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.

May/June Booklists

June 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

May Roundup – Love Reading

Book of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Book Roundup – Guardian

Trending Books – Epic Reads

Upcoming Events (June)

May 26^th – Jun 5^th: Hay Festival (Hay-on-Wye, Wales)

2^nd – 4^th: Riverside Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

2^nd – 12^th: Glasgow Science Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

3^rd-5^th: Cymera Book Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland & Online)

4^th: Glasgow Comic Con (Glasgow, Scotland)

4^th: Vinicombe Street Gala (Glasgow, Scotland)

11^th: Laugh in the Park Comedy Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

11^th: Mansfield Park Street Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

16^th – 19^th: Borders Book Festival (Melrose, Scotland)

17^th – 19^th: Solas Arts Festival (Perthshire, Scotland)

16^th – 19^th: Glasgow Jazz Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

17^th – 19^th: Dandelion Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

17^th – 26^th: Refugee Festival Scotland (Across Scotland)

18^th: Kelvingrove Outdoor Ceilidh (Glasgow, Scotland)

18^th – 19^th: Yardworks Street Art & Graffiti Festival (Glasgow, Scotland)

26^th: Glasgow Mela (Glasgow, Scotland)

29^th – Jul 3^rd: East Neuk Festival (Fife, Scotland)

 

Literary Awards & Prizes

Winners

CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Awards

Indie Book Awards

International Booker

Jhalak Prize

Little Rebels Award

Nibbies (British Book Awards)

Pulitzer Prize for Literature

Tir na n-Og Welsh Awards

Shortlists

The Royal Society Young People’s Prize

 

Literature & Culture news

BBC

Book Riot

Buzzfeed

Epic Reads

The Evening Standard

The Globe and Mail

The Guardian

Huffpost

The New York Times

The Scotsman

The Telegraph

The Times

Times of India

Interesting articles

Burn-Proof Edition of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Up for Auction – Huffpost

David Byrne’s New Illustrated Book Playfully Presents A History of the World (in Dingbats font) – Open Culture

High School Activist Given PEN Award for Organising Protests Against ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill – Book Riot

The Stories that Shaped Ukraine – BBC

What Your favourite Book genre Says About You – Times of India

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)

National Share a Story Month

International Young Adult Literature Month

Local and Community History Month

1^st – 7^th: The FOLD (Festival of Literary Diversity) (Brampton, ON, Canada)

2^nd – 8^th: Children’s Book Week

3^rd – 8^th: Stratford Literary Festival (Stratford-upon-Avon, England)

4^th: Star Wars Day

6^th – 8^th: Ullapool Book Festival (Ullapool, Scotland)

6^th – 8^th: Cromarty Crime and Thrillers Weekend (Cromarty, Scotland)

6^th – 22^nd: Aye Write (Glasgow, Scotland)

7^th – 8^th: Bay Area Book Festival (Berkeley, CA, USA)

10^th – 22^nd: The Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Literary Festival (Chalfont Saint Giles, England)

11^th-14^th: PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (New York, NY, USA)

12^th: National Limerick Day

13^th-15^th: Boswell Book Festival (Cumnock, Scotland)

13^th – 15^th: Franschhoek Literary Festival (Franschhoek, South Africa)

13^th– 29^th: Norfolk and Norwich Festival (Norwich, England)

16^th – 22^nd: Sydney Writers’ Festival (Sydney, Australia)

17^th: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

20^th– 28^th: Derby Book Festival (Derby, England)

21^st: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

21^st: Neurodiversity Celebration Week

21^st – TBC: San Antonio Book Festival (San Antonio, TX, USA)

21^st – 22^nd: The Northern YA Literary Festival (Preston, England)

26^th: Dracula Day

26^th – Jun 5^th: Hay Festival (Hay-on-Wye, Wales)

27^th – 29^th: 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

Branford Boase Award

English Association 4-11 Picture Book Award

Jhalak Prize

Women’s Prize

Longlists

SLA Information Book Awards

 

Literature & Culture news:

