Kids Blog

Many of you will be happy to learn that we finally have our copies of Guinness World Records 2012.  Every branch has a copy but you may want to place a reserve as they are one of our most popular books.

Australian Andy Griffiths, the author of many hilarious books, like the famous The Day My Bum Went Psycho, is visiting Wellington!

His last visit in 2010 was a big hit with fans, so don’t miss out on this visit. Andy will be at the Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie at 4-4.30pm on Tuesday May 8th – that’s tomorrow. Bring your books along for him to sign (or buy some there – it is at a very good bookshop afterall!)

Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones – Full of mischief and magic, this is a wonderful story that is a little bit creepy and a lot entertaining!  Earwig is a little girl who lives in an orphanage, St Morwald’s Home for Children where she is very happy because everything runs just as she likes it.  One day Earwig is sent to live with a very odd couple, Bella Yaga and the Mandrake.  Earwig is made to work very hard by the woman who turns out to be a cruel witch.  But Earwig is clever and cunning, with the help of a talking cat, she conspires to teach herself magic spells in secret.. and teach that mean Bella Yaga a lesson while she’s at it!

The Chimney Corner Collection by Enid Blyton - A wonderful collection of short stories full of fantasy and magic; mischivous gnomes, talking animals and curious kids.  The great thing about these stories are that they are short and sweet; they don’t take long to read but there are plenty to keep you going.  One of my favourites was about a silly little pixie named Miggle who liked to snooze all the time.  So much that one day he over-slept, missing a very important visit from the King and Queen.  But you will never guess what happens next!  His bed decides to wander to the Royal parade in the middle of town with Pixie Miggle still fast asleep in his pyjamas!  Oh dear..

Whoopsey-splunkers! Today is the 30th birthday of Roald Dahl’s splendiferous book The BFG.

We have a few different ways you can get the BFG from your library. There is the book, of course, or you can listen to the story on CD, or even act it out yourselves with the BFG play. What about downloading it? Grab The BFG as an eBook or audio book from our website – I wonder if the BFG ever dreamed of doing that?!

Roald Dahl has a great website that you really should visit. You can find out all about Roald Dahl, his fabulous books, play games, do activities, enter competitions. You can even find out about Roald Dahl Day (13 September – its his birthday) and get planning for some whoppsy-wiffling flushbunking gloriumptious piggery-jokery.

Scrumdiddlyumptious!

My fav Roald Dahl book is The Twits. What’s yours?

New Zealanders will be celebrating New Zealand Sign Language this week to help raise awareness of the New Zealand Deaf Community.

Did you know that New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) is one of our official languages and is unique to New Zealand. It includes signs for Maori terminology and concepts which you will not find in the sign language of other countries. There are hundreds of sign languages used around the world and they will all be different. There can even be a difference in sign language within New Zealand. For instance people in Auckland may sign slightly differently to people in Wellington.

One in six New Zealanders have some form of hearing loss and there are about 24,000 New Zealanders who use NZSL everyday.

You might like to check out the Deaf Aotearoa website where they have lots of information about NZSL. You can learn how to finger spell the alphabet or you might like to attend a free taster class in your area.

The library also has some books and DVD’s on learning NZSL or you might like to read about kids who have a hearing loss and what life is like for them.

In April we reviewed the animal stories we had read and took out fantasy books for next months meeting.  For our game we began some fantasy stories with animals in them.  The first line had been given to us and then it was all our own imagination!  Here are a few of our stories:

• Wow! A 3 three-toed sloth hanging from the branch of a … fig tree, but it was not an ordinary tree. It was a castle and then the thing vanished. (Theo)

• I could see the weeping crocodile out of the corner of my eye … It was the ugliest, most beastly thing I had ever seen in my life. I wondered if I could go deep enough to swim under it. Suddenly out of nowhere, another one appeared right in front of me and opened its ghastly mouth to bite me and … SLASH! I moved out of the way just in time but at the same time that also blew my cover. Now the other one had seen me and was after me! (Visaanth)

