Teenage angst. Millenial paranoia. New-mother delerium. You’ll find them all in The New Girl by Harriet Walker. This book begins with a flashback: Someone is lying, prone and bleeding on the floor, between two teenage girls. I sighed a little when I read this because I have form with books which begin this way. I … More Review: The New Girl by Harriet Walker
Sheila O’Flanagan is the author of so many books it takes a whole page to list them, and has rave reviews from pretty much every publication. Despite this, and despite my appetite for fiction which is bordering on ravenous, The Women Who Ran Away was my first O’Flanagan novel. It certainly was promising: Two women … More Review: The Women Who Ran Away by Sheila O’Flanagan
Having thoroughly enjoyed Beth O’Leary’s debut, The Flatshare, it was with a shriek of glee that I found myself with a copy of her next novel, The Switch, in my hands. In fact,it’s a mark of just how much I enjoyed The Flatshare that I didn’t even listen to one second to that whiny voice … More Review – The Switch by Beth O’Leary
As a school librarian, I like to read YA and children’s fiction from time to time. I had not heard of Sam Gayton prior to winning my copy of His Royal Whiskers in a Goodreads giveaway, but I will now seek out his other books for our shelves. This is a sweet tale for youngers … More His Royal Whiskers – A Review
I’ve worked in my current school for nearly twelve years, albeit in different roles. The pupils in Year Eleven when I began my career are now in their mid-twenties. It is the general rule of secondary school that your pupils leave at 16 and you never hear from most of them again. In some ways … More University….or prison?
I was lucky enough to win this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It’s difficult to really give my opinion on this book because I can’t decide if I liked it or not. So maybe a list would help: Things I liked: -The book is set in, and describes the exploration of, Alaska. Previous to reading … More To the Bright Edge of the World
I’ve been considering how lucky I am lately, it never hurts in a new year to count your blessings. Firstly, I’m lucky to be working with young people. Not a lot of people would agree with me when I say that working with teenagers is great, but I love it. I’m doubly lucky because … More The Future of Libraries…Is There One?
I recently read this article which discusses the importance of speaking to children and how reading aloud can have massive benefits to literacy development. I find it sad but not shocking to read the statistics that parents on benefits speak on average 621 words per hour to their children, compared with the 2150 per hour … More Reading to children, a dying art?
I haven’t had too much time to blog since school restarted two weeks ago but now would be a good time to reflect on what has happened since then. Last year was incredibly difficult, with the school going into special measures after failing the Ofsted inspection; all the upheaval of a massive staffing restructure and … More Back to school
I came across this article today on the front-man of the band Elbow. Turns out he’s a big supporter of libraries and there are some magnificent quotes in that article. I particularly love the comment about libraries being somewhere we go to better ourselves, in whatever way that may be. I do think that we … More Libraries….So rock ‘n’ roll
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