Smithycroft pupils joined many other people across Scotland and pledged to read for at least 6 minutes on Wednesday 11 May. The campaign aiming to highlight the positive impact reading can have on mental health and wellbeing was a huge success – in the end there was over 450 000 minutes pledges which far exceeded the initial goal! All Smithycroft pupils had an opportunity to read during the first period – I can’t imagine a better way to start a school day! 🙂
As part of the Wee Write! festival, we have had the pleasure to have Darren Simspon talking with a class of young people, lead by Mr Beaton.
Darren shared with us what inspires him, and what he would like his readers to take away from his books. It was so inspiring that our young people felt free to interview him for Swatch – the school librarians eMagazine.
This week (beginning Monday May 9th) is Mental Health Awareness Week at Rosshall!
What is Mental Health?Â
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
MentalHealth.gov
On display there are some books which promote positivity and self-esteem, which can normally be found in the Shelf Help section.
Also, use the Keep The Heid And Read link below to pledge 6 minutes of your time to reading on Wednesday, May 11th for Scotland’s Reading Moment!Â
https://www.keeptheheid.scot/Â
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Some other useful websites you might wish to explore:Â
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-weekÂ
https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/mental-health-awareness-week/Â
https://www.place2be.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/child-mental-health-support-scotland/Â
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We have started a brand new lunch club in the library – the Storycraft Club! For those of you keeping track, yes, that is now a library club every single lunchtime of the week! In this club, we will take part in reading, writing, arts, crafts, games, building and all sorts of creative enterprises revolving around storytelling! The focus of our club is on mental health and wellbeing and diverse stories. I’m looking forward to telling you about the exciting projects this club will be getting up to. This project is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund.
We have been working on our own comic strips since returning from the Easter break – hopefully we can share some finished comics with you in the May update.
Cinderella stories are still being written! The group has all agreed to write their own individual stories and when they are finished, we’ll take the best elements of the stories to create one as a group – possibly as a play!
Our pupils have continued their campaign in A Battle of Bookwyrms! After meeting their mysterious host, Oskar Tremorspear, a librarian for Dragonsport Library, the characters have been sent on a quest to retrieve a very rare and powerful spellbook that was borrowed and not returned. (Is this story fuelled by this librarian’s frustrations about overdue books? You can be the judge of that.) The characters set out on the trail north of town to the home of Rairdon Grimm, the Mage who borrowed the book. Not long after entering the Briar Rose Woods, they come across a Blink Dog, who despite an unfortunate incident with a Firebolt, has been persuaded to join the group. The new party member has been named MJ, short for Michael Jackson. When the party found the Mage’s hut, it appeared to be empty, but upon investigation the group was attacked by a Vine Blight hiding inside! Check back again next month to find out how the group faired…
Our volunteers have been working hard since our return after the Easter Break to make the library better for everyone. They have started work on a mew project to label all the fiction books with their genre and keywords, making it easier for everyone to find the right book for them. Obviously this is a massive project, but with the effort of our volunteers it could hopefully be completed before the summer!
Our S1 pupils were treated to an author visit from YA author S.M. Wilson as part of the Wee Write Festival – Glasgow’s Book Festival for Children and Young People. Susan came and spoke to the children about her love of space and dinosaurs and her writing process – amazing stuff! The pupils were riveted all period and had a great time.
Speaking of authors, the library hosted a wonderful event for an S2 English class! The pupils had written their own novels, and were invited to a ‘book launch’ event in the library. They pitched their novels to the different ‘publishers’ present (consisting of the wonderful teachers and SLT here at JPA, as well as myself) and then enjoyed some drinks and nibbles while negotiating their book deals! The pupils were all so enthusiastic about their books, with talk of series potential and movie deals! I was thrilled to host this event in the library and hope we have have similar events in here again!
