A survivor’s story…

They came…slow at first… and then in their droves.. the tall, the short, boys and girls all ages and stages there was no way to hold them back. The Walking Read had invaded the library!

It's supposed to be spelled like that they are zombies!

It’s supposed to be spelled like that they are zombies!

Their first challenge was to face the reading bug – would they take one of it’s offerings? Would they become infected with the reading virus?

Then they stumbled towards the technology and logged themselves onto the Interweb to find out just who they really were.

From this they sought out the ultimate question – how long..how long? ( quite miffed at this one as I only lasted 1 month whereas EVERYONE else lasted 6 months – 1 year minimum with some ultimate survivors – I must be a wimp or they were cheating – find out for yourself and let me know – no cheating please).

Must be the result of his power pizza!

Must be the result of his power pizza!

Then it was on to the feasting – ravenous faces crammed full of brains and Zom-B babies and the watching of the ones who lured us here – the Scottish Book Trust and Master of Horror Darren Shan.

Can you guess how much was left at the end?

Can you guess how much was left at the end?


The groaning masses huddled together to formulate their ideas – Did they like the front cover? How long did it take them to work out the thing that is the big thing that is the twist?, Who are the real monsters in the book? Would they have ever picked up the book if I had not forced it in to their clammy paws? ( mostly No) Did they like the book? ( 80% yes 20% LOVED it) Would they like to take part in something like this again -100% YES YES MNNGGHGH! YES!

Oi put that back!

Hmm maybe I will just take 4 for later!


As the bells were ringing of future horrors to come (period5!) there was only one last question to be answered.. would they take the antidote? Would they reach out and take the cure to reading?
Interesting chat about vegetarian zombies from this two!

Interesting chat about vegetarian zombies from this two!

Where is your blazer?

No tie either?

Such a brilliant lunchtime thanks to all the pupils S1-S6 who came along and went with all the cooky ideas and genuinely enjoyed the day.
Thanks to Scottish Book Trust for the books and back up resources and thanks of course to Darren Shan for writing a top notch book.

yeah you

BOO

How can I top this? Watch this space…

Want to get involved as a member of The Walking Read just pop in to the library – no topic too crazy for us to take on.

Pfft librarians just stamp books!

Clifi and Photography a cross-curricular match made in dystopia

If you know anything about the library and me you know I love a project. Not just an ordinary project but one with bells and whistles and a tartan tammy thrown in for good measure.
For a number of years these projects have been supported by various departments around the school and one of our greatest supporters have been the art department in the form of the Higher Photography classes-this year has been no different.

My big project (in association with another class at Woodfarm- “waves”) has been environmental; in the form of an S2 class studying the power of cli-fi – climate change fiction and can reading fiction really change the way we think about big topics?
Our tag line is – can books save the world?

Our main text has been the brilliant Scottish book Exodus by the equally brilliant Julie Bertegna who has also been extremely supportive of the project even from France where she tweets us!
Our S2 pupils created design briefs for the Higher photography students to create copywright free images that could be used for their final mini movies. No plagiarism here mateys!

Photography students have not let us down – from fantastically realised dystopian Glasgows to poignant and thoughtful personal tragedies.
Take a look and let us know what you think.

Massive thanks to Art and English departments who always agree no matter how bizarre the concept!

The effects of climate change?

The effects of climate change?

Only the strong can survive!

Only the strong can survive!

Water we going to do?

Water we going to do?

The police cone will not save him!

The police cone will not save him!

Get yer brollies!

Get yer brollies!

Told you to pick a top locker!

Told you to pick a top locker!


No Saturday shopping for you now!

No Saturday shopping for you now!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Prize winners accepting their awards from Ela and Hasan

Prize winners accepting their awards from Ela and Hasan

We were very fortunate to be able to spend some time with Holocaust survivor Ela Stein Weissburger and survivor of the attrocities at Srebrebica Hasan Hasanovic.
The message from each speaker was simialar; Hasan reminded us of the fact that genocide still continues in some parts of the world and that we must remember each act and honour those who have been lost in a meaningful way and Ela spoke of the need to remember her friends and teachers and to live in remembrance of them.

The fact that Ela still had her yellow star and brough it with her was a touching and moving moment for the pupils assembled.
Many thanks to both Ela and Hasan for coming to the school and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for supporting the event.

If you would like to know more about the holocaust or events in other parts of the world take a look at the HMDT web site or pop in to the library for some books.

