Book Group’s North East Book Awards

We shadowed the North East Book Awards and read as many of the books on the short list as we could.  At book group, we read a section of one of the books each week, and we talked about what we thought of the characters, the plot, the themes and the genre of each one.  At the end, we voted on which we thought was the best.

Gill Lewis’s Gorilla Dawn won by 5 votes!

 

Reasons to Read a Book

 

Here are some of our top reasons to pick a brilliant book:

• An intriguing blurb
• If you have enjoyed the Author before
• If you want to try a new genre
• If it was recommended by person who likes the same genres as you
• If the front cover catches your eye
• If it is linked to you in some way

An Intriguing Blurb

An Eyecatching Cover

Another book by an author you love

Book Group – Our Books This Term

This term we’ve decided to each choose our own book rather than everyone read the same book together.  We are going to create a booklet all about our book, its plot, setting, characters and what we liked about it.

These are the books people have chosen:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Pale by Chris Wooding

The Last Wild by Piers Torday

The Deadly 7 by Garth Jennings

Titanic 2020 by Colin Bateman

Checkmate by Malorie Blackman

Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle

Paper Towns by John Green

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 

Listmania – Year 8 Book Group’s Top Books

The most frightening book I have read:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Lewis)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Leon, Josh & Alex)

The Dead by David Gatward (Ben)

The funniest book I have read:

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (Max)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Josh, Alex, Ben)

Tim Vine Jokes (Leon)

Captain Underpants series (Lewis)

The saddest book I have read:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Lewis)

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Leon)

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (Ben & Alex)

Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Josh)

Marley and Me by John Grogen (Max)

The book with the most surprising ending I have read:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (Max & Lewis)

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (Josh, Leon & Alex)

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Ben)

The best book I have ever read: 

Stand By, Stand By by Chris Ryan (Leon)

The Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle (Lewis)

The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney (Ben)

The Children’s Quick and Easy Cook Book by Angela Wikes (Alex)

Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan (Josh)

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (Max)

What do we feel when we read?

I asked everyone to give an emotion which they feel when they are reading the book, and then some reasons why they feel like that.

Lewis is reading Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle

Emotion I feel: pity

I feel like this because:

You feel sorry for Charlie as he gets bullied.

His mum never lets him do anything.

He has no friends so he has no one to tell about his hobby.

Chas is reading The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie

Emotions I feel: anticipation & hope

I feel like this because:

Nothing happens at the beginning

I’m always thinking that the boy will find or write for his parents to come back.

Max is reading The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie

Emotions I feel: trepidation & anticipation

I feel like this because:

Will the Emporium be saved before it falls down?

You feel like “Surely they will win” but then you don’t know.

I want to see how it ends.

Declan is reading Lockwood and Co by Jonathan Stroud

Emotions I feel: anxiety & excitement

I feel like this because:

of the way the book is written, with medium length chapters.

the book uses suspense.

Alex is reading Fantastic Mr Fox

Emotions I feel: upset and sorry for Mr Fox

I feel like this because:

I was super scared for Mr Fox when they camped outside his house.

I shed a tear when they shot off his tail, because it would have hurt him and his family saw what happened to him.

Josh is reading Lockwood and Co by Jonathan Stroud

Emotions I feel: impatient

I feel like this because:

the character development is slow.

Emotions I feel:interested

I feel like this because:

the plot is really in depth.

Ben is reading Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl

Emotions I feel: excited & emotional

I feel like this because:

You can’t wait for something to happen

The farmers won’t stop trying to kill them and get outsmarted.

I was upset by what happened to Mr Fox.

Leon is reading Standby, Standby by Chris Ryan

Emotions I feel: Waiting for Something to Happen

I feel like this because:

I know what will happen because it is the army and it’s a soldier’s autobiography.

Prequels and Sequels

At Year 8 Book Group we’ve been looking at plot and what a story needs to have to make it work.  We have talked about how most stories have these four elements:

Setting – the background to the story, where it’s set and what has happened so far.

Problem – the issue the characters have to sort out.

Climax – how this comes to a head.

Denouement – what happens in the end.

We’ve been thinking how the plots of the books we have read recently fit into this pattern.

Today we used our model of how plots work to make up our own plots.  We thought about books we like or have read recently and tried to think of the plot of a book which could be a prequel or a sequel to it.

These are some of the ideas people came up with!

The Lord of the Rings Sequel by Ben

The ring of power lands on a ledge. Sauron’s cousin takes over the world and eats Frodo. Sam discovers and bow and a black arrow and then shoot Sauron’s cousin in the heart and kills him. Sam tells Frodo’s family and gets money for killing Sauron’s cousin.

 

Wonder Prequel by James

When August was born, what he was like before surgery. August has facial deformities and his parents don’t know what to do.

 

Wonder Sequel by Lewis

August become a teenager. He fancies Summer but Summer fancies Julian. Julian comes back to school but becomes nicer and starts hanging out with August. August becomes suspicious and tells him mum. His mum becomes over-protective and stops him from going to school. Julian goes to August’s house to see what is wrong. They become very good friends. Summer goes out with August.

 

Code Name Verity Prequel by Leon

Julie’s plane crashes in France. She is lost and doesn’t know how to convince people she is German. She gets knocked over by a truck because she forgets that cars drive on the other side in France. She is captured.

 

Agent 21 Prequel by Declan

Mother and father actually employed by Michael, spying on “Calaca” in Lagos. They find out that Calaca is going to kill someone. They find the man and warn him. Calaca finds them in the guy’s house. He chases them and they escape. They go to the Intercontinental. Calaca slips poison in the drinks. Everyone dies. Calaca flees.

