Real Lives at Alkrington Library

For December and January, we have decided to feature something a bit different from our usual “Author of the Month” at Alkrington Library.

Instead of a single author, we are showcasing a selection of books, which we have called “Real Lives” – in other words, biographies and autobiographies. There are always lots of new titles published in this genre at this time of year.

How about Ant and Dec’s jointly written “Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story” or Vera Lynn’s “Some Sunny Day.” Maybe “Did You Like That?”, Don Haworth’s biography of steeplejack Fred Dibnah, is more your cup of tea?

If you usually read novels, why not have a change and take a look at our “Real Lives” selection? You might find that some lives are stranger and more exciting than fiction.!

Hans Christien Andersen Awards 2010

The award winning authors David Almond, and author/illustrator Michael Foreman have been nominated for the top prize in international children's literature. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are given biennially to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. The award is given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and David Almond and Michael Foreman have been nominated by the British Section.

The announcement of the winners will be made at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in March 2010 and the Awards will be presented
later that year at the IBBY World Congress in Santiago de Compostela.

David Almond came to prominence with the publication of "Skellig"(1998) which became a best selling book and later a play,
an opera and most recently a film. Many of his books and short stories are aimed at older children.

• David Almond's books in our libraries

Michael Foreman has written and illustrated more than 50 of his own books, in addition to illustrating more than 150 books by other
writers.

• Michael Foreman's books in our libraries

Table-Top Tournament

We celebrated the official opening of the Phoenix Centre on Saturday 14 November by organising a free table-top football tournament through a company called Goalden Events.

This appealed to all members of the family: sisters and brothers, mums and dads, grannies and granddads, uncles and aunties all took part. Katherine Kelly, who plays Becky on Coronation Street also joined in, as did the local Community Police.

Between tournaments visitors were encouraged to try a light-hearted quiz, to answer some of the questions you had to be sure to visit the library.

Look out for Goalden Events and your chance to compete in table football at the official opening of Darnhill Library on the 12 December!

Roald Dahl competition winners!

We have the winners for the "Create Your Own Roald Dahl Character" competition for children at Smallbridge Library!

Qudsia Choudry, age 10, is the winner with her Evil Snowman. Nicole Moore, age 11, is the runner-up with The Puzzler

Congratulations to Qudsia and Nicole, and to everybody who entered: we had a lot of fun looking at them all!

Spooks and Books at Balderstone Library

We had an afternoon of scary fun for children and their families this afternoon!
Justine and Maureen organised lots of crafts, games and stories. Children came in fancy dress with lots of witches, wizards, ghosts and ghoulies. And Ray came along to tell them some scary stories.

Two staff from Sandbrook Children's Centre came along to join in the fun and two food workers also came to make spooky sandwiches with the children

Maureen Watson said ' It was lovely to see so many families in the Library having such a good time. The session was really well attended with children, parents and carers making lots of things to take home.

Justine Smith said "I was thrilled with all the children who came in fantastic costumes and how successful the afternoon was."

33 adults and 51 children came to the party. Everyone seemed to have a good time and several people have already asked if we would be doing more sessions in the future.

More Halloween pictures from our libraries

Quest Seekers meet the Mayor

The Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Keith Swift, presented the prizes for Design Your Family Shield competition and the Quest Seekers at The Wheatsheaf Library on Saturday 10 October. The children also had the chance to have their photograph taken with the Mayor and Mayoress Sue Etchells.

Before presenting the awards the Mayor spoke to the winners and their families, he said:

"It is really good to see all the winners here this morning with their mums, dads, grandparents and carers.The time and effort that you as parents put in with your children is well recognised, your support is pointing them in the right direction. Children are the future of the borough and with them the borough can progress."

The overall winner of the Family Shield Competition was Zanib Ashraf (aged 13) who was presented with an iPod Touch.

• The runners-up were Eve Whelan (aged 10) and Callum Purcell (aged 11) who won book tokens.
• Highly commended were Abigail Heslin (aged 10), Rebecca Shaw (aged 4) and George Denson (aged 5).
• Winners of the Quest Seekers prize draw were James Crompton (aged 11) who won a family day out to York Dungeon, and Danielle
  Cain (aged 8) who won a family day out to Leeds Armouries.

Well done everybody!

• More photos of the presentation

Backstage pass 1

Ever what goes on backstage with our Special Services Team? They're the people who provide the services for people with special needs, as well as the Doorstep Library Service and the Mobile Library.

Albert Shark RN joined them for a day to find out. Check out the pictures here.

Late news

Smallbridge Library recently accepted two slightly overdue Library books – one from 1978 and an earlier one from 1973.

We didn't charge hundreds of pounds in overdue fines!

Riveting Reads

To celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 5th March, we ran a book review competition called “Riveting Reads” for children across the borough. There were 2 age groups, up to 11 and 12 to 16, and children were asked to write about one of their favourite books, explaining why they like it and why others should read it too.

