Student Blog update

Following our very sucessful use of our student blog for Carnegie this year, we're not going to stop!  We'll now be shadowing the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, which is a fantastic set of eight books:

My Name is Mina by David Almond

Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout by Andy Stanton

Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans

Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

Return to Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

Moon Pie by Simon Mason

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

Momentum by Saci Lloyd

This will be a much more independent project than the Carnegie, but we have a dedicated team who are already gathering their books together and reviewing! With the award stretching over the summer, there will also be the challenge of getting books to each other over the break, so we're going to trial use of an enbedded forum.  I'm still sorting through the security settings, but I'm hopeful that this will give them an ongoing point of contact during the break.  

Making the Move

Yup, we've shifted over to Blogger.  Wordpress was pretty, but with the Roundwood Readers blog running so well on here, it seemed to daft to continue in a different place.  So we're back to where the embedding is easy and Miss A can remember her sign in...

Carnegie Blog

Just realised how silent this blog is in comparison to our new Readers' blog!  Take a look here to see why this one had tumbleweeds all over it.

#busy

Carnegie Day

 

It’s all coming to an end!

Yes, it’s Carnegie announcement day, which means that all of this joy is coming to an end.  But there’s been so much wonderful stuff happening this year!

Last Wednesday we were visited by the Shadowers at Sir John Lawes school across town.  It was fantastic to hear some new opinions on the books, and though some of the discussions were heated, we made some excellent new friends and are really looking forward to doing more with them in the future.  Hopefully they will join us in becoming Nerdfighters! Many thanks to Ms Warman for arranging their visit and piling them all into the minibus.

 



Then yesterday we had an amazing Shadowing meeting and took part in something very new to us – a Twitter interview with Patrick Ness!  We all settled down with tribute doughnuts, went through the inevitable ICT emergency (why block Twitter school?!  Why?!) but were all set and ready to go at 1.30.  Will and I typed in questions and queries, and Patrick answered them all, giving us an insight into his writing.  The tweets have been archived here, so if you’d like to have a look at our questions, please go ahead!  We’d like to say a huge thank you to Patrick for giving us his time.

 



 

And now, the day is here.  Thursday 23^rd June.  Carnegie Day.

At 12.30, they will announce the winner of this year’s Carnegie medal, and we’ll know if our Shadowing vote matched that of the judges.  So I guess it’s time to announce our own winner.

The RPS Readers Carnegie Shadowing winner for 2011 is…

 

Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness.



 

This amazing book held us captivated right the way through as the war raged.  Our sympathies were pulled tight across all sides at one time or another and many returned from reading this book with shredding nails!  Those who read it as a stand alone enjoyed it and appreciated the story for what it was enough that some of these readers were among those who voted it their winner.  And those who read the whole trilogy were bowled over by the complexities and involvement that they felt with the characters, all of whom we came to love or admire in some way.  Yes, even the Mayor.  He may be the most wonderful villain ever created.

Awesome.