We’re excited to welcome everyone back after the summer break, especially our new Year 7 and Year 12 students! As we kick off the Autumn term, our school library is busy organising clubs and activities for the year ahead. Be sure to check the library blog for the latest updates. The library is open all day for students to study, explore new titles and borrow books, with the homework club running until 5.20pm daily.

Plus, SORA is available for free to SGS students, giving everyone access to a wide array of eBooks, audiobooks and graphic novels. Students can also earn extra achievement points by reading eBooks—just jot down the title in your planner, get a parent’s/guardian’s signature and bring it into the library to show us!

Pick up one of our new books today to borrow, these are some of the wonderful reads that have just arrived: Greek Myths (KS3) by Ann Turnbull; Spy Family (KS3) by Tatsuya Endo; GodKiller (KS4 and up) by Hannah Kaner.

We Solve Murders (KS5) by Richard Osman; Mexikid (KS3 upwards) by Pedro Martin; In The Shadow of the Wolf Queen (KS3 upwards) by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

 

The World’s First Book Town
By Mrs Payne

Over the Summer holidays my family and I visited Hay on Wye, in Wales, famously known as the World’s first book town. This title was founded by Mr Richard Booth in 1961 for the town’s incredible collection of second hand and antiquarian books.  Today, there is certainly no shortage of glorious book shops, stocking old and new books, in this small town with a majestic backdrop of the Welsh countryside.  Every year, Hay on Wye hosts the popular Hay Literary Festival, where people come from far and wide to meet authors, attend talks, and participate in various activities which takes place during the last week of May.

I was delighted to be able to visit a place so devoted to literature, but there were several things that especially caught my eye: A Poetry Book Shop, which was dedicated solely to poetry books; A Honesty Bookshop of used books for people to help themselves to in exchange for a small donation (there is a similar collection at Sutton Station) and lastly, finding my childhood favourite fairy tale of The Princess and Pea by Hans Christian Andersen.  A couple of books made their way back home with me and are available for borrowing in our school library: Greek Myths (in section 398) retold by Ann Turnbull and Insurgent (book 2 of the Divergent series) by Veronica Roth.

 

 

 

Mr Barlett Reviews
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Mentioning to a friend just how long it had been since I had read any fiction in translation, she immediately recommended Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police”. Although written in 1994, the book was translated from the original Japanese only as recently as 2019.  The Memory Police is considered Ogawa’s best writing and it is easy to see why the book was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, in 2020. The Memory Police | The Booker Prizes

The setting for Ogawa’s story is an island where, periodically, things disappear. It is the role of the memory police to ensure that the population forget these items. The central character is a young female novelist. Both her mother and her editor are part of a small group of islanders who cannot forget. They are considered subversive by the state and they are hunted by the memory police. Knowing neither which items will disappear next nor whether the concealment of the editor by the novelist and her lover will be compromised, the text was ultimately a taut, beautifully-written reflection on loss. The book’s central theme of alienation I consider as relevant today as when the book was first written.

I think “The Memory Police” will particularly appeal to any reader who has enjoyed books such as George Orwell’s “1984”; “The Wall” by John Lanchester; or, Margaret Attwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”. It is an excellent addition to the canon of dystopian fiction and I am very grateful to my friend for her recommendation of an author I had not previously encountered.”

 

 

Booker Prize Shortlist 2024 is Announced

The shortlist for the Booker Prize 2024 was announced on 16 September 2024 by this year’s judging panel, at an event held at Somerset House in London.  The Booker Prize is the world’s most significant award for the best sustained work of fiction written in English by authors from anywhere in the world and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

The books shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024 are:

James by Percival Everett

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Held by Anne Michaels

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

To learn more about the Book Prize nominees, read extracts from the shortlisted books and use their reading guide, visit their website.

Credit: Booker Prize Foundation
www.thebookerprizes.com

 

 

Sir Michael Morpurgo

Sir Michael Morpurgo, who received the OBE in 2006 and served as the Children’s Laureate from 2003 to 2005, was born on October 5, 1943, in Hertfordshire. When he was just two years old, he was evacuated to Cumberland, later returning to London and then moving to Essex. His book, The Butterfly Lion, reflects some of the tough times he faced at one of the boarding schools he attended during his childhood. At one point, he even trained for the British Army at Sandhurst.

Morpurgo has authored more than 100 children’s books, including popular titles like War Horse, Beowulf and Eagle in the Snow, with Private Peaceful being his 100th book. Five of his works have been adapted into films, and War Horse was turned into a play that first debuted at the National Theatre in 2007, continuing to inspire audiences around the globe.

