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Northern Ireland Book Award 2011/12 launches in RBAI library |
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Wednesday 16th November saw the launch of the third Northern Ireland Children’s Book Award in our beautiful Christ Church library. Nineteen of the twenty-six schools participating in the award came to the RBAI to discover which of their 60 plus nominations had made it to the final eight titles on the short-list. The whacky ‘Ministry of Pandemonium’ by Chris Westwood – a sort of Harry Potter meets Stephen King made the cut as indeed did ‘Gangsta Granny’ by David Walliams. Historical novels, adventure stories and a science-fiction title were also included in the final eight books. A literary Mastermind was held with Fergus McMullan 8J beating off fellow pupils James Ritchie (8J) and Daniel Taylor (10P) and the team from Bangor Grammar School to win the mega bar of chocolate on offer. Irish author Oisin McGann was a superb guest speaker and had his young audience in fits of laughter. A great morning was had by all 180 participants who came from as far away as Keady, Strabane and Omagh. For those who would like to follow the NI book award please log on to www.nibookaward.org.uk or contact Mrs Lindsay in the library.  RBAI literary Mastermind contenders James Ritchie, Fergus McMullan and Daniel Taylor with Mrs Lindsay |
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Chris Westwood visit 8th November 2011 |
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A room with a never-ending ceiling, a rickshaw that can fit through cracks in the wall and a machine that churns out cards for the soon to be departed, are just some of the quirky happenings which mark the Ministry of Pandemonium and year 8 were fortunate to have its author, Chris Westwood visit them in the library on Tuesday 8th November. Chris’s imaginative story-line could be described as a J.K. Rowling meets Stephen King. It is a mixture of fantasy, horror and humour with its quirky numerical code denoting the often very amusing causes of an impending demise. One pupil said, “This looks like a cracker story. I think that it looks like a thriller and can’t wait until I read it. I think it will be a best seller”  Chris signing copies of 'The Ministry of Pandemonium'
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Alex Scarrow, master-mind of the exciting sci-fi Time Riders series is the latest well-known author to visit RBAI. Storming onto the stage with his enthusiasm and humour, this ex-rock artist and ex-computer games designer completely hooked his year 9 audience! Boys loved the 'you-tube'trailer to his series, they were really excited by the fact that Alex used his games ideas as the basis for his amazing series of time riding novels and were thoroughly absorbed in Alex's rendition of an Irish accent when he read about Liam O'Connor being recruited as a Time Rider from the submerging Titanic. Alex finished the event with a nail-biting quiz in whichthe frenzied competitive spirit of the RBAI boys was overwhelmingly evident!The quiz was won by the Red team in a Sudden Death play off - wonderful! A few comments from the boys sum up the event: 'I wished I had bought the book, but I thought it would just be a book which I would find boring' 'It was brilliant. I loved it. I was hooked in the first sentence' 'He said "Time Travel is out there" and this made me tink about time travel and made me want to read his books as the ideas he has are amazing. I wish I could work with him'  preparing to be perplexed with Alex Scarrow  Alex asks the questions  Team Blue  Team Red  Enthusiastic quiz audience  Sam keeping score |
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