Category Archives: Book Awards

The Carnegie Book Award 2016 shadowing takes off!

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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

‘The Lie Tree’ by Frances Hardinge wins the Costa Book Award 2015

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Ms Dahlke writes: 

Congratulations to Frances Hardinge for winning the Costa Book of the Year award for her young adult novel, The Lie Tree. Despite the award being established in 1971, this is only the second time a book for young people has won it. I’m not surprised that it won the overall award, I read it over the summer holidays and have been recommending it to people (of all ages) ever since.

The book is set in Victorian times and begins with Faith, a teenage girl, and her family arriving on an island in order to escape the scandal that engulfed them in London. What was the scandal? And why is her natural scientist father so reluctant to talk about it? Faith is determined to find out.

This book has an original and tightly structured plot, which keeps the suspense going until the very end. Faith – stubborn and spiky, but with a sense of honour that wins out in the end – is a great character. It’s an entertaining read that will also raise questions about the nature of truth and lies. 

I would agree that this is a unique and fascinating novel, appealing to all ages. More information is available in an interesting article from Telegraph books

 

Carnegie Book Award Shadowing is underway!

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carnegie shortlist 2015

CILIP Carnegie Medal 2015 shortlist:

  • Apple and rain by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)
  • When Mr Dog bites by Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury)
  • More than this by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
  • Buffalo soldier by Tanya Landman (Walker Books)
  • Tinder by Sally Gardner (Orion Children’s Books)
  • Cuckoo song by Frances Hardinge (Pan Macmillan)
  • The fastest boy in the world by Elizabeth Laird (Pan Macmillan)
  • The middle of nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean (Usborne Books)

This year’s beautifully colour-coordinated collection of shortlisted books have arrived! We discussed them with Book Chat club on Wednesday and they chose to start reading The Fastest Boy in the World and When Mr Dog Bites first. We have multiple copies of the books and are hoping to shadow the prize with a number of 3rd form tutor groups. 5 of the titles are also available as e-books. Are you up for the challenge of reading all 8 over the Easter holidays? If this is too much you have until 22nd June to read them and choose your winner!

carnegie 2015

On Monday 23rd March the Y9 Scholars and Exhibitioners started their shadowing. They enthusiastically chose shortlisted titles to read over the Easter holidays.

Booker Prize Announcement 2014 and holiday reading suggestions

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Holiday Reading

flanagan cover image

On Tuesday 14th October the Booker Prize winner was announced. This year marked the first time non-Commonwealth writers were eligible for the prize. Contrary to the fears of an American takeover it was won by Australian writer Richard Flanagan with his book ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’. The novel recounts the experiences of a fictional surgeon in a Japanese prisoner of war camp on the Thailand-Burma railway. Flanagan’s father was a Japanese prisoner of war in a camp on the Thailand-Burma railway and Flanagan felt compelled to write the book – in fact it took him 12 years and five versions to finish it. Read more about it here and have a browse of the other shortlisted titles. Another brilliant book on this harrowing subject is ‘The Railway Man’ by Eric Lomax. This is a first-hand account of the ordeal of being a prisoner on the Thailand-Burma railway (made into a film in 2013). If this is too much misery I am assured that Booker Shortlisted title ‘We are all completely beside ourselves’ by Karen Jay Fowler is “hilarious and heartbreaking” so definitely some humour amidst the sadness.

For non-fiction and subject specific suggestions don’t forget the Top 10 Books and for more fiction suggestions try Tom Wayman’s Wellington 100 and Middle School Reading List

WC Advertising – Carnegie Book Openings

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I’m constantly trying to spread the word about great new books in the library and I hit upon free advertising space in the ladies’ loos. To promote shortlisted Carnegie titles we created laminated A4 posters displaying the book cover image and the opening page. These were placed on the toilet doors. Apart from brightening up the place they have had the desired effect of directing people to the library to borrow the books, intrigued to know more.  I am ridiculously pleased that three copies of ‘Rooftoppers’ and two of ‘Blood Family’ have been borrowed by our wonderful support staff.   A number of staff have commented on how much they like the idea and enjoy reading about books they wouldn’t normally discover. Two 6th form girls have borrowed the books too having read the opening pages. No sign of any men borrowing these books yet although my male helpers insist they did put the posters up in the mens!

Teaching and support staff  get ready for the Summer YA Challenge – more information soon.

Pupils get ready for more book openings on toilet doors and a brilliant summer read coming your way.

