Castlemilk High: The blog of the library!

I have just finished reading ‘The Little Stranger’ by Sarah Waters. It is excellent.

It is set just after the war and is about a doctor who lives in the country and gets to know the local ‘posh’ family who live in a big but very rundown Country House.

It starts off as a kind of romance but it gets creepier and creepier as it goes on and as more and more unpleasant, violent things happen to the posh family - is there a ghost? an evil spirit? or is it a human being being secretly wicked?

This is probably too grown up for lower school but, though it is creepy, there’s little or no swearing, violence or sex in it so S4 onwards might enjoy it.

Authors Live will be coming to Castlemilk High again! This time, instead of Charlie Higson, we will have a live broadcast from BBC Scotland featuring Jacqueline Wilson! This will take place on Thursday 27th January, so get your name down quick!

The beginning of the year will be taken up with the preparations for Poetry Slam, a competition for S1 pupils held in the Mitchell Library at the beginning of March each year. Selected S1 pupils will take part in poetry workshops with a performance artist, in preparation for a performance their work at a live Poetry Slam in March. Volunteers for this event are very welcome!

You can see the report from last year’s poetry slam here

 The Aye Write literature festival will also take place in March, which will give pupils the opportunity to listen to talks from authors and attend book signings.

After being asked to write an article for the school newsletter, I realised that the school library users have been very busy in the lasy 4 months.

September

Our first outing was to Irvine with a group of 7 S2 girls. There, we met writer Cathy Cassidy, who read from her new book, Cherry Crush. As well as the reading, and book signing, we managed to fit in cake decorating, diary-decorating, and henna hand painting. It was a great girly day out!

October

A sharp eyed S2 pupil, Ryan McKie, found out that horror writer, Darren Shan was to be in East Kilbride, on 5^th October, to sign his new novel, Birth of a Killer. Four Shansters (Darren Shan fans) and a librarian were swiftly dispatched to the shopping centre for an autographed copy and a strange picture of everyone!

Our next event came quickly afterwards on 7^th October. The Scottish Book Trust broadcast a live author talk from author and comedian Charlie Higson. Most of our S1 pupils signed up to attend. He was discussing his new book The Dead, a wonderful zombie thriller. The event was beamed out to all schools in Scotland. Viewers were asked to submit questions to Charlie in advance, and one of our S1 pupils, Dean Forsyth, had his question to Charlie broadcast. He asked Charlie: If you were a zombie, which celebrity would you like to eat? Charlie answered that Jedward would be his choice – two for the price of one!

November

On 8^th November, an elite squad of readers embarked on a mission to represent the school at the West of Scotland heat of the Kids’ Lit Quiz, an international competition. The heat was held at Kilsyth Academy. The team did really well in the quiz, and did the school proud.

The enthusiasm generated by the Kids’ Lit Quiz meant that a few S1 pupils were keen to run a book quiz of their own in the school. Two S1 boys, John Wilson and Scott Denham, worked very hard to create a fabulously colourful Harry Potter quiz for S1s and S2s. They wrote the questions, and acted as quizmasters on the day. The event was enjoyed by all who took part, even the teachers! 

Book Club 

The S1 & S2 book club has also met a number of times after school to discuss reading and books. A group of about 20, we are currently sharing 8 copies of The Vanishing of Katherina Linden, by Helen Grant. As well as reading, we also met recently to be very crafty, making beautiful bookmarks.

As some of us are still reading The Vanishing of Katherina Linden, we thought it would be a good idea to keep the book club momentum going by being supercrafty.

Glue sticks and cute stickers were flying, as we made some very lovely bookmarks.

Wanna see?

Charlene

Miss ThompsonMy Favourite by Shannon!