Library Blog

Can YOU help the Dinosaur Detectives?

The clever children in Year 3 have been working

with a brilliant book called “The Dinosaurs

and All that Rubbish“.  Part of this topic was

some research work in the Library, finding

out about Dinosaurs.  Each group used

dictionaries to find the definition of a dinosaur,

non-fiction books to gather facts about them,

and then ‘employed’ Mrs Bryant as their secretary

to put their work together in their own words.

They created two posters and a selection of

captions to go with pictures of Dinosaurs -

come along and see their work on display in

the Library. 

Look out for the scary creature in

the corner (not the Librarian!) and then see if you

can help us by answering  the tricky question on

the display.

Top 50 Short Stories chosen

The Top Fifty Stories have been chosen in

Radio 2′s 500 Words Competition.  This must

have been an enormous task as they had 90,000 entries

this year!  No wonder they needed lots of judges

like me to read through 50 stories each and

put their favourite forward to the next

stage (unfortunately the best story in my

selection didn’t make it to the final).  However, I did get

a very nice ‘thank you’ from Chris Evans’ office.

The winners will be chosen later this month

and will be presented with their prizes by

Chris Evans from Radio 2 at the Hay Literature

Festival.

Do visit the website -

www.bbc.co.uk/Radio2/500words

You can read the final fifty yourself or listen to them

being read aloud by actors.  You’ll also find lots

of great tips to help with your own story-writing.

Reading Adventure Update!

You were obviously brilliant at keeping up your reading over the Easter Holidays.

Congratulations to all those who gained Reading Adventure badges this week – there were 25 new badges presented -

YES TWENTY-FIVE IN ONE GO!  

That’s a lot more Dragons, Snow Leopards and other creatures proudly displayed on uniforms around the school.

The displays in the hall are spreading across the walls – it’s a reading invasion!

Don’t forget totalk to your friends  about your reading –  recommend books you have enjoyed and share the fun!

Mrs Bryant's (brief) moment of fame!

Hello, I hope you all had a great holiday.  It was good to see some of you at the Open Day for Crediton’s Community Bookshop where I was holding a story-telling session.

I enjoyed meeting the Horrible Science author, Nick Arnold, who was signing his books and talking to visitors to the shop.  I asked him to sign a copy of his book “The Terrible Truth About Time” to add to our Library.  This was one of the few titles in the series that we didn’t already have and is all about how we have learned to measure time throughout history.

Many people have told me that I appeared on Westcountry News in their report on the event.  Luckily the TV reporter was busy interviewing the author while I was reading as I’m not sure I could have continued without giggling if the camera was pointing at me!  I got caught ‘being a customer’ and was filmed buying some books and talking to various people in the background.  So that’s my brief moment of television ‘stardom’, no calls from Hollywood so far!

Come along to the Library and find out more about Nick Arnold and his books – he has a very good website:

www.nickarnold-website.com

HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAYS!

The Hayward’s Librarians, Mrs Bryant and the Owl wish everyone;                                                                                                           children, families and staff; a very happy Easter Holiday.

Whilst you’re all having a lovely break from school, I do hope you’ll find some time for reading – perhaps in between nibbling chocolate eggs and bunnies.  Don’t forget to keep track of the time you spend with books, newspapers or anything else you might like to read.

Get those ‘footprints’ signed and coloured in.  We can then look forward to giving out lots more Reading Adventure badges when we get back to school.

If you’re in Crediton on Saturday 6th April (that’s in the middle of the Easter Holiday), do go along to Crediton Book Shop where there will be lots of exciting activities going on:  Nick Arnold, the author of the ‘Horrible Science’ books will be there, as well as other local authors.  There will be story-telling sessions and competitions.

Have a happy, safe and restful holiday.

Best wishes from Mrs Bryant and the Hayward’s Librarians

Ready for a Rest!

Your Librarian is certainly looking forward to the Easter Holidays, putting her

feet up with a good book and maybe nibbling on an Easter egg.

I have now completed my section of the judging for the Chris Evans’ 500 word Story

Competition:  I had a pile of stories to read and mark for originality, plot,

characterisation, language and enjoyment.  It took quite a long time as I really

wanted to be fair and give each story my full attention.  So I had to read them

all several times.  I soon found my favourite – a lovely story about a Snowflake

(very appropriate with the weather at the moment).  This story will now go

through to the next stage and I really hope it does well against all the other judges’

choices.

I also wanted to tell you about a brilliant book I’ve just read:   it’s called

‘The Exeter Riddles’ by Philip Reeve.

A great adventure story, set in Exeter with lots of places you will know, it involves all

the statues and gargoyles from Exeter Cathedral coming to life and causing all

sorts of chaos!  There’s time travel, a fair amount of magic, and an exciting finish

in the ancient tunnels below the city.  Do look out for it, and I hope we can get a

copy for our Library.

HAPPY READING, AND A VERY HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAY, from Mrs Bryant

DON'T MISS OUT!

Don’t forget to use your £1.00 World Book Day Voucher.

If you haven’t chosen a book already you have until next Sunday, 24th March to spend it.

You can use it at the Book Shop in Crediton, or anywhere else you like to buy your books.  It can be used to buy one of the special £1.00 World Book Day books, or towards the cost of any other book you would like.

HAPPY READING!

from Mrs Bryant (who chose the Tom Gates book about a Book Day – of course!)

WORLD BOOK DAY in OUR LIBRARY

Lots of characters visited our Library on World Book Day – can you spot a

‘Wally’ or two?  I think this group were going for the record for how many people

you can fit into the fiction section!

Just to prove there’s a good book to suit every reader – even the Library pets

joined in the fun:

Librarian does lots of Reading!

Mrs Bryant had some very exciting news this morning – she has been selected as

a judge for the CHRIS EVANS’ 500 WORDS CHILDREN’S STORY COMPETITION!

Last year there were 74,000 stories entered for this competition and this year

there are even more.  Mrs Bryant is hoping she doesn’t have to read them all!

(she may have to get a bit of help from her book-loving cat)

So, please be extra quiet around the Library for the next few weeks, just in case

there’s a very tired Librarian having a little doze!

If you want to hear the winning stories from last year, or get some brilliant tips

for your own story-writing, visit the website: 

bbc.co.uk/radio2/500words/2013

World Book Day in Mr Baker's Class

We had a great day celebrating books and reading:

We read together, visited the library cafe for a story, had a big book swap, and all

went home with our World Book Day tokens to buy ourselves a brand new book!

 Hayward’s Library Lion also showed a particular interest in the day’s activities -spending most of the day tucked under Mrs Bryant’s arm with a ‘butterfly’ attached to his ear.  Can you guess which book title he was trying to be?