National Black Cat Day – Our favourite books about black cats

Today is National Black Cat Day, which was established to draw attention to the plight of black and black and white cats in rehoming centres round the world. Black cats often take much longer to rehome than their more colourful counterparts, though no one is sure why this is. You can find out more on the Cats Protection website.

Here at UWTSD Swansea libraries, we’re always pleased to find an excuse to share some of our favourite books with you, so here are our top five books featuring black moggies:-

1.       Six Dinner Sid, by Inga Moore – Fabulous picture book in which wandering black cat, Sid, discovers that whilst it’s great to have six meals a day, having a multitude of homes to call your own can come with its drawbacks too!

2.      Winnie the Witch, by Valerie Thomas – Here’s a book you can appreciate on a couple of different levels! Just enjoy the story of Winnie, who tries to change her black cat Wilbur so he’s easy to spot in her dark house, or take a look at the way Scope has used Winnie the Witch to describe the Social Model of Disability (in a nutshell: change the house, not the cat!).

3.      Slinky Malinki, by Lynley Dodd – “blacker than black” Slinky Malinki is a rather winsome creature during the day, but during the night becomes “wicked and fiendish and sly”. This rhyming tale of the cat’s dual life is an absolute delight, whatever your age!

4.      Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat, by Ursula Moray Williams – Gobbolino, the little black cat with blue eyes and one white paw, is supposed to be a witch’s cat, but he’d much rather be a kitchen cat sleeping by the fire all day! Can this magical cat find his perfect home?

5.      The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe – We couldn’t leave out Edgar Allan Poe, the macabre master of the short story! This tale sees our protagonist wracked with guilt over an injury he does to his once beloved pet cat. Things get more and more sinister as the story goes on, so maybe don’t read this one right before bed! It’s perfect for Halloween, though, and is available in various free versions online, and can also be found in the Edgar Allan Poe short story collections which we have available in Townhill Library.

We’re sure Colin, our resident Mount Pleasant black cat, would approve!

Children's Book Week

Yes, it’s Children’s Book Week this week! We love a good children’s book at UWTSD Swansea libraries, with lots of quality books for youngsters from early years to teens available in the Teaching Practice collection at Townhill, and a good selection of beautiful picture books available on the shelves at Griffith Library in Dynevor. We all have our favourite reads from childhood, and many so-called 'children’s' books make good reading whatever your age, so do feel free to have a browse next time you’re in.

Children’s Book Week has been going for over 80 years now and aims to support reading for pleasure. You can find out more on the Booktrust web  pages, where you’ll also find links to resources such as Booktrust’s 100 Best Books (how many have you read?) and a toolkit to help parents encourage a love of reading in their children. You can also take a look at the Booktrust Best Book Guide 2014, which has been published to coincide with this week's celebrations. Perfect if you’re looking for some new books for the special little someone in your life!

Festivities officially end tomorrow (4^th July), but we think every day is a good day to enjoy reading a good book. Let’s see how many of the 100 Best Books we can read over the summer!

Desert Island Books

Image courtesy of: Exsodus / Free Digital Photos

Our 'Desert Island Books' series continues this week with contributions from Assistant Librarian Philippa Price who is based at our Townhill Library and looks after the information needs of students and staff within the Education department. If you'd like to contribute your desert island favourites it's not too late - email them to me samantha.scoulding@sm.uwtsd.ac.uk

If you were stranded on a desert island which 4 books would you like to have with you and why?

The Princess Bride – An easy choice! I always find it difficult to name one favourite book, but if I had to, it would be this one! I could never get bored of reading this book, so it would be a good one to bring along.

Complete Works of Jane Austen – Ok, so this is a bit of a cheat, but if I’m going to be stuck on this desert island for a while I’m going to need more than four books! And Austen’s novels are available in one volume, so there! This choice probably speaks for itself – witty, timeless classics with charming heroines and some rather lovely heroes, as well as a few bounders to liven things up!  

Lord of the Rings – Another tactical choice here, as this is actually three books in one, though more commonly available in one volume these days. This will be the perfect complement to all that Jane Austen – once I’ve had my fill of turns around the drawing room and all those dances, I can turn to Tolkien for some adventure and strife!

Emotionally Weird – I love all of Kate Atkinson’s books, but this is probably my favourite. Definitely one to read again and again!

If you could bring one of the characters to life, for company, who would you choose and why?

Hmmm, a tricky one this. Not sure any of the Austen lot would cope in the wild, so I’ll discount them. Nora or Effie from Emotionally Weird might be good for some stories, but maybe not for too long! I’m tempted by the wonderful Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride – brave, loyal and true – but I fear he’d be a little intense for a desert island. I think I’ll go with Aragorn (especially if he looks like Viggo Mortensen in the films!), who would be more than capable of sorting out a fire, shelter and food, but is a little more taciturn than Inigo and probably easier company in a confined space!

You can have one luxury item on the island with you…what would it be?

One of those blankets with sleeves to keep me warm at night. Since it’s a luxury item, I’d have to make sure to bring one with a foot pocket for extra toastiness!

You are rescued and can only take one book back with you…which one would you pick?

The Princess Bride – I could never leave that book behind!

It's National Pet Month!



Muzzie the rescue dog having a snooze in his new home

This year, National Pet Month runs from the 1^st April to the 6^th May, so it’s well underway by now. It aims to encourage responsible pet ownership, draw attention to the work of pet care professional and companion animals, and raise money for pet charities. You can find our more on the official website, which also includes lesson plans and information for schools wishing to take part as well as some tips on getting a classroom pet.

 

We love our furry friends here at the library, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to highlight some of our recent new books which have dogs as their stars. (We’ve got nothing against other pets, but as it happens we’ve had a lot of books about dogs recently!) These are great for the kids and rather lovely for the grown-ups too!

Oh no George! by Chris Haughton

This fun picture book is about George, a pet dog who desperately tries to be good when his owner leaves him alone for the day, but is met by temptation at every turn! Will he manage to resist eating the cake and chasing the cat? Only one way to find out – read the book!

Black dog by Levi Pinfold

This beautiful picture book deals with themes of fear and perception. A big, black dog, which gets bigger as each family member spots him, appears outside a house one night. Only the littlest child is brave enough to go out and meet the beast. The illustrations are stunning and the story great for stimulating discussion with children. Wonderful!

A greyhound of a girl by Roddy Doyle

We have a few Roddy Doyle books in the library and they’re all to be recommended, but this is his most recent. The pets in this don’t feature very heavily, but it’s such a good one that we’ve snuck it in anyway! Don’t be put off that this is primarily aimed at children as there’s plenty for the more mature reader too! It centres round four generations of the same family – one dead, one dying and two living. It’s a beautifully told story about coming to terms with loss and the power of family. It will probably make you cry!

A dog called Homeless by Sarah Lean

Another weepy! This one centres on Cally, who’s trying to come to terms with the loss of her mum. She can’t help but feel that the mysterious Irish wolfhound she keeps seeing offers some link to her mother. Meanwhile, she struggles to fit in at school and makes friend with the boy downstairs, who is deaf and blind. This is really rather a gripping tale!

Sid and the Cwmhendy dog show by Tanya L. James

A lovely, fun one to end with! Sid is a good natured but mischievous Jack Russell, based on the author’s own dog. In this delightful story he’s been entered in a dog show and needs to stay clean and out of trouble. You’ve probably got a good idea of what happens, but it's very charmingly told!

Do any of these grab your fancy? Remember, as with all our books, once you’ve read them, you can give them a five star rating on our catalogue so other library users know how good or bad they are. (Strictly speaking, you can rate them without reading them, but we’d prefer you passed on an informed judgement!)

Read a good book lately? Librarywales.org wants to hear about it!

Librarywales.org is the website for everything you need to know about Welsh libraries. They’ve recently set up a blog (‘Read a good book lately?’) that lets members of the public, book groups and schools share their reviews of books. So if you’ve read a fantastic novel recently and would like to let others know about it, head to librarywales.org and submit your thoughts. Everyone is welcome to contribute to this bank of reviews, so it should develop into an excellent place to get some inspiration for your next read!

Did you know that you can also rate the books and DVDs that you borrow from Swansea Met libraries? Our catalogue now has a feature that lets you give a star rating to any of our items. To do this, just head to our new catalogue (you might see it called Prism 3), log on to ‘My Account’, then use the search box to find your book or DVD and click on the star rating you think it deserves. This is a great way to let your fellow students know which books are most helpful, and also which ones aren’t so good!

 

We love... the Booktrust website for information and inspiration!

Have you discovered the Booktrust’s website yet? It’s an excellent resource for anyone who loves books and reading, and even for those who don’t but might need to find out more!

Booktrust is an independent reading and writing charity. Its mission (taken from the About Us section of the website) is as follows:

"Booktrust inspires everyone to enjoy books, reading and writing and the lifelong benefits that they bring. Our aim is to build a literate, connected and creative society."

On their website, you can read interviews with authors and illustrators. You can look up winners and nominees for major literary prizes such as the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. If you’re having trouble deciding what to read next, you can find recommendations in Books We Like (an excellent way to discover new favourites that you might not otherwise have come across!).

For parents, teachers and children, they also have an excellent section for children’s books. A brilliant way to keep up with what's new and also a good source of information if you’re looking for some themed booklists! So, if you’re looking for books that feature Asperger’s Syndrome, good books to read aloud, books about bullying, or books to cover a whole host of other topics, then Booktrust can help!

Go on, take a look at the Booktrust website and discover something new!

Best of the Web

Image: Salvatore Vuono / Freedigitalphotos.net

With so much information available on the Internet it can be like searching for a needle in a haystack when you're looking for something specific. It's also difficult to judge the quality and currency of a lot of the information you come accross. This is where your SMU library can help you! Did you know that our library webpage has a listing of recommended websites that you can trust? We've done the leg work for you and made a complete A-Z listing of some of the best sites around...we've even divided them into subject areas for you! Here's just a small sample:

London 2012 Visit Britain Office for National Statistics Department of Health

So, if you're struggling to find your way through a maze of online information why not let us point you in the right direction!