If you are at a loss as to what to watch over the festive season – fret no more.. the amazing Helen Smith ( librarian of course) from Eckinton School, Derbyshire has fixed all your woes.
This is a listing of all the movies and shows that will be on telly during the hols all based or adapted from books.
It is a real labour of love and well worth a wee look,
Librarians are just great n’est pas?
Huge thanks to Umbrella Education for picking @stninianslib reviewers as their first ever #readyouAToZ competition winners.
We received a lovely box of brand shiny new books which were eagerly snapped up by my brilliant pupils.
The books are already being read and will be reviewed for the next AtoZ and who knows we might even win again.. now I wonder where did those biscuits that were in the box go to….?
If you would like to review some books for this competition – just get in touch – any age- any stage- all welcome!
After 6 years in the making Alex’s new book Dark Matter will be hitting the shelves in a matter(sic) of days and guess which school she has agreed to come and talk to? No really I wish you would tell us because she said she was too busy – oh wait only joking it’s us – Alex will be coming along as part of our Book Week Scotland celebrations.
She has kindly offered to talk to a specially selected group of S1 pupils about her writing and characters and then we have encouraged her* to stay on to partake of a “literary lunch” with library assistants from both St. Ninian’s and Woodfarm High School.
It promises to be a corker of a day and Alex has promised to sign books for pupils – so if you have your own copy bring it along or if you want to buy a copy come and see me by Friday 13th Nov.
Just a heads up – for such a nice soft spoken lady she sure knows how to ramp up the heeby jeebies in her books!!
There’s lots going on this week so if you are not part of this event you are sure to be able to join in another.
*lured with cake
Are you clearing out in time for Christmas and have any unwanted books at home?
As part of Book Week Scotland and our S2 Everest project we would like to run a second-hand book stall at the end of November.
If you would like to donate any items to this project they would be gratefully received.
Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to hand in as pupils can come along and buy a book for only 50p- all proceeds will go towards Oxfam’s Nepalese Earthquake Relief fund.
Updates will be tweeted from @stninianslib
Many thanks for your continued support of the library!
Massive congratulations to the amazing 45 S2 pupils who completed their summer reading bingo challenge.
Every single one read 8 books over the summer – how many did you manage? – even I could only squeeze in 7 ( I have an excuse I don’t get the summer hols).
All were invited to a celebration of their achievements in the lecture theatre.
Thanks to Mrs Lafferty; Head of English and Ms Cox Head of Support for Learning for coming along and echoing how proud we all are of these young people.
Special congratulations go to our overall winners pictured below.
I hope you enjoy the certificates, sweeties and the special limited edition bookmark featuring the school ( woo and hoo) and most of all I hope you continue with your reading – it’s life changing, I know!
Hopefully we will be able to run the scheme next summer and include both S1 and S2!
On Tuesday we were so lucky to have a visit from the one and only Matt Dickinson; one of only c4000 people in the world to have reached the top of Mount Everest!
Chilly much?
Matt began by telling us about his career as a documentary maker and showed us some hair raising pictures of the places he has been…even on top of a moving ice-flow.
He talked at length about the risks and rewards of the climb including the time when his tent was ransacked by squatters (ON EVEREST!)how he nearly lost a couple of fingers due to a helpful Sherpa and how his 300 bar supply of toffee crisps began to explode at high altitude!
There was just enough time for some brilliant questions ranging from “Did you ever think you would not make it back?” ( yes!), “To what local food did you like?” ( Yak burgers!) and “Have you ever killed and eaten an ox?” (Great question, No!)
We were joined in the talk by a group of pupils from Woodfarm High who are also studying The Everest Files and were equally enthralled.
Betty the yeti was so excited
*warning heavy pun alert*
Things are ploughing ahead with our 60 intrepid informationeers ( a cross between a mountaineer and information) in our quest to learn summit( apologies) about our amazing book.
Some endangered species
We have been looking at the rubric behind board games, searching for facts amongst a 3-D large glasses, Sunday (yes sunday) trip to Everest via the magic of cinema) and the flag on our frosted cake will be a visit from explorer, mountaineer, writer and documentary maker Matt Dickinson.
Could this project get any more exciting… well yes but not yeti!!
um no not really
To find out more about our work follow us on twitter @stninianslib or how our in-house monster is getting on @bettytheyeti1
What if you were not the chosen one?
How boring are you? Are you hero, a villain, a creature of the night? Or just the person who cleverly decides to hide in their basement when the zombies, vampires and werewolves come? Then meet Mikey, a young boy who, just like you, wants to live long enough to graduate high school. Cause while some people fight monsters and demons others fight acne and social awkwardness. In Patrick Ness’ new book The Rest of Us Just Live Here we follow not the hero’s but the spectators, dealing with serious issues that face today’s teenagers while incorporating humour into the situation. This is an incredible book that has you laughing from start to finish.
The books are way better than the movies and the movies are brilliant!
Ever wondered why Kronos ate his kids? Why Zeus and Hera got married? Or how Hades got to rule the Underworld? Well the answers to these and many more of your Greek mythological questions are here in this (one of a kind) book all about the Olympians from their rise to their almost falls. Rick Riordan’s book Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods is an epic spin off from his famous Percy Jackson series. In this book Percy Jackson himself goes through the Greek gods and some of the myths and legends surrounding them, clearing up many idiosyncrasies, in a humorous and interesting way that is sure to catch the reader’s attention.
thanks to Toni in S6 for these great reviews
A for Adventure in our review this time –
Great front cover
Great review by Andrew- do it make YOU want to pick it up?
Some of my brilliant pupils have taken up the challenge to read their A-Z.
So we chose to break with convention and start with …. A
First up is
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
Reviewed by Caitlyn
To be honest, this book was not for me. Normally, I am into the usual soppy story about reunion and love, however, this book takes it too far. I’m sorry to say this, but for me, this was not a credible book.
First of all, the book has too many ideas going on in a short period of time. It seems like the main character of her book, Apple, has almost every problem known to man. She loses her mum and is in the midst of losing her friend and her mum finally comes back and she has a new sister and then her mum isn’t being a proper parent. Not only is this all happening, but at the same time Apple is an amazing writer but is too scared to follow her talent. Furthermore she falls in love with a boy who helps her find her sister who ran away. What I’m trying to say is that there is too much going on at once and, after a while, the plot just gets confusing. I believe that this could have been one of my favourite books if it had a plot that didn’t stray off to completely different ideas.
Another point I believe should be noted is that why is a girl, of 13, finding love at the end of the book? No one that I have heard of has ever found love this young, yet Apple does? Not only does this have nothing to do with the main idea, but also I think that it is unbelievable which just does not flatter the book. I love books that make me believe in any possibility, which helps me to visualise myself in the main character’s shoes, yet, due to this ending, ‘Apple and Rain’, it does not have that effect on me.
Finally, I would like to point out the names of the main characters. Apollinia Apostolopoulou is the full name of the main character in this novel. I understand it’s Greek and it is to link to the title, but it is far-fetched when most parents in the UK would go for the more generic names such as Lucy, Sophie, and Eve etc. I know that the long name which is hard to say is probably a metaphor for how no one understands Apple and her life, but in all seriousness, this book is for your free time. You’re more than likely not to see this book being analysed in an English lesson, so why the symbolic name?
Overall, even though this book is probably not her usual writing style, it has sadly put me off reading any of her books.
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