2017 Reading Challenge - What's in a name?

When my friend Jen forwarded me a master list of reading challenges (as compiled by http://www.girlxoxo.com/the-master-list-of-2017-reading-challenges/) my initial thought was 'There. Are. So. Many. Brain. Cannot. Cope.' After rebooting myself with a nice cuppa I set about selecting one to work my way through during 2017.

 Now, I know some of you out there might be reading purists who shun the idea of a manufactured challenge when it comes to the books you read - and I must confess to having had leanings towards this way of thinking - however, over the past couple of years I've made a concerted effort to try and read outside of my comfort zone (e.g. crime/thriller/mystery types) and I like the idea something that will encourage me to continue to do that. Last year I took out a Book and a Brew subscription precisely to aid in my quest for new reading pastures (you can read about my initial impressions of the subscription here) and I fancied supplementing this with an additional challenge.

After having a peruse of the list my friend sent me I plumped for the 'What's in a Name' challenge courtesy of The Worm Hole. The idea is that people taking part in the challenge need to register over on The Worm Hole and then read books which fall into the following categories and then post links to reviews on the special 'What's in a Name' gateway post:

• A number in numbers (84, Charing Cross Road; 12 Years A Slave; 31 Dream Street)
• A building (The Old Curiosity Shop; I Capture The Castle; House Of Shadows; The Invisible Library; Jamaica Inn)
• A title which has an ‘X’ somewhere in it (The Girl Next Door; The Running Vixen)
• A compass direction (North and South; Guardians Of The West; The Shadow In The North; NW)
• An item/items of cutlery (The Subtle Knife; Our Spoons Came From Woolworths)
• A title in which at least two words share the same first letter – alliteration! (The Great Gatsby; The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite; Gone Girl; The Cuckoo’s Calling)
  This text is taken from http://wormhole.carnelianvalley.com/whats-in-a-name-2017-sign-up-page

I really like this because the challenges are all so random! I've already started to line up this year's reads...and, yes, I am  even managing to include a few which have been hanging around on my backlist/TBR pile for a bit :) Stay tuned for my first review. 

Book and a Brew (book subscription box) - initial impressions

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon the idea of 'subscription boxes' whilst shopping for Christmas presents. Whilst the box I gifted wasn't a book subscription (it was a very well received Curry Night subscription box from The Spicery) it did pique my curiosity enough to see what else was out there. I was somewhat amazed to discover that you can buy subscription boxes for all sorts of things including cheese (?), socks (??), scarves (???), geeky gear (????) and, yes, books (hoorah!). 

A number of companies offer book subscription boxes that deliver to/within the UK and each of them offer something slightly different. I'm not going to describe the differences here but a list of some of the companies that offer this type of subscription is given at the end of this blog post in case you'd like to check them out for yourselves. After having a bit of a look around I decided to take the plunge and subscribe to Book and a Brew for 2 reasons:

1) Their choice of books each month seemed quite intriguing - they were titles that I was generally unfamiliar with but that sounded genuinely interesting,

2) I drink a lot of tea!

The subscription costs £12.99 a month and for that I receive a hardback book and a 'drinkable delight' (to quote their website!). Boxes are sent out from the 15th of each month and, sure enough, my first box arrived on the 17th (I think).

Here's my first box. It arrived safe and sound courtesy of the postman. The contents were all well packed - and i loved the fact that they were wrapped neatly in tissue paper which was secured by a cute 'Book and a Brew' sticker.  So, let's talk about the contents. First of all, the book - The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs. Now, this is definitely not a book I had come across before but I was immediately drawn to it's simple, almost monochrome cover which suggests something of a journey into the unknown. I love the woodcut-style of the cover illustration and the use of the colour gold to highlight the fire, the shooting star and the title. Does its use suggest themes of hope (the star) or danger (the fire)?

Another intriguing little detail is the inclusion of the latin phrase 'in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni' on one of the first few pages before the start of the novel. Not being an expert in latin (I recognised the words 'night' and 'fire') I undertook a quick Google search and discovered that:

a) the phrase is a palindrome - that's to say it's a series of words, numbers or characters which reads the same backward and forward.
b) it means 'we go wandering at night and are consumed by fire'.

This seems to fit really nicely with the cover illustration and left me eager to find out what the book is actually about!

