Book Group Discussion

Hello Everyone

We're really getting into the books for this year's Scottish Children's Book Awards.

On Tuesday, P7 discussed their first book - The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie.  Definitely the thumbs up for this one!  We thought Daniel was a well-drawn character we could identify with and Lucien Silver and his daughter Ellie were also very convincing.  We guessed straight away that Vindictus Sharpe was up to no good, just from his name - a real vindictive character.

The novel moved along at a fast pace and was easy to read.  We liked how the story was interspersed with events from Lucien's past life which helped us understand the role of Vindictus.  Setting the novel in Glasgow and Edinburgh was also great for us as we could easily picture the places visited by the characters and it somehow made everything more real for us.

Ross Mackenzie used really descriptive language and he made it seem to us that if we use our imagination then the world holds endless possibilities.

So, well done Ross and thanks for a great read.  It was magic!

Thank you, Mr Marshall for joining us for our Book Group discussion - hope you found it interesting and you come back again.

Look out for our next post when we will be discussing Mysteries of Ravenstorm Island: The Lost Children.

This book is magic!

Book Club

Hello Everyone.  It's been quite a while since our last post so apologies for not keeping up-to-date.

We are pleased to announce that we have two Book Clubs up and running this year:-

P7 meet on Tuesday at 1pm in the Library

P5 and P6 meet on Thursday at 1pm in the Library.

Our remit is to read all three of the books shortlisted for the Scottish Children's Book Awards:-

1)  The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie

2)  The Fastest Boy in the World by Elizabeth Laird

3)  The Mysteries of Ravenstorm Island: The Lost Children by Gillian Philip

The first of our Book Group discussions will be this Tuesday, 10th November 2015 when P7 will be debating the merits of The Nowhere Emporium.  We're looking forward to an interesting and informative exchange of views.

We'll let you know how it goes and we might even get round to posting some of our reviews of this book.

The fund-raising for the refurbishment of our library has been fantastic and we would like to say a special thanks to everyone involved.  We would also like to thank you for your continued support at our Scholastic Book Fair - this year we received £1000 in commission which will go towards lovely new books for the library.

Book Week Scotland is fast approaching and P7 will be having fun reading the Bookbug books with their P1 buddies.  We are also hoping P5 will read with their friends in P2.  There are many events taking place in libraries throughout the city so why not browse the website and find something interesting for the family to visit together.  You can find more details at the website for Scottish Book Trust:-

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland

We hope you continue to read for pleasure.  Please let us know your favourites and if you need a recommendation, then just drop us a line.

Happy reading
Your friendly Book Club readers.


Here are some pictures of P7 engrossed in their reading.

New Books and Summer Reading

Last term was hectic, we hardly had time to draw breath, so apologies for such a long time since you heard from us.

We are delighted with your support for our library fundraising and look forward to visiting a brand new library in the near future.

But what about reading?  Yes, we’re still there devouring every new book that comes into school.  Our PSAs have been working very hard to provide new book boxes for every class in the school – no mean feat with 20 classes!  This means we all have easy access to a fantastic range of books for every level of reader in each class, so thank you very much to all our wonderful PSAs.

Now what about some new books?  Well two sets of group novels have arrived for P6.  The first is an amazing book called ‘Wonder’ by the American author R J Palacio.  It is a deeply moving book about a young boy born with a serious facial disfigurement and how he manages (or not) with the staring, whispering and awful bullying encountered in his daily life.  Having been home-schooled for too many years, August is now encouraged by his parents to attend the local school where he has to deal with new and bewildering situations caused by children and adults who have judged him without ever taking the time to get to know August and consider how life might feel in his shoes.  A must read – for adults as well as P6 and P7 pupils!

Have you read and enjoyed Varjak Paw by S F Said?  If so, you’ll love his new book, ‘Phoenix’ - an exciting adventure set among the stars, raising tough questions about friendship and trust.  Definitely for the more experienced reader, supported by beautiful illustrations, you will recognise the author’s traits and be transported into other worlds but never very far from the fundamental questions about the meaning of life itself.

When you are next in school take a look at the cupboards on the first and second floors containing our group novels.  Miss Scott and Miss Broadley have both given up time during their summer holiday to clean out the shelves, throw out old stock and reorganise the books in alphabetical order.  What a fantastic job!  And what great books we didn’t realise we had.

As always, there are great opportunities for reading over the summer.  The Guardian has just published the long list for their Children’s Book Award so if you have any pocket money or book tokens get down to your local bookshop and buy something new.

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/jul/10/the-guardian-childrens-fiction-award-2015-longlist

After reading your new book, you could enter the review competition and win even more books.

