Black History Month October 2024 – Reclaiming Narratives

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This year’s theme for Black History Month is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’.
As the BHM website explains:
In today’s world, stories are powerful tools that shape how we understand our past, present, and future. For too long, the history of Black communities has been told through lenses that often misrepresent, oversimplify, or entirely overlook the rich and diverse experiences of those who lived it.
This Black History Month make time to read the stories of remarkable Black people from history, who have been marginalised and deserve to be better known, but also read the inspirational stories of current Black people in all walks of life from sports to science, poetry to politics.
Reading Suggestions:

  • The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince
  • My bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass
  • The black Jacobins : Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo revolution by C.L.R James
  • Black Spartacus : the epic life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudir Hazareesingh
  • Black Tudors : the untold story by Miranda Kaufmann
  • Black and British: A Short Essential History by David Olusoga
  • Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
  • Hidden figures : the untold story of the African-American women who helped win the space race by Margot Lee Shetterly
  • Angela Y. Davis; an autobiography
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  • The March trilogy (graphic novel memoirs) by Congressman John Lewis, a lifelong civil rights activist.
  • Born a Crime: Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah
  • The seven volume series of autobiographical books by Maya Angelou, starting with I know why the caged bird sings
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • A promised land by Barack Obama
  • Just Sayin’ – My Life in Words by Malorie Blackman
  • Brit(ish) : on race, identity and belonging by Afua Hirsch
  • Natives : race and class in the ruins of empire by Akala
  • Coming to England by Floella Benjamin
  • Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (a memoir)
Don’t miss the new books in the library:
  • Black History for Every Day of the Year by David Olusoga. A celebration of Black History from around the world and through history including the current day.
  • Black Arsenal: Club, culture, identity edited by  Clive Chijioke Nwonka
Why not explore further reading on the visual reading lists on the library Padlets?

Featured author: Malorie Blackman

This year’s Black History Month theme is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ and who better to exemplify this than award-winning, and much-loved author, Malorie Blackman. As a child growing up in London, Blackman was an avid and precocious reader, spending all the hours she could reading and borrowing books from her local public libraries. In her funny, candid and moving biography ‘Just Sayin’ she recounts that she didn’t see people like her in any of the novels and stories she read; Black people were not represented at all as protagonists. If she did encounter any Black characters they were not central to the plot or portrayed as stereotypes.
Nought and Crosses
When ‘Noughts and Crosses’ was published in 2001 Malorie Blackman did something bold and unique in the world of young adult dystopian fiction.
As the Black History Month website writes:
Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses is a masterclass in reclaiming narratives. By centring Black voices and inverting power dynamics, she reclaims space for marginalised stories within a genre that has often excluded them. Her work challenges readers to reconsider their perceptions of race, power, and privilege while amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced by mainstream narratives.
But Blackman’s reclamation of narrative goes beyond representation. It is a form of resistance against the dominant structures that have shaped our understanding of race and identity for so long. By reclaiming the right to define who holds power and whose stories matter, Blackman has redefined what dystopian fiction can be. Her work paves the way for future generations of writers and readers to continue the work of reclaiming and reshaping the stories that define our world.

The Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2024

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All 6 Shortlisted books for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize

are now available from the library.

Have a browse of the display! Which will you read first? From AI to ageing, and colonising Mars, there is something for everyone in these informative and engaging popular science titles.

The full shortlist

  • Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon (Hutchinson Heinemann)
  • Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World by Tom Chivers (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
  • Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive AI Startup Dismantling Your Privacy by Kashmir Hill (Simon & Schuster)
  • The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction by Gísli Pálsson (Princeton University Press)
  • Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan (Hodder Press)
  • A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Particular Books)

Look out for the winner announcement on 24th October 2024!

Every year we buy and promote the shortlist so our collection of accessible science books is continuously evolving. You can view all past winners on the RS website here

Summer Reading for our new students in the 3rd Form

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Every year for last 17 years, we have given a book to our incoming Y9 students. It’s a gift from the library, intended to be a fun read for the long summer holidays and to keep reading for pleasure happening.

