📢 PSA 📢
There has been a change to the opening days of the library in Bannerman High: from now, it will be open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Thanks to the new S1 for making these fabulous posters! 😻 #dontmessupthelibrary #bestlibraryever
What’s in the box?
We’ve had an exciting time at Lochend. First of all, we’ve had lots of new books come into the library. I wonder what could be in that box??? Been a bit of a reading drought in the summer? Come in to the library and see what new books are here. it’s always great to see a delivery of books on the library table !
New Feature – Click for the link
In our blog posts now, if you click on any underlined text, you’ll be taken to some exciting new internet content. This could be for a book review or even an author’s page. So there’s lots more for you to find out in the blog this year.
S1 Induction Time
It’s great to see all the new S1 pupils come into the library for the first time this month. Everyone has now been given their library cards and can borrow books for the first time.
 Remember, the library is free and you can borrow books for 2 weeks, or longer if you need more time to read the books you have. Stuck for an idea what to read? Why not check out our display of new books? This table is where you find a selection of new books covering all subjects.
New books to borrow
On the new releases table, you can find the following books. As a sneak peak, click on the links and you will be able to read all about them ! If you want a book, just ask the librarian who will be happy to reserve one for you.
A brilliant celebration of all the amazing women to come out of Scotland. You’ll find women from history, Olympians, footballers and so many more great figures to surprise and inspire you to be the best version of yourself.
Definitely the creepiest of the new books, and a great read to set you up for Halloween in October ! It’s not ghosts and ghouls, it’s even scarier than that. Ruby and her best friend have discovered a new AI tool which helps them get great grades at school. But is that just too good to be true? Read this Super Short story and find out….
Matt Goodfellow has done it again with this book, he simply gets better and better. Nathan is struggling at school, and trying his best to keep the few friends he has. 
But what if your best friend starts doing things they shouldn’t really be doing? And it’s serious. Combined with trouble at home, the Final Year is a great read and one you can identify with concerning your first year at a new school.
Author of the Month –Â Tom Palmer
Our first author of the month for this term is Tom Palmer. Tom writes amazing books on football, the Second World War and many other things. His books are in our Super Shorts section, which means they are a great read with not so many pages. Also they have yellow pages which means pupils with dyslexia challenges can read the words with more ease. But everyone can borrow these books and they are amazing reads
Capture the era of spies, detectives, loot, fog and lamp posts! Grab a book and enjoy !
The new term has finally started and, while we are waiting to deliver the library induction for the S1s, some of them have already popped in for a visit and to borrow a book.
For everyone else though, here is a list of eBooks available to borrow from the Libby app featuring school stories and experiences!
Middle School Mayhem by Rachel Renee Russell
The Secret School Invasion by Pamela Butchart
Murder on a School Night (audio) by Kate Weston
The School for Good and Evil 1 & 2 by Soman Chainani
Yes You Can–Ace School Without Losing Your Mind by Natasha Devon
Making Friends, Volume 1 by Kristen Gudsnuk
Awkward Autumn of Lily Mclean by Lindsay Littleson
ADHD Is Our Superpower by Adriana Camargo & Soli Lazarus
The Autistic Guide to Adventure by Allie Mason
Do You Know Dewey? Exploring the Dewey Decimal System by Brian P. Cleary
The Worst Class in the World by Joanna Nadin
Guts by Raina Telgemeier
This summer, your librarian has been busy preparing for the new school year with a lot of exciting activities. I attended some fantastic training sessions to discover new and unique ways to create stories. One of the highlights was a workshop organized by Markie, my fantastic colleague from Shawlands! She demonstrated how to use tarot cards as a creative tool, helping us explore new ways to inspire and develop fresh narrative ideas. I’m thrilled to bring these innovative techniques into our library programs and make creative writing even more engaging for everyone!
I’ve also been working on some exciting new projects, like planning future author visits. Stay tuned—you’ll be hearing more about that soon!
And of course, I’ve been getting the library all set for the new year by weeding out old books and cataloguing new ones.
Can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the library!
Hi and welcome back, everyone!
