Kids Blog

Special brothers and sisters : stories and tips for siblings of children with a disability or serious illness / edited by Annette Hames and Monica McCaffrey ; illustrated by Brendan McCaffrey.
Is your brother or sister a bit special? You may be able to relate well to the young people in this book who explain in their own words what it’s like to live with their special siblings. Learn how they feel and cope with love, frustration and sadness. Plenty of tips and good questions for you to talk over with your parents, grandparents or teachers.

No return : Captain Scott’s race to the Pole / Peter Gouldthorpe.

Plenty to learn in this great book retelling the dramas of this most special  explorer and his race to the South Pole. Did you know for example, that Scott’s photographer, Herbert Ponting was attacked by killer whales and almost eaten! Find out when and why Oates said those most famous words, “I am going outside. I may be some time.”
Elephants closeup.

Elephants are just so special! I love them. They are some of the smartest land animals on earth. Lovely photographs help make this a great read for younger readers.

How to write and give a speech / by Cecilia Minden and Kate Roth.

It’s that special time of year again, when you have to prepare and deliver a speech to your class. Instead of groaning just check out this book and deliver the best speech ever.

Children’s book of baking cakes / Abigail Wheatley ; illustrated by Jessie Eckel ; photography by Howard Allman.

Special occasion coming up? Or maybe just a rainy day. This yummy book is ideal for both. So many different types of mouthwatering cakes it is hard to choose just one to bake. My favourite are the butterfly and bug cakes, closely followed by the miniature cheesecakes.

Buried treasures : uncovering secrets of the past / Stéphane Compoint.

What can be more special than buried treasure!  In this beautiful book, chock full of amazing photographs are mysterious colossal statues, a mythic bear covered in blue fur, a whole city wiped out by a volcano. From sweltering deserts to the frigid North Pole to an ancient, underwater city, follow scientists as they uncover the secrets of our past.

Super silly riddles / Charles Keller ; illustrated by Dave Winter.
Feast on more than 500 riddles and drive your friends and parents crazy.

Dr. Knucklehead’s knock-knocks / by Chris Tait ; illustrated by Lance Lekander.
Who doesn’t love knock-knock jokes!  Heaps of jokes in here to crack you up. Start knocking!

Critter jokes & riddles / Janet Nuzum Myers ; illustrated by Dave Clegg.
Why do fish avoid computers? They get caught in the Internet. “What happened to the leopard that fell into a washing machine? “He came out spotless.” Every animal and critter seems to feature in this great wee joke book. Checkit out for a really good laugh.
Dressing up as a pirate / Rebekah Joy Shirley ; photography by Chris Fairclough.

Learn how to make a pirate’s hook and an eye-patch, a skull and crossbones hat and a trusty parrot friend! Great book of easy step-by-step photos on how tp become a real pirate. Other books in this series also new to the library are :Dressing up as a fairy / Rebekah Joy Shirley ; photography by Chris Fairclough.
Dressing up as a knight / Rebekah Joy Shirley ; photography by Chris Fairclough.
Dressing up as a Princess / Rebekah Joy Shirley ; photography by Chris Fairclough.
Dressing up as an astronaut / Rebekah Shirley.
Dressing up as a robot / Rebekah Joy Shirley ; photography by Chris Fairclough.

Street dance : the people, the music, the moves / Liz Gogerly. Learn how to really bust some moves in this great book about street dance. Soon you’ll be able to do the body lock and house step along with the best of them. It’s time to party!

Food and faith / Susan Reuben and Sophie Pelham ; photography by Jan Panke, Sophie Pelham and Nicholas Posner.

Having a special kind of party? Maybe it’s a religious celebration in your culture. Find out all about food traditions  and their special rituals in this book about food and faith. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism are all included in this interesting book. Great photos make you hungry just reading it.

Lego Harry Potter : building the magical world / written by Elizabeth Dowsett.

Want some LEGO for your birthday? This month we add to our great colection of books about LEGO with this fantastic book about Harry Potter LEGO. Hogwart’s castle, the Chamber of Secrets and the Shrieking Shack all feature in this comprehensive book that contains everything magical about Harry 501 great kiwi jokes / [illustrations by Donovan Bixley].

You know that laughing helps you to heal fast, right! Well this book supports CURE Kids. Check out the website in the back of the book after you have laughed yourself silly at the wonderful jokes inside. What do you get when your dog has its sixth birthday? Why did Kiri break into song? What’s grumpy and goes really well with ice-cream? You’ll have to read the book to find the answers.

Not in the mood to party? Then learn how to knit and play chess over the holidays with these great new books;How to play chess / Daniel King.

How to knit / Fiona Watt ; illustrated by Stella Baggott ; photographs by Howard Allman. This is a great book for learners as well as those of you who have knitted the ODD scarf before.

More stuff to do with your hands! Get them  into the dirt,  (AFTER you’ve read the book of course)Yates young gardener : get your hands dirty / Janice Marriott ; [illustrations, Deborah Hinde]. then learn how to draw whacky robots with Fun to draw cool robots / Robert Ainsworth.

