News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Imagine you’re in the outback or in the clouds or just amuse youself with the antics of monkeys, diggers, bears and more.

It’s a miroocool! / Christine Harris & Ann James.
“How does the tooth fairy find your house if you live in the outback of Australia? Audrey is determined that he will and leaves directions and maps outside for the tooth fairy to follow but when a dust storm and various animals scatter them she worries that he will never find her tooth.  A nice tale of outback life with colours that evoke the desert and heat.” – (Staff Member) 

Demolition / Sally Sutton ; illustrator, Brian Lovelock.
“….Sutton’s rhyming text has an imperative, chanting quality that’s a perfect fit with the subject matter: “Swing the ball. Swing the ball./ Thump and smash and whack./ Bring the top floors tumbling down./ Bang! CLANG! CRACK!” Lovelock sticks to largely schematic characterizations of his human crew so that he can focus on the machines themselves; an excavator chomps into a building (”Dinosaurs had teeth like this!”) while a crusher makes “new concrete from the old.” The bright red and yellow vehicles (which are also recapped in a glossary) pop out from the dappled and speckled blue-hued settings, and Lovelock’s crisp ink line delineates rivets, hydraulics, and heft. It’s clear that for all the pointing and switching and even driving that humans do, the real magic is in the ruthless efficiency with which these engineering marvels collide and gnaw into a hapless structure.” – (adapted from Publisher Weekly summary)

Goran’s great escape / Astrid Lindgren ; Marit Törnqvist ; [translated by Polly Lawson].
“First published in Sweden in 1991, this tale is an unusual hybrid about a Swedish family, a prize bull, and Easter. Goran is a huge, good-natured bull that lives in a barn with rows of cows. For some unknown reason, on Easter Sunday he is in such a bad mood that he decides to escape. The whole family of eight chases him, and people come from miles around to watch the drama. Karl, a young farm boy, placates Goran by scratching him between his horns and leads him back to the barn, becoming a local hero…” – (adapted from Booklist summary)

All monkeys love bananas / Sean E Avery.
“All monkeys love bananas right? Not Lou who has decided he can’t eat another so he runs away to find something better to eat but will it be tasty? A funny book with great rhyming text and superb illustrations complete with furry monkeys on the cover.” – (Staff Member)

Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum / [written and illustrated by] Terri-Rose Baynton.
“Lintfrey Longfellow would love nothing more than to sit among the clouds… But sadly, clouds just aren’t made for sitting on. Can Mr Bear Branches find a solution to Lintfrey’s cloud conundrum?” – (adapted from Book cover)