I popped in to see Yvonne over in Inveralmond High School the other week and she had a lovely purple display:
Then her other nice idea was a Cool Wall similar to that seen on Top Gear – she just had the slips for it lying about and encouraged pupils to add to it.
When asked what the end of term display should be an S6 pupil commented we hadn’t had a caravan display – that being an icon of the summer. So Caravan display it was. I’d seen reading signs in LFC Direct (though hadn’t splashed out on them) and made my own versions, plus recycled a couple of old maps. Some of the pupils helped with the caravan and car.
It’s been crazy around here as we came into the end of term but there was time for a couple of books.
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick – One of the pupils suggested this. Apparently Waterstone’s has pushing it as a Twilight alternative. I’d agree it fits a similar space in my thinking. It was good and kept me gripped. Fallen Angels rather than a Vampire but a similar bad boy meets good girl theme – even more stalker than Edward Cullen’s watching her sleep option.
Speaking of the Edward – The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer was also on
my reading list. Written about one of the characters in ‘Eclipse’ this short story was indeed interesting though I was disappointed that Meyer choose a character with potential to be like the Cullen’s rather than a crazed newbie vampire like Jasper’s beginning or like the rest of the Vampire Newbie Army. Having said that it probably wouldn’t have been the all teenagers welcome option if the main character wanted to nothing but slaughter humans for food – there was already quite a lot of that done by the other newbies. Meyer seems to like a bit of romance so needless to say Bree’s life may be short but least it had a bit of love. It does add a nice flip side to the story and what with the movie just about out no doubt it’ll help keep the publisher going.
So to round off the Vampire reading for a while Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris – 10th in the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series was just released here. It was good, much like the others though a slower pace and I felt better for the loss of the magical other realm for fairies only. Still not sure why that bugged when shape shifting humans and vampires all seemed to be okay with me. The real disappointment is that the publishers decided not only to make it a hardback but also that the cover features the TV show cast – a number of whom either don’t exist in the books, died in previous books or barely resemble their fictional counter parts.
A fellow school librarian is getting hitched so an excuse to use that lovely vintage blue upholstery velvet called. It was a present from the group of us and there is even a handmade card – which will feature in another post.
There is nothing as exciting as getting a brand new library book written by your favourite author! So I curled up with the latest Elizabeth Peters ” A River in the Sky” at the weekend. As you’d expect for Amelia Peabody she’s setting the world to rights. It’s set in 1910 so fits into the run earlier than the more recent books and it’s set in Palestine rather than Egypt, though that doesn’t stop some of their Egyptian friends appearing. Spies, archaeology and high drama ensue and it is wonderful as always. Everyone should read these books!
Apparently the Ancient Egyptians referred to the rain in Palestine as a ‘river in the sky’ – I can only assume if they’d made it to Scotland they’d have had to opt for a lake in sky since the rain doesn’t seem to stop long enough to form a river.
Books to movies was the theme the past fortnight in the library. Pretty predictable looking (especially since I’ve done it annually and I’ve recycled the bits every time!). A couple of the library monitors noticed but no-one else seemed to and staff still commented on it.
Part of this was so it fitted with my emergency S1 extra lesson – where pupils were asked to compare books to movies on a worksheet. I did it as a discussion option in a wee group so they could chat about a book and the movie made from it even if they hadn’t read/seen it individually.
The next months are pupil creations – ‘Girls Rule’ which is all pink (and I mean that even the books are pink) and then ‘Boys Night In’ where blue is the dominant colour. Both done by two of the library monitors.
Other book news finished reading the Sookie Stakehouse books up to the latest one. They did get sillier but still enjoyable. Moving on to other things now – though not finding myself so addicted to the latest reading pick.
Went a bit mad and I’ve read a wee stack of books.
Right let’s start with the first two – both Puffin books (it’s their 70th Birthday this year) and I wrote to them to ask if they’d give me some free books for the Lones. Well they did – 30 books including the latest paperback Percy Jackson and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Big thanks again!). So I decided I should read them. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a international best seller and well deserved because it is brilliant. I love the illustrations and the stories. Like so many teenagers the main character is blissfully unaware of the bigger picture and the results are very funny.
I decided to start with the first Percy Jackson book rather than the one Puffin sent as I am doing Greek Myths with my S1 autistic class and next weeks lesson includes a reading of the first chapter of Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. I enjoyed it – very much in the vain of Harry Potter or similar but I thought different enough not to feel like a duplication. Plus it had all the Greek myth stuff to spot or enjoy the variation on. Plus it has a really exciting first chapter and I’m all for a book where the main character is nearly killed in chapter one.
The Sookie Stackhouse series will be ongoing. My my sister in-law was down with Tom’s brother they introduced us to the TV series True Blood. Well we really enjoyed it so I thought I’d try the books, there was a deal from The Book People so I ended up with nine books. The books are fun, written in the first person (Sookie) so your knowledge of everyone else is based on what she knows. The TV show and books are similar though a number of the key characters in the TV show barely register in the books (though it looks like they may have blended a number of elements from the books so maybe they’ll appear more important in later books). My only comment would be the sex scenes (of which there seems to be many both in book and in TV series) seem less sexy than they should be. Perhaps that’s because I’m used to Janet Evanovich.
See the link there? Her ‘between the numbers’ book ‘Plum Lucky’ again sees Stephanie blowing up a car (well technically Lula blew it up but the result was still a toasted car) and hanging out with overly sexy men. In this case it’s Diesel who features strongly, he’s a bit on the magical side and I feel Evanovich’s weakest man. I know I’m being picky but I’m just not drawn to the character. I’m not sure why but I think it might be the super natural element the stories he features in have. I do know this is silly since I’ll happily read fantasy and I just finished writing about two books where the lead bloke in undead but the Stephanie Plum novels have a more believable set up – perhaps I just can’t imagine meeting Diesel on a night out but Ranger and Morelli seem more likely? Mmm… maybe need to think this through more as that didn’t sound any more rational. Anyway while I didn’t rush to read this it was still enjoyable – the little person who thinks he’s a leprechaun, Lula’s love of spandex and Grandma Mazur (she’s my favourite character) it was funny and fun.
Very excited one of my recent displays was featured on Library Displays blog. It’s got some wonderful ideas on it so feel very honoured!
‘Cue the Easter Bunny’ by Liz Evans took me two attempts to read. I started it last year but never really got going. Not sure why it’s easy to read though not as enthralling as Janet Evanovich. It’s the sixth Grace Smith book and I haven’t read the others so perhaps that would have made a difference to my feelings towards the characters.
I’ve never felt any great need to start at the beginning as usually if the book so good enough I’ll just go back to the beginning and eventually re-read the one I read out of sequence. Like any of these silly crimes Grace isn’t the smartest woman on the block when it comes to dodging death threats or hot but dangerous men. Having said that it is fun and was exciting – certainly the end of the book had me gripped and the solution came as a surprise.
Worth a read and if I see others I’d be happy to read them though I’m not rushing to request them from the library anytime soon.
So the holidays are a chance to get things done and today it was displays. I had been going to do books to movies but my lessons on that have been bounced in favour of the library blog for the next two weeks so switch in display to promoting the blog.
I printed out some of the pupil reviews from the blog and attached them to the books (not as fast as you’d think since a number of pupils had reviewed either books that are out or we didn’t have – that’s what happens when you give free choice!). Then I found the pics of staff reading I took back in 2008 (after discounting the staff who have left) I printed out 20 adding a ‘get caught reading’ heading and the blog address at the bottom. Add some blog bookmarks and - voilà!
Then for display two it’s that giant glass case in the hall again. Big slogans seem to work best so -