Paul Jennings’ trickiest stories is a special collection of Paul’s trickiest stories with unexpected twists and turns: a book that you won’t be able to resist! Here’s a sample:
It was upside down and he was carefully coating it with red. His favourite colour. ‘Gavin,’ I yelled. ‘It’s me.’ He kept on painting. He couldn’t see me. I had the glasses on. It was a one-way thing. There was no way I could get his attention…
Have a read and let me know if you like it!
Early sailors had limited navigation skills. Pirates mainly found other ships by waiting on known trade routes.
To know where they are, sailors use latitude (north and south distance), and longitude (east and west). They could estimate their latitude from the position of the sun in the sky, but longitude was more difficult.
The magnetised needle of a compass always points north so pirates used it to work out their location. Pirates would work out their longitude by seeing which direction was north and then guessing how far they had travelled east or west.
Pirates made compasses at sea by stroking a needle against a naturally magnetic rock called a lodestone.
Having a compass helped, but the most useful of all was a sea chart. Spanish ships had charted much of the “New World” coast early in the 16th century. With a chart it was easy to plunder the wealth of new coastline areas. Pirates called books of charts “waggoners.”
Telescopes were also very useful. Even if pirates could not see land, they could still judge their direction and distance by looking at the clouds and sea birds.
Read this book for more.
Does money really make the world go round? Who discovered money and why is it so important? How is it made? Why do we need it? If these questions are in your head then you’d better have a look at this book aptly titled Show Me the Money by Alvin Hall. It is full of interesting facts about money and simple explanations about how money affects the lives we live in and how you can make it work for you as well.
Abracadabra, alacazam! Pull some magic out of your hat with this guide to the best card tricks around – Magic Handbook Card Tricks. Astonish your friends by knowing which card they have chosen. Learn how to do a false shuffle and baffle your audience with the ‘vanishing card’ trick. If you really love magic then you might like to check out Magic Handbook Coin and Rope Tricks as well.
There was an old lady who swallowed a… no! You are wrong! She swallowed a bell instead! There was an old lady who swallowed a bell by Lucille Colandro and A pirate’s night before Christmas by Philip Yates written in pirate ’speak’ are some of the neat books that have arrived in time for the summer holidays! Pop into a library to find great stories for the holiday season!
Everyone at the kids’ blog would like to wish you, your family and friends a very happy Christmas! We look forward to you visiting lots in 2009 to find out about new books and what’s on at the library and around Wellington.
Little Miss Muffet is bored with her own nursery rhyme so she goes in search of a new one to be in! But before you can say “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”, the whole book of rhymes is thrown into chaos! Check out The great nursery rhyme disaster!
Did you know that average-sized kids have enough potential energy inside them to explode with the force of several hydrogen bombs? That is amazing – not that we want to see that happen of course. What about the Earth – have you ever wondered how heavy it is, or the oceans, why are they salty? Check out A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson to answers these great questions and heaps more.
Hey there, make sure you put in your vote for the book you think was the best one published in 2008! Voting closes on Christmas Eve (Wednesday December 24th) so make sure you go into a library near you and let us know what you think!
For more information on the 10 selections visit the Kids’ Choice page.
Hey, did you know that there are children’s books in our digital audiobook collection? You can download books to your PC or compatible MP3/WMA player (check with your parent if you’re not sure about this – the home page tells you more about this stuff) and then you can listen while sitting in the sun or the car…
The collection includes things like The Waterhorse by Dick King-Smith, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Volume 1, Prince Caspian by C S Lewis, My Sister Jodie by Jacqueline Wilson, Dragonsdale by Salamander Drake and much more. Here’s the complete list.
The best thing about the digital audiobooks is that there are no overdues: the books automatically return themselves after two weeks, so you don’t have to worry about them. Excellent!
