Most popular books this academic year

Librarians love book lists. Here we are sharing the most borrowed books from the library September 2021 – June 2022. ‘The Scythe Trilogy’ by Neal Shusterman continues to be very popular across the age range and with staff too. A dystopian, thought-provoking trilogy with a fast-paced plot and excellent characterisation. Fans of The Hunger Games this one is for you.

Also recommended is Neal Shusterman’s cli-fi thriller Dry. The scenario is the taps running dry, the setting is California and the protagonists a group of teens trying to survive…

 

Don’t forget to pick up some holiday reads from the wide range of new books.

If you are looking for some diverse YA novels to read over the summer the YA Book Prize Shortlist has just been announced. More information here

Top 20 most borrowed fiction titles from the library this academic year (up to 17th June 2022)

Scythe: Book 1 Neal Shusterman
Thunderhead (Scythe Trilogy Book 2) Neal Shusterman
The Territory (Book1) Sarah Govett
Nineteen eighty four George Orwell
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe Benjamin Alire Saenz
Heartstopper (Graphic novel book 3) Alice Oseman
One Sarah Crossan
The Great Godden Meg Rosoff
Normal People Sally Rooney
The Crossing Manjeet Mann
The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman
Unstoppable Dan Freedman
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Holly Jackson
Heartstopper Volume 1 Alice Osman
Me Before You Jojo Moyes
Kid Got Shot Simon Mason
The Man who died twice Richard Osman
The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy Douglas Adams
Arctic Star Tom Palmer
Am I normal yet? Holly Bourne

Top Ten most borrowed non-fiction titles from the library this academic year (up to 15th June 2022)

Anyone can do it: Building Coffee Republic from our kitchen table Sahar & Bobby Hashemi
Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think Hans Rosling
The great pretender: The undercover mission that changed our understanding of madness Susannah Cahalan
Letters to a law student Nicholas McBride
Fractured: Why are societies are coming apart and how we put them back together again Jon Yates
Four thousand weeks: time and how to use it Oliver Burkeman
Ways of Seeing John Berger
Thinking fast and slow Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens: a brief history of humankind Yuval Noah Harari
Why chemical reactions happen J. Keeler & P. Wothers

Display of new books in the library.

 

Costa Book Award 2021 – Book of the Year Announcement

We have been eagerly following the announcements in the 50th Costa Book Awards 2021. Copies of all the Shortlisted Books were added to library stock. Two of our favourite books of the year were shortlisted for the novel category – ‘The Island of Missing Trees’ by Elif Shafak and ‘Unsettled Ground’ by Claire Fuller.

We were particularly excited to see ‘The Crossing’ by Manjeet Mann won the Children’s Book Category. This powerful and moving verse novel has been very popular with our students and we are looking forward to Manjeet’s visit next term. Last year we gave all our incoming Y9s a copy of Manjeet’s first YA verse novel ‘Run, Rebel’ as a summer holiday read before joining Wellington College. This was also very well received and prompted many students to go on and read ‘Run, Rebel’. A number of them developed a new interest in verse novels and went on to read Sarah Crossan’s books. They loved the pace of the story and the look of the poems on the page.

 

 

On Tuesday 1st February 2022 the Costa Book of the Year was announced; chosen from the five category winners.

Hannah Lowe’s collection of poetry, ‘The Kids’, has won the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year Award. This book of sonnets has been described as ‘uplifting’ and ‘a book to fall in love with’. I like the judging criteria of ‘the most enjoyable book’ –  a book to read, enjoy and share. The prize ‘rewarding and celebrating highly readable and recommendable books that anyone and everyone can enjoy.’

Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Kids’, I agree with the judges – this is a celebration of young people, their energy and diversity and also a personal story of a young teacher who isn’t afraid to poke fun at her own mistakes; the learning is both by the teacher and the students. Lowe creates an incredibly accessible and moving collection of contemporary sonnets including themes of motherhood, parents and relationships which is  often very witty. Lowe’s personality and voice buzz off the page – there is the immediacy in her writing which makes it a highly accessible collection of poetry. Many people feel wary or daunted by poetry but this book is for everyone and may convince poetry sceptics to try some more!

A particular joy is hearing Hannah Lowe read her poetry. You can listen to a reading here

Listen to an interview with Lowe by current students at City and Islington College. She was an English teacher at CANDI from 2002 – 2012.

