Selecting OLA's teams for the Kids' Lit Quiz

Preliminary rounds to select OLA's two Kids' Lit Quiz teams have been taking place for all pupils in Year 7 and Year 8. Higher scorers have been invited to a second round taking place in their own time, outside lessons. Once we have a squad, members will need to confirm their availability to take part before we finalise the teams.

This year the Oxfordshire and Berkshire Heat will be taking place on Tuesday 16 November, 2.30 - 5.30 p.m. It’s a great spectator event and super entertainment: put the date in your diary now! The winning team from this heat will go through to the UK Final taking place later in the month, on Tuesday 30 November this year in Oxford, in the Town Hall, 1.30 - 4 p.m.

First children's story book with 3D animation

The world's first interactive 3D animation story book for children is on sale in Finland. The 3D animation story book for children looks just like any picture book, but with special small black squares on some pages which indicate the interactive 3D animation. Once a web camera faces the black square, 3D-animation cartoon figures and pictures will appear on the computer screen. See a picture.

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2010 winner

Michelle Paver has won this year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for Ghost Hunter, the sixth and final book in her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.
It's relatively rare for a book late in a series to win a major prize but it was aunanimous choice by the judges who said it is "a towering achievement, as a whole as well as in terms of the individual books."
The shortlist for the £1500 prize included Maurice Gleitzman's Now, Gregory Hughes's Unhooking the Moon and Eva Ibbotson's The Ogre of Oglefort. Michelle Paver now joins a distinguished line of past winners, which includes Ted Hughes, Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine and Philip Pullman.
The Guardian children's fiction prize was founded in 1967 and is unique in that it is judged by children's authors themselves, and can only be won once by any single author.
More information and author interview.

Booktrust Teenage Prize

Launched in 2003 to recognise and celebrate contemporary fiction written for teenager, the Booktrust Teenage Prize is judged by a mixed panel of adults and teenagers. The shortlist for the 2010 prize is:

The Enemy by Charlie Higson
Halo by Zizou Corder
Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning
Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes.
The winner will be announced on 1 November.
More information

Guardian children's fiction prize shortlist

The shortlist for the Guardian children's fiction prize has been announced.

Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver
The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson
Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes (also shortlisted for the Booktrust teenage prize)
Now by Morris Gleitzman.

The judging panel includes last year's winner Mal Peet and authors Linda Buckley-Archer and Jenny Downham. The winner will be announced on October 8.
More information

Summer Reading

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 or your Space Hop record for a commendation. Year 8s and 9s - a book review will earn you a commendation. Bring it or email it to the Library.

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.

Reading! Reading! Reading!

This is the time of year when reading is on the summer agenda. All the classes which come regularly into the Library have been recommending books to each other, and to me. I have been encouraging loans of books over the summer so that pupils will keep reading. I have also used their suggestions to add to my own lists of recommendations which this year will be put in their English exercise books, and be more easily available for future reference. Year 11 suggestions, with a wide-ranging selection suggested by UVI leavers and many subject staff, have been put in the end of term mailing - look out for the pale blue sheet.