World Book Day Events!

To celebrate World Book Day there will be some exciting events going on in London.
Tomorrow, 1st March, at the Apple store in Covent Garden Malorie Blackman, Sophie MacKenzie and Charlie Higson will be doing a live event! See http://www.worldbookday.com/ for more info!

Dickens and London Exhibition

In honour of Dickens' bicentenary the Museum of London are putting on an exhibition until the 10th of June exploring Victorian London: the city that inspired most of Dickens' work. Tickets must be bought in advance, and you should hurry because they are selling out!
For more information see: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/Dickens-London/Default.htm?gclid=CMKIoqiKvq4CFSMLtAodrQqpFw

The Museum of Childhood

The V & A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green has a fabulous collection of toys and games from throughout history. Over half-term they have various displays on the theme of fairy tales, as well as free fairy-tale themed activities every day. This would be a really good thing to take a younger brother or sister to, and you could encourage them by reading fairy tales to them from one of the many books we have in the library!

Imagine - Children's Literature Festival

Over half-term and the following week the Southbank Centre in London is hosting a children's literature festival. Some events are free and some you have to buy tickets for, it features many interesting contributions from authors such as Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon) and McKenzie Crook.
For more information or to book tickets see this website:
http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/imagine-childrens-festival

Calling All Art Lovers!

Check out this website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/
It is building up a database of images of all 200,000 oil paintings that are in the public collection, which will feature works by 40,000 artists. You can browse the pictures, find information about the artists and even contribute to the site by tagging objects in the paintings.

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)