Tag: teenage

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Writing Rammy winners 2021

We’re thrilled to unveil the winning entries in this year’s writing challenge.

2021 was truly a bumper year for entries. We were blown away by the quality and depth of the stories and poems submitted and we could have given out many more prizes!

Huge thanks to everyone who took part. We hope that, even if you weren’t successful, you’ll join us again for our 5th year in 2022.

Now, get comfy, and settle down to read. You might need a hanky for a couple of these!

Adult Fiction

Winner Rebecca Ferguson: We Were Dancing

Runner-up Pauline Evans: Belief

Adult Poetry

Winner Maggie Barrowman: For Angie

Written by Maggie for her sister.

Runner-up Nikki Kemp: Bonnie Wee Scotland

Nikki works within addiction services in Falkirk to raise awareness, reduce stigma, challenge and tackle inequalities, and make change.

Teen

Winner James Shearer, age 15: Broken Dreams

Junior Fiction (9-12)

Winner Aesha Marie Heron, age 12: A Deep, Dark Worry

Runner-up Millie Clark, age 11 Evacuation

Runner-up Eden Foltier, age 9: Aboot a Weed

Junior Fiction (8 and under)

Winner Grace Kidd, age 7: Charlie the Little Robot

Runner-up Hannah Guthrie, age 7: The Runaway Marble

Family Rammy

We award the Family Rammy prize to the family who sends in entries together. There was some stiff competition this year, but previous winners The Pollocks triumphed again!

Mum Taslin: Motherhood

Aaron, age 12: The Beaches

Aysha, age 10: My Scar

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The Beaches by Aaron Pollock, age 12

On the day June 6th 1944, I was sent out alongside my brothers on large landing vessels to invade the sandy beaches of Normandy and if successful, to push forward. I was young and hadn’t ever shot any sort of gun before outside of training. As soon as the landing craft reached the shoreline and met the sand, all hell let loose. The noise was deafening.

Fellow soldiers fell dead before my eyes. Medics dragged injured soldiers behind anything they could use as cover. It was horrible. The murky brown greenish water soon turned blood red. I charged towards the nearest dead body to use as a shield. In my hands, I held my M1903 springfield tightly as bullets zoomed past me and made the sand grains fly high up in the air.

I peeked up to look for any soldiers who had made it up closer towards the German machine gunner’s nest. There seemed to be a squad of soldiers making their way gradually up the hill towards one of the nests. Without hesitation, I knew I had to try to get to them and made a run for it. The bullets were getting closer every leap I made. Suddenly a bullet ricocheted off my helmet scaring the life out of me, but luckily, I was okay as it did not penetrate my helmet and I kept going until I reached them. I felt a sudden pain in my thigh, to my horror when I looked down, I was bleeding.

Fortunately, one of the few men I had regrouped with was a medic. The life saver bandaged my wound and told me to stay while they continued to push forward but I refused because I would rather die trying to help them then die watching, so I gritted my teeth and followed them.

As we reached the nest, we spotted two enemy soldiers on stationery weapons opening fire, suppressing the others below. With urgency, one of my fellow soldiers chucked in a grenade before slamming the iron door shut behind them. FIRE IN THE HOLD! BOOM! The grenade went off, the German nest crumbled, leaving a pile of debris on human remains.

I turned quickly to see a German soldier charging at us carrying a Kar98K with a bayonet attached to the muzzle of his gun. I lined up my sight with his head and took the shot. And at that very moment, the man fell dead. There was no honour in taking another man’s life.

With the first nest taken out, more soldiers could now make their way towards our position. After we had taken out all the turret nest, we could push forward. After 24 hours of non-stop pain and death, the beach was secured. As I looked back towards the blood-stained beach, I saw the bodies of thousands of dead soldiers who had fought to protect their homes from the Axis forces. The same homes they would not be returning to. Their loss was unimaginable.

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2020 a book Odyssey – podcast 48

Looking forward to 2020, podcast 48

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Hello and welcome to the Falkirk Libraries podcast with Vikki and Tanya

Today’s episode is about the exciting new books coming out in 2020

All of the books mentioned can be found on our library catalogue

What we have been reading and listening to:

Vikki has been reading:

  • The Absolution, Yrsa Siguardardottir
  • Violet,  SJI Holliday

Tanya has been reading:

  • Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

New and forthcoming adult books:

  • Philosophy for Polar Explorers ,Erling Kagge
  • The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age, Claudia Hammond
  • Highfire, Eoin Colfer
  • False Value (Rivers of London 8), Ben Aaronovitch
  • Grown Ups, Marian Keyes

New and forthcoming children’s titles:

  • Greta and the Giants: inspired by Greta Thunberg’s stand to save the world, Zoe Tucker (author), Zoe Persico (illustrator) (3-7)
  • Help Wanted, Must Love Books by Janet Sumner Johnson (Author), Courtney Dawson (Illustrator) (4-7)
  • Your Interests, My Interests: A Visual Guide to Playing and Hanging out for Children on the Autism Spectrum, Joel Shaul (7-14)
  • The Vegetarian Cookbook: More than 50 Recipes for Young Cooks (Dorling Kindersley) (9-12)
  • Reverie, Ryan La Sala (Teen)

DVD recommendations:

  • Downton Abbey The Movie (PG)
  • Dora and the Lost City of Gold (PG)

Our Reading Agony this week: 

“My 14 year old daughter says she isn’t interested in reading anymore as most of the books are boring or lovey dovey and she doesn’t want romance books.  Any ideas to help me out with some good suggestions for her?”

