Summer reading...escape with a book!

As the heatwave hit Beaumont last week and temperatures in the library soared, our thoughts turned to summer and the holidays ahead. To help students prepare for the long summer break we decided to put together two holiday reading displays with book suggestions galore. 

The above display features fourteen books well worth packing in your suitcase. The selection includes the thought-provoking CILIP Carnegie Medal-winning Salt to the Sea and The Bone Sparrow which was awarded the Amnesty CILIP Honour. Alongside these is the latest Tom Gates book Family, Friends and Furry Creatures and two of the books shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud Book Award 2017: My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord and David Baddiel's Animalcom. For Holly Smale fans there is the Geek Girl special Sunny Side Up. Whatever style or genre of book you enjoy, there is something for you on this display: from romance to fast-paced action adventure and from horror to humour.

As you can see, we have picked the books in our second display on the basis of their sunshine-yellow covers! The result is an exciting mix of titles to suit all tastes. Come along to the library and see for yourself!

Silver standard reading from Year 7 and 8

Some excellent reading and quizzing produced a flurry of silver stars on the AR board last week. Well done to the following students who have all scored 100% on at least five book quizzes this term:

7A Ella Neal
7N Thomas Mumford
7R Elliot Coates (this takes Elliot's total up to 25 stars this term!)
8A Grace Green
8A Lucy Robinson
8E Luka Cutts
8E Rosie Fletcher
8E Rachel Thompson

Year 7 student strikes double AR gold

Congratulations to Hannah Robinson in 7E for earning a second AR gold star during the Summer Term. This is a great achievement by Hannah who has now scored 100% in twenty-two AR quizzes...fantastic reading! A big round of applause also for the following students who have been awarded silver stars for scoring 100% on five book quizzes:

7A Maisie Kemp
7E Sam Flury
7N Sam Mackinnon
8L Helen Ross
8S Paris Hall

We must also mention Jake Morrish in 7L who has read 1 million words so far this term. This word count is based on Jake's AR quiz activity and is an impressive milestone. 

All students who passed a book quiz last week will have added to their form's points total. Here are the latest standings:

Challenging our top readers

There is an exciting new display in the library celebrating the launch of a reading initiative called 'Branch out with your reading' aimed at challenging our outstanding readers in Year 7 and 8. The English department has identified a number of students whose vocabulary and comprehension is of a sufficiently high standard to allow them to tackle books at GCSE level. These students will be invited to take part in the scheme and to stretch themselves by reading fiction from a wide range of titles selected by the English department and the librarians.

This selection includes classics, modern classics, young adult and adult fiction chosen to challenge the students' reading skills. There is also a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde category. In this section we have suggested a number of modern fiction titles that explore the same themes or are constructed in a similar way to R L Stevenson's classic novella. The aim of this selection is to introduce the students to the ideas behind Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde before they come to study it at GCSE.  

Mrs Mayer-Khan has produced a booklist entitled 'Challenge Yourself and Branch Out With Your Reading' to support the scheme.

Nicky Singer inspires Beaumont students

'Nicky Singer went into such detail and really explained every aspect of the writing process. It was great to meet such a unique author and get a behind-the-scenes look at what really makes a good book.' Evie, Year 7.

Evie's comment about writer Nicky Singer sums up what our students felt after listening to her talk in the library during our recent Children's Book Award Discussion Day. During her visit, Nicky gave the students a real insight into her life as an author and some invaluable tips on how to write. Here are some of the things we learned:
 
You have to have self-belief to be a writer. You need to be able say to yourself not 'I failed' but 'I tried, it didn't work so I'll try something else.'
 
Tell yourself: 'I can do anything as long as I want to enough.' Don't be contained.
 
As an author you have to step into someone else's shoes, inhabit their soul.
 
Be really nosy: listen, poke around in things. Ask people to explain to you how they feel; writing is about feeling.
 
Never put a real person in a book, they can't behave with the freedom you would like in the story.

Many thanks once again to Nicky for spending the day with us at Beaumont and inspiring our students.

Read more about Nicky's visit in the following Herts Advertiser article:

http://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/education/author-helps-with-judging-for-pupils-own-book-awards-at-st-albans-school-1-5035546

'We are all connected' - thinking about our world with writer Nicky Singer

The library's Children's Book Award (CBA) Discussion Day on Monday 22nd May was made doubly special by a visit from writer Nicky Singer. We were delighted that Nicky could be with us on the day and take part in all the book-based activities. She was particularly keen to sit with the students and listen to their discussions and opinions on the three books shortlisted for the CBA 2017. With over fifty students in the library, it was a lively and hectic morning. Nicky was busy from start to finish, right down to counting the students' votes and announcing the winner of our CBA poll!

