Kimbolton School Book Award

This year the Kimbolton School Book Award goes to Christopher Paolini for Brisingr. Christopher got 70% of the vote for this third volume in the Inheritance series.

Unfortunately he lives in California and so won't be able to visit us. Instead email the library with any questions you would have asked Christopher had he been able to visit. The best (and most unusual) will be forwarded and answers displayed here on the blog.

library@kimbolton.cambs.sch.uk

Carnegie Longlist

The eagerly awaited Carnegie longlist for 2009 was published on 6th November. A wide range of fiction is represented and the Kimbookworms have already started to read and review the 40+ books longlisted.

See http://www.ckg.org.uk/ for the full list or check out the Carnegie display in the library. Add your comments to the bookmarks or write a review in Access-It for others to read.

Kimbolton School Book Award

Dozens of nominations were received for the Kimbolton School Book of the Year Award. The Kimbookworms opened the post box after half term and helped to select a shortlist of six. The main criteria were that the book should not already be a bestseller but should be something you would recommend to a friend as a good read. The shortlist consists of:

Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Girl Missing by Sophie McKenzie

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

Stone Heart by Charlie Fletcher

Spilled Water by Sally Grindley

Voting for the Book of the Year Award will continue until the end of November and the winner will be announced on 5th December. The winning author will then be invited into Kimbolton School.

Nicola Morgan

The award-winning author, Nicola Morgan, brought the scary side of history to life today during her visit to Kimbolton School. Tales of 19th Century gory operations captivated pupils whilst they learned about Nicola’s historical adventure stories such as ‘The Highwayman’s Curse’ and ‘Fleshmarket’.

Thrillers, science fiction and teenage brains are other topics Nicola has tackled successfully and the audience of 1st and 2nd Years clearly enjoyed this opportunity to hear not just about those books but about the craft of writing as well.

Nicola has now invited pupils to email her with thoughts on her novels or their own writing. Joining her fan club through Facebook may also offer a chance of receiving copies of Nicola’s newest novels pre-publication and of reviewing them for the website.

Further details at http://www.nicolamorgan.co.uk/

Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize shortlist has just been announced.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/

Watch out for details of Kimbolton School's own book award to be launched on Friday 3rd October.

NK Day

Budding 'Alex Riders' raced around the library today trying to be the fastest to complete their mission. The task involved solving clues in order to discover details of a Secret Agent whose whereabouts were somewhere in the library! Lots of fun was had by all as well as a chance to find out a little of what the library has to offer.

Harry Potter prequel sells for £25,000

An 800 word prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten and signed by JK Rowling, sold for £25,000 at a charity auction this week. The card is one of 13 story cards donated by world famous authors for the 'What's Your Story?' campaign at Waterstones.

You can begin reading the prequel at http://www.waterstones.com/

Send up your own story before 19th June and you could be in with a chance of being published alongside the authors' stories as well as winning £500 of book vouchers.

National Year of Reading

Welcome to the Vanbrugh Library blog! The first post has to be about the National Year of Reading which began last month. Find out what's happening nationally by clicking on the following links.

Youtube video of the launch at 10 Downing Street: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtX7ICkSlqc

NYR website:

http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/

Article on the BBC News website about the year: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7177421.stm

Check out the displays in the library - 'Mind and Body' this month - to find new and unusual reads.