Welcome back!

It's our first post of the term - and we'd like to welcome all our regular readers, plus everyone else encountering the blog for the first time.  

The blog exists to promote and celebrate all aspects of books and reading at SPS.  Anyone can contribute - if you've read something brilliant, fiction or non-fiction, and you want to share it with the world, just send us your review (spsbookblog@stpaulsschool.org.uk) and we'll happily publish it. We also publish creative writing, articles about writers and writing, plus the occasional quiz. And we have an extensive range of booklists (which we're always keen to update, so please send us suggestions if a book you particularly admire could be added).  

Our Tuesday post is our regular 'book of the week' slot, and without further ado, here is our first recommendation of the term, generously contributed by the school librarian, Mrs Cummings. 

Green Rising by Lauren James

Set in a near-future this is a surprisingly upbeat novel about climate change. It follows Gabrielle, who becomes the first teenager to be able to grow plans from her skin. She becomes a climate change activist, fighting for the future of a world being destroyed by the use of fossil fuels. As other teenagers develop the ability to generate plants they form a pressure group with the power to re-write the global economy.

Green Rising has short chapters, a fast-moving plot and is a very engaging read. It is a passionate argument for a response to climate change, even including a reading list at the end of the book. The author is adamant that it is not a dystopia, and it feels too hopeful to really be one.

Green Rising is one of the books on the Kayton Library's list of Fourth Form Book Recommendations for 2022: you can find the complete list here. 

And talking of lists, and in a week with no shortage of extraordinary announcements, this evening sees another dramatic and eagerly anticipated revelation after a long summer of campaigning: yes, it's the Booker shortlist! At around 7 pm, this year's judges will announce the six novels that will battle it out for this year's prize (and you watch it streamed live on their website here).

The longlist is a fascinating one - it includes the shortest novel ever nominated, a novel by the youngest author ever nominated, and another by the oldest (living legend Alan Garner) - but will any of them make the final cut? And if they do, will they deserve to win? This is where YOU can get involved, via this year's 'Predict the Booker Prize' evening. Six intrepid Pauline readers will each select one of the shortlisted books and attempt to persuade the audience - live and streamed - that their candidate should win the prize. Will the SPS audience get it right? Their success rate so far is ... non-existent. But there's always a first time!

You can find coverage of our previous 'Predict the Booker Prize' events here (2021), here (2020), here (2019) and here (2018). If you'd like to be one of this year's debaters, speak to Mrs Cummings, or any member of the English Dept. The library has all the longlist books - so as soon as the shortlist is announced, turn up, pick your book, and start reading ... have fun!