“I enjoyed the author’s visit, it was interesting to hear the inspiration for the novel and how her book was published”

“It was a great book and I loved it being read to us”

“It was amazing, I really liked it”

“I really enjoyed the chapter she read. It got me really into the book and made me want to buy it”

This is some of the feedback we received following Christina Banach’s visit to the school on the Tuesday before the Easter holidays. Christina is the author of Minty, a contemporary ghost story set in Fife, which concerns fourteen year old twins Minty and Jess. All S1 classes attended the talk where Christina told us about her writing, her inspiration and how her book was published. She also read us a particularly dramatic part of the book where we discovered what had become of Minty after she attempted to rescue her dog from the sea. A real twist in the tale! She rounded off her visit by talking about teen fiction in general and finished with a signing when pupils had the chance to purchase a copy of the book. It was an extremely entertaining session and the pupils seemed to get a lot out of it. Minty is now in great demand in the Library – our two copies have a long waiting list.

This year we decided to ask teachers and support staff to choose their all-time favourite book. We had a good response. The results ranged from classics such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Handmaid’s Tale to titles from childhood such as The Secret Garden and The Magic Faraway Tree. All are on display in the Library – come and see what your teacher picked

The postponed Book Week Scotland quiz was held on the last week of term. Eight teams battled to become champions, answering questions on a range of book related topics including a special Harry Potter round. It was a closely fought contest but The Forbinators team just beat the rest. Well done to Kirsty, Jess, Carly, Katie and Molly!

The shortlist for the 2018 award is as follows:

Who run’s the world by Virginia Bergin

The bombs that brought us together by Brian Conaghan

Between the lies by Cathy MacPhail

Truth or dare by Non Pratt

A seven letter word by Kim Slater

Goldfish boy by Lisa Thompson

If you are looking for something to read, have a look at this great little booklet produced by Michael Margerisan and his team of librarians from Elmgreen School. The books are arranged by genre and set out in a really attractive way. To access, click on the link below

https://heartoftheschool.edublogs.org/files/2016/11/Little-book-of-big-ideas-for-distribution-17uwe1p.pdf

On Wednesday 31st August we were privileged to have Anita Govan, a performance poet, visit us to work with all S2 pupils over 2 sessions. She gave a fantastic delivery of her own work, spoke about the history of poetry and encouraged pupils in their own performances of Spike Milligan’s On The Ning Nang Nong (to great hilarity)!  The session also involved the chance of creating a slam poem but unfortunately time was against us for this to be fully developed.