Primary Seven Olympic Reading Challenge 2012

The Read Eleven in Primary Seven reading challenge has taken on an Olympic theme this year - read your way round ten Olympic sports and your gold medal eleventh title for a winning performance!

The challenge has started and will finish next term on Friday 11th May 2012. Everyone has their own challenge sheet to fill in and each class has a record sheet as well.  We all have 17 weeks to do this, including school holidays, so we should all manage it.

The starting pistol has gone off, the race is on........!

Tumtum and Nutmeg

Hidden in the broom cupboard in Rose Cottage is the most amazing little house - Nutmouse Hall.  Home to Mr and Mrs Nutmouse, otherwise known as Tumtum and Nutmeg, two of the kindest friendliest mice you could ever meet.  They live very happily in Nutmouse Hall, enjoying the company of their friends, eating delicious meals  and doing all the things which make life fun.

By contrast, life in Rose Cottage is not going well.  The family have become very poor since Mrs Mildew died.  Mr Mildew is trying his best to come up with another invention to make money for the family, but ideas are scarce, and money to keep himself and Arthur and Lucy at Rose Cottage is dwindling. As the winter gets colder, Tumtum and Nutmeg decide that something will have to be done. Otherwise, the cottage may have to be sold, and then what would happen to the hidden Nutmouse Hall?

This is the first in a series of books featuring the Nutmouse family and their friends. The most recent is called Trouble at Rose Cottage.  If you would like to find out more, have a look at Emily Bearn's website www.tumtumandnutmeg.co.uk.

Emily Brown and the Elephant Emergency

Emily Brown is back in her third exciting adventure story.  Join Emily and Stanley as they go whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River, search for dinosaurs, and climb Mount Everest with their friend Matilda. They all have a wonderful time, until Matilda's Mummy phones to make sure she is all right and has everything she needs.  Matilda's Mummy worries a lot. And because she worries, she phones an awful lot.

Emily, Stanley and Matilda get quite cross about all the phone calls, until the day when Matilda's Mummy doesn't phone. Now this is a real emergency and the three friends have to rescue Matilda's Mummy!

We love Emily Brown and this book is just brilliant - recommended reading for Mummies everywhere!

You can find out more about Cressida Cowell at her website here
http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/

Scottish Writing

Happy New Year everyone!

During January, we have a display of Scottish Writing in the library.  You will find a mix of poetry and stories as well as information books about Scotland. There are books written in Scots and in English - look out for The Eejits if you haven't already read it.

There are also lots of books written by people living and working in Scotland at the present time. Authors who visit our school are usually living in Scotland - look for Catherine Macphail, Ross Collins, Moira Munro, Katie Grant, Keith Charters, Frank Rodgers, Allan Burnett, John Fardell and Vivian French among others.

If you haven't chosen your poem for the Scots Verse competition, have a quick look through the books on Burns, and titles like A Bairn's Sang.

Jesus' Christmas Party

This is one of my favourite re-tellings of the Christmas Story, probably because I sympathise with the sleep-deprived crabby innkeeper.  Late one night, Mary and Joseph arrive at the inn, which as we all know, is full up - but there is the stable round the back.  The innkeeper's sleep is disturbed by shepherds, a bright light, and lots of noisy singing.  Absolutely furious, the innkeeper himself storms round the back to see what is going on......

The pictures are funny, the text lively and it reads aloud very well indeed.  It apparently makes a good nativity play for nursery or P1 too, or so I am told!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

A real Christmas classic!  The story of how the Grinch with his heart two sizes too small decided to stop Christmas from coming has been loved since it was first published in 1957.

The Whos in Who-ville are all getting ready to celebrate Christmas, and their preparations are all very noisy, the Grinch hates the noise and decides to stop it, once and for all.  The story whizzes along as the Grinch makes his plans and steals all the presents, and decorations and all the food for the feast. Only to find that Christmas comes anyway, despite all his efforts.

The rhyming text is great fun to read aloud, and I love the expression on the Grinch's face when he has his brilliant idea.



Have a look at the Dr Seuss website for more Grinch-ly fun http://www.seussville.com/grinch/

The Christmas Eve Ghost

Shirley Hughes has given us a delightful picture book for Christmas this year The Christmas Eve Ghost.

Inspired by her own childhood in Liverpool in the 1930s, Shirley Hughes gives us a look back at how things were for people during very hard times.  The two children, Bronwen and Dylan, are frightened by some strange noises on Christmas Eve, some very ghostly noises! Their mother has gone out to the shop at the end of the road, and in going out to find her, they literally run into their next door neighbour.  She takes them into her house where they have never been before - will this visit help solve the mystery of the strange noises?

As usual with a Shirley Hughes book, the pictures are full of the tiny details of daily life. The close relationship between the children and their mother is shown as they go through the day. Much of the detail is of historical interest, depicting the lives of the family and the community in which they live.  This is a wonderful book to share with children, as there is a fair bit of text and some of the pictures may need some explanation. As we live through our own times of austerity, it is fascinating to see how an earlier generation coped with theirs.

Lucy and Tom's Christmas, Angel Mae and Snow Lady are other seasonal Shirley Hughes picture books to enjoy.

You can watch Shirley talk about the making of The Christmas Eve Ghost here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRvSeE1RRg