Carnegie Shadowing 2008

The Shortlist has been announced.

The Books have arrived.

IT’S TIME TO GET READING!!!

It's that time of year again when we get the chance not only to read some of the best books of the past year, but we get to tell the world what we think of them. Using our very own space on the Carnegie Shadowing website (see the link in the grey box on the right) we can post our thoughts, praise and criticism of each book. There are already a few reviews posted. You can also check out the views of hundreds of other schools in the UK.

Pictures of the shorlisted books are below. Find out more about them at http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/current_shortlist.php
The winner will be announced at the end of June.

March Book Reviews -Mrs Boswell's S1 Class

If you are in Mrs Boswell's S1 class then this is the place for posting your book reviews for March.

Just click below to add a comment then type in your review. It will be sent to me and then available for everyone else to see. You should let us know your name.

Remember!!We want to know what you thought and felt about the book, rather than just a description of the story.

Cathy Cassidy

On World Book Day, and as part of our Spring Read, a group of S1 girls visited Stewarton Academy to meet best selling author Cathy Cassidy.

She not only told us about all her books, but about how she gets the ideas to write them. She spoke a lot about how useful day-dreaming is -i think a lot of us were very pleased to hear that!

You can find out more about Cathy Cassidy by checking out her website which is http://www.cathycassidy.com/

If you met her at Stewarton Academy why not tell her what you thought on her website.

Extreme Readers!!!

Are you an Extreme Reader?

As part of the SPRING READ the Reading Club are looking for evidence of your Extreme Reading.

We want pictures showing you reading in unusual, surprising, or plain silly situations.

There will be prizes for the most imaginative!

Pictures should reach Miss Colquhoun or Miss Sharpe by Friday 28th March.

Book Swap

BOOK SWAP

Thursday 13th March

Lunchtime

in the LRC

As part of the Spring Read you are invited to bring in books that you no longer want to read and swap them for somebody else’s. You can bring them in earlier and receive a token for each book, which you can then swap on Thursday for a new (but used) read.

All books should be in good condition please!

February Book Reviews - Mrs Boswell's S1 Class

If you are in Mrs Boswell's S1 class then this is the place for posting your book reviews for February.

Just click below to add a comment then type in your review. It will be sent to me and then available for everyone else to see. You should let us know your name.

Remember!!
We want to know what you thought and felt about the book, rather than just a description of the story.

Burgers & Trees

A new year, new resources and new displays.

January is often a time when we think about becoming healthier and changing the way we eat. Our Food Glorious Food display inside the LRC highlights lots of books that will help you find out more about the food you eat, discover recipies from all around the world, and even introduce you to stories were food and eating feature prominently. But be warned there a few books there that may just put you off eating -for a wee while anyway!

Before the holidays you may have noticed that the leaves from the tree outside of LRC where falling off. They are now all gone and replaced with snowflakes highlighting new fiction which is available for you to borrow.

What should we do with the tree next? Spring buds? Any suggestions?

January Book Reviews -Mrs Boswell's S1 Class

If you are in Mrs Boswell's S1 class then this is the place for posting your book reviews for January.

Just click below to add a comment then type in your review. It will be sent to me and then available for everyone else to see. You should let us know your name. Anonymous reviews will not be posted.

Remember!!
We want to know what you thought and felt about the book, rather than just a description of the story.

Kid's Lit Fun

A fun day was had by all at the West of Scotland heat of the Kid's Lit Quiz held yesterday at Kilsyth Academy near Glasgow. Korin, Roy, Brenna and Nicola did exceptionally well to take 6th place, a 7 place improvement on last year (but who's counting!!).

All the teams did very well and in the end there was not much between them. Bannerman High in Glasgow were the winners and they will go to the UK final in Newcastle next Monday. Congratulations!!

To find out more check out Wayne Mills' blog at http://kidslitquiz.blogspot.com/. Wayne is the Quizmaster and organiser.

Thank you to Wayne Mills and to all at Kilsyth Academy for making our day so much fun.

The Reading Club speak...

...about their meeting with Catherine MacPhail.

