Halloween Poetry – some scary verse

halloweenPic2The American Poetry Foundation, regular sources of inspiration for our library, has a great collection of poetry for Halloween assembeld here.

A range of styles, poets, cultural backgrounds and historical references – from Louise Gluck to Edgar Allan Poe and Christina Rosetti.

Could you read out aloud poetry about Goblin Markets or the Song of Witches, then take a quick click trip to this page at the Foundation and see some great Halloween poems, courtesy of Becca Klaver.

Happy Halloween, happy reading…

Summer Reading Challenge 2012

Can you read six books over the summer holidays?

The Summer Reading Challenge for 2012Your local libraries are running this great challenge for children aged 4 – 11 years over the summer of 2012 – watch out for Story Labs events during the summer months.

All you have to do is read six books over the holiday. Libraries taking part are linking their promotions to some great events and there are prizes too!

The trailer below tells you more…

You can see more about the Summer Reading Challenge on the web pages of The Reading Agency here.

There are 97% of the  libraries in the UK sharing the event – so there’s bound to be one near you and your family.

Happy summer reading…. 

We Give Books – read online and give…

wegivebookLogoThe We Give Books web site is a great tool for children, families and carers to share a good book together and do some good.

A project by The Pearson Foundation, We Give Books is based on a very simple idea. Just go to the web site and read a book online. When you have finished you will be asked to submit your email address and the Foundation will donate an actual book to their current projects across the world.

Totally brilliant! The Pearson Foundation should donate their one millionth book this week. Why not add your book to the enormous pile already been given away.

We often take our resources for granted, with the simple act of reading a book and having that book available to read, often way out of reach for millions of children.

We Give Books is one way to alter the balance, to make great books for others more readily available.

After confirming your email address as part of the process you can then volunteer to formally join the We Give Books programme for regular updates, special book offers and project news.

We Give Books – help contribute to the lives of so many other people.

World Book Day: 1st March 2012

World Book Day is nearly upon us for 2012. You can find some great resources on the The World Book Day web site for children of all ages.

This year you will soon be able to download a free World Book Day ‘app’ from the appStore – with exclusive short stories from Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and a whole load of other authors too.

There are all the usual resources for children, schools and libraries from the World Book Day website – with activity sheets, lesson plans and news about the latest books – for Nursery and Pre-school, Primary and Secondary school children too.

This year you can watch some great trailers and and see authors talking about their books too.

You can also enter a Design a Bookmark competition, with prizes for children up to 8 years, 9-12 years and 13-16 year olds.

worldbookdaypicSmall

Don’t forget you can use your World Book Day voucher to get some great books for just a Pound from a participating bookshop.

Get celebrating the book together – the World Book Day website is a great place to start!

Lion, witches and audio

You can find an entire audio book reading of The Chronicles of Narnia online.

Located on a faith based U.S. web site, you can listen on-line or download the entire series to your computer. The books are read by an English academic, based in America, and the download web site offers you a chapter list, so that you can keep track if you use the site for on-line bed time stories.

This is another way to keep the Narnia stories fresh for another generation, or just a new way to revisit old favourites.

The Chronicles were written by the writer C. S. Lewis, between 1949 and 1954, developed as stories to portray Christian ideals to children. The stories have endured, however, for children of all faiths and ages. You can read more about C.S. Lewis here…

Whatever age you are, this is a great way to re-engage with Witch and the Wardrobe.

You can listen to a  sample opening chapter here… 

Get all the chapters as MP3 audio files here. 

Lunch Bites in Kings Lynn

sandwichPic44Kings Lynn library have just introduced a new March 2012  initiative – Lunch Bites.

Why not visit the library with your lunch, if you are busy. You can sign up as a member, or if you already belong, find a quiet corner to select a book and have your break.

Lunch Bites, what a great idea.

Libraries could also introduce after school ‘Read and Rest’ sessions, making best use of a quiet corner or reading den in a library space.

What about having a ‘Saturday Space’ in a library, a corner dedicated to weekend reading together for families. (The events could be themed, or linked to the curriculum of local schools).

Get imaginative in your library during March. You can see the Kings Lynn Library opening times here.

Penn Sound – poets broadcast

phongraphPicThe University of Pennsylvania has a terrific archive of modern and contemporary poets available to hear on their PennSound pages.

Whether you are interested in hearing Paul Auster read from The Red Notebook from a few years ago, or to hear W.B. Yeats read The Lake Isle of Innisfree in 1932 – they are all here.

Across the whole A-Z of the catalogue there are some great and challenging recordings to be heard. Be confronted by Kathy Acker or mesmerised by the lilting musicality of Zhimin Li reading his Non-Presence works in his native tongue.

PennSound – a fantastic resource for lovers of poetry, history and the human voice.

Kings Lynn Poetry Festival

poetryPic55This year’s Kings Lynn Poetry Festival will soon be upon us.

At the Town Hall in Kings Lynn on 23rd to 25th September – this year’s programme includes some stellar poets.

Matthew Sweeney, Wendy Cope, Elaine Feinstein and Alan Brownjohn amongst many others.

You can see potted biographies and details of the poets on the Kings Lynn Poetry Festival web pages.

You can buy advance tickets from the contact here – or purchase on the door. You can see the programme details and venue times on the festival website.

Why not get poetical next weekend?

Get a poetry App!

iPhonePoetryPicThere is a poetry app from The Poetry Foundation available for free on the AppStore.

If you want to read some great poetry on your mobile device, or to choose a specific poem to suit your mood or location then this is the app for you.

You can read poetry from Eliot, Neruda, Emily Dickinson and many others. You can use the app to search for your favourite poem by keyword or phrase too.

The US based Poetry Foundation web site is a great resource for poetry in the English language. See their home page here.

There is a debate that mobile technology will do away with the printed book. That children, wholly adapted to the e-world, will no longer value the bound and printed text. What do you think?

If you think the book is dying, use our contact us page to send us a message at the Marham Community Library.

We don’t think so, but we’d like to know what you feel about the matter?

Sam’s Selection – featured author this month

stiegLarssonPicStieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå.

He is best known for writing the “Millennium series” of crime novels, which was published posthumously. Larsson lived and worked much of his life in Stockholm. he died suddenly at the age of 50 from a heart attack, after climbing seven flights of stairs at his office because of a broken lift.

At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death.

The first was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor (“Men who hate women”), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005. His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006. The third novel in the Millennium series, Luftslottet som sprängdes (“The air castle that was blown up”), published in English as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, was published in the United States in May 2010.

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird has produced film versions of the Millennium series, co-produced with The Danish film production company Nordisk Film and TV company, which were released in Scandinavia in 2009.

Stieg Larsson acknowledged that a significant number of his literary influences were American and British crime/detective fiction authors.

Topping the list were Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth George and Enid Blyton. One of the strongest influences originates from his own country: Pippi Longstocking, by Sweden’s much-loved children’s author Astrid Lindgren. Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually fashioned on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as he chose to sketch her.

You can watch an interview online about Stieg Larson and the publishing phenomenon he became on the Charlie Rose U.S. website.