Tag Archives: Christmas

Cracker winners

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Well done to all the pupils who put in the extra effort over the Christmas holidays and completed their 2 book cracker.IMG_2137

Here is a selection of the best reasons for reading at Christmas.
Reading at Christmas time is the best because…

“Its cold outside” Ben
“You have lots of time to relax, you can drink hot chocolate and you are still doing your English but not in class.” Erin
“It teaches you to appreciate what you have and be grateful you have a family.” Sara
“You can sit cosy and read whilst watching people silly enough to go outside in a storm, battling with their brolly.” Rachel
“It relaxes you in-between the chaos of family life at Christmas and gives you an excuse to get away from annoying members of your family.” Josh
“When you are cold you can snuggle up in your blankets and just read a book to relax. After that you can go for a wee sleep.” Portia
“I can sit on the sofa or bed in my PJs reading. I can have a cosy night with peppermint hot chocolate in my bed with fluffy slippers.” Emma
“I curl up next to the fireplace and the Christmas tree and read my book.” Sonia
“It is relaxing, fun and an enjoyable thing to do at this special time of year.” Alistair
“You get to cuddle up beside the fire and dig into a good book. You can stay up all night just reading and reading. Once you have read all the books you can go out and get more- they are on sale!” Zaynah
“You can curl up with a good book and hot chocolate, while it’s cold outside and you are all nice and toasty in the house with your head in another world.” Rhianna

“It relaxes you and takes away all the stress of Christmas; waiting for Santa to come.” Evy
“You can add in an extra helping of excitement to the fun of Christmas by reading an enthralling novel.”Zainah

    And the winners

“I am not going to be all cheesy and say the best thing about reading at Christmas is because I sit down and drink hot chocolate while reading.
I like reading books at Christmas because I read before bed and it helps me fall asleep quickly because at Christmas time I can’t get to sleep because I am so excited. P.S I love reading!” Olivia

“You can snuggle up on your bed or your couch in your pyjamas and get cosy whilst reading a good book.” Robbie

“You get to relax and it’s something you can look forward to; reading the next day.” Sophie

What to watch and read over the hols?

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reading the red nose way

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?

christmas tv 2015

Unfestive read-a-long

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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.

Paired Reading meets Santa

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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

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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!)

Competition Winners

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Congratulations

Many thanks to all who entered the 12 word of Christmas competition.
We have over 300 entries the best ever for a library competition.

Many thanks to all who entered the 12 words of Christmas competition.
Over 300 entries were received.

So, who are the lucky, lucky winners?

*drum roll*

The winners:

Staff- Mrs Stephen – “The recent decline in the economy meant Santa couldn’t come to town”

Mrs Stephen wins a signed copy of Day by A.L Kennedy.

Pupil – Aodhan Gallagher – “The nurses transformed the old man’s last Christmas into his first Christmas.”

Aodhan wins a signed copy of Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce and his entry will be forwarded to the national competition where he may just win a shiny new IPod touch.

Look out for more competition in the library you nevere know the next winner could be you!

1 2 3 Booksale!

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On the 30th of November the library will be hosting it’s annual booksale.

This year it is even bigger and better than last with hundreds of titles costing from as little as £1 and the most expensive costing only £3.
There will be fiction and non-fiction titles for sale including Wimpy Kids and Patrick Ness as well as The Hunger Games and Murderous Maths.

So, why not wander by the forum on the 30th and you might just pick yourself up a bargain or get an early Chrsitmas present for a friend.