Blue Peter Award Shortlist Announced

Check out the BBC page for more info:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16066528

The Grey Coat Hospital's Top Ten Authors for Autumn 2011

1. Jacqueline Wilson - 288 loans

2. Malorie Blackman - 111 loans

3. Louise Rennison - 94 loans

4. Cathy Cassidy - 92 loans

5. Meg Cabot - 88 loans

6. Robert Muchamore - 74 loans

7. Agatha Christie - 70 loans

8. Mary Hooper - 66 loans

9. Michael Morpurgo - 62 loans

10. Sophie McKenzie - 59 loans

These are the top ten, but I was pleased to see that Charles Dickens was in the top 30, having been borrowed 27 times.

Other honourable mentions go to:

David Almond (21)

EM Forster (19)

Judy Blume (17)

JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Kazuo Ishiguro (9)

Sebastian Faulkes (8)

Interactive E-Books

Check out these videos about interactive E-books. Is this the sort of thing you imagine the library having in the future?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FPqqA712Rs&NR=1

http://fwd.channel5.com/gadget-show/videos/challenge/21st-century-author-vs-comic-book-full-challenge 

Trailer for the Hunger Games Released!

The trailer for the Hunger Games film is now available to watch on Youtube (see the link below). It looks awesome! It's not out until March though, so there is plenty of time to get excited, and read (or re-read) the books!
What are you opinions on the actors they've picked?

British Library Exhibition: Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination

A new exhibition at the British Library showcases 150 of the best illustrated manuscripts from their collection.
If you can't make it along to the library itself. Check out their website for online images from the exhibition and from some of their other manuscripts.
http://www.bl.uk//whatson/exhibitions/royalman/about/index.html

The British Library have also created an app for those of you lucky enough to have iphones, android phones or ipads which you can download (it costs £2.99) and enjoy more images and information.

The 10 best fictional women dressed as men

Check out this link to the article from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/28/ten-best-women-dressed-men
What do you think? Are there any other good examples of cross-dressing women in literature?

National Short Story Week

This week is National Short Story Week - a week celebrating the varied and exciting medium of the short story. You can get involved by reading short stories - there are loads available from the library - or writing them. Click on the image above to go to the official website.

If you are in Years 7 & 8 you can enter the National Short Story Week competition. Write a 1000 word story (roughly 2 sides in size 12 font) entitled "The Choice" and you could be in with a chance to have your story recorded by an actor, plus other exciting prizes. Speak to the librarians for more information.



National Novel Writing Month

Fancy a challenge?
The Novel Writing Month is November and the aim is to begin writing on November 1, and to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.
Quick!  You're 4 days behind!
Why not try - at the very least you'll have done some writing...
http://www.nanowrimo.org/whatisnano

We'd love to hear who is going for it - add a comment to let us know.

The Librarian

J K Rowling Confesses She Nearly Killed Ron

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2011/oct/31/jk-rowling-ron-weasley

New Alyson Noel Series

Fans of paranormal romance will be pleased to hear that Alyson Noel (author of The Immortals Series) has penned a new series of books. The new series, entitled Soul Seekers, will begin with the novel Fated due to be published in May 2012. An image of the American cover has been released (see below).

Check out her website http://www.alysonnoel.com/ for all the latest info.

Welcome to the GCH Library Blog

This is the first post on the GCH library blog - very exciting! We shall be posting book related news, views and events to keep you up to date with the world of books and fiction. We will be typically focusing on teen fiction, featuring a lot of your favourite authors; but we will be posting about adult fiction and authors too! Please get involved by commenting on the posts and giving us feedback about the sort of things you would like to see more of.

Grey Coat Librarians