Every year we like to offer a reading challenge for our Y7 students who have a fortnightly Reading Lesson with Mrs Gibson. But this year, we thought while we were about it, we should broaden the challenge to include ALL KS3 students who receive a regular Reading lesson.
The challenge is called Riveting Reads, and is based upon the nominated titles for the annual Carnegie Book Award. A judging panel of children’s librarians read titles nominated by their colleagues in the autumn and publish a Long List of 20 in February and a Shortlist of 8 in March. The winner is announced in June. We have long been a part of the Shadowing process which involves school Reading Groups across the country. Our group of 40 Y7-10 students read the same 8 shortlisted titles as the judges and debate amongst themselves as to which they think should win. It is always interesting to see if we agree with them, and we are looking forward to the new Shadowers’ Choice Award when it won’t matter so much because our favourite will also be recognised.
Anyway, back to the challenge! By backtracking to the list of nominations (we have stocked 84 of the 137 titles) we have a much larger selection of books:
Mystery, adventure, gritty realism, retelling of folk tales and myths, fantasy and several novels written in verse. There should be something for everyone.
There are two levels to the challenge, if you decide to take it:
- Read one of the nominated titles and complete a review on the reverse of your bookmark. We will be giving out fortnightly sweetie prizes for the top reviews.
- Read as many as you can between now and Easter to be in for a bigger prize (likely to be an amazon voucher) to see if you can spot the titles which will appear on the Shortlist.
All Reading Lessons have been introduced to the challenge and the book collection, and first signs are great with over 150 issues since the start of term! Most books have already been borrowed, with several already read by a number of students. We have a pile of reviews to read, and we are hoping to get them reproduced on this blog for everyone to read. They may inspire you to pick up something you wouldn’t normally consider.
Let us know how you get on!
Riveting Reads 