Please click into the individual blog post, as the links are currently missing on the library page, (formatting issue being investigated).
Quick question for you. Which children's book character celebrated their 100th birthday earlier this week? I will award one house point for the first student to email me the correct answer before I reveal it in next week's blog.
May I wish a Happy Diwali to everyone who is celebrating the Festival of Lights. It will be different this year due to lockdown but there is a virtual celebration instead of the usual event in Trafalgar Square.
And for those of you, who would like to know more, there is a book available to borrow from London Library Consortium called Diwali: Festival of Lights by Rina Singh. Or for those of you studying Spanish, there is an easy reader on Sora called ¡Es Diwali! by Richard Sebra if you would like to try reading about the Festival in another language.
The latest edition of the Scholastic Teen Book Club catalogue is now available to browse online. There are some great book offers. You order and pay online, but collect in school with no p&p costs. The order deadline is Monday 30 November. Orders usually arrive in school a few days later.
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For those of you who haven't logged into Sora yet, here is a reminder of how to borrow library ebooks via Sora. But if you are having any difficulties accessing Sora, then I will be happy to help you.
There is a link to the Sora app on the pupil page of the school website or at the top of the sidebar here on the library page. Download the Sora app or explore in browser https://soraapp.com Enter the setup code uksecondary if asked, and sign in with your school Google login and email password. And in the meantime, here is a Getting Started video guide or there is a PDF version on the P drive in the P:\LIBRARY\Sora folder.
The Sora Big Library Read! that I mentioned last week continues until 16 November. So until then, both the audiobook and ebook of Reverie by Ryan La Sala are available to borrow without wait-lists or holds. Read and share with the hashtag #BigLibraryRead on social media for a chance to win some Sora swag! Join the Big Library Read discussion here.
This week's Top Tip for Sora is that you can explore their catalogue by genre if there is a particular topic you are looking for.
Last term, I pointed you in the direction of voting for your favourite choice of the books shortlisted for the 2020 School Library Association Information Book Award. The winners were announced last week, with the winner of the age 13-16 category being Black History Matters by Robin Walker and the overall winner being Africa, Amazing Africa by Atinuke, from the age 8-12 category.
This ties in nicely with November being national non-fiction month, and of course Africa, Amazing Africa is very apt for this year's theme of The Planet We Share.
The Federation of Children's Book Groups have written an interesting article on The Importance of Trees and Sustainable Publishing.
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2020 winners were also announced this week with Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty winning the non-fiction award. This is a book we featured in September when it also won the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing. It really is an amazing achievement for 16 year old Dara, the youngest ever winner of a major literary prize, for a book he wrote when he was just 15. His book is an extraordinary portrayal of his intense connection to the natural world alongside his perspective as an autistic teenager juggling exams, friendships and a life of campaigning.
And the winner of the Young Adult Fiction category is Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron and the winner of the Children's Fiction category is The Highland Falcon Thief by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman. (The latter title is available to borrow online from London Library Consortium). Caboodle have a giveaway to win a copy of all 7 award winning titles.
This week is Maths Week England whose aim is to share the joy of mathematics with everyone. They have a selection of fun competitions. Or perhaps you would like to try their mazes. They have lots more resources including a virtual escape room.
We have saved a selection of subject related book lists on the P Drive in the P:\LIBRARY\Subject Related Reading Lists - Lower School folder and I thought that I would highlight a couple of fiction titles from the Maths Book List which are both available on Sora. These are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock.
Also Why Study Mathematics by Vicky Neale will be of interest to upper school and sixth form readers. It is not available on Sora but I have found a free downloadable version here.
This week is also Talk Money Week and I've found you some fun money related games and activities. Plus a useful article on how to manage your money here.
Now for a quick round-up of a few other ideas and resources.
Simon & Schuster publishers have updated their selection of free teen reads for this month.
Here is a fun quiz to discover which Skulduggery Pleasant Character you are.
What's your 2020 been like? Put your feelings into words by entering the Beyond Words - writing for wellbeing project.
Here is a competition for you to design a book cover for the 10th anniversary Tom Gates book. Closes 23 November.
And a competition here to write a 50 word story featuring a mountain walk.
The theme for the Never Such Innocence project 2020/21 competition is The Unheard Voices of Conflict: Stories from Around the World.
And a reminder of The Children In Read 2020 auction that I mentioned earlier this term. This is an annual auction of signed books and items donated by celebrated Authors and Illustrators from around the world, in aid of Children In Need.
Don't forget that we will happily accept all book-related contributions from students and staff to our blog. And please email us your suggestions for what you would like to see on our blog.
Finally now for a bit of fun, we have a book related numbers crossword to share with you. This time the answers are numbers rather than words, to tie in with maths week, so I'm going to call it a cross-number instead. You may need a calculator to solve some of the clues. It is harder than our usual puzzles, so please ask me if you wish to see the solution. I created this cross-number at puzzle-maker.com myself and you may wish to try making your own word searches or crosswords there.
(For easier printing, open the image in a new tab. The way you do this will vary according to the browser you are using).