Best Books of the Year 2021

One of the delights of December is the proliferation of lists of ‘Best books of the Year’ from a range of sources. Waterstones have just announced their ‘Children’s Gift of the Year’ as ‘Julia and the Shark’, a beautifully illustrated poetic story for children. Described as A captivating, powerful and luminous story from a bestselling, award-winning author about a mother, a daughter, and the great Greenland shark. With mesmerising black and yellow illustrations and presented as a hardback with tracing paper inserts, this is a perfect gift for 9+ fans of David Almond and Frances Hardinge.(lovereading4kids)

Waterstones Books of the Year 2021 Winner ‘The Lyrics’ by Paul McCartney

Foyles Books of the Year 2021

 

 

 

 

 

Costa Book Award Shortlists, 23rd November 2021

Booktrust – The very best books of 2021 picked by authors and illustrators

Faber have a series of beautifully presented themed book gift guides.

Penguin : The books we loved in 2021

Guardian Best Books of 2021 including categories for Politics, Crime and Thrillers, Science Fiction and Fantasy and Food so far.

Guardian Best Books of 2021 chosen by guest authors

The Times best books of 2021

This list chooses Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel ‘Klara and the Sun’ as its top fiction pick.

For children Phil Earle’s ‘When the sky falls’ triumphs. This moving, unique story is set in a zoo during World War ll.

FT Fiction of the Year 2021

Best books of 2021 by themed lists from Five Books

Support your local independent bookshop through in-person visits or online at bookshop.org. Have a look at the Books Are my Bag readers choice award winners.

We also loved the poetry BAMB Poetry choice and it’s available from the Library now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also have the fascinating and thought-provoking Royal Society Science Book Prize Shortlist and Winner 2021 in the library.

 

 

 

 

Popular book choices from the Library staff and borrowers this year include:

Thrillers/Detective/Murder Mystery/Spies:

  • The Appeal by Janice Hallet
  • The Man who died twice by Richard Osman (the second outing of the entertaining and sympathetic band of elderly sleuths The Thursday Murder Club)
  • Slough House by Mick Herron

Historical Fiction

  • The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
  • The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
  • The moth and the mountain by Ed Caesar

Young Adult:

  • Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman
  • Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz
  • Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann
  • The Crossing by Manjeet Mann
  • 29 locks by Nicola Garrett

Picture Books:

  • The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess by Tom Gauld
  • Arlo the lion who couldn’t sleep by Catherine Rayner
  • The bird within me by Sara Lundberg
  • What happened to you by James Catchpole

Graphic Novels:

  • Esther’s notebooks by Riad Sattouf (in English and French)
  • Factory Summers by Guy Delisle
  • Couch Fiction: A graphic tale of pyschotherapy by Philippa Perry
  • Medusa by Jessie Burton
  • Sapiens – Graphic novel volume 2. by David Vandermeulen and Yuval Noah Harari

General fiction:

  • The Fell by Sarah Moss
  • The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
  • Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Dr Hendrick’s top pick)
  • Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
  • Still Life by Sarah Winman
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

We continue to recommend ‘Miss Benson’s Beetle’ by Rachel Joyce as wonderful feelgood fiction and the audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Juliet Stevenson.

Non-fiction:

  • Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
  • Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert
  • Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
  • The world according to colour: A cultural history by James Fox

See below for the list of books we read and discussed at the Wellington College Community Book Club (out of necessity, mostly online via Teams this year). This is a friendly, informal group of teachers, staff, parents, Old Wellingtonians and parents of OWs.

Wellington College Community Book Club – 2021 Titles

January:   Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

March:      Jeoffry: The poet’s cat by Oliver Soden and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

April:         Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and A woman is no man by Etaf Rum

June:         Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce and The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Sept:         A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Nov:        The man who died twice by Richard Osman and  Leave the world behind by Rumaan Alam

For our Book Club meeting on 25th January 2022 (7.30pm on Teams) we will be discussing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Ten most borrowed non-fiction of 2021

The Great Pretender: The undercover mission that changed our understanding of madness Susannah Cahalan
Sapiens : a Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari
Invisible Women : exposing data bias in a world designed for men Caroline Criado-Perez
The Psychology Book Dorling Kindersley
Mindfulness Mark J. Williams
Stuff Matters Mark Miodownik
Wild Swans : Three daughters of China Jung Chang
Talking to Strangers : what we should know about the people we don’t know Malcolm Gladwell
Testosterone rex : Unmaking the myths of our gendered minds Cordelia Fine
The Story of Art E. H. Gombrich

