The Queen’s Library: clubs and activities galore

The Queen’s Library continues to forge a place at the heart of School life, playing a central role in competitions, clubs and activities.

After a QE team won their regional round of the international Kids’ Lit Quiz last year, this term the School launched its own Interhouse Kids’ Lit Quiz in the Shearly Hall, which saw teams of six drawn from Years 7–11 compete to show their literary knowledge over five gruelling rounds. The competition was won by Broughton.

Year 7 boys aspiring to represent the School in the wider competition later this year have been able to train in the Library in the KLQ Club on Wednesday lunchtimes. Librarian Ciara Murray, who organises the club, explains what the training involves: “Reading as widely and as much as we can, doing book quizzes, writing reviews, recommending things to each other and learning about obscure myths and nursery rhymes!”

Another highlight of the term was the QE Big Book Exchange, masterminded by Year 10 pupil librarians Binu Perera and Mipham Samten, where boys donated their old books in the eight days leading up to World Book Day. They received tokens which could then be exchanged for books on the day itself.

In the Monday Book Club, which is run by Ms Murray and Tomas Vieira-Short in Year 12, boys have been taking the Reading Passport challenge to ‘read around the world’. This involves them selecting a book from each continent and then writing write a short review, earning themselves a stamp in their Reading Passport for each continent they complete.

Another lunchtime club in the Library was Bookchat, which took place on Mondays and Tuesdays in the first half of term. Boys were invited to look at the Library’s latest stock and to come and read in the library at lunchtimes, as well as discussing what they were reading with other book-lovers.

In the Baker Street Society on Tuesdays, run by pupil librarians Saifullah Shah and Viraj Mehta, of Year 9, boys channel their inner Sherlock Holmes, using logical thinking to solve murders.

For comics fans from Years 9–11, the Excelsior Award Club ran in the Library on Thursday lunchtimes, while boys from Years 7 and 8 could take part in the Comic Club. The former focused on the Stan Lee annual Excelsior Award for graphic novels, comics and manga. Boys have been reading through the shortlist and writing reviews, leading up to defending their favourites and coming to a final decision. In the Comic Club, run by pupil librarians Hector Cooper and Rishi Shah in Year 9, boys designed their own superheroes using their own favourite comics for inspiration.

The latest Library newsletter, edited by Rishi Shah and Hector Cooper, both of Year 9, has been published, carrying 12 pages of news and information.

Next term will see the Library team up with the English Department to run a new creative writing club called INK, which is being billed as ‘two parts inspiration, one part knowhow, for all budding writers of poetry, short stories and novels’.

Another new club, the Carnegie Club, will involve a small group of the Library’s top borrowers shadowing the Carnegie Medal – an award given annually to a children’s author. The club will involve reading all the books in this year’s Carnegie Medal shortlist and writing reviews on the Carnegie Shadowing website.