New Books

Welcome back to Term 2 - which has been already been as busy as Term 1 was.  Which is a good thing.  Our enrollments are up and we have lots of enthusiastic students and teachers.

Things have been busy in the library as well.  A new selection of fiction books has arrived from Standing Orders and are now ready for loan and most of the new books have arrived for the Lee Cook Collection and are almost ready to be borrowed. 

The Lee Cook Collection came about when one of our staff members died and left the library a legacy in her will.  The decision was made to have a small, separate collection stocked with books covering Lee's interests, which were diverse.   So we have books on cooking, cake decorating, gardening, paper crafts, costume making and so on.  We have just finalised the purchase of these books and they should all be out and ready for loan in the next week or so.

We received a wide selection of books from Standing orders this time - mystery, horror, war, family...... lots to choose from.

Below is a small blurb about a couple of the books.  Come in and have a look, maybe borrow a few.

'Inheritance' by Lisa Forrest:   Genre: Horror

"Will an ancient gift determine her future?"

Tallulah has always known that she was different.  She can communicate without speaking, a secret she shares only with her childhood nanny, Irena - who warns her that gifts like hers are not always welcome.

When Tallulah starts training at the prestigious Cirque d'Avenir school it soon becomes clear that the troup is not at all what it seems to be.  As she is drawn deeper into a world of dark ancient powers and centuries old greed, she must call on all the skills she has been taught - and on the protection of a mysterious bracelet she was given. 

But what is the secret of the power of the bracelet - and why are people prepared to die to keep it?

'Evan's Gallipoli' by Kerry Greenwood:     Genre:  War

" An unlikely friendship and an incredible journey"

Fourteen year old Evan Warrender travels with his father to the Dardenelles, when they intend to provide help and suport to the Allied soldiers.  When they are captured by the Turks, they are launched into an epic journey - living on their wits and the kindness of strangers as they escape through Turkey, back to Greece and finally home to Australia.

Along the way they meet unlikely friends and companions, some of whom have deep secrets - and when Evan's own secret is revealed, we realise just how truly incredible the whole journey has really been.

I have placed this one into War genre - but it could just as easily be put into Diary genre, as it is written in diary format.

Library Lessons and End of Term.

Year 7 Library Lessons are now over and I hope the classes learnt some skills that will help them with their research. I am noticing lots of Year 7s using the Dewey decimal chart to help them find information

They have spent some time learning how to use Boolean Operators to refine their web search, how to take notes and how to evaluate the Web sites that they find. 

I think the highlight of the note taking class was learning how to turn one piece of A4 paper into an 8 page notebook!

Boolean Searching is a big part of being able to easily find information on the Web as it helps to refine the search down to just what is needed rather than having millions and millions of sites to look through. If they remember nothing else, hopefully they will remember how to do this.

The fun part of this lesson was the Research Frenzy game where the class was in teams competing to see who could answer the most questions in a set time. Each team started with either books or computers and then swapped over halfway through so they could try both methods.  At the end of the lesson, the jury was out as to whether computers or books were better - I think it came down to how well they could use the encyclopedias as to which they preferred.

We also had a few teams trying to break the record set by last years class in this activity.  Whilst they didn't manage to set their own record, they did draw equal with last year's group, so well done.

With the end of term approaching, enjoy a relaxing break - and make sure you find the time to kick back with a good book and READ.  What better way to spend your break?