eLibrary

Using your library – from home!

Merritt

With our libraries closed while Wellington is at Alert Level 4 we thought it would be a good idea remind you about all the ways you can still use your library from the comfort and safety of your own home – we’ve got you covered!

We have so many really cool resources available in our eLibrary! If you want to have a browse yourself you can check our our Kids’ Guide or have a look through what’s available on our Kids’ Home Page, or just read on…

Stories and Storytimes

If you’re after a book to read, look no further than Borrowbox or Libby. These apps are both free to download – just log in with your library card number and PIN and you’re away! These two have plenty of eBooks and eAudiobooks to keep you occupied on a rainy day at home.

If you’d rather listen to someone read you a story we’ve got more options for you! You can listen to great stories being read aloud by Australian and New Zealand storytellers through the Story Box Library, or you can try out something interactive with the TumbleBook Library. It’s the same deal with these – just log on with your library card!

We also have a whole lot of virtual storytimes from our own librarians available through our Facebook page. Check out the Virtual Storytime and Bedtime Storytime playlists for some great stories we recorded last year.

Things to do

If you’re after a challenge, read through our collection of Family Lockdown Challenges! These are full of exciting activities and ideas for you to do while at home. If you do any of the challenges (particularly the Book Domino Challenge!) be sure to tag us in any photos or videos you take on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Our Kids’ Club Book Reviews are still up and running, so you can start earning prizes by writing book reviews! We’ve got a great post here with some tips about how to write a fantastic review. When our libraries are open again you can come on in and collect a plethora of prizes – how cool is that?!

If you’re missing Baby Rock ‘n’ Rhyme or CRAFTerschool go check out the Johnsonville and Tawa Library Facebook pages! If you go through the Videos tab on each page you can easily find the recorded Baby Rock ‘n’ Rhyme sessions from last year, as well as some wonderful craft tutorials.

How adorable are these hedgehogs – and you could make one yourself!

Movies and TV

If there’s someone in your household with an adult library card they’ll be able to access our online streaming services – we have two! Beamafilm and Kanopy are both free to use.

Kia kaha, stay safe, and we look forward to seeing you again in person on the other side.

Dive Into Online Activities with Your Favourite Authors!

Sue Jane

As we move into Level 3 of the nationwide lockdown, I was curious to know what some authors were doing with their time. I decided to do some online searching, and it was fascinating! Not only are there some very creative authors out there, but I also kept getting side-tracked by all the other groovy stuff that’s being created and shared online at this time. It reminded me of diving into a very deep swimming pool of creativity.

Maybe you could “go swimming” yourself, with a parent or caregiver on hand to keep you safe online of course!

Here’s some of the great activities and webpages I discovered, so this might be a good place to start your swim:

Dav Pilkey – author of Dogman and Captain Underpants books and so much more has created a fantastic lockdown activities page, Dav Pilkey At Home, on the Scholastic Books website. This page is chock full of videos, activities, and things to draw, read and write to keep you occupied during lockdown. While you’re checking out Dav Pilkey At Home, why not read Dav Pilkey’s books online through our eLibrary?

Overdrive coverOverdrive coverOverdrive cover

Fifi Colston is not only an amazing NZ children’s author, but she’s a wonderfully creative artist as well. Check out her Fifi Colston Creative Pandemic Resources page for a huge range of really creative craft activities you can do with stuff you find at home. For example, see below for an incredibly cool project you can do with nothing but empty toilet paper rolls and a couple of other bits and bobs

Image credit: Fifi Colston – Pots of Love

Finally, don’t forget to check out local school websites as well. Wellington’s Raroa Normal Intermediate School library website has a very deep pool of at-home resources and activities to swim amongst, and it was here that I really started to swim down some side streams and waterways! They’ve aptly named their page Rāhui Resources.

Here are just a couple of pages I freestyled my way into from Rāhui Resources:

  • New Zealand Geographic magazine have put together an awesome Together at Home page with something new to explore in this beautiful country of ours for every day of lockdown.
  • And life just wouldn’t be complete without a few comics to enjoy. SJL.com (School Library Journal) have put up some free kids and teen comics for you to enjoy including the popular Cucumber Quest, Ozy and Millie and Wormworld Saga comic books.

Finally, just because… if you’ve got an iPad at home, why not try your hand at some blackout poetry:

Here’s my blackout poem using this Stuff News KEA Kids News article

Celebrating in lockdown,
Special day, cake, video chats
A happy family wish to you.
Our planet healthier
Growing native plants
In this unusual time.

Keep safe, and remember — wash your hands!

OverDrive Kids’ Reads – check them out!

Stephen Clothier

Hi everyone! Even though our libraries are closed at the moment, we still have thousands and thousands of books and audiobooks for you to read and listen to online through our Kids’ Reading Room on OverDrive! Awesome new titles are being added all the time, and we even have a special Book Club collection with unlimited loans, so they’re always available, no matter how many other kids have borrowed them! All you need is a Wellington City Libraries membership — click here if you don’t have a library card and would like to join online.

Here are some of my favourites from the Kids’ Reading Room:

Flunked / Calonita, Jen
Age range 10 to 14 
This is the first book set at the Fairy Tale Reform School, where all the teachers are former villains from classic fairy tales, like Cinderella’s Wicked Stepmother, and The Big Bad Wolf. It’s kind of like Harry Potter, but with less of the learning-how-to-use-magic-responsibly, and more of the learning-how-not-to-be-evil. Super funny, absolutely wicked, and with a cast of quirky characters you won’t soon forget, this is not a series you want to miss!

