The 2015 Shortlist

Many thanks to all who contributed to last night's meeting, either in person or suggestions via email.

Drum roll, please, because here comes the 2015 Shortlist:

The Savages by Matt Whyman

The Middle of Nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean

Scarlet Ibis by Gill Lewis

Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Rage of the Rhino by Bear Grylls

A Boy Called Hope by Lara Williamson

We hope to make a few changes this year, including setting a few challenges along the way.  Watch this space for more details.  

Happy reading!

And The Winner Is...

Here at the Weald it seems we have barely had time to catch our breath, what with all the celebrations for Weald Book Week and of course, the culmination of the Weald Book Award with all the wonderful presentations from our primary friends and the announcement of the winner.  Mrs May's costume is a clue...though we're not entirely sure if she's holding her bokken quite right...

Huge congratulations to our winner as voted by you: Chris Bradford with Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior.  A worthy winner!

Here's what some of you said:

"It was a great celebration to finish off a great book award."

"It was a real treat for our pupils to perform in front of so many people. We all thought the Weald’s ‘Great British Book Off’ was very entertaining, too."

Well done to all the students who took part, read the books, had such wonderful ideas and opinions, and stood up to share them all at the presentation evening.

We're already looking forward to next year's event.

Presentation Evening - 6th March

Things are going well with the Book Award here at the Weald - we have a great theme which the students have come up with (which remains top secret for now!) so are looking forward to our presentation evening on Thursday 6 March - World Book Day.  

As usual we have a great introduction to the evening and hopefully each of the primary schools will have some sort of presentation too.  We will be holding the event in the School Hall again as numbers have increased to bursting point for the LRC!  There will be space for your displays too.

Can you please let us know what you have planned for the evening (a 5-10 minute slot) and also if you require any display boards/computing facilities.  Don't forget there is a large screen so if you have a memory stick you will be okay.    

We try to limit the numbers to immediate family only please - there is a glass of wine/juice at the start. This year there will also be some special nibbles!!  

Looking forward to hearing from you all - it is sure to be another great evening.

2014 Nominee Chris Bradford Visits the Weald

Chris Bradford is a true believer in ‘practising what you preach’ – this made his visit to The Weald a much anticipated event.  Since one of the titles in his award winning Young Samurai series has been nominated for The Weald Book Award he was invited to come and talk to Year 7 participants and pupils from Year 6 feeder primary schools.  

He explained that he trained in iaido (samurai swordmanship), karate, ninjutsu and earned his black belt in Zen Kyu Shin Taijutsu.  Previously he had trained in judo, muay thai and kickboxing.  He wore full Samurai robes and wielded his very own Samurai sword.  Students were invited to discover the skills needed to become a young samurai at Samurai School and treated to an authentic samurai sword display and a dynamic all-kicking, all-punching book reading.

His best-selling books are published in over 20 languages and have garnered more than 25 children’s book award nominations.   Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior was deemed one of Puffin’s 70 Best Ever Books, alongside Treasure Island and Robin Hood.

Weald Book Award Launch

We've begun our search for Year 7 students who would like to take part in this year's book award.  Posters up around the school today:

Speedy Books!

We hope the reading is going well and you are all as inspired as we were by the book choices.

Plenty more details to follow, but just to whet your appetites and give you a date for the diary, we all meet on 14 November - after school - for the first time for the Speedy Books event.  If you haven't been involved before this is a great way for students to get to know each other.  In a 'speed-dating' style environment every student will get to meet lots of new friends and get chatting about their first impressions of the books: a great ice-breaker.

Happy reading...

On Your Marks...

We hope that you have all had a good summer, and are enjoying the reading.

Mrs Gooda and Mrs May have read all of the book choices over the break and already have their firm favourites. It was a pleasure to read such a rich and varied selection of books taking us around the world and through the years, from the Spanish Civil War to seventeenth century Japan; the sinking of the Titanic to the Nine Eleven disaster, via World War One, with animals and bicycles thrown in for good measure.  Oh, and a bit of cannibalism!

It will certainly make for good discussion and contrast.  Great choices, everyone.

We are looking forward to our first meeting in November. More details to follow soon.