100 Most Awesome Things on the Planet is the title of this new book. It is divided into 2 sections – Awesome Natural Wonders and Awesome Human Creations. It’s not a huge book  but has great photos and blocks of facts for each awesome thing. There is even an “awesome rating” for each entry. Some of the top rated awesomes are Grand Canyon, Monarch Migrations, Blue Whales, Solar Eclipse, Nanomachines, Blackbird(a plane), Spirit of Australia (a boat) and Bagger293. If you want to read more about these or see what the other 92 are, reserve a copy.

Anything but typical

By Nora Raleigh Baskin

“It’s easy to listen with the wild drone of the airplane. It is like a giant vacuum that sucks up all the other noise. Nobody even hears when you pass gas out loud on a plane”. Jason Blake does a lot of listening and figuring out of things inside his head. He doesn’t speak much and sometimes he does weird things, like shaking his hands in the air or making silly faces. Jason Blake is autistic and this is his story about how he can be himself.

This is a really good story showing us how people who are different to the normal people in this world, can find ways to cope on their own.

The three best things in life: Books (0bviously), Biscuits and Music. Reading books is the best way to pass the time, eating biscuits is the best way to pass the time and survive without fading away, and music is like the cherry on top. Music turns an ordinary experience into an extraordinary experience. Imagine how dull a film would be without the soundtrack. Does your life have a good soundtrack? The simple way to add music to your life would be to turn the radio on or the CD player or maybe watch some c4. But, what is the most interesting way to add music to your life? MAKE MUSIC YOURSELF.

John Crossingham has created a book to help you. Learn to Speak Music shows you how to become a musician, and honestly, it’s not hard. This book walks you through each step from learning an instrument to putting on performances and promoting your band. There are chapters featuring: Making Music (choosing instruments, learning to play), Forming a Band (finding members, choosing a name), Writing Lyrics and Music (song patterns, inspiration), Playing Live (covering costs, what gear you need, keeping your cool), Recording Your Music (Hi Fi vs. Lo Fi, basic recording gear) and Spreading the Word (How to make Do-It-Yourself band T-shirts, eye-catching posters).

You may be thinking ‘isn’t this a bit much for a kid?’ no way! Don’t underestimate yourself. You don’t have to be an expert to make music and have fun performing it. Lots of famous bands started out with very young members. Have you heard of: Kings of Leon, The Jonas Brothers, Radiohead, Paramore, Hanson, The Go Go’s, Napalm Death, The Runaways, Def Leppard, The Jackson 5, Kate Bush, Lil Wayne, Shonen Knife? Or New Zealand bands Shihad, Bressa Creting Cake, Ladieswear Landscapi, Bandicoot, TFF, Die! Die! Die!? All these bands have or had members that were still at school and there are many, many more.

Another cool book that will help you get rolling towards rock stardom is The Girls Guide To Rocking by Jessica Hopper. I recommend this even if you are not a girl. It is really in-depth and has interesting appendices to inspire you. If you need some audio-visual motivation check out Girls Rock! Some of the girls on this DVD can really scream.

Now, one other thing, you must cross your heart promise that if you do start a band you will let me know. I will be your biggest fan and I will bring biscuits.

Fancy travelling back through time? Then Time Train to the Blitz by Sophie McKenzie might be the book for you. It  won the Red House Children’s book awards so it is truly a good read. To really make the journey interesting the main characters find themselves in the middle of World War II in London complete with bombs falling down everywhere. So hop on aboard the time travelling train now and check out the book in the children’s fiction area.

Have you ever wondered how you can tell which direction a sound is coming from? Well the reason is that you have two ears. If an object on you left makes a sound, the sound arrives at your left ear sooner than your right. Your brain can detect this difference and tell you which direction the sound has come from.

And have you every wondered how that sound gets to your brain?

Well when you listen to a radio the sound waves travel from the radio to your ear. Your outer ear channels the waves inside to your eardrum. The eardrum is a very thin sheet of skin. The sound vibrations move the eardrum back and forth. The eardrum passes this movement on to tiny bones in the middle ear. The movement of the bones causes fluid and tiny hairs to move inside the inner ear. The inner ear sends signals to the brain and the brain understands these signals as sound from your radio.

PHEW there is an amazing amount of stuff going on in your head that allows you to hear.

You can learn heaps from the book Sound so take a look. There are even some great experiments that you can try.

Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex

In this installment the unthinkable has happened …  Artemis has become nice!?!  But with robots attacking the city Holly would be pretty glad to have the devious genius of the old Artemis on her side. I can’t tell you any more, because I haven’t got my hands on a copy yet.

The latest in this exciting series was released on Monday in UK and will be out in the next few days in America. Don’t wait until it appears in New Zealand. You can reserve your copy now for free with your children’s library card.

Judo was first invented in 1882 by a Japanese man called Jigoro Kano. From its beginnings in Japan, judo has become a very popular sport all round the world and is now an Olympic sport. Judo is a way of defending yourself and is a very popular form of self-defence because even a small person can win a fight against a bigger one.

You might like to look at the book Judo to discover some of the techniques on learning this sport. Perhaps you can  join a club. Maybe we will even see you at the Olympics.

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future is the latest from the creator of Captain Underpants. It’s due out in August.

Why wait! Reserve your copy to read now!