Friday, 8 November 2013

Remembrance Day – lest we forget


Remembrance Day takes place on 11 November every year in Commonwealth Countries to remember the members of the armed forces who have died since the end of the First World War. People wear remembrance poppies to show that they have not forgotten those who have died. The Discovery Library has a special Remembrance display of war time story books for you to borrow.
 
The Ravensbourne School war memorial, initially dedicated to students and staff who gave their lives in the Great War, is situated in the KS4/5 Library; known as the War Memorial Library. It was added to again after World War II. The war memorial is important to the life of the school and we mention it often.
As the War Memorial Library is for the use of KS4 and 5 students and staff only and we are aware that the KS3 students do not get to see the memorial, we are hoping to arrange a timetable of visit for the Year 7 students during Form Time this term.

Monday, 4 November 2013

Celebrating Michael Morpurgo

To celebrate Michael Morpurgo’s 70th birthday, his publishers HarperCollins, will be promoting 30 of his books throughout the month of November.  Schools, libraries and bookshops will be invited to focus, week by week, on themes of Animals, War, Legends and Voyages as represented throughout his books.  The first book they will be focusing on is War Horse.


Michael Morpurgo is taking part in a one off event at the National Theatre on Sunday 10th November 2013 at 5pm to mark Remembrance Sunday called Anthems for Peace.  For more information and to book tickets visit the Anthems for Peace web page.

War Horse and other titles by Michael Morpurgo are available to borrow from the Discovery Library.

Friday, 25 October 2013

Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman, named as UK’s most influential black figure


According to a report from BBC Entertainment and Arts news online, author Malorie Blackman has topped publishing company Powerful Media’s annual Powerlist, which also included athlete Mo Farah and media agency boss Karen Blackett.
Malorie Blackman began her career as a computer programmer and TV scriptwriter before writing her first book, as she believed that there was a lack of children's stories featuring black characters.



She has now written more than 60 books, including Noughts and Crosses, Pig-Heart Boy, Hacker and Cloud-Busting.  We have a selection of her books in both the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries, including her new book Trust Me.

Monday, 21 October 2013

New Books

We have introduced 'New books' pages on our blog for the Discovery and War Memorial Libraries to let you know what is new for you to read. We will be providing regular updates and promoting our new books based upon a theme in the Discovery Library and providing a short synopsis for new books in the War Memorial Library.

To kick off, we have chosen 'next in the series…' as our theme in the Discovery Library, with new books available by Anthony Horowitz, Jacqueline Wilson, Ally Carter, Andrew Lane, Lauren Child and Robert Muchamore.

Keep a look out in the Discovery Library for the ‘recommended reads’ bookmarks in books that other students have enjoyed, and our ‘like for like author’ shelf talkers, suggesting other authors you might like. Don't forget to ask your Librarians to help you find a book and check out Lovereading4kids for reading recommendations and to find out more about your favourite authors.

Friday, 18 October 2013

Lights, camera, read!

We have a new display of books that have been made into films in the War Memorial Library. Including Meg Rosoff's teen dystopian novel How I Live Now, the gothic supernatural romance Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and the spellbinding and tragic The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald.  Come and browse and borrow and let us know which you enjoyed best, the book or the film!

Carve out time to read this Halloween!



Why not choose a 'scary' book to read over half term? Come and browse our display of horror books for Halloween in the Discovery Library. We have something for everyone - from vampires to werewolves and books that are horrifying and funny!


Man Booker 2013 winner announced


Eleanor Catton has won this year’s Man Booker prize with her novel The Luminaries.  The Luminaries is a gold-rush murder mystery novel set in the 19thCentury. 
At 28, the author from New Zealand is the youngest person to win the award and her novel is the longest winner at 832 pages.