A project by the National Literacy Trust has scattered 50 book-shaped benches across London for the summer, each dedicated to a London-related book or character. Guardian Books has asked "Will you help us find them?" Here's one lovely submission on the theme of Peter Pan:
Have you been enjoying the great British seaside? Guardian readers have, and we've seen some enviable images – like this one from LouieButterworth taken in Southwold:
After the stories we received on mature pets, we decided we wanted to see and hear stories about your adopted pets. We received some touching stories and some gorgeous photography. We loved this picture of Bertie the cat:
And we didn't expect to see a guinea pig in the mix!
We felt recent events in Israel and Palestine were worth exploring, as the headlines probably don't tell the whole story. Though we understand the situation is very sensitive, we'd really like to hear perspectives from people living in Palestine and in Israel.
If you're having problems submitting to either of these assignments then you can email your contributions to guardianwitness@theguardian.com
Figures released by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge revealed British students from minority ethnic groups are significantly less likely than their white British peers to be offered places at Russell Group universities. We asked for your stories.
When it came to applying for university, we were all assigned a teacher who would write our reference for us and check over our UCAS application before we sent it...My teacher read it over my shoulder and quite literally ethnically cleansed it till my opening line was just ‘I am very interested in English Literature, and would like the opportunity to study it at your institution’.
Luckily though, I got into Manchester. There were a couple of other mixed chicks on the same campus as me. My entire first year was spent being called one of three names, either mine or one of theirs, so before I’d even met them I knew who they were, and they me, these supposed doppelgangers. It made me kind of defensive about being brown, the frequency with which we were mistaken for one another making me disproportionately frustrated with any semi-stranger who happened to have made an innocent mistake.
Not that Difficult
I went to the University of Manchester and I found that getting in wasn't that difficult. I am black and did the subject that many black people don't necessarily go into: Science. I found that even though in my degree there was only 2 black people, for me to get into the university itself was pretty straight forward.All I had to do was ensure that I got my A levels...
However, after graduating and despite coming from a 'Russell Group' University...jobs are hard to combe by..but thats another story entirely.
"Show us your North Korea memorabilia" we said, and submissions have already been incredible. There are some enviable North Korean stamp collections out there. This contribution from THBBFT caught our eye:
Have you ever taken a decent photo at a gig? Neither have we. But these are particularly special, and this image of Bob Dylan is about as uninteresting as it gets:
Check out the gallery of your hilariously bad gig photos – plus some helpful tips on how to improve them.
Did you take part in the public sector strike? We asked you to share your reasons for striking and your images from the pickets, rallies and protests.
New assignments this week
Boxkeepers: Is your home a graveyard of gadget boxes?
Creative reuse of petrol stations, garages and parking lots – share your pictures
