Christmas Surprise

Dare you risk it for a biscuit? The annual Christmas treat from the LRC has been launched. Pupils choose from a subject such as Fantasy, pick a wrapped LRC book from the sack, have it issued and for risking an unknown book are allowed a chocolate biscuit. On returning the book, the comments are displayed.

Sometimes, pupils discover new authors.

So have a go! It's Christmas.

East Ayrshire Book Festival - Keith Gray

Today, Ms. Fullerton's S3 English class went over to the Dick Institute to attend a session of East Ayrshire's first Book Festival - Imprint. We were specially invited for a chance to hear Keith Gray speak about his writing. He spoke for about three quarters of an hour enthralling the pupils with his stories and his life as a writer. He also read a little from one of his novels Malarkey. After a question session, we then returned to school.

Many thanks to East Ayrshire public libraries for organising a wonderful book festival and we look forward to the next one next year!

Why don't you try one of his books: Creepers, Malarkey, or , Warehouse and post a comment on this blog?

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day falls on Sunday the 11th of November. The LRC has a special display to mark the occasion of World War One Poetry and History, and stories from World War One and Two. Descriptions of the event can be found with the display.

There are some wonderful stories about these events.

Try Remembrance by Theresa Breslin or Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.

Halloween

Halloween actually falls on the last day of October , the 31st, although in Kilmarnock it is traditionally celebrated on the last Friday of October. This tradition presumably dated back to the days when people got paid on the Friday so there would be money available to pay for sweets, etc.

So, the LRC is featuring a display of frightful, scary, books. Come in and check them out.

Which is your favourite frightful book?

National Poetry Day "Dreams"

National Poetry Day falls on Thursday October the 4th this year and the theme this year is "Dreams". Poems will be read at every period. A Poetry wall of Favourite poems has been created. Why don't you add your favourite poem? A special display of poetry books has been created.

So, drop into the Library Resource Centre and start reading poetry!

Autumn Competition

The LRC Autumn Competition is now under way. This term, the competition takes the form of a trail to solve various clues on autumn. Everyone who enters will receive something.

Get your entry forms from the LRC today.

Advanced Higher English pupils

This year's Advanced Higher English pupils [7 in all], accompanied by Drs. Dickson and Neilson, went up to Glasgow on Tuesday to visit Borders in order to choose books for their extended essay on a particular theme such as "The development of Gothic novels" and "the subjection of women". Then, they visited the Gallery of Modern Art to choose an item relevant to their theme. Dr. Dickson took a photograph of each item and each pupil has to write a short essay linking up the art object and their literary theme.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Nearly 50 pupils together with Dr. Neilson, Ms. Fullerton, Mr. McGougan and Mrs. Rodger braved the rain to attend the Edinburgh Book Festival on Tuesday the 21st of August. Here is our first author, P.R. [Pearl] Morrison, signing copies of her book, The Wind Tamer, in the fabulous Children's Book Shop.

What did you think of the Book Festival? Please post your comments, S2 pupils.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

On Tuesday the 21st of August, a coach-load of S2 pupils will be spending the day at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Dr. Neilson and other members of staff. During the day, we will be attending two author sessions. In the morning, we will be hearing the Orkney authoress, P.R. Morrison, talk about her novel, The Wind Tamer, in which the hero imagines that the wind talks to him. After lunch, we will be listening to another new author, Graham Joyce, who has written about a creepy thing involving two boys and a dare and what happens when they try this dare upon an old lady. We will also have the chance to visit the Childrens' Bookshop Tent which houses an enormous collection of childrens' and teenage books for sale and various author signing sessions. Hopefully, the weather will be kind to us.

For those lucky S2 pupils, tell us about this day.

Harry Potter Mania

Welcome back to school! I hope that you all had a brilliant and cool (!!!) summer. The big book event of the summer was, of course, the publication of the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Have you read it yet? Copies are available in the Library Resource Centre together with all the other Harry Potter books and other fantastic fantasy books in a special display. Check them out!