Book Club Leaflet

The latest Cover to Cover leaflet is now available from the library. Orders can be placed through the library or online via the Scholastic website:

http://clubs-school.scholastic.co.uk/stromness-academy

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley

If you are into the classic ghost story then Chris Priestley’s The Dead of Winter is the one for you.

Michael’s mother has died and he finds himself being sent to Hawton Mere, a moated house surrounded by marshes. He has become the ward of Sir Stephen Clarendon whose life was saved by Michael’s father, and his sister Charlotte. Michael resents this as his father had lost his life saving Sir Stephen. The house is old and along with it appears to be a ghost and strange eery noise, which only Michael appears to be able to see or hear. TO escape the unravelling horrors, Michael finds comfort in the old library.

The library contained more books than I think I had ever seen in one place. I had discovered my enjoyment of reading during my mother’s illness. Before that I had never really understood the appeal – or indeed the purpose – of reading for pleasure, but I now found that I could spend hours with no other diversion than the solitary exercise of reading a book, and by the vehicle of those pages would be transported to faraway lands on fantastic adventures. More and more this love of reading had become a medicine and tonic for my troubled heart and mind.

The easy going style belies the underlying horrors that appear to await Michael. It has echoes of Susan Hill’s Woman in Black – the same isolated location and an apparent malign spirit, which would be a good follow on book if you want to do some more challenging reading along the same theme.

New Books

Coming soon:

 

World Book Day Fun

Last week was a very busy week with several things happening over the course of the week and class bookings were aplenty including those for World Maths Day on the Wednesday.

The main event of the week was World Book Day. In the run up to it, pupils in S1 and S2 were given the chance to look design book marks for a competition. Most made an attempt but only a handful entered. The closing date is at the end of March for the school competition, the prize being and Easter Egg.

Stromness Books and Prints kindly let us have several boxes of books, including the specially written £1.00 books, to offer for sale in the Peedie Book Fair. These all went down well with pupils who used their £1 WBD tokens to purchase or go towards books.

The lunchtime book reading event was attended by around 20 pupils over the course of the break. They enjoyed the snacks provided and several read out extracts of their favourite books. Choices included: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Animal Farm, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Diary of a Wimpey Kid, The Hobbit, and Twilight.

There was also a display of the librarian’s childhood favourites (the actual books), including a 105 year old copy of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, who shared extracts from Elidor and The Black Stallion. There were also some staff favourites displayed too.

Some Pupil Comments:

“Brill!”         AM, S3

“It was a very interesting time.” DB, S2

“It was good.”        PR, S2

“It’s good having food and stuff like anything to do with literacy.”          AL, S2

“Amazing.”   JL, S2

“I liked discussing about different books. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.”    IL, S5

“Perfect! Good fun. Yummy food.”    BC, S5

World Book Day / Peedie Book Fair / C2C Book Club

It is World Book Day time of year again and there are a few things happening in the library this year.

Readings from favourite books will take place on Thursday 7th March at lunchtime. Snacks will be available.

Pupils will be offered free £1 book tokens to use at local bookshops, the ‘Peedie Book Fair’ or in the C2C Book club catalogue (see below)

There is a national  Bookmark Competition which pupils can enter.

There is a local writing competition Young Orkney Writers, led by the Orkney Library (see previous posts)

There will be a ‘Peedie Book Fair‘ kindly supported by Stromness Books & Prints who will kindly be supplying a small amount of books for sale. The £1 book tokens can be used at this.

The C2C Book club leaflet is being currently offered to pupils. They can purchase books through the leaflet, via the school library, or online at

http://clubs-school.scholastic.co.uk/stromness-academy.

Further details for all these can be obtained directly from the Librarian.

Stan Lee Excelsior Award

For the second year in a row, we are follwoing this annual award originally set up by a school librarian in Sheffield. This award recognises excellence in the world of Graphic Novel and Manga publishing and is the only award which is judged by young people.

Eight Graphic Novels and Manga were shortlisted are all are now available in the school library for borrowing. Upon completion, all pupils are asked to do is fill in a brief rating form for each book they read which is available from the library or the award website resources page.

For further information about the award go to the Stan Lee Excelsior Award website.

Competitions & Events

There are currently a couple of competitions available for pupils to enter if they wish.

• The Orkney Library & Archive are running writing competition for young people, closing date 16th March – Young Orkney Writer’s Prize details of which can be found on the school library blog or Orkney Library website.
• To mark World Book Day on the 7th March, National Book Tokens is running a bookmark design competition, closing date 19th April with an internal date of 29th March so we can post entries away. This is for age up to 16yrs. The winning design will be made into a bookmark and distributed to thousands of bookshops nationwide All pupils are invited to enter these. Further details can be obtained from Mrs Sinclair in the library or have a look at the competition pageon the World Book Day website.

To mark World Book Day, there will be a book reading event in the library at lunchtime on Thursday 7th March. Pupils and staff can come along, partake of some snacks and read out extracts of favourite books.