That’s tricky, because there are so many good books that she might like, kids, adult and teen:  How about some manga or comics – like:

  • Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins by Clint McElroy
  • NIMONA by Noelle Stevenson
  • The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman
  • Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui
  • My Hero Academia by Kouhei Horikoshi

Or some wonderful novels:

  • Terry Pratchett Discworld novels
  • Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
  • Sabriel by Garth Nix
  • Cirque Du Freak (The Saga of Darren Shan Book 1) by Darren Shan
  • Gail Carriger Finishing School Series
  • The Darkest Minds: Book 1 (A Darkest Minds Novel) by Alexandra Bracken
  • Before I die by Jenny Donovan

Staff quote of the day: “It’s too early for a Christmas cardigan, surely?”

Our Discussion: Forthcoming books in 2020 that we are most excited about.

  • Dark Matter, Doug Johnstone
  • Dead to Her, Sarah Pinborough
  • Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid
  • Lift As You Climb, Viv Groskop
  • In Five Years, Rebecca Serle
  • This Lovely City, Louise Hare
  • The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Djinn Patrol on the Purple Liney, Deepa Anappara
  • Six Wicked Reasons, Jo Spain
  • Three Hours, Rosamund Lupton
  • Below The Big Blue Sky, Anna McPartlin
  • The Other People,  C.J. Tudor
  • The Squiggly Careers, Helen Tupper, Sara Ellis
  • Dragman, Steven Appleby
  • Us Three, Ruth Jones

Did you know?   

Quick Reads!  Launched in 2006, Quick Reads has distributed over 4.8 million copies of more than 100 titles! The books have been loaned more than five million times through libraries and have established a reputation for publishing diverse works by top quality and popular authors, including Andy McNab, Jojo Moyes, Anne Cleeves, Ian Rankin and Benjamin Zephaniah.  

New Quick Reads titles are coming out in February 2020 and for a sneak peak go to the Reading Agency Website

Thank you for listening to the Library Love podcast, we hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and if you did, then rate us on itunes.  We love to hear from you and if you’d like to get in touch with us, then go to our blog LibraryLoveFalkirk.com, @LibFalkirk on Twitter, or Falkirk Libraries on Facebook or Instagram.  Bye

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Comedy women in print – podcast 41

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Hello and welcome to the Falkirk Libraries podcast with Tanya and Daryl. You can find the books at our library catalogue

Today’s episode is all about comedy women in print.  All of the books mentioned can be found on our library catalogue at

What we have been reading and listening to:

Tanya has been reading:

  • People and Permaculture by Looby Macnamara
  • Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett

Daryl has been reading:

  • The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  • The Paper and Hearts Society by Lucy Powrie

New and forthcoming adult books:

  • Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell
  • Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
  • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
  • Blue Moon by Lee Child
  • The Institute by Stephen King

New and forthcoming children’s titles:

  • Where’s the Butterfly? By Sam Taplin (0-3 yrs)
  • Florence and the Mischievous Kitten by Megan Rix (4-6 yrs)
  • The Secret Jungle by Adam Blade (7-9 yrs)
  • Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange (9-12 yrs)
  • Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott (Teen)

DVD recommendations

  • Pokemon Detective Pikachu (PG)
  • Rocketman (15)

Our Reading Agony this week:

‘My child thinks the Junior Fiction books are too young for them, but can I start to let them read teen fiction. Can you offer any advice?’

If you are ever feeling stuck and are worried that your child is still too young for some of the topics brought up in our teen fiction, then feel free to ask us for any recommendations or read them yourself first. Some examples: 

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
  • Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
  • Meg Cabot – The Mediator series and Airhead series
  • My Hero Academia series (manga)
  • Lumberjanes (graphic novel)

Staff quote of the day ‘Here, you can have your own stress cactus’ – it’s knitted

Our Discussion was all about funny women in print.  We picked some we liked, plus we recommend looking at the Comedy Women in Print Award for some more ideas https://www.comedywomeninprint.co.uk/

  • Caitlin Moran – Moranthology; How to be a woman; Moranifesto
  • The Guilty Feminist: From our noble goals to our worst hypocrisies by Deborah Frances-White
  • Sara Pascoe – Sex power money; Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body
  • Susan Calman – Cheer up love;  Sunny side up
  • Sue Perkins – Spectacles; East of Croydon

Did you Know?  Our Writing Rammy continues until 31st Oct – The Writing Rammy is open to all ages, from 5 to 105! Taking part couldn’t be easier; just write a short piece of fiction or poetry on a theme of your choice.

We’re encouraging the whole family to have a try. In fact, we are setting the families in the wider Falkirk area a direct challenge: get as many members of your family to write a story as you can and send them in. You could claim our special Family Rammy prize at our award ceremony!

Entries will be judged by a panel of library staff and a winner and runner up will be chosen in each of the following categories:  12 and under; 13 – 17; 18+; Family Rammy (best family entry)

Thank you for listening to the Library Love podcast, we hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and if you did, then  subscribe to our podcast.  We love to hear from you and if you’d like to get in touch with us, then go to our blog LibraryLoveFalkirk.com, @LibFalkirk on Twitter, or Falkirk Libraries on Facebook or Instagram.  Bye