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)

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 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:

• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Booker Prize Shortlisted)
• Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (This debut novel is a dystopian satire in which death-row inmates duel on TV for a chance at freedom)
• Eastbound, by Maylis de Kerangal
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith
• North Woods, by Daniel Mason
• The Best Minds, by Jonathan Rosen
• Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs, by Kerry Howley
• Fire Weather, by John Vaillant (Non-fiction and winner of the Royal Society Science Book Prize, this book explores the Canadian wildfires of 2016 and their implications for the planet)
• Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo
• Some People Need Killing, by Patricia Evangelista

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

We’re excited to welcome Dan Freedman to give two author talks to our Y9 in February. In 2021, during lockdown, Dan ran two online Q&A sessions for three of our Y9 boys’ tutor groups. They were fascinating and giving the boys ‘Unstoppable’ to read as a group really kickstarted their reading for pleasure.

Unstoppable  is a thriller combining a sporting theme, with family tensions and secrets. It tells the story of 14 year old sport mad twins Kaine and Roxy. Roxy is a talented tennis player who is being pushed hard by her Dad. Her twin Kaine is hoping to make it in football but is starting to get into trouble and being lured into crime. The twins become increasingly alienated and the family starts to become torn apart. Here’s Dan Freedman talking about his book and reading from it.)

This year the whole year group have been given a copy to read in advance of Dan’s visit. We’re hoping to generate a real buzz around the book, fuelling plenty of book chat. It’s really positive to see many tutors are reading ‘Unstoppable’ too so they can join in the discussions.

A former Y9 gave this endorsement:

‘It was a thrilling read and I started it on Saturday morning and had finished by that evening. It is exactly the genre that I like! I’m going to tell my friends to read it.’

And let’s give the last word to Marcus Rashford:

Once again Mrs Smith, Librarian at Eckington School has dedicated many hours to creating her guide to Christmas viewing based on books. As she writes: ‘Behind many good films, there’s often a great book!’ XmasTV21

‘In this guide you can find details of films and television series that are based on books and available to watch over the festive period. Some of your fantastic school librarians have made suggestions for books they would like to see adapted, and you’ll find these, and some of the books that inspired the films in this guide, in your school and public libraries. Why not borrow one for the holidays?’

It’s available to read or download from the School Library Association website. Use this link and scroll down to Christmas TV list 2021.

As always a big thank you to Helen Smith for generously sharing this guide with us!

See lists of Best Books of the Year 2021 collated here. And browse our most borrowed books and authors.

Here are some recommended podcasts

Thursday saw the start of October and with it the beginning of Black History Month. Google marked this with a Google Doodle celebrating the life of Ignatius Sancho Born on a slave ship, he was a former slave who advocated for abolition through letter-writing. He became a writer, composer, business owner and the first person of African descent to cast a vote in a British general election.

This week’s Library News Digest on Wakelet includes a wealth of articles, podcasts, documentaries and audiobooks by and about inspirational Black people:

• Black Classical Music: The forgotten history (BBC 4)
• Coming in from the cold (TalkSPORT: A definitive documentary about the history of the rise of black footballers in the men’s game in England.)
• A History of Black Classical Music ( 3 part series on Radio 3)
• ‘Reading the Globe: Nigeria’ Listen to abridged radio adaptations of Half of a Yellow Sun, My Sister, the Serial Killer, Things Fall Apart and more.
• 15 black dancers who changed American dance
• BPE podcast Episode 1 – Thomas Gainsborough 1768 ‘Ignatius Sancho’National Portrait Gallery: For this year’s
• National Portrait Gallery: For this year’s Black History Month we have invited the next generation of creatives, thinkers and cultural leaders to reflect on the sitters in our Collection. We’ll be sharing new content here throughout October.
• David Olusoga – Black and British: A forgotten history (iPlayer – 4 x 1 hour episodes)

Don’t miss the Black History Timeline display in Back Quad and the display of books in the library. Have a browse of the book recommendations on the Library padlets: Black Voices  and Fighting Racism