In about 80 days NASA will land Curosity on Mars. Curiosity is a rover, which is like a scientific vehicle that will zoom over the surface of Mars and discover lots of new exciting things! In preparation scientists have been practicing on Earth with replicas (stunt doubles, maybe?) of Curiosity. They’ve been learning how to control and use the rover in deserts and ice caves and all sorts of weird and tricky situations. Try this game to see how you go driving Curiosity around.
We’ve got heaps of books about Mars in the library:
You can follow the Curiosity Misson online There’s heaps of facts, pictures, games and fun things to do.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Greg Heffley’s journal by Jeff Kinney
I like the “Wimpy Kids” books because they are awesome. 3 stars.
Review by Khaliah of Kilbirnie
We celebrated New Zealand Sign Language at our BookSeekers meeting this month – so much fun!
We were very lucky to have Erich from the New Zealand Deaf Association come along to teach us some simple sign language that we can use everyday.
Besides learning some basic signs like hello, thank-you, what and where, we also learnt to finger spell our own names. If you would like to learn how to finger spell check out the NZ Deaf Association for some great instructions.
We finished up with a game of hang-man but with a difference. We had to finger spell our letters so there was no talking. I pretty hard task at times but we had a lot of fun trying.
Check out our photos.
Come along to our next meeting: Thursday 14th June at 4pm.
The Anniversary Legends Series #1: Race at the Rock by Michael Panckridge
An awesome sports series from Michael Panckridge, the books follow a competition-crazed school called Sandhurst. The main rivalry is Mitchell against Travis. Each book centres around a different sport and I would recommend it to anyone who is sport frenzied. 4 stars.
Review by Samuel
BookSeekers news: last month we were sad to say goodbye to Zoe my co-presenter but the first item on the agenda this month was to welcome our new presenter, Vanessa. We also welcomed back one of our number, Heather who has amazing pins sticking out of her left arm. Hope it’s better soon Heather!
This month we had 18 BookSeekers at the meeting. We had fun creating some very cool new mythical creatures in our first game. Look out for the Rabeepua, the Zettephant, the Kigleep and the Crocphantos!
The kids also managed to name most of the mythical creatures in our guessing game, although some didn’t know what a Faun looked like.
It is always sad to see members move on and this month we farewelled one of our oldest members, Rachel, who is now at college. We will miss her witty reviews and enthusiasm.
Reviews of fantasy books were great with some wanting to talk about more than one. Here are links to some of the awesome books we reviewed this month – check them out!
Next meeting: June 12th at 4pm. See you there!
Have you ever wanted to read someone’s mind or make yourself invisible, or perhaps dive to the bottom of the ocean? Well all these questions and more are answered in 50 Amazing things kids need to know about Science.
Lets take something simple. Have you ever seen the back of your head? If you look at the back of your head using a mirror it is not the same as how other people see you.
When you look at something in a mirror, left and right appear to be swapped around. You can easily see this by holding up a book to a mirror – the writing you see in the mirror will be backwards. This means that the image of yourself that you see in the mirror is not the same as others see you. You can only look at yourself as other people see you by holding two mirrors at right angles to each other. Mirrors are great. You can use them to make a periscope so you can see around corners or over walls. This book shows you how.
So check it out and be prepared to learn lots of interesting stuff about science x 50!
Kia Ora Koutou BookBusters!
Our May session had a Most Mysterious MYSTERIES theme. We welcomed several new members to our group this month. We had a full and busy session.
We learnt how to access all kinds of information from the Libraries’ KIDS website. BookBusters detectives followed the clues and successfully completed the website quiz.
We looked at Mystery themed books in our libraries. We discussed the Mystery genre (what all Mystery books have in common) and we completed Mystery activities to do with these.
We just squeaked in time for a look at some of the new books in our libraries, as well as some excellent book reviews from our members. Keysha reviewed How To Survive Summer Camp by Jacqueline Wilson, Casper reviewed Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling and Joshua reviewed The Earth, a non fiction book. All three books were highly recommended by our reviewers.
Next week’s BookBusters theme will be MAGIC. Fairies, goblins, spells and enchantments as well as magic tricks and sleight of hand to AMAZE and ASTOUND your friends. Don’t miss it! Our next meeting is June 7th, 2012 4 -5pm Kilbirnie Library. Ka Kite Busters!
Seen the movie? Now read the book. Here are some great movies that started their lives as books:
Mr Popper’s Penguins Book and Movie
The Night at the Museum Book and Movie
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Book and Movie
The Hundred and One Dalmations Book and Movie
The One and Only Shrek! Book (on CD) and Movie
The Polar Express Book and Movie
The Lorax Book and Movie (well, this hasn’t been released on DVD yet. But it will soon…)
Here are some of the great books the Johnsonville BookBusters have been reading in the last month.
Noah has been reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It tells the story of Greg’s first year in high school and Noah loves the part where they play a trick on Greg, saying if your hand is bigger than your face then that is a sign of low intelligence.
Adian has been reading a book about Disasters. It includes all types of disasters from train and boat wrecks through to natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and storms. He really enjoyed reading all about the Titanic disaster.
Satine as been reading Hannah Montana – Face Off. She really loves this book and it is the second time she has read it. She loves the bit about Hannah not wanting to go to camp because she has a big pimple on her face.
Snigdha has been reading Matilda. Snigdha really enjoys Roald Dahl and Matilda is one of her favourites. She has read this story twice. Matilda is a genius – when she was 1 ½ she could talk like us and when she was 3 she could read the newspapers but her parents thought she was an idiot.
Navneet has been reading Meet the Humansons which is from the Freak Street series. This book is about a family who are very dumb – they think the police are hairdressers. The come across a zoo who are giving away their animals. They think the zoo is a pet store so they decide to take a killer whale home as a pet.
What an eclectic (random and mixed up) selectionof new books we have for you this month! And every one of them a great read.
Get Cooking!
I should not be reviewing this book just before lunch! The recipes are amazing and the photographs make the yummy food look so easy to cook. Lemon and lime cake, pancakes and pizzas. Where to start? My favourite is Fridge cake. In my childhood we used to call it fudge cake. Delicious whatever you name it!
My First Art Activity Book
I have never made bubble wrap bunting, surf board pendants or printed boot bags but now I really, really want to. The ideas in this activity book are so cool and most of them seem pretty easy so I am going to try them. Check this book out and you can have fun being creative too.
Titanic
This year is 100years since the Titanic sank, so of course we have had lots of new books about this amazing ship and its demise. This is one of the smaller books great for the intermediate reader. Learn heaps and have fun flicking the pages to get a flipbook animation of the sinking!
Helicopters
Discover the cutting-edge technology and innovative designs which feature in the very latest helicopters. Whether it’s the Super Stallion CH-53E that can fly 2,000 kilometres without refuelling and then can even refuel midair, or the CH-47 Chinook that can carry 46 people, helicopters are amazing machines. If you are interested in machines with huge engines then you will love this series. Motorbikes, Tanks and Miltary Vehicles, Trucks and Warships are other great books in the Ultimate Machines series.
Skylanders
“The ancient Portal Master Eon has sent out a plea for help. With your Portal of Power, an army of Skylanders, and this guide, you have everything you need to answer his call and take down the dark forces that threaten the world.” (Book cover). Sounds easy doesn’t it! Learn everything you need to know about Skylanders; their Elemental type, their stats and all their powers and save our world now!
