Library Bingo

Get your stamps at the ready, Library Bingo has arrived at Arthur Holt Library! This is a great way for students to extend their borrowing across our huge range of genres and take up the challenge of reading beyond their comfort zone.

While we won’t stop anyone from choosing books from their favourite genres, why stop there? What about listening to an Audiobook through the Bolinda app, reading a book with a female protagonist, or even tackling a whopping 300+ page read? Not only will your brain thank you for broadening its horizons, but you’ll increase your vocabulary and improve your writing skills. And as if that wasn’t incentive enough, recording five books on your Bingo card entitles you to a Library Departmental Award.

So how do you get involved? It couldn’t be easier:

• Grab a bingo card from a librarian and check out the book categories,
• Borrow, read and finish a total of 5 books, each from a different category,
•  Get a Departmental Award! 

Library Bingo will run until the end of the semester, so there is plenty of time to rack up those points and collect awards. Not sure where to start? Check out the posters on the windows in the Lounge for some suggestions. Reading has just become even more satisfying - is that even possible?

Ms Yates and Mrs Paterson

We Got These Hats!

Along with the Junior and Preparatory School Libraries, the Arthur Holt Library participated in National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday. NSS aims to promote the value of reading and literacy amongst young Australians in a unique way - every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in schools, libraries, bookshops and other locations across the country.


The book for this year was I Got This Hat by Kate and Jol Temple with illustrations by Jon Foye. The illustrations appeared on the big screen as our School Captain John Bechara read the story to a crowd camped out on cushions including a Year 3 class, the AHL Monitors, teachers and librarians. Everyone was encouraged to wear a hat and there was no shortage of interesting headwear to look at. Thanks to everyone who participated in this feel-good event to highlight the importance of books and reading!

Your Ultimate Reading List! Part 3

Still looking for things to read? Here we have Mrs Paterson's picks. You'll recognise themes of survival, power, and destiny running through all these books. The characters in these stories overcome fear, learn the importance of curiosity, and search for truth. 

1. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Not long after Lyra Belacqua witnesses a plot to poison her uncle, the adventurer Lord Asriel, her friend Roger is kidnapped by the "Gobblers". These events lead Lyra on an epic adventure that enters parallel universes and spans three amazing books! 

2. The invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 
Orphaned Hugo lives an anonymous life within the walls of a train station, until his biggest secret is jeopardised by his relationship with the cranky old man who runs the toy repair booth.

3. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak 
Liesel Meminger is a nine-year-old girl living in Nazi Germany during World War II. Her family hide a Jewish man named Max, who teaches Liesel to read in secret.

4. The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon
When Christopher Boone discovers the neighbour's dog speared by a garden fork, he decides to investigate the dog's death and record his experiences as a murder mystery novel.

5. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Young Pi Patel survives disaster at sea only to find himself sharing the lifeboat with an assortment of zoo animals, including a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Do You Dystopia?

Stories not about your happy place.

Dystopian fiction. It’s not a new phenomenon (1984, Z for Zachariah, The Giver) but it certainly seems to be having a resurgence. As a genre it’s a little bit like a virus, an appropriate comparison because so many dystopian storylines feature one. As we all know a virus replicates and spreads, which is pretty much what has happened within the genre since The Hunger Games was published in 2008.

So it's a really popular genre, but how do you identify a dystopian novel? It is probably set in one of many possible futures or deals with the end of civilisation as we know it. It may point to the possible results of a disturbing world-trend - dangerous reality television, worsening climate change, extreme plastic surgery, Belieberism. 

While it may make you anxious about the way humanity is headed it may also fill you with hope for it - the hope that people will work together to find solutions to these problems before it’s too late. Here’s to getting it right before we are forced to go all Sci-Fi on each other and set off to find another planet we can call home.

Below are some reviews of dystopian fiction that we've recently read. If these books fuel your dystopian fire, check out our reading lists Speculative Fiction and Dystopia for more like this!

