Kids Blog

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!

Okay, are you ready?

Close your eyes and think about the colour red, properly, no cheating, trust me on this one. What do you think of? Now close your eyes and think about blue – I said, no cheating. Do you think of the sky, the sea? What does yellow smell like? How does orange feel? What about black?

Okay, now keep your eyes closed, but open The Black Book of Colours; let your fingers travel over each page and your mind conjure the colours.

One day Menena Cottin asked herself “How would life be if I could not see?”, and this book is the product of that question. What would colour be like if you were blind? If you could not see green, what would green mean to you? To Thomas, who is blind, “green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that has just been cut”. To convey Thomas’s ideas to the reader Menena Cottin worked together with Rosansa Faria and created a book about colours using only black and white. Creeping out of each page are glossy black details crying out to be touched. Thomas describes each colour as he encounters it without sight: I particularly like the page on black which Thomas says is “the king of all colours”. In that case: Long live the king.

Two Brilliant new Graphic-Novels for Children:

The Clouds Above by Jordan Crane

My favourite weather is mist. My second favourite weather is rain. It has been very rainy in Wellington recently. I love it.

Have you ever heard people say that rain is the clouds crying? My sister used to say that, and this book proves she was right.

“The Clouds Above” is a graphic-novel with wonderful pictures that recounts “the terribly terrific and tremendously true travels of Simon and Jack”. Simon is a boy with a wicked teacher, Jack is a cat with a long tail; they are best friends. Simon and Jack arrive at school late; instead of facing the wrath of Simon’s teacher Missus Poe, they risk a trip up a flight of stairs and into the clouds. “We should go back down- you’re missing school” meows Jack, “but I don’t miss it at all!” Simon replies. Missus Poe might be scary but so is some of the stuff above: mean birds, thunder, fear of heights, mean birds again, cold and an evil storm with (dun, dun, dun) a heart of darkness. Remember though, they are best friends and with the help of a sad and lonely cloud they find their way back to clearer skies. Apparently “a rained on cat is no cat at all” but Jack is the best kind of cat, and I would love to go on adventures in the sky with a friend like that.

This is a beautiful, short book which is nice to hold.

Reflections of a Solitary Hamster by Astrid Desbordes and Pauline Martin

My favourite food is Ice Cream. Hamster’s favourite food is waffles. Hamster is a very selfish Hamster and he never shares his waffles. Lucky for Hamster he has lovely friends: Mole, Hedgehog, Snail, Squirrel and Rabbit, and they like him even though he is selfish, lazy and a bit arrogant.

“Reflections of a Solitary Hamster” is another graphic-novel about friendship. Astrid Desbordes- the author – and Pauline Martin- the illustrator- work together to reveal snippets of life on a pretty, big sky prairie. Sometimes I wonder what my friends do at the end of the day, when the party is over, when there are no more biscuits and when they tuck themselves into bed. What do they think about? This hilarious book shows you. The animals ponder their lives, their anxieties and walnuts as they get ready for; (drum roll please): Hamster’s birthday! However odd and imperfect they may be, this book is still very funny and full of kindness:

“Hedgehog, will you dance with me?”

“With me? Oh, yes please, Mole. No one has ever asked me to dance before, because of my prickles”

“And no one asks me because I step on my partners paws”

“Then let’s fingertip dance, okay?”

Okay.

If you had enjoyed book one The Name of this Book is Secret and second book If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch, you’ll surely enjoy the deliciously mysterious third book from the Secret series.

It is filled with adventure and chapter illustrations that you’ll really find it hard to put it down. It even has a chocolossary that has some amazing information about chocolates and several yummy chocolate recipes that left me grabbing for a chocolate after reading the book. Have a go and read This Book is Not Good For You by Pseudonymous Bosch. Oh and there’s also 100 ways to say “Hello” at the back.

“Kamusta!” (that’s in Tagalog). Have fun!

Gordon Korman, who wrote Schooled among other things, has written a book called Zoobreak, about kids who decide to rescue zoo animals, breaking them out of one (bad) zoo and into another (better) one. Sounds like a nearly impossible task.

If you’ve been reading the Book of Time books by Guillaume Prevost you will be pleased to hear that you can now read the next story in the series, The Circle of Gold. Sam must go back in time to see his mother, but he’s not good at getting the time right, which sees him travelling to Ancient China, and also forward in time to 2025 (where he makes an alarming discovery).

Flight of the Phoenix by R.L. LaFevers is the first book in a new series called Nathaniel Fludd, beastologist. Sent to live with a distant relative who is a beastologist (a person who studies beasts, I suppose), Nathaniel must travel to Arabia to protect the last known hatching phoenix egg. Then his cousin goes missing, and Nathaniel must rescue him, and save the egg… a tall order!

See other new children’s fiction recent picks in My Library.

If you’re a Percy Jackson fan and you’re really excited about the movie coming out (tomorrow!) you might already know about The Demigod Files, the new book that tells you all about Percy Jackson, including short stories, interviews with the characters, puzzles and lots of facts that help you understand the background better (info about the Greek gods). Reserve it now. Also, tell us what you think of the movie if you go and see it!

Here are some books you might like to read these summer holidays!

I am a genius of unspeakable evil and I want to be your class president by Josh Lieb is not only a book with a very very cool title, it is also very funny, according to one librarian. A great book for intermediate age kids who like a laugh and a good book. Oliver Watson doesn’t look like much, just your average chubby geek, but he’s actually a supergenius with a plot to take over the world, basically, starting with being elected as class president.

Also new this month: Dreadnought, the new H.I.V.E. book by Mark Walden; Z-Rex by Steve Cole, the first book in a new series that is action packed, gripping and contains a 21st century prehistoric monster (the title of the book should give you a clue); and The Time Quake, the final book in the Gideon trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer.

For more great new books visit the My Library Children’s Fiction page.