I’m already looking forward to National Poetry Day on 2nd October 2014 so we can do ‘WC Poetry’!

all the truth openingrooftoppersbunker opening

Carnegie Book Award Shortlist 2014

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carnegie covers 2 2014

The eagerly awaited Carnegie Medal Shortlist 2014 was announced on Tuesday 18th March. This annual book prize is awarded to the writer of an outstanding children’s book. Schools around the UK and the rest of the world shadow this prize – by reading and discussing the 8 books and voting for their favourites. A panel of school librarian judges make the final decision. We will be joining in – with groups of 3rd form pupils reading the shortlist. A number of the books are well-suited to 4th and 5th form too, so do encourage your children to choose some exciting, well-written and compelling fiction for the Easter holidays. Here’s a BBC News article on this year’s prize.

Watch clips of all the authors talking about their books here.

We also have the Kate Greenaway Medal picture book shortlist in library stock.

‘The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in 1955, for distinguished illustration in a book for children. It is named after the popular nineteenth century artist known for her fine children’s illustrations and designs.The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. The winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice.’ (http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/)

These beautifully illustrated and often very humorous picture books make a great addition to our stock for young children. We very much enjoy our visits from the staff babies and toddlers and on Wednesday afternoons a group of pupils read the picture books to the children as their service activity.

carnegie covers 2014

 

Man Booker Shadowing Group takes off

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booker books

Mrs Macgregor has set the 6th form a challenge – to read all six shortlisted Man Booker Prize titles in time to cast their vote when the winner is announced on 15th October. This is no mean feat as the first book ‘The Luminaries’ by Eleanor Catton is 832 pages long. However, 12 tenacious 6th form students have taken up the challenge and will be meeting each week to discuss one of the books.

Mrs Macgregor writes:

There was a wonderful interview with the author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour which should provide a good introduction to the novel.  As we meet on Thursday 26th September you have a good 11 days to read this tome.

Additional Man Booker links:

NoViolet Bulawayo, Zimbabwean author interview on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

Guardian article claiming this is the best shortlist for a decade.

Does Man-Booker-shortlisted novelist Jhumpa Lahiri’s real skill lie in short stories?   Review of ‘The Lowland’ (Guardian 12th September 2013)

Guardian Books Blog – Video in which Richard Lea argues that Ruth Ozeki’s ‘A Tale for the Time Being’ should win this year’s Man Booker Prize. “The shortlisted novel begins with the discovery of a Hello Kitty lunchbox containing the diary of a young Japanese girl washed up on the shore in British Columbia.”

The librarians are attempting to keep pace with the reading and join in the discussions but we also have potential Carnegie longlist contenders to read for a discussion day on 9th October!

The library has copies of the shortlisted books if anyone else wants to join in the reading.

Award winning books for Scientists

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This year’s longlist for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books was announced on 1st June.

Shortlist will be announced in September 2013. Winner will be announced on 25 November 2013

We are hoping to set up student and staff book clubs to read a selection of the shortlisted books and provoke some lively discussion about them next academic year.

We will be buying copies of the books for the Library.

In the meantime why not kickstart your Science reading with last year’s shortlist? All of the titles are available in the Library.

From this link to the shortlist you can read the first chapter of each book before deciding which to read.

Last year’s winner was The Information by James Gleick

Or if Science isn’t your thing….don’t forget we have plenty of excellent fiction including the Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2013 

Carnegie Book Prize Shadowing 2013

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The Carnegie Shortlist for 2013 was announced in April and reading is underway. Join in the book chat and pick up one of the 8 shortlisted titles from the Library today! The winner is announced on 19th June.

Click on the pinterest board to view the shortlisted books.

Mrs Lunnon’s 3rd form class are shadowing the prize and all read one of the books over the Easter holiday. They have named their group “Giveitsomewelly” and have started adding their reviews to the Shadowing page. Ms Williamson’s 4th form tutor group are about to embark on the books.

Join in the debate – which is your favourite? What do you think of the shortlist?

You can tweet your comments/feedback on the books using the hashtag #ckg13

Any 3rd form who would like to join a Library Shadowing group come to a meeting at morning break tomorrow (Friday 19th).

Biscuits and drinks provided!

To get a flavour of the Books look at the book trailers on youtube:

Wonder trailer | Maggot Moon |In Darkness | Code Name Verity

Interview with Roddy Doyle about his book “Greyhound of a Girl”