|
November News from HCC's Library
The last few weeks have seen some exciting activities for many of our students in the Library. There has been little time to report on them as they happened so this is will a ‘bumper edition’ of library news.
Generous donation
The fame of our ‘Battle of the Books’ team has reached far and wide via this website. Over the summer we were delighted to receive a donation specifically for the team to spend on books of their choice for the library. Mr Scruby and I arranged to take the seven students, now in Year 9, to The Lion and Unicorn bookshop in Richmond where we had a full hour to browse and make our choices, ably assisted by Tony and his colleagues at the Lion and Unicorn.  The seventeen books the students chose range from the classic Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred Taylor, through the latest horror by Darren Shan, to a beautifully illustrated 21st century retelling of Dante’s Inferno by John Agard. All the books are distinguished by a special bookplate and are now available for loan in the library.
Author's Visit
On 6 November we were delighted to welcome Rachel Ward, author of Numbers, to HCC. 
Rachel had read on the HCC website that her book had been championed by HCC in the ‘Battle of the Books’ challenge in July and offered to come to speak to our students. Our ‘Battle of the Books’ team were thrilled to have the opportunity to perform their presentation for Rachel, who commented: “Their performance was excellent. They actually picked the two bits from the book that I tend to read out, and it was wonderful seeing my words performed live - wow! Their drama also made me think about 'Numbers' in a different way - the parallels drawn with Romeo and Juliet were very clever and the whole piece worked beautifully.”
Rachel, who lives in Bath, then gave a fascinating talk about how she got into writing for teenagers and won a book deal after signing up for a consultation with a publisher at the Frome Festival. She gave an exclusive reading from the sequel to Numbers, to be called Numbers 2: The Chaos, which takes the story forward 15 years. We’re not giving any more away! The Chaos will be published in June next year. Visit Rachel’s website at http://www.rachelwardbooks.com .
Booked Up
After weeks of anticipation, every Year 7 student has now been given their free book provided through the Booked Up scheme during their English lessons in the library. There were scenes akin to Christmas morning as students eagerly unwrapped their books. Students can review their books online on the Booked Up website or can chose to post a review on the gr8 txts website (see below).
gr8 txts
There was another treat in store for Year 7 when staff from Richmond Libraries visited HCC library to help launch gr8 txts – recommended reads for 11-14 year olds. During their 30 minute sessions students were introduced to many of the books in this year’s list and heard readings from selected texts. Students will be able to enter two competitions this year – either by writing a book review or coming up with a new name for gr8 txts and designing a front cover for the promotional booklet. Reviews can be posted online at gr8 txts - the closing date is 26 February 2010 and there is the chance of winning a £20 HMV voucher. Prizes will be awarded at a top author event which will take place at Richmond Library in March 2010. All the books in the promotion are available in HCC library and at public libraries in Richmond.
Some comments from Year 7 about the gr8 txts promotion:
“I thought gr8 txts was very inspiring and really good. I can’t wait to get back to the library. I saw about six I really liked! I really enjoyed it!”
“It has persuaded me to read more and also showed a whole lot of new books to read and enjoy. I also like the different competitions and prizes to win.”
“I really liked the gr8 txts promotion! I found it interesting hearing some passages from the books and I feel I will now read some of these books. I also think that all of the competitions are an excellent way to get people involved in reading more books. I hope to see some of the books in our school library.”
Visit the HCC library blog to keep up-to-date with our news. http://hcclibraryonline.blogspot.com/
|