Holocaust Memorial Day Competition

Congratulations to our creative writing competition winners:

S1
Winner – Easham Manzar
Runner Up -Diarmaid Leahy

S2
Winner – Lily Collins
Runner Up -Holly Edgar

S3
Winner – Amy Harte
Runner Up – Emma Murphy

Excerpts from the winning entries:

    S1 Winner

To Amy,
If I had known, known that coming into this world as a Tutsi was such a crime, then I would have wished I were never born. If I had known, Known that coming into Rwanda would cause such a war, and then I would have wished I had never came. If I would have known, known that the village where my home was would turn into a graveyard, then I would have never considered it a home. If I would have known, known that I would see my family get killed right in front of my eyes, then I would have wished that it wouldn’t have hurt as much as it did. If I had known, known that I would hear the screams of pain, then I would have wished that it wouldn’t play in my head whenever there was a silence. If I had known, known that the cause of death of millions of lives were because they were a certain race then would have wished that I could stand up for us Tutsis. If I had known, known that all this would happen then I would have wished that racism and hatred was never a thing, if only I had known,
Yours sincerely
Easham, xxx

    S2 Winner

“It was 1944 in Germany, Adolf Hitler was Führer – you were only 4 or 5 years old at the time. Your father was a politician who had been arrested for being a traitor, and the soldiers continued their search for the rest of your family -simply for being Jewish. Your family -you, your mum and brother -were in hiding to avoid the terrible fate of being moved to concentration camps.

One night Nazi soldiers captured your family and were taken to a train where hundreds of German Jewish citizens were forced to board. Your mother held you and your brother so tightly and close to herself -scared to let go. When you finally reached the camp and left the train, you had your hair shaved, males and females were separated and were all given a striped uniform. The smell of burning was unforgettable and the screams and cries in the distance sent cold shivers through the new arrivals.

The group of females were surrounded by guards but there was a gap that you could just fit through without being noticed. So, your mum told you to run as far and as fast as you could – not stopping, not looking back until you reached the Red Cross and could tell them you needed a new family.”

    S3 Winner

Dearest Anna,
I am writing to thank you. Thank you for the times you shared with me in that hell. Although these words may mean so much to you they mean the world to me. When I think of how you kept me alive, I cry. I cry not out of sorrow or out of hatred for what the Nazis did to us but for the love and joy I feel knowing that you, my best friend, gave me a life worth fighting for. I do not want these memories of the camp filled with horror, sorrow and disgust. I want us to remember how we found friendship in the most unlikely of places. Although we shall not be around forever, we must keep the memory alive because if we so not all that suffering will be for nothing. Pass it on through the generations. Write these letters and let the world continue to remember what awful sufferings we encountered so it will never happen again. Pass it on to the children like Miriam, my sweet Miriam, who you Anna, you saved with your kindness and sacrifice; when you starved to save my poor child although yours was gone. Keep it alive. No matter what happens we should never let these memories slip away. I’m missing you dearly but we will meet again soon,
Sending lots of love, kind wishes and gratitude from Berlin,
Isabelle and Miriam x

Giamuncous

If you Google (other search engines are available!) the word Giamuncous the only entries are for St.Ninian’s High school library. And, why might that be I may hear you say? It’s because I made it up. Why would you need to make up a word when there are some prefectly good ones out there – like aardvark or serendipity? Beacuse, dear readers there was no word big enough, brash enough and bold enough to match the amazing, wonder that is the ANNUAL GUAMUNCOUS S1 QUIZ.

if you are currently in S1 get your thinking caps ready for Wednesday the 17th December for that day shall be known as Giamuncous Quiz day.
Where class is pitted against class and teacher agaist teacher to grab the cown of knowledge.
run to the libray and get your questions run back to class and work out the answers ( no Googling its for wimps and will waste your time) run back to the library and repeat a few times more till, exausted with the sweat of knowledge and a heart rate faster than any Mr Fuchs can get you to for the bleep test, you collapse in your classroom to await the e-mail.
Will it say well done or will it say better luck next year.. except this quiz is for S1 only and there is no next year!

As Gore Vidal once said – It is not enough to win, others must fail!

Good luck and enjoy!

Unfestive read-a-long

Thanks to the lovely people at the Scottish Book Trust we have been set an unfestive challenge. To read a book over the holidays and have a right good chinwag about it when we get back from the break.

Out of a selection of books on offer I chose the most unfestive book I could find – the non Christmassy, no tinsel or baubles in sight – Zom-B by the brilliant Darren Shan.

SBT have given, yes given, us 20 copies of this title with only one request – that we read and chat (I know that is two requests but reading without talking about a great book is impossible, right? – so it really is only one request) all things Zom-B in the New Year.

Pupils are signing up fast to take part ! So, if you are in S3+ and you want to get your paws on a lovely new book and take part in some interesting book chat – pop in to the library as soon as possible. But warning as the title suggests this is not for the squeamish, so if you are a sensitive flower best not to go for this read and look out for other suggestions and perhaps another read-a-long.

Even if I run out of books why not get your own or borrow one from the school or local library and come along to the talk? Or have your own talk? Or just talk to me or just talk to yourself?

Here are some things to think about before you start the book

Did you know there have been more than 50 blockbuster movies made about zombies?

