‘Book Group, and Christmas fun!’
Here at Holyrood, we love working with our friends at Glasgow Libraries. In November, we held the first meeting of our pupil Book Club at Govanhill Library. We were invited by Alison Nicol, our local Community Librarian, who hosted the visit as part of the ‘Hurricane Book Club’.
Before meeting up, our 15 pupils read ‘I am Thunder’ by Muhammad Khan.
We then enjoyed visiting Govanhill Library, discussing the book and taking part in a live Twitter session, linking up with other schools. Best of all was the friendly welcome and hospitality at Govanhill, where we were made to feel very welcome by Alison and the Govanhill Library staff (we loved our cosy Book Group area, and also, the chocolate biscuits) ! Since then we have held 2 further meetings : our Book Club Christmas Lunch, and also a catch-up session to decide on our next book. 
After an exciting voting session, not 1 – but 2 titles were chosen!
- ‘One’ by Sarah Crossan
- ‘Love, Hate & other Filters’ by Samira Ahmed
Some of us are now reading these ‘under lockdown’ and we can’t wait to meet up again for more book chat in our friendly group. Huge thanks to Alison for organising this, and also to Ms Blackburn for being part of our Book Group, and helping us walk safely to Govanhill Library.
Leading up to Christmas we put our minds to some serious reading by taking part in Glasgow Libraries Christmas Reading Challenge. Christmas time can be very hectic in schools, with pupils taking part in many fun activities such as concerts, charity and fundraising events, and S4,5 & 6 also sitting their prelim exams. This is such an important time to stock up on books for the holidays. 60 of our S1 pupils completed the Challenge by borrowing 3 or more books during the last week of term, and collected a superb certificate designed by Glasgow Libraries. 
“Your book is a friend… the library makes books easy to get”. Wise words from these lovely pupils.
Most of this borrowing was done at lunchtimes and intervals, and our wonderful English dept. also helped by allowing pupils to take the long distance route from class to the Library, avoiding the exams in the ‘street’ area. Nothing can stop our pupils from reading, and we also enjoyed the fresh air and exercise on route to the Library. Special mention must go to Miss Belton’s S2 English class, who have shown great dedication to regular reading during their library visits, working their way through comics, non-fiction and now enjoying authors such as Cathy Macphail and Elizabeth Laird. We all look forward to enjoying more Reading Challenge events in the future.
Find out more about Book Groups, and how to join your local library at
