SCRIBBLE
15 Questions with
Miss Hale
Welcome to our second exclusive interview conducted for Scribble readers to find out about how literature has contributed to the Staff at Shrewsbury High School. Being such an influential person, not just for English as a subject, but for all members of the school, Miss Hale, our school librarian, is always there for any question you may have on any book you can think of. From poetry to biology, the Shrewsbury High School library has an amazing array of novels and textbooks to accommodate any subject. Therefore, we wanted to find out more about the person who has such wide-ranging knowledge about our school library, as demonstrated by her amazing celebration of World Book Day. As seen in Miss Hale’s answers, we have discovered even more about her ‘passion for Potter’ which is always prevalent in Book Club meetings that regularly take place across all year groups. However, even more surprising is Christie being taking as a preference over J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter due to it being ‘a long-lasting favourite’ of Miss Hale’s.
Q1
What is the best part of being a Librarian? One of the best parts of being a school librarian is helping pupils to find the right book at the right time that hopefully ignites a passion for reading in them. To recommend a book to a student that they become enthused by is pure job satisfaction! I also love helping students find the information they want and also the information they want but didn’t know existed.
Q2
What is your favourite genre of literature? I probably read more realistic fiction than any other genre, and I always prefer novels that are character rather than plot driven. I also seem to have a weakness for Scandinavian writers translated in to English, such as Per Petterson, Sjón, Arto Paasilinna, Halldór Laxness and Knut Hamsun.
Which author in particular has influenced your love of literature? One of the main authors whose books have continued to enthral and challenge me since childhood is Alan Garner. His novels all evoke a sense of place, time and myth, and two of my favourite books by Garner when I was at primary school were The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath. Both were published in the 1960s and are fairly traditional British children’s magical realism novels heavily
20