Top 15 most borrowed authors of 2021

Neal Shusterman
Sarah J. Maas
Ben Aaronovitch
Alice Oseman
Sarah Govett
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dan Freedman
Simon Mason
Angie Thomas
Malorie Blackman
J. K. Rowling
Kwame Alexander
Sarah Crossan
George Orwell
Leigh Bardugo

Top 20 most popular fiction titles of 2021

Scythe: Book 1 Neal Shusterman
Thunderhead: (Scythe Book 2) Neal Shusterman
The Territory: Book 1 Sarah Govett
The song of Achilles Madeline Miller
Miss Benson’s Beetle Rachel Joyce
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Hate U Give Angie Thomas
Running girl Simon Mason
Unstoppable Dan Freedman
1984 George Orwell
We were liars E. Lockhart
A court of thorns and roses: Book 1 Sarah J. Maas
The Penguin Lessons Tom Michell
The midnight library Matt Haig
Dry Neal Shusterman
The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman
Heartstopper: Volume 4 (graphic novel) Alice Oseman
The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett
Becoming Muhammad Ali James Patterson and Kwame Alexander
Holes Louis Sachar

 

Two big Book Prize announcements this week – The Baillie Gifford Book Award (Non-Fiction) and the Costa Book Award Shortlists

Baillie Gifford Book Award Winner Announced!

On 24th November the most prestigious award for non-fiction in the UK announced its 2020 winner. The shortlist was very strong and varied but Craig Brown triumphed with his work on the Beatles. The judges praised the biography as ‘innovative and experimental’.

One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time

One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher.

From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.

 

The 2020 shortlist is:

 

Costa Book Award 2020

On the same day, the Costa Book Award Shortlists were announced. These are for the categories – novel, first novel, biography, children’s and poetry and provide an interesting range of outstanding books published this year to explore. Why not pick up some great suggestions for Christmas holiday reading?

  • Category Winners announced: Monday 4th January 2021
  • Costa Book of the Year announced: Tuesday 26th January 2021

The Costa Book Awards started in 2006 (formerly the Whitbread Book Award from 1971). Have a look at the list of fantastic books which have been shortlisted and won over the history of the  Costa prize

Douglas Stuart wins the Booker Prize with ‘Shuggie Bain’

Thursday 19th November 2020 The Booker Prize Winner was announced.

I was delighted to see that this year’s winner was  Douglas Stuart with his incredible debut novel ‘Shuggie Bain’.

We read this novel for the Wellington College Community Book Club and had a fascinating discussion about it. I was, at first, quite reluctant to read such a harrowing and gritty novel set in grinding poverty, hunger and unemployment in Glasgow in the 1980s. However, I’m very glad I did as it was a poignant, touching and beautifully written story of a young boy’s relationship with his mother who was struggling with alcoholism. Shuggie is a a remarkable boy who we travel with as he grows from 5 year old to teenager – fiercely loyal to his mother Agnes. This is a novel which transports the reader to that time and place and once read is never to be forgotten.

20th November 2020: Here are a selection of the latest book reviews and recommendations from the 3rd form:

Factfulness by Hans Rosling (recommended by Harry G)

It is a great book but does seem to drag on a bit with the same idea all the way through but  still a great book and very interesting and really made me think.

Geek Girl by Holly Smale (Lydia R)

I loved this book and how inspiring and interesting it was.

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (Theo B)

A very emotional book which covers a lot of modern problems

The Territory by Sarah Govett

(Alexander C) The book was very emotional and moving and had all the right things to keep you interested throughout the book.

and another 5 star review for The Territory:

A unique book, the first one I have read that is in a diary form. It has interesting plot development. Even though it has a diary like form, it has great scenery description and also because it is in a diary form, the story was told from one person only, keeping the readers guessing for what the other characters are thinking.

Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah  (Nina G)

I rate this book 5 stars. It was very well written as it was based off a little boy struggling in a new country alone. It made me think about my life and how different it could be. It was quite an emotional book and my thoughts on all the characters changed constantly.

