Library News

National Non-Fiction November

During the month of November, the library will be supporting and celebrating National Non-Fiction November (NNFN). National Non-Fiction November is the Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ annual celebration of all things factual.

Born out of National Non-Fiction Day, the brain child of Adam Lancaster during his years as Chair, the whole month now celebrates all those readers that have a passion for information and facts and attempts to bring non-fiction celebration in line with those of fiction.

This year’s theme for NNFN is ‘Wonderful Water’, and the library will be promoting these types of non-fiction books during the month of November.

As the Earth’s most precious resource, water is essential to life and well-being, as well as being something which is a key feature of many leisure activities.

Our National Non-Fiction November display in the library demonstrates the myriad of ways in which water affects our lives. Essential to life and with oceans and seas covering almost 70% of the Earth’s surface, this is a rich topic with much to discover! The essence of life, a central element of many leisure activities, habitat to a world of creatures, vital for food and drink production, necessary for keeping clean and essential to industry, water really is wonderful!

Below are a few examples of books available to borrow from our library which are based on this year’s theme:

The NNFN organisation is running a really exciting competition for 5-12 year olds with a closing deadline of 4/12/23. Please follow the link provided to find full details and the competition rules: https://fcbg.org.uk/nnfn/

Why we need to seek out and celebrate non-fiction:

Even if you can’t remember back to when you were 3 or 4, you may have experienced (perhaps with tinge of exasperation) a small child asking you, “But why? Why is it like that? Why does it do that?”

We start out life immensely hungry for understanding. We want to work out how things work; we’re full of questions and insatiably curious about the world. When we discover an answer to our questioning, the world seems to make a little more sense and we feel braver and bolder than before. To be curious is not only natural, but it also helps us lead rich and wonderful lives. This is why I’m a passionate advocate for doing whatever possible to enable children and young people to keep asking “Why?”

Non-fiction books are my tools of choice for this; once opened, not only do they feed enthusiasm, foster wonder and put wind beneath wings, they enable readers by delivering knowledge and feeding passion.

Like me, you probably want your child to fall in love with books – perhaps because you know that all the research points to frequent readers being more successful in life, or perhaps simply because you know how enjoyable reading is and want others to experience that warmth, delight and pleasure.

But to fall in love with reading, children have to find books they love. Making their own choices about what they read is an important aspect of this.

Year 2 Junior Librarians

This week we welcomed our new cohort of Year 2 Junior Librarians. Over the next few weeks, our new Junior Librarians will be sharing some of their favourite stories with you plus recommending some not to be missed Christmas/wintertime reads!