Library News

This Week’s Reads

Kindergarten - are continuing to delve into narrative stories and this week will be reading two books from Gabriel Evans, ‘Norton and the Bear’ and ‘Norton and The Borrowing Bear’. We’ll be talking about how it’s OK to like the same things as our friends (or not!) and also what we can and can’t share. They’re fun books and students always love to draw new outfits for the two characters.

Tully did a great job drawing one thing that was real/non-fiction and not real/fiction in last week’s story, ‘Scary Night’.

Stage 1 - sorry families, but we’re talking persuasive language this week, which could mean some of your children trying these new techniques out on you. I did make them promise, no pet giraffes or tigers though. We’re reading ‘I Need a Parrot’ by Chris McKimmie where a little boy decides he absolutely, 100% cannot live without a parrot until he gets one.

Harlow came up with a great way to catch a monster after reading ‘How to Catch a Monster’ last week.

Stage 2 - Classes are enjoying learning about how to search for a variety of genres on SORA (the e-library). It’s rewarding to see students say they enjoy a particular genre, and be able to search for books within that genre and borrow them; it’s music to a librarian’s ears! And Stage 2 are busy completing their ‘genre Croc’- here are some progress shots.

Stage 3 - this week, Stage 3 is beginning to take a closer look at graphic novels, particularly learning what features are called, like gutters, frames, and panels. In the coming weeks, they’ll also be looking at text features and character design. One of the key learnings in this unit though is that graphic novels are not a genre, but a format of book.

Graphic Novels & Manga

Have you read one yet? That’s right, a graphic novel! Without a doubt, this format of books are the most borrowed books in the library and data is showing it’s not just in school libraries either. Sales of graphic novels, especially Manga, have seen incredible growth. According to Nielsen (which analyses international book sales), sales of Manga rose 86% from 2020 to 2021 and they’re on track to repeat it again this year.

Despite the number of students who love these books, often there’s a reluctance from some adults to encourage their child to read them as they’re not perceived as ‘real’ books. These books require a good understanding of visual literacy techniques and to be able to tell a story with a lot fewer words than a traditional text is an incredible skill. Year 7 English classes are studying a manga unit and realising there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye! Plus, reading them backward (ie: right to left) is harder than it sounds.

Keep an eye out for these new manga books about to hit the shelves.

Secondary Lunch Times in the Library

It’s been great to see that the secondary library crew is growing and students are enjoying their time in the library. From board and card games, to reading manga, colouring, chess, and just a chat, the library has been the place to be last week.

Guest Readers

Last week, we welcomed three very special guest readers to the library. Year 7 students Layla Mair, Kadie Sayer, and Flo Black read Dreamtime stories they created in English to KS. I got to sit back and enjoy being read to and students really loved the experience too. It's not easy being in front of a crowd but the girls did a great job and KS asked some excellent questions too.

Scholastic Book Club

A big thank you to the families who ordered from the last Book Club of the year, it was finalised last week. Orders can take a couple of weeks to process so they should be here soon.

New Books!

We're so lucky to have new books available for our students that come from the Armidale Catholic Schools Office, our Scholastic credit, and books paid for by our school. This week a number of new books and series will hit the shelves, ready for our students to borrow.