Royal Society Book Prize Shortlist 2020 – winner announced

Winner Announcement

On Tuesday 3rd November the Royal Society held a fascinating live streamed event discussing the importance of popular, accessible science writing which was followed by the winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Book Prize announcement. This year’s prize was won by Dr Camilla Pang for her book ‘Explaining Humans’

Subtitled – ‘What science can teach us about life, love and relationships.

Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of eight, Dr Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her. Desperate for a solution, Camilla asked her mother if there was an instruction manual for humans that she could consult. But, without the blueprint to life she was hoping for, Camilla began to create her own. Now armed with a PhD in biochemistry, Camilla dismantles our obscure social customs and identifies what it really means to be human using her unique expertise and a language she knows best: science.

We are continuing to read and promote the shortlist. Our Academic Support staff are reading ‘Explaining Humans’, a keen Physicist in Y11 is reading ‘The world according to Physics’, I’m thoroughly gripped by Susannah Cahalan’s ‘The Great Pretender’ and our Psychology staff and 6th formers are reading it too. Our Head of Economics read ‘The Double X Economy’ over half-term and wrote that ‘ it made me quite sad, as there are so many distressing stories about women. But equally it is so important that we are aware of what is going on, so I would definitely recommend it’. A biology teacher is reading Gaia Vince’s ‘Transcendence’ so I’m looking forward to hearing feedback on that book too.

9th October 2020 update. Our copies of the Shortlisted books have just arrived and we have an eye-catching display in the library. 5th and 6th form Scientists (and interested others!) are encouraged to borrow a copy and read it over the half-term break. Science Society will be leading this and we look forward to some lively discussions of the shortlisted books. I’m going to start with ‘The Great Pretender’ by Susannah Cahalan. Review here

We have e-books of 3 of the titles on our VLeBooks platform.

The Royal Society Science Book Prize Shortlist for 2020 has just been announced. As in previous years we are looking forward to reading the 6 shortlisted books with Science Society and other interested 6th formers.  The books are billed as ‘representing the very best in popular science writing from around the world for a non-specialist audience’.  From past experience the books are engaging, fascinating and informative and have enthused our students to extend their reading in academic subjects. As well as Physics and Biology being represented this year there is a book of interest to Economists – ‘The Double X Economy’ by Linda Scott. This book is considered ‘the first book to demonstrate the true impact of women’s economic exclusion – and map out the exciting potential for change. Psychology students and the curious general reader can explore ‘The Great Pretender’ by Susannah Cahalan which uses detective work to explore the famous 1973 Stanford study of psychiatric hospitals. She asks the questions ‘what if that ground-breaking and now-famous experiment was itself deeply flawed? And what does that mean for our understanding of mental illness today?’

We have e-books of ‘The Double X Economy’ by Linda Scott and ‘The world according to Physics’ by Jim Al-Khalili and ‘The Great Pretender’ by Susannah Cahalan on our VLeBooks platform which can be read immediately. ‘Explaining Humans’ by Dr Camila Pang and ‘The Body’ by Bill Bryson are already available in print form from the library.

You can view all the past winners here  Many of them are available to borrow from the Library.

The winner will be announced on 3rd November 2020. We look forward to our discussion meeting where students have the opportunity to champion the book they read if they feel it is a strong contended for the prize.

Christmas reading lists and books of the year 2019

It’s that exciting time of year when everywhere you look people are sharing their ‘Best books’ lists from 2019. This is a brilliant opportunity to be reminded of the great books you might have missed or stocking up on holiday reading or Christmas present ideas. The winter is a perfect time to cosy up with an enjoyable book. I firmly believe it is vital that our young people are reading, for so many crucial reasons – developing focus and sustained concentration, expanding vocabulary and developing reading skills, widening subject knowledge, building empathy by learning about other cultures and situations. Fiction helps us empathise with characters struggling with difficulties and can help us resolve our own issues. Research has shown that children and teenagers who read for pleasure are more successful in life. See the National Literacy Trust Report on this subject and p6 Reading is a form of mindfulness – a calming absorbed time to escape from daily pressures and worries. Aside from all the worthy and important stuff it’s fun and escapist to lose yourself in a grand adventure or story of your choosing. For anyone interested in the subject of how the digital world is affecting our deep reading and concentration I recommend Maryanne Wolf’s book ‘Reader, Come Home’.

Waterstones have announced their book and author of the year. These are voted for by Waterstones booksellers and represent books they consistently love and recommend to customers.

