Kids Blog

Do you like listening to stories on the internet? The Radio New Zealand website has a whole bunch of New Zealand stories that you can download and listen to. You should check it out some time!

The ancient Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs, a form of picture-writing with 700 different symbols. Hieroglyphs were written by professional writers called scribes. They were deliberately difficult to write so that scribes could keep a special position in society. Hieroglyphs could be written from left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. They were written on state monuments, temples, and tombs.

For contracts, letters and stories, scribes wrote in script writing called hieratic. That was always written from left to right. Later an even faster script was developed called demotic.

Hieroglyphs were written on a type of paper called papyrus. It was made from cutting out the centre of the papyrus plant stem, and then cutting that into strips. The strips were then layered on top of each other, and covered with linen fabric to make paper.

In the year 6 AD the skill of reading hieroglyphs was lost until a stone was found at Rosetta in Egypt in 1799. On the stone was the same piece of writing in three different languages: Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphs. People were then able to work out what the hieroglyphic writing said.

Check out this book for more.

You know about James Bond, right? The ultra cool spy with the ultra cool gadgets and cars and the licence to kill. Well, Charlie Higson has written a series of five “Young Bond” books about James Bond when he’s at school. The official website says that Silverfin has “action, adventure, a terrifying villain and, of course, a beautiful girl.”

Have you read any of them? What do you think? Is it as good as Jimmy Coates and other books like that?

Shadrach Girl is an exciting end to Joy Cowley’s Shadrach series. It is the start of a new phase in Hannah’s life as she prepares for university and Eden’s continuing bond with Gladly, Hannah’s horse. It is a troubling time as Hannah’s mother is gravely ill and nobody knows how to help her. Will the spirit of Shadrach be powerful enough to help them reach a solution to it all? Would you like to find out? Then read on and join them in their last adventure.

There are lots of fabulous redheads in movies that you can get out from the library. If the one you want isn’t at your branch then just reserve it! Here’s a list of some of them, if you think of more please add them into the comments section.

• Ariel, The Little Mermaid which also has a sequel Return to the Sea
• Intelligent and independent Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables
• Courageous Jane and the Dragon
• Fiesty crimefighter Kim Possible
• From an old house in Paris, little Madeline
• Princess Fiona, wife of Shrek
• Russian princess Anastasia Nikolaevna
• Foxy Maid Marion in Robin Hood
• Wendy’s daughter, Jane in Return to Neverland
• Eliza in The Wild Thornberrys
• Dangerously flirty Lola (Angelina Jolie) in Shark Tale 
• Tigger and Pooh’s cute friend Darby in Super Sleuth Christmas Movie

On Sunday August 31 Te Papa is launching New Zealand Book Month with a day of fun events and activities for kids!

10.30-11.00am: Capital E National Theatre for Children - Kiwi Moon Puppet Performance

11.30-12.00pm: Joy Cowley’s award winning book Snake and Lizard comes to life

12.30-1.00pm: Dress up competition with Lynley Dodd (Hairy McLary)

1.30-2.00pm: Fifi Colston – craft and illustration for kids

2.30-3.00pm: Kate DeGoldi and Jacqui Colley present their popular Lolly Leopold books with readings and badge making

3.30-4.00pm: Mike Dickinson will teach kids great ukulele tunes for the Great Wellington Ukulele Off… so come along with your ukuleles!

Check out the NZ Book Month website for more information.

The Egyptians believed in an afterlife. When someone died they believed that the person’s “Ka”, or double, lived on. Therefore, the Egyptians would preserve a person’s body, so that the “Ka” could bring the body back to life in the afterlife.

The bodies of the dead would be embalmed. The internal organs, such as the intestines, stomach, liver and lungs, were removed and placed in jars called canopic jars. The heart was left in the body to be weighed in the afterlife. The body would then be dried out with natron crystals. Once it was dry, the body was wrapped in linen bandages.

Then the body could be placed in its coffin. If someone was wealthy, they could have several, highly decorated layers to their coffin. Pharaohs were placed in tombs with their canopic jars, weapons, clothes, furniture and jewellery.

For more on Egyptians check out this book.

Hi! This poll is for all you Olympics fans! Which sports have you enjoyed watching so far? Vote on our poll to let us know what you think. You could also comment on this post to let us know what your favourite bits have been so far!

p.s. you can also get to the poll from the kids homepage.

Elizabeth was born on September 7th 1533. This Royal Diary covers the year 1544 when she was 11. Elizabeth’s father King Henry VIII has just married his sixth wife – Elizabeth’s fourth step-mother! Elizabeth’s mother was Anne Boleyn. Anne married Henry in 1533 and three years later he had  her head cut off! (He married his third wife just eleven days later. What a brute!) Elizabeth has been banished to the country for most of her life but her kind new stepmother has convinced the King to let her come to Court. My favourite bit is when Elizabeth describes her ‘quite, no, very fat’ father being winched onto his horse by four servants and a crane. He is too heavy to get on his horse by himself and has ‘terrible sores’ on his legs that make them swell up. Yuck! Princess Elizabeth thinks it’s nearly as much fun as watching tournaments.

Library Week is coming up soon (18 to 24 August), and as part of Library Week you guys have the chance to let the country know what you think of kiwi books. You can register on The Lunch Pack website and review books through video, podcasts or just by writing… during Library Week the top 25 kiwi kids’ books will be announced!