International Women’s Day

We have combined a celebration of World Book Day (Thursday 6th March) with International Women’s Day (Friday 7th March).

Our library book displays include cracking reads to kickstart reading for pleasure and a selection of our choices can be seen on the library Padlet here

There is also a padlet – a visual reading list on Gender, Identity and Feminism (padlet.com) This also includes books by and about women with some recommendations of fascinating biographies and autobiographies.

Two particularly thought-provoking and enlightening non-fiction reads, available in the library and as e-books are:

  • Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
    by Caroline Criado Perez
  • The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart

The Women’s Prize for Fiction organisers have just announced the first Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction as a way of promoting women’s writing in this field. The books are available in the library. Read more here.

The 16 title longlist has been announced.

The full list in alphabetical order by author surname is:

The website explains:

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is a major new annual book prize that celebrates exceptional narrative non-fiction by women. The Prize promotes excellence in writing, robust research, original narrative voices and accessibility, showcasing women’s expertise across a range of fields.

The Prize will be awarded annually and is open to all women writers from across the globe who are published in the UK and writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork known as the ‘Charlotte’, both gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Women’s prize for fiction winners (padlet.com)

There is also an interesting reading list from Foyles booksellers who asked women authors for their recommendations:

To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we asked the authors we admire to share their recommendations, and they delivered! From defining novels of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, to international bestsellers of the modern day—expect themes of motherhood, translation, rage, and resistance, amongst this essential reading list.

International Women’s Day Reading List (foyles.co.uk)

World Book Day Recommendations

Thursday 2nd March was World Book Day and we’ve been celebrating with quizzes, book recommendations and our DEAL event.

DEAL stands for Drop Everything and Listen and teachers and librarians joined in to read to their classes for 20 – 30 minutes at 11.30am. Although reading aloud to classes in primary schools is common, it happens much less at secondary level. This seems a shame so at the suggestion of Deputy Head Academic, Ben Evans, we set up DEAL which we initiated last year.

It’s an opportunity for teachers to choose an extract from a novel, a favourite poem or short story or a text relevant to their subject to share with their classes.

‘West with the night’ by Beryl Markham

I thoroughly enjoyed reading to a group of 10 3rd Formers. I gathered up the comfy seating in the library for an informal layout and launched into Beryl Markham’s account of her solo flight across the Atlantic to attempt to reach New York from England in 1936. To my relief they were rapt for what turned out to be 40 minutes of reading aloud and had numerous questions – How big was the plane? What did it look like? It prompted a really interesting conversation.

 

 

 

Our Head of Maths, Paul Cootes, remembered one of Isaac Asimov’s ‘I Robot’ short stories making a big impression on his when he was younger so he read that to his 3rd Form Maths class. They too were fully engrossed in listening to the story.

Here are some of the student and staff Favourite Books collected on our flipchart on World Book Day:

Looking at the titles fiction certainly wins the day!

 

Tutor Group and Book Club Reads

One positive aspect of lockdown has been an increase in reading. Many students and staff tell me they have been reading more than usual and book clubs have been flourishing.  I proposed the idea of tutor group book clubs with a shared read chosen either by the students themselves or I provided a shortlist of suggested titles with summaries and the students voted for their favourite. We now have 10 tutor groups from Y9 to L6th reading a book together and looking forward to discussing it in group tutorials later this term. The Picton Y9 boys read ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline over the Christmas holiday and we had a lively discussion including a number of Y8s who are joining the house in September 2021. The boys were enthusiastic about the book and volunteered insightful comments. House Master and Assistant HM Mr Murray and Mr Bilclough were brilliant champions of the book (it helped that this is one of Mr Murray’s favourite books and English teacher Mr Bilclough is a previously sceptical convert!)

The Wellington Community Book Club are reading ‘Jeoffry the Poet’s Cat’ by Oliver Soden and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig for their online discussion in March.

 

 

The Lower 6th Book Club has been flourishing and expanding and have read a diverse trio of books so far.

 

Happy World Book Day – Thursday 5th March 2015

group croppedToday is World Book Day and we are celebrating books and reading today! Looking forward to seeing pupils and staff in the Library at break this morning for cookies, brownies and our Opening Lines of Books quiz.

Try your hand at this 10 Second Book Quiz  (many thanks to Sue, the Librarian at Roedean for sharing this one!) It is also on the screens in the Dining Hall today.

On a day when we celebrate our enjoyment of books and reading why not support Book Aid International? This charity is changing people’s lives through the supply of books, resources and support of libraries in Africa. Watch Samuel’s story here

 

World Book Day Shelfies – Can you match the book shelf to the teacher?

pollyI’ve got a bit of an obsession with shelfies at the moment (not my idea but I love it). Snapshots of people’s bookshelves are fascinating. Here are some examples submitted to The Guardian newspaper in December 2013. I thought it would be interesting to post some staff shelfies on the library blog to celebrate World Book Day next Thursday 6th March. At the staff CPD “Ideas Exchange” in the library on Wednesday I was chatting about this plan and Matt Oakman came up with the brilliant idea of making it into a competition – match the shelfie to the teacher.

shelfie 1

Three very diverse examples of staff shelfies. Email yours to the  library before Thursday 6th March.

shelfie 2

shelfie 3 shelfie 4 shelfie 6 Shelfie 7 shelfie 8 shelfie 9 shelfie 10 shelfie 11 shelfies 5

Quite a few Penguins and a smattering of Puffins!

Quite a few Penguins and a smattering of Puffins!