LIBRARY NEWS

Children’s Book Week is in progress! The ‘Book of the Year: Older Readers’ is Neverlanders by Tom Taylor and the ‘Book of the Year: Younger Readers’ is Runt by Craig Silvey – both books are available to borrow from our library. We also have shortlisted books; Completely Normal (and other lies) by Biffy James, The Other Side of Tomorrow by Hayley Lawrence, and What We All Saw by Mike Lucas.

In keeping with this year’s theme (Read, Grow, Inspire), we are encouraging students and staff to think about books or stories that have inspired them, or had an impact on them in some way, and asking them to contribute to our ‘tree’ (see below).

(The library’s Book Week display)

We have had some very inspiring leaves added to the display:

From Fern Knight (7N) – ‘The Book Thief (by Markus Zusak) is an inspiring story about a girl living in WWII. It’s about how she pushed through. It inspires me because I am German and this young girl is like me. It shows her ups and downs and is a really sad but uplifting story.’

From Axl Hart (7N) – ‘D-Day (by Bryan Perrett) inspired me to research about WWI and WWII, and I even reached out to my family to learn about some of my ancestors who were soldiers in these wars.’

From Luke Salmon (7M) – ‘Jurassic Park (by Michael Crichton) inspired me to love dinosaurs and to want to become a paleontologist.’

Last Friday we held our Make a Book in a Day activity. Twenty-eight students in five different teams from Year 7 planned, wrote, edited and illustrated a book from scratch.

(Students participating in the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ activity. Left to Right: Daisy Lambert, Bonnie Mills, Aika Vick, Hazel Oppenheim)

(Students participating in the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ activity. Left to Right: Conor Quirke, Asher Watts, Callan Watt, Luke Cunneen, Owen Wright, Jack Katos)

(Students participating in the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ activity. Left to Right: Eloise James, Kayla Chandler, Ella Boyce (back left), Chloe James (on the floor), Bella Bath (back right), Demid Shchadin, Rosie Fuentes)

(Students participating in the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ activity. Clockwise from front: Farhana Amusa, Parneet Kaur, Miranda Linton, Elyse Poke, Violet Croucher, Leo Mundy, Zoe Hodge Macavaney)

(Students participating in the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ activity. Left to Right: Evelyn Branson, Abby Alexander, Tania Vaisy)

On Tuesday we held the book launch for Make a Book in a Day. Each student received a printed and bound copy of their book and a certificate of participation. Thank you to Mr Baker (acting principal) for hosting!

(Students at the ‘Make a Book in a Day’ book launch)

Library staff are currently recruiting for the Year 8 Readers’ Cup competition which will be held in Term 4. We are looking for students to represent each house.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is closing soon – we are aiming to have participating students verified by Wednesday 6th September. Students who have completed the challenge will receive a pizza lunch and go in a prize draw early next term.

There have been some new additions to the ePlatform (see below). The link is: https://belmonths.wheelers.co/ otherwise students and access our eBooks and audiobooks via the LibGuides home page, just look for this icon:

New additions to our eBook collection include:

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

The First To Die At The End (They Both Die At The End prequel) by Adam Silvera

This Woven Kingdom (This Woven Kingdom series #1) by Tahereh Mafi

These Infinite Threads (This Woven Kingdom series #2) by Tahereh Mafi

The Butterfly Assassin by Finn Longman

The Raven’s Song by Zana Fraillon *2023 CBCA shortlisted book for younger readers

Bindi by Kirli Saunders *2021 CBCA shortlisted book for younger readers

Fall of the School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil series) by Soman Chainani

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

New audiobooks include:

The First To Die At The End (They Both Die At The End prequel) by Adam Silvera

A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses series #3) by Sarah J. Maas

Star Wars: The High Republic: Quest for Planet X by Tessa Gratton

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

World’s Worst Teachers by David Walliams

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Unbreakable by Jelena Dokic

True Spirit by Jessica Watson

In Week 6 we held the prize draw for the Women’s World Cup Guess the Winner competition. We had 100 entries! 1st prize was won by Aidan Dudding (11V) who was the only one to pick the winner! (Spain) – congratulations to Aidan who won $9 in caf vouchers! 2nd prize was won by Simeon Choo (12G) who had the runner-up (England) – Simeon won a $3 caf voucher and a SLAM Skateboarding cap. 3rd prize was won by Luke Schmidt (12R) who had the third-placed team (Sweden) – Ryan won some chocolates!

(Left to right: Aidan Dudding (11V), Simeon Choo (12G), and

Belmont High School Newsletter

No.13

Issue 13 · 01 Sep 2023

In this issue