Last update before the end of term..

Good news is that when we come back in August there will be a number of events for the Edinburgh International Book Festival running from the 15th to the 31st August. This will be online with live and pre-recorded conversations with poets and authors.  Details will be announced at the end of July and updates on the Edinburgh International Book Festival pages.

And this week's Fast Fiction at Scottish Book Trust is on the theme of a funfair (50 words max.) Closing date 23.55 on 30th June. Would love to have a winner from Armadale Academy!

Short Story Competitions.

Scottish Book Trust are running two 50 word short story competitions.

There is a new weekly challenge called Fast Fiction. This week on the theme of sewing. Closing date 11.55 pm on Tuesday 23rd June. A new picture and theme will be given next Wednesday.

And the monthly challenge is on the theme of fog. Use the picture for inspiration. Closing date is 30th June.

For further information and details of how to enter on both

 go to the Scottish Book Trust website.

Carnegie Medal winner

Carnegie Medal winner

Congratulations to Anthony McGowan who won the Carnegie Medal 2020 with his short novel  "Lark".

The themes of survival and connection with nature really resonated with the judges.

This is the fourth book by McGowan published by Barrington Stoke (Brock, Pike and Rook).  You will find them all in the school library in the super readable section at start of Teen Fiction.

"These books form an incredible body of work that eloquently explores the reality of growing up in deprivation, while also illuminating the potential for succour and healing that can be found in the natural world"

from the Barrington Stoke website.

Short story - Book Group

Calling all book group members. I have a short story I think we should read. It was on the BBC a few weeks ago so one or two of you may have picked it up already. By E, M, Forster it is called "The Machine Stops."

You can order it or follow this free online pdf link. The thing is, it was written in 1909 and here we are in lockdown 2020 living in what appears to be that reality.

It is a world where people choose to isolate, live at a social distance and communicate by video calls. Yep sounds familiar. Can we read for Wed 17th?

PUN OF THE WEEK

I feel the need for some light relief!

Dystopia: can we face reading more?

 This week I have taught myself how to use Sway by creating one on dystopian fiction as something which could be used for a book talk in the library.  Over the past decade the teen shelves have doubled in size mainly due to me acquiring new dystopian novels, as they have become ever more popular along with a growth in such films.  They offer a sense of adventure but more than that they focus on people who have no power taking on the authorities often in some alien future so unlike our own.

But as I was working on the Sway I wandered will dystopian novels be as popular now? Will teens still want to read about futures in pandemics or in worlds where authorities are controlling our every move? In this strange era where we all have to socially distance, are encouraged to go masked in shops and public transport  and when for much of the day there is barely a child to be seen on the streets, do we really want to read fiction that appears to reflect our reality?

Well a quick look at the Internet told me that apparently searches to purchase such books and films are as popular as ever. So why?  Caroline Zielinski in the Guardian says that light holiday fiction does not help when we don't know when we will be free to go out again - agreed. A number of commentators see our appetite for disaster books as a way to view the problems of our society through some sort of lens. It is not that we are looking at some specific catastrophic future reality but that it allows us a way to understand our reactions to our deepest fears. How would we cope in a crises? How do we understand what is going on when there are so many conflicting messages and getting to the truth is harder than ever? Now, more than ever, we need characters who have resilience: Katniss, Thomas, Saba, Offred they all stand out by standing up. There is something to admire and learn from all of them.  

 

Blood Red Road (Dustlands trilogy ) is one of my favourite dystopian novels so this gives me the perfect excuse to play a trailer from it.