We had the final meeting of our Excelsior Award graphic novel group today. The group has been a  great success, with the 8 books being issued to a total over over 80 different people since January! I currently have 58 feedback forms waiting to be sent off for the final judging, and all of the students in the group agreed that the award had encouraged them to read a wider range of graphic novels, or indeed provided the opportunity to try them for the first time! The responses to the 8 selected books have generally been good – a straw poll of today’s attendees suggested that ‘Captain America: White’ was the people’s choice, with ‘Clear Blue Tomorrows’ and ‘Audubon’ proving the least popular. We can’t wait to find out what all the other Excelsior groups across the country thought! We will be having another meeting when the results come out to celebrate our involvement (and eat some cake).

We used the meeting as an opportunity to dig out all of the graphic novels I have bought in the last couple of years (see pic above), and were surprised to find how many we had, and how popular they have been. The students are keen to keep the group going, so we will be widening out to a more general book group in the coming weeks and hope to participate in Excelsior again next year! Huge thanks to Paul Register (AKA ‘Bloke of Steel’) for organising the awards, and to Louise Burkett from Ribston Hall School in Gloucester, who gave me the idea to take part in Excelsior when we met at a librarian training event last year!

For more information about Excelsior, check out the website: http://www.excelsioraward.co.uk/, or contact me at jlees@wghs.org.uk.

Miss Lees