37 Shadowers! I'm sure this should be greeted with a fanfare every time I say it. Really fab number. And since that meeting, and the thirty second demolishing of three double sized packets of biscuits, over a dozen reviews have been posted to our Shadowing Blog, at least one for each of the shortlisted novels. So if you've had a look at the shortlist and you're not sure where to start, have a look and see what our students think before you make your choice.
Good work everyone!
Friday 29 April 2011
Wednesday 27 April 2011
First reviews trickling in
We don't have 34 Shadowers anymore. We have 37. Aces.
After a slight panic that we wouldn't be able to buy in enough books for them all (a perfectly justified fear, as it turned out) the Shadowers were asked to chose one book from the shortlist and buy their own copy to then share. Today several books were added to the Carnegie shelf with just a name scribbled inside, so a huge thank you to those students who have already been shopping and are so generously sharing their books. Makes me a little bit teary to be honest *sniffs* Ahem. Anyway...
The first reviews are up on our blog and have been copied over to our official Shadowing site, hosted by CILIP. Plans are in the pipeline for some very exciting student participation this year, with videos, fan fiction (including some from the POV of the Spackle from Patrick Ness's Monsters of Men - awesome) and animated book trailers on their way. With any luck there'll be a few surprises before the winner is announced too.
It's an odd week this week, with only two school days before we run away to largely ignore someone's wedding, but that means another gorgeously long weekend with plenty of reading time. Thumbs up, Royals ;) We're also celebrating the fact that several of our students were out of school at the University of Hertfordshire Creative Writing Competition Development Day, after having their entries shortlisted. Good luck to them for the next stage too.
After a slight panic that we wouldn't be able to buy in enough books for them all (a perfectly justified fear, as it turned out) the Shadowers were asked to chose one book from the shortlist and buy their own copy to then share. Today several books were added to the Carnegie shelf with just a name scribbled inside, so a huge thank you to those students who have already been shopping and are so generously sharing their books. Makes me a little bit teary to be honest *sniffs* Ahem. Anyway...
The first reviews are up on our blog and have been copied over to our official Shadowing site, hosted by CILIP. Plans are in the pipeline for some very exciting student participation this year, with videos, fan fiction (including some from the POV of the Spackle from Patrick Ness's Monsters of Men - awesome) and animated book trailers on their way. With any luck there'll be a few surprises before the winner is announced too.
It's an odd week this week, with only two school days before we run away to largely ignore someone's wedding, but that means another gorgeously long weekend with plenty of reading time. Thumbs up, Royals ;) We're also celebrating the fact that several of our students were out of school at the University of Hertfordshire Creative Writing Competition Development Day, after having their entries shortlisted. Good luck to them for the next stage too.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
Carnegie Shadowing is GO!
This lunchtime saw our first formal meeting of the Carnegie Shadowing group, and they all turned up clutching books and reaching for copies of the shortlist. All thirty four of them. Yup. Thirty four Shadowers this year. Aces.
Sadly this has caused a bit of a crisis in the book stock department, as although we have 4-5 copies of each of the shortlisted books, some of them have yet to be delivered and even then they are we won't have enough. Luckily, our Shadowers have agreed that they will all buy one copy of one of the books and swap them around. Phew.
Our new site is up and running, and there should be reviews trickling through over the next day or two, as those who grabbed books last Friday are already finishing them off.
This and NaNoWriMo are my favourite times of the year. I think I even like them more than Christmas...
Sadly this has caused a bit of a crisis in the book stock department, as although we have 4-5 copies of each of the shortlisted books, some of them have yet to be delivered and even then they are we won't have enough. Luckily, our Shadowers have agreed that they will all buy one copy of one of the books and swap them around. Phew.
Our new site is up and running, and there should be reviews trickling through over the next day or two, as those who grabbed books last Friday are already finishing them off.
This and NaNoWriMo are my favourite times of the year. I think I even like them more than Christmas...
Tuesday 5 April 2011
The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption="Parts I - IV"]
[/caption]
Clary has grown up thinking that she’s entirely normal, until one day she sees people who others seem to miss, their eyes just skate over them. Enter the world of the Shadowhunters, where humans born with the blood of an angel in their veins, the Nephilim, fight to defend the world from the evils that would wish humanity harm. Uneasy alliances with vampires and werewolves, dashing warlocks, a likable heroine and a marvellously sardonic hero make these books a fantastic read.
This is one of those series to get utterly lost in, so if you’re planning to read them, make sure that you have them all lined up. This is a complex series of many characters, but they are drawn well enough that I found myself gossiping about them with students right away, and I must admit that there is something slightly soap-opera-ish about it all. Forbidden love (there were several very confused teens wandering around the library muttering, ‘But it’s so right! And so wrong!’ an evil absent father, a complex history and back story, heroism, awkward and potentially forbidden love (there’s a scene in City of Glass that had us all squealing and clapping our hands), loyalty and revenge. Combined with this is a consistent and workable mythology. Oh, and really nasty demons and monsters too. Awesome. And I’m totally crushing on Luke.
