September again...

So, you know how I blog every September and resolve to blog more? Yeah. Oops.

There are some big changes this year, and though my resolution is once again to blog more, I'm hoping that I'll be spurred to action.

For starters:
Our budget has been cut. We used to have £7,000 to spend, now we have £2,000. This will cover our LMS subscription, the security gates, one or two essential periodicals and, er. That's it. Oh, and paper for the printer, but only up until the end of November. Our book budget from the school this year is a big fat £0, which has come as a real blow. Our lending figures were up again last year, the library is well used by students and staff, lunch and break times are joyous chaos, and we've been cut. The mission this year is #OperationNoBookBudget, which you can follow along with on Twitter (we're @RPS_library) if you are so inclined. The aim for the year is to remain positive (very difficult) and still provide a good service to our students. Last year, over 80% of our loans were books that we'd bought in the last twelve months so maintaining anything close to our traditional lending figures is going to be hard.

So far we've been hugely lucky in that people hearing about our plight have been absurdly generous. We've been opening Amazon parcels wince the beginning of term to find items from our wish lists, I have a car full of books kindly donated by the wonderful @mattlibrarian at Farrington's School and two boxes of donations from Hot Key books, who are not only excellent publishers but lovely people too. It's not yet known if we'll be allowed to even publicise our wishlists to parents but the reactions and responses from fellow librarians have been stunning. With a bit of luck and a show of good sense from those in charge, parents will be able to contribute and hopefully keep us going! There's a new curriculum and several new exam specifications coming in this year that have absolutely no resources in the library so the situation is going to get desperate pretty quickly.

But there is good news.
The library has new windows! After years of freezing all winter and baking all summer in our greenhouse of a building, we now have new windows that 1. open, 2. don't leak, 3. aren't mouldy and 4. are double glazed! The 21st century comes to Roundwood! It's made such a wonderful difference to the space up here. It's cleaner, brighter, easy to control on terms of temperature and so much safer. The old windows were single glazed and not even toughened, so when they broke it was only the manky self adhesive reflective film that stopped showers of glass everywhere. All of the old parts of the school are being reglazed, which is fantastic. In a way it's galling that millions can be found for windows but there's no funding available anywhere for school libraries, however much I love the new ones! Not dreading winter is quite a good change.

Currently reading: The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater; Outlander, by Diane Gabaldon; One, by Sarah Crossnan.

Reading on a Kindle

Before the summer, I took one of our library Kindles on a test drive.  We got on quite well, and I quickly started looking at the Kindle as 'my book' instead of a device.  I decided to keep reading the Song of Ice and Fire series as ebooks to save my poor hands from breaking under the weight of brick sized books, and to test out the new Kindle model, which I far prefer.  

Today I finished the last book in the series published so far and it dawned on me that I have been reading the same series since August.  Five books. In five months.  This is far, far below my regular reading level.  So what's been going on? 

Part of it is down to the books, or should I call it the text?  I have loved reading this series, but found that after book 3, my attention started to wander but I had already committed myself to these characters and didn't feel as though I could stop*.  And with the eformat so easy to read, so light in my hands, I didn't feel reluctant to pick it up, as I usually would with tomes this size. When I've grown tired of previous serials, my hands have grown physically tired of holding them, I've grown tired of the covers.  This didn't happen with the Kindle so I kept going.  In a way, I wish I hadn't. Five books.  In five months.  When there are so many wonderful books waiting to be read, I've been left feeling a little cheated. 

Though I'm very fond of the Kindle and now have one all of my very own (wooo birthday!), I have come to a realisation.  My reading experience with it so far has been hugely positive, and being able to up the font size when suffering with tired eyes has been a complete godsend.  But I miss paper.  I miss the smell and I miss the ache in my hand from reading for too long. I miss the sense of progression through a book as the balance of pages read and unread starts to shift. The little percentage line at the bottom of the screen just doesn't do it for me.  Having the option of an ereader is wonderful, and its uses are many.  I'm very glad I have one and know that I will use it a lot in the future.  But it's also quite comforting to realise that at heart, I'm a book reader.  Long live ink, paper, string and glue.

*Smart move, George R.R. Martin.  Smart move. 

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.

Room, by Emma Donoghue

Five year old Jack lives with Ma in Room.  In Room, there is Rug, there is Bed, there is Table.  All things are proper nouns, because this room and his mother are Jack's entire life, after she was kidnapped and imprisoned by 'Old Nick', who brings them food and comes by almost nightly to take advantage of his prisoner while Jack hides in Wardrobe.  Sounds horrific, and it is, but it is a story of more hope and love than I can remember reading in a long time.  The thing is that Jack's happy in this tiny world, it is all that he knows.  It's only when he tells us of his Ma's desperation, as the details of her story filter down to us, that the true horror of their situation becomes apparent.  It's difficult to say much more without saying too much, but this is truly an amazing book, narrated by an engaging and captivating character.  Looking forward to the discussion on this one.  Read it now.

Christmas Reading Update

Though I took a massive stack of books home over the break, the evil flu that decided to infect me stopped my eyes working properly and I managed to do impressively little reading over the two week break.  Boo.  But here’s what I did get through:

 

White Cat, by Holly Black



First book in the Curse Workers series, and my favourite of the break, White Cat tells the story of Cassell, who lives in a world where magic workers are heavily reagulated, but a black market of shady magical dealings runs like a dark river under him and his family.  The only non-curse worker in his family and haunted by his deeds years ago, Cassell suffers from strange dreams about a white cat, who seems to be asking for his help.

I loved this book and found it utterly gripping.  The characters are appealingly dark and tied up in a complicated world of allegiances and employment.  There are strong elements of horror in this story, and I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint hearted; there’s an underlying violence in some parts that’s quite harsh but fleshes the book out from fairy tale to a very human world.  Really looking forward to the second part of the series, Red Glove, but can’t believe I have to wait until June for it!  If anyone has an ARC they could slip my way, I will reward you biscuits.