This summer we chose ‘Dry’ by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman. As usual we deliberated long and hard over the book choice and responding to feedback from previous years we prioritised plot.

Y9 girl: ‘It was very interesting and exhilarating and I loved the plot’.

Y9 boy: ‘I enjoyed the psychological aspect of it, how it showed how people show who they really are in dire situations. The plot was exciting and it was a great read.’

It seemed fitting for our times to offer a cli-fi novel. (although as I write about ‘Dry’ we we are experiencing torrential rain!).  Set in California after a ‘Tap-Out’ scenario, teen protagonists struggle to survive as water becomes scarce. Shusterman’s YA dystopian trilogy ‘Arc of a Scythe’ has been our most popular book for the last few years.

We are working hard keep the reading habit going in a busy boarding school. This involves all of us and our Y9 tutors are key to this. Students are encouraged to carry a book and we are running informal book discussion sessions about ‘Dry’ during tutorials. The librarians are always happy to recommend books to our staff and students and take recommendations for library stock.

We encourage as many staff as possible to read the summer book and start those conversations with the students over a shared read. I’ve already had some interesting conversations with Y9 tutors who have read the book and our two Heads of College. It’s always so heartening to have feedback from teachers who’ve children have loved the book and parents who have read ‘Dry’ alongside their teens.

From past experience, for some less keen readers, this book is the only one they read over the long summer break. We survey the whole year group about their reading habits and attitudes in order to offer the most appropriate and effective library service to develop or kickstart their reading for pleasure.

Aside from all the accepted benefits of reading for pleasure from relaxation, escapism, increases in vocabulary and knowledge, development of concentration skills, boosting academic outcomes to connecting with others through books; research has shown that reading for pleasure as a teenager is the most important factor influencing success in later life.

Our two key mantras are allowing complete freedom for students to choose what to read and avoiding judgement of those choices. The library stock is diverse, ranging from graphic novels and a growing manga collection, to biographies, YA book prize shortlists and the Women’s Book Prize. We stock a wide range of non-fiction too – from Science Book Prize Shortlists to popular authors such as Malcolm Gladwell, Rutger Bregman, Mary Beard, Tim Marshall and Caroline Criado-Perez.

Browse more library reading recommendations by theme on our library padlets.

Summer reading a family affair?

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Summer reading

One of the most valuable activities young people can do in the summer holidays to keep their brains ticking over and academic levels up is reading. As a school librarian I encourage choice and enjoyment in summer books. To encourage the reading habit – daily doses of reading are more likely to succeed. Parents have a key role to play – modelling reading and chatting about books. Do you talk about what you are reading with your children? Do you read with your children or to your children? What about a family shared read – something you all read and can’t wait to discuss with the others. Holidays without wifi can be a real help!

From our reading surveys our Y9 students prefer to read just before sleeping and during the holidays. Let’s maximise these times. One of my favourite holidays activities when my children were young was a family reading ‘siesta’; a half-dozing, half-reading, relaxing afternoon in companionable silence lounging together with our books.

Carve out some phone-free readaxation this summer!

For some reading suggestions have a browse of our most popular books this academic year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Top Ten Authors

  • Sarah J. Maas (multiple fantasy series)
  • Neal Shusterman (scythe trilogy and Dry)
  • Holly Jackson (Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and many more)
  • Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry)
  • Alice Oseman (Heartstopper graphic novels plus many novels)
  • Claire Keegan
  • Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club series)
  • Agatha Christie
  • Robert Muchamore
  • Caroline Criado-Perez (Invisible Women)

 

Reading suggestions for new 6th Formers studying English

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New to the 6th Form in September 2024? Studying English?  Here are some reading suggestions from our English Department. Kickstart your reading over the long summer break!
Suggested English Reading For New L6*
A Level English
Doing English, by Robert Eaglestone
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks
Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
 
