Free Online Event - Mayor of London in Conversation with authors Bernadine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge

As part of the Black History Month series recognising London’s Black Pioneers, tomorrow evening between 5pm and 5.45pm, London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, will be hosting an exclusive ‘In conversation…’ live stream with these two amazing authors.  To register for this event click here.

Bernadine Evaristo OBE, MBE(left) and Reni Eddo-Lodge (right)
 image from the Mayor of London’s website

Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other and Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race are both available to borrow from the EPHS Libraries.

If you didn’t have a chance to watch this event live or to watch again, click here.

Diverse Book Awards 2020 - Winners Announced!

Created by The Author School, the Diverse Book Awards highlight the best of diverse voices, novels featuring Black, Asian, Latin American and/or inclusive main characters, published in the UK during 2019.

The Awards are divided into three categories, children's, Young Adult and Adult and the winners of the children's and YA categories are:

Both of these brilliant books are available to borrow from the EPHS Libraries.  To watch a video of this year's ceremony, click on the video below:

Black History Month Competitions

The History Department are offering some fantastic book prizes as part of their Black History Month competitions, all of which are available to borrow from the EPHS Libraries:

For Year 7s and 8s, there’s a chance to win the Marvel Comics Graphic Novel!

“Black Panther: A Nation Under One Feet” The first authored by the critically acclaimed Ta- Nehisi Coates.

To win, write a short article (no more than 400 words/one side of A4) describing which figure from contemporary (modern) Black culture you admire and why.

For Year 9s, there’s a chance to win Cane Warriors, the newly released book by award winning author Alex Wheatle, who visited EPHS in January.

To win, write a review on your favourite book/film/music by a black British author/director/actor/ musician of your choice.  Your review should be approximately 300 words +.

For Year 10s, there’s a chance to win four of the best selling, most critically acclaimed, recently published books on race and British History!

We want to know your thoughts on the representation of Black History and Race within our curriculum.

To win you must author an article (approx. 500 words or more) on the following:-

“How may school curriculums be improved to better represent Black History?”

You should speak to your History Teachers to help you write your article, read through the statement they put out in May this year (found in the EPHS Student Leadership Newsletter) and make use of the information found at the following links:

• https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/13/black-british-history-school-curriculum-england 
• https://theblackcurriculum.com/about

But most importantly, it’s your opinion that counts!

All entries must be submitted to Mr Shuttleworth by Friday 6th November.  Good luck!

World Mental Health Day

October 10th is World Mental Health Day, and Mind are encouraging everyone to Do One Thing for yourself or others.

Reading is a fantastic way to have some relaxing time as well as a great way to better understand the struggles of others.

We have a great selection of books in the library about mental health so make sure you take some time this World Mental Health Day to invest in your wellbeing and enjoy some selfcare with a good book.

CKG Shadower's Choice Awards 2020 - Winner Announced!

After much anticipation and a longer than usual wait, the winners of this year's Shadowers' Choice Awards, chosen by the CKG Shadowing Groups, were announced at noon today.  The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta was definitely a favourite of the Eden Park Readers, the EPHS Carnegie Shadowing Group and The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson is a truly stunning book.

The Shadowers' Choice Winners were announced by this years Carnegie and Greenaway Medal Winners, Anthony McGowan for Lark and Shaun Tan for Tales from the Inner City.

This was the first year that EPHS has taken part in the Shadowing Scheme, with 10 students from across KS3 taking part - Taylan, Lucca, Oscar, Naomi I, Matti, Angela Luca M, Millie S, Amelia W and Bryan N.  Despite the challenges, many of the Group managed to read at least one of the books on the list and there is lots of enthusiasm among the students for us to continue next year, which is brilliant!

Black History Month 2020

October is Black History Month and to celebrate, the History Department are coordinating a series of events that both celebrates black culture, historical and contemporary, and acknowledges the international movement of Black Lives Matter.

The Library is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some amazing Black British poets and writers, including Malorie Blackman, Alex Wheatle, Patrice Lawrence, Benjamin Zephaniah and Adisa the Verbaliser, whose books you can remotely browse and borrow.

Following on from the amazingly successful Alex Wheatle author visit at the start of the year, later this academic year we will be hosting visits from the brilliant performance poet Adisa the Verbaliser and the wonderful author Patrice Lawrence.

Alex Wheatle's new book, Cane Warriors, is a compelling read about slavery set during the 1760 Jamaican slave rebellion - it is on our wish list!  We are really looking forward to watching a dramatisation of Alex's life to be shown on the BBC shortly.  It is one of five short plays made by director Steve McQueen.

National Poetry Day 2020

Today is National Poetry Day and an opportunity to enjoy, share and discover poems.  This year's theme is 'vision'.  

We have a brilliantly eclectic mix of poetry for you to borrow from Adisa to Edgar Allen Poe, as well as verse novels by authors including the amazing Carnegie Award shortlist nominees Sarah Crossan, Kwame Alexander and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Poetry Books in the EPHS Libraries