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.