IB English Literature (Higher Level)
Doing English, by Robert Eaglestone
Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
The Outsider, by Albert Camus
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
The World’s Wife, by Carol Ann Duffy
Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
IB English Literature (Standard Level)
The Outsider, by Albert Camus
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
The World’s Wife, by Carol Ann Duffy
Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
*these are not necessarily ‘set texts’: each class will study a bespoke syllabus
Here is some recommended reading for Y9 – Y11
  1. ‘Lord of the Flies’ – William Golding
  2. ‘The Road’ – Cormac McCarthy
  3. ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
  4. ‘Reunion’ – Fred Uhlman
  5. ‘The Inseparables’ – Simone de Beauvoir
  6. ‘The Woman in Black’ – Susan Hill
  7. ‘The Half God of Rain Fall’ – Inua Ellams
  8. ‘The Whale Rider’ – Witi Ihimaera
  9. ‘Fahrenheit 451’ – Ray Bradbury
  10. ‘1984’ – George Orwell
  11. ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ – Douglas Adams
  12. ‘Wicked’ – Gregory Maguire
  13. ‘Persepolis’ – Marjane Satrapi
  14. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ – Sue Monk Kidd
  15. ‘The Song of Achilles’ – Madeleine Miller
  16. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
  17. ‘The Turn of the Screw’ – Henry James
  18. ‘The Book Thief’  – Marcus Zusak
  19. ‘Mythos’ – Stephen Fry
  20. ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ – Ernest Hemingway
  21. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
  22. The Great Godden – Meg Rosoff
  23. ‘Great Expectations’ – Charles Dickens
  24. ‘Sapiens’ – Yuval Noah Harari
  25. ‘Never Let Me Go’ – Kazuo Ishiguro
  26. ‘Tipping Point’ – Malcolm Gladwell
  27. ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ – Rachel Joyce
  28. I Capture the Castle  – Dodie Smith
  29. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
  30. White Teeth – Zadie Smith
  31. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Alexie
  32. Brown Girl Dreaming –  Jacqueline Woodson
  33. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian – Sherman
  34. My Brilliant Friend  – Elena Ferrante
  35. The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

International Women’s Day

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We have combined a celebration of World Book Day (Thursday 6th March) with International Women’s Day (Friday 7th March).

Our library book displays include cracking reads to kickstart reading for pleasure and a selection of our choices can be seen on the library Padlet here

There is also a padlet – a visual reading list on Gender, Identity and Feminism (padlet.com) This also includes books by and about women with some recommendations of fascinating biographies and autobiographies.

Two particularly thought-provoking and enlightening non-fiction reads, available in the library and as e-books are:

  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
    by Caroline Criado Perez
  • The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart

The Women’s Prize for Fiction organisers have just announced the first Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction as a way of promoting women’s writing in this field. The books are available in the library. Read more here.

The 16 title longlist has been announced.

The full list in alphabetical order by author surname is:

The website explains:

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is a major new annual book prize that celebrates exceptional narrative non-fiction by women. The Prize promotes excellence in writing, robust research, original narrative voices and accessibility, showcasing women’s expertise across a range of fields.

The Prize will be awarded annually and is open to all women writers from across the globe who are published in the UK and writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork known as the ‘Charlotte’, both gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Women’s prize for fiction winners (padlet.com)

There is also an interesting reading list from Foyles booksellers who asked women authors for their recommendations:

To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we asked the authors we admire to share their recommendations, and they delivered! From defining novels of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, to international bestsellers of the modern day—expect themes of motherhood, translation, rage, and resistance, amongst this essential reading list.

International Women’s Day Reading List (foyles.co.uk)

World Book Day – 7th March 2024

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We’ve been having a revival of Book Face fun for WBD this year. The library team have been scouring the shelves for any books with faces on the covers – including animals! We’re encouraging staff and students to create their own. It takes some skill to match the book to the face although some of them are completely hidden and then it’s a guessing game.

