Monthly Archives: September 2017

Hay Levels Series 3 launched

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Free video resources for A Level students!

World-leading writers and thinkers have joined together to launch the third series of Hay Levels: an inspiring, free series of educational videos from Hay Festival in which experts from a range of disciplines offer inspiration for A Level students, including Michael Rosen, Marcus du Sautoy, Laura Bates, Sarah Churchwell, Lawrence Krauss, Sir Nicholas Hytner, Colm Toíbín, Philippe Sands, Janina Ramirez, Anne-Marie Imafiddon, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Dr Kourosh Saeb Parsy, James Holland, Dr Helen Rappaport, Dr Gabrielle Walker, Dr Oscar Guardioula-Rievera, Gilliant Tett, Jerry Brotton, Alexander Todorov, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, Carlo Rovelli, Dame Nemat Shafik, Dame Athene Donald and Catherine Barnard.

Matched to current A Level subject curricula, Hay Levels are video masterclasses given by the world’s greatest teachers, thinkers and writers. From the black holes to the Great War to the big thaw, from Frankenstein to immunity to globalisation, and from sex to cosmology to crime; Hay Levels offer bite-size inspiration for curious students.

Videos will be released fortnightly throughout the school year on the Hay Levels YouTube channel (subscribe here) https://www.youtube.com/user/HayLevels and shared across social media (#HayLevels), supplementing the growing bank of content already available online.

Hay Levels is a joint collaboration between Hay Festival and Hereford Sixth Form College, in partnership with the Tata group, giving students open access to some of the most renowned experts in their fields.

The first release of videos this academic year features:

• Rosalind Rickaby on chemical equilibrium

• Lawrence Krauss on cosmology

• Marcus du Sautoy on algebra

• Sarah Churchwell on Edith Wharton

• Sir Nicholas Hytner on Hamlet

• Michael Rosen on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale

• Lord Digby Jones on profit

• Catherine Barnard on Brexit

• Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE on binary numbers

• Philippe Sands on international crime

• Peter Singer on utilitarianism

Now in its third year, the Hay Levels project was inspired after mathematician Marcus du Sautoy gave an impromptu masterclass to a group of A Level students on his way to speak at Hay Festival. Since then, speakers appearing at Hay Festival events in Wales and around the world have been invited to contribute to the growing bank of free resources online.

Highlights from the first two series of Hay Levels include: Sarah Churchwell on Gatsby; David Crystal on Pragmatics; Richard Dawkins on Irreducible Complexity; Stephen Fry on Exam Tips; Angie Hobbs on Platonic Ethics and Laura Bates on Rape.

Hay Levels is part of the wider Hay Festival education work, which includes free Schools Days programming, Hay Academy, and Hay Compass.

For more information on Hay Levels or Hay Festival, please visit hayfestival.org.

Full Details: http://www.sla.org.uk/blg-hay-levels-series-3-launched-.php

Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls

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Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally NichollsThrough rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote.

Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women’s freedom.

May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who’s grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.

But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?

Shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2018

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

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Moonrise by Sarah Crossan‘They think I hurt someone.
But I didn’t. You hear?
Coz people are gonna be telling you
all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.’

From one-time winner and two-time Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this poignant, stirring, huge-hearted novel asks big questions. What value do you place on life? What can you forgive? And just how do you say goodbye?

There is one certainty in Joe’s life: his brother is counting down the days on death row. So Joe is also serving time in Texas, where the grim processes at “the Farm” provide the only local industry. With help from the kindness of strangers, Joe takes on the justice system and rebuilds his fractured family.

Shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award 2017 and the YA Book Prize 2018

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

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A sophisticated, emotionally literate howdunit in The Talented Mr Ripley mould – The Guardian

From the author of the unforgettable New York Times bestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel–the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Praise for E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars

“Haunting, sophisticated. . . . Twisty and well-told.” –The Wall Street Journal

“[It] will leave you dying to talk about the book with a pal or ten.” –Parade.com

“You’re going to want to remember the title. Liars details the summers of a girl who harbors a dark secret, and delivers a satisfying but shocking twist ending.” –Entertainment Weekly

“An ambitious novel with an engaging voice, a clever plot and some terrific writing.” –The New York Times Book Review

“Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart, We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable.” –John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars