Fairy Tales - from Snow White to Shampoozel!

 

Primary Five have been reading and writing their own fairy tales this month. To begin with, everyone had to read lots of fairy tales to see what a traditional tale was like. Absolute silence descended on the library as everyone chose a picture book or short fiction version of a story and started reading.






After that, we all had a look at more picture books and non-traditional versions of the stories. Even more silence in the library as more fairy tales were read - punctuated by smothered giggles, and outright laughter! We all had a great time, and are looking forward to reading the finished stories.
If you would like to read more twisted tales as well as the original versions have a good look in the picture book section and the first readers section in the library, there are lots to choose from. Why not try the Seriously Silly Stories by Laurence and Catherine Anholt?

If you would like to read something rather more challenging, try books like the Tom Trueheart books by Ian Beck,the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley, or titles by Robin McKinley and Shannon Hale.

Published by Red Fox and Orchard Books

Scottish Children's Book Awards - There's More!

While everyone in Primary 1, 2 and 3 are reading the shortlist for the Bookbug Award, some of the Primary 7 pupils are starting to read their way through another shortlist. This list is for the books aimed at children between 7 and 12.

Soldier's Game by James Killgore starts out as a football story, Ross is fed up always being on the losing team. in an attempt to cheer him up, his Gran gives him a box full of old press cutting, boots and a Hearts Football jersey. Ross is now on a mission to find out more about the man who wore these boots, and what happened to him and his team mates when the Heart of Midlothian lads enlisted for the Great War. A fascinating read for boys and girls, with a strong historical background as well as the football.

Cathy MacPhail has come up with a spooky new book Out of the Depths. Tyler Lawless can see dead people - not something your average teenager can do.  Starting at a new school is hard enough, but when you start seeing ghosts life gets even harder. After all, Tyler had to leave her old school because of her stories, her overactive imagination. Even though it is bound to cause more trouble, she decides she has to solve the mystery so that the ghosts may rest in peace.

 Norm is your average thirteen year old boy, with a family who just don't understand him. Nothing that Norm does ever goes right, and it's not his fault that things get broken, or people get angry, or just that life gets in the way. He never means to cause any trouble - it just happens. Jonathan Meres' World of Norm: May Contain Nuts will appeal to many children with the same sense of humour and the feeling that sometimes it's the world that is wrong, not you.

 

Further information about this year's Scottish Children's Book Awards can be found on the website of the Scottish Book Trust at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/scottishchildrensbookawards



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/

Happy 75th Birthday!

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

These are  J R R Tolkien's opening lines of his groundbreaking story The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins' comfortable life is changed forever by the visit of the wandering wizard Gandalf. Gandalf's visit is soon followed by the equally unexpected visit of 13 dwarves looking for a fourteenth member to join their group. After many adventures with trolls, elves and orcs, they reach their destination - and somehow must defeat the fearsome dragon Smaug.

The Hobbit is 75 years old this month. First published in September 1937, The Hobbit and the subsequent Lord of the Rings trilogy could claim to be some of the most influential works of fiction published during the 20th Century. These books have inspired generations of writers in the field of heroic fantasy, and thousands of readers have loved the stories and passed that love on to their children and grandchildren.




I first read The Hobbit aged 11, and it has been a story which has stayed with me all my life, in fact I feel another re-read is in order to celebrate this 75th anniversary - possibly my well-loved hardback copy of the 50th Anniversary edition! And possibly even with a hobbit-style second breakfast at the weekend, just to keep me going.

Happy 75th Birthday Bilbo!