From Extreme Reading to Extreme Writing this summer!

This year we are having a change from the past 3 summers of the Extreme Reading Photo Competition. The English Department are challenging you to an Extreme Writing Competition – can you write 300 words about an extreme or unusual place and send in a photo of you in that location?

extreme writing

More information here

Happy reading and writing this summer holiday!

We look forward to reading your extreme writing and always like to hear your reading recommendations and book reviews.

The Big Friendly Read – Summer Reading Challenge 2016

Get down to your local public library this summer and join in the Reading Challenge fun – it’s completely free and anybody can take part.

The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children aged 4 to 11 to read six books during the long summer holiday.

The theme for the 2016 Summer Reading Challenge is The Big Friendly Read

The Challenge launched in Scotland on Saturday 25 June and in England and Wales on Saturday 16 July.

Bracknell Forest Library Service encourage secondary school students to volunteer over the summer – assisting younger children with the reading scheme. More information about it here

Watch a lovely trailer here

I for one can’t wait to see the new BFG film – released in the UK on 22nd July!

 

Now for some non-fiction: Summer reading Part 2

For those of you who want factual books on a range of subjects you could try some of these excellent books:

Fascinating insights and entertaining analysis into the way we use words in David Crystal’s latest book:

The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works

Science:

The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery by Sam Kean (recommended by Dr Evans, Chemistry)

Strange Glow: The story of radiation by Timothy J. Jorgensen

Stuff Matters: The strange stories of the marvellous materials that shape our man-made world – Mark Miodownik

New from Marcus du Sautoy – What we cannot know: Explorations at the edge of knowledge

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

History and Classics:

SPQR by Mary Beard

Twelve years a slave by Solomon Northup

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This is the new book from the author of  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

 
Law:

 

Summer reading suggestions Part 1 – Fiction

I am often asked for suggestions of novels which are particularly accessible and engaging for our new Y9 and  current Y10. Here is a quick list of some titles which have proved popular in the past with our students. Some are so well regarded that they are considered modern young adult or children’s classics such as ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar and ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman (the first book is ‘Northern Lights’)

  • Holes – Louis Sachar
  • Noughts and Crosses series and Pig-Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman
  • My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick (chilling Gothic vampire tale)
  • The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (the original teenage rebel story, a young adult classic which is still readable and relevant today)
  • Pompeii and Archangel by Robert Harris
  • The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier (not for the faint-hearted!)
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (short dystopian novel written in 1953 set in a future American society where owning books is illegal and ‘firemen’ are sent to burn any books they discover)
  • Any of John Green’s novels
  • Smart by Kim Slater (for fans of The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon)
  • Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
  • The Gone series by Michael Grant
  • The Robert Galbraith(aka J.K. Rowling) detective/murder mysteries
  • Itch books by Simon Mayo (for those interested in action packed adventure stories on a scientific theme.)

‘Boy X’ by Dan Smith and ‘Lifers’ by Martin Griffin are two recently published young adult novels which a number of current Y10 form boys raved about. They recommended ‘Lifers’ for fans of ‘The Maze Runner’ series.

See the reading lists page and reading recommendations for  further recommendations

Happy holiday reading!

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