Here's the blurb:
In the contested and unexplored territories at the edge of the Empire, a boat is making its laborious way up stream. Riding along the banks are the mercenaries hired to protect it—from raiders, bandits, and, most of all, the stretchers, elf-like natives who kill any intruders into their territory. The mercenaries know this is dangerous, deadly work. But it is what they do. In the boat the drunk governor of the territories and his sons and daughters make merry. They believe that their status makes them untouchable. They are wrong. And with them is a mysterious, beautiful young woman, who is the key to peace between warring nations and survival for the Empire. When a callow mercenary saves the life of the Governor on an ill-fated hunting party, the two groups are thrown together. For Fisk and Shoe—two tough, honorable mercenaries surrounded by corruption, who know they can always and only rely on each other—their young companion appears to be playing with fire. The nobles have the power, and crossing them is always risky. And although love is a wonderful thing, sometimes the best decision is to walk away. Because no matter how untouchable or deadly you may be, the stretchers have other plans.

After my initial positive thoughts about the book cover and the mysterious little latin phrase i am glad to say that the blurb has only increased my anticipation! I am most definitely looking forward to reading this book!

On to my impressions of the second part of the subscription - the tea!

Included in this month's box is a pack of Teapigs Chilli Chai tea which, according to the information sheet included 'is a twist on traditional chai. Alongside assam tea, cardamom pods, chunks of ginger, cinnamon and vanilla there's added flakes of chilli to give it quite the kick.' I don't know about you but, being a bit of a chai fan, this sounds amazing to me! I also love the simple Teapigs packaging, which includes the image of a fire extinguisher :) as well as the fact that they call their teabags 'tea temples'. Cute! I am also seriously considering trying the pack's suggestion to try one of the 'tea temples' as a latte. Yum yum indeed.

To sum up, I think I can safely say that I am very pleased with my first Book and a Brew box and I am glad that i took the plunge and subscribed.

NB: as promided here is a list of some other companies who offer book subscription boxes to customers in the UK

The Willoughby Book Club
Bookishly
The Beautiful Book Company
Glenogle and Bell
Daunt Books
Mrs B's Reading Year
Persephone Books

Book Reviews - Flawed & Finding Audrey

After my recent trips to local charity shops and the supermarket resulted in a decent-sized book haul for the library, I figured it was probably a good idea to have a sneaky read of one or two of them before adding them to the catalogue ;) 

Here is the latest book haul - seriously, I'm not safe to be left alone near book shelves!

I decided to try Flawed by Cecelia Ahern first.

Here’s the blurb.
Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan. But then Celestine encounters a situation in which she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be FLAWED.         

Now, I have a confession to make. I have never read a Cecelia Ahern book before. I know, I know…this is a terrible admission. However, I spotted the ‘Heart-stopping Young Adult debut’ sticker on the cover of Flawed     and figured it might be a good time to start. Turns out, I was right. Whilst Flawed isn’t perfect it is an engaging and pacy read. I was quickly drawn into the dystopian world that Ahern creates and, whilst the central character Celestine can be a little cloying at times I did find myself swept along by the plot which hinges upon a decision of conscience that she makes. The story gives a nod to many issues pertinent today including:
* media ownership – the implications of a single company (or family in the case of Flawed) owning/controlling most of a country’s communications,
* the role of the media in controlling/managing society,

* discrimination and prejudice faced by marginalised groups,
* checks and balances – what do you do when power over the many is held in the hands of the few?
* at what point does fear compromise a human’s nature to be compassionate/to aide another person who is suffering?

* at what point does state and society draw a line between what is legal and what is acceptable behaviour? How and who should ‘police’ this? (The plot is littered with examples - there’s even a not-so-veiled reference to the Ashya King case)

The sequel to Flawed, Perfect, will be published in Spring 2017. I will definitely be picking up a copy.

The second book I chose to read from my haul was Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella. 

Here’s the blurb.
Audrey can’t leave the house. She can’t even take off her dark glasses inside the house. Then her brother’s friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again – well, Starbucks is a start. Laugh, dream and hope with Audrey as she learns that even when you feel like you have lost yourself, love can still find you.

 I was drawn to this book primarily because of the subject matter – one girl’s experience of anxiety disorder. Now, this is not a subject to be taken lightly and I wondered how Kinsella, well known for her humorous Shopaholic series, would approach it.

