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Book Week Scotland and More at Knightswood!

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November was a great month in the library!

For the entire month, the library had a display up of nonfiction books to celebrate Nonfiction November. I love Nonfiction November – it’s such a good excuse to pick up a book and learn something new. Check out our brilliant display!

 

In addition to highlighting nonfiction, November is also the month of Book Week Scotland! We had a busy week! We hosted two classes from Bankhead Primary School for library visits. During the visits, the P6s and P7s were read to by two of my brilliant senior library assistants, Summer and Jude, and then they asked questions about high school and had the chance to explore the library. It was an absolute delight meeting all of them!

   

Maybe the most fun of all though was the return of the much-loved book swap! This gives pupils and staff the chance to browse new-to-them books and to take them home to keep, absolutely free. It’s always a huge hit!

November 2024 Roundup – Whitehill Secondary School Library

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Book Week Scotland: We hosted our Book Week Scotland quiz during lunchtime and collaborated with the English department to host a series of ‘Book Speed Dating’ sessions for the S1 classes. The library set up five stations consisting of books across different genres such as ‘Comedy’, ‘Thrills and Chills’, ‘Realistic’, Speculative’, and ‘Nonfiction’. Groups spent five minutes at each table, reading and rating books before moving onto the next stations. Pupils loved this activity as they got to discover books across different genres they otherwise wouldn’t have tried. Special thanks to Miss Lugton for the brilliant idea!

New Book Highlights

You Owe Me A Murder by Eileen Cook

The Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Read, Scream, Repeat by Jennifer Killick

 Books of the Day

5:11.24: Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World by Burhana Islam, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali, Reya Ahmed, Saffa Khan, Aaliya Jaleel, Deema Alawa, Aghnia Mardiyah

7.11.24: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

12.11.24: Black Poppies: The Story of Britain’s Black Community in the First World War by Stephen Bourne

14.11.24: A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe

19.11.24: Talking about Islamophobia: What is it and How Do We Challenge It? A Beginners Guide for Children by Sabeena Akhtar and Na’ima B. Robert

21.11.24: Muslim Girls Rise: Inspirational Champions of Our Time by Saira Mir

26.11.24: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

28.11.24: Eyewitness World War I by Simon Adams

Author of the Week

4.11.24: Catherine Doyle

11.11.24: Dan Freedman

18.11.24: Serena Patel

25.11.24: Ross Sayers

Series of the Week

4.11.24: Brightstorm Chronicles by Vashti Hardy

11.11.24: Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

18.11.24: Max Einstein by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

25.11.24: STEALTH by Jason Rohan

Literary and Cultural Celebrations for November

Anti-Bullying Week (11th – 15th): Anti-Bullying Week is an annual campaigned aimed at raising awareness, impact and prevention of bullying. This year’s theme is ‘Choose Respect’.

Book Week Scotland (18th – 22nd): Book Week Scotland is an annual celebration of books and reading run by the Scottish Book Trust. This year’s theme is ‘Hope’.

Islamophobia Awareness Month: Islamophobia Awareness Month is aimed at raising awareness of islamophobia and challenge stereotypes as well as celebrate the contributions and culture of Muslims. This year’s theme is ‘Seeds of Change’.

Nonfiction November: Nonfiction November is an annual celebration of information and factual books run by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. This year’s theme is Why Don’t You? (Hobbies and Leisure)

Remembrance Day: Shawlands Academy honored Remembrance Day on November 11th with a minute of silence at 11am.

Transgender Awareness Week 913th-19th): Transgender Awareness Week is a weeklong celebration leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year’s theme is ‘Our Trans Heroes’.

Trending Book Lists

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

Book Awards

Winners – Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction | Booker Prize | Diverse Book Award | Wainwright Prize

Volunteering at Holyrood Library, December Update 

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Our Library Volunteers have been working hard on some great projects to brighten these dark, Winter months. 

Reader of the Month notice board

Rand and Tafsirr created a Reader of the Month noticeboard, to recognise enjoyment and effort in reading.

This month’s award winners – Balint (S2), Egbert (S1) & Melissa (S3), will each receive a book of their choice from the book vending machine.  

 

Book Swap here!