While everyone else was away over the summer, the library has had a bit of a makeover! This month, we’re going to take a quick look at our new genre system, to make sure you know where to find your next favourite read.
So what does “genrefication” mean? Essentially, our Fiction section is now divided into five genre categories: General, Imaginative, Dynamic, Romantic, and Intriguing. The books have all been reshelved so that they’re physically grouped together into these five broad areas. Each book has also been outfitted with a brand-new coloured sticker on its spine, which corresponds to the section it came from, as follows:
Furthermore, every section is clearly labelled, with signage explaining what sort of books you can find there, as well as giving examples:
But not everything has changed! The books within each section are arranged in the familiar author-surname order, allowing you to find your favourite writer more quickly than ever.
Hopefully you’ll find the new arrangement more intuitive to use — and it’ll lead to some great discoveries, too!
The S2 Library Helpers were so keen to encourage reading over the holidays, that they made up a Holyrood Reading Challenge. They chatted about this over a few lunchtimes and came up with a giant whiteboard of ideas. We then wrote the challenges on post-it notes that went into a lucky dip jar for participants to choose from. Here are some of the challenges:
It was a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed choosing a challenge and receiving a bookmark and merit for taking part. I’m now looking forward to hearing how everyone got on, and also what ideas the Helpers will have for our new term.
S2 Helpers came up with ideas
Seniors enjoyed the Challenge too!
While school’s out, school librarians continue to carry out essential work, joining up hundreds of new members arriving into S1, re-organising and improving collections, ordering new books, creating resources and planning projects and activities for the coming year.
I’ve been reviewing some of the pupil feedback from throughout the year, and noticed how much S1 enjoy their lunchtimes in the library. And also that some readers would like a little more help in choosing books. So I’ve ordered new board games for lunchtimes (chess, snakes & ladders, Connect4, Uno, Boggle and others), and re-organised a book display stand at the entrance to highlight new genres, including : Afrofuturism, Eco-stories, Sci-fi & Dystopian, Animal stories, Scottish authors, and Re-told fairy tales. There’s also a space for – Recommended by You, as pupil recommendations are one of the best ways to find a good book. Hopefully our keen readers will like the new display and make suggestions for anything else they would like to see included.
I’ve also enjoyed some time off to go on trips and celebrations including:
Hope everyone’s had a lovely holiday, look forward to seeing you back next week !
Miss Kindness
As part of our summer transition program for future S1 pupils, St Mungo’s library organised a day filled with exciting activities. The highlight of the day was an engaging vision board creation session, where pupils crafted their own personalised vision boards.
This activity encouraged creativity, goal-setting, and self-expression, providing a fun and meaningful way for pupils to visualise their aspirations for the upcoming school year.
It was inspiring to see how creative the pupils turned out to be, daring to dream big and set ambitious goals for their future.
Library Mascot: We welcome our new School Library mascot, Maximus, designed by ‘C’ in S4 who’s winning design was voted by pupils and made by the talented Miss West, School Librarian at John Paul Secondary School. As mascot, Maximus will be our sidekick for the upcoming school year and will help promote reading for pleasure on our displays at during activities as well as appear in future School Library Twitter photos.
 Bookmarks: Our winning bookmark designs have arrived in time for the 2024-25 school year, and we can’t wait to show them off. The bookmarks will be revealed and available come August.
 Zine Workshop: We had a fabulous time with Martha from Glasgow Zine Library who delivered an engaging lunchtime zine making workshop in the School Library. Pupils enjoyed browsing the selection of the GZL collection which inspired them to create their own. We really look forward to more collaboration with the GZL in the future.
 Senior Libby Refreshers: We visited some English classes to deliver Libby refreshers for our senior pupils in hopes of inspiring them read for leisure over the summer. Libby by Overdrive is an app subscribed to by Glasgow Life Libraries which has thousands of fiction, nonfiction, and magazine titles. There is something for everyone.
Swatch: The Summer issue of Swatch, the Glasgow School Libraries’ eMagazine is now live. Packed with booklists, an exclusive interview with Maisie Chan, and lots of fun stuff including a recipe for salt and chilli wedges, an origami paper fan craft, and a quiz. Interactive back issues are available on the Library Channel on Teams.
