The Reading Cafe

APPROX AGE RATING 11+

Welcome back to The Reading Cafe for a new season of awesome author interviews and riveting reading recommendations!

Matt Oldfield is a hugely popular author of non-fiction (Ultimate Football Heroes, Unbelievable Football) and fiction (Johnny Ball: Football Genius) books about... you guessed it, football!

His books fly off the library shelves and bring the lives of soccer stars into focus for young fans with interesting details of their journeys from "playground to pitch".

Listen to this superb interview to hear about Matt's "training routine" for writing, his approach to research and lots more, including his thoughts on the rise of women's football and the unsung heroes he'd love to see make their way into the Ultimate Football Heroes series. You'll also hear a reading from Matt and some half-time wisdom from two of our teachers from the Holy Cross High School PE team.

We have lots of amazing content coming up on this season of The Reading Cafe, so be sure to subscribe and please leave a 5 star review on the podcast platform of your choice!

Follow on X/Twitter: @ReadingCafePod

APPROX AGE RATING: 14+

Welcome back to The Reading Cafe for the second part of our interview with Comic King, Mark Millar!

In this episode, S6 Reading Leaders Ellie and Emma ask Mark about his opinions on the state of comic movie adaptations, his feelings about graphic novels finding their way into the classroom and lots more. It's a brilliant listen and we are very grateful to Mark for making time in his relentlessly busy schedule time to appear on the show.

Be sure to subscribe to The Reading Cafe on your podcast platform of choice as we have lots of exciting guests and shows planned. Also, please do leave a review if you enjoy what you hear, and follow us on Twitter at @ReadingCafePod to keep up-to-date with all our news.

As always... keep reading!

APPROX AGE RATING: 14+

This is the first episode of our two-part interview with Comic King and New York Times best-selling writer, Mark Millar.

Mark is the creator of the best-selling Marvel book of all time, Civil War, and his own Millarworld franchise was purchased by Netflix in 2017.

Listen to Mark talking about his writing process, his own heroes and advice for young people who hope to get into the comic industry.

Follow The Reading Café on Twitter at @ReadingCafePod

APPROX AGE RATING: 11+

Today’s episode arrives just in time for World Book Day 2023!

This is a discussion special in which our S1 pupils talk about Reading Resolutions, classic quotes, captivating covers & thought-provoking themes.

Also, listen to find out who we have lined up for The Reading Cafe as our next interview guest…

If you aren’t already following The Reading Cafe on Apple Podcasts/Audible, hit that subscribe button to make sure each new episode reaches you!

APPROX AGE RATING: 9-11

We ended the year on a high with our first Reading Cafe transition event, which gave Primary Seven pupils from St Bride’s Primary (Bothwell) and St John the Baptist Primary (Uddingston) the opportunity to speak to Adrien Prize nominee Aisha Bushby (A Pocketful of Stars/A Flash of Fireflies) about her writing process. This event was also the first to involve three S2-4 pupils as Junior Reading Leaders!

http://www.aishabushby.com

APPROX AGE RATING: 14+

🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃

Fittingly for our Spooky Season Special, our interview guest is Master of Horror, Darren Shan!

Darren is the creator of Zom-B, Archibald Lox and Cirque du Freak. His books are on sale in 40 countries in 32 languages and have sold 30 million copies worldwide.

Darren talks with our S6 Reading Leaders and S1-4 Shanfans about his inspirations for writing, his relationship with his readership and his advice for would-be writers...

APPROX AGE RATING: 12+

Welcome back to The Reading Cafe! In this episode, we speak to Robin Stevens, author of the award-winning Murder Most Unladylike series. This is a fantastic interview and it was wonderful to be able to give some of her Holy Cross High School superfans the chance to talk with her. Soon after this interview, Robin was awarded Blackwell's Children's Book of the Year 2022 for her new novel, Ministry of Unladylike Activity.

https://robin-stevens.co.uk/

APPROX AGE RATING: 13+

Welcome back to The Reading Cafe! In this episode, we're talking with S2 about graphic novels, dream memoirs and the secret diaries they would love to read... If you're thirsty for literary chat, our Reading Leaders are on hand to brew up some good book talk. If you haven't already, subscribe to make sure you don't miss a single episode and share The Reading Cafe with everyone you know.

APPROX AGE RATING: 12+

Welcome to the Reading Café – a brand new podcast from Holy Cross High School aiming to get people talking about reading. In each episode, we’ll be chatting with pupils about their literary dopplegangers, the villains they love to hate and the books they’d love to see make the transition from script to the screen. Be sure to subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode and share it with everyone you know!