Thanks to Filza, Gia and Izza who created this beautiful giant sign for our Book Swap table during Book Week Scotland. They used the lighthouse logo to represent ‘Hope’ and added their own style and flourish. The Book Swap was a great success. 

 

 

Book swapping at interval

Enjoying books together at the Coffee morning

Our Staff Coffee Morning was a hoot (thanks to Ms Ford for bringing Hedwig along), and S3 Volunteers helped serve refreshments, and gave out copies of ‘Hope’ kindly gifted by the Scottish Book Trust. There was plenty of great chat between staff and young people, who love sharing book recommendations together .

 

S4 Volunteer Lucy, working at the issue desk

Our 14 Volunteers, ranging from S3 – S6 have a lot of fun, but there’s also a goal to achieve, which is completing their Duke of Edinburgh Award at either Bronze or Silver level; or for S6 – their Caritas or Leadership Award.

 

 

 

Like all school librarians, I’m always proud to support our young people with their volunteering, and see this is a key aspect of our School Library Service, offering  “a wide range of interesting and fun volunteering experiences that help others develop new skills and make new friends”. A Vision for Glasgow Life Libraries, April 2023

Our October Volunteers’ Survey asked –  What is your favourite thing about volunteering?

“Meeting new people and becoming friends. The Library is a really inviting space and the people I’ve met are all amazing.” (S3 Volunteer)

“I really enjoyed the creative tasks like wrapping a gift and putting up the posters. But also the less creative tasks like taking record of newly ordered books so all in all I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything!” (S6 Volunteer)

In the survey, our young people agreed that they had achieved some, or all of the following outcomes through volunteering :

1. Of benefit to the school community 2. Teamwork 3. Helping other people 4. Learning new skills 5. Good for my mental health 6. Good for my confidence

 We’ll have more projects and book recommendations to share in 2025. Happy Reading!

November 2024 Roundup – Shawlands Academy School Library

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Book Week Scotland: The School Library held some fun activities to celebrate Book Week Scotland. On Monday 18th, we announced our winner of the Shawlands Academy Quills Creative Writing Cometition on the theme of ‘Hope’ or ‘Scotland’, judged by our pupil-led panel. Congratulations to our S2 winner for their excellent poem ‘Hope’.  On Wednesday we held our annual quiz. On Friday, we held another successful ‘Biblio Bistro’ in collaboration with our talented baristas from Wider Achievement who served us up some very yummy, extra special hot chocolate. Pupils and staff were invited to come along to our ‘café’ and partake in our ‘Interview A Reader’ activity to chat about books and for a chance to entry our prize draw. And throughout the week, the School Library teamed up with the English Department to deliver a scavenger hunt that encouraged pupils to solve clues and locate picture of famous book covers displayed in classroom windows.

Rights Respecting School: Shawlands Academy are going for the Rights Respecting School bronze award and the School Library is thrilled to be involved. The Rights Respecting Schools Award UK is run by UNICEF UK, which ‘encourages schools to place the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of its ethos and curriculum’.

eResource Workshop for Seniors: We delivered a workshop specifically designed for seniors who are university bound, where we introduce them to online databases and how to navigate scholarly journals as well as tips for conducting research using these resources.

New Book Highlights

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Braids Take A Day by Zainab Boladale

Astronomy for Curious Kids by Giles Sparrow and Nik Neves

Books of the Day

1:11.24: Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World by Burhana Islam, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali, Reya Ahmed, Saffa Khan, Aaliya Jaleel, Deema Alawa, Aghnia Mardiyah

4.11.24: Horrible Histories: Woeful Second World War by Terry Deary, illustrated by Martin Brown

6.11.24: What’s the T? The No-nonsense Guide to all Things Trans and/or Non-binary for Teens  by Juno Dawson, illustrated by Soofiya

8.11.24: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

11.11.24: Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer

13.11.24: Black Poppies: The Story of Britain’s Black Community in the First World War by Stephen Bourne

15.11.24: A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe

18.11.24: Talking about Islamophobia: What is it and How Do We Challenge It? A Beginners Guide for Children by Sabeena Akhtar and Na’ima B. Robert