Audrey makes for an engaging narrator: she gives us a hilarious introduction to her family during the first chapter (I won’t spoil anything except to say that it involves her Daily Mail reading mother and her concerns about Audrey’s suspected video-game addicted brother) and her day-to-day struggles with what she refers to as her ‘lizard brain’ which makes even simple interactions with unfamiliar people/situations are very touching. The relationship that Audrey’s family has with each other and with her is both comic and genuinely moving. Audrey’s growing relationship with her brother’s friend, Linus, is touchingly sweet.

I really enjoyed this book and it even made me chuckle out loud in places.

Hiatus, but no hernia (fortunately)

Crikey, it's been a while. Years in fact. So, what's new? Well, quite a bit but then not much really.

'What are you on about?' (says just about anybody reading this) Don't worry, I'm getting to it! ('Well get on with it!') 

OK then, where to start? I've changed employers but not in the sense that you might think. The school I previously worked for converted to an Academy, oh, 4 and a bit years ago. At the same time it merged with the other secondary school in our little town thereby becoming a completely new school with a completely different name, uniform and a whole school's worth of staff and students to get to know. So, lots of changes.

For the first couple of years we were based on split sites that were 3 miles apart (*yay*) whilst our lovely brand spanking new campus was under construction.  During the split site years I mainly worked on the site I had been based on for the preceding 6 years and a colleague working on the other. I spent the first 2 years of my Academy experience working 90% with KS3 students as they were based on 'my' site. At first it was a bit odd as I was used to having that balance of KS3 and KS4 students and I missed the contact with older students.

In terms of school library management though, it was a challenge! We had to shuffle our book stock between the sites (remember they were 3 miles apart!) with items appropriate to KS3 students coming to my site and the items more appropriate to older students being shipped over to the other site. As well as this we had to update/merge our library management systems - the KS4 site was still using Alice whereas I had been using Oliver for a few years. Once both the library databases had been upgraded to the latest version of Oliver we then had to decide how to make all of the cataloging consistent (because, believe me, it was a godforsaken mess!!) and then work our way through the records. A lot of this work was done manually. And. It. Took. Bloody. Ages!! But we did it - yay us! And, of course, this was all done whilst we continued to offer all of the usual activities and events that you would expect of a school learning resource centre (LRC) - after school homework club, accessible during breaks and lunches, chess clubs, special events (World Book Day, National Poetry Day etc), supporting teachers with resource requests/classes in the LRC, implementing Accelerated Reader [a whole other story that I'm not going to go into here apart from to say that it added massively to the workload with limited results], library loans/returns/overdues etc etc

You're probably thinking 'whew, that sounds like a lot of work' and you'd not be wrong. However, that wasn't all we had to sort out. Oh no! Remember that we were waiting for our new campus to be built? Well, about 18 months ago we began to prepare in earnest for the 'big move'. Cue a huge amount of sorting, decluttering and boxing up.

To give you an idea of what moving to a new school campus is like imagine trying to organise a house move whilst each room in your house is full of children who need to be kept occupied for about 6 hours a day while most of the furniture, books, displays, pens, pencils and even IT equipment are being gradually removed. Oh, and the children still need to be making progress in their learning while all this is going on around them. It also gets quite tricky to run a library when your books are all packed away.

The long and short of it is that we officially moved into our new build on 10th July 2015 (the students didn't move in until September 2015 - they were given an extra week of summer holiday to allow the staff to get moved in) where the process of unboxing, sorting and shelving started again (yes, I have done an awful lot of this over the past couple of years!). And I must say that my new LRC is lovely - I was involved in the planning process and am glad that many of my suggestions have been incorporated. It is a bright, open and airy space with plenty of seating (both workspaces and comfortable seating). It's also got lots of flexible space so can be reconfigured to fit the needs of different classes, events or activities. I'm also now based right next door to the English department and their office, which is great (I will blog separately about our collaborations on another occasion).

Hope that this post explains a little about my absence from the bloggiverse. I could bang on more (shutting up is not one of my fortes) but I will take a hint and sign off for now. Back soon. Cheers for reading.

