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.

Cathy MacPhail Book Week 2012

Everyone in Primary 6 and Primary 7, including the teachers!, were absolutely captivated by Cathy MacPhail on Friday 2nd March. She showed us the winning book trailer made by some S2 pupils for her book Out of the Depths, and read part of the story, a really creepy way to begin the session. It was fascinating to hear how she had come up with the idea to begin with, and then as she thought more about it and started writing, that it was not just a single book but a whole series about her main character Tyler Lawless, heroine to the unlawfully dead.Tyler can see dead people, and makes the mistake of telling people about what she sees until all her friends desert her, and she has to change schools as her crazy stories are causing so much trouble for everyone. The new school seems fine to start with, and then Tyler starts seeing people who aren't there, who cannot be seen by anyone else......

Tyler reappears in Secret of the Shadows.  This time the story is not set at school but during the summer as Tyler and her Great Aunt Bella are clearing out her Gran's house to sell it after her death.  Tyler's bedroom is incredibly cold, and the door keeps closing even when it has been propped open, and there is a feeling of being unwelcome here.  Aunt Bella falls ill, and Tyler is suspected of causing her illness, after all, no one believes a word she says about the evil presence lurking in the house.  This book has only just been published and it was very exciting to get our hands on a book which had not quite reached the shops yet!

Cathy encouraged everyone to come up with their own "what if?" moments.  The ideas for the haunted library and its disappearing pupils were great fun, but I will think twice about getting in a lift again.....

We all had a fantastic time and thank you to Cathy for giving us such a spine tingling author visit - with not a vampire or zombie in sight.

For more information, look  at www.cathymacphail.com

John Fardell Book Week 2012

John Fardell visited P5 and P3 on World Book Day, Thursday 1st March. John talked about how he builds his stories. Sometimes, it's a good idea for an adventure story like the Seven Professors of the Far North series. Sometimes, he builds up a story from pictures and doodles, then adds words to make a picture book story.  He read The Day Louis Got Eaten, and showed how the story developed from the first sketches and ideas.

In both sessions, John and the children created a story from pictures  - with different children drawing pictures, choosing names for characters and working out what could happen next.  There were some scary-looking monsters by the end of the story!

John talked about how he uses models to help get the pictures to look absolutely right. Everyone loved the model of the plane he used to draw the Silver Turtle aeroplane, photographs at different angles made drawing much easier.  Equally fascinating was the model of the rock-climbing machine invented by Louis' sister Sarah - lots of people wanted to know how that worked too.

Everyone enjoyed the day and many people went off with new ideas for story writing - brilliant!

Linda Strachan Book Week 2012

Linda Strachan visited our school on Wednesday 29th February to speak to Primary 1 and Primary 2.

Primary Two met Hamish McHaggis and his friends Rupert the hedgehog, Jeannie the osprey and Angus the pine marten. When Shona the squirrel comes to tell them the news that the young prince of the forest is lost, Hamish and the others set out in the Whirry Bang to help in the search.  All the woodland creatures are helping to look for the lost prince, but you'll never guess who managed to find him, and met someone very special at the same time!

Linda read Hamish McHaggis and the Skye Surprise to Primary One.  In this story, Hamish and his friends go to the island of Skye.  Jeannie the osprey has been on holiday and brought back lots of presents including a very special present for her brother. A surprise birthday party is being organised on the island. Things don't quite work out as Jeannie had planned, and it is up to Hamish and his friends - and the Whirry Bang! - to sort everything out.

We all had a marvellous time listening to stories and learning about how books are published and how many people it takes to get a book onto the shelves in a library or bookshop. Thank you to Linda for two excellent sessions!

Visit Linda's website www.lindastrachan.co.uk to find out more.

Allan Burnett - Book Week 2012

Primary Four children met Allan Burnett on Tuesday and were enthralled by his stories from Scottish history.  Did you know that Columba was responsible for the Loch Ness monster (probably)? Or that Robert the Bruce spoke four languages?

There were loads of fascinating facts to learn, all about the heroes and villains from Scottish history.  Primary four are just beginning to learn about the Scottish Wars of Independence, so they were keen to find out more.  Allan gave us a timeline to show how everything fits together, which always helps when you are trying to keep track of which king or queen was on the throne when!

We had a look at his new book which has stories about the Second World War, from people who lived and worked here in Scotland at the time. He also showed us the book Invented in Scotland - from the first indoor toilet at Skara Brae to computer chips!




Everyone really enjoyed this author visit.  Allan has left us with lots to think about and to research further.....  Thank you!


For more information on Allan's books, check the publisher's website www.birlinn.co.uk/author/details/Allan-Burnett-67/