20.11.24: Lily and the Rockets by Rebecca Stevens

22.11.24: Keedie by Elle McNicoll

25.11.24: Muslim Girls Rise: Inspirational Champions of Our Time by Saira Mir

27.11.24: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

29.11.24: Eyewitness World War I by Simon Adams

Author of the Week

4.11.24: Cath Howe

11.11.24: Sarwat Chadda

18.11.24: Yasmin Rahman

25.11.24: Renee Watson

Series of the Week

4.11.24: Crossover by Kwame Alexander

11.11.24: First Aid for Fairies by Lari Don

18.11.24: Pages & Co by Anna James

25.11.24: Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

Literary and Cultural Celebrations for November

Anti-Bullying Week (11th – 15th): Anti-Bullying Week is an annual campaigned aimed at raising awareness, impact and prevention of bullying. This year’s theme is ‘Choose Respect’.

Book Week Scotland (18th – 22nd): Book Week Scotland is an annual celebration of books and reading run by the Scottish Book Trust. This year’s theme is ‘Hope’.

Islamophobia Awareness Month: Islamophobia Awareness Month is aimed at raising awareness of islamophobia and challenge stereotypes as well as celebrate the contributions and culture of Muslims. This year’s theme is ‘Seeds of Change’.

Nonfiction November: Nonfiction November is an annual celebration of information and factual books run by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. This year’s theme is Why Don’t You? (Hobbies and Leisure)

Remembrance Day: Shawlands Academy honored Remembrance Day on November 11th with a minute of silence at 11am.

Transgender Awareness Week 913th-19th): Transgender Awareness Week is a weeklong celebration leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year’s theme is ‘Our Trans Heroes’.

Trending Book Lists

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

Book Awards

Winners – Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction | Booker Prize | Diverse Book Award | Wainwright Prize

November books and more at Lochend

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In November, we celebrated Book Week Scotland at Lochend.  The timing of a delivery of new books from our supplier was ideal, and the pupils were able to choose their books for Book Week Scotland from this amazing array of new titles on display. 

A particular pupil favourite this month has been The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow,   Told in verse form, it follows the main character, Nate, as he starts Secondary School, has difficulties with his friends and is devastated when his younger brother becomes seriously ill.  If you want to find out how Nate deals with all these, grab a copy at your school or public library.  Matt Goodfellow does it again, and our pupils (and their librarian !) are loving his book. 

 

If that lovely book selection wasn’t good enough, there is such a choice of reading material at Lochend.  The shelves of fiction titles seem to go on for miles, and with them being split into different genres, it makes choosing a book so much easier.  Just look for the genre (style of book) that you like and the books are right next to the genre signs.  Here’s the impressive shelves – they go on for ever !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, there are loads more new books still to come at the end of November !  Just look at the boxes waiting to be processed and fly onto the shelves !  A new display will perhaps be coming for festive reads, but meanwhile just imagine what brilliant reading will be added to the stock. Come to the school library and see what you can pick up, there are books to suit everyone.

 

 

Bookweek @ St Rochs

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Book Week Scotland 2024

Book Week is an annual celebration of books and reading that takes place every November across Scotland. Book Week Scotland 2024 took place on 18–24 November- here’s how we celebrated in St Roch’s School Library. 

Book Hunting

Our first years took part in a book scavenger hunt! First everyone played a quick Blooket quiz to refresh our learning about how the library is organised. Then we split into teams and got mission cards. The challenge was to find the books on your mission card and be the quickest to complete all 14. All the teams were fantastic, they all finished the challenge and we were very impressed by how speedy some were! 

How to choose a book

We held a session on book choosing for second and third year classes. Sometimes pupils struggle to find the ‘right’ book for them when they visit the library and it can be a bit stressful. We want to make sure that everyone can leave the library with something they’ll enjoy for their class personal reading time. 

For this session, pupils learned some simple strategies to help with choosing a book. Then we split into groups to complete a’ reading personality’ quiz which helped pupils to narrow down a couple of genres/library sections that might suit them.  It was a good bit of fun which gave pupils some helpful pointers (some people were definitely surprised by their ‘personality’ result!). Want to find your reading personality? The quiz is available here as part of Scottish Book Trust’s Reading Schools resources .  

