The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour dog

The story of Streaker aka The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog has been a favourite ever since it was published in 1996. As a family pet with a fair bit of greyhound in her background, Streaker is the dog no-one wants to take for a walk.  She cannot walk at a reasonable pace, but takes off at top speed whenever she has the opportunity. So when Trevor is offered thirty pounds by his Mum to walk Streaker every day during the Easter holidays, he knows this is not just a bribe, it's danger money!  To add to Trevor's problems, he takes a bet that he will be able to train Streaker by the end of the holidays, or be prepared to take a bath in a very slimy green pond.

Trevor and his friend Tina try everything from roller-skates to mobile phones in their attempts to train Streaker. The end of the holiday is in sight and Streaker still cannot stay on the lead. The frog spawn filled pond is waiting, Trevor and Tina have one last big idea - this time, will it work? Read on and find out...

Jeremy Strong's story is very funny, all the things Trevor and Tina try to do to train Streaker go wrong. Instead of earning money, it looks like Trevor is going to be losing money this school holiday!

Have a look at Jeremy's website here www.jeremystrong.co.uk and keep a look out for the newest story about Streaker The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog Goes For Gold!

Linda Strachan Book Launch

When Linda Strachan came to visit us during Book Week this year, she told us about the new book she had coming out this month.

Hamish McHaggis and the Great Glasgow Treasure Hunt is available now in the shops.  Linda Strachan and illustrator Sally J. Collins will be doing two events in Glasgow to celebrate the publication of the new Hamish book.

Linda and Sally will be at Kelvingrove and at the Riverside museum during the weekend of 28th and 29th April 2012 with copies of the new book, and lots of activities for everyone to join in. Sally will be doing drawings with children too.


For more information, check here for the Kelvingrove event on Saturday 28th April 2012
http://events.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/hamish-mchaggis-book-launch

and here for the Riverside event on Sunday 29th April 2012
http://events.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/2/hamish-mchaggis-book-launch

Entry is free!

Eggs

Mother Duck finds an egg and rolls it home to hatch out  along with her other eggs. In due course, the eggs hatch into three ducklings - Quack, Dabble and Fluff, and Snap a baby crocodile.The duck family are very happy together except for the comments of the other animals who think the green wrinkly duckling is rather strange. Mother Duck's answer is always "Some ducklings are different, but to me, they're all wonderful."  All the ducklings and Snap grow up together quite happily despite the nasty comments from other creatures, until the day when the tiger comes looking for a tasty meal of tender little duckling. Snap with his sharp teeth saves the day sending the tiger howling back into the forest. Everyone agrees that Snap is wonderful.  There is a lovely picture at the end of the story, the Duck family group hug!

With Snap, Damian Harvey and Lucy Richards have created a warm-hearted picture book which doesn't labour the point. This would be a good read one to one, or with a small group, or a whole class depending on circumstances.

Other egg stories you could look at are The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett, Egg Drop by Mini Grey, and of course, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. 

The Reading Year 2012 - so far!

Looking through my reading diary for this year, I came across some of the books I have read and really enjoyed for one reason or another. This is not a list of newly published books, nor are all of these available in the school library (obviously!), just what I would highlight from the last three months of my own reading. So, we are a quarter of the way through the year and these are my top picks so far.

The Black House by Peter May. This is an adult crime novel set on the island of Lewis, the policeman hero is an islander who left to go to university and is sent to help with a particularly grisly murder. I found it a very atmospheric, almost claustrophobic read, with a shocking ending which I didn't see coming.

Longitude by Dana Sobel.  This has been around for many years and I finally got round to it. The book gives the story behind the discovery of longitude and the importance of this discovery for navigation, the measurement of time and the making of clocks and watches. Fascinating stuff.

Far Rockaway by Charlie Fletcher. I had read and enjoyed the StoneHeart Trilogy so I was interested to see how Charlie Fletcher would move on to something new.  This book is about the power of story to help come to terms with what life throws at us, the power of stories to help us grow up, to help us understand each other, and to heal. The main character is a teenage girl in a coma after being hit by a truck, most of the novel gives her point of view but there are also a lot of other viewpoints to keep track of, which makes it a bit complicated to read. A passing knowledge of The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers is helpful too.

Dead Boy Talking by Linda Strachan. Not a comfortable read this one, cleverly structured round the 25 minutes it takes the average person to bleed to death.  Teenage Josh has been stabbed and left to die, the book shows how he got to be where he is. All the reasons and decisions by Josh, and others, that led up to this moment.  Thought-provoking, but not for the squeamish. 

