Read with Pride

Welcome back!  We hope you had a great half term break and found plenty of opportunity to read and relax.

June is Pride Month.  As well as being a time to celebrate, Pride month is about the acceptance and equality of LGBTQ+ community.    

Pride takes place in June because that is the month the Stonewall Riots happened in the USA in 1969.  The Pride in London parade takes place on 1st July this year. 

The Library has a diverse collection of LGBT+ literature, both fiction and non-fiction for you to explore.  Including award winning novels such as  Black Flamingo by Dean Atta,  Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls and Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean.  To view the collection on OLIVER click here.

BBC Newsround  has a list of 12 LBGT icons from history that you should know about - to view, click here. 

Creative Writing Competitions

Love writing and winning prizes? Then you may be interested in entering one or both of these competitions:

The Poetry Society has announced that The Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition 2023 is now open for entries.  This is a fantastic opportunity to further your writing aspirations, as the prize includes mentoring and development opportunities from the Poetry Society.  To enter you simply need to submit a poem of any theme, of any length and of any style and must be aged 11 to 17.  The competition deadline is 31 July 2023.  For more information and to enter click here.

Book Trust Creative Writing Competition - win amazing prizes from their writer in residence SF Said. The competition is open to anyone aged 8 and over and prizes will be awarded for "the most creative piece of writing and the most creative piece of art that is inspired by an animal, just like his books Varjak Paw and Tyger."  The winning entry for each category will receive 30 copies of Tyger plus a signed print of Dave McKean's artwork.  In addition, the first 1,000 individuals or classes to enter will receive a poster.  The closing date is Friday, 28th July.  For more information and inspiration click here.

Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize 2023 - winners announced!

This year's Jhalak Children's & YA Prize has been won by Danielle Jawando for When Our Worlds Collided. The prize is open to 'books for children and  teens and young adults including picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, poetry, non-fiction, and all other genres by writers of colour and aimed at young readers'.

Also chosen as part of this year’s Read for Empathy Collection, this compelling story is told from the perspective of three teenagers form different backgrounds who witness a stabbing.  When Our Worlds Collided and other books on this year's shortlist are available to borrow from the EPHS 

The Jhalak Prize itself was won by Travis Alabanza for None of the Above.

First Story Young Writers 2023 - news

We are delighted to announce that one of our First Story Young Writers, Micah in Year 9, has been awarded third prize in the First Story Young Writers 100 Word Story competition!  The judges received over 550 entries and commented on this year's impressive standard. Micah will receive a prize book bundle and certificate.

All the winning entries can be read on the First Story website by clicking here.  Micah's winning entry also appears below:

I suffered in silence, day after day. Aching to extend my finger one more time and let my nail scrape one more record. I missed the feeling. The slow spin of the disc under me as the vibration ran up my arm. I yearned to hear Stevie once again, a voice like warm hugs from long-lost friends. I wanted to hear my song and to be celebrated once more. By dance and food; by men and women. But I knew it would never happen. I had known it since the very day my owners packed up, leaving me behind.

Congratulations are also due to two other First Story Young Writers.  Millie S in Year 10, who has successfully secured a place on the First Story Summer Residential this year.  This is a fully-funded, week-long writing retreat for students who have shown great potential over the course of the year and it takes place in the idyllic Lumb Bank writing centre in West Yorkshire.  

And finally, Rose's (Year 10) design has been chosen for the cover of this year's First Story Young Writers' anthology, which will be launched in July.  We will be holding a special event to mark the occasion in the Upper Library with students, parents and staff.

A big thank you to Rachel Seiffert, our amazing writer in residence for her brilliant work with our young writers this year and to Emma Leahy from First Story for her support and encouragement, and also to Carrie Sweeney, who has been working with Rachel and our young writers this year.  Thanks also go to Miss Koca, our Lead Teacher on this fantastic creative writing programme, without whom this enrichment would not have been able to run.

Copies of last year's anthology are available to borrow from the Upper Library.

Year 10 Work Experience in the Library

We were delighted to provide one of our Year 10 students, Martin, the opportunity to volunteer in the Libraries as part of EPHS's week long work experience programme organised by Ms McIntosh.  Below is Martin's reflection on his experience:

I really enjoyed working in the Library this week.  It was very fun, and it was a very peaceful and delightful place.  Most of what I did was process books such as quick reads and fiction books and then catalogue them.  What I enjoyed most was loaning and returning books in a Year 8 class.  What I also did was put books back on shelves from the returns trolley.  The environment was most of the time quiet but during most library lessons it was a bit loud.  And finally, the last thing I did during work experience was treasury tag reading records and vocabulary sheets into the folders and other things inside of there too but overall it was amazing to work here.  Martin.

Ms Peters and I very much enjoyed working with Martin this week, who fitted in well as part of the Library team.  He is welcome to join our group of Library volunteers any time!

Mental Health Awareness Week 2023

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme is anxiety.  Anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone experiences but sometimes it can become overwhelming and have a negative effect on our mental health. 

Evidence shows that reading can greatly help to improve your mental health and wellbeing. We've got a great selection of books to help with mental (and physical) wellbeing.  Check out our Wellbeing Collection reading list on OLIVER by clicking here and selecting 'w' for 'Wellbeing Collection'.

We've also got the fantastic Read for Empathy book collection, which contains a fantastic selection of fiction, poetry and non-fiction spanning across genres.  All of these books, which have been chosen to help the reader understand what it's like to be in someone else's situation, are available to borrow from the Library.  Click here to view the 2023 collection on OLIVER.

Big Eurovision Read Booklist Announced!

Ahead of this weekend's Eurovision Song Contest final to be held in Liverpool, the Reading Agency have compiled the Big Eurovision Read booklist.  This reading for pleasure campaign is designed to celebrate music and reading.

We have a few of the books on the list, alongside a diverse collection of music biographies and music themed fiction and non-fiction.  To view the books on OLIVER click here.