Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Celebrating Black History Month

 Although our Library is always committed to diversity and to expanding our collection to include books from every culture, this month we want to focus on books that celebrate and share Black history and culture.

Here's our first selection:

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper


Draper is an awesome author and we have a lot of her books in the Library. 

Stella by Starlight was published in 2015 and tells the story of Stella Mills who lives in the segregated South. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community—her world—is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end. (Amazon review)

Draper was inspired to write this book after coming across the diary of her grandmother who, although she had been forced to leave school after fifth grade, insisted on writing each night by the light of the moon.

Monday, 18 January 2021

Digital Escape Rooms - Library Style

 


Escape Rooms are a popular activity and with the foray into remote learning, many people have turned their attention to digital versions of escape rooms.

There are lots of different kinds available to try, many using a combination of apps, and some libraries have jumped onto the digital literary escape bandwagon.

The Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, PA is one of these. Their librarian created a Hogwarts Digital Escape Room on Google Forms that ended up being played in 22 countries around the world and being translated into 7 languages. It's great fun if you're a Harry Potter fan!!

Now, librarian Sydney Krawiec has created a new game based on the Hunger Games!

Click on this link to go to the PTPL Virtual Escape Site.

Last year, the BHS Library created a Christmas-themed digital escape room based in our old library. It's past Christmas now but if you're feeling nostalgic, click on the link to see our old Library and help Santa escape. Locked in the Library

The Campbell County Public Libraries have also used Google Forms to build  escape rooms with a variety of fun themes such as Fairy Tale Quest, Mythological Mayhem and Murder Mystery to name a few. You can visit their website HERE

And finally, for the music lovers - an interesting Escape Room created by the Sydney Opera House Trials of Wisdom!


Tuesday, 15 December 2020

The Blackbird Girls


From Kirkus Reviews: The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman




The citizens of the town of Pripyat, Ukraine, have always been assured that “an accident at a nuclear power station was a statistical impossibility.”

So when the morning of April 26, 1986, dawns red, with “unearthly blue” smoke billowing into the air, life proceeds as normal. Fifth grade classmates and rivals Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko, however, are worried. Their fathers, night-shift plant workers at the Chernobyl power station, have not yet come home. Soon word gets out that reactor No. 4 has exploded, killing several workers and sending the rest en masse to the hospital, poisoned by the very air they breathe. Forced together by the sudden evacuation, the girls must overcome both their hatred of each other and the grief heaped upon them by the accident as they forge a new life in Leningrad with Valentina’s estranged grandmother, who harbors a dangerous secret.

Author Anne Blankman wrote this story after she heard about the experiences of a classmate who had lived near Chernobyl when the disaster occurred. 



Want to know more about Chernobyl?




Friday, 4 December 2020

Agatha Christie

Our Library has recently seen a small run on books by best-selling novelist, Agatha Christie so I thought this would be a good time to showcase one of my own favourite authors.

I started reading Agatha Christie when I was 9 years old, have read all 66 detective novels and short stories and re-read many of them every year. 

Her books are classics and are true representatives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, which features books written in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Other popular authors of that time include Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey) Margery Allingham (Albert Campion) Ngaio Marsh (Roderick Alleyn) G.K Chesterton (Father Brown) Josephine Tey, Georgette Heyer and more.

My own favourite Christie books include: 




Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in England. She is the best-selling novelist of all time, with more than 2 billion copies of her novels sold world-wide. The longest running play of all time - The Mousetrap - is one of her creations.

Christie also wrote 6 novels under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott.

Christie's most famous detective is Hercule Poirot but other popular detective characters include Miss Jane Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Mr. Parker Pyne, Colonel Race and Ariadne Oliver.

Her books have been made into movies, with the latest release, Death on the Nile, scheduled for some time in 2021.

Recently, author Sophie Hannah has begun to write what is known as the Poirot Continuation series and has had four books published, starring Poirot and new detective, Inspector Catchpool.

They're great fun and very true to the style of Dame Agatha!

Try these titles if you like Poirot and have read all of the Christie originals!



Thursday, 26 November 2020

Some New Books.

 It's always great when new books arrive and we've had some wonderful donations in the past two weeks.

