Blackbirds' who convinced them that My Name is Mina was the book to read. This group, which included Charlie, also won prizes.

Which book was voted by the shadowers as the Abingdon Carnegie Winner? It was Between Shades of Gray, an overwhelming winner with twice as many votes as second-placed My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece. The official winner of the Carnegie Medal announced during the day by CILIP, but not revealed until after our vote, was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

Graphic novel creators visit OLA

The creators of graphic novel Kill Shakespeare visited OLA as part of their UK tour. Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, who both come from Canada, spoke to Year 9 students about how they came up with their idea and how it became a reality. First come the characters and rough plot, next the quest to find a publisher, then the detailed story followed by the various stages of artwork.
What's the story? The entertaining double act have taken Shakespeare's heroes Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, Romeo and Puck on a journey to search for a reclusive wizard who may have the ability to assist them in their battle against the evil forces led by the villains Richard III, Lady Macbeth and Iago. That reclusive wizard? William Shakespeare. Photo shows Anthony on the left, Conor on the right, and their book distributor Andrew Whelan centre.

2012 Carnegie Medal shortlist

The shortlist for the prestigious children’s book award, the Carnegie Medal, was announced today. The eight titles:
My Name is Mina by David Almond, Hodder (9+)
Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans, Doubleday (8+)
The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett, Walker (9+)
Everybody Jam by Ali Lewis, Andersen (12+)
Trash by Andy Mulligan, D. Fickling (12+)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Walker (9+)
My Sister lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, Orion (10+)
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys, Puffin (12+).
Founded in 1936, the Carnegie Medal is awarded annually by CILIP (Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals) which encourages schools to get children and teenagers reading the books shortlisted with its Carnegie Shadowing scheme.
At OLA we have a reading group with pupils from years 7 and 8, who will reading and reviewing the books as well as meeting pupils from the five other local secondary schools to discuss the books.

Three competitions

Here are three competitions.
What the Dickens? Creative Writing Competition
This competition is open to primary and secondary school children in the UK aged 9–14 Entries must be received no later than Friday, 27/04/12. Full details at https://www.whatthedickens.org/home.
The ReadingZone Picture Book Competition 2012
Children and young people aged four to 18 years are being challenged to make their own picture book in the ReadingZone Picture Book Competition, which closes 14th April 2012.
Author and illustrator Nick Sharratt and Jacqueline Wilson will choose the winners. More information at
http://www.readingzone.com/index.php?zone=sz&page=full_picture_book&id=1272.
Wicked Young Writers 2012
Entries must be no longer than 750 words and can be any genre, including stories, poems and drama. Illustrations may even be included. Writers must be between 5 and 25 years old on the closing date of 31 July 2012. A shortlist of 100 finalists will be announced in the autumn, followed by a special showcase of the winners’ entries at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, home of the award-winning musical. More information at WickedYoungWriters.com.

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.
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24 January - The Costa Book of the Year was won by Andrew Miller for Pure.