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. This was an incredibly moving story about how a teenage boy begins to come to terms with the illness and death of his mother from cancer.  Grief and fear of the unknown are the main themes of this book, the fear of abandonment - what will happen to me, the one left behind.  The illustrations are dark and scary, adding to the atmosphere of the story. This is totally different from Patrick Ness' other work, came from an idea by Siobhan Dowds, and I'm not sure how much is whose, but I thought it was brilliant, and yes, I cried at several points in the story.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. Another illustrated novel, this time by the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret (the film Hugo). The story is told from two points of view, in words by the boy, in pictures by the girl, and eventually the two stories come together as the two people meet. This book repays an almost immediate second reading as you go back to see how closely the stories are intertwined.  Gorgeous illustrations and well worth a very detailed read and look.

The Robodog by Frank Rodgers. A classic for younger children from Frank Rodgers, author of The Witch's Dog series. The robodog desperately wants to be a real dog, with hair and everything, so that his family will love him more. What he doesn't realise, is that Dad is allergic to dog hair!  However, Robodog learns that you can be a real dog without having hair - as long as your nose works properly!

Animal Antics: The Singing Sheep by Lucy Courtenay. When a new sheep comes to live on the farm, she finds it difficult to fit in, especially when her idea of music is not the same as everyone else. I loved the idea of a secret competition to find the best flock of singing sheep at the local show.  At the same time, the sheepdog is trying not to be last in his competition.   Very silly and great fun.

Measle and the Wrathmonk

Poor Measle Stubbs is one of the most miserable ten year olds you could ever meet. He lives in a dark, dirty, dingy house at the end of a street full of dirty, dreary  empty houses. Strangest of all, his house has a small black cloud hanging over it ALL the time, drizzling constantly.  He has no parents and lives with his Legal Guardian Basil Tramplebone, a tall thin miserable man who hates everyone, especially Measle. The only good thing about the house is the enormous train set in the attic. 

Measle gets caught playing with the train set and is zapped by one of Basil's evil spells.  Now he is only a few centimetres tall, trapped in the train set itself with no way to escape back to his own life. Even the cockroaches and other insects are huge dangerous creatures, Measle has to literally run for his life.  How will he ever get home again?  But there are other people here too - who are they and how did they get there? 

This is the first in the series of Measle stories by Ian Ogilvy.  The books follow Measle through a series of amazing magical adventures. The books are illustrated by Chris Mould. If you enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events or the Something Wickedly Weird series, this could be a good choice to try next.

Diamonds are for Evil

From skateboarding to free-running, circus star to computer genius, the four children in Andrew Fusek Peters story Diamonds are for Evil have the most amazing talents.  Ben is a free-runner who seems to be able to get out of the tightest situations by literally running up the wall - or jumping off one! Charlie is a talented athlete with a sideline in circus skills - everything from juggling to fire eating.  Break and his skateboard are nearly inseparable, and San can hack into any system CCTV, computer or mobile phone.

The gang get themselves into trouble trying to do a favour for a friend.  Soon they are on the trail of some ruthless jewel thieves who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a fabulously expensive pink diamond.  The friends find out that doing favours can be a dangerous activity because someone has been lying to them all along, but who?

This is a fast-moving, exciting adventure story for older children, literally death defying in places!  The second in the Skateboard Detectives series and recommended if you enjoyed

Priceless.

Science Week 2012

12th to 16th March is Science Week in school.  There are lots of experiments going on in various classrooms as everyone is focusing on science topics this week. We will be having visitors this week to several classes as parents who have science-based careers come in to talk about what they do.

In the library, we have been looking at information books this week, particularly those on science subjects.  P5 are evaluating books on the human body as part of the Body Business topic work.  P3 and P4 are looking at the features which make a good information book. P1 and P2 are learning about information books and may be choosing one to go home this week.

There are a number of stories with a strong science background too.  You could look at George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy Hawking, or The Time and Space of Uncle Albert by Russell Stannard.  A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle has some central characters who are scientists. If gadgets are more interesting to you, try the Alex Rider series by Antony Horowitz, Young Bond series by Charlie Higson, or the HIVE series by Mark Walden. Robots are always popular too, and there is a robot story to suit you from Frank Rodgers Robodog series to the Eager stories by Helen Fox. There are biographies of famous scientists in the Biography section at 920.