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.