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jul/10/guardian-young-critics-competition-2015-enter

Good luck and happy reading.  See you in August, ready for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Your friendly Book Club.

The Scottish Book Awards

The Scottish Book Award is an amazing award set up by the Scottish Book Trust. Three books are nominated by children in schools all across Scotland. This year (2015), several members of Flora’s Book Group went along to the ceremony (including us).  The shortlisted books were Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion by Alexander McCall Smith, Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall and Pyrates Boy (it’s spelt that way) by E.B. Colin.

On the day of the awards, Kate, Abbi, Emma, Declan, Bethany, Ruairidh, Fraser, me Orla and also me, Nico went along to the Assembly Rooms in George Street with Miss Broadley.  When we got there we were assigned a camp. We were the robot camp named after the book Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall

The other camps were ‘the safari camp’ after the book Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion by Alexander McCall Smith and ‘the pirate camp’ after Pyrates Boy written by E.B. Colin.

We played a ton of games and took part in a quiz.  It was camp against camp (against camp) and unfortunately the pirate camp won.  But…

Flora’s Book Group came second in the Quiz and received a mention. The trivia quiz had questions on the 3 shortlisted books and also things to do with the books. For example, Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion is set in a safari camp.  Because of that, we were asked about the footprints of animals in the safari.

There was also a pirate themed part of the quiz. The first round, we had to make paper hats and the second, we had to answer questions about the book and about pirates in general.

In another part of it, we had to write down what pirate-based movies were on the screen. There were movies like Pirates, a movie with scientists and Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan/Hook.

My personal favourite (Nico) was the robot Quiz- partially because I was wrapped in tin foil!  That was the mad scientist challenge.  I was a robot and two random girls (from the robot camp) had to wrap me in tin foil.

Well… My personal favourite part of the robot quiz (Orla, duh) was WATCHING Nico get wrapped up in tin foil by two tiny girls about one third of his height.  It was hilarious (I’m sure everyone who was there would agree).

I really recommend going to this event next year, and good luck Flora’s Book Group in the review comp.  We only didn’t win because I (Nico) didn’t put my review in on time.

Yeah right…

Anyway, I really recommend this event to the next P7s and P6s. Thank you for reading, goodbye.

by Orlaith Thomson and Nico Hann (P7B)

 

 

Ayo's Review

In one of our previous entries we included Ayo's review of the Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh.

We sent this to the Guardian Children's Book site and it is now there for everyone to read under Floras Book Group.

Here is the link:-

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/dec/17/meet-the-childrens-books-site-members-groups

Copy and paste this link into your browser, then scroll down until you find Flora's Book Group.

Look out for our next review of Out of the Depths by Cathy Macphail.

                                                                      Your friendly P6 Reading Group

World Book Day 2015

What an amazing gathering - so many wonderful characters joining us for World Book Day



Mary Poppins with Katie Morag's Granny Island

 

 



Miss Trunchbull is on the warpath again.  Watch out Miss Honey!

 



We all had a wonderful time on Thursday to celebrate World Book Day.  So many children dressed up as a favourite book character and paid £1 to our charity  - Book Aid International.  In the afternoon, P6 held a book swap introducing children to books they had not already read.

 

On Friday, we held our Reading Hour, where older children were able to work with younger children on lovely bookish activities.

 

 

So, what's next?  P7 are looking forward to their workshop with Cathy Macphail.  We are delighted to tell you that Cathy won the Scottish Book Awards Prize for older readers with her book 'Mosi's War'.  We can't wait to see her again and I know Isla is desperate to have her books signed by Cathy!

 

Oh, and check out the Guardian website for their Children's Book Groups - we have signed up and already sent in 2 book reviews.

 

 

Hope you are all enjoying reading our blog.  Till next time - happy reading.

 

 

Your friendly p6 book lovers.

Scottish Children's Book Awards 2015

And the winner is........

 

Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall.

Some members of Book Group were lucky enough to attend the award ceremony this morning.  We were in the Robot camp and many of the camp were dressed in fantastic robot costumes.  Alex McColl gave a prize to the school with the best costumes.  We are saving ourselves for tomorrow when we dress up for World Book Day.  Don't forget to bring a £1 which goes to our charity, Book Aid International.

Before the winner was announced, we all took part in a long quiz answering questions about the short-listed books.  We did very well and had the second highest score - well done us!

We are really enjoying Book Week and we have lots more to tell you, but it's lesson time again.  Speak to you soon.

Orla, Abbi, Kate, Nico, Declan, Bethany, Emma, Fraser, Ruairidh.

Lari Launches Book Week 2015

Our local author “Lari Don” launched Flora Stevenson’s Book Week 2015. She is the author of the “Fabled Beasts Chronicles series” {#Fabled Beasts} and this is one of the Kelpies books.

