Kids Blog

With the end of year upon us, celebrations were in full swing at the library as we had our final BookBusters meeting for 2011 and we farewelled our graduating members.  Our christmas party was filled with lots of fun, food and games but also some great reviews too (check out our recommended reads below).  Enjoy your holidays everyone and we hope to see you all in the library again soon!  – Theresa & Jesi

Johnsonville BookBusters had an explosive time at their special Fireworks session this month. We started our sessions by colouring in some wonderful fireworks creations.

We then shared some great book reviews and two of our BookBusters received their 6^th and 12 month certificates.

One of our activities was to create a fun poem. We had to think of words that relate to fireworks and start with all the letters in the word Fireworks.  Well done everyone  – we had some interesting, fun and sparkling poems to listen to.

We then finished with a speed jigsaw race to see who would be first to finish the fireworks sky.

Aidan read the book Car Mad Jack and it’s about a boy whose father owns a car supermarket.

Hannah had enjoyed reading The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Her  favourite characters are Silky the Fairy and Moon Face.

Joseph read Captain Underpants Attack of the Talking Toilets by Dav Pilkey. It’s about an alien ship that turned all the toilets into killer toilets. He found the book  funny.

Beatrice had just read Aunt Effie’s Ark by Jack Lasenby. It’s about how Aunt Effie’s house gets turned into an ark.

Max had just read Asterix and the Goths. Asterix and his friend had to break down the dungeon several times to get in. They also needed a pinch of salt to make soup.

Satine is currently reading the Doctor is In a Judy Moody series. She thinks it is a good book and she can’t wait to get to the end.

Nathaniel is currently reading Peanuts Treasury comic book and it’s about practicing how to say eeek!

Navneet had enjoyed Bestfriends by Jackie Wilson. It’s about Alice and her bestfriend Gemma and their great times together. 

Arianna liked Dora at Follyfoot by Monica Dickens. It’s about an old horse that gets rescued.

Tomasina had just read Fantastic Mr. Fox. It’s about Mr. Fox who’s trying to get away from the hunters.

Conor read the book Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. He recommends it to boys and gave it a quadzillion stars.

Michael shared the Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. He gave the book one thousand stars and said both boys and girls would like it.

Jack read the Magic Schoolbus at the Waterworks and says its a good non-fiction book because you get to learn how water is recycled. He gives it 20 million stars and recommends it to both girls and boys.

Jacob read The magic Schoolbus: Inside the Earth another non- fiction book. He likes the part where they saw giant ants underground. He gave it the all the number of stars he can think off and recommends it to all.

Gabriella is currently reading one of the Ramona Quimby series and recommends it to girls. She gives it a thousand stars.

Julianna had just read the Secret Seven by Enid Blyton and had really enjoyed it. She recommends it to everyone as well. She gives the book two thousand stars.

We had 15 very enthusiatic Bookbusters this November. While they were waiting they had the option of either, answering a Firecracker word search or a firecracker colouring in. We had a great start welcoming  our new bookbuster, Jacob.  Then Bookbuster Chief Fei, read the story The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman.

We then proceeded to do our book reviews and 7 Bookbusters shared the books they had read. Then we did a poem and story writing activity about fireworks. We had fun listening to what we had written as we read it out loud.

We then broke out into 3 groups and had a thrilling game of putting a firework puzzle together. We tried to beat each other’s time but in the end we all finished at the same time.  We browsed through the books in the booklist and issued the ones we like. Everybody had an explosively fun time!

This month we had a very special guest – local children’s book author and illustrator Ruth Paul.  We were very lucky to be given an inside look at how her picture books are created and Ruth also showed us some of the art she is working on for her next book – we’re looking forward to seeing the final product!  We began our session with some great reviews too – here are some of the books our BookBusters recommend:

The Secret of the Sirens by Julia Golding - This book is about a girl called Connie.  When she is at school, strange things start happening to her.  Some foxes start to follow her then she joins a group to fight evil spirits.  By Xandi

The Tygrine Cat by Inbali Iserles - This book is about cats and Egyptian mythology.  It is about a cat called Mati who finds out he is the Tygrine cat.  It is a very gripping book;  I couldn’t put it down!  By Xandi

Conor has just read Stink the Incredible Shrinking Kid and really enjoyed it. He recommends it to everyone and gave it a trillion star rating.

Phoebe read the book about the life of Jacqueline Wilson, a popular children’s fiction writer entitled Jacky Daydream. She likes it because it is about the childhood of Jacqueline Wilson.

Michael shared a book about the kid spy Alex Rider and found the book filled with adventure and mystery. He gave it 25 stars.

Our meeting this month was about “Stories from other countries” . We first welcomed Phoebe as our new Bookbuster. Then we had a Countries Quiz and National Costume Match-up Quiz. We read a folk tale  The Empty Pot by Demi from China. Owen and his brother Jason shared the pictures of their trip back to South Africa. They also shared an animal book with us from South Africa.   In the end, we looked through some fun stuff from other countries, including beautiful clothes from the Philippines, fans and Majiang Game from Japan and China, different dolls from other countries, like Russia, Japan, China, Greece, Mongolia,etc. As we looked through these fun stuff, we exchanged our knowledge about other countries as well. It was really a fun session. Thank you all for coming. Looking forward to seeing you next month.

Here are the latest and greatest that we have been reading.

Ashleigh has been reading One false note by Gordon Korman which is book 2 from the 39 clues series. Ashleigh likes how each book has a card which you use to discover all the clues.

Hannah had been reading Matilda by Roald Dahl.  She enjoyed the part in the story where Matilda uses her eye power to tip the glass of water over Miss Trunchbull but the best part for Hannah is when Matilda ends up living with Miss Honey.

Hemank has also being reading Road Dahl. He has just finished George’s Marvellous Medicine. This story is about how George trys to kill his grandmother with medicine but instead it makes her really huge.

Max has been reading the Stunning Science of Everything. He told us about the scientists who shrink themselves so they are able to travel through the human body. The problem is that when they come out they cannot return to their normal size and one of them gets eaten by a Venus fly trap. Oh no!

Satine has read Judy Moody: the doctor is in. This story is about Judy becoming a doctor. Satine said her favourite part is when the doctor puts a cast on her arm when she didn’t need it.

Arianna has been reading Cat Magic by Holly Webb. It is about a girl called Lottie who goes to the country to stay with her uncle. Her uncle has a magic pet shop and Lottie has a magic dog that she takes for a walk to the cafe everyday.

Here are some of the books the Karori BookBusters recommend this month:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - This book is about a girl who comes from an orphanage but she is a girl and not a boy (which is what the Cuthber’s had expected).  I think the story is for girls mostly.  I recommend this book for kids’ 8-10 years and I rate this book 4/5 stars!  Review by Helena

Esio Trot by Road Dahl -  This book is about a man who lives in a block of flats and he loves the woman (her name is Mrs Silver).  But Mrs Silver has all her love on her pet tortoise Alfie.  But then Mr Hoppy (the man) plays a trick on Mrs Silver and suddenly she loves him as well and asks if he could come down to her flat and Mr Hoppy asks if he could marry her!  She says yes.  The best part was when Mrs Silver said yes.  The worst part was when Mr Hoppy played a trick on Mrs Silver.  I recommend this book to 6-9 year olds, both boys and girls.  Rating 9/10 stars!