 Press & websites

BBC

Book Riot

Buzzfeed

Epic Reads

The Evening Standard

The Globe and Mail

The Guardian

Huffpost

The New York Times

The Scotsman

The Telegraph

The Times

Times of India

Interesting articles   

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

World Book Day Week: This year, World Book Day was celebrated on Thursday, March 3rd and the School Library delivered a plethora of fun, bookish activities throughout the week. Our World Book Day programme included the following activities, where participants were entered into a prize draw for a £10 National Book Token:

• World Book Day Quiz: A book-themed quiz was delivered during both lunch periods in the School Library for St Margaret Mary’s pupils and in class time for St Oswald’s pupils. All participants were entered into the prize draw and those with the highest points received three entries into the draw. 
• Bookopoly: Pupils are given a Bookopoly board. They can choose to read two fiction books per genre, one nonfiction book per subject, and/or three ‘chances’ where they can either select a ‘reading dare’ or spin the Wheel of Genre. The completion of each genre/subject/chance grants them an entry into the monthly school library prize draw. Pupils can also earn a certificate for completing the entire board.  
• Ask Me What I’m Reading: The winning designs from our Ask Me What I’m Reading design competition were circulated alongside a sheet where pupils must ask five people what they’re reading. This is to encourage pupils and staff to have a conversation about books and promoting literature via word of mouth. Submitted forms grants one entry into the monthly school library prize draw. 

Pupil Library Committee:  Our PLC members were very busy this month with various activities: 

• Pop-Up Library: Members of our Pupil Library Committee volunteered to host a pop-up library stall in the Fuel Zone during lunches throughout World Book Day week. Members promoted the variety of World Book Day activities and reading challenges as well as selected books to display and promote for borrowing. This initiative was so successful that we’re planning on hosting other Pop-Up Libraries in the future.  
• Bag A Book: Pupil Library Committee members have been helping the School Librarian for weeks to prepare withdrawn stock for our popular Bag A Book giveaway before the Spring break, held Tuesday and Thursday during lunches.

World Poetry Day Quiz: Pupils and staff were invited to participate in a quiz of Teams, inspired by the Librarian @GrammarLRC. Can you guess whether the passage is a lyric or a title?  

Library Publications: Swatch Spring 22 

   March Booklists 

March 22 Booklists – Book Trust 

Best New Children’s Books – Toppsta  

Bookbug’s Books of the Month – Scottish Book Trust 

Books of the Month – LoveReading4Kids 

March Roundup – Love Reading 

Book of the Month – Scholastic  

Books of the Month – Waterstones  

Children’s Book Roundup – Guardian  

 

Upcoming Events (April) 

BigDog Book Festival (Wigtown, Scotland, 1st – 3rd)  

Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Galway, Ireland, 4th – 10th)  

Southside Fringe (Glasgow, Scotland) 

Wee Write Festival (Glasgow, Scotland) 

Cambridge Literary Festival (Cambridge, England, 20th – 24th)  

Soutar Festival of Words (Perth, Scotland, 22nd – 24th) 

World Book Night (UK & International, 23rd) 

McLellan Arts Festival Poetry Fringe (Arran, Scotland, 28th)  

Colonsay Book Festival (Colonsay, Scotland 30th)  

Bocas Lit Fest (Caribbean, 30th – 2nd May) 

 

Past Events (March) 

International Women’s Day (8th ) & Women’s History Month 

British Science Week (11-20 ) 

Neurodiversity Celebration Week (21st – 27th )  

Jaipur Lit Fest 

 

Literary Awards & Prizes  

Winners 

Audie Awards 

Blue Peter Book Awards 

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature  

Rathebones Folio Prize 

Royal Society Children’s Book Prize 

Shortlists 

British Book Awards 

Tir na n-Og 

UKLA 

YOTO Carnegie Medal  

YOTO Kate Greenaway Medal 

Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize

Longlists  

International Booker Prize 

Jhalak Prize 

Women’s Prize 

 

In the news:  

A Field Guide to Strange Medieval Monsters – Open Culture 

Beyond the fog of war: Books to help us understand the invasion of Ukraine – Guardian 

Free Colouring Books from the Public Domain Review – Open Culture  

Outrage as LGBT author banned at state school – Politics.co.uk 

The Reading Agency partners with the British Science Museum on this year’s Summer Reading Challenge Theme – The Reading Agency  

 

A relatively uneventful month this time around with the February break and use of the school library space. But we’ve bene having a blast with the pupils during breaks and book borrowing times. Our s1-2 pupils have created their own Book group called ‘They Both Read at the End’, inspired by Adam Silvera’s hugely popular Young Adult novel, They Both Die at the End.