I really enjoyed my visit to meet Catherine MacPhail. I loved the fact that she made up stories on the spot and used our names in them. Some of the stories were very funny and some were quite spooky.
Caitlin, S1

Catherine MacPhail was excellent! She told us all about how she makes her stories and what inspired her to write them. She answered all our questions about her books and made up stories on the spot! She really was brilliant.
Eilidh, S1

She told us stories from her books and some she made up after taking names and words from the audience. She gave us a little advice about how to write our own stories. I really enjoyed meeting Catherine MacPhail last wednesday.
Carrie, S1

For more info about Catherine check out her website http://www.macphailbooks.com/ and why not borrow one of books from the LRC. The Nemesis series is very popular at the moment and I can highly recommend Worse Than Boys and Catch Us If You Can.

Catherine Macphail

On Wednesday the Reading Club popped along the road to the local library to meet Catherine Macphail. We thorougly enjoyed hearing all about how she comes to write her stories and where she gets her ideas from. But I am not going to say anymore about the visit as the Reading Club will be sharing their views here next week.

New Books!!

Have you discovered all the new and exciting resources in the LRC yet?

Loads and loads of new books and DVDs have been added to the collection since the summer. You can check out the lists on the Useful Links Wiki (on the right of this page), just click on Library Resource Centre once your on the website.

But if that's too much like hard work, simply scroll to the bottom of this page and you can see what new Junior Fiction is now available in the LRC.

Kid's Lit Quiz

There are still two places on the Cumnock Academy team which will be competing against other west of Scotland schools in the Kid’s Lit Quiz later this month in Kilsyth. So if you would like the chance to take part in this, next Friday is your chance to fight for a place.

If you read a lot and have a competitive streak, come along to the Library at 1.10pm on Friday 2nd November. There will be a quiz open to all pupils who will be 13 or younger by July 2008.

If you have any queries about the competition or about the types of questions please come and see me in the Library Resource Centre.

Try out for the team
Lunchtime on Friday
in the
Library Resource Centre @1.10pm

Remember we WON the East Ayrshire Reader’s Cup this year so I’m sure we have many fine readers to choose from!

Useful Links

Need help finding useful websites for projects or homework?
Well you need look no further than the "Useful Links" link on the right-hand side of this page. Your Librarian and teachers have put together lists of websites to help you with projects and homework for a variety of subjects. All this is available both at school and at home if you have access to the internet.

Take a look and let us know if you find this helpful or if you have any suggestions for new topics or websites that you have found useful.

Amnesty International Youth Group

Amnesty International Youth Group

The Cumnock Academy Amnesty International Youth Group will meet for the first time this term on Wednesday 12th September at 1.10pm in the LRC.

If you are in S4, S5 or S6 and are interested in Human Rights and want to make a difference this is a good place to start.

For more information speak to me in the LRC or visit Miss Simpson in the Modern Studies Dept or Miss Gemmell in RE.

Find out more about Amnesty International by checking out www.amnesty.org

Reading Club

Reading Club will kick off for the new term on Tuesday 28th August from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Anyone with a keen interest in books and reading is vey welcome to attend. Transport home or a bus pass extension can be arranged for those who live further afield.

Last year we had a great time getting involved in reading activities, creating displays, shadowing book awards, organising events and generally having fun. This year should be even better!!

If you have any questions please speak to me, Ms Colquhoun in the LRC or to Miss Sharpe in Rm1.01.

I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!

Welcome Back!!

I hope you all had a fun, if not very sunny, summer. But as always it's great to be back!

This summer was a particularly exciting one for Harry Potter fans, of which I most definitely am a big one. The week before Deathly Hallows was released I decided to re-read both The Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince. My life was completely taken over, and it's possible I began to confuse reality and the world of Hogwarts, especially as I saw the new film that week as well! But i'm glad I did my revision. As always with JK Rowling, the clues were in the little details, and i'll very smugly say that I was right about a couple of big things in Deathly Hallows. Obviously i'll not discuss the plot here, but I thought it was a great book. What did you think? I wont publish any comments that spoil things, so if you want to discuss the finer details please come and see me in the LRC.

I've also just finished reading Garth Nix's Sabriel. I've been meaning to read this for years and now that I have I wasn't disappointed. I did feel it got off to a bit of a slow start, but it wasn't long before the adventure and magic really got going. I think i'll need to read the rest of the trilogy.

So what did you read over the summer? What was good and what is best avoided? Post a comment and let us all know your recommendations.

Wee Review of the Month

Star-Crossed by Rachael Wing

STAR-CROSSED is the perfect book for all the girly girls out there. It is a simple read with the right amount of imagination but your feet are kept firmly on the ground by its realism.

