08 April 2011

Shadowing the Carnegie Medal

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 4.05, 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 was announced on Friday, 1 April and OLA Shadowers went home with books to read, enjoy and consider.

05 April 2011

Mini Kids' Lit Quiz

What colour is Hermione Granger's cat?
Who owned a faithful dog called Snowy?
Because his parents and uncle were dead Jack Starbright was asked to look after whom?
Which animal is missing from this famous line-up: Toad,Water rat, Badger and ....?

Twelve teams from OLA Senior and Junior school battled it out to answer questions such as these at OLA's annual Mini Kids' Lit Quiz. A fun-filled 40 minutes sped by in front of an audience of pupils, staff and parents, who also had a few questions thrown at them. Prizes were won - Highest scoring team, Best Junior School team, Best Buddies team, but everyone, whether spectator or participant, enjoyed themselves at the MIni KLQ. The international heats of the Kids' Lit Quiz, which started in the UK last November, are currently continuing in New Zealand.

Did you know the answers? Ginger, Tintin, Alex Rider, Mole.