World Book Week 2009 - Short Story Poster

The theme for this year is A Picture and a Thousand Words.  Nowadays the world is being literally bombarded by larger than-life-images in the form of billboards, commercials, animations, logos, etc.  The book industry is no exception and it has seen an increase in the use of visual aids to get the message (or story) through.  Illustrators like Quentin Blake and Nick Sharrat, have work that is immediately recognised and associated with a particular author.  Many books are being accompanied by DVDs and, for the older ones, links to interactive sites where the story is developed beyond the pages of the book.  This also explains the increased popularity of comics (or graphic novels).

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Grades 4 - 7 had a related activity going on.  The librarian read a short story to each grade during a library session.  The stories were the following:

Grade 4 - Henry and Margaret by Francesca Simon

Grade 5 - Something Different by Anne Fine

Grade 6 - The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Grade 7 - Don't Ask Jack by Neil Gaiman

Each class was then divided into groups and each group had to come up with a poster.  These posters are now on display in the library.  :)

World Book Week 2009 - Trevor Zahra & Mikiel

World Book Week kicked off with a very special guest.  Local author Trevor Zahra met the Grade 9 students to talk about his books.  At the moment they have Fuklar Qadim u Bnadar Imcarrta as a class reader and therefore they were very excited at the idea of meeting the author.  In conjunction with the librarian, they also prepared a small Powerpoint presentation about one of the chapters in the book.

Seeing that this year's theme is A Picture and a Thousand Words, Mr Zahra placed special emphasis on the illustration of his books, which he does himself.  He brought with him some samples of work he'd done and explained the various intricacies that such work entails.

At the end of his talk Mr Zahra was kind enough to sign books (and t-shirts sporting a logo in Maltese) for the students.

The younger students of the Junior Sector where on the other hand treated to story-telling sessions courtesy of Rita Antoinette Borg and Mikiel, the lovable mascot of Agenda Kids Club.  The children were enthralled during the whole time and absorbed every single word.  They simply loved looking at the big books and participating in the story as it unfolded.  And after each session, they simply had to go and hug Mikiel and Ms Borg!