There are some books that you read, love and hug quietly to your chest. They’re a private experience. This series is very much a shared one, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the range of its appeal; I’d thought that this might be dismissed as a girly book, but the boys in our reading circle seem to have embraced it just as fully as the girls. To quote one of them ‘Well, it’s a bit like Twilight, but, you know, good.’
Bring on City of Fallen Angels.
[/caption]Clary has grown up thinking that she’s entirely normal, until one day she sees people who others seem to miss, their eyes just skate over them. Enter the world of the Shadowhunters, where humans born with the blood of an angel in their veins, the Nephilim, fight to defend the world from the evils that would wish humanity harm. Uneasy alliances with vampires and werewolves, dashing warlocks, a likable heroine and a marvellously sardonic hero make these books a fantastic read.
This is one of those series to get utterly lost in, so if you’re planning to read them, make sure that you have them all lined up. This is a complex series of many characters, but they are drawn well enough that I found myself gossiping about them with students right away, and I must admit that there is something slightly soap-opera-ish about it all. Forbidden love (there were several very confused teens wandering around the library muttering, ‘But it’s so right! And so wrong!’ an evil absent father, a complex history and back story, heroism, awkward and potentially forbidden love (there’s a scene in City of Glass that had us all squealing and clapping our hands), loyalty and revenge. Combined with this is a consistent and workable mythology. Oh, and really nasty demons and monsters too. Awesome. And I’m totally crushing on Luke.
There are some books that you read, love and hug quietly to your chest. They’re a private experience. This series is very much a shared one, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the range of its appeal; I’d thought that this might be dismissed as a girly book, but the boys in our reading circle seem to have embraced it just as fully as the girls. To quote one of them ‘Well, it’s a bit like Twilight, but, you know, good.’
Bring on City of Fallen Angels.
Friday 1 April 2011
Carnegie Shortlist announced
Yup it's my favourite time of year again - Carnegie Time!
Our Shadowing group seems to have about doubled in size this year, though it could be even more: we'll not know until our first official meeting next Wednesday lunchtime, but so far interest levels have been at an all time high.
The shortlist was announced today:
Prisoner of the Inquisition, by Theresa Breslin
Zarita, only daughter of the town magistrate lives a life of ease. Saulo, son of a family reduced by circumstances to begging, swears vengeance, after witnessing his father wrongfully arrested and brutally killed. As the Spanish Inquisition arrives, bringing a climate of suspicion and acts of torture to the town, the fates of Zarita and Saulo intertwine, with tragic consequences.
The Death Defying Pepper Roux, by Geraldine McCaughrean
Pepper Roux awakes on his fourteenth birthday; the day he has been told he must die. He doesn't want to disappoint, but he doesn't want to die either. So he goes on the run, setting sail on a sea of adventures, courting mayhem and disaster at every turn. Can he escape his fate – for a while at least?
Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness
The third and final volume in the "Chaos Walking Trilogy" finds three armies marching on New Prentisstown, each intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle with no chance of escape or, it seems, of stopping the fighting. But then a third voice enters the fray, one bent on revenge.
The Bride's Farewell, by Meg Rosoff
On the morning of her wedding, Pell Ridley creeps out of bed in the dark, kisses her sisters goodbye and flees on horseback, determined to escape a future that offers nothing but hard work, and sorrow. The road ahead is rich with encounters that lead her closer to the untold story of her past. And she meets a hunter, whose fate also seems strangely entwined with her own.
White Crow, by Marcus Sedgwick
Two lives, two centuries apart, but obsessed by the same question: is there life after death? When city girl Rebecca arrives in the quiet village of Winterfold one relentlessly hot summer, her uneasy friendship with strange, elfin Ferelith sets in motion a shocking chain of events
Out of Shadows, by Jason Wallace
It is Zimbabwe in the 1980s. The civil war is over, independence has been won, and Robert Mugabe has come to power, offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. For Robert Jacklin, it's all new too as he gets used to a new continent, a new country, a new school. But he is quickly forced to realise that for many of his fellow pupils, the battle for their old country rages on.
Good list! There were cheers and whoops for some of the books when the list was read out at break time.
This year we're also taking our Shadowing participation a step further. Last year some of our members were frustrated by the lack of user functionality on our official Shadowing site (y'know, that one that WON the Shadowing site prize - wooo!) so this year, as well as running that, we'll be posting to our very own, super-swanky new blog - the Roundwood Readers! We'll be posting out reviews, thoughts, and book trailers there, giving us the chance to show you more photos of our process, more videos of our discussions, and more of our ever valuable opinions! Comments and feedback on the student posts would be greatly appreciated.
Our Shadowing group seems to have about doubled in size this year, though it could be even more: we'll not know until our first official meeting next Wednesday lunchtime, but so far interest levels have been at an all time high.
