Have you ever wondered what the stories are behind our best loved Christmas Carols? Then today’s recommendation is for you!
“Why Was the Partridge in the Pear Tree? The History of Christmas Carols” by Rev. Mark Lawson-Jones is available from Borrow Box. It
tells the hidden stories behind our best-lived Christmas carols, from their earliest incarnations in the Middle Ages and their banning under the Puritans to the carols that united soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War.
Today’s festive recommendation from Borrow Box is “Oscar’s lonely Christmas” by Holly Webb.
Hannah is delighted to receive a Dalmatian puppy, Oscar, just before
Christmas. She wishes she could spend all her time with her gorgeous puppy, but she has to rehearse for her school Christmas play. Meanwhile, Oscar feels lonely and neglected especially with Christmas just around the corner. Why doesn’t Hannah want to be with him any more? A moving animal story.
Christmas is on the way! Need some inspiration for a festive read? Then see the blog each school day until we finish for a recommendation from Mrs Vaughan from NA Libraries Borrow Box eBooks and audio books service.
First suggestion is the book which is now a film “A Boy called
Christmas” by Matt Haig. It is a tale of adventure, snow, kidnapping, elves, more snow, and an eleven-year-old boy called Nikolas, who isn’t afraid to believe in magic.
Final recommendation before the holidays! Book is in storage for now, but you can read it online on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries. For more information see their website.
Recommended this week is When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle. A story set in 1940, and Joseph has been packed off to stay with Mrs F, a gruff woman with no great fondness for children. To Joseph’s
amazement, she owns the rundown city zoo where Joseph meets Adonis, a huge silverback gorilla. Adonis is ferociously strong and dangerous, but Joseph finds he has an affinity with the lonely beast. But when the bombs begin to fall, it is up to Joseph to guard Adonis’s cage should it be damaged by a blast. Will Joseph be ready to pull the trigger if it comes to it?
A tense story about the power of kindness and hope set against the second world war.
Great recommendation this week – one which will be available in the Library when it opens but available now on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries. For more information see their website.
Mrs Vaughan recommends a challenge! Mr Mingin by David
Walliams is translated into Scots by Matthew Fitt. It’s the story of Mr Stink retold in the Scots language and is a great challenge for you!
The story is about Chloe who sees Mr Mingin every day, but she’s never speaks to him. Which isn’t surprising, because he’s a tramp, and he stinks. But there’s more to Mr Mingin than meets the eye (or nose) and before she knows it, Chloe has an unusual new friend hiding in her garden shed.
A funny story but in Scots which will teach you some new words!
Recommendation of the week – the book is one you will see in the Library when it opens and is also available on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries. For more information see their website.
This week’s recommendation is Shadow by Michael Morpurgo. When Shadow, a bomb-sniffing spaniel, goes missing in the middle of
wartorn Afghanistan, his soldier-owner is devastated. Meanwhile, Shadow makes friends with a local Afghan boy, and sees a whole other side of the war. As Christmas draws ever closer, will Shadow and his trainer ever be reunited? A story of war and a dog’s relationship with humans.
A touching story for those who enjoy Michael Morpurgo, war stories or stories featuring animals.
Another week, another recommendation! Each book is available on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries and will be available when the Library is open. For more information see their website.
Mrs Vaughan recommends The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan, which is the first in the Trials of Apollo series. After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favour.
But Apollo has many enemies – gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.
A must read for all those who love Percy Jackson series or like reading adventure stories.
Mrs Vaughan recommends a book each week until the Library is open. Book is available on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries. For more information see their website.
This week’s recommendation is The House at the Edge of Magic by Amy Sparkes. Nine is an orphan pickpocket determined to escape
her life in the Nest of a Thousand Treasures. When she steals a house-shaped ornament from a mysterious woman’s purse, she knocks on its tiny door and watches it grow into a huge, higgledy-piggeldy house. Inside she finds a host of magical and brilliantly funny characters, including Flabberghast – a young wizard who’s particularly competitive at hopscotch – and a hideous troll housekeeper who’s emotionally attached to his feather duster. They have been placed under an extraordinary spell, which they are desperate for Nine to break – and if she can, maybe they can offer her a new life in return.
Perfect for those who love fantasy with a huge dose of magic thrown in!
Mrs Vaughan can’t wait to get into the Library at Kilwinning Academy, and until then, there will be a book recommendation each week to whet your appetite!
All books are ones purchased for the Library and in storage for now. As you can’t get your hands on them, you can read them online on Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries. For more information see their website.
This week’s recommendation is Happy Girl Lucky by Holly Smale. 
It’s the first in the Valentines series where sisters Hope, Faith and Mercy have everything: fame, success, money and beauty. But Hope is looking for love and finds out it is never like the movies. A funny, heart warming read for those who enjoy a dash of romance and drama.
Borrow Box from North Ayrshire Libraries have thousands of eBooks and audio books available for loan. For more information see their website.
Today, the A-Z of authors concludes. But there thousands more to discover on Borrow Box – have a look!
Y is for Yanagihara – Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life” – an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and
the limits of human endurance. When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life forever. (For senior pupils and adults).
Z is for Zusak – Marcus Zusak’s “The Book Thief”. Set in 1939, Nazi Germany is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up
a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up, and closed down.
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