JK Rowling wins Outstanding Achievement Award

At the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards the author J.K. Rowling received the Outstanding Achievement Award. Francesca Simon won the W.H. Smith Children's Book Award for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman, and Afghan novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, won the Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year award for his follow-up novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.
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National Poet of Wales

The post of National Poet of Wales was established in May 2005 by Academi – the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society for Writers. Gillian Clarke will succeed Professor Gwyn Thomas as National Poet of Wales next month. Born in Cardiff and now living in Talgarreg, west Wales, Gillian is a poet, playwright, editor and translator. A set-text poet for GCSE and A-level English, she is well-known to students and teachers throughout the UK.
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Story Museum

The Story Museum was set up in 2003 to create a museum for children about children’s books and stories. The long-term aim is to build a museum in the centre of Oxford, where books and stories will be brought to life – through exhibitions and adventures, historic treasures and intriguing objects, story readings and story telling, creative workshops and holiday clubs, play spaces and reading areas as well as resources for parents, teachers and specialist researchers.

Although it may be several years before the real museum opens, a ‘virtual museum’ is available on the web, with writers, illustrators in ‘residence’ and storytellers, running Story Museum events and activities in schools, colleges, theatres, shops, tents, gardens, even in the street. And we are developing touring exhibitions.

More information at http://www.storymuseum.org.uk

Book Swap Tipi, Oxford 5-6 April

As part of the Oxford Literary Festival a Book Swap Tipi will be open in the Master's Garden at Christ Church
Saturday 5 April 9.30 am - 5.30 pm
Sunday 6 April 9.30 am - 5.30 pm
Entrance free.

How does it work?
Like our school book swaps: bring along a book that you've enjoyed and finished with, leave it for someone new to enjoy and take away a different book that has been loved by someone else.

For more information click Oxford Literary Festival.

Read all about it!

National Year of Reading officially starts later this month, on 25 April. There will be plenty of publicity, especially encouraging people to join and use their local public library. Monthly themes start with April’s Read all About It!

A suggestion of books for the month can be seen at: http://www.sla.org.uk/nyr-booklist-april08.php
I recommend First News, a ‘weekly newspaper for kids' Available in the Library, it arrives in school on Fridays, and is also on sale in newsagents and supermarkets and by subscription.

The rest of the year’s themes for National Year of Reading:
May: Mind and Body
June: Reading Escapes
July: Rhythm and Rhyme
August: Read the Game
September: You Are What You Read
October: Word of Mouth
November: Screen Reads
December: Write the Future

Reading and listening

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 coloured sheets. Do keep them as they could be useful for future gift ideas.

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 a DAB digital radio. Stories can be heard live, but you can ‘listen again’ online for 7 days after the broadcast, with episodes appearing at 8 am. 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:
Lizzie Dripping by Helen Cresswell
in 5 episodes, online until Friday 4 April.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
in 10 episodes, online until Friday 4 April.
The Legend of Arthur King by Dean Wilkinson
in 7 episodes, online until Friday 4 April.
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
in 2 episodes, online until Sunday 30 March.
Unreal by Paul Jennings
Five stories, online until Monday 31 March:
Cow Dung Custard
Smart Ice Cream
Lucky Lips
Lighthouse Blues
Skeleton on the Dunny.
Death Eric by Sam Llewellyn
in 2 episodes, starting Saturday 29 March.

Domesday Book Online

A new website has been set up to enable visitors to discover the history of the Domesday Book, to give an insight into life at the time of its compilation, and provide information and links on related topics.

The Domesday Book was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066. The first draft was completed in August 1086 and contained records for 13,418 settlements in the English counties south of the rivers Ribble and Tees (the border with Scotland at the time).

The original Domesday Book has survived over 900 years of English history and is currently housed in a special chest at the National Archives at Kew in London.
Source: http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/index.html