Kids Blog

But why can’t I? / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.

George thinks rules are silly and refuses to keep them. Find out what happens when his babysitter arrives. Does he change his mind?

Not fair, won’t share / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.

Posy, Ben and Alfie have to share playing with a superdooper space station but Posy doesn’t want to share. Do the others get their turn? Read and see.
Who feels scared? / written by Sue Graves ; illustrated by Desideria Guicciardini.

Jack is having a sleepover at his house but he and his friends all hear noises and get scared. How does his father come to the rescue?
The Masai : tribe of warriors / written and photographed by Jonathan and Angela Scott.

Cattle are the centre of life for the Masai people of Kenya and Tanzania. In the past, young men would raid cattle to prove themselves as warriors and have to kill a lion with only a spear. What do they have to do today? Read this great book to find out and enjoy learning about a totally different culture. Great photos and easy text make this a great read .
Footballers / Adam Sutherland.

Did you know that Wesley Sneijder’s coaches blew a whistle and stopped training every time Sneijder touched the ball with his right foot? This was to help him practise with his weaker left foot. Learn heaps more about today’s greatest footballers from around the world in this new book. We also have other titles in this Celebrities Secrets series; Film Stars and Pop Stars are two of them.

Musical instruments for children : choosing what’s right for your child / Richard Crozier.
This book is really to help your parents understand why you want to learn a particular instrument, the kettle drum for example. It gives them advice on what really is the best instrument for your personality and all the tips on how to keep you motivated till you’re a world class performer!

Anti-terrorism campaigns.

If you’re studying terrorism and are year 8 or older then this book will be a great help. It focuses on USA campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and is written from the American perspective. Crammed full of facts with lots of maps too. The text is best suited to advanced readers.

The AWW cooking school for kids / food Director, Pamela Clark.

Another wonderful book to get you cooking! Mouth watering photos of every recipe and the steps involved make the cooking easy. My favourites are Caramel Banana Tart and Chicken and Mushroom Party Pies. Yum!

Spotlight on South Africa / Bobbie Kalman.

Apartheid is no longer a law in South Africa. Some people have better jobs with more pay but many are still living in shantytowns. This book gives a good overview of the country as it is today, with easy text and lots of great photos. The glossary at the back helps you understand some of the words you may not know.  Good for projects. Look out for this SPOTLIGHT series as there are books on lots of countries you may want to study.

Life cycles / written by Sally Morgan.

If you want to know all about the life cycle of salmon then this is the book! There is a general section on  life cycles covering many insects and animals then the remainder of the book is about the North Atlantic salmon. Wonderful photos and pictures help explain the text.

Big book of big animals / Hazel Maskell ; illustrated by Fabiano Fiorin.

Open the huge fold-out pages to see some of the tallest, longest and heaviest animals in the world. Great little facts about each animal add to the interest of this book. Lammergeiers, for example are huge birds of prey that eat bones. They often drop bigger bones onto rocks to shatter them into smaller bite-sized pieces. Who knew?

Children of the Dust Bowl : the true story of the school at Weedpatch Camp / Jerry Stanley ; illustrated with photographs.
This book is for older readers. It starts by describing the conditions of the  farmers and settlers during the drought of  the 1930s. Lots of photos help us understand the desperate conditions that drove them to travel across the country to California. The remainder of the book focuses on the efforts of Leo Hart, who founded  Weedpatch School.  The children from the dust bowl states, (Okie children)  actually helped build it. Throughout are songs and stories from people who survived. They tell of the filth and heat and dust, of the meals of coffee grounds and apple pips, and of the prejudice and poverty encountered in the California promised land.  “A powerful account of a desperate time” (Book cover)
How to do everything / written by John Woodward ; contributors, Francesca Baines … [et al.] ; illustrated by Tobatron.
How to do, make and explore just about everything! How to Do Everything is a fantastic and unique combination of reference material, fun facts, exciting activities and instructions for life. It covers everything from boiling an egg to making a movie so you’ll never be stuck wondering what to do again! So what are you waiting for? Get Busy!  (Book cover)
How to beat your dad at chess / Murray Chandler.

This is a chess book for everyone, from eight to eighty, beginner to master. It explains the best ways to beat a stronger opponent by forcing checkmate. So if you want to do the Double Rook Sacrifice or the See-Saw or the Arabian Mate check out this book.

