Bedtime Storytimes to Send You Off to Dreamland!

Because lots of children are back at school, kindy or daycare now that we’ve entered Level 2, we thought we’d change up some of our virtual events to suit people’s new schedules! So, our beloved Virtual Storytimes will now just be happening three times a week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10.30am, and Saturdays at 2.00pm), rather than six — but we’re also adding some special evening Bedtime Storytimes to help send you off gently to dreamland!

Every evening at 7.30pm, we’ll be sharing a few chapters from some of our favourite chapter books for you to listen to and enjoy as you snuggle in with your teddies. Our first Bedtime Storytime is happening over on the Wellington City Libraries Facebook page tonight, and will feature The Great Piratical Rumbustification by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Quentin Blake.

Join us nightly at 7.30pm for our special Bedtime Storytimes!

Feel free to tune in at 7.30pm each night, or you can catch the videos after they premiere in our special Bedtime Storytime playlist on Facebook.

Free Dance show

Put this one in your diaries. To celebrate the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, there will be a special free dance show for children at the Wellington Central Library.

Performers from the Java Dance Company will put Margaret Mahy’s picture book ‘Mr Whistler‘ on show with amazing and mesmerising dance moves and music.

This free event is suitable for 6-12 year olds and their families. No bookings are required however space is limited at the venue, so make sure you turn up early to get a spot.

 

– Wellington Central Library mezzanine meeting room (go up the stairs to clarks cafe then turn left at the top. Follow the walkway around to the room)

– Saturday 22nd June, 1.30pm 

 

Thanks to The Kilbirnie Children’s Bookshop and Dance Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ) for their support for this event.

What’s on today? Monday 22nd April

The school holidays are here! These are the FREE and fun things you can do at libraries today:

Special Event: Author and Illustrator visit!

Lucas and Jutta Chisholm, Author and Illustrator of the awesome book ‘Meet Mr. Mr Sunny’, are visiting to run fun activities with you. Listen to this cool book being read aloud, find out all about how to write books and even draw and make your own book character. Cool!

Wellington Central Library, 11am. No bookings required, suitable for 5-12 year olds. Free.

 

Special Event: Kiwana!

Read and act out one of Margaret Mahy’s most popular books – Down the Back of the Chair and more fun-filled Kiwiana activities. The lovely librarians have some fun tricks up their sleeves for this one.

Johnsonville Library, 10.30am. No bookings required, suitable for 5-12 year olds. Free.

 

 

 

Storytimes:

Don’t forget our fun and popular storytimes during the school holidays.

Karori Library at 10.30am

Tawa Library at 10.30am

Kilbirnie Library at 10.30am

New cool Fiction

Check this out ! Historical tales, fantasy or mystery… One of these books is just perfect for you !

 

Uncle Trev and his Whistling Bull by Jack Lasenby

I’d been sick in bed for ages. Uncle Trev said he and Old Tip would come , so Mum could get out of the house for a change. “You needn’t think that man’s coming in here, ” Mum said. ” Going through my cake tins, filling you up with silly stories, and bringing that dog inside as soon as I’m out of the house. I can smell it even before I put my foot in the back door.”

That didn’t stop Uncle Trev. He’d sneak in and tell me stories about the animals on his farm, his neighbour Gotta Henry, and the time the barbarians sacked the town…

This is a new hilarious novel by the very famous New Zealand writter, Jack Lasenby.

 

 

Shine by Kate Maryon

” The page is staring at me waiting for words, but I don’t even know where to start. I’d quite like to begin the letter with something like, Dear Mum, Thanks for ruining my life, but I don’t think that’s the kind of letter that Auntie Cass has in mind.”

Tiff’s sparkling world comes crashing down when her mum commits a crime. Packed off to live with family in the dullest place on the planet- and without Mum around, everything seems to lose its shine…

Reading this book might make you discover your very own inner shine…

Girls 8+

 

 

Charmseekers, The Dragon’s Revenge by Georgie Adams

Sesame and Maddy are on holiday in Cornwall when they’re whisked to Lantern Hill in Karisma to meet the third gatekeeper, Firebird. The girls arrive to find the spirit of the great dragon, Agapogo, Guardian of the Silver Pool seeking revenge on Zorgan, the sorcerer. A plague of fire-breathing drakons is causing havoc. They must also face Morbrecia, Queen Charm’s older sister and bitter rival. There are still 11 precious charms missing – Morbrecia, Zorgan, Ses and Maddy all want to be the first to find them.

A great book for girls who love dragons and adventure !