• As I poked my head through the earth, all I could see was a large foot above me … that looked almost as big as one of the giant rats in the sewers of Orion. I could hear growling; Animal growling. The black cheetah, for it soon became apparent that that was what it was. It moved and its foot and I discovered it was only my pet black winged cheetah trying to get me out of the hole. I got out and climbed onto him and we flew away towards the black jungle. When we landed we trekked for an hour and then entered the gates of Orion. A giant rat squeaked and tried to bite my leg but I dodged nimbly aside and it crashed into the city wall. Suddenly I was surrounded by a circle of archers. In ten seconds, five volleys had been fired. Suddenly a hole opened in the ground below and I fell down to the depths of the sewer… (Andrew)

• The creature’s little ferrety nose twitched as it stared at me … I picked up the mouse then suddenly the world grew bigger! The suddenly I was the size of the mouse!  “What! How did that happen?” I asked the mouse. “I want you to follow me” replied the mouse. “What! You spoke!” I screeched. “Just follow me” said the mouse calmly. “Oh” I replied. So off I went after the mouse. It took me to an underground hollow where it opened up into a village of talking mice. “You have arrived” greeted the mice. “Uh I don’t know for what?” I replied uneasily. “From the evil cat” answered the mice. “A cat!  Easy. I’ll do it” I replied confidently and off I went to catch the cat. Up a mountain I climbed to a big castle with a big rusty gate. In I went. I found Claws, but he had magic powers and he knocked me aside. Then just as he was about to kill me, lightening shot out of my hands, right into Claws, destroying him. I had won. I went back to the mouse village and I was greeted by cheers. I was a hero. I had saved the mouse village or had I… (Megan)

• As if from nowhere, a small creature appeared at the cabin door, holding a … lolly pop. He winked his tiny eyes at me. In an instant we were gone. I slapped myself in the head, wondering if I could have imagined the whole thing. The next day it hit me, it all must be magik. Magik of a sort so rare, that it had never been recorded in this world before. I’m smart. Too smart to know that things like this don’t happen by accident. They happen for a reason. And I will search for the reason as long as it takes, which ever paths it will lead me and whatever dooms shall befall me. I am smart, so I’ll survive! (Amy)

• The day my doormouse packed his bag and left home … I felt really happy. He left me a note saying “I’m running away” but it was in invisible ink so I couldn’t read it. I couldn’t sleep. All I thought about was Fred. I felt sad for him. I got out of bed and tried to look for him; then mum saw me and pinched me. Then it hit me, it was only a stupid old dream! (Josh)

And here are some of the books we read:

On 25 April 1915 during the First World War, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces landed in Gallipoli. On this date we continue to remember the efforts of Anzacs who fought in both world wars. This year’s New Zealand Book Awards nominee Nice Day for a War: Adventures of a Kiwi Soldier in World War l by Matt Elliott and illustrated by Chris Slane gives us an insight into the life of a soldier, from their uniform to their standard issue riffles.

 The New Zealand Defence Force is running a poster competition for year 7 and 8 students. This year they would like students to focus on what happens on Anzac Day in their local community. All entries must be in by ANZAC day. To find out more information about the competition check out the NZDF website.

Libraries will be closed on ANZAC Day, but you could go along to an ANZAC Day service near you instead.

The New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards festival week is nearly upon us. This week is your last chance to vote for the Children’s Choice Award – your chance to pick your favourite book to win. But the best news is that you could win too! Your vote gets you the chance to win book vouchers for your school library -pretty awesome! Vote online today.

This Friday (April 20) is the 90th annual Poppy Day Appeal, and the following Wednesday (April 25) is ANZAC Day. The donations raised from Poppy Day help people and their families who have returned from war. It helps with things like medical bills.

ANZAC Day is a public holiday. It’s a time to remember all New Zealanders who have been killed in war. Some people sleep in on ANZAC Day, and some people get up when it’s still dark to attend a Dawn Service. Wherever you are in New Zealand there will be a dawn service somewhere near you.

A.J. Toledo has written a really interesting book called Wearing the Poppy. She tells the story of ANZAC day through the experiences of 6 members of her family who fought at Gallipoli in WWI. She explains why the red poppy is a symbol of remembrance throughout the world.

A short video on how books used to be made. Pretty amazing!

Birth of a Book from Glen Milner on Vimeo.