Please click into the individual blog post, as the links are currently not visible on the library page, (formatting issue being investigated).
Happy Eid for 12 May to those who have been observing Ramadan.
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 200 overdue books.
This week's top tip is how to cancel a reservation on our Reading Cloud Library catalogue, as several students have mentioned that they don't know how to do this. Under the Account dropdown menu, click on Reservations to view the books you have reserved. Then click Unreserve in order to cancel your reservation.
However if the title does not appear on your reservations list, check your Current Loans, as we may have already issued the book to you, in which case it will be waiting in the library with the Click & Collect titles. In that scenario, you may either pop into the library or send us an email to advise you no longer want to borrow the book. We will then be able to loan it to someone else.
This week we enjoyed watching some author videos at our new book club for Carnegie Shadowing this week. It's not too late if anyone else would like to join the group and we are open to considering rescheduling the timing if that would suit more of you.
Book Spotlight!
This week's book spotlight should appeal to lower school. It is Arctic Star by Tom Palmer which was published yesterday. This is a thrilling naval adventure inspired by the tough freezing conditions experienced by Arctic ship convoys in WW2. HMS Belfast escorted some of these convoys. Hopefully HMS Belfast will be able to reopen in the summer. The Imperial War Museum has a potted history of the Arctic Convoys on their website.
Tom Palmer is a best-selling author who does a lot to promote literacy and you may remember that he kindly gifted books to several of our students last year. He is also the children's writer in residence at the RAF Museum, which will be reopening on 17 May.
Tom Palmer has recorded a special Arctic Star launch event which you may watch on YouTube. You may read chapter 1 here and watch the book trailer here.
May is National Share a Story Month and this year's theme is myths, magic and mayhem. Last week we featured Magical Tales and today we're focusing on Mythical Tales.
Here are their suggestions of Mythical Fiction Books for Young Adult and Teens (12+) Lore by Alexandra Bracken The Cauldron of Life by Caroline Logan Burn by Patrick Ness The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
We have copies of the latter two titles in the library, but seeing that image of Medusa on the cover of Lore, I thought I'd mention a popular author of Greek mythology tales, Rick Riordan. We have more than a shelf packed with his many books including Percy Jackson, Magnus Chase, Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo series.
Back in February, I told you about the 25 titles on the longlist for the 2021 Branford Boase Award. This has now been narrowed down to a shortlist of 7 books.
The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson (Sora) And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando (Sora) Witch by Finbar Hawkins (Sora) When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten (LLC) A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann (Sora) Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray
And it's not too late to enter the Henrietta Branford Writing Competition which runs alongside the Branford Boase Award. Closes 23 May.
Booktrust have a giveaway to win all the shortlisted titles.
Earlier this week, The Guardian celebrated its 200th anniversary, having started life as a weekly 4 page edition in Manchester. The newspaper is now launching a new series called Young Country Diary, for any of you who are nature lovers. Those chosen to have their work published in the Guardian will be paid. Open upto age 14.
What I've been reading this week!
This week I finished the Carnegie shortlisted titles, reading The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys and The Girl Who Became A Tree by Joseph Coelho. A large proportion of The Fountains of Silence is set in Spain in the 1950's, when Spain was ruled by the military dictator General Franco. I found this novel very powerful indeed. What have you read recently? How about posting a review of your latest book on Reading Cloud.
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Now for a round-up of some other ideas, resources and articles.
Here is a creative writing competition for you to write a thriller.
Here is a giveaway for all the titles on either the Jhalak Prize or the Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize shortlists.
National Book Tokens have a competition to design a book token with prizes every week until mid June for you and everybody else in your class! Open to those aged upto 16.
You may read a recent edition of the New Statesman for free. I've also saved a copy to the P drive in the P:\LIBRARY\Magazines_and_Newspapers folder.
This week's free book from Oak National Academy's Virtual School Library is Boy Everywhere by A.M. Dassu. Resources also include a video and Q&A with the author.
Want a chance to showcase your poem about Freedom at a global event. Open to those aged 14+
Here is this month's selection of free teen reads from publishers Simon & Schuster.
Sora have launched their annual summer reading program. Sora Sweet Reads this week with a selection of titles available with no holds.
AudioFile have also introduced a new offering called SYNC which is free audiobooks for teens. They have made two titles available this week. These can be accessed via Sora as follows.
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.
Free Comic Book Day is traditionally held on the first Saturday of May, but has been postponed to August this year due to the pandemic. But I thought I would still feature a comic themed wordsearch.
Wordsearch created at puzzle-maker.com