Spinebreakers

This is a new and exciting website for teenage reader from Penguin books. http://www.spinebreakers.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx Check it out. There are lots of competitions!

Author visits in the pipeline

Our spring Read programme will be running again in March this year. Among other events planned We have the authors Janet Paisley, Nicola Morgan and Catherine McPhail coming to visit school. We are also planning a Book Fair and the S1 and S2 Readers' Cup Quizzes.
Watch this space for more news.

Readers' Cup Round One

In the run up to Christmas we have been doing the first round of our reading quiz with S1 and S2. This year pupils did the quiz during their visits to the library. Some pupils performed really well. I think the highest score was 15/20. They all enjoyed their prizes. The best performers will go on to represent their clan in the inter-clan competition in March.

December book

Our December book, which we started on St. Andrew's Day, was Janet Paisley's White Rose Rebel, the story of a female Jacobite leader in the period leading up to the Battle of Culloden. It is a true bodice-ripper with lots of sex and violence, which makes a change from our usual fare. Some people found the battle scences rather too graphic, but on the whole the group enjoyed the book and felt it was a good choice for the run-up to Christmas when everyone was feeling tired and stressed.
We have a very pleasant Christmas lunch followed by presents out of Santa's sack. We had agreed to buy and book by a author who's surname began with our initial and then wrap it for the sack.. This proved an interesting challenge and produced some unusual titles, from Mr Darcy's dairy by Maya Slater to Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. We have agreed to report back in January and have a swop around.

November book

For November the staff reading group read The wildfire season by Andrew Pyper. Set in the wilds of Canada, it is the story of a group of forest firefighters, particularly their leader who has been devastated by a previous fire, and a bear. Some of the group found this book to be so depressing that they couldn't finish it. Some people finished it but didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it and a couple of people liked it. The lead firefighter lost a crewmember and was badly burnt in a previous fire, which caused him to end his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend. We did not find him particularly sympathetic, in fact most of our sympathies lay with the mother bear whose cubs were shot. Better luck next month!

Local winner

Local author Cathy Cassidy, who has been to Doon to talk to pupils, has won the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books, Older Readers category for her novel Scarlett.

"She said: "Scarlett is a story about friendship and families, and deals with some difficult issues like what it might be like for all kids if parents get divorced, with lots of laughs and some sad things too.""
Well done Cathy!

October book

The book the reading group read in October was The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn. The consensus was that it was a mildly entertaining, but very lightweight read. We felt that the story was very formulaic and that the ending was a cop-out. However it was an interesting insight into the weird world of high-powered New Yorkers and the lengths they will go to to get their children into the best schools. It did provoke a heated debate on the pros and cons of private education versus state. Hopefully our next book will be a better read, even if it is less contentious.

New Book club

Richard and Judy have started a book club for children. The website has lots of great suggestions and ideas. Check it out at Richard and Judy's Book Club.

New books

I have taken some of the new books home to test read. The ones I enjoyed most were The Medici Seal by Theresa Breslin and Exchange by Paul Magrs. The Medici Seal is a terrific historical adventure set in medieval Italy involving Leonardo Da Vinci. Exchange is about an amazing bookshop and how reading can be a lifesaver to some people - something I would agree with.
One book that I didn't expect to enjoy was The Spook's apprentice by Joseph Delaney because I don't usually like creepy stuff, but it was brilliant. I will be looking out for the next one.

Back to school

At the first meeting of the Staff Reading Group we discussed our holiday reading. Our recommendations were
Stef Penney The Tenderness of Wolves, "brilliant"
We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver "disturbing" Celia Ahearn A place called here, "pleasant enough",
Zadie Smith On beauty, "OK" and
No wonder I take a drink by Louise Marney "laugh out loud funny".
Try one and let us know what you think.

Summer holiday reading

I took a couple of books on holiday to Greece with me. Christopher Brookmyre's latest in paperback, which is a brilliantly funny book set near Glasgow about how people's childhoods and schooldays influence their later lives. Live Bait is P. J. Tracy's sequel to the terrific Want to play which the group read recently. The sequel wasn't as compulsive, but it was still a good read. The plot had similarities to Henning Mankell's The return of the dancing master, which I have just finished. I also took Relentless by Simon Kernick which has been heavily promoted. It was badly written and not particularly gripping.

Manga and Graphic Novels

I went to a presentation at the weekend on Manga and graphic novels. Graphic novels are comic books and manga for anyone - like me - who doesn't know, are Japanese picture storybooks (translated into English). I am thinking of getting some for the library. Is anyone a manga fan who would like to make some suggestions as to what I should get?

