That was a cold one!
I don’t want to jinx it, but fingers crossed that the weather heats up a little as we head into Spring.
Until then, however, you can browse this library update with everything we got up to in February!
RPG Club
Due to popular demand from our pupils, we have now started a brand-new RPG Club (that’s role-playing-game for the novices amongst us). Pupils have been working this month on creating their own Dungeons & Dragons characters, and we’ll hopefully be starting our first campaign soon! The character creation process has been very involved, and actually temporarily taken over our Comic Club too! However, character creation is an important part of the comic-making process so it’s all relevant! Next month our pupils will have transformed into bards, warlocks, rangers and sorcerer’s ready to dive into as yet unknown fantasy worlds! Keep updated with their progress in this blog. This will be my first time as Dungeon Master and the pupils first time playing so we’ll all be learning something new while we play!
EAL Book Club
Project Cinderella continues! Our pupils have now finished reading the three best known and classic versions of the story from France (by Charles Perrault), Italy (by Giambattista Basile) and Germany (by The Grimm Brothers). They have been plotting their mind maps and jotting down ideas for their own twist on the story. Now we are looking at and discussing modern adaptations of the story! We have started with Cinderella Is Dead, by Kalynn Bayron, a dark feminist fantasy retelling that explores Cinderella’s choice in the story, and Gender Swapped Fairy Tales, by Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett, looking at how changing gender could change the story. We are all agreed – glass trainers are probably more comfortable than glass heels, but still entirely impractical.
Volunteers
Our library volunteers have formed a great wee team and have been working hard in the library throughout February. They have helped create great displays, such as this one for LGBT+ History Month, and have done their best to make sure the library stays tidy and organised. I am very grateful for all their help!
One of our volunteers has gone above and beyond, and has made a new mascot for the library – please meet Bellamy Book Bear! Bellamy is now a part of the library team and has loads of book suggestions (such as these ‘beary’ good bear-themed books (and yes, you can expect a lot more un’bear’able puns from me!)).
Blind Date With A Book
For Valentine’s Day, the library had a Blind Date With A Book display! Pupils were able to read the first line of a book, and a couple bullet points of information about it, before borrowing, and plenty of pupils got involved! It might not have always been love at first line, but we had fun either way!
The biggest hit of the week was our JPA Big Book Quiz! With a £10 National Book Token up for grabs, and a new round of the quiz every day, our pupils were quick to test their bookish knowledge throughout the week! The quiz rounds covered book covers (image), first lines, movie adaptations, blurbs and emoji titles! Lots of pupils entered, making for a fierce competition, ultimately won by S1 pupil Shrika with a very impressive score of 26/30 points, narrowly beating the competition to win the prize! It was wonderful to see how well our pupils know their books!
Of course, if you have something specific in mind, but it’s not available right now, you can reserve it for when it’s returned. Just select ‘Place a Hold’ on any books with the white ‘Wait List’ banner, like the 
