Library

It feels good to say that 2022 has been a much more settled year than the previous two. School life has returned to the ‘new normal’ and many activities and events have been able to resume.

READ UP! KINGSTON

We participated in the Read Up! Kingston shared reading project again, with a copy of the same book being given to all incoming First Years to read over the summer holidays. The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter is a heart-warming story about a boy with a stutter who wants to become a stand-up comedian. When asked what they thought about the idea of a shared reading project, students were very positive. Arjan Cheema said: “I liked it because it meant that everyone had something in common when starting a new school.”

In October we were lucky enough to welcome the author to KGS. Helen delivered a wonderful talk and workshopped some fiction ideas. Judging by the wildly inventive ideas that the students came up with, there are certainly some budding authors amongst them!

Our second author visit of the year was from Catherine Johnson, whose book, Sawbones, was studied by some of the First Years. Catherine spoke about her writing process and her particular interest in historical fiction, as well as the importance of diversity in children’s literature. She entertained us all with fascinating stories about body snatchers, the swashbuckling ThomasAlexandre Dumas and the dangers of surgery in 19th century London! FIRST YEAR PROJECTS AND READING CHALLENGES

Anya Taylor was presented with this year’s Library Project Prize for her inventive and innovative investigation into Women’s Blind Football. After her well-researched presentation, she invited two volunteers to play on her fantastic homemade fußball table. The catch? The players were to be blindfolded so that they could experience what it might be like for the players to play football without being able to see! Of course, fußball is in no way the same as playing a team match on a pitch, but it did really help us all to think about what it must be like for the blind players and how much courage, conviction and skill they must all possess.

The Spring term saw the First Years face a reading challenge: read eight books and complete six challenges, including writing a book review, designing a book cover and writing a short story. The end of the Summer term culminated in a lively game of bingo with top prizes being awarded to Matilda Pain, Rosie Sibley, Valerie Wan and Alex Young for achieving a full house! LIT QUIZ

With the annual Kids’ Lit Quiz on hold, this year we decided that we would form a team and get in some serious training so that we would be combat-ready for when it returns! Our Senior Student Librarians, Hannah Farrell and Maya Arwas, volunteered to take charge of the team training and what an excellent job they did.

After some team trials, we put together a small, but perfectly-formed, team of Sinead Ritchie, Anya Taylor, Isabella Marson, Amelia Mitchell, Alexandria Coen, Melody Moppett and Philippa Ivory. Training sessions included everything from classic children’s literature to Mr Men. Since there was no external quiz taking place this year, we decided that we would host a special end-of-year one in July open to all students. Despite Hannah and Maya having finished their GCSEs just days previously, the dynamic duo volunteered to come back into school to host it!

It was a great success and an enjoyable end to the term – and proved that all the training really did pay off since Isabella and Anya won! Fingers crossed that they will get to use all heir new-found literary knowledge next year.

LIBRARY DIVERSITY SCHEME

The School Captains met with the Librarian at the start of the academic year to discuss the diversification of the Library’s fiction collection. Along with the rest of the School Council, they had put together a list of recommendations that they felt represented a diverse school community. It was pleasing to see that we already stocked a number of the recommended titles, but it was agreed that we can always do better and the remaining titles were added to stock. Keywords and reading lists were added to the Library Catalogue to make it as easy as possible to find the new titles and the Library hosted a number of displays to promote the new books.

STUDENT LIBRARIANS

The hard work and dedication of our team of Student Librarians is something that we as a team value very highly. Their help is invaluable and an integral part of the success of what we can offer. This year saw more applications than ever, with interviews taking place before the end of the Summer term. We’re delighted to have appointed a large team for 2022–23 and are full of ideas to keep them all busy.

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WORLD BOOK DAY

To mark World Book Day we asked the Lower Sixth Prefects to name their favourite book, or a book they are currently enjoying reading, which other students might enjoy or be inspired by.

Unsurprisingly, a number of ‘classics’ appear on the list including, Homer’s Odyssey which is recommended by Alistair Anthony and charts Odysseus’ adventures on his journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Jacob Watkins recommends JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit which tells the story of Bilbo Baggins and is a prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Emma Stoner recommends Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Sachin Patel recommends HG Wells’ The Time Machine, whilst Silvia Greco recommends Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the classic comedy of manners featuring the Bennet family and its five daughters, with the parents determined that at least one of their daughters should make a marriage to a suitably wealthy individual so that the next generation can avoid destitution.

Tennis fan Faran Shaheen’s choice is Federer: The Biography by Chris Bowers which charts the story of former world number one tennis player Roger Federer and his journey from first picking up a racket to winning 20 Grand Slams. Also from the realm of sport, comes Gerrard: My Autobiography, which is recommended by Dan Roberts. This book charts the life of Liverpool and England footballing legend Steven Gerrard from growing up in Huyton, to leading Liverpool to victory in the Miracle of Istanbul in 2005 when Liverpool came from 3 goals down to defeat AC Milan in the Champion’s League Final. Daniel Fletcher, meanwhile, recommends The Life of Senna by Tom Rubython which charts the life of the legendary Brazilian Formula 1 driver, Ayrton Senna.

Oli Dawson named Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit as his recommendation. The author, Craig Oliver, was David Cameron’s Director of Politics and Communications at Number 10 and his book charts everything from the decision to hold the Referendum through to the campaign and the eventual result. Oliver considers, too, the factors which helped to determine the outcome of the Referendum and the ‘civil war’ which resulted in the Conservative Party once the result was known.

Maddie Sibley recommends Adam Kay’s best-seller, This is Going to Hurt. Based on Kay’s experience working as an NHS doctor, where 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you. Kay’s account is both hilarious and tragic and has now been made into a BBC TV series, starring Ben Whishaw. This book should be compulsory reading for anyone considering a career in medicine. In a similar vein, anyone considering a career in the law, would undoubtedly enjoy John Grisham’s The Reckoning which is recommended by Harriet Lannero.

Teva Hogarth named The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. This book is a dark and enchanting fantasy adventure for those who prefer their fairytales with a twist. Adam Nasir also chose a science-fiction/ fantasy novel, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. Continuing the theme of science-fiction and fantasy novels is Katie Monaghan who recommends Philip Pullman’s modern masterpiece, Northern Lights – from the His Dark Materials series of books.

Amelie Scott, Elsie Callen and Evie Hurn all chose JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series as their favourite books and I suspect the boy wizard needs no introduction to many of our students.

AWARD-WINNING BOOKS FROM THE PAST YEAR

October, October, Katya Balen Winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2022

The Last Bear, Hannah Gold Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2022

You Are a Champion, Marcus Rashford Winner of the British Book Awards 2022

Loveless, Alice Oseman Winner of the YA Book Prize 2021

The Promise, Damon Galgut Winner of the Booker Prize 2021

The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022

Ms F McBride, Librarian

Extreme Reading entries were as diverse as ever...