26 April 2010

Shadowing News

The Carnegie Medal is awarded by children's librarians for an outstanding book for children and young people. Shadowing involves school students reading the books, assessing them using the same criteria that the judges will use, and writing a review.

Many schools have, like us at Our Lady's Abingdon, set up a shadowing book group, and meet regularly to change books, exchange views and opinions, and write reviews. The reviews are posted on a special website.

On Tuesday we will meet with students from other local schools, and take part in a Carnegie ‘Tea’, here at OLA, for initial reactions to the shortlisted books, and tips on reviewing books. As usual cake will play an important part in helping our critical skills!

21 April 2010

Friday 23 April - International World Book Day

We will be celebrating International World Book Day on Friday with a number of fun activities in school, all with PRIZES!

1. Decorate-a-Door-as-a-Book. This popular and delightful competition will be judged at 1 pm, and to make sure the judges see all the doors I need to have the entry forms by the end of Friday morning break.
2. There will be a Match the Book Cover to the Book competition in the Library
3. Dress up as a Book Character at lunchtime in the Library. Character parade starts at 1.30 in the Library.

It is also St George's Day, the feast day of St George, patron saint of England as well as of Catalonia in Spain. The origins of World Book Day come from Catalonia, where roses and books are given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago on the feast day of their patron saint, and the anniversary of the great Spanish writer Cervantes who wrote Don Quixote.
It is also the anniversary of William Shakespeare, a fitting day to celebrate books and reading.

20 April 2010

Orange Prize 2010 shortlist

The shortlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction has been announced. The authors and titles are:
Rosie Alison The Very Thought of You
Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna
Attica Locke Black Water Rising
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall
Lorrie Moore A Gate at the Stairs
Monique Roffey The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.

The Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded to the woman of any nationality who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best full-length novel in English during the previous year. The winner will be announced on 9 June.
More information

18 April 2010

Shadowing the Carnegie Medal

Our first meeting is on Monday 19 April at 4.15 in the Library.

What does Shadowing the Carnegie Medal involve?

• Reading Books. Past Carnegie Medal winners have become classics. These include The Borrowers, Watership Down, Skellig, Flour Babies, and Northern Lights. You will be reading future classics!

• Meetings. There will be ‘shadowing’ meetings in the Library on Mondays, at 4.15, where you can come to change your books, chat about the books you have read, write reviews and persuade others why your favourite should win the Medal.

• Writing Reviews. You post your review on a special shadowing website, where other ‘shadowers’ around the country are doing the same. We will also be discussing the books informally on our own OLA private wiki.

• Meeting Carnegie Shadowers from other schools and the Carnegie Forum. The six secondary schools in Abingdon have worked together over the Carnegie Medal for several years. We have three joint meetings: a 'tea' to introduce the books, a quiz a few weeks into the shadowing, and a joint Abingdon Carnegie Forum where 100 students from local schools discuss and vote for their Abingdon winner.

The shortlist of books for the Carnegie Medal will be announced this Friday, 23 April, which is International World Book Day. As well as finding out the titles on the shortlist there will be other fun activities which everyone can join.

15 April 2010

Twilight novella to be free on internet

Stephenie Meyer, the author of the enormously popular Twilight books, is to let fans have access to the 192-page novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a spin-off from Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series. The Twilight series has sold 100 million copies worldwide and this instalment will be published simultaneously in Britain and America on 5 June, and then two days later will become available to read for free online, but not downloadable, until July 5.
Meyer said she was allowing it to be read for free online "as a special thank you to fans", according to a spokesman.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7538597/Twilight-novella-to-be-free-on-internet.html

14 April 2010

Hetty Feather - Best Blurb Awards

The winners have just been announced for the Best Blurb Awards. Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson came a close second behind The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, coming joint second with The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom. This was the inaugural award for 2009 books.
London, 1876 and Hetty Feather is just a tiny baby when her mother leaves her at the Foundling Hospital. The Hospital cares for abandoned children - but Hetty must first live with a foster family until she is big enough to go to school. Life in the countryside is hard but with her 'brothers' Jem and Gideon, she helps in the fields and plays imaginary games. Together they sneak off to visit the travelling circus and Hetty is mesmerised by the show, especially Madame Adeline and her performing horses. But Hetty's happiness is threatened once more when she is returned to the Foundling Hospital. The new life of awful uniforms and terrible food is a struggle for her. But now she has the chance to find her real mother. Could she really be the wonderful Madame Adeline? Or will Hetty find the truth is even more surprising?
Available for loan from the school library in the Junior Fiction section.

05 April 2010

Orange Best of the Best

A youth panel is to choose a "best of the best" to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Orange Prize for Fiction.

The six teenagers will read all the past Orange Prize winners from 1996's A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (Penguin) to last year’s winner Home by Marilynne Robinson (Virago). The 14 books will be whittled down to a shortlist of four before a final judging meeting to decide on the Best of the Best.

The four girls and two boys, aged between 17 and 18, were selected from entries sent to the Spinebreakers website for teenage readers. Last year’s youth panel shadowed the existing judges to read and choose their own shortlist and winner.

The longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction was announced on 17 March.The shortlist for the Orange Award for New Writers will be announced on 13 April, followed by the Fiction shortlist on 20 April. The winners of both will be announced at a ceremony on 9 June.

Information from http://www.thebookseller.com/news/114965-youth-panel-to-pick-orange-best-of-the-best.html