Fatty Legs hands-down favourite at WPC

Members of the West Pictou Consolidated Hackmatack Reading Club have voted -- and their favourite book from this year's Hackmatck shortlist was Fatty Legs: a true story, by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton (Annick: 2011). The non-fiction book is an autobiographical account of Margaret's experience as an Inuit girl attending a residential school. While there, she faces bullying and other hardships, but also discovers inner strength and how to stand up for herself. Fatty Legs: a true story had the most votes at West Pictou of any of this year's Hackmatack shortlisted books.

The non-fiction book which had the second-most number of votes was Case Closed?: nine mysteries unlocked by modern science, written by Susan Hughes and illustrated by Michael Wandelmaier (Kids Can Press: 2010). The book explains how scientists have used DNA and other technology to solve historic mysteries, such as missing aircraft and the identity of mummies.

The most popular fiction Hackmatack books at West Pictou were The Gnome's Eye, by Anna Kerz (Orca: 2010) and Tumbleweed Skies, by Valerie Sherrard (Fitzhenry & Whiteside: 2010). Both historical novels explore young girls dealing with upheavals in their lives. In The Gnome's Eye, Theresa struggles to learn English and fit in at her new Canadian school after emigrating with her family from a refuge camp in Austria. In Tumbleweed Skies, Ellie has to live with a grandmother she doesn't know (and who for some reason doesn't seem to like her) while her father works as a traveling salesman.

The favourite French Hackmatack book was Citron Bleu et Zeste de Carotte, by Celine Malepart (La Courte Echelle: 2009), a colourfully illustrated cookbook with a dash of humour.

The Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award committee is busy tallying votes from all Grade 4-6 students who participated in the program. The winners will be announced April 27th at an awards ceremony in Moncton, NB.

Only 1 book can win; will it be yours?

Nominations are coming in fast and furious for the first ever CCRSB Teen Reader's Choice Award. Teen Reader's Choice is like Hackmatack for students in Grades 7 and up, with a couple of twists. It's the students who nominate books to the Award Committee, which will then come up with a top ten shortlist. The nomination process is wide open -- any book, any genre, any format.

So far, three books are leading the nominations at West Pictou. Ways to Live Forever, by Sally Nicolls, has the most nominations with six. Four people have nominated January, the first book in Gabrielle Lord's Conspiracy 365 series. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, has two nominations.

Curious about which books students are nominating at other schools? Check out the CCRSB Teen Reader's Choice Award blog to find out what the trends are.

Nominations close in two weeks. After Christmas, the Award Committee will announce the top ten books, which will be sent to our library for you to read and vote on. Stay tuned!

International School Library Month

October is International School Library Month!
To celebrate, West Pictou Consolidated School is hosting a Writers' Circle for middle school students in the library on Friday, Oct. 21. Middle school students are invited to bring poems, short stories, songs, or other things they've written to the library during lunch period and share their work. Mrs. MacEachern will be glad to read for anyone who is too shy to read his/her work aloud.

Remember, there are exploratories on Oct. 21 so middle school lunch will be held during 4th period.

Other ways to get involved with International School Library Month:

• Check out the library's "Food for Thought" display next to the gym
• Pick up an International School Library Month bookmark from the library
• Simply stop in and visit your library technician. She appreciates it :)

How will you celebrate your school library?

Meet the Mascots!

After a lot of difficult decision-making, the library does not have a new mascot -- it has two new mascots! The winning entries are Ollie the Owl by Alesha Dennis in Grade 6, and Dewey Dalmation by Elizabeth Sharpe, also in Grade 6. Ollie and Dewey have already found their way onto bookmarks. Keep your eyes open for them in other places as well: in the library, on posters, in the school newsletter.

Honourable mentions go to Michael Hughes in Grade 6, Taylor Dean in Grade 5, and Jacob Baillie in Grade 5.

There were so many wonderful entries that it was very tough to narrow it down. A big thank-you to all students who entered. Your creations were all impressive.

Deborah Ellis is Coming to Town!

Mark Thursday, Oct. 6th on your calendar! Deborah Ellis, the award-winning author of The Breadwinner Trilogy, will be at Acadia Street School from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for An Evening in Afghanistan.

Ms. Ellis will read from her novels about Parvana, an 11-year-old girl living under harsh, discriminatory Taliban rule in Afghanistan. As a girl, Parvana isn't allowed to go to school. She can't even leave her house unless there is a man with her. When her father is imprisoned by the Taliban, Parvana must disguise herself as a boy to go out and earn money to support her family.

Ms. Ellis will speak about her travels to Afghanistan and the inspiration for her books. There will be a chance to have books signed and buy crafts and products made in Afghanistan. The event is being put on by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. To find out more about the event, click here.

Bienvenidas a West Pictou!

Welcome to the eight students and their teacher who are visiting West Pictou from Colombia for the next several weeks. Colombia has the second-largest population of all countries in South America. Did you know that it's one of the largest coffee producers in the world? Or that some parts of Colombia are cold and snowy, even though part of the country is on the Equator? To find out more about Colombia, visit World Book Students online and enter "Colombia" in the search blank. You'll find a map of the country, a picture of its flag, and a photo of Bogata, the city our Colombian students are from. If you're using World Book Students online at home, you'll have to enter the username "ccrsb" and password "ccrsb".

We also have a beautiful book in the library called The Color of Colombia (I/M Editores, 2007). It's full of full-colour photos of the people, buildings, animals and landscapes of Colombia.

Rojas, Cristina. "Colombia." World Book Student. World Book, 2011. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.

Wanted: One Mascot

As lovely as our library is, it could use a little extra something to give it character -- a mascot. Not a wolverine like the school mascot, but one of its very own. Yes, we have Arnold the library ghost, but since no one knows what he looks like, it's hard to put his picture on a bookmark (if you haven't Arnold yet, keep your ears open when you're in the library).


We're having a school-wide contest to design a library mascot. Students who are interested can draw their creations on a piece of white paper (preferably 8 1/2" by 11"), put their name and class on the back, and drop them off to the library by Sept. 30. The winning entry will be announced in October and will be featured on bookmarks, posters, in the newsletter, etc.


Use your imagination. The mascot could be a person, an object, an animal, an alien, an artichoke . . . whatever you can dream up.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!