S3 pupils got to meet new literary star Ely Percy – their coming of age novel Duck Feet is just about to sell out of the third print run! Ely read from their book and answered questions about writing and publishing. Our very talented pupil Murron, who interviewed Ely for library eMagazine (coming out soon!) got her own copy of Duck Feet with a special dedication from Ely.
Young artists from S1 and S2 had an inspiring session with Metaphrog – the award-winning graphic novelists Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers. Pupils learned about the process of making a comic book, the history of graphic novels and got some useful tips on creating their own characters.
Wee Write festival is an annual festival full of literary events for young people organized by Glasgow Life.
This year, our S1 and S2 pupils got to meet Tamsin Winter, the award-winning author of Being Miss Nobody, Jemima Small Versus the Universe and Girl (In Real Life). Tamsin spoke about her books, social media, body image and mental health. Tamsin even stayed a little longer to answer pupils’ questions (there were many!) and all pupils got a gorgeous signed bookmark.
Pop-Up Library
The Pop-Up Library stall is back in lieu of the library space being used throughout the exam period. Here, pupils can browse handpicked goodies selected by the Librarian, request specific titles, or return their books. Our Pupil Library Committee members will be helping at the stall too, we couldn’t run it without them.
Challenges and Contests
We’ll also continue to promote our range of challenges and contests, including Bookopoly and Ask Me What I’m Reading. Pupils are also encouraged to submit a completed book review to be entered into the monthly School Library prize draw.
April/May Booklists
May 22 Booklists – Book Trust
Best new Children’s Books – Toppsta
Bookbug’s Books of the Month – Scottish Book Trust
Books of the Month – Love Reading 4 Kids
April Roundup – Love Reading
Book of the Month – Scholastic
Books of the Month – Waterstones
Children’s Book Roundup – Guardian
Upcoming Events (May)
International Young Adult Literature Month
Local and Community History Month
1st – 7th: The FOLD (Festival of Literary Diversity) (Brampton, ON, Canada)
2nd – 8th: Children’s Book Week
3rd – 8th: Stratford Literary Festival (Stratford-upon-Avon, England)
4th: Star Wars Day
6th – 8th: Ullapool Book Festival (Ullapool, Scotland)
6th – 8th: Cromarty Crime and Thrillers Weekend (Cromarty, Scotland)
6th – 22nd: Aye Write (Glasgow, Scotland)
7th – 8th: Bay Area Book Festival (Berkeley, CA, USA)
10th – 22nd: The Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Literary Festival (Chalfont Saint Giles, England)
11th-14th: PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (New York, NY, USA)
12th: National Limerick Day
13th-15th: Boswell Book Festival (Cumnock, Scotland)
13th – 15th: Franschhoek Literary Festival (Franschhoek, South Africa)
13th– 29th: Norfolk and Norwich Festival (Norwich, England)
16th – 22nd: Sydney Writers’ Festival (Sydney, Australia)
17th: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia
20th– 28th: Derby Book Festival (Derby, England)
21st: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
21st: Neurodiversity Celebration Week
21st – TBC: San Antonio Book Festival (San Antonio, TX, USA)
21st – 22nd: The Northern YA Literary Festival (Preston, England)
26th: Dracula Day
26th – Jun 5th: Hay Festival (Hay-on-Wye, Wales)
27th – 29th: Calabash International Literary Festival (Treasure Beach, Jamacia)
TBC: Open the Door Festival at the Women’s Library (Glasgow, Scotland)
Literary Awards & Prizes
Winners
 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Children’s Book of the Year
Shortlists
English Association 4-11 Picture Book Award
Longlists
Literature & Culture news:
 Press & websites
Interesting articles  Â
Charlotte Brontë early Book of Rhymes sold for £1m – BBC
A Gallery of Fantastical Alchemical Drawings – Open Culture
The Library of Esoterica: Taschen’s Visual History of Tarot, Astrology & Witchcraft – Open Culture
The Literary Film and TV you need to steam in May – Literary Hub
The New York Public Library provides free online access to banned books – Open Culture
Pop-Up Library
The Pop-Up Library stall is back in lieu of the library space being used throughout the exam period. Here, pupils can browse handpicked goodies selected by the Librarian, request specific titles, or return their books. Our Pupil Library Committee members will be helping at the stall too, we couldn’t run it without them.