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Reviewed by Mrs Paterson

I really can’t say anything about this story without giving too much away, so I’ll just say: this is one of those unstoppable pandemic dystopias, where everyone dies from some unrelenting virus and no one can stop the dying and soon there are just a handful of people who haven’t died or are not dying. And some of them perform Shakespeare for the dwindling, non-existent masses because "survival is insufficient". The story moves back and forth through time, weaving together seemingly disparate people and things: the lives of survivors, the histories of the departed, a mysterious comic strip and a bizarre cult. But that’s really all I can say.

So if I can’t give you even a shred of coherent storyline, why should you read it? Because ultimately this is a story about hope and beauty and human resilience in the face of extreme none-of-those things. And it is about the power of memory, and the importance of remembering. I loved this story. And i highly recommend that you read it. Just don’t do what I did, and start getting pneumonia while you’re reading about fevers, coughing, and dying. Not good...

Themes ticked: global pandemic, post-apocalyptic, decline in the fabric of society, set immediately after the catastrophe, survivors as the main characters

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Reviewed by Mrs Klein

Bill Masen is disappointed when he misses out on the greatest light show ever because he is in hospital recovering from an eye operation. What he doesn’t know is that everyone who has seen the light show is blinded. When he removes his bandages the next day, he also finds that the Triffids, plants that can walk, have escaped their compound. Everyone had forgotten about the Triffids “because they were novelties”. What they had also overlooked was that “the whorl topping a Triffid’s stem could lash out as a slender stinging weapon ten feet long, capable of discharging enough poison to kill a man if it struck squarely on his unprotected skin.”

So there you have it – a world of blind people at the mercy of rampaging carnivorous plants – the stuff of nightmares! I still can’t see a strange plant without being reminded of this book.

Themes ticked: catastrophic event, rampaging carnivorous plants, decline in the fabric of society, set during the catastrophe

Clade by James Bradley

Reviewed by Ms Herlinger

Set in the near future, with global warming worsening with each year that passes, Clade is a loose collection of episodes in the life of a family - set against a background of a world in peril. Beginning with power cuts, bird die-offs, progressing to tropical cyclones in England, refugees from flooded lands, a global pandemic,  technology to replace lost worlds and lost people, it could be depressing, but it’s not. It’s just a fascinating glimpse into a possible future world – if we don’t act now.

Themes ticked: environmental disaster, global pandemic, decline in the fabric of society, set during the catastrophe

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Reviewed by Ms Agnostopoulos

Thomas wakes up in dark box that is slowly moving upwards. He has no memory of how he got there or who he is. All he knows is his name. When the box gets to the top Thomas enters The Glade, a field surrounded on all sides by a mile high wall. The Glade is populated by other teenage boys who have also had their memories stripped. Some have been there for 2 years, with a new boy arriving once a month. The box also brings some supplies, but the boys have to work to survive. They tend crops, raise animals and keep the place in order, but their main objective is to escape the maze that is outside the stone walls.

Within the maze are monsters called Grievers who mostly come out at night - mostly. Each night the doors to the maze close. Overnight the walls of the maze change, and each day ‘runners’ explore the maze and return to map out the changes. After two years they have still not found an exit. A couple of days after Thomas arrives the box brings someone else to The Glade - a girl in a coma. In her fist is a note that reads ‘She is the last one ever’. Thomas gets flashes of his memory back and soon realises that her arrival signals the end for The Glade. It is time to finally solve The Maze and find out why they were put there in the first place.

Themes ticked: catastrophic event, decline in the fabric of society, set during the catastrophe

Your Ultimate Reading List! Part 2

Another five books, this time from Mrs Klein.

1. The Sword and the Scimitar by David Ball
Tags: siblings, slave markets, sultans, knights, sieges
2. Two Brothers by Ben Elton
Tags: brothers, Nazis, Jewish, Berlin, WWII
3. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Tags: ambition, brothers, builders, cathedrals, Henry I
4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Tags: Belgian Congo, jungle, missionaries, families, tragedy
5. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Tags: Bombay, beggars, gangsters, slums, underworld 

If you want to find out any more about these titles, come and ask!

February 14 is Library Lovers Day!

Love is in the air! The Arthur Holt Library is celebrating Library Lovers Day by offering staff and students a blind date with a book! Visit us this week to choose something from our pile of specially wrapped books.

