Please click into the individual blog post, as the links are currently not visible on the library page, (formatting issue being investigated).
I hope you had a good Christmas even if it was rather different to usual. And were you able to guess all the quiz questions on our Book Advent? Today is the last day to get your entries in, so I've left the calendar on the website, just in case you've left entering until the last minute.
Last month we asked you to nominate a friend who has done something kind. We loved reading the acts of kindness you showed each other and randomly selected Erik of Y8 as the recipient of the £10 book e-voucher. This was announced last term at Junior Prize Giving. Erik was nominated by Jack for cheering him up when he was feeling down. Thank you to Jack and all other students who nominated a friend for their acts of kindness.
Well here we are once again remote learning! Sora will remain as your primary source for ebooks and audiobooks, but I plan to include a summary of all the free reading resources we shared on the blog during lockdown 1, in next week's blog post. In the meantime, there are links to some of these resources in the right hand sidebar of the main Library page on the website. Copies of all those earlier blog posts can be found on the P drive in the P:\LIBRARY\SGS_Library_Blogs folder. Meanwhile if you come across a reading resource that you particularly enjoy, do let us know, so we can share the details with your peers.
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.
This week's Top Tip for Sora is that they have curated a list of fiction and non-fiction titles which will help you cope with difficult situations, take care of yourself and develop empathy for the difficulties people face.
A few titles mentioned below are available to borrow as ebooks from London Libraries Consortium (LLC), so here is a screenshot of how you can access LLC via Sora.
Within Sora. under settings, click add a public library, then type in London Libraries Consortium in the search bar and select by clicking on the "This is my library" button.
If you are unaware, London Libraries Consortium is a partnership across London Borough libraries including Sutton, giving you access to a shared catalogue and the ability to borrow books from other Boroughs.
Alex Wheatle's latest book The Humiliations of Welton Blake was published yesterday and you can download an extract here, along with some other recent titles. Plus you may enjoy listening to a recent Penguin podcast with Alex. There are plenty of podcasts in the Penguin series and I thought I would mention this one from earlier last year with Anthony Horowitz as well. These two authors have both also featured on the You're Booked podcast series.
There are lots of Anthony Horowitz titles on Sora and Cane Warriors and Kerb Stain Boys by Alex Wheatle are both available to borrow from LLC.
Previously on the blog, we have briefly talked about the idea of us setting up a podcast book chat here at SGS plus a conventional book club. Both of these could still go ahead whilst we are remote learning, so please do email us with your name, if either of these ideas would be of interest. In particular, as regards the podcasts, we would love to hear if you have any ideas or editorial experience you wish to tell us about.
Another new book published yesterday is Robert Muchamore's second title in his contemporary Robin Hood series, Piracy, Paintballs & Zebras. Robert is ReadingZone's teen author of the month and they have an interview with him here. Two of his earlier titles Killer T and Arctic Zoo are available to borrow from LLC. And here is a reminder of a link we shared last summer for you to download a free copy of Rock War - The Audition by Robert Muchamore.
Earlier this week on 4 January, it was World Braille Day. Braille is a tactile language using dots, so that blind and partially sighted people can read the same books as those published in a visual font. You may enjoy reading Helen Keller's autobiography, The World I Live In on Sora. Helen Keller was an author, who at under age 2 lost both her sight and hearing due to severe illness, but overcame her communication difficulties.
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Now for a quick round-up of a few other ideas and resources.
Here is the latest selection of monthly free teen reads from publishers Simon & Schuster. Did anyone manage any of their free 24 hour titles last month? At least this time, you have longer to read them.
Book Riot have issued their 2021 Read Harder Challenge with 24 different suggestions. The point of the challenge is to try different reading genres and break away from your usual reading habits; the hope is that you’ll discover voices, settings, characters, formats, and more you may not have encountered otherwise.
Here is a competition to write a blog or essay telling how your learning experience been affected by COVID-19. Open to those aged 16-19.
There is a poetry challenge here which is a little bit different as it is based on finding the connections between biology and poetry.
And to follow that, here is one to write a poem on a medical subject. Open to age 14-18.
This week's author of the week on the National Literary Trust's Virtual School Library is Adam Barron. The resources include daily instalments for you to listen to from the audiobook of Boy Underwater. And you may check out previous featured authors here.
We mentioned last term how footballer and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford MBE is promoting reading and literacy to young people across the UK. So I thought that I would highlight a giveaway to win a book all about football hero and campaigner Marcus Rashford.
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 something a bit different to usual. This is a downloadable copy of Writing Peace to tie in with Monday being World Braille Day shared via Open Access. It includes activities in 24 different alphabets, scripts and writing systems, one of which is Braille. Another is the Roman alphabet which we are all familiar with here at SGS, but I'm sure some of you will be more familiar with some of the others than I am. We have also saved a copy of this on the P drive in the P:\LIBRARY\ folder.