Pupil Library Committee – Members of our Pupil Library Committee have been gaining experience of library work through their volunteering as part of their Duke of Edinburgh awards, where they’ve been learning how to process and display new stock. They’re also helping to prepare for the upcoming World Book Day festivities where they’ll be hosting a pop-up library in the Fuel Zone and help with the zine making workshop.

EAL Book Group – Our EAL book group is continuing with the non-fiction book, YouthQuake: 50 Children and Young People Who Shook the World by Tom Adams and Sarah Walsh as part of the Inspiring Lives series by Nosy Crow. In this project, each pupil has selected five inspiring young people that they’d like to learn more about. We research two people per session, looking at their biographies, videos and other online multimedia resources to get a sense of who they are and what they’ve achieved. It leads to some very engaging discussions with the pupils.

 

February Booklists:

February 2022 Booklists – BookTrust

Best new Children’s Books – Toppsta

Bookbug’s Books of the Month – Scottish Book Trust

Books of the Month – LoveReading4Kids

February Roundup – Love Reading

Book of the Month – Scholastic

Books of the Month – Waterstones

Children’s Book roundup – Guardian

 

Upcoming events:

African Festival of Emerging Writers (March 17^th-19^th) – ArifFesti (Cameroon)

British Science Week (March 11th) – British Science Week (UK)

Earth Hour (March 26th) – Earth Hours (International)

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st) – United Nations (International)

International Women’s Day (March 8th) – International Women’s Day (International)

Jaipur Literary Festival (March 5^th-14^th) – Jaipur Lit Fest (India)

LitFest 2022 Mini Children’s Festival (March 11^th-12^th) – LitFest (UK)

Shakespeare Week (March 21st) – Shakespeare Week (UK)

World Book Day (March 3^rd) – World Book Day (International)

World Poetry Day (March 21st) – UNESCO (International)

World Storytelling Day (March 21st) – (International)

 

Past events:

Alasdair Gray Day (February 25^th) – Gray Day (Scotland)

Emirates Literature Festival – (catch up on YouTube)  Emirates LitFest (UAE)

International Festival of Children’s and Youth Literature (Catch up on YouTube) – FESTILIJ (Spain)

Jewish Book Wee (February 26^th-March 6^th) – Jewish Book Week (UK)

 

Literary Awards & Prizes:

American Indian Youth Literature Award Winners – American Indian Library Association (USA)

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Winners – Asian/Pacific American Library Association (USA)

Blue Peter Book Awards Shortlist – BBC/BookTrust (UK)

Bookbug Picture Book prize announced – Scottish Book Trust (Scotland)

Caldecott Medal Winners – American Library Association (USA)

Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Award Long Lists Announced – CILIP (UK)

The Klaus Flugge Prize Long List Announced – Klaus Flugge Prize (UK)

The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2022 (the Lollies) – Scholastic (UK)

Prémio Autores/ Authors Awards Winners – Sociedade Portuguesa De Autores (Portugal)

Waterstones Children’s Book Prize Shortlist 2022 – Waterstones (UK)

 

In the news:

17^th Century Buddhist Texts for the Illiterate: how ‘Buddhist Emoji’ made the Sutra Legible for those who couldn’t read – Open Culture

Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 21-24^th) – Bologna Fiere (Italy)

The Book of Kells, has been digitised and put online – Open Culture

Campaign for every Scottish Secondary School to receive a copy of Me and White Supremacy (YA edition) by Layla F Saad successful – Lighthouse Bookshop (Edinburgh, Scotland)

 

The blog is back! Watch this space for monthly updates from St Margaret Mary’s and St Oswald’s School Library.   

 2021 Recap – What have we been up to?   

 eBooks & eAudiobooks:  The library continued to roll out the Libby app to all S1 pupils in both St Margaret Mary’s and St Oswald’s school. The eBooks, audiobooks, and eMagazines supplement the physical stock in the library, offering pupils a broader range of formats and books, with accessibility features to make the reading experience more inclusive.   

