Library Bytes

2024 Library Year starts ...  

Check out the hub this year with a ranges of activities, competitions, entertaining displays, and student clubs, and reading sessions for Year 7 groups. Students have a great space to unwind, relax, study, read or flip through magazines/graphic novels and allow their imagination to transport them.

The library welcomes the chess club again and students may use our giant chess set.

Watch out for new fiction coming in 2024.

Check out the new displays ...

Delve into Books ...

We have some great new titles in our collection. If you have a request for a title, author or series, please let us know.

Snuggle up with a book and discover a myriad of great stories that entertain and offer a glimpse into the world surrounding us.

Sponsored inspirational thought: 

2024 Insight Creative Writing Competition 

Calls budding writers from Years 7–12

Enter Now!

Here is a reminder of the guidelines to help you get even more creative with your entries. 

• All year levels have an upper limit of 1400 words. There is no minimum word limit.
• Creative writing forms like short stories, including poems, scripts and more are also accepted. 
• This year’s theme (Beauty in the unknown) is optional; entrants have the freedom to write about anything that inspires them.

To download the submission form and view all conditions of entry, please click below.

DOWNLOAD CONDITIONS OF ENTRY AND SUBMISSION FORM

COMPETITION KEY DATES

Entries open: 18 March 2024

Entries close: 1 September 2024

Longlist announcement: 18 October 2024

Shortlist announcement: 1 November 2024

Awards ceremony: TBA

New Books!

Compass and Blade  

By Rachel Greenlaw

Mira is a wrecker who plunders wrecked ships beyond the Isle of Rosevear. The waves sing to her, they call her into deeper waters. One evening when lightning splits, Mira’s father is taken away.

Mira must set off to win back her father’s freedom. In the process she encounters two strangers and discovers a dark family secret; Mira finds that securing her future will come at a high price …

Gus and the missing boy

By Troy Hunter

Gus Green, a true crime fan has always felt out of place. Gus is his mum's primary carer, overweight, gay, and with only two real friends: Kane and Shell.

Gus's life takes a turn when he finds a missing persons website with a digitally aged picture of a missing boy who looks like him. Could he be a kidnapping victim? It would explain a lot about his patchy background, but what would that make his mum - his kidnapper?

Investigation reveals more questions than answers. 

Look me in the eye

By: Jane Godwin

Best friends Bella and Connie live on the outskirts of the city that is changing as the suburbs creep closer. The pandemic lockdowns have lifted and the teens are eager to explore their newfound independence. But with the world opening up, there has been a rise in surveillance, from apps that track their movements to voice recorders and hidden cameras. It feels like everyone is watching them. 

Look Me in the Eye is an intriguing tale of young teens navigating freedom and trust-building, privacy and secrets, in an era of parental surveillance.

Sisters of Swords and Shadow

By: Laura Bates

An epic Arthurian fantasy where Cass dreams of freedom and not an arranged marriage. Cass doesn’t hesitate to join the Sisters of Sword and Shadow - a group of female knights training to fight, protect their community and right the wrongs of men. Drawn into a world of ancient feuds, glorious battles, and deadly intrigue, the novel explores questions about power, courage and the stories of the past.

What they told me

By: Hayley Lawrence

Elliott and her family have lived in the house of a thousand storms by Crooked River all her life, with her best friend, Drake, just a kayak ride downstream. But one ordinary evening, Elliott’s parents tell her some shattering news and Elliott realises they are no longer lucky. Has it all been a lie?

Elliott stands to lose all the places and the people she calls home. A tale of loss and love.

Somewhere in the deep

By: Tanvi Berwah

Krescent Dune is used to fighting monsters on her island, but she's unprepared for the monsters lurking in the deep in this new South Asian-inspired fantasy.  

Krescent must pay her dead parents' debt. The only way she can earn enough money to escape her unforgiving island is by fighting monsters in underground fighting pits. She's never lost a match, until now.

The Invocations 

By: Krystal Sutherland

Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider - that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave - even trading in the occult.

Challenges with the cursed, demons and deadly power leads to desperate alliances to hunt a killer.

Celebrating International Women's Day

Students were encouraged to browse the library's collection for inspiration!

Bookshop Models on Display

We are fortunate that we can all enjoy the models assembled and donated by a talented Patterson River Secondary College parent. 

Friday Movies @ the Library

Students will have the opportunity to watch films during Friday lunchtimes.  Watch out for the nextfilm reveal on Teams and Compass!

State Library of Victoria Events

Solace

Date: Exhibition runs until 10 October 2024

Cost:  Free

Location: State Library Victoria

Escape the city bustle with Solace, a multi-sensory experience inspired by State Library Victoria’s rooms, corridors and quiet corners.

Explore a mini library of interactive sensory artworks curated by collaborating artists, streamed directly to your device.

Listen to whale song at the Redmond Barry Reading Room 

Follow the white rabbit through bookshelves and squeaking chairs in the iconic Dome, and enjoy comfort and imagination.

Solace is free to stream at the Library. Stay for a moment or for a while.

Bring headphones and a charged mobile device. 

World of the Book

Date: Until 12 May 2024 

Cost:  Free

Location: Dome Galleries, Level 4 The Dome, State Library Victoria

Follow the rise of the beloved book in this one-of-a-kind exhibition on the history of book design, production and illustration, from the Middle Ages to today.

World of the Book features more than 300 rare, remarkable, and significant items in the State Collection. Uncover their unique stories  and celebrate the unique place books have in our hearts and minds.

Discover books on astronomy from as far back as 336 CE, the world of shadow puppetry and artist books designed to be literally unreadable.