The first ever zombie movie was made back in 1932 and called White Zombie and starred the early horror actor Bela Lugosi in the lead role (he also played
Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Ygor and many more creepy characters)

In times of economic recession the number of zombie books increases.

There is a term called the “Zombie economy” where businesses do not thrive or collapse they simply stagnate.

The BBC2 series “In the Flesh” referred to zombies as having ” partially deceased syndrome”.

Often zombies are used in fiction and movies as metaphors for other evils in society.

One author went so far as to say that Vampires are the rich upper class and zombies the working class!

The very first novel to include the term zombi was the 1929 novel The Magic Island by William Seabrook.

Follow me on twitter @stninianslib for some twitchat about the book starting on the 19th December over the hols.

Going for the Double – This time a Green Guinness world record

On Christmas morning will you open your 4th copy of the New Diary of a Wimpy Kid? or the 3rd version of some Home Baking show recipe book? Do not despair! The Cli-fi group is at hand to help solve your woes.

Keep a hold of any unwanted ( but good condition) books, both fiction and non fiction and bring them in to school for our “extra special” green GWR day.

On Friday 5th Feb at lunchtime we will be hosting as big a book swap as we possibly can in aid of –

1/ saving the world, and
2/ get ANOTHER Guinness world record

Did you know that on average it take 1Kge of carbon to produce a book.

If you swap your book for another you will help save the environment 2Kge and get yourself a brilliant new something to read and be apart of a Guinness world record attempt – how cool is that?

So bring along as many books as you would like to swap and take part in a fantastic swaptastic guinnesstastic event!

Paired Reading meets Santa

Over the past few months St.Ninian’s paired reading scheme has been going from strength to strength. Over 40 pupils were selected from S1 to need some additional support with their reading and our amazing S6 pupils stepped up to support them.

With some extra training and moral support from me the S6 pupils were matched with a buddy each and every Tuesday without fail they have met and rad and discussed their books. I am very impressed with the committment of our seniors when so many demands are made on their time that they have continued with this programme and have made great efforts to support their reading buddy.
Staff and students from both S1 and S6 have commented on the success of the scheme.

I wanted to celebrate this success and spoke with the HT about securing some funds to purchase books for the scheme. It might sound odd that a librarian is keen to have pupils with their own books rather than borrowing them from the library but many studies ahve shown that immersion in a book rich environment works wonders with readers especially those who lack the confidence of some of their classmates.
Thanks to the generosity of Mr Docherty and to the canny nature of my buying prowess I was able to purchase 2 books per pupil.
Knowing my fantastic skill with the ribbon and glitter I hosted a merry little afternoon where the S6 pupils were invited to come in , listen to Christmas tunes,have a sweetie, pick two books from the selection that would suite their buddy ( hand picked book ARE THE BEST!) and most importantly wrap them themselves. The S6 pupils then personalised a Christmas card and the scene was set.

S1 pupils were invited to the forum as a group to, what they thought, was a wee chat about the scheme. Little did they know the S6 buddies were there to surprise them with their presents. To say that this was one of my highlights of 20 years of working at St.Ninian’s as librarian was an understatement; staff students young and younger were all moved by the event as the pictures show.

All I have to think about now is – how do we top it for next year.

This event shows just how committed St.Ninian’s is to reading and to it’s pupils – long may it continue!

The tree is up

biggest everreading the red nose way

If you are in need of a festive fix then pop in to the library we are all baubled up.
Thanks to Holly (festive and creative) and Dominic who nurtured our annual hardback Christmas tree from tiny paperback acorns.
Little Dolph is back on top reading his own tiny book.

While you are in admiring the tree why not borrow something to read over the hols and watch your parent’s faint? 😉
(remember reading burns up calories so it might just be the perfect excuse for cracking open another selection box – as if an excuse was ever needed!)

Scottish Book Week 2014

What a great success our Book Week has been!
Our book sale raised over £150 for the school library and enabled lots of pupils to grab a book bargain – £2 a book – madness.

Lots of pupils put their origami skills to the test and made their very own tartan book tammy – a big thanks to Ms McGrory and Ms Beaton for helping with the making and the showing and the doing.
Here is a pic of Aoife with hers actually working!

We had a huge response from pupils and a smaller ( wimps!) response from staff to out Scot or Not competition – congratulations to Rhona and Mariam in S2 who jointly answered the most questions correctly and won 3 books each from the book sale.
And super well done to Mr Blair in the Technical dept. who beat all the rest of the staff and managed to munch away with a tunnock of prizes!

It was also the turn of the library to have a surprise in the form of love letters from S1 – thanks to all who took the time to show the amour for a special place!

No one was able to correctly identify where Hamish was on his holidays – Eilean Donan for those who were wondering so I get the keep a copy of the brand new Wimpy Kid for myself -or maybe I will start up another competition in the new year.

I hope everyone who got involved this year had a great time and who know what we will be able to get up to next year.
Start planning!