 

Wondering: A Wonder Sequel by Will

He gets sick of people telling him he looks different so he wants to travel the world to find a perfect place to live. But he doesn’t know where to go. So he travels around. He then finds someone else like him, falls in love and lives there forever.

 

 

North East Book Awards 2015

This is the short-list for the North East Book Awards 2015.

Arsenic For Tea by Robin Stevens

Schoolgirl detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are at Daisy’s home for the holidays. Daisy’s glamorous mother is throwing a tea party for Daisy’s birthday, and Daisy’s eccentric family are all invited. Then one of their party falls seriously, mysteriously ill – and everything points to poison.

With furious storms preventing anyone from leaving, or the police from arriving, it suddenly feels like a very dangerous place to be. No one is what they seem – and everyone has a secret or two. And when someone very close to Daisy looks suspicious, the Detective Society must do everything they can to reveal the truth . . . no matter the consequences.

Find out more here.

 

The Piper by Danny Weston

 

 

A haunting and moving story as something sinister from the past reaches out to two children evacuated to Romney Marsh in the Second World War. Newly arrived from London, Peter and Daisy are taken to Sheldon Grange. It’s a lonely place set deep in the Marsh and they are warned not to explore on their own. The house is full of strangeness and soon Daisy is drawn to the haunting music she can hear at night and to the children dancing to it. How can Peter keep her safe?

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood and Co)

 

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in…

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood.

When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again…

Find out more here.

The Nowhere Emporium by Ross McKenzie

 

When the mysterious Nowhere Emporium arrives in Glasgow, orphan Daniel Holmes stumbles upon it quite by accident. Before long, the ‘shop from nowhere’ — and its owner, Mr Silver — draw Daniel into a breathtaking world of magic and enchantment. Recruited as Mr Silver’s apprentice, Daniel learns the secrets of the Emporium’s vast labyrinth of passageways and rooms — rooms that contain wonders beyond anything Daniel has ever imagined. But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. Can Daniel save his home, and his new friends, before the Nowhere Emporium is destroyed forever?

 

Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle

All my life I’ve been tiny Charlie from the Chinese Chippie, whose only friend is Sinus, the kid who stares at walls. But I believe that everyone’s good at something. I’ve just got to work out what my something is… Charlie’s found his secret talent: skateboarding. It’s his one-way ticket to popularity. All he’s got to do is practice, and nothing’s going to stop him – not his clumsiness, not his overprotective mum, nothing. Except Charlie isn’t the only one in his family hiding a massive secret, and his next discovery will change everything.

 

This Term’s Book Groups

After a bumpy start, Coates Library is proposing to run two book groups this term, one for Year 7 and one for Year 8.  We will follow the North East Book Awards shortlist.  Details of that to follow.  Anyone interested in joining the book groups, come and sign up in the library or add a comment here

Year 8 Book Group Spring 2015

Next half term we will be choosing a book from the following list:

THE WEIGHT OF WATER Sarah Crossan

Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother head for England. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother’s heart is breaking and, at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat.

A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL Roddy Doyle

Twelve-year-old Mary O’Hara is the youngest of four generations of strong Irish women. Mary’s mother Scarlett is more than a match for her and her grandmother Emer would be, if she weren’t dying in hospital. Her great-grandmother Tansey is the feistiest of them all – and she’s dead. But then Tansey’s ghost arrives on Mary’s doorstep with a very special mission, to take a midnight road trip back to the past…

 

MAGGOT MOON Sally Gardner

A ruthless regime is determined to beat its enemies in a race to the moon. But when his best friend Hector is suddenly taken away, it is up to unlikely hero Standish, his grandfather, and a small band of rebels, to confront and defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of the Motherland.

WONDER R. J. Palacio
Born with a terrible facial abnormality, shy, bright ten-year-old Auggie Pullman has had countless operations and has been home-schooled by his parents for his whole life. Now, for the first time, Auggie is being sent to a real school, exposing him to the stares and cruelty of the outside world – and he’s dreading it. Through the voices of Auggie, his big sister Via, and his new friends Jack and Summer, Wonder follows Auggie’s journey through his first year at Beecher Prep.

IN DARKNESS Nick Lake

In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, Shorty, a teenage boy, is trapped beneath the rubble of a ruined hospital, thirsty, terrified and alone. He has been drawn into the gangster world but he harbours a secret: a flame of revenge and a burning wish to find the twin sister he lost seven years ago. Shorty’s fires burn so bright he forges a link with Toussaint l’Ouverture, the Haitian rebel who led the slave revolt two centuries ago. Together they must face their own darkness and find the strength to survive.

MIDWINTERBLOOD Marcus Sedgwick

A story that spans hundreds of years, Midwinterblood tells the story of Eric and Merle who have loved and lost one another and who have been searching for each other ever since. In the seven different interweaving stories, the two appear as lovers, mother and son, brother and sister, artist and child, as they come close to finding each other before facing the ultimate sacrifice.

CODE NAME VERITY Elizabeth Wein
Only in wartime could a stalwart lass from Manchester strike up a friendship with a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a special operations executive, both serving during WWII. It’s not long before they become devoted to each other. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends is captured by the Gestapo. Now a prisoner of war, the story begins in “Verity’s” own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

 

This is the shortlist for the Carnegie Award from 2013 – all book blurbs were taken from their website.

Year 8 Book Group January 2015

After voting from a list of 6, we’ve chosen our books for this term’s Year 8 Book Group.  The are:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Noble Conflict by Malorie Blackman

Next week we will interview each other asking, “How effective is the beginning of the book?”  and “What do you think will  happen next?”.