Medicine for the Soul

Book Club visit to see Melina Marchetta

jennylu — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:23:15 +0000

Members of the Toorak College Book Club visited the State Library of Victoria on Sunday the 14th of March, to hear Melina Marchetta talk about her latest novel, ‘The Piper’s Son‘. It was a discussion session, artfully facilitated by Penni Russon, a young adult writer (and blogger!). Thanks go to The Centre for Youth Literature for organising the event.

What was most fascinating for me was Melina’s revelation that she did not complete secondary schooling. She left at 15, feeling intimidated by higher achieving students. She said she felt ignored as she lingered in the middle, neither here nor there, but certainly not a favoured student, not recognised for having talent. A remarkable revelation from an award winning Australian author who now writes for a living on a full time basis.

What she did do when she left school was to read voraciously, explore what she was passionate about, and begin the writing of what would become ‘Looking for Alibrandi‘, a hugely successful young adult novel that has adorned many a school’s book lists and been made into a motion picture.

Melina also discussed her work as a teacher for a ten year period. Obviously, she did not let her inability to complete secondary schooling stop her from pursuing an academic career. I often talk with my students and discuss the fact that there are many pathways you can take to the achievement of a goal; an enter score is not necessarily the be all and end all of one’s existence.

Thanks go to Emily for finding out about Melina’s visit to Melbourne, and encouraging us to take the trip to Melbourne on a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Australian Poetry Slam ’09

suemi61 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:44:27 +0000

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?

You’ve got 2 minutes and a microphone, Victoria, so slam it!

Speak, scream, howl, whisper or sing your original poem at the Victorian heats of the Australian Poetry Slam ’09 – an electric live event where the audience is the judge.

HEAT:

FRANKSTON - Tuesday 29th September

STATE FINAL:

State Library of Victoria – Thursday 12th November

Got something to Say?

Victoria’s top two slam poets will battle against state and territory winners for the coveted Australian Poetry Slam ’09 title (and $5000 cash) at the Sydney Opera House in December.

For details, visit slv.vic.gov.au/goto/poetryslam , or search Facebook or Twitter for AustPoetrySlam.

Readers’ Cup 31st August – 4th September

natashag09 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:30:14 +0000

Monday 31st August – Lunchtime @ Your Library

Launch Readers’ Cup
Activity – Creative Task

Tuesday 1st September – Lunchtime @ Your Library

Table Decoration

Wednesday 2nd September – Lunchtime @ Your Library

Quiz Final – teams compete for Readers’ Cup.

Thursday 3rd September

Favourite Book Swap – Gold coin donation for The Indigenous Literacy Project

Friday 4th September – Lunchtime @ Your Library

Readers’ Cup - Presented to winning team
Judges award Creative Task & Quiz winners – prizes awarded!

Book Safari – Book Week 24 – 28 August

natashag09 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:40:13 +0000

Take an exciting journey during Book Safari Week in the Library.

Monday, 24 August

Book Lotto - borrow a book and get a lotto ticket for it. The more you borrow, the more chances you have of winning!
Banned Books competion - see the display and guess a banned book against teacher’s names. Find out how at the Library.
Movie ‘Madagascar’ – showing at lunchtime.

Tuesday, 25 August

Writers’ Club Short Story/Poetry Competion - creative writings will be displayed and winners are announced at lunchtime.

Wednesday, 26 August

Great Debate “Harry Potter vs Twilight” – Mary Herring Hall during Tute and Lunchtime.

Thursday, 27 August

Lunchtime Quiz - smarter, quicker, brainier - battle between Baby Boomers, Gens X, Y and Z. Treats for all!

Friday, 28 August

Book Lotto and Banned Books competion winners will be announced!

Movie ‘Madagascar’ – showing at lunchtime.

See you in the Library!

Stay tuned for Readers’ Cup Week 31 August – 4 September 2009.

Just can’t get enough…

natashag09 — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:27:14 +0000

You know how you sometimes come across a movie you can watch over and over again and not get tired of it? “Twilight”, for instance, one of my friends watched it for 7 times!!! or Harry Potter’s saga…

What about you – what movie you like to watch over and over again? Take the polls and let us know.