6 years old +

 

 

Young Samurai, The Ring of Earth by Chris Bradford

In 1614 Japan, English orphan Jack Fletcher finds himself in mortal danger. With no sensei to protect him, he is on the run from enemies, including the Shogun’s samurai. When Jack is kidnapped by ninja, he must learn all he can from his sworn enemy if he has any hope of escape.

If you are passionate about Martial Arts and feel like you’re a young Samurai and , this is definitely the book for you!

9 years old and +

 

 

 Artemis Fowl and the last Guardian by Eoin Colfer

It is Armageddon time for Artemis Fowl. Opal Koboi, power-crazed pixie, is plotting to exterminate mankind and become fairy queen. If she succeeds, the spirit of long-dead fairy warriors will rise from the earth, inhabit the nearest available bodies and wreak mass destruction. But what happens if those nearest bodies include crows, or deers, or badgers – or two curious little boys by the names of Myles and Beckett Fowl?

For all the Fowl fans ! This book is full of action, weaponry and laugh-out-loud jokes.. But is it the end of the Artemis Fowl series?

9 years old and +

 

 

The Great Piratical Rumbustification by Margaret Mahy illustrated by Quentin Blake

All across the city, the pirates are getting restless and long for a party. So when a retired pirate comes to babysit for the Terrapin family, they are in for quite a surprise…

Just as dazzling and delightful as it was when it was first released.

6 years old and +

 

Margaret Mahy Nationwide Storytime

On Saturday August 11th at 11am bookshops and libraries around New Zealand (and around the world) will be doing a mass storytime of Margart Mahy’s stories.

Celebrate the wonderful life of one of New Zealand’s most famous and loved authors with us. We have NZ children’s  authors an illustrators visiting Wellington Libraries for the mass storytime, with fun activities afterwards.

Here’s where you can join in:

Wellington Central Library: Fifi Colston will be reading picture books at 11am, Moira Wairama will read chapter books and short stories at 1pm

Karori Library: Poet Helen Fletcher and Author-Illustrator Sabrina Malcolm will be reading at 11am

Brooklyn Library: Join Authors Eirlys Hunter and Pippa Werry who will be reading at 11am

Kilbirnie Library: Author Johanna Knox and Hannah Webster (Whitireia Radio Student) will read at 11am

Cummings Park Library (Ngaio): Children’s book expert Barbara Murison and Author Iona McNaughton will read some of their favourites at 11am.

Miramar Library: Toby Gray and Janet Colson (Students from Whitireia Radio and Creative Writing schools) will read at 11am

Tawa Library: Paula Collins (Whitireia Radio student) will read at 11am

 

Thanks to Whitireia and the Wellington Children’s Book Association for their support.

Margaret Mahy

One of the world’s top children’s authors, New Zealander Margaret Mahy, has died. She was 76 years old.

You’ve probably read loads of her books – she was really well known in New Zealand. But did you know that she was just as popular in other countires? Margaret’s writing is so good she has won some of the world’s top prizes for books and authors. She has had more than 200 books published and some have even been translated into other languages. 

Lots of people don’t realise that Margaret Mahy was a librarian for many years. She worked in libraries in Wellington and Christchurch, and spent many years helping support school libraries too.

Here’s some of my favourite Margaret Mahy books:

The boy who bounced and other magic tales

Magic, ghosts and witches! Short stories and magical tales to enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Haunting

After a shy eight-year-old called Barney begins receiving frightening supernatural images and messages, he learns about a family legacy which could be considered a curse or a rare gift. This great story won Margaret Mahy the Carnegie Medal in 1982 – which means you should read it!

 

 

 

 

 

Down the back of the chair

Where do things go when they get lost? Maybe down the back of the chair? Have a look -you’d be surprised at what can be found down there…  A great rhyming story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dark blue 100-ride bus ticket

When Carlo and his mother, Jessica, accept a free bus ticket from a strange old woman in the supermarket, they are really only being polite. Secretly they think she must be slightly batty, with her talk about hundred free bus rides to the supermarket at the end of the world. 

 

 

 

 

 

The word witch

 A magical collection of Margaret Mahy’s verse and poems with really great illustrations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maddigan’s Fantasia

 Set in a post-apocalyptic time, Garland Maddigan’s family is part of a travelling circus called Maddigan’s Fantasia. Read about how she mets time travellers from the future who are trying to save her world. This book is so good they turned it into a TV series.

 

 

 

 

 

A Lion in the meadow

The book that started it all – this was Margaret Mahy’s first book, published in 1969