Carnegie Shadowing 2012

Yesterday the Bookaholics took part in the Islington Carnegie Shadowing event, which took place at Platform Youth Hub - a fantastic venue for young people. The ceremony was hosted by Meg Rosoff, author of 'There is no dog,'and 'Just in Case' among others. Each school performed a representation of their favourite book or a selection of books. Students from Mount Carmel, IAMS, St Mary Magdalene and Highbury Grove entertained us with drama, videos and readings. EGA performed a sketch entitled 'The Read,' based on 'The Voice,' where our four judges had to choose from a selection of books presented to them by students. Then Meg Rosoff talked to everyone about how she became an author and how certain moments that stick in the brain (her colander) can pop up in her books. Above all she encouraged everyone to think about what they really like to do and find a way to pursue it in life. She was witty and interesting and the audience gave her a huge round of applause at the end. After that everybody voted for their winner and the Islington choice was 'A Monster Calls' by Patrick Ness; this was also EGA's favourite. Later that day it was announced that 'A Monster Calls' was the national winner. So Islington have good taste!

Congratulations to Nasra, Munna, Aissato, Rahma, Amy, Nikita, Shuma, Mahmuda, Khadra and Zahra 9E for their dope* performance.

*Meg Rosoff, originally from Boston, thought Rahma (Will.I.am) was American!



Meg Rosoff with The Bookaholics



Our first visitor!

On our first day of opening we hosted an event where Gail Rebuck from Random House talked to the Reading group and some Fast Track English students from Year 9 about books and working in the world of publishing. The students asked lots of questions and each got to choose a fiction book which she had kindly donated from the publishing company.

The new Library in Classroom B3

The Library counter

This week we have completed our move and the library is open for business. Despite being in an old classroom, the library has a cosy feel to it and as much fiction as we could manage to fit in. Different faces are popping by and it is a blessing to be away from the noisy reception. Here are some photographs of our new space.

Guardian Young Reporters

Four EGA students spent an enjoyable, informative day at The Guardian in preparation for their role as Cultural creators for the 2012 Pop Up Festival. They created a newspaper page advertising the authors and the events, which are happening at the festival on the 30th June and 1st July. Students at EGA have been reading books and attending worskops with Sita Brahmachari, Cat Clarke,Gillian Cross,Candy Gourlay, Miriam Halahmy, Catherine Johnson, Sally Nicholls, Meg Rosoff, Marcus Sedgwick, Nicky Singer and Ali Sparkes. 

ISLINGTON TEEN VOTE AT WATERSTONES

Last night I went along to the Islington Teen vote awards at Waterstones Islington, organised by Islington Libraries. Over the past year Islington teenagers have been voting for a book which they read in 2011 which changed their life. Four teenage authors were invited along to read from their work and discuss books which have influenced them. The audience consisted of local authors,(Malaika Rose Stanley), public librarians (Geoff, Tony, Pamela and Rosemary) writing students and a group of girls from Mount Carmel with theirSchool Librarian, plus members of the general public. 

From left: Candy Gourlay, Sara Grant, Sophie McKenzie and Katie Dale

 

The authors present were Candy Gourlay (Tall Story), Sara Grant (Dark Parties) Sophie McKenzie (Girl, Missing and many more), Katie Dale (Someone else’s life). Each of the authors read an excerpt from their books. Katie, Sara and Sophie all opted to read the first chapter of their books. Without exception, they were all dramatic and exciting. There was an audible gasp at the end of Katie’s reading, where a girl discovers that her birth mother is not the woman she thought. Sophie read an excerpt from ‘Child, missing’ where a young girl has lost her sister and the chapter also comes to a dramatic conclusion. Sara’s book was different, set in a dystopian world where everybody looks the same; once again the reading was captivating. Candy (despite her stressful journey on the ‘slowest bus on Holloway Road’) read a chapter from later in her book, where her eight foot basketball player character arrives in Britain for the first time. Candy’s great sense of humour was apparent from both her reading and conversation.

After the readings the panel were asked which books had most influenced them recently. Answers included Rebecca, The Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Five Chinese Brothers. I particularly liked Sophie’s list of thirteen of her favourite books, one of which was selected at random by the girl who asked the question, as she acknowledged what a difficult question that is to answer; selecting one book out of all those wonderful books out there. Questions were then invited from the audience and the panel were asked how long it took to write a novel – four months (much to Candy’s disgust) to six years – did they imagine their books being turned into films (Sara said it would be difficult, given that all the characters look the same). They were also asked about censoring their writing for a teenage audience.
Geoff James from Islington Libraries then presented the winning students with ITunes vouchers and the authors signed copies of their books. The most popular book voted for was The Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney*  It was a very enjoyable evening and I could have listened to the authors talking for a lot longer.

* The Wimpy Kid books occupy places 3 4 5 and 7 in EGA's top ten most borrowed books since September 2011

Cinderella Shoes

These fabulous shoes have been in the school lost property for some time now. (How could you lose them?!!) I am hoping there will be a character in our Carnegie book choice this year who will need to wear them...!

The new Library progresses...

The new LRC is rapidly taking shape - it's the top floor in the pictures. We only have six weeks left in the present LRC before we camp out in a classroom until November 5th when the new school opens.