Challenges and Contests
We’ll also continue to promote our range of challenges and contests, including Bookopoly, Ask Me What I’m Reading, and our Heartstopper colouring contest to celebrate the series release on Netflix.
The deadline for the Heartstopper colouring contest is Friday, May 20th. One submission per pupil and each submission will be included into the prize draw where there are three Heartstopper prizes up for grabs. All submissions will also be included into the monthly School Library prize draw. There are even more ways to be included into the monthly prize draw, including returning a completed book review or Shelf Shouter, completing a genre on the Bookopoly board, or submitting a completed Ask me What I’m Reading sheet.
April/May Booklists
May 22 Booklists – Book Trust
Best new Children’s Books – Toppsta
Bookbug’s Books of the Month – Scottish Book Trust
Books of the Month – Love Reading 4 Kids
April Roundup – Love Reading
Book of the Month – Scholastic
Books of the Month – Waterstones
Children’s Book Roundup – Guardian
Upcoming Events (May)
International Young Adult Literature Month
Local and Community History Month
1st – 7th: The FOLD (Festival of Literary Diversity) (Brampton, ON, Canada)
2nd – 8th: Children’s Book Week
3rd – 8th: Stratford Literary Festival (Stratford-upon-Avon, England)
4th: Star Wars Day
6th – 8th: Ullapool Book Festival (Ullapool, Scotland)
6th – 8th: Cromarty Crime and Thrillers Weekend (Cromarty, Scotland)
6th – 22nd: Aye Write (Glasgow, Scotland)
7th – 8th: Bay Area Book Festival (Berkeley, CA, USA)
10th – 22nd: The Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Literary Festival (Chalfont Saint Giles, England)
11th-14th: PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (New York, NY, USA)
12th: National Limerick Day
13th-15th: Boswell Book Festival (Cumnock, Scotland)
13th – 15th: Franschhoek Literary Festival (Franschhoek, South Africa)
13th– 29th: Norfolk and Norwich Festival (Norwich, England)
16th – 22nd: Sydney Writers’ Festival (Sydney, Australia)
17th: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia
20th– 28th: Derby Book Festival (Derby, England)
21st: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
21st: Neurodiversity Celebration Week
21st – TBC: San Antonio Book Festival (San Antonio, TX, USA)
21st – 22nd: The Northern YA Literary Festival (Preston, England)
26th: Dracula Day
26th – Jun 5th: Hay Festival (Hay-on-Wye, Wales)
27th – 29th: Calabash International Literary Festival (Treasure Beach, Jamacia)
TBC: Open the Door Festival at the Women’s Library (Glasgow, Scotland)
Literary Awards & Prizes
Winners
 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Children’s Book of the Year
Shortlists
English Association 4-11 Picture Book Award
Longlists
Literature & Culture News:
 Press & websites
Interesting articles  Â
Charlotte Brontë early Book of Rhymes sold for £1m – BBC
A Gallery of Fantastical Alchemical Drawings – Open Culture
The Library of Esoterica: Taschen’s Visual History of Tarot, Astrology & Witchcraft – Open Culture
The Literary Film and TV you need to steam in May – Literary Hub
The New York Public Library provides free online access to banned books – Open Culture
We had a brilliant, thought-provoking Wee Write session with Tamsin Winter. Some interesting themes were discussed and some mesmerised faces in the audience :-).
Copies of Tamsin’s books are available in the school library and also in community libraries.
The S2 Drumchapel High School Library Captains had their first meeting with the Langfaulds Primary 7 class on Thursday 28th April. They introduced them to Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series and read an extract from the first book. Before they left they gave every pupil a box set of the first three books, courtesy of Harper Collins.
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