With all the CBA activities over, the students gathered to listen to Nicky as she talked about her work, her books and her life as a writer. Nicky has written extensively for young people; her works include seven fiction books, a play, a musical and an opera. In this talk, she focussed on Feather Boy, her first children's title and Island, her latest book. 

Island is a beautiful and thought-provoking book set on Herschel Island in the Arctic circle. The story focusses on the native Innuit people and the drastic effect that global warming is having on the Arctic environments. Nicky describes it as 'a story that needed to be told'. She talked to us about how drilling for oil, climate change and rising sea levels are eroding and destroying Herschel and endangering the wildlife, including whales and polar bears. The Arctic people are intensely spiritual and deeply connected to nature. It is this connection that Nicky fears we are losing in our modern world. In the book, Inuluk, an Innuit spirit-girl, talks about us, the people in the world outside the Arctic (the Qallunaat), as 'the people who change nature'.

While delivering an important message, Island is also a compelling and enthralling story. We follow the main character, London teenager Cameron (described by Nicky as 'arrogant and blundering') to Herschel and watch as Inuluk tries to make him understand his part in what is happening to her island: 'when you tread heavily in your world you also tread in ours.'

Nicky's stressed the need for us all to think and care about others on our planet. In Inuluk's words: 'No one's an island, Cameron. You, your parents, London, Qikiqtaruk, the whales, the guillemots, the living, the dead. We're all connected. If one moves we all move.'

The students listened intently throughout Nicky's talk. Here are some of the things they had to say about meeting Nicky:

'I found her talk really inspiring...I feel this made me determined to help the environment.' Lilia 7E

'This was a fantastic day. Nicky showed us her beautiful book Island. We found out what we are doing to the earth and how it is affecting the Arctic.' Eliana 7R

'The whole day was amazing - the author's talk has to have been my favourite part though. Nicky really got engaged with us and answered all our questions. It was great to meet such a unique author.' Evie 7S

'Nicky Singer came to our school to talk about her new book. I really enjoyed it because of her outgoing and interesting personality.' Tia 8R

Many, many thanks to Nicky for visiting Beaumont and inspiring us all. For further information on Island and the fascinating story on how Nicky brought this book to publication, click on the links below:


http://nickysinger.com/new/island/

https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/oct/22/nicky-singer-you-will-hate-my-book

Hanging out the bunting at our Children's Book Award Discussion Day

On Monday 22^nd May, Beaumont students and the library team welcomed pupils from Marlborough and Sandringham to our Children’s Book Award (CBA) Discussion Day. The CBA is the only national book award voted for solely by children. It involves 250 schools across the UK. As part of the awards process, over 1,000 books have been reviewed and rated by children and whittled down to a shortlist of three. The aim of our library event was to explore and discuss the three books shortlisted for the 2017 prize and to vote as a group on which one the students think should be the eventual winner.

As a double celebration of books and reading, we were also delighted to meet writer Nicky Singer who joined us for the Discussion Day.  The library buzzed with lively debate as students chatted and played board games specifically created by Mrs Mayer-Khan to encourage discussion of the shortlisted titles. Staff from all three schools were impressed by the students’ knowledge of the books and the clarity and passion with which they discussed them.

After an hour of discussion, students were invited to vote for their favourite of the three books. The winner of the group’s vote was ‘Car-jacked’ by Ali Sparkes, a fast-paced adventure story which won by a small margin over Sarah Crossan’s verse-novel ‘One’. The overall winner of the national CBA 2017 vote will be announced on Saturday 10^th June.

Following the vote, students spent time producing artwork, reviews and writing inspired by the three books. This work will be collated into a portfolio and presented to the shortlisted authors. To commemorate our Discussion Day, all the students were also invited to pick one of their favourite ever books and write the title in a ‘Celebration of Reading’ journal. The result is a fantastically varied collection of book suggestions. This journal will circulate between Beaumont, Sandringham and Marlborough, hopefully inspiring other students to read some of the books recommended inside.

 

Once all the CBA activities were over and students had been unleashed on the refreshments table, we handed the floor over to Nicky Singer. The students were treated to a fascinating talk about her life as a writer, her work and the inspiration behind her books. There is so much to say about what we learned from Nicky that it merits its own post on our blog! Please click on the link below to read more about Nicky's visit:

http://libraryatbeaumontschool.blogspot.com/

 

'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!'

7A and 8A students did Jane Austen proud with their reading last week. Students in 7A passed 32 book quizzes, accumulating an impressive 209 AR points. This keeps them at the top of their league table. Meanwhile, 8A readers passed 17 quizzes, earning 116 AR points which was the biggest points gain for the week in Year 8. Well done to ALL the students across the two year groups who passed book quizzes last week. Silver stars have been awarded to the following students: Nick Berman (7A) Peter Laanest and Isabelle Tapson (7L) Congratulations also to Lilia Prowse (7E) for achieving a gold star. Here are the updated league tables:

'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library'. Pride & Prejudice.