Guiding Lights

Lastly, library volunteers lead by chief display planner Iman, did a great job on a lovely Book Week Display.

This year’s theme is hope and the volunteers chose to focus their display on  Guiding Lights – a celebration of characters who give us strength, guidance and inspire us to keep us going. Volunteers made some great choices of books, including The sad ghost club by Lize Meddings, Punching the air by Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam, and When stars are scattered by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed.

Well done volunteers! And a big thank you for all your help with the activities this week.

Lastly every year, people accross the country share stories as part of the ‘Scotland’s Stories’ campaign. Scottish Book trust include a handful of favourites in a free book for Book Week Scotland. You can order a free copy of this year’s collection ‘Hope’ now from the SBT website.

Book week Scotland @St Mungo’s Academy

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Celebrating Book Week Scotland in Our School Library

Last week, our school library was alive with excitement as we celebrated Book Week Scotland with a variety of engaging activities. From themed library visits to creative projects and lunchtime events, students had plenty of opportunities to explore the theme of hope in inspiring and imaginative ways.

Exploring Hope Through Stories

During their library visits, S1 and S2 students how the concept of hope is portrayed in stories. They reflected on these themes and wrote down their own hopes and wishes for the future—whether for themselves, their families, or the planet. The students also read three texts from the Book Week Scotland collection, chose their favorite, and brought their creativity to life by designing imaginative book covers for their selected stories.

Members of the “Storytelling for Wellbeing” club took Book Week Scotland beyond the library walls, roaming the school to interview readers about their reading habits. They captured insightful and inspiring responses, which I compiled into a final video showcasing the diverse ways reading enriches lives. This initiative highlighted the importance of storytelling in fostering connection and wellbeing.

A Lighthouse of Hopes

Our library assistant created a stunning Book Week Scotland display, complete with a lighthouse as a central feature. Students’ “stars of hope filled with their written wishes, were added to the lighthouse’s beams of light, symbolizing hope shining brightly for all to see.

The Jar of Hopes

The “Reading Buddies” group also contributed to the celebrations by writing heartfelt messages of hope, which were placed into the library’s “Jar of Hopes.” This simple yet meaningful activity added a personal touch to the week’s events, reminding everyone of the power of hope to inspire and connect us.

Lunchtime Fun: Quizzes and Lanterns

Lunchtimes were buzzing with activity as students participated in a fun quiz and got hands-on with lantern-making. These creative moments allowed students to engage with the theme of hope in a relaxed and enjoyable setting, while fostering a sense of community.

A Week to Remember

Book Week Scotland in our school library was a wonderful celebration of storytelling, creativity, and hope. The activities not only encouraged students to think deeply about the theme but also provided them with opportunities to express their thoughts and dreams in imaginative ways. A big thank you everyone who participated and helped make this week so memorable!

We can’t wait to see what next year’s Book Week Scotland brings! 🌟

Bringing the Museum to the Library

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October and November have been busy in All Saint’s Library.

We were very lucky to have some artefacts from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum brought into the library for S2 pupils to engage with. The boxes look at WWII On the Front and the Home Front and include some incredible original objects from over 75 years ago. Pupils were able to see the weight and size of a replica incendiary bomb. Pick up a real Nazi flag from WWII, hold a lighter made out of coins and shells from the battlefields, and read the letters home soldiers sent to their loved ones.

After the session there was a WWII book display ready to go for more information and a chance to learn more about soldiers on the front lines and life in the UK during WWII.Thanks to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum for lending us the boxes and letting the S2’s get hands on with history! 

 

We also celebrated Languages Week with a special display linked into all the lovely events happening across the school. The fashion show in the square was a particular highlight! Pupils were happy to see some of the languages they speak on display and available in the library and it was a superb opportunity to highlight the diverse range of books on offer at the school.

As we near the end of December it is almost time to get into the Christmas spirit and enjoy some cosy festive reads.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

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The Reading Schools Committee have been busy starting the library Christmas decorations. We have window displays and also the 3rd year of the Annual Hyndland Library Christmas Book Tree 🎄 Excited to see how this years turns out! Will keep you all updated.. 🎅

Getting into the Christmas spirit!

Baubles!

Snowflakes and Angels

Happy Hanukkah!

3rd year is a charm