Yr 5 and 6 Book Club

Book Club children have chosen ‘The Land of Roar’ by Jenny McLachlan as their book for the spring term.

Book Club @ Waterstone’s in Liverpool One

Friday 26th April saw 29 members of Book Club spend a very enjoyable afternoon at Waterstone’s Liverpool One book store. Children spent about an hour browsing the shelves and reading blurbs and making choices and talking about books and generally being very excited about reading.  It was a joy to see.  Once choices had been made, the children spent time in the store’s cafe – where cakes, brownies, hot chocolate (and cheese and ham toasties !) were enjoyed and a good gossip was had by all.  The children (as usual) were impeccably behaved.  There were lots of lovely comments from Waterstone’s staff, members of the public and a visiting German primary school teacher.

Book Club children have chosen ‘The Girl Who Speaks Bear’ by Sophie Anderson as their book for the autumn term.

Sophie sent the children a message:

Hello Malvern Book Clubbers!

Book Club children have chosen ‘The 1000 Year Old Boy’ by Ross Welford as their book for the spring term.

Book Club meets every Thursday lunch time.  The children eat their lunches while chatting to friends – and then read some of the chosen book, make recommendations and talk about books.  At Book Club in the autumn and spring terms, the children enjoy hot chocolate and biscuits – and in the summer term, it’s lolly ices!

A Message from Ross Welford

Book Club children read:

‘A Place Called Perfect’

by Helena Duggan

as their book for the summer term.

Book Club children at one of their first meetings of the autumn term.

Book Club children have chosen ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ by Robin Stevens as their book for the summer term.  Robin sent the children a message:

Dear Y5 & Y6, thank you for choosing Murder Most Unladylike as your book club book! I wrote it because murder mysteries are my favourite type of story. They are so scary and so interesting, but also very safe and fun. But I started reading murder mysteries when I was twelve, and could never find characters like myself in the books that I picked up! I wanted a murder mystery where children were the detectives, and so I created Daisy and Hazel. They go to a school that might seem quite different to yours, but is really very similar. Every school has lots of secrets and surprises … and every school is full of very suspicious teachers! I really hope you enjoy reading Murder Most Unladylike, and solving Miss Bell’s murder!

Kate Pankhust

On Tuesday 24th April, Year Five and Six Book Club children visited Huyton Library for an author event. Kate Pankhurst (author and illustrator of the ‘Mariella Mystery’ stories) talked about her new book ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Made History’ – and signed children’s copies.  Kate is quite well known to many of our children because she has visited Malvern on two occasions in the past.  The article (above) appeared in the June 2018 edition of ‘The Challenge’ free newspaper.

A New School Year for Book Club

Book Club children have chosen Eva Ibbotson’s ‘Journey to the River Sea’ as their book for the new school year.

About the book:  It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at thirteen, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey.

Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson’s highly colourful, joyous adventure.

Katherine Rundell (author of ‘Rooftoppers’ and ‘The Explorer’) has sent a message to the Book Club children…..

Journey to the River Sea is one of my favourite books; it has everything you could possibly need in an adventure. It has orphans, secret identities, boats, actors, dogs, music, books, fire, glass eyeballs and giant sloths: and, most of all, the Amazon rainforest. 

I loved it – it’s one of the reasons I went to the Amazon myself, which led to my own book about Amazon exploring – and I hope you love it too.   Best wishes…..Katherine Rundell.

Book Club children…..ready for a ‘Journey to the River Sea’!

Book Club @ Waterstone’s

On the afternoon of Tuesday 16th May, 30 members of the Y5 & Y6 Book Club visited Waterstone’s in Liverpool One.  The children’s section of the store was thoroughly explored and exciting titles selected.

The staff at Waterstone’s kindly provided activities for the children to do during breaks from browsing.  At the end of the afternoon, Cody (from Waterstone’s) gathered the children together for a story time.  Everyone enjoyed listening to the opening part of Jacqueline Wilson’s new novel: ‘Wave Me Goodbye’.

The children brought lots of exciting new books back to school.  In fact, many couldn’t wait to get back – and started reading in the minibus !

A big ‘thank you’ to Sarah, Cody and all the staff at Waterstone’s for making us feel so welcome.  The day after the visit, Sarah and Cody emailed school to say:

‘It was lovely to have you all here – what a great bunch of pupils you have.’

And our book for the summer term is….

‘Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase’ by Jonathan Stroud

At their first Book Club meeting of the summer term, the children voted for the first in Jonathan Stroud’s ‘Lockwood & Co.’ series of books.  Here’s a flavour:

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .

A new term and a new book for our Y5 & Y6 Book Club.

The children have chosen ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’ by Louis Sachar as their book for the Spring term (2017).

Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’ won the John Newbery Medal in 1999.  (The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.)

The Y5 & Y6 Book Club meets between 12.00noon and 1.00pm every Thursday lunch time.

Louis Sachar (who lives in Austin, Texas) kindly sent a message to the Book Club children.  The children have glued his message to the inside of the front cover of their books.

Here’s what he said:

Dear Liverpudlians, (I love that word!),

Our Y5 & Y6 Book Club had its first meeting on Thursday 15th September (2016).

The children have chosen ‘My Brother is a Superhero’ by David Solomons as their book for the first half of the autumn term (2016).  This book won the 2016 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize.

The Y5 & Y6 Book Club meets between 12.00noon and 1.00pm every Thursday lunch time.

David Solomons kindly sent a message to the Book Club children.  The children have glued his message to the inside of the front cover of their books.  Here’s what he said:

Hello Malvern Primary School lunch-time book clubbers !

I hope you’re enjoying your lunch. What are you having ? It looks delicious. Thanks for choosing My Brother is a Sandwich. Superhero. (It’s all that talk of lunch.) Lots of novels for children are about the Chosen One, a boy or girl destined to save the world from some great evil. I thought it was about time for a book (actually a series of books) about the Not Chosen One. How would you feel if you missed out on your greatest wish, only for it to be granted to someone else ? That’s what Luke Parker has to come to terms with. Or not. I hope you enjoy the story and I leave you with one thought. Mr Kynaston seems to be a perfectly mild-mannered Assistant Head, but is he ? Let’s just say you never see him and Batman in the same classroom…                                                                  David Solomons (19/9/16)

All say, ‘Hot chocolate !’ – Book Club children after reading the first chapter of their new book.