The World According to Elaine and Moira

Yes, it’s back – Waterstones’ Wishing Tree

 Between now and the 16th December why not pop into Waterstones, choose a tag off the tree and buy a present for one (or more) of our City’s incredible Young Carers.   Then, on the 17th December Elaine and I will wrap up all the gifts and deliver them to the Young Carers’ Centre in time for their Christmas party. Ooooooo, it is such a warm fuzzy feeling ❣🌲❣🌲⭐🌲❣🌲❣

Retired Head Teacher, Linda Nicoll, didn’t go down the usual retirement route of long walks, lazy lunches and relaxing holidays. No, she decided to undertake a massive amount of research into life in Dundee during the First World War.  With backing from Dundee’s Nine Trades, she has produced a book and every school in Dundee will receive a free copy.  The book launch took place in Fintry Primary where pupils had created wonderful wall displays including a huge poppy with the names of all of Dundee’s fallen. Elaine found her great grandpa, Charles D Mulligan, amongst the names.

…Our Lady’s didn’t have to, they were the STARS   ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Elaine and I had the pleasure of accompanying pupils from Our Lady’s to the Sky Academy in Livingston. What an amazing place and experience! The pupils, aided by Sky staff, produced their very own news broadcast. It was fantastic to sit in the ‘cinema’ and watch the finished pieces to camera 😀

Pupils and staff at Downfield Primary have organised a range of reading events outside of the traditional reading weeks.

Between us, Elaine and I visited most classes to promote reading for pleasure. We had a tip top time! Thank you for inviting us along 😃

What a warm welcome I received from the members of Rowantree  Book Club.

These keen young readers demonstrated wonderful listening skills when I visited them last week.  I shared stories from traditonal formats and electronically. We only had about half an hour so I’m going back next week for a good old book chat. Can’t wait 😃

Elaine gave a great presentation at the Bookbug Best Practice Event today in Perth

It was a super event and an excellent opportunity to find out what is happening with Bookbug in Perth & Kinross and Dundee. All of the presentations offered something different including learning to sing in Gaelic and hearing about a spin off of Bookbug called Small Talk.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Bookbug event without the presence of lycra….why yes we do have a picture!

If you have an exciting idea for Book Week Scotland, why not Pitch It!

Scottish Book Trust are looking for rebellious events to support with award winning authors and help toward costs.  The deadline for submissions is Monday 15th October so you’ll need to get your skates on BUT nothing ventured, nothing gained! Good Luck.

After years of watching it rise up from the banks of the Tay, it was a real thrill to see the completed V&A Dundee in all its glory. It is truly spectacular and although we are looking forward to all the amazing exhibitions, we are equally excited by the Picnic Room, the Quiet Space and the places where you can just sit and admire the river.

Massive congratulations to all involved in making the V&A Dundee a reality, what an achievement!

(Photos courtesy of Pete Glen)

We were delighted to be invited to a CPD session at the One World Centre last night.  After being plied with the most amazing cake, coffee and smoothie shots, we had the opportunity to share an array of books with everyone.  The theme was Global Citizenship and some of the books we brought along had fairly tenuous links but we tried to include fiction and non-fiction titles which covered diversity, immigration, human rights, resilience, responsibility etc. If you would like to have a look we’ve put together an annotated bibliography, click on the picture to take look.