SGS Library Blog - week 10

SGS Library Blog - week 10

10/07/2020

SGS Library Blog – week 10

Photo by Perfecto Capucine from Pexels

I hope you are all enjoying the SGS Big Bang activities today. Back in March, the Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair 2020 was one of the early events to get cancelled, but they have put together an online programme for next Tuesday with some interesting sessions on the line-up. They also have a challenge for you to come up with a creative STEM idea or invention for saving lives, with a chance to win a drone for the school and vouchers for yourself.

From the stats, it doesn't appear that many of you have logged into our new Sora library app yet, so here is a quick reminder.
There is a link to the Sora app on the pupil page of the school website.
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 is how to access a public library within Sora. Under settings, click add a public library, then type in London Libraries Consortium (for Sutton public library) in the search bar and select by clicking on the "This is my library" button.

It is good to hear that lockdown is starting to ease and non-essential shops have been permitted to reopen. This includes booksellers, so I'm sure that local independent bookshops would appreciate our support. I believe that all the bookshops in Sutton are chains, but I know quite a few of you travel a distance to get to school, so you may check for your local bookshops here.

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen

As mentioned last week, the UKLA Book Award winners were due to be announced later that evening. These are the only children's book awards judged by teachers. UKLA is the UK Literary Association and you may see details of winners and other shortlisted titles here. There are four book categories, so the one of most interest to you would be for 11-14+ fiction. The winner in this category is No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen. Judges particularly valued this book for the way it humanised the hard-hitting subject of homelessness.

And more award news this week from the 2020 CrimeFest Awards, including shortlists plus all nominated titles. The winner of the best crime novel for young adults is Beauty Sleep by Kathryn Evans and the winner of the best crime novel for children age 8-12 is Malamander by Thomas Taylor.

Children's Art WeekSo we are now in week 2 of Children's Art Week for which the theme is Connecting across generations. There are lots of online activities that you may wish to get involved in. Once again, I've picked out a few to highlight. Firstly how about making a zine about your family. A zine is a self-published, diy book, comic or magazine. Or this link may inspire you to draw your family. It's title certainly reminds me of my own schooldays when I read My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell as a class book. And one more, how about sharing the song you have liked listening to most during the last few months with someone of a different generation via Lyrical Lockdown, also creating artwork inspired by the music.

Here are a few book titles on this theme.
Drawing: Faces & Expressions : Learn to draw step by step by Diane Cardaci
Drawing: People with William F. Powell : Learn to paint step by step by William Powell
How to Draw Comics the "Marvel" Way by Stan Lee
Tom Gates: Super Good Skills (Almost) by Liz Pichon

Also linking in with the Across The Generations theme, I thought you might enjoy this free interactive story Morton In Lockdown by genealogical crime mystery author Nathan Dylan Goodwin. As the reader, you get to choose what action Morton takes.

Plastic Free JulyThis month is Plastic Free July, which is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Plastic pollution has understandably taken a back-seat to the pandemic, but it is a critical issue for our planet. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics? Or if that sounds a bit ambitious, the Marine Conservation Society have a plastic challenge that you set yourself. Plastic Free July started back in July 2011 when Rebecca Prince-Ruiz challenged herself to go plastic free for the whole month. Rebecca has since written a book about it, Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters.

I did include some relevant titles in blog post 5 for the World Environment Day feature, but time for a few more, both fiction and non-fiction.

This Book is Not Rubbish: 50 Ways to Ditch Plastic, Reduce Rubbish and Save the World by Isabel Thomas
Plastic Sucks! You Can Make A Difference by Dougie Poynter
Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein (on pre-order)
Song of the Dolphin Boy by Elizabeth Laird

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I'm sure we have plenty of football fans here at SGS. Tom Palmer, current author of modern day "Roy of the Rovers" recently got in contact with me and mentioned that he has lots of free reads on his website. He has written plenty of football, rugby and wartime novels and is reading a chapter at a time of his D-Day Dog book on YouTube. Plus if you visit the official Roy of the Rovers website, you can currently download both Tom Palmer's Scouted novel and Kick-Off, graphic novel by Rob Williams and Ben Willsher for free. Last year Tom Palmer won the Ruth Rendell Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literacy.

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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. Also look out for the SGS summer reading challenge coming next week.

Finally now for a bit of fun, we have a Fictional Bears crossword to share with you. I chose this theme as today is Teddy Bears Picnic Day. I created this crossword at puzzle-maker.com  myself and you may wish to try making your own word searches or crosswords there.

Fictional Bears Crossword