Charlie Mackesy won Book of the Year with his charming The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and Greta Thunberg was voted Author of the Year for her book ‘ No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.

In October The Independent newspaper has pages of best books on themes including ‘best plastic-free living books’ 

100 novels that shaped our world

I’m looking forward to exploring the BBC’s recent list of ‘100 novels that shaped our world’ You can also watch the accompanying programmes ‘Novels that shaped our world’ on BBC iPlayer .There are 3 episodes exploring class, the novel’s link to the rise and fall of the British Empire and women as readers and writers.

Here is the Guardian Best Books of the Year list  

Here are the Best Books of the Year 2019 chosen by writers

Best thrillers of the year

The FT Business Books of the Year Won by Caroline Criado Perez with ‘Invisible Women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men’ (which also won the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2019)

The Telegraph 50 Best Books of 2019

New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2019 

NYT best children’s and YA books of 2019

For a view from America here are the New York Public Library’s favourites from this year – arranged in  5 categories You can explore the Library’s top 10 books in five categories: kids, Spanish-language kids, teens, adults, and poetry.

Here are the ‘Five Books’ website Best books of 2019This excellent website interviews experts in many areas of expertise and asks them to pick the best 5 books in their field. This creates a vast bank of suggestions on many topics from Science to Crime Fiction, Business to Poetry. A bookish delight!

Browsing all the lists, a novel which keeps featuring is Olive, again’ Elizabeth Strout’s sequel to ‘Olive Kitteridge’. This highly regarded and frequently recommended novel has somehow passed me by so I’m looking forward to reading them both.

Costa Book Awards Shortlists 2019

The Costa Book Award category shortlists have recently been announced. Many of these books feature prominently on books of the year lists. Some great reading suggestions in these lists too. The categories are for Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s book and the ultimate Costa Book of the Year will be announced on 6th January 2020. Here is the list of past winners and shortlists.  I’ve bought the shortlists for library stock so we can read and join the conversation about this titles.

Our most popular fiction of this term so far has been the ‘Scythe’ trilogy by Neal Shusterman. This has proved incredibily popular and has caught on further as students have seen many of their friends walking around with this book. It’s a dystopian series which is ideal for ‘Hunger Games’ fans. It has also been popular with English teachers and librarians and my 19 and 21 year old children. I sent them the final book ‘The Toll’ at University and it is so gripping they are getting distracted from all else!

Our top 4 fiction titles this term are:

  • Scythe Book 1 by Neal Shusterman
  • The Territory (Book 1) by Sarah Govett (previously our visiting author)
  • Burial Rites by Hanah Kent (Wellington Community Book Club read)
  • Joint 5th Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hit by Melvin Burgess and Thunderhead (Scythe Book 2) by Neal Shusterman

Our top 5 non-fiction titles were:

  • Clearing the air: the beginning and end of air pollution by Tim Smedley
  • Talking to strangers: what we should know about the people we don’t know by Malcom Gladwell
  • Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
  • Factfulness by Hans Rosling
  • The Body: a guide for occupants by Bill Bryson

Inspirational reading initiatives!

This academic year our Headmaster has highlighted three main areas he would like us to focus on – inspiration, independence and inclusivity. He is particularly keen for our students (and staff) to be inspired in everything they do and for us all to share books that have inspired us.

It’s exciting to see that reading has taken off in a big way already this term and is branching out beyond the confines of the library and the English Department. We have always encouraged students to read books to extend their academic subject knowledge and bought prize shortlisted books particularly in the field of popular science for Library stock. For the past few years we have promoted the Royal Society Book Prize  and bought multiple copies so students can read and discuss them together.

Royal Society Book Prize Shortlist 2017 – Student shadowing.

This year Biology teacher Nik Light has taken this idea from a library Tweet and run with it. Our 6th Form Science Society are ‘shadowing’ the Royal Society Prize – each reading a shortlisted book (or as much as possible of it in the short time available!) before they meet to deliver their verdicts and debates the merits of each book just before the winner is announced by Brian Cox on 19th Sept. We’ll have the live Twitter feed up in the library as I don’t think the ceremony is broadcast live. One of the students has already declared that their book (described only as ISBN 978-1784700171 as we don’t want to pre-empt the judging!) is the best Science book they have ever read.