We have lots of Michael Morpurgo books in our school library ready for you to read including the well-loved book Kensuke’s kingdom which was recently made into a hand drawn animation winning 3 BAFTA Awards, to watch the trailer click here.

To read more about Michael Morpurgo visit: www.michaelmorpurgo.com

 

 

  

National Poetry Day
3rd October 2024

Next month we will be celebrating National Poetry Day and the theme for this year is ‘counting.’  The aim of this annual event is to inspire and promote a love of poetry through various projects across the UK. Established in 1994 by William Sieghart, this day has reached millions of people with live events, classroom activities and broadcasts since it began. National Poetry Day is an excellent opportunity to explore and celebrate the art of poetry. From enjoying well-known poems to the joy of writing new ones.

We have lots of poetry books available in the Library and on SORA.  Borrow a book today and let poetry reach out to you.  Here are some of our Poetry Books: Run Rebel by Manjett Mann; The Girl Who Became a Tree by Joseph Coelho; Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah; Collected Poem of Rudyard Kipling; WB Yeats, Poetry by the Everyman’s Library; Up the Line to Death – The War Poets anthology; Verses of Poets Laureate from John Dryden to Andrew Motion; William Blake, Poems and Prophecies by the Everyman’s Library.

National Poetry Day is organised by the Forward Arts Foundation, a charity committed to promoting public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of poetry in the UK and Ireland. Other programmes include the Forward Prizes for Poetry and the annual anthology of the year’s best poems, the Forward Book of Poetry.

 

 

New Features Coming to
the Reading Cloud

This Autumn we are hugely excited about some of the changes that are happening on the Reading Cloud for you to access.  You can create your own avatar to make your page completely unique as well as viewing all of our library catalogue and reviews.

In addition, three new features will be appearing this year which will include: Single Sign on (SSO), Project Gutenberg, a new library of timeless literature ebooks and enhance your Reading Cloud experience with the Resources and Reviews features.   We will keep you posted when this will be live for our students to access.

Credit: app.readingcloud.net

 

Autumn Library Clubs

Check out our new library clubs starting this term.

Year 7 Book Club will run on Monday’s Week A after school from
3.40pm – 4.20pm.

Year 8 Comic Club will run weekly in period 7 (Year 8 early release day) from
2.50pm – 3.35pm.

Year 9 &10 Book Club will run Wednesday’s Week B from
3.40pm – 4.20pm.

For more information please come into the school library and ask Mrs Taylor, Mrs Payne or Ms Lo.

Computer Science Books

If computer science is your passion or you would just like to broaden your knowledge in the subject, look no further than section 005 in our school library.  We have got some great books that to learn all about different computer platforms and coding.

One of our recent additions to this section is, ‘Turing’s Vision: The Birth of Computer Science by Chris Bernhardt,’ which has been kindly donated by a member staff.  The book tells of Alan Turing who in 1936, aged 24 years old, wrote a paper which outlined the theory of computation, the idea of which, has shaped all modern computers. This ground-breaking theory now forms the basis of computer science.

This book is written by a mathematician and is a useful read for sixth form students wanting to study computer science at university.  Turning’s Vision gives a little bit of depth and perspective Turning’s powerful theory to the general reader.

 

 

Coming Soon to Our School Library

This term we will be having lots of fun and celebrating some important literacy events in school.  Keep your eyes peeled for:

The European Day of Languages
26th September 2024

Get ready to celebrate The European Day of Languages, on September 26th. Here at SGS, we’re so passionate about languages that we’re turning it into an entire week of festivities! Prepare for an exciting celebration of languages in school and visit our library to see the books we have translated into additional languages.

Did you know?

 Our School has a free subscription to https://linguascope.com/, which has resources in lots of languages, including pronunciation and language learning games.  Use the ‘Beginners’ to start learning today.  Don’t know the username or password?  Come into the Library or ask a teacher for full access.

Green Libraries Week 7th – 13th October 2024
This annual celebration of libraries focuses on climate change and sustainability.

Harry Potter Day 17th October 2024
Get your wands at the ready for some magical activities as we celebrate the literacy genius of JK Rowling’s remarkable Harry Potter character.

Black History Month
Come into the library during the month of October to see our collection of books for Black History Month.

 

 

Bookmark Competition

We will be launching our annual Book Mark Competition next month, keep a look out for poster around the school and in the library for all of the details.  Last year we had a very high standard of entries, so the competition is on to create our best ever bookmark.  The winner will have their bookmark printed in-house and distributed in the library.

Above: Last year’s winning design.