First Steps

The first batch of DVDs have arrived! Also out of shot there's another box with Science based ones, such as Planet Earth and The Sky at Night, as well as several History documentaries.  But as you can see, we've gone for the classics in terms of tie-ins with the texts taught by English, and have invested quite a lot in our new Modern Foreign Languages selection, which I think are going to be really useful for students studying languages at GCSE and A level.  Additionally there are just a few that I couldn't do without ;)

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

 

This is a Christmas story really, so I came to it a little late in the game, but with the last remnants of flu still hanging around, this was a fun book to curl up under a blanket with.

Dash is browsing in his favourite New York bookshop when he finds a red Moleskin notebook with a message and a task written on its pages.  When he decides to take the notebook up on its offer of adventure, he completes the task and leaves it with a new one of his own, striking up an interesting relationship with its owner, Lily.  What I really enjoyed about this story was the role that the notebook played for the two of them, a connection and a place where they could show their real and honest selves, the selves that they couldn't often show in real life for fear of appearing too vulnerable.  Written in alternate chapters by the book's two authors, Dash and Lily are two very distinct voices, but there's a point somewhere a long the way where you can hear that they're picking up the same language, and as they get closer to meeting, the hope that they'll suit each other is balanced out by the awful fear that they might not.  Sounds a bit sicky, doens't it?  And it could it, were it not for Dash's sardonic manner and the wodnerful supporting cast, provided mostly by Lily's extended family. I hope one day I can be as marvellous as her aunt.

This is non-frilly and at times gut wrenching romance that will appeal to anyone who picks it up!

Good News

It's a tense time for schools and libraries across the country at the moment as the cuts start to bite.  Many we know have been threatened with, or notified of redundancies.  The good news here is that the staffing hours in our lovely library have not been cut this year, so we'll continue to be able to do all the things that we love doing so much!  And, you know, eating and having homes, little essentials like that.

We'd like to extend our thanks to those who made the decisions and managed this difficult situation.