Visting Jackie French

Jackie French is a best selling Australian children's book author. She has written over 140 books. Her books are a great way to learn about Australian history. I was lucky enough to be invited to visit her at her house and talk to her about her books

With Jackie French at her property

Check out her website here

Bayside Writing Competition

Bayside Libraries are running a writing competition for students and entry is open until the 18th of July.
Any student aged between 10 and 18 who lives, works  or goes to school in Bayside is invited to enter.
Winners will be announced in August. 

1.  Age 10-12 with a 500 word limit on any topic with a $250 prize
2. Age  13-15 with a 250 word limit on any topic with a $250 prize

Enter here

So if you have a good story in you, why not enter you could be $250 richer

How we see the Bellarmine library

This is how we see our library. Check out the video
 ABC of the Bellarmine

It's medal time again - Part 2

In recent weeks 2 very different book shortlist have been announced.

On the one hand are the nominations for best book by the CBCA - Children's Book Council of Australia. These are chosen by a panel of adults. This year the books nominated for children around 10-12 years old are;

• Violet Mackerel's possible friend - Anna Branford
• Song for a scarlet runner - Julie Hunt
• City of orphans - Catherine Jinks
• My Life as an alphabet - Barry Jonsberg
• Light Horse Boy - Dianne Wolfer

Check out the full list here

On the other hand are the books nominated for the YABBA awards - Young Australians Best Book Awards Council awards. These are chosen by children from across Victoria, NSW, ACT and NT. This year's nominations are;

• Brotherband  - John Flanagan
• Eric Vale, Epic Fail - Michael Gerard Bauer
• Pookie Aleera is not my boyfriend - Stevens Herricks
• Specky Magee and the best of Oz - Felice Arena
• The Ivory Rose - Belinda Murrell
• Con-Nerd - Oliver Phommavanh
• My life and other stuff I made up - Tristan Bancks
• Rangers Apprentice: The Royal Ranger - John Flanagan
• The 39th story treehouse - Andy Griffiths
• WeirDo - Anh Do

Check out the full list here

Which list do you prefer?

New Wimpy Kid - The Long Haul

Just got a glimpse of the new Wimpy Kid book The Long Haul - Coming Soon

It's medal time again

The shortlist for the 2014 Carnegie Medal has just been released. This medal is awarded for the best children/teenage novel in the UK. It has been running for 77 years and past winners include C.S Lewis (The Last Battle 1956),  Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book 2010) and Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls 2012) The awards were named in honour of Andrew Carnegie a man of great charity. He had made a fortune in the steel industry in the USA, although he was Scottish by birth. He was a great believer in reading especially for children and in his lifetime paid for over 2800 libraries to be set up over the world. 

In America the best children's book is awarded the Newbery Medal, whilst in Australia we have the CBCA best book award (Children's Book Council Award).  The shortlist for these last 2 awards have not yet been announced.

Reading books that win awards or even ones that get shortlisted is a great way to make sure you are reading a book that is good quality and well written. The books that are chosen are usually the best in their field and face a lot of competition to make it to the final.

The list for the Carnegie medal this year is an unusual one. More than half the books deal with kidnap and or captivity, not a cheery subject but all are powerfully written and worth reading especially for the older readers 13+

You can read reviews of all these books online here

                                    

                                     

 

                                 

  

                                      

 

The Screaming Staircase

This is one of the best books I have read for while. I loved it because it was based on an intriguing and original idea. England has been afflicted by an outbreak of ghosts and they are not nice. Only children have the sensitivity to hear, see and sense ghosts so they are ones who have to fight and destroy them. The main characters Lucy, Lockwood and George have started a ghost fighting agency but things are not going well, that is, until they are hired to clean up England's most haunted house. A screaming staircase and a room that drips blood are just two of the ghastly obstacles they will need to face before the night is over. This book is scary but also funny and entertaining.  This is the first book in a new series by Jonathan Stroud who wrote the famous Bartimaeus sequence. Read it today!