Christmas reading and TV

Christmas Reading TV Guide 2016

It’s arrived –  the eagerly awaited ‘Christmas TV Guide’ compiled by Helen Smith at Eckington School Library. Every year Helen creates her ‘Christmas Reading Times’ scouring Freeview listings to find all TV programmes based on books. This year is a deluxe version with an alphabetical listing of authors and sections giving information on ‘featured authors’ Why not read some of the books before watching the films? The original book is invariably better…but the film adaptations can be great too, especially when they are based on a brilliant story.

I’ve yet to see the film of ‘The Woman in Black’ (I’ve read the book and seen the stage adaptation twice – once here at Wellington and once many years ago at the West End.) I have yet to read ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’  – an  ambitious task before it is shown on TV on 22nd December!

Many of our students mentioned Agatha Christie, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and The Borrowers as comfort reads – all these are available as films on TV this Christmas.

Year 10 and Y11 can watch Nicholas Nickleby,  A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations (Charles Dickens),The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle  and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins to immerse themselves in the setting, language and characters of the 19th Century novel…but read the books first!

If you missed the ‘Paddington’ film when it was at the cinemas you are in for a TV treat.

Happy reading and watching this festive season!

Helen creates this list and puts in a lot of time and effort sharing it freely with other schools and librarians.   If you would like to recognize the work she puts in by donating to her chosen charity, Cancer Research, please do.  There’s absolutely no expectation that you do this, but if you can spare a small amount, every little helps!