In preparation for World Book Day 2018 all first year pupils in St Andrew’s and St Bride’s high school took part in a survey where they voted for their favourite author. The results are as follows: in first place defending his position as the most favoured author is comedy genius, David Walliams; splitting a three-way tie for second place is the classic Roald Dahl, an acclaimed author known for his numerous engrossing works. Also sharing the spot is the undisputed master of witchcraft and wizardry J.K. Rowling, known for her unmistakably engaging ‘Harry Potter’ series. Sharing the final spot for second place is the brain behind the laughter, Jeff Kinney, who widely known for his ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series. Finally, in 5th place is British illustrator and children’s writer Liz Pichon, author of the satirical Tom Gates series.
Other S1 favourite authors include Harper Lee, one of the most creative and inspiring writers of the 20th century (author of ‘’To Kill a Mockingbird’’); Christopher Paolini, creator of the Inheritance Cycle series of books; Dan Brown, architect of intellectual thrillers, and bestselling author of the ‘Da Vinci Code’. Other genres highlighted included science fiction, horror, mystery dystopian fiction, action, and romance. All in all, teachers agree that the more challenging the read, the more the student broadens their horizons, their vocabulary and their understanding of the world.
Like last year there are some talented authors which dropped from favour dramatically, although the firm favourites remain the same quite often. Of course, there is some literature which does a miraculous job of keeping readers coming back for more.
Mrs Lyon, Principal Teacher of English stated: ’World Book Day has become the highlight of our calendar in St Andrew’s and St Bride’s and last year our submission to South Lanarkshire Council won the Better Eating Better Learning award. Our school has a real thriving culture of reading and World Book Day allows us to celebrate it and all of our achievements.
Head teacher, Mrs Mullen said that: “seeing that so many of our pupils are engaging with and enjoying reading is tremendous. Reading expands our vocabulary and improves our spelling and writing skills, it helps to enhance our thinking and analytical skills increasing our general knowledge and understanding of the world around us. It helps to improve our focus, concentration and memory skills but most of all allows us to take some time for ourselves. Reading is a great stress buster and there’s nothing better than taking time to ‘lose ourselves’ in a good book. World Book Day helps us to highlight these benefits and gives us the chance to enjoy and celebrate our favourite books and authors.”
Unfortunately, last week’s snow chaos, which resulted in the closure of the school for three days, has meant that World Book Day was rescheduled for today, Thursday 8th March.
Today the winners of the ‘Welcome to Nowhere’ challenge are to be announced. The judges declared that there were many fantastic entries submitted. The S2 students’ talent and creativity was evident in the quality of the entries. The winners are, in joint first place, Amy Ferguson for her abridged story with talented illustrations, and Kiera Richford, with her diorama entry boasted a box with a diary and a model tent, showing a huge amount of effort and dedication.
There were four runners- up who entered a cake, diary pouch, poetry and an illustrated story board. A special award went to a student who entered a section of the book which was translated into scots. Kieran and Callin Hamilton won the award for creativity, with their original pizza box review.
Several other awards will be distributed for their original approach, includes a comic strip, a newspaper montage, a painting, two cakes and many cupcakes.
World Book Day 2018 looks to be a promising day for the pupils of St Andrew’s and St Bride’s, jam-packed with reading themed activities.