The shortlist was announced today:
Prisoner of the Inquisition, by Theresa Breslin
Zarita, only daughter of the town magistrate lives a life of ease. Saulo, son of a family reduced by circumstances to begging, swears vengeance, after witnessing his father wrongfully arrested and brutally killed. As the Spanish Inquisition arrives, bringing a climate of suspicion and acts of torture to the town, the fates of Zarita and Saulo intertwine, with tragic consequences.
The Death Defying Pepper Roux, by Geraldine McCaughrean
Pepper Roux awakes on his fourteenth birthday; the day he has been told he must die. He doesn't want to disappoint, but he doesn't want to die either. So he goes on the run, setting sail on a sea of adventures, courting mayhem and disaster at every turn. Can he escape his fate – for a while at least?
Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness
The third and final volume in the "Chaos Walking Trilogy" finds three armies marching on New Prentisstown, each intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle with no chance of escape or, it seems, of stopping the fighting. But then a third voice enters the fray, one bent on revenge.
The Bride's Farewell, by Meg Rosoff
On the morning of her wedding, Pell Ridley creeps out of bed in the dark, kisses her sisters goodbye and flees on horseback, determined to escape a future that offers nothing but hard work, and sorrow. The road ahead is rich with encounters that lead her closer to the untold story of her past. And she meets a hunter, whose fate also seems strangely entwined with her own.
White Crow, by Marcus Sedgwick
Two lives, two centuries apart, but obsessed by the same question: is there life after death? When city girl Rebecca arrives in the quiet village of Winterfold one relentlessly hot summer, her uneasy friendship with strange, elfin Ferelith sets in motion a shocking chain of events
Out of Shadows, by Jason Wallace
It is Zimbabwe in the 1980s. The civil war is over, independence has been won, and Robert Mugabe has come to power, offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. For Robert Jacklin, it's all new too as he gets used to a new continent, a new country, a new school. But he is quickly forced to realise that for many of his fellow pupils, the battle for their old country rages on.
Good list! There were cheers and whoops for some of the books when the list was read out at break time.
This year we're also taking our Shadowing participation a step further. Last year some of our members were frustrated by the lack of user functionality on our official Shadowing site (y'know, that one that WON the Shadowing site prize - wooo!) so this year, as well as running that, we'll be posting to our very own, super-swanky new blog - the Roundwood Readers! We'll be posting out reviews, thoughts, and book trailers there, giving us the chance to show you more photos of our process, more videos of our discussions, and more of our ever valuable opinions! Comments and feedback on the student posts would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry blog
I know I've been neglecting you. It's been a crazy busy time, with the regular library stuff, a full time job on its own, getting busier than ever, and a couple of events that have taken up a lot of time but should end up being very beneficial.
The first was the launch of our Trust School Status, a mini-charrette (consultation process) with the Trust Partners (Herts Uni, Sir John Lawes School, Presedence ICT and Rothamsted) that was held at the University on the 22nd March. Thirteen of our students and a similar number from SJL went along to talk through plans and ideas about how the Trust could be work for the schools and what we could all bring to the mix. Our students did so well and spoke eloquently and confidently, often leading discussion and feedback sessions. I know the staff at the University and the Trust partners were very impressed with all of them! Of course, knowing what they're all like it wasn't a huge surprise for me, though Alex's capacity for crisps came as a bit of a surprise, and Max's attachment to the flipboard pens was a little worrying. Congratulations to everyone who took part though.
The second was my trip up to Cambridge for the Cambridge Librarians' TeachMeet. It was my first one and I'd taken the bold step of agreeing to present, which may have been a little foolhardy. It was a wonderful evening though, and I learned a lot from all there as well as having the chance to put names to Twitter names! My presentation went well though, and you can see it here:
[slideshare id=7436719&doc=camlibtmnicky-110329155637-phpapp01]
The notes are available over here.
And now with these over, I'm clear to focus on my favourite part of the library year. It's Carnegie Shadowing time!
The first was the launch of our Trust School Status, a mini-charrette (consultation process) with the Trust Partners (Herts Uni, Sir John Lawes School, Presedence ICT and Rothamsted) that was held at the University on the 22nd March. Thirteen of our students and a similar number from SJL went along to talk through plans and ideas about how the Trust could be work for the schools and what we could all bring to the mix. Our students did so well and spoke eloquently and confidently, often leading discussion and feedback sessions. I know the staff at the University and the Trust partners were very impressed with all of them! Of course, knowing what they're all like it wasn't a huge surprise for me, though Alex's capacity for crisps came as a bit of a surprise, and Max's attachment to the flipboard pens was a little worrying. Congratulations to everyone who took part though.
The second was my trip up to Cambridge for the Cambridge Librarians' TeachMeet. It was my first one and I'd taken the bold step of agreeing to present, which may have been a little foolhardy. It was a wonderful evening though, and I learned a lot from all there as well as having the chance to put names to Twitter names! My presentation went well though, and you can see it here:
[slideshare id=7436719&doc=camlibtmnicky-110329155637-phpapp01]
The notes are available over here.
And now with these over, I'm clear to focus on my favourite part of the library year. It's Carnegie Shadowing time!
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