The CBCA 2009 Short List announced

natashag09 — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:38:55 +0000

The CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Short List was released a month ago. The books included in each of the categories is decided at the Judges’ Conference after extensive discussion and by a secret ballot by the Judges. The Short List usually has six titles in each category. The categories are: Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Books and Eve Pownall.

Book of the Year – Older Readers Short List 2009:
Cornish, D. M. “Monster Blood Tattoo Book Two: Lamplighter”
Eaton, Anthony “Into White Silence”
French, Jackie “A Rose for the Anzac Boys”
Marchetta, Melina “Finnikin of the Rock”
Moloney, James “Kill the Possum”
Tan, Shaun “Tales from Outer Suburbia”

For the short list in the other categories visit CBCA. The winners of the awards will be announced on Friday 21 August, at the beginning of Children’s Book Week, which runs from 22 to 28 August, 2009, under the theme ’Book Safari’.

You also can vote for the best book in Older Readers category by taking the poll – it will be interesting to see the jugdes’ verdict in August compared with the results of the poll.

Why tap when you can talk?

suemi61 — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:30:36 +0000

Vlingo

Vlingo is a voice-powered user interface that unlocks access to mobile phone wireless data services. vlingo for iPhone™ and vlingo for BlackBerry smartphones allows users to speak into their device and have many popular applications carry out their respective functions. This includes dialing your phone, sending an email or SMS, creating and saving a memo or task, opening a web browser and performing a web search, composing a social-networking status message and more.

Follow the links above and check out the video below to find out more information .

Get Involved! Join the Indigenous Literacy Project

megandavies — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:50:28 +0000

This year our school has the opportunity to participate in the Indigenous Literacy Project which is a partnership between the Australian Book Industry and The Fred Hollows Foundation. The Project aims to help address the current literacy crisis in remote Indigenous communities.
Illiteracy in many of these communities is a common and critical barrier to the full, healthy and happy life many of us take for granted. Low literacy is consistently linked to poor health, and to poor social and economic outcomes. Try and imagine what your life would look like if you couldn’t read. Think of the multitude of ways it would impact on your capacity for success in every facet of your life.
Upwards of 70% of Indigenous children in remote communities suffer from chronic Otitis Media, a serious middle ear disease that can cause permanent hearing loss and inhibit language and literacy development. (DET, WA 2006)
The Fred Hollows Foundation is working with remote Indigenous communities in women’s centres, crèches, schools, safe houses, and in art centres. In 2009 The Foundation is working to provide books to remote communities in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Western NSW.
To support this Project and to remind ourselves of the life-long benefits derived from reading and being part of a reading community, we would like whole families to get involved. You can register yourself or your family at the library. It costs an individual $5 to register or $20 for a family. Once you have registered all you need to do is read, there is no restriction on the type of reading you can do. You can read books, newspapers, hard copy or online, blogs, nings, ebooks, websites, emails, text messages etc. you get the idea. We hope to conclude the project with a book swap in September, but for now, talk to your family about registering, and see me or the library staff if you need help to get started or to find out more about this project and the communities it benefits.

http://www.worldwithoutbooks.org/

YouTube goes to the movies

jennylu — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:47:05 +0000

YouTube has something new to check out – movies that have been uploaded for viewing through their site. And not only movies, documentararies also feature along with Television shows. Take a look at the following screenshots to get an idea of some of the content that is available;

This screenshot shows televison progams available from their Science and Technology category;

When you click on a movie or program you want to view you are taken to a viewing window much larger than what we are used to seeing.

You can still have the option of viewing in full screen mode. The picture quality is surprisingly good; much better than if you viewed in full screen a regular Youtube upload. The only downside is that some of the movies are not available for viewing in Australia. My husband was very disappointed to discover he couldn’t access Cliffhanger, one of his all time favourite action movies!

Thanks to Alec Couras and Dan Coleman for the heads up to this new initiative from YouTube.

Robert Pattinson @ your Library

megandavies — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:56:16 +0000

Has Robert Pattinson, (Lord of the Fangs) had his day in the sun (or night in the dark as most vampires prefer)? Or is he still ‘hot property’?

Let us know by casting your vote and check the library blog for the results.