Scottish Children's Book Awards

 

We are taking part in the Scottish Children's Book Awards again this year. These awards are voted for by the children who read the books - no grown-ups allowed!. There are three short-listed books in each category. All our Primary 1, Primary 2 and Primary 3 children will be taking part over the next few months, reading the Bookbug books.

Jack and the Flumflum Tree is the latest book by Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson. Jack's Granny has the moozles, so Jack and his friends sail off to the land of Blowyernose to find the fruit of the flumflum tree which is the only cure. The illustrations by David Roberts complement the rhyming text.

The Day Louis Got Eaten is written in a very different style by author and illustrator John Fardell.  Louis and his sister Sarah are out for a bike ride in the woods when unfortunately, Louis gets eaten by a gulper. It's up to the resourceful Sarah to rescue him. The cartoon style pictures help move the story along, with lots of hidden detail to look out for.

In Solomon Crocodile by Catherine Rayner, Solomon is having a hard time understanding why no-one wants to play his noisy games, until a friend comes along who enjoys the same things. The illustrations are lovely and the story reads aloud well.



For more information on the Scottish Children's Book Awards, visit the Scottish Book Trust website at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/teachers/scottish-childrens-book-awards

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

I have been wanting to read this book ever since I first saw it reviewed when it was first published in the USA. Mostly because I thought the title was intriguing.

At first it seems like another American Middle school story, with the usual setting and character set. However the narrator Tommy is not only giving the reader his own view of events, but allowing other children to read it and add comments, drawings and their own views on the action.  All of this is done in a range of different typefaces to help the reader work out who is speaking.

Tommy's friend Dwight is an oddball character who finds it difficult to conform to the expectations of middle school life. Dwight makes an finger puppet, an origami Yoda, who talks and offers advice to the children in the class about how to handle problems and difficult situations. The amazing thing is, the advice actually works! No-one knows for sure if Origami Yoda is real, or whether it's just Dwight making it all up - even his Yoda impression is awful, so how can the advice be so powerful? Tommy sets out to prove once and for all if Origami Yoda is real - or not.

Tom Angleberger has created a believable middle school with it's own set of pupils and teachers, including a truly scary Principal Rabbski. If you enjoyed the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, gives this one a try too. The second and third books in the series are available too Darth Paper Strikes Back and The Secret of the Fortune Wookie. I can't wait to see what happens next in book 4 (if there is one?  Please?)  Each book has instructions on folding your own Yoda, Darth Paper, and other characters. Definitely also worth a look is the website www.origamiyoda.com.


Read it you must.

The Reading Year 2012 - Part 3

A little later in the month than usual, this is the time when I look back over the reading I have been doing over the previous three months.

Maze Running and other Magical Missions is the last in Lari Don's Fabled Beasts quartet and was published earlier this summer.  In this book, all the chickens come home to roost, for everyone. Yann the centaur has been wounded, and is dying, unless Helen and her friends can fulfil a threefold quest. Truth is the ultimate key to saving Yann, and the world of the Fabled Beasts, no matter how much that truth may hurt. If you have been following Helen's adventures, this is a great ending to the series, if you haven't, why not? Time to get going!

It's taken me a while to get round to M. G. Harris, and the first in her series of thrillers Invisible City. As our intrepid hero tries to find out what really happened to his archaeologist father who is believed to have been killed in a plane crash in central America, an ancient Mayan prophecy is unleashed foretelling the end of the world. A secret civilisation hidden underground may hold the key to the mystery, and perhaps stave off the inevitable doom...

Jack Slater, Monster Investigator by John Dougherty is great fun to read. Yes, there really are monsters under the bed, and a good teddy bear will usually see them off. The current crop of monsters are proving a little more difficult to shift. Time for Jack Slater and his team of monster hunters to get on the case - things are getting serious!

Another series comes to and end with Witch Baby and Me on Stage by Debi Gliori. It's the school show, everyone has been rehearsing like mad despite the awful weather. The whole school is devastated when the roof of the school hall falls down due to all the rain and the playground is flooded. A fairy godmother is needed to ensure the show goes on - step forward Witch Baby and friends to save the day.

For some reason, it's been a summer of detective novels and historical whodunnits. Edward Marston's Railway Detective series set in Victorian England; David Ashton's Inspector Levy Mysteries, set in Victorian Edinburgh; and I think my favourite of the bunch the Gil Cunningham novels by Pat McIntosh set in Glasgow in the 1490s and the reign of James IV. Brilliant stuff.

National Poetry Day 2012

Today is National Poetry Day 2012. To celebrate, we have been reading some poems in the library this week. This year's theme is STARS - and we all know at least one star poem.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was first published in 1806 by Jane Taylor, so we have been reading the whole poem - and singing part of it too. Other favourites have been the traditional rhyme Starlight, starbright, and the poem Your Star by James Carter. A topical poem, given the recent lights in the sky over Glasgow is The Shooting Stars by James Carter.

The National Poetry Day website is here www.nationalpoetryday.co.uk/