My top fiction pick this week is The Painting by Charis Cotter. It's a great mystery/ghost story that circles around paintings. If you like mysteries and art, this would be a good choice for you. 


Also donated this week : The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris, is a book which provides insight into the influences of Harris' life and communicates her vision of shared struggle, shared purpose and shared values. 



Sunday, 8 November 2020

Read to Remember

 


The Library has a wonderful collection of historical fiction.
Ask to see the resource list for books about conflict, including World War 2.

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Title Peek has arrived!

 The online Library Catalogue (Destiny Discover) has been updated to include book cover images!

It looks so much more inviting now - and a lot more colourful.


Log in and see what the Library has to offer.



Monday, 19 October 2020

The Sir James & Lady Astwood Library

 We've moved!

The Library is now in its new space in the Buchanan Commons in the new Innovation Centre and looks great!




Due to Covid-19, Government health guidelines do not allow us to fully open the Library at this time but you are still able to sign out books.

Our Library Catalogue is online and students have been issued logins and passwords to Destiny Discover.

Browse the catalogue online and place books on Hold. You can then collect them from the circulation desk in the Learning Commons at lunchtimes and after school.

We are working on getting book cover images for the online catalogue but in the meantime please read the blurbs and use the search functions.

We also have a lot of new books that are on display in the reading room and encourage you to have a look at the selection. Browse with your eyes only.

Books are disinfected upon return and quarantined for four days before being returned to the shelves.

If you need any help, please ask:

 The Learning Commons leaders: Moya and Anne-Camille

or any member of the Library Squad.

Siena, Julia, Addy, Elyse and Helena

Monday, 1 October 2018

Mystery Month!

October is Mystery Month in the Library.



This year we will celebrate Literature Detectives, starting with Hercule Poirot, the character created by Agatha Christie.



Take part in the Poirot Puzzle. Correct quiz entries will be entered in a prize draw. Three winners will be picked on Friday lunchtime.




On Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime we will be showing one of Poirot's cases: The Affair at the Victory Ball.
We have room for 22 people - sign up, bring your lunch and watch as Poirot solves the murder of two revelers at the lavish, costumed Victory Ball.




Thursday, 24 May 2018

Read (and Eat) Around the World!

This week the Library Squad hosted the Year 5 classes in a Diversity Day event:

Read (and Eat) Around the World.

Squad members celebrated their own personal cultural heritages by sharing books in different languages, bringing in treats and helping the Year 5s to make flag-themed bookmarks.







Monday, 30 April 2018

Poetry Lunch in the Library


 A great finish to National Poetry Month:

Teachers and students sharing poems over lunch!
Thank you so much to those who volunteered to present their personal poems.



In April 2015 when the White House celebrated National Poetry Month,
Barak Obama, the President of the USA at the time,  said this:

Poetry matters.  
Poetry — like all art — gives shape and texture and depth of meaning to our lives.  
It helps us know the world.  
It helps us understand ourselves.  
It helps us understand others — their struggles, their joys, the ways that they see the world. 
 It helps us connect.  
In the beginning, there was the word.  
And I think it’s fair to say that if we didn’t have poetry, that this would be a pretty barren world.  
In fact, it’s not clear that we would survive without poetry.

I hope that many of us have read more poems than we might normally do and have a greater appreciation for the art of poetry.  

Don't wait until next year to read another poem!!

Have a look at these websites or check out a book of poems from the Library.





Friday, 27 April 2018

The Dr. Neil Burnie Foundation

Help students support this worthy cause by contributing to their Candy Jar Guess.

In the Library at lunchtimes this week. 
Posters around school will give you the details.

Visit the


to see how your donations can help conserve our oceans.

copyright 2016 The Dr. Neil Burnie Foundation


Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Poem in a Pocket Day


Wednesday April 25th - Poem in a Pocket Day


Keep A Poem In Your Pocket
By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Keep a poem in your pocket
And a picture in your head
And you'll never feel lonely
At night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
The little picture bring to you
A dozen dreams to dance to you
At night when you're in bed.

So - -
Keep a picture in your pocket
And a poem in your head
And you'll never feel lonely

At night when you're in bed.