July 2015 - my 'I'm in the new LRC' happy face

This learning English lark

Although it's not specifically part of my role I work a lot with students who come to our school who are learning English as a second language. As is often the case in schools, I kind of stumbled into this by accident. I initially volunteered to assist in the one-to-one tutoring of a Polish girl with very limited English who had recently arrived and had gone straight into year 11. This, in turn, led to her spending A LOT of hours in the library with us - both myself and my colleague, the learning mentor, working with her to develop her language skills. This experience, it seems, was enough to make me (& the learning mentor) the go-to people in school for any EAL students.

Whilst my educational background is predominantly languages (GCSE German, A level French and an undergraduate degree in Spanish with Business Management) I can't pretend to be an expert on teaching English to those who don't speak it. Yes, I spent a year out in Mallorca as an English language assistant in a high school years ago (hola, IES Joan Maria Thomas) which was brilliant, but I was a bit hesitant when it became apparent that I would be integrally involved in the development of these students' language skills, on which they would rely when taking their GCSE (& later) exams!

Now, unlike many schools, we don't have a lot of students who speak English as a second language - our student body being made up almost entirely of students from a white working class background. However, as each year came and went, so it would be that another student would spend time honing their English skills with us in the library.

It's been a great experience. Tough, but great. We've had support from Durham County Council's Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) without which, at times, we would have really struggled. They provide a really useful induction pack of basic English resources that have served us incredibly well. They provide training for teaching staff regarding useful strategies to employ in the classroom when teaching EAL students, the main points of which are:

* give careful consideration to where EAL students are seated in class. Make sure they are near enough to the front to hear as much as possible, and so they can see you and the board.
* speak slowly and clearly.
* Repeat, repeat, repeat.
* Use pictures/visual aides that are specifically linked to the topic you are teaching.
* Make sure that EAL students have access to a dictionary that translates from English to their native language/an iPod or iPad with an app like iTranslate already installed (we provide our EAL students with an iPod touch to use in lessons)
* Try and provide EAL students with any keywords or reading materials in advance of your next lesson and get them to read through and translate before they come to that lesson.
* Pick out 10 or so keywords they will need to take from the lesson. Highlight them/get them to write them in their books and translate them.
* 'Buddy' EAL students with those English speaking students who will provide them with the best language learning opportunities. This will increase their confidence in and outside of class.
* When participating in group work encourage EAL students to feedback to the class. Allow the group to give EAL students a short sentence to read out after practising the words whilst working in the group first to avoid embarrassment.
...you get the idea.

In terms of the work I do with the students, I thought it might be an idea to include some of the websites that I've found to be useful, for worksheets, resources, teaching ideas etc. The websites listed below all offer free access to their resources. Here we go:

> Bogglesworld ESL US site, with a ton of worksheets grammar and some curriculum and more.
> ESL Flow Search by level of knowledge. Lots of links to activities and worksheets etc
> British Council's Learning English Sites for both adults and children learning English. Lots of high quality activities, podcasts, worksheets, online stories etc
> Super Teacher Worksheets US site. Resources are aimed at US elementary school children however some of the reading comprehensions, particularly the non-fiction are quite handy and can be used to help with certain areas of the curriculum.
> English for Everyone Another US site, so some spelling issues if you are teaching British English (like me) but a range of grammatical, writing, reading and other activities.
> Skills Workshop Huge bank of ESOL, literacy and numeracy resources.
> BBC Skills Wise Although this is a site aimed at English and maths for adults there are some excellent resources that work well for EAL students.
> BBC Learning English The BBC World Service's website for English language learners. Not suitable for beginners, puts English language learning in a more 'newsy' context.
> ESL Tower Printable and online activitie, plus lots of language games that appeal to younger learners.

There's a lot more I could say about this subject, but I'm going to sign off for now. Please email me if you'd like any more information. Or you could tweet me @HemBem.

Satisfactory resolution?

Is it me (Oh Lord, I sound like Terry Wogan), but do popular children's/ YA books have to be part of a series nowadays?

Harry Potter and Twilight are probably the most obvious that spring to mind but then there's Alex Rider (OK, I realise these have come to an end now), The Mortal Instruments, Casson Family, Spooks, Saga of Darren Shan, Demonata series, Shiver, Beautiful Dead, Chaos Walking (loved it), Charlie Higson's The Enemy (loved even more) and I could go on...

