Twilight Film Tops US Box Office

The film of Stephenie Meyer's book Twilight , directed by Catherine Hardwicke, has set a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a female- directed film in the US. It made $70.6m (£46m)!

Producers Summit Entertainment have already announced a follow-up to Twilight, based on the second in the series New Moon.

Find out more at http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Britain's Funniest Book

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend has been named as Britain's funniest book in a recent survey of over 2000 people, by Reader's Digest.

Find out which other books made the Top 10 at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3490952/Adrian-Mole-beats-Bridget-Jones-to-top-poll-of-funny-books.html

Booktrust Teenage Prize Winner 2008

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness has won the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize.

The award celebrates contemporary fiction for teenagers, and is judged by a mixed panel of adults and teenagers.

Amanda Craig, chair of the judging panel commented that "it made the judges laugh, cry and debate its contents with passion; a striking mixture of thriller, science fiction and literary tour de force, it's influenced by writers as diverse as Laurence Sterne and Ursula le Guin, and should appeal to a wide readership."

The book has also won the Guardian Children's Fiction prize this year.

Blue Peter Book Awards Shortlists

The shortlists are:

Best Book With Facts
Archaeology Detectives by Simon Adams (Oxford University Press)
100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet by Anna Claybourne (A&C Black)
Horrible Geography Handbooks: Planet in Peril by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips (Scholastic)

Book I Couldn't Put Down
Abela by Berlie Doherty (Andersen Press)
Shadow Forest by Matt Haig (Corgi)
Foul Play by Tom Palmer (Puffin)

Most Fun Story with Pictures
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton, illustrated by David Tazzyman (Egmont)Fleabag by Helen Stephens (Alison Green Books)
Lost! The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong (Puffin Books)

The winner of the Blue Peter Book Awards will be announced in the spring of 2009, to coincide with World Book Day.

Halloween Special

Why not try some of our favourite spooky stories and authors for Halloween - they are all available from the Library.

Junior Fiction

Tom Becker – Darkside series
Thomas Bloor – Worm in the Blood series
N.M. Browne - Basilisk
Rachel Caine – Morganville Vampires series HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Cassandra Clare – City of Bones/City of Ashes series HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Stephen Cole – The Wereling series
Joseph Delaney – Spook’s Apprentice series
Alan Gibbons – Legendeer Trilogy
Nick Gifford – Piggies
Anthony Horowitz – Horowitz Horror, The Power of Five series
Cliff McNish - Breathe HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Melissa Marr - Wicked Lovely HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight series HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Christopher Pike - The Last Vampire series
Books by Celia Rees
Books by E.E. Richardson
Sebastian Rook – Vampire Plagues series
Marcus Sedgewick – My Swordhand is Singing HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Darren Shan – The Saga of Darren Shan series, Demonata series HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Justin Somper – Vampirates series
Cate Tiernan – Wicca series HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Daniel Waters – Generation Dead HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Robert Westall - The Scarecrows
Scott Westerfeld - Parasite Positive


Senior Fiction

Books by Kelley Armstrong
Books by Joanthan Aycliffe
John Connolly - Nocturnes
Books by Stephen King HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Edgar Allan Poe - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Books by Anne Rice
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Bram Stoker - Dracula