Visit her website @LariDon.co.uk!

 

Our Book Club also won the runners-up prize for the Kelpies Scottish Primary School Library Competition.  Lari presented our certificate to the Book Club with a selection of amazing books.  All these new books will go into the library, so check it out!

By

J!! Khaliq & Fraser!! J

Scottish Children's Book Awards

Hello everyone

Voting for the award has now closed.  We had great fun reading the books and sharing the Bookbugs with P2.  The books with the most votes were as follows:-

Age 8 to 11:  The Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McColl

Bookbug (Age 5 to 7)  Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor and Ross Collins

Good luck to all the authors and we look forward to hearing who wins on Wednesday, 4th March.

Many pupils wrote reviews of the books and entered the review competition.  You can read their reviews by following this link:-

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/scba/review-competition-2015

Orla, in P7, particularly enjoyed Pyrates Boy by E B Colin so we thought we would share her review with you:- 

"Suspenseful, gripping, tense.

“Pyrates Boy” is a about a young boy who believes he can make a better life for his sister who is working hard in Glasgow to survive. He ventures across the world to Jamaica looking for a job to earn money to help is sister but he is yet to find out that working in his masters garden is not all that it seems. He works laboriously in the blazing tropical sun for very insufficient pay. After one year of backbreaking work, a Scottish lady takes him across the ocean to his home land, Glasgow.

During the voyage a colossal wave strikes the ship capsizing it and killing all on board but the boy, named Silas Orr. Fortunately he is picked up by the unusual pirates led by the infamous captain Black Johnnie. He gives Silas a chance to become a cabin boy and vow that he will stick by the pirate oath. 

After many years of being a loyal pirate, it takes him by surprise when a mysterious led box is spotted secured on the ankle of a human buoy. He is soon to know that this is where the real adventure begins."

Our school Book Week will begin on Monday, 2nd March.  It will be launched by Lari Don at Assembly on Friday, 27th February, then Lari will deliver workshops to P5 and P6.  There are lots of exciting events planned for Book Week so follow us on Twitter to find the latest updates.

In previous years, our most successful event has been the book swap, so dust off all those lovely books you are finished with and send them in for someone else to read and enjoy - pick up a new one in exchange!

Look out for more reviews in our next blog.

Until then, Happy Reading from the lovely P6 reading group.

Happy New Year

Hello.  Happy New Year.  I hope you received lots of lovely new books for Christmas and added them to your Readathon list.

So what’s new in Book Club for 2015?  Well, we’re busy reading the shortlisted books for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards, writing reviews of these books for the competition and scribing for P1 and P2 so they can also enter their competition.

There’s still lots of new library books we haven’t read yet and have you noticed that we have a wonderful new comic in the Library?  It’s called ‘The Phoenix’.  Try it – we love it.

P7b have just finished reading “Out of the Depths” by the lovely Cathy Macphail.  Cathy visited our school a couple of years ago and thrilled us all with her stories and engaging personality.  She’s in the running for an award this year so let’s hope 2015 is Cathy’s winning year!  Having been reminded what a great book this is, P6a have started reading “Out of the Depths” and we’re giving the sequel, “Secret of the Shadows” to P7b.

Here’s a review of “Out of the Depths” to tempt you to read it for yourself.

Mysterious, gripping, and entrancing, Out of the Depths is an unmissable book.  From the first page right to the last, Cathy MacPhail holds you in her grasp. This fast paced novel is filled with ghostly happenings: moving statues, and a hidden body…

Out of the Depths is set in the gothic looking St Anthony’s school in which many enigmas lurk. The main character, Tyler Lawless, has a gift to see the unlawfully dead, doing the things they would have done while still alive, but no one believes her. Not her teachers, classmates or even her kind and supportive parents. Her classmates just call her a liar and tease her. So it’s not surprising that her old school has had enough and is sending her away.  

Tyler has decided to start again and be good. She hopes the new school will have nothing to do with ghosts or dead bodies, but her hopes were in vain.  On the first day she hears of a dead, murdered boy known as Ben Kincaid, killed in this very school. Out of the Depths will completely thrill and chill you. After every chapter you will be held in deep suspense, dying to know what will happen next.

To be fully understood and enjoyed, I would recommend this book to children aged 10 years or older. This action packed, setting driven book is guaranteed to keep you awake at night!

Pheww!  That was a great review.  How can anyone not read this book?

We’ll finish our blog with this thought – Do adults enjoy reading children’s books?  Well Miss Broadley does – she has just finished reading “The Last Wild” by Piers Torday and can’t wait for Mano to finish the sequel, “The Dark Wild”.  So get reading, Mano!

Happy reading everyone.