We had a fantastic response, receiving over 250 entries, from children as young as 5, right up to 16. Entry forms were available to pick up in libraries or could be downloaded from the council’s website but the best form of publicity proved to be contacting primary and secondary schools via the school’s intranet. Some schools really went for it and obviously had whole classes writing reviews.

Bedtime Story Week 27th May – 3rd June

by Irene Peachey

In conjunction with the launch of Bookstart’s Bedtime Story Week, we had some fantastic events in Heywood throughout the week.

Thursday 28th May
The week began with a joint event at The Yard, the youth and children’s centre on Darnhill, just behind Darnhill Library. The family day event was organized by Woodland Sure Start Children’s Centre. I work on many joint partnership events with Woodland CC and I was invited along to see many of the families I work with at Darnhill who I have not seen for some time due to the library’s refurbishment.

As well as taking along library and Bookstart information, which I was able to share with the families, we had a great story and singing time together.

A Day in the Life of...

Name: Maureen Watson
Role: Library Outreach Worker Bookstart and Early Years

This role is varied and involves working in an outreach capacity plus organising and delivering inhouse Story times and Rhythm and Rhyme sessions.

Currently my activities involve promoting the Library service to families with pre school children in the Rochdale borough. A major part of my role is promoting Bookstart and Bookcrawl. This is outreach work that takes me into many Early Years settings in the borough ie. Nursery Schools, Nursery Classes, Private Nursery provision, Children's Centres and Playgroups.

‘Tell My Story’ Event’

Middleton Library held a ‘Tell My Story’ event on Tuesday 2nd June. We wanted to showcase some of our local studies materials, to encourage people to write down their memories and to have an enjoyable social morning.

• Local residents, Alice Mellalieu-Campbell and Albert Findlow came to talk about their autobiographies.
• We pulled out all the books from our collection which give first hand accounts of people’s lives in Middleton.
• We had representatives of the ‘Middleton Memories’ reminiscence magazine and a member of Langley Library writing group.

All those who attended had a good time and left positive comments.

We were disappointed that we didn’t attract more people. We would have liked to attract some younger people and some who were new to the local studies service. We suspect the theme of the event was a bit off putting (people seem to have thought they would have to contribute).

When we hold similar events in future we will use more publicity and direct it more toward younger people to see if we can encourage them to join in.

Tell Your Story

Do you have a story to tell?

Samuel Bamford was the first to publish his account of everyday life in Middleton. In his diaries published in the 1840’s, he describes the daily life of the local handloom weavers, the customs and celebrations which they enjoyed and their struggle for political reform.

In her biography, Alice Mellalieu-Campbell describes working in the Middleton Junction jam works in the 1930’s. Basil D’Oliveira wrote about the welcome he received from local folk when he joined Middleton Cricket Team in 1960. Helen Tse wrote “Sweet Mandarin” in order to tell the story of her grandmother, Lily Kwok, who opened the first Chinese restaurant in Middleton in the 1950’s. And not forgetting Alfred Howarth’s ‘Memories of a Middleton Moonraker’, his
recollections of life during the twenties and thirties.

All these books are available in the local studies section at Middleton library. We also have a wealth of unpublished accounts of local people’s lives.

Do you have memories of day to day life or significant events in Middleton history? If so we would like to invite you to a “Tell your Story” event at Middleton Library on Tuesday 2nd June from 10 – 12pm.

Come and view these first hand accounts of Middleton life.

• Alice Campbell will be there to tell people how she wrote her autobiography and had it published.
• The ‘Memories of Middleton’ Team will also be present. They can tell you how to write a short article for their magazine.
• Why not write a page or two and bring it with you. We will also have a member of a local writing group to tell you about the group she attends and maybe advise you on how to write your own life history.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Refreshments provided. Please phone Middleton library on 643 5228 to book your free place.

Storytelling course

Do you want to share stories with your child but are not sure how to start?

You don’t have to be great at reading to tell a brilliant story.

Rochdale Libraries and Touchstones Rochdale are offering a free Storytelling Course for Parents and Carers. Starting on Monday 6 July and ending with a celebration party for all the family on Saturday 26 September the six sessions will explore Storytelling in its many forms.

For further details and to book your free place tel: 01706 924941 or email: ray.stearn@rochdale.gov.uk

Apologies: due to circumstances beyond our control we have had to postpone this programme. We hope to be able to deliver it later this year.

Reading group news

At the May meeting of Middleton Reading Group we discussed our favourite authors’ debut novels.

Our next meeting is on Monday 22nd June from 6 – 7 p.m. at Middleton Library and we will be discussing books by Elizabeth Gaskell.

New members are always welcome to join us.

Contact Community Librarian, Maria, on 0161 643 5228 for more information.