Carnegie Medal Shadowing

Doon's Shadowing Group came together for the last time this year on Monday 18th June to have a small celebration and decide on our choice of winner. After some debate we were unable to agree a winner - for the first time ever. The group was evenly split between Beast by Ally Kennen and Just in case by Meg Rosoff.
It was announced on 21st June that the Carnegie Medal judges had decided on Just in case as the winner.
The adventures of the dish and the spoon won the Kate Greenaway Medal. That was our clear favourite and the favourite of Dalmellington Primary School.

The shadowing groups' favourite were My swordhand is singing and Scoop for the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway respectively. For more information have a look at The Shadowing Groups page

Readers' Cup final

On 6th June a team of S1/2 pupils went to Loudoun Academy to represent Doon at the final of the East Ayrshire Readers' Cup competition. Our team consisted of Darren McLelland, Steven Slider, Ryan McKnight and Sophie Murphy. Sophie stood in at the last moment as the original team members were away on a school trip that day. Cumnock Academy won the competition by one mark on a tiebreaker question.

Storytime

As part of our Carnegie/Kate Greenawy Shadowing programme, a group of S2 pupils entertained some P1 and P2 pupils from Dalmellington Primary School in the Library and read some of the Kate Greenaway shortlist to them. Our pupils put lots of expression and drama into their readings and the small children were riveted. After all the groups had had a chance to hear all the stoires, we offered them a drink and a biscuit. The primary pupils were asked to vote for their favourite. The clear choice was The adventures of the dish and the spoon by Mini Grey. It won by 12 votes to 6. The winning team of David Gemmill and Dale Templeton were presented with prizes by Mrs Gormanley.

May book

Our May read was The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich. Opinions were somewhat divided about the book. Some group members enjoyed this book, they felt it was beautifully written and really interesting. Others found that they couldn't get into it at all and didn't take to the mystical aspects of the book. The Painted Drum is set in America and moves in time from about one hundred years ago to the present day. The central characters are mainly Native Americans whose lives have been affected by the drum. We all felt the book was very different from our usual choices and it had opened our eyes to a different world.

April book

The Doon Book Group has just finished reading The Silent and the Damned by Robert Wilson. The book is a detective story set in Seville, Spain and is part of a series featuring Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon. The group all enjoyed the book. They felt it was gripping, pacy and kept the reader guessing until near the end. It had a satisfying twist in the tail. We also felt we would like to read some of the other titles in the series that this novel referred back to.

Carnegie Medal Shadowing Conference, Stirling

Our Carnegie Medal Shadowing Group had a great trip to the Albert Halls in Stirling to hear some of the shortlisted authors. Some of the group managed to get autographs and have their books signed and to chat to come of the authors.

Meg Rosoff talking about her book Just in case and the part fate plays in the book and in her life.


Siobhan Dowd talking about her first book A swift pure cry and how excited she was to be nominated for the Carnegie Medal

Kevin Brooks chatting through a question and answer session with the audience. Some our group got their questions answered. He was a big hit with the group as he talked at length with some of them afterwards about violence. His book The road of the dead is about revenge and is quite violent.

Anne Fine speaking passionately about how she came to write A road of bones and how important it was for young people to be involved with politics and the world around them.

Berlie Doherty talked about how excited she was about winning the Carnegie Medal the first time and how amazed she was to win it a second time.

We had a great day out and and enjoy graffiti wall, the competition and autograph hunting as well as listening to all the interesting things the authors had to say.

Spring Read ends

This is the last day of term and the end of the Spring Read programme. I hope that everyone who participated in it enjoyed it and that people will be inspired to carry on reading over the holidays.
Coming up next term we have the Carnegie Medal Shadowing group with a trip to Stirling to meet some of the short-listed authors. The group will meet once a week at lunchtimes and we will have a party at the end of the process to decide the winners. Check out the Carnegie Medal site to find out more.

S1 Readers'Cup competition

The S1 section of the Doon Academy Readers' Cup competition was held in the Assembly Hall on Tuesady morm 27th March 2007. There were four very strong teams and competition was expected to be fierce. The topics the teams had to answer questions on were Lucky dip, Baddies, Mythical creatures, Cathy Cassidy and Humour. Mythical creatures proved to be the hardest section. The winning team of Darren, Ryan, Lisa and Bronwynn scored a fantastic total of 31 points out of 50, which is a record for Doon! The final scores were:

1. Bradan 31 points,


2. Finlas 29 points,


3. Doon 28 points,


4. Raecar 26 points.

All the participants won prizes for their efforts and some lucky and knowledgeable audience members won spot prizes as the audience had questions to answer too.

