Please click into the individual blog post, as the links are currently not visible on the library page, (formatting issue being investigated).
The Library is now open until 5.30pm Monday to Wednesday and 4.30pm Thursday and Friday should you wish a quiet space to do homework or revise.
For those of you who haven't tried the 'Click and Collect' service for the school library out yet, here is the link to our new library catalogue. Key in SUT, to search for our school. Books reserved before lunchtime, will be available for collection after school on the same day. If you don't see a book you are searching for listed, please let us know and we will consider adding it to our wishlist. Sora will continue to be available in parallel for those of you who prefer ebooks or audiobooks, plus it may offer a wider choice of titles to those on our shelves here.
And please may we remind you to return books to the Library lobby as soon as possible. There are over 250 overdue books.
This week's top tip is regarding reservations. If you reserve a book by lunchtime and it is on the shelves, we will process it ready for collection from the Library at the end of the school day, for KS3 and KS4. Meanwhile KS5 may collect at lunchtime.
However if it is already out on loan, you will have to wait until it is returned, but the Reading Cloud system has a 2 week maximum setting for reservations. So keep an eye on your reservations on your account and either come and collect or reserve again. We currently have a number of uncollected reservations still waiting for you here, which you will now see on your current loans, under the My Account menu.
We held our first session of the new book club for Carnegie Shadowing this week, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the books you selected. It's not too late if anyone else would like to join the group.
Book Spotlight!
This week's featured book is Nightshade, the latest title in the popular Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz which was published in paperback earlier this month, about a year after it originally came out in hardback. You may read or listen to the prologue on the Alex Rider website where you'll also find games, missions and plenty more. You may watch the author reading from the book on YouTube or there is an interview with him in the Evening Standard. There is also a fan site for the Alex Rider series but beware of spoilers on it.
Plus I've found a giveaway to win a set of the Alex Rider titles. Closes tomorrow.
Tomorrow is May which is National Share a Story Month and this year's theme is myths, magic and mayhem. That is very broad, so I'm going to focus on a subset each week, starting with Magical Tales.
Here are their suggestions of Fiction Books for Young Adult and Teens (12+) The Dark Lady by Akala Viper by Bex Hogan Venom by Bex Hogan Havenfall by Sara Holland (available to borrow online from LLC) Phoenix Flame by Sara Holland (available to borrow online from LLC) The Mirror and the Mountain by Luke Aylen The Forgotten Palace by Luke Aylen The Last Dragon Rider by Luke Aylen
I'm going to mention a magical series that we have all the titles of in the school library, which is the Septimus Heap Wizard Apprentice series by Angie Sage. These are also available to borrow online from LLC. And here are the links to Angie Sage's website and the Septimus Heap blog.
And of course we have all the Harry Potter titles in the school library too including the playscript Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
They also have a couple of competitions. The first is a short story competition open to those aged upto 12 and the second is to create a Mythical Beast open to all. For the short story, three authors have started the first paragraph of stories on the topics of myth, magic and mayhem respectively for you to continue.
Today would have been Captain Sir Tom Moore’s 101st birthday and the National Literacy Trust have come up with some suggestions of what you can do around the number 100. Back in February, I included a book spotlight on his autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day.
Earlier this week it was National Superhero Day on 28 April, and when we can welcome you back into the library properly again, we have some bookmarks of How To Be A Hero by Cat Weldon for those in Y7 who would like one. You can use them to discover your heroic Viking name. Plus there is an activity pack of How To Be A Hero puzzles to enjoy here.
What I've been reading this week!
I've been continuing with Carnegie shortlisted titles and have read Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo and listened to the audio versions of On Midnight Beach by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and Run Rebel by Manjeet Mann. My favourite out of these is Run Rebel, which is written in verse. What have you read recently?
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Now for a round-up of some other ideas, resources and articles.
There is a giveaway for all titles shortlisted for the YA Book Prize here.
The Reading Zone website has been relaunched this week with plenty of resources, including author of the month, book extracts and a career in ....
You may like to enter the Orwell Youth Prize 2021. This year's theme is “A New Direction: Starting Small” and all genres of writing are accepted.
This week's free book from Oak National Academy's Virtual School Library is Dragon Mountain by Katie and Kevin Tsang and is the audio version. Resources also include a video and Q&A with the authors.
Book Trust always have plenty of giveaways. This week I'm highlighting one to win a copy of A Secret of Birds & Bone by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
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, select Sutton Grammar School 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.
We are approaching Star Wars Day on 4 May, so I have created a Star Wars themed wordsearch. If you search on our library catalogue, you'll find a couple of Star Wars books. May the Fourth be with you.
Wordsearch created at puzzle-maker.com