 

Nobody’s Girl, by Sarra Manning



Seventeen year old Bea has grown up overshadowed by her energetic and exuberant mother, who is determined that her daughter will not repeat her own youthful mistakes.  When the popular crowd at school suddenly befriend her and invite her on holiday with them, it seems like the perfect way to step out of the gloom and into her own life, but when plans change and she finds herself suddenly alone in Europe, the world opens up and she starts to find her own way.

I read this as an attempt to read outside my comfort zone and experiment with some of the books that are really popular with my students, and I admit I struggled.  Around a third of the way through, I gave up for several days.  Not having been a girly girl or having a group of female friends at that age, the whole bitchiness and back stabbing, tried my patience in such a way that indicates that Manning captured perfectly how these relationships play out, with the mind games, manipulation and feelings of rejection that I’d always fought to avoid so stubbornly.  It was a bit like hating snakes but deciding to read a book about them.   But I returned to it when I started to recover a bit, and as soon as Bea and Toph (read it, you’ll find out who he is) were in Paris, I became very fond of this book and of the two of them, and when I closed the book after the last page, had a big silly grin on my face.

 

The Dark is Rising, by Susan Hill



If was dark, freezing and there was a thick layer of snow on the ground. Of course I had to read this book!  Book two of The Dark is Rising sequence, this book tells the tale of Will Stanton, seventh son of the seventh son, and born an Old One, warrior of the light.  In the dead of winter, the dark is rising and it’s up to Will to find the six Signs of Light and bring them together to save our world from freezing.

I first read this sequence of books when I was very young and absolutely adored them.  Magic, history, adventure bravery, there was nothing not to like.  Re-reading them as an adult, I still loved them, though this time I only read The Dark is Rising, as it was the most approapriate to the season.  Getting utterly carried away in this story is harder now, some elements have dated a little, and I occasionally felt that there was too much going on, such as Will’s first trip to the Great Hall, but the sense of wonder and the feeling that winter is something so much bigger than just the cold that bites at your fingertips will never be lost, and I’ll continue to reach for this book any time it snows before Christmas.

Government cut funding for Booktrust

Today the news was announced that the Government are cutting the 100% of the funding for Booktrust, the organisation who run the Booked Up programme, which has been giving away a free book to all Year 7 students in the country.

When the sample set of books arrives each year and go on display, they're instantly a hit with our students; not just the Year 7s who will get them, but the upper years as well, who all want to borrow them straight away and are annoyed when we tell them they have to stay on display for longer. Then the order forms go out with the leaflets, and the excitement and buzz this creates is wonderful.  Suddenly a whole year group is talking about books, which ones they'll get, organising in groups of friends to get the whole collection between them.  And these aren't just throw away titles.  This year our three most popular titles were Invisible City by M.G. Harris, the first book of the Joshua Files, Fever Crumb by Philip Pullman, which you'll remember was nominated for the Carnegie medal this year, and Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur.  These aren't obscure titles from obscure authors, these are exactly the books that our students wanted to read.  The range is always superb, offering non-fiction, poetry, and picture books for those with serious literacy difficulties too.  There really is something for everyone, not even our most reluctant readers could avoid being enthusiastic about choosing their title.

From the day the order forms were collected in, the library was besieged by Year 7 students asking when their books were arriving.  And when they found out they weren't there yet, we were able to tell them about other titles that they might enjoy, based on their choice, and our loan figures took an immediate jump.  Then they were there, in big purple boxes, complete with stickers and bookmarks.  I didn't get to hand them out.  As soon as the students saw the boxes they begged to be allowed to take them to registration for distribution, and for a whole day, every single Year 7 student in the school walked around the campus with a book in their hand or in their pocket.  No one put them in their bags.

What the Government have failed to grasp is that a large proportion of these students do not own books.  Their parents don't own books.  For many of these students, reading and literacy are not valued at home.  These aren't the students whose parents will take them to the library.  Few of them will visit the school library outside of lessons because it just isn't part of their culture to do that.  But now they have a book.  And it's not one that they're being forced to read, it's one that they chose, and it's theirs to keep.  No overdue reminders, nobody waiting to take it back.  It's a gift.  When I handed them out to my form, a Year 7 group that contains a couple of students with serious literacy difficulties, one boy took his in both hands.

"You mean I get to keep it?" he said.

"Yes, it's yours.  A present."

"Wow.  No one's ever given me a book before."

Our school is not in a low income area.  Our proportion of students on free school meals is ridiculously low, average incomes are huge and there are still students, even here, who live in a world where they have never been given a book.  I hate to think what it's like in more disadvantaged areas.

Let's get the figures straight.  The schemes cost the Government £13m.  Quite a lot of money.  But this is used as a basis to raise sponsorship of over £56m.  So what the Government is doing is waving goodbye to over £43m of support for literacy that doesn't even come out of its own pocket.  And they decided to announce this just as the Christmas holidays began.  Well, Merry Christmas to you too, you [insert insults here].

Local councils are cutting library budgets.  Staff hours in our area have been cut by 40% and there are closures happening right across the country.  School budgets are being cut, and school libraries will be on the line as Headteachers are forced to make difficult decisions.  So at a time like this, when a fundamental aspect of every child's education, reading, is under threat, the Government cuts funding for schemes that we know make a difference.  I don't understand what they're aiming for.  An illiterate public?  An absolute division of the haves and the have nots?  And yet today they announce a consultation on tackling child poverty.  It's been widely accepted that the fastest, most effective and most sustainable way of reducing child poverty is through education, so what on earth are they trying to do?