March book

For March the staff reading group all read Restless by William Boyd. It won the Costa Book Award (formerly the Booker Prize), so we knew we were in for a treat. All the group members really enjoyed the book and it generated much enthusiastic discussion, virtually all positive. Restless is a gripping thriller, set both around World War 2 and now. The plot involves 2 main characters Sally Gilmartin and her mother Eve. Eve, a Russian migrant, was recruited to spy for Britain during the war. The main context of the plot is the undercover attempts by Britain to persuade the United States to join in the fighting in World War 2. Apparently about 3000 British secret agents were working in America on propaganda and other tactics to convince the Americans that Germany was their enemy. llll

The winner of the Costa First Novel Award was The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. It is also a terrific read. Set in nineteenth century rural Canada it is about a woman's search for her missing son after a murder. It is very evocative of the time and place, but is very modern in terms of some of the psychological aspects included in the plot. llll

Readers' Cup

Wednesday 21st May saw the S2 section of the Doon Academy Reader's Cup competition. The topics the teams had to answer questions on were, Thrillers, Philip Pullman, Classics and Witches and Wizards. As always there was also a Lucky Dip round. The rounds were hotly contested with the highest scores achieved on Classics and Witches. After the final round, there was a tie for 2nd place so we had a tie-breaker question. "Who wrote Horrible Christmas in the Horrible Histories series? Naomi from Bradan knew the correct answer which was Terry Deary. The winners, Kyle Stewart, Stephanie Smith, Clare Connell and Lisa Teasdale all received book tokens and the other teams all had boxes of chocolates to share. The final result was

1. Finlas 26 points,


2. Bradan 25 points,


3. Doon 24 points


4. Raecar 22 points

Well done Finlas!

Jonathan Meres

The next event in our busy Spring Read programme was a trip to see the author Jonathan Meres at Cumnock Academy. Mrs Gibson and Mr Taylor took a group of S1 boys and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The boys reported back that he was very funny and a bit rude, not what they really expected of an author. Several wanted to know if he could come back next year, which is a real commendation.

Book Fair

A part of the Spring Read programme, Waterstones Ayr Branch came and brought a Book Fair to school on Thursday 15th March. The event lasted from break until the end of the school day and virtually all pupils had a chance to visit it. Lots of pupils used their World Book Day tokens to obtain the free World Book Day short books. Some pupils and staff bought books and the school benefitted from a share of the profits.

Visit to Michael Kerins

Mrs Bax and Mrs Nicol took a small party of S1 to see and hear the storyteller Michael Kerins at Auchinleck Academy. He talked about his background and how he came to be a storyteller with lots of props, including Graham Davis who played Wee Tom.

He moved on to tell the story of Persephone and Orpheus of the underworld and how Persephone's mother, the goddess Demeter, persuaded the king of the gods Zeus to allow her daughter to live above the ground most of the year and in the underworld in the winter. That is how we got the seasons! All the pupils enjoyed the trip and were gripped by the story.

Cathy Cassidy visit

Cathy Cassidy, the author Dizzy, Driftwood, Indigo and Scarlett, came to Doon today to talk to some S1 pupils. Pupils from Cumnock Academy and Auchinleck Academy also came along to here what she had to say. Everyone really enjoyed her talk and she signed some books for pupils and chatted to them at the end. She talked about daydreaming and how not to get caught doing it in school!

Spring Read

This year East Ayrshire schools are running a series of book events in March under the banner of Spring Read. For World Book Day on March 1st, teachers brought in books and sat them on their desks to show what they were reading at home. We took some pictures of them to make into posters. There will also be a match the book to the teacher competition. We are having a book fair next week and there will be author visits and the Readers' Cup competition at the end of March.

February read

The staff book group read Voyage of Innocence by Elizabeth Edmondson as our February book. It is set in 1930s and is about a trio of girls who become friends at Oxford University and their lives from then on. It is set against the background of the rise of the Nazi in Germany and the depression and communism in Britain. We found the start of the book confusing as it is a flashforward which introduces the main characters, then the story tracks back several year. Most people liked it when they got into the book and they felt that it was a useful insight how different people's attitudes were in those days. We gave it 6 1/2 out of 10.