Badger Bill

Hello again

We've had such a lovely morning.  Alison Kennedy arrived early at our school (very impressed) and enjoyed watching our assemblies.

She was then invited to our fantastic library to be interviewed for Live at Five.

After that, our selected audience were given copies of "Uncle Shawn and Bill" and we all settled down to hear Alison read.  Next, it was question time  - and what a lot of interesting questions were posed by our enthusiastic readers.  Alison answered every one with patience and humour.

She happily signed each and every copy of the book and everyone went away very pleased indeed.

So we want to say thank you very much, Alison, for coming to our school and you are welcome to come back any time.  We enjoyed listening to you and enjoyed your company.

You can see a few photos on our Twitter feed and of course, tell your friends about our blog.

The programme is scheduled to be broadcast on Monday evening but could be put back to Tuesday.  STV will email a link and we'll put it out on Twitter.  Stay tuned!

Next Thursday is World Book Day and we are delighted to welcome back our friend, Lari Don who will be sharing exciting extracts from her Spellchasers series.

Keep checking in with the blog and you might even see some of your favourite book characters next week!

Happy reading
Your friendly book clubbers.

We're excited!

Hello

It's Friday and we're really excited about our book event this morning.

Alison Kennedy will be visiting Flora Stevenson Primary to promote her new book "Uncle Shawn and Bill".

And...the event is going to be filmed by STV for their magazine programme "Live at Five".

We'll let you know how it went.  Just keep following the blog and you'll learn all about the reading journey at Flora Stevenson.

See you later.

We're back

Hello Everyone

Long time since you heard from us!  Not to worry - we are still reading and Book Club is thriving.  We now meet on Wednesdays at 1pm in the school library.  Everyone is welcome to join us.  There are many new books to read and our library stock has also been refreshed.

So what's new?  This is a very exciting time for us,  On Friday, 24th February we are hosting a visit from A L Kennedy.  Alison is an established author of adult fiction and non-fiction and has now turned her hand to writing for children.  We are delighted to welcome her to Flora Stevenson School and look forward to discussing her book in Book Club.

The following week is Book Week and of course World Book Day is on Thursday, 2nd March.  To celebrate the day we are so pleased to welcome back our favourite author and friend, Lari Don.  As you know, Lari has visited our school on many previous occasions and it is always a delight when she agrees to come again.  Look out for colourful and creative costumes depicting our best loved book characters.

We hope you will keep reading and join us next time for an update on Alison's visit.

Till then, happy reading

Your friendly Book Clubbers.

Lari Don launches Readathon

Hello!

Another exciting day in the lives of Flora's Bookworms.  Our wonderful parents continue to organise fund-raising events to help improve school facilities. 

We love a Readathon and we love Lari Don, who visited us at Assembly on Friday morning to launch this latest fund-raiser.  Lari was, as ever, totally engaging and gave us a sneak preview of her latest book.  Can't wait for that one to be published!

So many children dressed as a favourite book character for the launch of Readathon and Lari was most impressed when Harry Potter (aka Joel Gutteirez) played beautifully on his violin.  Take a look at our lovely costumes.

Over the Easter holiday, our library is to be refurbished - fresh paint, carpet, new bookshelves, seating and, most importantly, new books.  We are very grateful to everyone who visited our Book Fair this week.  Every book you purchase earns us commission and allows us to add to our stock and replace much loved books which have seen better days.

Book Club continues to thrive and new members have joined us this week.  We have some really great books for P7 so spread the word and come along to our lovely new library next term.

We hope you will all take part in Readathon - there are prizes to be won.  If you're not sure what to read over the holiday, why not come along to Book Club on Tuesday or Thursday and we will recommend something captivating, engrossing, exciting, magical.

Curl yourself up with a good book.
Happy reading from your Book Club friends.

World Book Day

Hello!  What an exciting day we had yesterday for World Book Day.

We started our day with a sharing Assembly.  Each class voted for a favourite book, made a poster then representatives came to the front of the school and told us why their class liked the book so much.  Here are some of the lovely posters they made:-

 

 

In the afternoon, we held a Book Sale to raise money for our charity, Book Aid International.  At the last count we made a whopping £360!  Thank you so much for your generosity.  Here are the children enjoying themselves with their new books:-

 



 

Several pupils have asked to join Book Club following the enthusiasm of our World Book Day Assembly, so we look forward to welcoming them next week.

Happy reading from Flora's Bookworms.

And the winner is...

Yesssss!!  Our favourite won.  'The Nowhere Emporium' by Ross Mackenzie won the age 8 to 12 category.  Here we are with Ross, and Sophie who wrote a prize-winning review of his book.

In the Bookbug category, Simon Puttock won with Mouse's First Night at Moonlight School.

Have you seen the BBC tweet with Joe's review of Gangsta Granny by David Walliams?  We even had a 'like' from David himself!  So, great work, Joe.

Amy, Lydia and Fraser were most professional with their interview questions and were lucky enough to meet and interview Emily Mackenzie who wrote our favourite, 'Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar'.  Here they are with Emily at the Grand Central Hotel.

Well, great excitement yesterday at the Book Awards, but more to come today for World Book Day.  We're starting off with a special assembly where each class will share the book they have voted as their class favourite.  In the afternoon, we are holding a book sale.  All books will be priced £1 and the proceeds will go to the charity, Book Aid International.  A great big thank you to everyone who has already donated books to this event.

Now, in a previous post, we promised to share with you some of our fantastic book reviews, so here is Iona's review of 'The Nowhere Emporium'.  Happy reading.

The Nowhere Emporium

Reviewed by Iona Muir P7A

Ever wanted to read a book that transports you into another world? Well, this is the one for you!

Attempting to escape his unhappy life in the orphanage, and being chased by bullies, Daniel Holmes discovers a magical and mysterious shop - The Nowhere Emporium.  This is where the adventure begins.

When I started this book I immediately wanted to keep reading as the suspense was amazing.  Throughout the book I was able to put myself in the character’s shoes.  It is a magical story, your emotions running high all the time, there is always adventure in The Nowhere Emporium.

For some people, the transferring between two different plot lines may be confusing, although it does eventually make sense, I really enjoyed that whilst reading.  The magic in the shop made it like a jigsaw as eventually all the pieces of the book fitted together to create this wonderful story.

It is currently on the Blue Peter Awards shortlist.  This book is very well thought out, even the names have logic to them.

Finally, I would rate this book 5/5 as it’s a magical read and takes you on a journey, your imagination always on the go.

Well done, Iona.  What a great review.  So many children want to read this book now!

Scottish Children's Book Awards

Today's the day!  We're all ready to go.  Train from Waverley Station to Glasgow Central then to the Grand Central Hotel for the ceremony.

We're keeping our fingers crossed for Ross Mackenzie and Emily MacKenzie.  We'll let you know who wins.

Last week the BBC came to the school to deliver a workshop on interview techniques and we all had fun interviewing each other.  We learned a lot about how to structure questions and how important body language can be.

Fraser P7C; Amy P6A and Lydia P5B have been selected to interview the winning author in the Bookbug category.  They have been working hard at preparing their questions and practising their interviews with their friends.  What an exciting opportunity for these pupils!  And they don't yet know who they will interview.  Will it be Emily?  Simon?  Pamela?

Check in tomorrow and we'll give you the winners.

We'll also let you know what we're doing for World Book Day!

Happy reading
Your hard-working, interviewing, gallavanting Book Club.