Go on, take a chance! Imagine not needing to worry about outward appearances - no famous authors, no catchy titles, no intriguing blurbs, no attention-grabbing cover designs. It's just you and the story, and the thrill that this really could be the one...

Hooray for New Books!

What's better than getting new books? Not much really. Have you heard this old saying? 

"You can't buy happiness, 

but you can buy books which is kind of the same thing." 

Never a truer word was spoken (or in this case, written). Although, you could substitute the word "borrow" for the word "buy" and get pretty much the same outcome. So perhaps there is possibly one thing better than getting new books, and that is finding out your Library has got new books.

And look! Here they are!

Watch out for them - they'll be on the shelves soon.

Mrs Klein’s Top Horror Stories

After finishing Horrorstör the other day, Mrs Klein remarked that although she does not prefer the horror genre, she sure is surprised by how many horror stories she has read.

Here is a selection of her favourites:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who creates a creature from parts of dead people. After the monster is rejected by Frankenstein, he seeks his revenge. Published in 1818, the story of this lonely and rejected creature still remains one of the saddest stories that I have ever read. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker
First published in 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker is where the horror story really began. The story of a Vampire with an insatiable thirst for blood - preferably by sucking it from the neck of young ladies.

Vlad : the last confession by C.C. Humphreys
Not really a horror story but is based on what is known about Vlad Tepes (Vlad The Impaler) the 15th century Prince of Wallachia, known as Dracula. After reading this story, I have great sympathy for this man who was betrayed, imprisoned and tortured yet managed to be a great ruler. It is also a great story about the Crusades and gives an insight into the mind of the man who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Lots of battles.

The enemy by Charlie Higson
This is a world where everyone over the age of fifteen becomes a zombie. In this world without responsible adults, it is up to a group of kids to band together to survive in a lawless London. Lots of exploding corpses and gory scenes!

The prey by Andrew Fukuda
This is a world which has been taken over by creatures who farm humans for their meat. Their desire for human flesh is so strong that the people in these farms need to be kept under a dome during the night to prevent them from being eaten. Gene has lived incognito with these vampire-like creatures all his life but when he reaches puberty, his smell become life-threatening so he must escape. If you want to read something which is truly scary then this is the book for you! The Prey is the first book in “The Hunt” trilogy.

Hunter and collector by S. Carey
Don’t be fooled into thinking that this short story is a book for little kids. When the Alien (Mrs Hunter) chooses William she thinks she has found the perfect prey but everything is not as it seems.

Horrorstor: a novel by Grady Hendrix
If you have ever been lost in Ikea you will know how scary this can be. In Horrorstor, a group of people volunteers to stay overnight in the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio because mysterious things have happened during the night.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Yet another vampire story where the vampires have kept their true identity hidden. When seventeen-year-old Bella goes to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets a boy in her science class who appears to be repelled by her but surprise, surprise, he’s hiding a dark secret. Read it to find out what makes Edward so attractive to girls and why this novel went on spawn the paranormal romance genre. But don’t watch the movie - It’s dreadful!

Mrs Klein

Do you have a favourite horror story that isn't listed here? Share it with us below!

Long Live the Bookface!

If you are familiar with the Library’s Instagram account, you have probably noticed a weekly phenomenon – the Bookface. Every Friday a photo appears of one or two Trinity students, their faces fully or partially obscured, strategically lined up alongside a book cover featuring the matching part of the face. That is really all there is to it!

Except that, as is the way when it comes to social media, it is by no means all there is to it. The photos have become more complex; torsos, arms, legs and even whole bodies are now included. The aim is to make it all merge seamlessly and create an instant piece of art. The worldwide trend to add #bookfacefriday to these photos is allowing libraries everywhere to show their fun side online, and it has become insanely popular.

Our #bookfacefriday posts are our most popular on Instagram, sharing the stage with many other Bookface images from libraries and readers around the world. The weekly planning and execution of the Bookface photo has been embraced by our students. They seem to capture the imagination and reflect the sense of curiosity that we hope all boys experience here in the Library. So if you do not follow us on Instagram, please do and tap into the wonderful world of the Bookface!

tgslibrary on Instagram