Women who dared : 52 stories of fearless daredevils, adventurers, & rebels / Skeers, Linda
Age range 8 to 14
There’s some awesome nonfiction (books about true stuff!) to be found on OverDrive if you know where to look, and this is one of them! Take a deep dive through history and learn about some of the amazing women who have made the world turn, but that you might not have heard of. Learn about the first woman to go into space (Valentina Tereshkova), the first woman to become a professional stuntperson (Helen Gibson), and many, many more. Go to the OverDrive Kids nonfiction browser here to find more books like this!

P is for pterodactyl : the worst alphabet book ever ; all the letters that misbehave and make words nearly impossible to pronounce / Haldar, Raj
Age range 6 to 12
This isn’t your average alphabet book, that’s for sure. In this book, we explore the wonderful world of the silent letters — the “k” in “knight,” or the “g” in “gnat” — that make spelling so, erm, fun. Pair it up with some beautiful illustrations and great wordplay, and you have the perfect concoction to soothe any word nerd as we all spend some more time indoors.

The witches / Dahl, Roald
Age range 8+
OverDrive is full to the brim with classics as well as brand new books, and this is definitely one of the classics! This audiobook version of Roald Dahl’s hilarious tale of magic, defiance, and a top-secret plot to unravel the plans of the Grand High Witch is sure to frighten and delight. Follow this link to find nearly 2,000 more children’s audiobooks to read and enjoy.

While we’re all staying inside, Wellington City Libraries has you covered for online entertainment with books, audiobooks, activities, games, learning resources, streaming video and movies, and more. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates on our awesome range of eResources, and visit MyGateway to explore them for yourself!

Happy New Year from us to you

admin

Happy 2020 bookworms!

What’s your reading goal this year? Is it to read a certain number of books, or try a new topic or author, or to challenge yourself with books that are harder than anything you’ve ever read before…? If you’re looking for some inspiration you could start with the Summer Reading Challenge, which still has almost four weeks left to go – plenty of time to read, review, and win prizes.

The Challenge also includes a Book Bingo with lots of fun reading challenge to tick off.

 

Our newly opened Johnsonville library at the Waitohi Community Hub has loads of new and cool events and activities for you. Check out the library event calendar to find out what’s on (select Johnsonville Library from the location list).

 

 

If you’re still on holiday and can’t make it to the library then make sure you get your reading fix at our eLibrary. You download heaps of eBooks and audiobooks, including Dogman, Harry Potter, Big Nate, Amulet, Captain Underpants, Goosebumps… and more!

 

The Big Kids eBook Read

admin

New Zealand has a long history of amazing children’s books, with many wonderful authors to  enjoy. Did you know many are also available to borrow through our eLibrary?

Over 3 – 9 December, we’ve joined with Penguin Random House New Zealand and celebrated Wellington author Kate De Goldi to provide unlimited eBook downloads of From the cutting room of Barney Kettle for The Big Kids eBook Read!

 

It’s easy to take part:

On a smart phone or tablet — download the Libby app to your smart phone or mobile device, add Wellington City Libraries as your library, and log in with your library card number and surname to set up your account. Search for ‘From the cutting room of Barney Kettle’ to borrow your copy and start reading.

Users of computers and eReaders, including the Kobo range of eReaders — you’re not left out! Find out more about borrowing our eBooks on our Getting Started with our eLibrary page.

 

From the cutting room of Barney Kettle won the Esther Glenn Award for Junior Fiction in 2016. Here’s what the judges for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, had to say that year:

“Surprising, gripping, heart-breaking and ultimately incredibly moving, this novel stood out right from the start. This book is packed with warmth, wonderful language, rich and witty observations, compelling characters and layers of message and meaning.”

And here’s an intriguing, mysterious blurb about the book to get your curious and interested:

“Meet filmmaker Barney Kettle, who liked to invent stories but found a real one under his nose.

Barney Kettle knew he would be a very famous film director one day, he just didn’t know when that day would arrive. He was already an actual director – he’d made four fifteen-minute films – but so far only his schoolmates and the residents of the High Street had viewed them. Global fame was a little way off. It would come, though. Barney was certain about that …”

For a taste of this award-winning title’s brilliant start, click on the eBook sample below:

 

Join us as we read this brilliant eBook title together across Wellington in December — at school, at home or in the library, we’ll all be reading together!

Huge thanks to Penguin Random House New Zealand and Kate De Goldi, for your support of The Big Kids eBook Read!

Merry Christmas from the Kids’ Blog!

admin

We hope you have a great Christmas holiday. Us librarians will also be taking a break and having a holiday too.

 

The libraries will be closed over the Christmas and New Year long weekends. You can find the opening hours on our website.

Library storytimes are also on holiday and have now finished for 2015. They start back on the 6th of January onwards.

 

Don’t worry if you haven’t managed to stock up on your holiday reading. Our e-library is open 24/7 throughout the holidays. You can download eBooks, eAudiobooks, comics and magazines to your device.

 

Don’t forget to write Kids’ Club reviews for your reading – there are lots of prizes up for grabs. And if you happen to read a title that’s on our Summer Reading Challenge list then you’ll go into the draw for an amazing prize pack drawn at the end of January.

 

We hope you have a fun and happy festive season. See you in 20161