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a good cliffhanger as much as the next person but sometimes I just want to read a jolly good book and come to the final page and for it just to be, well, the end. Plot-lines tied up (not necessarily in 'it all comes good in the end' kind of way though). Story arc resolved. Finished. End of. Full stop.

I'm not saying that series are a bad idea - no siree - simply that I sometimes like my books to be less like an ongoing soap opera and more like a classy one-off BBC drama.

Summer 'Holiday'

Ah, summer holidays. I love them. Don't you?

I'm a full-time, whole-year school librarian so, yes, I am still working away long after the corridors have ceased to ring with the squeals of joy that announce the start of the annual summer getaway (and that's just the teachers!).

Most people (neighbours, family, colleagues etc) assume that I, like the teaching staff, get the summer off (I know, I know - teaching staff DO often come into school in the hols to prep for the next year). When I tell them that this is not the case I always get asked the same thing...'well, what do you do for 6 weeks when there's nobody else in school?'

First up, there are other people in school! The school business manager, data manager, finance officer and office staff all work for good periods of time in the holiday making sure that things are up-to-speed in advance of the forthcoming new school year. I also musn't forget our ICT team, who work tirelessly over the summer to make sure that systems are updated, new ICT is installed and broken ICT is fixed/cleaned.

Our premises, caretaking and cleaning staff are also all in all summer. Polishing, waxing, cleaning, painting, repairing, scheduling and supervising health and safety, smoke alarm, electrical appliance, alarm and fire extinuisher compliance tests,  and my personal favourite, removing chewing gum from the under side of classroom benches/tables (ewww!). Seriously, I'm exhausted thinking about how much they get through!

Schools don't stop over the summer holiday. - far from it - they take a deep breath and get stuck into making sure that the environment for teaching and learning will be as good as it can be for the next year.

Anyway, I digress. The question was what do I, as school librarian, do over the summer? Well, let's see. First up I have a jolly good sort out and de-clutter (it's amazing how much clutter is created over the course of a school year!). Of everything! My store cupboard is blitzed - anything superfluous to requirements is binned or offered out to staff in case it could be reused by others. Filing trays and draws are 'cleansed' - out-of-date information is shredded/recycled/binned. Library shelves are cleaned (by me), put back into order and stock is checked. Anything that is in poor condition or is out-of-date is removed from the library management system.

I then move on to the displays. Everything comes off the walls, all display boards are cleared and then re-backed.  I then collate information, student work, create posters, select books etc for new displays - these could be curriculum linked or event specific. One of my display walls this year is being used to showcase some of the work done my students in our library's after school art and craft club. Another will have an anti-bullying theme and another will promote the Booked Up scheme (free books for incoming year 7s). I will also use the grilles in the ceiling to create a 'International Talk Like a Pirate Day' display (Sept 19th for those of you who would like to participate!). This does take a fair bit of time. (I do change displays during the year, but the summer is the ONLY time that I get the opportunity to take everything down and start from scratch again, if you like.)

OK, after clearing out and getting the room looking pretty again then what? Well, then I work with my Extended Services colleagues -hi Lindsey and Mel :) - to organise a number of events/activities for kids and their families which take place during the summer. This does vary a bit but this summer we will be:

• hosting a Teddy Bear's Picnic (yes, we will be going on a bear hunt!), 
• supporting a family learning ICT course by running activities for children while their parents are studying (all activities will have a Gingerbread Man theme)
• running a 3 day summer school for incoming year 7s (ice breaker activities, orienteering/map challenges, crafty stuff and a treasure hunt - eek, we need to sort out the clues!).

OK, so what else? Well, I check the library's development plan against the school's raising achievement plan and add to/amend as necessary. I make sure that induction leaflets/tasks are ready for all new year 7s and new staff. I put together recommended reading lists that are uploaded on to our school's VLE, displayed in the library and given our to tutors (staff awareness of children's literature will be covered another time!). I put together forward plans of library events/activities for the next school term.

...in other words, I get lots done in the summer holiday!

Lastly, and most importantly I mustn't forget chip day. One lunch time over the holiday all full time/whole year staff get together in the main staff room for fish and chips. If we're really lucky someone also brings cake.

Ah, summer holidays. I love them. Don't you?

PS: I do also take a couple of weeks off - so it's not all work, work, work!