Y9 Chemistry reading – ‘The Disappearing Spoon’ by Sam Kean

Dr Caroline Evans, Head of the Chemistry Department is reinforcing the drive to encourage our students to read more and read widely, particularly to extend their subject knowledge in an interesting and entertaining way. She explains:

The Chemistry Department has decided to incorporate more literacy into our lessons for the third form. We have a class set of ‘The Disappearing Spoon’ by Sam Kean which students will be reading and discussing once a fortnight. It is a fantastic book with lots of interesting tales about the Periodic Table.  The plan is for students to be able to use their newly acquired knowledge in the lessons about the Periodic Table. 

She adds:

As a student I didn’t warm to fiction and I didn’t realise that popular science existed. I’m hopeful that for some of our keen scientists that we can combine their love of science with a love for reading. If you’d like to read the book alongside your tutee then there are copies available in the library. Unleash your inner-geek!

We’ve also been holding book discussions with our new Y9s about ‘Z for Zachariah’ the book they were given to read over the summer holiday. In conjunction with Rob Murphy, head of Y9, the students have been thinking about their 8 ‘Desert Island Books’. This has been easier for some than others – Robert Muchamore’s ‘Cherub’ series seems to be a universal favourite and the book ‘Lion’ has been popular this summer with the film tie-in. Based on the Desert Island Discs format with a twist, the students were allowed to take one luxury and one track of music to the island. We’re hoping that this work will lead to some interesting book discussions with tutors. Emphasis was placed on the students saying why they liked a book and the impact it had on them.

Here’s a charming and impressive example by a Y9 boy.

Desert Island books

Robert Harris The Cicero Trilogy: Imperium, Lustrum and The Dictator

These three books are probably the greatest examples of Harris’s writing. I loved the attention to history and the sheer drama which he made out of Cicero’s Lawyer/Politician life. And they were my first meaty and proper books, all of the books in the trilogy are about 400 pages long.

Robert Muchamore: Brigands M.C. (Cherub series)

Cherub was what got me into reading. They’re everything, spy novels, teenage romances, gritty missions, epic training sequences. Literally everything I wanted from a children’s book. Since the series is huge I can’t choose them all. If I have to choose, the penultimate book in the first series (the James series) is the best.

PG Wodehouse: Carry on Jeeves

PG Wodehouse is the second funniest author I have ever read, and of his many eccentric characters Jeeves is by far my favourite. Jeeves and Bertie Wooster make a ludicrously funny pair. And this is the kind of book which I could spend hours just finding something new in its pages.

Jung Chang: Wild Swans

Ever since reading this I wanted to know more about Mao’s regime and how its still affecting  China today, I know so little about such an interesting country and period, and I would love to explore the area further.

The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (the first one) by Douglas Adams

This is the funniest, most plot hole ridden “book” of all time. I absolutely adored it when I first read it and keep loving it today. It’s just so quirky and different in every way.

Captain Bluebear

Read this. It’s the most charming and creative book ever. Its like a hyperactive imagination went wild but was then tamed by clear concise writing and beautiful turns of phrase.

Music: Macklemore, Drug Dealer

It’s such a soulful song and makes me really focused

Luxury: Spaghetti Bolognese

On the island there would probably be food, it’s just Spaghetti Bolognese would be better than anything I could find.

Jane Austen 200

And finally – our enthusiastic English Department and Literary Society is holding a celebration of the bicentenary of Jane Austen next week with Regency High Tea, music and readings from her novels.

 

The Carnegie Book Award 2016 shadowing takes off!

Carnegie group 2016The Carnegie Book Award Shortlist 2016 has been announced and our Y9 shadowing group members have collected their first books to read over the Easter holidays. It’s a fantastic shortlist this year including ‘The Lie Tree’ by Frances Hardinge; Costa Book of the Year 2015 and much praised and recommended by both librarians here. I thought ‘One’ was amazing and Sarah Crossan’s trademark style of writing in blank verse works well with the subject matter. Tipi and Grace are conjoined teenage twins and each chapter conveys a poetic snapshot of their life.

Read more about the shortlists here  You can watch author and illustrator videos here

Guardian reviews of all the books can be found here

Having multiple copies of the shortlisted books enables a large group of students to read the books simultaneously and provokes heated discussions about the merits and drawbacks of all of them. After the award process is over they become useful sets of contemporary fiction which can be read by tutor groups.

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The 8 shortlisted books are:

One by Sarah Crossan

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick