Kids Blog

Have you read the Redwall Series? Brian Jacques is a great author! Check out his website at: http://www.redwall.org .  His books are full of adventure, solving mysterious riddles and battling villainous foes in the daring underground. Join the creatures in their quest, their feasts and join them as they conquer the vermin, carrion and the dangerous Wytes. Check out the latest book in the series Doomwyte.

Did you realise there is a viaduct (a bridge over a valley) in France that is 19 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower?!!!! . Check out the photos and diagrams of this super bridge in Super Structures. This is another cool book from DK Books. You can also check out the tallest twin towers in the world, The Terracotta Army, Moscow Underground and many other places both ancient and modern.

Well apparently an elephant produces a mind blowing pongy 20 kilos of dung a day! How Much Poo Does an Elephant Do? is another book by Mitchell Symons that has lots of quirky, weird and wonderful trivia for you. I found this one fascinating: in India the term “man-eating” is only applied to tigers that have killed three or more people. Man-eating tigers are usually too old to capture wild animals. Isn’t that wild or what! So check out this book. If you like it then also try other books by the same author How to Avoid a Wombat’s Bum and Why Eating Bogeys is Good for You.

Hi book lovers! Here’s one you’ll really enjoy! This book is so good that it was read aloud at New Zealand’s biggest story time last year with many schools, libraries and LOTS of children across the country reading it all at the exact same time. Wow!

Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig by Diana Neild

Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig lives with his parents and eight siblings, all of whom have ordinary names of ordinary length. He doesn’t like being different ­– until Dad explains just how special Piggity-Wiggity really is.

Find out about this book (and many other cool ones) at the New Zealand Post Book Awards’ website

If you’ve read the Nicholas books by Goscinny you should check out the Nicholas website – it’s got some cool games and activities, including Cowboys and Miniature Golf (which I was about as good at as I am in real life), plus you can join the Nicholas club and get some free stuff. So who or what is Nicholas then? The website does a better job of explaining than I ever could. Make sure you check out the books in the library too!

I found a really, really cool looking book while I was putting books away today. It’s called Why eating bogeys is good for you. In my last post, I talked about jokes being funny when they have a punch line that takes your brain by surprise. Another way that jokes can be funny is when they are a little bit “naughty” or impolite. Polite boys and girls don’t talk about eating bogeys, do they? Especially around their grannies! But disgusting facts and stories can be so much fun. For example, one of my favourite stories is by Paul Jennings called ‘Little Squirt’ in Unmentionable: Disgusting!! But hilarious!

WARNING: be very careful with impolite jokes. Choose the right time and place to tell them otherwise you may get into trouble – and that is definitely not funny!

Hey guys check out this blog. This is a blog for kids with images, short stories, interesting contents and facts. Click on this link http://www.kidimg.com/.

The seas and channels of China and Southeast Asia were ideal for pirates. Small boats easily hid in the mangrove swamps along the coasts. Piracy was well established by 400 A.D. China and Japan often had to work together to stop the pirates.

The pirates became worse after European empires grew in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Pirates such as Ching Yih had over 500 ships. Ching-Chi-ling had a fleet of 1,000 ships. The fleets of the China Seas pirates were divided into squadrons, each with its own flag: Ching Yih’s fleet had red, yellow, green, blue, black and white.

The largest Chinese pirate ships were converted cargo vessels armed with 10-15 guns. They were too powerful for the Chinese navy to defeat them.

For hand to hand fighting, the traditional weapon for Chinese pirates was a long, heavy sword. Swung with both hands, the sword could even cut through metal armour. Japanese pirates used smaller swords, fighting with one in each hand.

The British navy destroyed the most notorious Chinese pirate fleet in 1849. By 1860 they had put an end to piracy in the China Seas.

Find out more.

Hey guys…do you like comic strips? Check out this site which has all the Peanuts strips EVER online! It’s called Comics.com. I was looking at a Peanut strip from 1950! We also have books on cartoons and how to draw them at the library.

Showtime! 30 New Zealand Stories for Children is a collection of 30 stories about children participating in a celebration of sorts or anything quite unusual. I had fun reading this collection because it had lots of different stories in one book. There are different kinds of occasions, like being on stage, in a wedding and even a baby party. We can relate to the characters in the stories because they feel happy, worried, shy and nervous just like us. Why don’t you give it a go and join in the celebration. Check it out in the children’s fiction area now.