The main character is Jen Anderson who loves Shakespeare's play Romeo And Juliet. She has always dreamed of playing the character Juliet so when her English teacher tells her class the school will be putting on a performance of the show, she's thrilled.Better still, she thinks all her dreams have come true when she auditions and gets the part. Then she learns that her worst enemy, Chris Banner, has been given the part of Romeo.

At first she is determined to hate him because of the history between their families, but then her teacher tells her that there is a fine line between love and hate.In the book Jen constantly asks herself: does she love or hate Chris? If she loves him, does he love her? How will their families take to the news of their relationship? This is a well-written book by a young author who has conveyed how young people really feel about school and how students act differently in school.

Every issue written about in the book had the right amount of detail and emotion.

Review by Kirstin Bell, S3

East Ayrshire Reader's Cup Final 2007: WINNERS!

After class heats, school finals and a lot of practice, today was finally time for the Grand Final of the East Ayrshire Reader's Cup. Eight teams met in reigning champion Loudon Academy's assembly hall to take part in what turned out to be a very closely fought and exciting competition.

The first round, 10 questions on Horror books, was very tight with all teams getting either 5 or 6 points. Things got quite exciting after the Heroes and Heroines round in which Auchinleck Academy got a fantastic 10 out of 10! At this point Cumnock and Auchinleck were neck and neck, with reigning champs Loudon only one point behind. After the Pets round and 10 Lucky Dip questions Cumnock had a very slim lead of one point over Loudon. All was to play for in the final round of 10 questions on popular Scottish author Catherine MacPhail -at this point nearly every team had a chance to win.

The room went very quiet as we waited for the final scores to be appear on the big screen -some of us hid or head in our hands! But the room erupted with a chorus of Ooohs as it became clear that the competition was not yet over. Cumnock and Loudon had drawn on 36 points with Auchinleck guaranteed 3rd place on 35. This meant a tie-breaker question was needed.

The Cumnock and Loudon teams sat side-by-side awaiting the all important question, and when it came it was certainly not easy. The winning team would have to name Sephy's Nought friend from Malorie Blackman's book "Noughts and Crosses". Cumnock team member Ruth edged her arm in the air but changed her mind. If anyone got the answer wrong it would automatically be offered to the other team, so everyone had to be very careful. Then Cumnock captain Jenna raised her hand, then lowered it, raised it and lowered again before finally with confidence she told the room that Callum was Sephy's friend. She was right!

So Cumnock Academy are this year's champions. Congratulations to Jenna, Ruth, Holly and Korin.

Well done to everyone who took part, it was certainly an exciting afternoon.

Many thanks to the staff and pupils of Loudon Academy for hosting the final and making us all very welcome, and to East Ayrshire Library Service for presenting the cup.

Wee Review of Month

Review of “Samurai” by Jason Hightman

So… basically dragons are real - and not nice in the least. They prowl around the planet in the guise of humans causing disease, famine and the occasional plane crash - if they’re bored. They feed on the suffering of humans, and are generally unfriendly.

Simon St Gorge (the descendant of the Englishman himself) and his father hunt the dragons. Accompanied by the magician Alaythia they track them down and slay them in elaborate battles with machine-gun crossbows. But, Alaythia discovers she had become a liability and can reveal their whereabouts to all of dragon kind. She leaves in the night and the Dragonhunters chase her to Japan where they discover the Samurai and fight The Japanese Dragon in the most far-fetched battle yet - spanning several chapters.

But the Dragon of Japan has an ace up his sleeve…

The story in essence is really good. All I needed was the sadistic dragons to give it an edge, but they way it’s told was slightly disappointing. At the start it seemed disjointed; it was fast-paced like he was writing on a time limit. This carried on in the book a bit with the writing lacking depth. Descriptions were sparse; there was a lot of plot and not much detail. The book seemed, to me, to be in a rush to get to the next fight scene. However, the fights were suitably face-paced and exciting. The enemies were perfect, evil and cruel and each had an interesting, individual character with their own quirks. Shame the protagonists couldn’t have the depth the baddies had.

The book feels like anime. Elaborate, drawn-out fights with shallow characters and Samurai with suction-cups up their sleeves. But of course this formula works very well as we know and the book is gripping and fascinating by the end.

Chris Stevenson, S6

Have you read this book, want to comment on Chris's review or have a review of your own you would like to see here? If so just click on the comment link below and let me know, or come and see me in the LRC.