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I hope you all have a restful half term and may I wish a Happy New Year to those celebrating as we move into the Lunar New Year of the Ox. This is better known as the Chinese New Year, but of course, the spring festival is of importance to lots more cultures, particularly many other nations of South East Asia.
And enjoy your pancakes on Shrove Tuesday next week. The famous pancake race in Olney, which is believed to have first been run in the year 1445 won't be taking place this year due to lockdown.
Here are a few reads that you may enjoy reading during the 15 day Lunar New Year festival.
Hunt For Jade Dragon by Richard Paul Adams (available on Sora) Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland (available on Sora) The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao The Twelve by Cindy Lin The Zodiac Legacy series by Stan Lee
February is LGBT+ History month, celebrating achievements and diversity of LGBT+ people and raising awareness and combating prejudice against the LGBT+ community. This year's theme is Body, Mind, Spirit. The faces for 2021 are Maya Angelou, Mark Ashton, Michael Dillon, Mark Weston and Lily Parr.
There are lots of online events so I thought I would highlight a couple. Firstly a podcast which will be released at 12pm on 15 February where two of the Carnegie Medal judges chat about the best LGBTQ interest books aimed at children and young people. By the way, the 2021 Carnegie Medal longlist will be out during half term, so more news on that next time.
And secondly at 2pm on 17 February, author Damian Barr reads from his debut novel You Will Be Safe Here.
A Read The Rainbow booklist of LGBT+ titles, including both fiction and non-fiction has been curated on Sora.
From the Read The Rainbow list, I am going to mention Proud compiled by Juno Dawson which I have read myself. This is an anthology of mainly short stories on the theme of Pride plus some poetry, featuring LGBTQ+ teenagers and some of the issues they face. These have been written by both top LGBTQ+ YA authors and new authors.
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During half term on 19 February it is Prevent Plagiarism Day. We plan to add some resources for this topic to the VLE in due course. For anyone who doesn't know plagiarism is using somebody else's work and claiming it as yours. You have to be very careful to avoid plagiarising from others. It could even mean the difference between a good grade and a fail for a piece of homework. So no copying and pasting from the internet. Yes you may wish to discuss similar points, but do remember to paraphrase. Also you should always cite your sources of reference material. Plus a few quotations with the source mentioned are allowed, but you can't quote throughout.
A new book released in the UK this week is The Awakening of Malcolm X by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz co-authored with Tiffany D. Jackson and you may read a sample on amazon. You can also read an interview here with the authors regarding telling the story of this human rights activist. One of Tiffany D Jackson's other novels Let Me Hear A Rhyme is available to borrow online from LLC.
Another new title this month is Brown Baby : A Memoir of Race, Family and Home by Nikesh Shukla and you may read a review in the Guardian. You may borrow another of his titles The Good Immigrant online from Sora.
Book Spotlight!
Very sad to hear of Captain Sir Tom Moore passing away from coronavirus. He has been such an inspiration to us all during the past year and you can read all about his life in his autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day. His editor remembers him in a tribute here and Penguin previously featured his autobiography as Book of the Week on Armistice Day and included his book in their list of titles which defined 2020. Also you may watch Michael Morpurgo reflecting upon the life of Sir Tom Moore on Channel 4 news. His legacy of Inspiring Hope carries on through The Captain Tom Foundation. And the BBC have chosen a selection of photographs to display his life in pictures. Plus here is a Captain Tom activity pack to share with younger siblings.
Meanwhile don't forget about the opportunity of winning a virtual book event with Sir Michael Morpurgo at SGS by reviewing one of his books for Michael Morpurgo Month. More details in last week's blog post.
Now for a quick round-up of a few other ideas, resources and articles.
You can listen to author Neil Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book on his website.
One book club got a huge surprise when Barack Obama joined them online to discuss his 2020 memoir, A Promised Land.
There is an interesting article in the Guardian regarding stories that have been subsequently written by other authors featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective Sherlock Holmes. These include the Young Sherlock series by Andrew Lane which are available to borrow online from LLC and The House of Silk and Moriarty, both by Anthony Horowitz.
Bloomsbury, the publisher of the Harry Potter books is sponsoring 750 newly planted trees at Langley Vale Wood near Epsom. This local First World War Centenary Wood with its sculptures is well worth a visit.
You may win a copy of Tiffany Jewell's bestselling title This Book Is Anti-Racist in a Book Trust giveaway.
There is a poetry competition here to write a cinquain which will be read in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean by multi-talented Richard Garriott - inventor, explorer, entrepreneur, astronaut, aquanaut & author of Explore/Create. Closes 19 February. A cinquain is a 5 line poem with the following syllable structure.
2 4 6 8 2
Here is an example cinquain from the competition details.
Today I think I’ll write something to make you think of how our English words can work and play.
Earlier this week on 9 February, it was Safer Internet Day and Lower School may like to try out this quiz.
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, or if you wish to be involved with a podcast book chat or one of our Reading Groups. 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.
I've created a wordsearch to tie in with the Lunar New Year. And you may like to find out which animal is associated with the year you were born in here.
Wordsearch created at puzzle-maker.com.