Latest Education Library Service News
Junior Librarian User Group
We will be holding another Junior Librarian User Group at ELS on
Tuesday 29th May, from 1.15pm to 3.15pm. This is free to attend,
providing your school still pays Microlibrarian Helpdesk
subscriptions - if you are unsure if this is the case, please ring
Microlibrarian direct on 0161 449 9357. The session will be run by
Lucy Crutchley from the company, and provides an ideal opportunity
to refresh your knowledge of the product and learn about the
updates to the system, which can make everything easier and quicker
to achieve. There will also be time to ask general questions -
however, very specific questions should still be raised with the
Helpdesk as and when they arise.
If you would like to book a place on this free course, please
email educationlibraryservice@cheshiresharedservices.gov.uk.
Places may be limited if demand is high so please state name(s) of
staff wishing to attend, but we may only be able to offer one
place per school. We will reply and confirm bookings.
World Book Night
0n 23rd April, thousands of readers across the country
celebrated World Book Night by giving away 24 copies of one of
their favourite books, to encourage others to read it. Lesley
Simons, the manager here at ELS, was amongst these thousands of
readers.
Lesley writes, "I was chosen to be a
book giver for World Book Night this year. In September I will have
been bowling in leagues for 40 years so decided it would be good if
I could give out some of the books to my team mates at Lakeside
Superbowl in Crewe. I picked "Someone Like You", a set of short
stories by Roald Dahl as they are easy to dip in to and most of us
remember "Tales of the Unexpected " when it was shown on TV in the
late 70s - not long after I started to bowl. The recipients seem
really pleased with their books.
Most people know about the children's
books written by Roald Dahl but may not realise he also wrote adult
books. The rest of my books will be given out to my team mates in
the Nantwich and District Darts League at the West End Band in
Crewe, when we next have a match.
Olympic Countdown
As expected, we have received lots of requests for Olympic
projects. So far, 1861 books, 56 DVDs and 16 artefacts have
been sent out to 123 schools and requests are still coming in. We
are doing our very best to send at least something to all schools
who have requested projects. If your school hasn't yet requested
anything, why not consider covering this topic during the Autumn
Term? We are hoping that lots of the resources issued for this term
will be returned to us and the shelves replenished during the
summer holidays. In the meantime, don't forget to check out our
Resources and
Useful Links page for a list of useful Olympic related
websites.
Cheshire Schools Book Award 2012
The Cheshire Schools Book Award is aimed at fiction written for
11-14 year olds. The winner is chosen by reading groups set up in
Secondary Schools in the area. On 19th
October, over sixty pupils and staff from nine schools came to
Education Library Service as we launched the Cheshire Schools Book
Award 2012.
We were joined on the
night by Curtis Jobling, designer of the multi-award-winning
worldwide hit children's television show Bob the Builder and author
and illustrator of numerous children's books. He held the audience
spellbound as he talked about his work for younger children and
drew some fantastic illustrations for us. Then he chatted about his
books for older readers which include Wereworld: Rise of the Wolf
and Wereworld: Rage of Lions. He whetted our appetite by telling us
that he is currently writing the third volume in the
Wereworld series and a fourth is to follow in 2012.
Then there was the grand unveiling of the shortlist for the
Cheshire Schools Book Award. The shortlisted books are:
- David Almond - My Name is Mina
- Fiona Foden - Life, Death and Gold Leather Trousers
- Anthony Horowitz - Scorpio Rising
- Curtis Jobling - Rise of the Wolf
- Jon Mayhew - The Demon Collector
- Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls
- Mark Robson - The Devil's Triangle
Thank you to everyone who sent in nominations for next year's
award. We will be sending out invitations soon to
schools to take part in choosing the winner of the 2012 Cheshire
Schools Book Award. Watch this space for further information.
Design a new front cover for The Railway Children
Vintage Classics has launched its annual competition which gives
budding artists the chance to design a new front cover for a
classic children's book. This year, they are asking children aged 7
to 12 years old to design a new front cover for The Railway
Children. As well as seeing their design on the front
cover of The Railway Children, the winner will
receive all twenty of the titles due to be launched
by Vintage Classics. Full details on how to enter can be
found on the
Vintage Classics website.
2012 Book Trail
Not only is 2012 the year when London becomes the first
city to host the Olympic Games three times, it also the
75th anniversary of the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the 55th
anniversary of the CILIP Kate Greenaway. In celebration of this,
Read, Write, Excite!
brings you the 2012 Book Trail. It is a series of challenging
questions, all the answers to which can be found in books that won
the CILIP Carnegie Medal between 1936 and 2011. Each correct answer
received will even be put in a prize draw ti win a kindle. Visit
the Read, Write,
Excite! website to find out more about the Book Trail, plus
other quizzes, resources and information.
Wicked Young Writers' Award
West End musical Wicked has recently launched the
successful Wicked Young Writers' Award for 2012. The award, which
is championed by author Michael Morpurgo, is open to people aged 5
to 17. It aims to encourage writing that is creative and to develop
writing talent in young people. The closing date for entries is
31st July. For more information, visit the
Wicked Young Writers' Award
web site.
Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Decade
Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been voted the best
children's book of the decade by viewers of Blue Peter. Viewers of
the show have been voting since February for their
favourite book from the top ten best selling children's book of the
last decade. Go to the Blue Peter website
to see the results in full.
Eco-Schools: Resources to Help Your School Go Green
In response to frequent requests from schools
to support 'eco' themed projects, we have put together project
boxes called 'Reduce, Re-use, Recycle', to complement the
'Environment' project boxes we already stock.
New 'Climate Change Resource Boxes' are now available for
schools to borrow from
ELS
. The boxes, one aimed at
primary schools and one compiled for use in secondary
schools, have been created by Cheshire West and Chester
Sustainability team. Contents include solar energy car kits, wind
turbine kits, power meters, global warming photo pack and several
DVDs.