 Pupil Library Committee: This year, the school library has created the Pupil Library Committee to help provide young people’s voice in the stock and library service.  Duties include shelving and organising stock, selecting books to be featured in the library’s monthly newsletters, create and deliver quizzes/activities, and curate monthly displays. Some members of the PLC have also been heavily involved in stock selection, focusing on graphic novels, thrillers & horror, and enhancing our Equality & Empowerment collections. 

Book Week Scotland: The library hosted a very popular manga quiz for both BGE and S4+ St Margaret Mary’s pupils and St Oswald’s BGE pupils . We were also delighted to have award-winning slam poet, Ash Dickinson, deliver a session to Mr Cawley’s S2 class. 

EAL book group: We’ve continued our EAL book group this year. The project is funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council on behalf of the Scottish Government through their Scottish Library Improvement Fund, which support innovative projects in the school library sector. The EAL project is aimed at pupils who are developing their English literacy skills whilst also placing an emphasis at valuing home/original languages and multilingualism. In addition to reading books and completing literacy-based activities, pupils are invited to create multilingual signage for the library and contribute book reviews to school library newsletter and magazine. In November, our group met the talented Neil Slorance, who delivered a virtual session to the group where he taught them how to create their own comic.  

The project also supported the library’s first ‘Community Languages’ collection, a section devoted to books and resources in languages other than English. Many thanks to GCC EAL and Dyslexia Unit as well as Multilingual Library Scotland for their recommendations.  We’re excited for the upcoming Languages Week Scotland and International Mother Language Day (Feb 21st), where our group will be looking at an array of international book awards and festivals for young people. On a city-wide level, our group is collaborating with other EAL book groups to create a pupil-led Glasgow Guide by and for pupils. Work on the guide is still ongoing and we’ve commissioned Metaphrog to design the cover and background.   

 Workshops: During the autumn, the school library delivered an eResources workshop to Dr Moody’s English class. The workshop introduced pupils to how to think critically about using online media resources to their assignments. The Higher English class were introduced to ProQuest and Gale Literature Resource Centre.  

 Library publications: This year, the school library has continued its monthly newsletter, packed with book lists, reviews and the latest news in the YA literary world. An interactive format is circulated via the English department.  The Glasgow School Library service has also continued its quarterly digital magazine, Swatch. In it, you can find author interviews, guest features, book lists, crafts, quizzes and more. The upcoming issue will be released in March. Links to past issues are below.   

 Winter 21 Autumn 21 Summer 21 Spring 21 Winter 20 Autumn 20 

January/February book lists:

Best books of the year 2021 – BBC

Best new books January – Book Trust

Best new children’s books February – Toppsta

Bookbug book of the month January – Scottish Book Trust

Book of the month February – Scholastic

Debuts of the month February – LoveReadingforKids

Great Books Guide 2021 – Book Trust

Monthly Roundup January – Love Reading

Top 10 Audiobooks February – Love Reading

UK Public Library Authorities ‘ top eBooks, audiobooks and digital magazines borrowed in 2021 – Overdrive

Waterstones Books of the Month February– Waterstones

 

Literary & cultural calendar book lists:

Veganuary: Veganuary, Vegan Society

Martin Luther King Jr Day (17^th): Book Riot, The King Centre, Reading Rockets,

 Holocaust Memorial Day (27^th): BookTrust (YA, Middle Grade), Holocaust Memorial Trust/World Book Day, Penguin Random House, Reading Agency (2020), Scholastic

 

In the news…

Bookbug Picture Book Prize shortlist announced 

Branford Boase Award Longlist Announced

Costa Book Award winners announced 

Games review February – Metacritic

“The Last Cuentista” wins 2022 Newbery Medal; “Watercress” earns Caldecott; “Firekeeper’s Daughter” wins the Printz – School Library Journal

National Storytelling Week 

Read for Empathy Collections 2022 Announced

Tennesse School Board Bans Pulitzer Prize Winning Maus, Becomes #1 Bestseller  -Open Culture

Terry Pratchett Estate backs Jack Monroe’s idea for ‘Vimes Boots’ poverty index -Guardian

T.S. Eliot Prize winner announced

Upcoming film releases for 2021 – IMDB

What is entering the public domain in 2022? – Public Domain Review