Book of the Day:
03.06: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
06.06: Lionheart Girl by Yaba Badoe
07.06: An Amazing Animal Atlas of Scotland by Anders Frang
10.06: Furthermore by Darren Simpson
13.06: Guardians of the Wild Unicorns by Linday Littleson
14.06: Magical Boy by Vincent Kao
17.06: All about Eid: Things to Make and Do by Sarah Shaffi and Aaliya Jaleel
20.06: I Kick and I Fly by Ruchira Gupta
21.06: Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah
Author of the Week: Â Chosen by pupils
03.06: Patrick Ness
10.06: Camryn Garrett
17.06: Krystal Sutherland
Series of the Week: Chosen by pupils
03.06 Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld
10.06: The Extinction Trials by SM Wilson
17.06: Rugby Academy by Tom Palmer
Literary and Cultural Celebration Booklists for June:
Read with Pride: June i Pride month, an internationally recognised celebration of the LGBT+ community. We’ve compiled a list of LGBT+ fiction and nonfiction for all ages.
Empathy Day: Empathy Day (June 6th) ‘inspires children to learn more about empathy, have transformational experiences through stories, and to put empathy into action’ by shining a ‘light on book’s role in raising an empathy-generated generation’. Check out Empathy Lab’s Primary and Secondary booklists, the majority of titles are available in the school library.
Refugee Week: Refugee Week (June 17th-23rd) is ‘the world’s largest arts and cultural festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refuges and people seeking sanctuary. This year’s theme is ‘Our Home’. Our booklists features fiction and nonfiction for Junior and Young Adult readers.
Windrush Day: Windrush Day (June 22nd) honours the contributions of British Caribbean communities and marks the arrival of passengers of the Empire Windrush to the UK. Our booklist includes fiction and nonfiction for all ages.
South Asian Heritage Month: South Asian Heritage Month (July 17th-August 17th) celebrates the heritage of people with roots in South Asian countries. This year’s theme is ‘Free to be me’. Our booklist come a month early to ensure it is promoted within the school term and includes fiction and nonfiction for all ages.
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Trending Booklists:
Epic Reads New Releases | The Guardian Children’s Book Roundup | LoveReading4Kids Books of the Month | Scholastic Books of the Month | Scottish Book Trust Book Lists |Toppsta Monthly Highlights | Waterstones Books of the Month
Recent Awards: UK book award winners, shortlists, and longlists
Winners: Branford Boase Award, Excelsior Awards, FCBG Children’s Book Awards,  Jhalak Prize, The Kitchies, Orwell Prizes, Sports Book Awards, Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Women’s Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction, YOTO Carnegies.
Shortlists: The Week Junior Book Awards, YA Book Prize
Competitions:
Foyles Young Poets of the Year Award
 Book Buzz: Latest book news from major media outlets and websites
BBC | Book Riot | Buzzfeed | Epic Reads | The Guardian | Huffpost
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Every June, Pride Month celebrates the rights of LGBTQ+ people in societies all around the world. Pride brings awareness to the LGBTQ+ community and the history of people’s fight for equal rights.Â
We have loads of books that can help you learn more about LGBTQ+ cultural and history. Or why not read a book by an LGBTQ+ author this month? Browse our Pride collect on Padlet and visit the library to collect your next read. Â 
On Fridays afternoons, pupils in S1-S3 have the opportunity to take part in lots of different activities as part of the Wider Achievement program. For the summer term, the library hosted a beginners Dungeons & Dragons group. Pupils spent a few sessions building their characters, choosing their skills and inventing backstories. We ended up with elves, druids, halflings, and lots of Dragonborn. Then we were ready to play! Big thank you to our star pupil Payton, who was our D&D oracle and lead everyone through some very exciting trap-filled adventures.
We also got some great new books, just in tie for the holidays. Here’s a wee sample of top picks in fantasy, sci-fi and the supernatural. All of these are available now from the school library.
