Remember National Poetry Day

This Thursday, 2^nd October is the 20^th National Poetry Day. This year’s theme is ‘remember’.

A well-known poem about remembering begins ‘Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowdertreason and plot’ and it recounts the story of Guy Fawkes, who on 5^th November 1605 was caught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder.

This year we are remembering the 100^th anniversary of the First World War and we have poetry by Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Graves and many other in the libraries.To find out more about National Poetry Day visit The Poetry Society website.

Book Reviews

We'd love to hear what you have been reading and what books you would recommend to others.

Whether it's the latest in a series, a classic or a much loved favourite, we'd like to know and post it on our blog.

To find out which books other students have recommended go to the Book Reviews page.  For hints and tips on how to write your own reviews scroll down to the 'tips on how to write a book review' links on the right hand side of the screen. 

Post-a-Read 2014

Thank you to everyone who told us what they were reading over the summer holidays. We had even more postcards than last year from Australia to Devon and France to Turkey and lots of excellent book recommendations!

Of those who sent us postcards, Ms Gallagher and Mr Contreras-Ramis read the most books and amongst the students, Fleur in Year 8.

Come and have a look at our display, which is on the noticeboard outside the Discovery Library.

Banned books

Next week is banned books week in the USA. Some of the books that were listed on the American Library Association’s top 10 most challenged books of 2013 were:

Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey (Discovery Library)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Discovery Library)

Looking for Alaska by John Green (War Memorial Library)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (War Memorial Library)

Feel free to ask us why the books were banned and to borrow them!

Man Booker Prize 2014 - shortlist announced

The Man BookerPrize 2014 for fiction shortlist has been announced this week. It includes British writers Harold Jacobsen and Ali Smith. The winner will be announced on Thursday 14th October.

Previous winners of this award have included Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002), Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (1993) and Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally (1982). These books, and other prize winning novels, are available to borrow from the War Memorial Library.

Welcome Back!

It is the start of a new year and we would like to welcome back all the students and staff and welcome all those who are new to the school and we hope that you enjoy your time here.

We hope you had a great summer - we received some postcards telling us what you were reading and look forward to displaying these.

We have a great collection of fiction and non-fiction to browse and borrow in our libraries, with librarians on hand to help with homework and recommend a good read - just ask! Remember that for the KS3 students, the Discovery Library is open before and after school as well as at lunch time for quiet study. For KS4 students, the War Memorial Library is open at lunch time and for Post 16 students, it is available to use throughout the day including morning break.

Look out for our library competitions, including our weekly Word of the Week competition, with loads of great prizes to be won. We have changing book displays and displays of new books to encourage reading for pleasure. We are happy to consider buying any books that we do not currently have – just ask! There are suggestion boxes too for any comments or suggestions you may have.

We look forward to seeing you in the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries.