Record breaking attempt to encourage reading

Colleagues at Carrickfergus College put their hands in their wallets to purchase a title for the school library during the annual book fair. In return they got their name on a special plaque inside the edition.

The Guinness Book of Records 2015 may not have been the obvious choice for the Head of English, but Mrs Apsley “bowed to substantial pressure” to purchase the popular ‘go to book’ in the library’s non-fiction section.

All staff - teaching and non-teaching - donated as part of the voluntary scheme designed to show pupils that the teachers care about literacy and have an interest in reading.

Mrs Evans sought advice from pupils and purchased the extremely popular ‘Maze Runner’ series of books. A sample of pupils questioned wanted access to these titles in the school library as the film has recently been released in cinemas.

School secretary Mrs Forsythe agreed to purchase the prequel to the series, ‘The Kill Order’.

David Walliams fan, Mr Scullion decided to donate the comedian-turned-author’s latest brainchild, ‘Awful Auntie’. His books, the college suggests, have a similar style to Roald Dahl and he even uses the latter’s illustrator Quentin Blake.

Miss Long donated Harlan Coben’s ‘Seconds away’ and Lois Lowry’s ‘The Giver’ (another recent film adaptation). These two novels are for the older pupils and “really appeal to the ‘young adult’ age group”.

Vice-principal, Mr Borland bought six of the hugely successful ‘Tom Gates’ series. Librarian Mrs Scott was reported to be delighted with this as “Liz Pichon’s books fly off the shelves, especially during year 8 library classes”.

The success of the book fair was due to the help of year 14 pupil Shannon Craney “who worked tirelessly throughout the week with library classes and encouraging purchases”.

As part of the initiative, there was a chance for pupils from years 8 to 10 to win their choice of a book from the shelves.

One of the successful participants, Jessica Clarke said: “The best thing was being able to choose whatever we wanted from the shelves because I have a very clear idea of what I like to read.”