Have you heard about Mark Inglis?  The man who in 1982 had to spend thirteen and a half days huddled in an ice cave near the summit of Aoraki Mount Cook during a major storm.

The frostbite that he suffered during that time cost him both his legs below the knee but this did not hold him back. After being fitted with new artificial legs he went on to climb the highest mountain in the world – Mt Everest.

High-Tech Legs on Everest is a great story about everything Mark went through to achieve his goals included a day by day account of his climb on Everest with lots of interest bits he found along the way. And let’s not forget about those amazing high-tech legs that got him there.

Although Shakespeare is most famous for his playwriting now, in Shakespeare’s time, poetry was much more well-regarded. Shakespeare wrote two long-form poems, and over ten years he wrote 154 sonnets. Sonnets are poems that have 14 lines, and a set rhyme structure.

No one is exactly sure how many plays Shakespeare wrote, but 37 have been decided by scholars as having been written, or co-written, by him.

Shakespeare’s plays can be divided into the following categories: tragedy (ends unhappily, nearly everyone dies); comedy (usually has a love-story and a happy ending); History (tells the story of real people).

Shakespeare used a huge vocabulary when he wrote, with over 25,000 different words in his poems and plays. 2000 of those words are recorded as being used by Shakespeare for the first time, so perhaps he made them up! A lot of those words are words which we still use today.

For more information about Shakespeare visit the library catalogue here. If you want to read something he wrote, or stories based on Shakespeare’s plays, then have a look at this list.

In 1585 Shakespeare was living in Stratford-upon-Avon, and in 1592 he was working as a writer in London. What happened in the seven years in between? No one knows. This period in Shakespeare’s life is known as the “lost years” or “missing Years.”

There are several ideas as to what Shakespeare may have been up to in that time. Some of those ideas are: Shakespeare worked as an apprentice glove maker for his father; Shakespeare studied law; Shakespeare was a teacher; Shakespeare joined the army; Shakespeare went on a voyage exploring the ocean; Shakespeare travelled, perhaps to Italy. We may never know for certain.

To find out more about William Shakespeare, see the websites about  him linked from our Kids Catalogue.

Ever wondered what it was like when Captain Cook was sailing around? Want to understand Ancient Greece? History is fascinating…… battles, glorious empires, revolting revolutions, monstrous monarchs and so much more….. Chart the progress of World War 2 from inside a bunker. You will love Take me back. Read this book and become a history pro!

Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t just a painter: he liked gadgets, and he drew incredible flying, war and nautical machines. You can see these incredible inventions come to life at the Leonardo da Vinci Machines Exhibition, which is on at the New Zealand Gallery of Fine Art. Check out the website – it’s got photos of the exhibition, and they look really cool.

Ticket prices are $12.00 for adults and $8.00 for children, but there are family passes too. It’s worth a look!

Today is the 20th birthday of bungy jumping! 20 years ago people jumped off the Kawarau Bridge for the first time. People must have thought they were crazy, but we’re still doing it! The bungy cord was invented by AJ Hackett, check out this book for more information about him.

Check out this YouTube video:

Gavin Bishop has written some really neat books… you may know some of them. The house that Jack built, Little Rabbit and the sea, Mrs McGinty and the bizarre plant, Rats!, Stay awake, Bear!, and so many others. Guess what? He’s now written a book about when he was growing up. Find out about him! It’s called Piano rock : a 1950s childhood, I wonder why it’s called that?! I can’t wait to read it!

Elizabeth was born on September 7th 1533. This Royal Diary covers the year 1544 when she was 11. Elizabeth’s father King Henry VIII has just married his sixth wife – Elizabeth’s fourth step-mother! Elizabeth’s mother was Anne Boleyn. Anne married Henry in 1533 and three years later he had  her head cut off! (He married his third wife just eleven days later. What a brute!) Elizabeth has been banished to the country for most of her life but her kind new stepmother has convinced the King to let her come to Court. My favourite bit is when Elizabeth describes her ‘quite, no, very fat’ father being winched onto his horse by four servants and a crane. He is too heavy to get on his horse by himself and has ‘terrible sores’ on his legs that make them swell up. Yuck! Princess Elizabeth thinks it’s nearly as much fun as watching tournaments.