March/April 2023 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

After a busy month and a half following the Spring break, the School Library is now currently closed throughout May to accommodate exams. Here is a recap of what we got up to over the past few weeks.

Spring Edition of Swatch Magazine: Our Spring issue of Swatch, the Glasgow School Libraries’ eMagazine is out now! It’s loaded with tons of goodies such as an ‘Egg-cellent’ origami gift box craft, a (very) badly drawn book cover quiz, loads of booklists, and an interview with yours truly about all the things we do at Shawlands Academy School Library. It also features interviews with our three shortlist YA-ldi Book Award authors, Maisie Chan, Ann Sei Lin, and Victoria Williamson.

Display: Members of our Pupil Library Committee are always very on the ball with our monthly displays, drawing inspiration from our literary and cultural calendar. Over March, they’ve featured books to promote a wide range of events such as International Women’s Day / Women’s History Month (March 8^th), Neurodiversity Celebration Week (March 13^th), Anti-Racism Day (March 20^th), Ramadan (March 22^nd), and Trans Day of Visibility (March 31^st),

Creative Writing Workshop with Victoria Williamson: Author Victoria Williamson hosted a workshop with Shawlands Academy Creative Writing group during a Friday lunchtime session. Victoria chatted about the foundations of storytelling and offered some excellent tips and fun activities.

Spring Quiz: Our senior quiz leaders hosted their final quiz in the library before study leave. A big thank you to “B” and “I” for their dedication and enthusiasm in creating, promoting, and delivering our seasonal quizzes this year. They’ve been more popular than ever and it’s all down to their hard work and effort.

Nowruz: Another member of our Pupil Library Committee created and hosted Shawlands Academy’s first Nowruz, which is Persian New Year. Pupils learned about Nowruz, Persian traditions, and participated in a goldfish hunt around the library. We also ‘jumped over the fire’ to bring in the new year.

Literary Egg Hunt: For Easter, we invited pupils to search for the ‘golden eggs’ hidden in amongst the books. Pupils were tasked to find the eggs based on literary clues to get their prize.

Eid Crafternoon: Lastly, another member of Pupil Library Committee hosted and delivered a paper lantern activity as part of Eid celebrations.

Trending: May Booklists

Best New Children’s Books – Topptsa

Bookbug’s Book of the Month – Scottish Book Trust

Books of the Month – Love Reading For Kids

Books of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Books Roundup – Guardian

New Releases – Epic Reads

Literary and Cultural Events – March

5^th – 6^th: Ullapool Book Festival (Ross-shire, Highlands, Scotland)

12^th – 14^th: Boswell Book Festival (Dumfries, Ayrshire, Scotland)