Here are some of our previous Cracking Read suggestions:

The Mallinson Library, Wellington College | Cracking reads for World Book Day 2018 (edublogs.org)

The Mallinson Library, Wellington College | Cracking reads and podcast suggestions for no screen Monday and beyond (edublogs.org)

 

Christmas Reading Times and Books of the Year 2023

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Christmas Reading Times 2023

Every year we eagerly look forward to the Christmas Reading Times, compiled by Helen Smith, Librarian at Eckington School. Helen scours the TV and streaming listings to find films and TV series based on books. This is an every increasing task with the proliferation of streaming platforms. From Julia Donaldson picture books to Jack Reacher thrillers, there is a wide range of viewing based on books and traditional stories. A highlight for me is ‘The Essex Serpent’ and ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ on Apple TV.

There is also a Christmas Reading Times Primary listing programmes and films based on young children’s books.

It’s certainly a good year for Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Sheffler’s picture book adaptations! I’m really looking forward to the new adaptation of Tabby McTat (BBC 1 25th December 2.35pm). Here’s a trailer to enjoy in anticipation.

Here are our Top Ten most borrowed fiction titles of 2023:

  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  • Scythe (Book 1) by Neal Shusterman
  • The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  • Circe by Madeline Miller
  • Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
  • Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Five Survive by Holly Jackson
  • Nothing more to tell by Karen M McManus

Top Ten Most Borrowed Authors 2023

  • Sarah J. Maas
  • Robert Muchamore
  • Neal Shusterman
  • Holly Jackson
  • George Orwell
  • J. K. Rowling
  • Bonnie Garmus
  • Malorie Blackman
  • Claire Keegan
  • Karen M. McManus

Top Ten Most borrowed non-fiction 2023

  • Better day coming: Blacks and equality 1890 – 2000 by Adam Fairclough
  • Global perspectives on sustainable fashion by Alison Gwilt
  • Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
  • The Connell Guide to how to read a poem by Malcolm Hebron
  • A History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez
  • Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas
  • How to break up with fast fashion by Lauren Bravo
  • Why chemical reactions happen by James Keeler and Peter Wothers

A selection of Books of the Year lists:

Best Books for Teens of 2023 – Five Books Expert Recommendations

The best books of 2023 | Best books of the year | The Guardian

The 10 Best Books of 2023 – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

It’s interesting to get an American perspective on the Best Books of the Year. Here are the NYT Top Ten from 2023:

Best Books of the Year 2023

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The results are in – Waterstones and Foyles have announced their books of the year. It’s pleasing to see that our L6th inaugural book choice and our next Community Book Club read triumphed as Foyles Fiction Book of the Year. ‘Yellowface’ by R. F. Kuang is an addictive, clever satire. I’m looking forward to discussing it with the Book Club in January.

I couldn’t agree more with the comments on the Foyles website: As unputdownable as it is wickedly funny, Kuang’s pin-sharp thriller of the machinations of the publishing world is a novel to gobble up in one, breathless sitting.

Read more about the 3 chosen titles here: Foyles Books of the Year – Foyles

The non-fiction winner was  ‘Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution‘ by Cat Bohannon. Read a review here

Waterstones choice was Katherine Rundell’s fantasy ‘Impossible Creatures’ as their overall Book of the Year and it also won the Foyles Children’s Book of the Year. ‘Impossible Creatures’ has the hallmarks of a children’s classic – packed full of adventures, original world-building and sympathetic characters. The writing is exquisite and the cast of creatures endlessly entertaining and immersive. It feels like a combination of Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials and is a magical read. Fans will be pleased to hear that Rundell is already working on a follow-up novel and a trilogy is planned.

Katherine Rundell wins Waterstones book of 2023 with ‘immediate classic’ | Books | The Guardian

Waterstones Debut Novel of the Year was awarded to Alice Winn’s ‘In Memoriam’

Waterstones Book of the Year 2023 | The Winner