If you could be any book character who would you be and why?
Someone utterly selfless, perhaps Beth from Little Women, or Hans Hubermann from The Book Thief.
Kindle or hardback?
I don’t think it matters!
What was the last book that made you cry?
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist and One by Sarah Crossan.
What is the first book you can remember?
One of the earliest books I remember reading at primary school was Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. I think there was an audio cassette tape you could listen along with using ginormous 90’s headphones.
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction and why?
Both…I love the escape fiction provides but some of my favourite books are non-fiction. I’m currently reading Blue Planet II, the companion book to the recent BBC series. It’s beautiful.
Tell us a funny story…
Librarian’s get lots of interesting questions throughout the day. I ran a library lesson last term, and one of the discussion points was to identify possible differences between children’s books and young adult books. A group of year 8 boys stumbled across Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging by Louise Rennison and immediately asked the question “Miss…what’s a thong?”
What are the best things that happen in your library? (Events, competitions, anything else?)
The whole school reading ethos is fantastic. The library is packed at break and lunch and the best things can sometimes just be the ‘everyday’ – watching students share books they’ve enjoyed between themselves and with me. On top of this we have great events all year round – ‘The Big Read’ encourages students to read books from 20 different genres, ‘The Read’ is a book vote-off that involves several school in the area and ‘Readathon’ is a sponsored read that encourages students to raise money for the charity ‘Read for Good’ to name but a few!
Name three book characters (real or imaginary) you would invite to your school and why.
This is tough! Starr Carter from The Hate You Give to inspire bravery. Iorek Brynison from The Northern Lights to remind students that you can come back fighting after making mistakes. Finally, The Weasley Twins from The Harry Potter series for an excellent firework display.
Is reading still popular or has it been overtaken by technology?
I think technology has helped reading maintain its popularity. Reading itself is often quite a solitary pastime, however technology is changing this. An online presence of vloggers who film book reviews, social media sites such as Goodreads and a multitude of methods to voice your opinion and gather recommendations are fuelling a reading resurgence.