The Year 5&6 kids at Russell Street School in Palmerston North have asked these questions; and they’ve written down what they think could happen if these characters ever met and had to battle it out. You can read all about it here.

The battles are:

Hermione vs Matilda

Zac Powers vs Nancy Drew

Percy Jackson vs Harry Potter

BFG vs Owly

You can vote for your favourite character.  How cool is this?

Nine great New Zealand authors are currently writing a fabostory online. The name comes from FAce BOok, but Fabo is also a slang word for fabulous which this is too.

If you have enjoyed stories by Fleur Beale, Brian Faulkner, Maureen Crisp and Fifi Colston and other great New Zealand writers you might want to check this out.

The story starts here with Kyle Mewburn’s first chapter. Then each author writes a chapter in turn. They invite you to write a chapter too – you could win prizes and even have your story published online!

The creator of The Muppets stars in this video that shows you how to make puppets out of stuff you have lying around the house, potatoes, socks, envelopes…How cool is that!

For more Muppet mayhem these holidays there are some great Muppet craft books, or you could watch Muppet DVDs (Films and the original TV series).

These birds are so precious that they have a dedicated team of people who work around the clock to help save these amazing creatures.

Here are some interesting facts about the Kakapo that you might not know:

They are the world’s heaviest parrot.

Their feathers are very soft because they don’t need them to be strong and stiff for flying.

Kakapo don’t talk, but they growl like a dog, boom like a bullfrog, and ching like a cash register.

Their feathers smell strongly of honey.

They climb high in trees using their massive feet and beaks and to get back down they jump with their wings spread.

They can live for up to one hundred years.

If you would like to learn more about these birds then take a look at Kakapo Rescue – Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot.

All you have to do is go to our digital audiobooks page , download the Overdrive software, and that’s it. You can start searching the children’s fiction collection for the books you want to listen to these school holidays.

How cool is that!

You can see him or her (they don’t know yet if it’s a female or a male)  by visiting this kiwicam 

While you are there check out the FAQ sheet on kiwis. This is a great site with lots of cool information about all sorts of animals from all over the world.

Have you ever wondered about how they make the cool pop up books with animals and pirate ships and pyramids and things like that? Well, this website teaches you how to make your own pop up animals, castles, angels… there are heaps to try, some of them look super challenging but I think I could give the rabbit a go.

Check out how you can use the databases to help with homework at mygateway.info to find information from magazines, newspapers and reference books such as encyclopaedias online by entering our competition. This is a great place to get information for your homework and projects and much of it can’t be found easily through the internet.

Find out more by going to our website and clicking on the mygateway.info competition link to answer two easy questions – the competition closes on 29th September and all you need is a current Wellington City Libraries card to enter. All the best!