Library Report
The annual CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Book Week has just finished and we have had an amazing time celebrating all things reading across the school. The library held several events across the week and competitions for both students and staff to be involved in.
In collaboration with the English faculty, a door decorating challenge was issued to staff. Designs were based on books, reading or this year’s theme ‘dreaming with eyes open’. The entries were fantastic and students are voting to decide who will be declared the winner.
Students are also able to take part in an art competition. They are creating an original character in any medium that would be right at home in a book or manga titled Dreaming with Eyes Open. This year’s theme also underpins the writing competition, with students either composing a piece of micro fiction (300 words or less) or poetry (maximum 30 lines) inspired by the theme. We look forward to seeing and reading all the amazing entries.
Each day of the week a new event was held in the library. On Monday students were able to attend Snacks & Stories, which involved a read aloud of the first chapter of one of this year’s CBCA honour books How to Repaint a Life by Steven Herrick, as well as an opportunity to quietly read a book of their own choice. A book swap was also arranged, students and staff were able to bring in preloved books of any genre and trade them for preloved books others had brought in. The range of books included fiction, manga, cookery books, history books, picture books and much more. This was available for the full week and was a great way of sharing and discovering some new reading material.
Tuesday saw students embracing their creativity in our Repurpose the Page event, turning ex-library books into works of art. These projects are ongoing and students will have more time over the next few weeks to continue to upcycle their chosen book through painting, drawing, folding, dismantling and re configuring.
Wednesday was our book-based trivia event. Six teams were in competition, including our previous Pride Month Trivia winners, and results were very close. The staff team, The Shakespeare Fan Club, made a strong showing on the day. The trivia ended with a tie breaker question, with two student teams having scored 32 ½ points each. The tie-breaker was based on Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and earned the team The Hamburburs the win. They received a book and snack prize pack, with the runners up team receiving a book prize.
Thursday was the much anticipated first ever Henry Kendall High School Cosplay event. We want to thank our amazing judges, Ms Fitzgerald, Mrs Eyrl and our student judge Ellanor Meese, for their work on the day. All of the entrants were phenomenal and the detail and effort put into their costume designs was commendable. The judge's decision was difficult, to award points they looked at the accuracy and detail of each costume and how students stayed in character to engage with them. All the participants are to be congratulated.
The winner was Ksenia Malysheva cosplaying as Mangle Maid from Five Nights at Freddy’s and the runner up was Phoenix Gritten-Krause cosplaying as a soldier from the 1944 Battle of the Bulge. We look forward to making the event bigger and better next year.
The reading raffle, where students and staff gain an entry each time they borrow, renew or return a book, was drawn on Friday. The winner was Lillie Patterson who selected a set of Harry Potter tumblers as her raffle prize. The raffle is ongoing and more draws will take place so we encourage all the members of our school community to utilise the library and its resources.
The books that were nominated this year for the CBCA Older Reader’s category are available to borrow from the library; we stock both physical copies and e-books.
Ms Shelley Klein
Teacher-Librarian HKHS