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Hi Everyone
It has been good to hear that many of you have been visiting the blog recently. Keep checking it out. We would love you to share your favourite books and authors so if you would like to add a post of your own just let Mrs McDevitt or I know.
I found an interesting article the other day in the Guardian. Have a look from the link below:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/happy-birthday-childrens-books-site
It has the Guardian's favourite authors listed and also interesting articles where one writer comments on another writing. For example Michael Rosen comments on Jacqueline Wilson as an author. It makes for a very interesting read!
I hope that you have enjoyed our Drop Everything and Read photograph displays. There is one outside the Secondary Library, another where the bus monitors stand close to the Primary Library and a third inside the Primary Library. Yes we certainly did have a lot of people reading on World Book Day!
Wishing you a good week. Don't forget to complete the Leigh Hobbs quiz and check out his books in anticipation of his visit in early April.
Happy Reading!
Ms Sal
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Linda Newbery Visits Patana
On 7th March, a very talented author visited our school to enlighten us with her books. Her name was Linda Newbery. She has won many awards such as the Costa Children’s Book Award. She came and told us about two of her books, Nevermore and Blitz Boys which are both very good.
Nevermore is about a girl called Tizzie who moves to a cottage next to an old mansion named Roven Mere. Read the book and find out the huge surprise at the end. Blitz Boys is about two boys in World War 2, so if you like historical fiction you should read this.
She also gave us advice on writing stories: Rule no. 1, NEVER WRITE A STORY WITHOUT EDITING IT BEFORE YOU COMPLETE IT!!!!! It was a good opportunity to get books signed and to meet one of Britain’s finest authors.
We are looking forward to Leigh Hobb’s visit next week. We encourage you to read books by Linda or Leigh’s books, they are very engaging and we are very fortunate to have them visit our school.
-Anna-Maria, Alice and Muskan, Jr. Librarians
Which Linda Newbery or Leigh Hobbes books have you read? Which is your favourite?
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Library Events Galore
Hi Everyone
We were delighted with how successful Linda's visit was on Wednesday. Linda was able to work with children from Years 5, 6, 7 and 8.
The children had a great experience and learned a lot about approaching writing. One of the key things that Linda stressed to think about when completing creative writing was that by the end of the story the main character must have changed in some way. Definitely something to think about when reading stories and when completing our own work. I was amazed at how many books Linda signed and how many books were sold. Thanks to Steven Clark from Foyles for providing the books.
Below are some photos of the visit and below that is a sneak preview of today's library article in Patana News.
Have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget to borrow Leigh Hobb's books in preparation for his visit to Patana in April.
Happy Reading
Ms Flint and Mrs McDevitt
A Sneak Preview of this week's Library article in the Patana Newsletter
Library Events Galore
Anyone who thinks that libraries are quiet places where not much happens are mistaken, at least this is definitely the case at Patana. Having had a wonderful week last week celebrating World Book Day with Drop Everything and Read, guest readers and library activities, we have again been busy this week. We were very excited to welcome Costa Prize winner Linda Newbery to our school on Wednesday. We had high expectations of Linda’s visit which she most definitely lived up to!
Linda spent the day working with Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 students. It was fascinating to observe her approach to writing and Linda’s presentations provided teaching staff exciting ideas for follow up sessions in the classroom. Linda was blown away by the quality of our libraries, so once again it was an opportunity for us to feel both proud and very humble and fortunate to be able to enjoy such amazing facilities.
Leigh Hobbs, who is well known for the children’s books that he both writes and illustrates featuring Old Tom, Horrible Harrriet and Mr Chicken, will be following hot on Linda’s heels and visiting in early April. Please do encourage your children to read his books and complete the quizzes we have created in anticipation of his visit.
As you will know from displays around the school I have been really pushing for suggested titles for Home Language books this year. I feel we now have a good selection of books at all levels, but do please keep making suggestions; they have been very welcome indeed. Also a personal plea - please visit the library website and blog! There are many resources and book suggestions that would be useful for your children, a huge range of useful e-websites are listed, advice on IB further reading and so much more. I would love for the children to make it a part of their daily internet surfing to visit our library website as it could really help them become aware of all the we in the library can help with. Please encourage them to bookmark it or make it a favourite.
Due to many parent requests we are, as in previous years, promoting the Story Box magazines. Your child will bring home a flyer and letter with details about this next week. Our libraries benefit from your subscribing to this as for each ten subscriptions taken out by parents, the library is sent a free subscription. This is not the main aim though! The purpose is to further facilitate access for students to good quality English language publications that are not available in book stores, promoting more and better reading through the convenience of home delivery.
Finally, a parent has recently asked me if we have a parent book club. At present we don’t, but it is something I would be interested in setting up so if you would like to be involved do let me know.
Have a lovely weekend everyone. As always Happy Reading!
Sally Flint
Head of Libraries
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World Book Day
Today we celebrated World Book Day in the libraries and across the whole school. At 9am everyone- all the children and students from nursery to Year 13, all the teachers, all the leadership teams, all the business and grounds staff- dropped everything and read. This community-wide ten minutes was a great way to symbolise the importance of reading in everyone’s life. This grand gesture was followed by storytelling in the Primary Library with Mr. Mills and Mr. Sean and many borrowers visiting the Secondary Library.
Reading is in the spotlight today but we hope that you read as much as possible every day. Both libraries are stocked with fabulous books, including those by Linda Newbery, who will be visiting Patana next week, and Leigh Hobbes, who will be here in April. Do come by and check them out!
What did you read on World Book Day?
