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Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

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Rainbow Youth Night at Karori Library

Are you a pizza connoisseur?

This weekend in Karori, we have an after-hours social event for rainbow youth and friends!

Youth Nights are for you if you’re into gaming, making music, watching movies, eating pizza, absolutely smashing Beat Saber on an Oculus Rift, or just generally getting up to mischief and hijinks. You will also probably like them if you like books, I guess.

Come through to Te Māhanga, Karori Library on Saturday 18 June from 5-8pm!

We’re open for 14-18 year olds, mask and student ID are required.

No need to book. See you there!

Hello everyone, long time no see

We are missing you so much but unfortunately we’ve been experiencing some technical dificulties with our amazing Teen Blog.

via GIPHY

We are working hard to have this back up and running to tell you all about the new books and exciting programme we have.

via GIPHY

Hooked on NZ Books; Or, How to Get Free Books and Write About Them, Too!

Dear readers, we are guessing that since we have encountered one another amongst the digital pages of this most redoubtable publication, you are probably fairly keen book-readers as well. But how much do you choose to read books by New Zealand authors? Well, whether your answer was “Um, I LOVE to read books by New Zealand authors!” or “Not much, but I’d like to read more!” we have quite the opportunity for you.

Our friends at Read NZ / Te Pou Muramura (formerly the New Zealand Book Council) have put together an amazing programme called Hooked On NZ Books / He Ao Anofor young New Zealand readers to engage with new Kiwi literature and have their writing professionally edited and published, all while getting to keep swathes of ~free~ books for themselves. Curious to know more? Read on to hear what Read NZ have to say about the initiative.

 If you choose to take up this challenge, you'd better prepare yourself for a serious case of new-book-smell-induced bliss.

We Want to Know What You Think About New Zealand Books!

The American art critic Barbara McAdam writes that the ‘true calling’ of criticism is to start a discussion. Building a community of readers who discuss books, and growing the next generation of critics is what Hooked On NZ BOoks / He Ao Ano is all about.

Here are Read NZ / Te Pou Muramura (formerly the NZ Book Council), we’ve adopted the programme and are looking for passionate readers to review the latest NZ books for us.

First of all, we match readers aged 13-19 with new books. Most of the books we have to choose from are novels, but we also have some non-fiction, poetry and essays. We ask for the reviews to be emailed back within a month, and the reader gets to keep the book.

Our editor works with the reviewer to edit the piece so it’s the best it can be. Then we publish the review on the website, and share it with our wider community. The best review from each month is published on the official Read NZ website.

Our reviewers have the opportunity to respond personally and critically to the latest reads while together building an online resource about NZ books and a genuine platform for their voice.

Established four years ago by the NZ Review of Books journal, Hooked On NZ Books is already a useful archive of reviews, author interviews and other writing resources for younger readers. When the journal ceased publication in late 2019, its editors invited Read NZ to adopt the work.

Read NZ CEO Juliet Blyth says the purpose of Hooked On NZ Books is to grow the audience for home-grown literature, to provide another space for young writers to be published, and to nurture the next generation of critical readers in Aotearoa.

“Anyone can say that they loved or loathed a book, but it’s much harder to say why. Reviewing is important because well-argued reviews can influence what gets published and what gets read,” she says.

Tawa College student Hannah Marshall has submitted reviews to Hooked On NZ Books in past years. In a recent article about reviewing for Tearaway magazine, she describes the programme as a “springboard for a critical conversation.”

A chance visit to my school from the organisation opened my eyes to a world of opportunities. I had barely read a Kiwi-written YA [novel] in my life; today, most of my favourite books are by New Zealand authors. […] I gained valuable skills from the reviewing process and improved myself as a writer. I even found my name in print

— Hannah Marshall, Hooked On NZ Books reviewer

Read NZ is now looking for young readers and writers aged around 13-19 to participate. Interested reviewers can sign up on the Hooked On NZ Books website, or contact Read NZ to get involved. Read NZ also hopes to offer review-writing workshops around the country next year.


So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to get involved! While you’re at it, why not follow Read NZ and Hooked On NZ Books on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, for more delicious literary content, delivered right to your screen?

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – adaptation coming soon!

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe teaser trailer just dropped for the BBC adaptation of His Dark Materials and it’s super exciting! It has an amazing cast. Just waiting to get a glance of the daemons and I’m a happy fan. There’s no release date yet, but in the meantime, we have some “materials” of our own to help with the hype…

There are all of the books in Philip Pullman’s award winning series: Northern Lights (published in the US as The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. We also have other books set in the same universe: Once upon a time in the North, Lyra’s Oxford, and the first part of his “Book of Dust” series, La Belle Sauvage.

We also have audiobook and graphic novel versions.

Winter Writers at Karori Library

Looking for a way to stave off those winter blues? Come and get your writerly juices flowing at Winter Writers, a new creative writing programme for teens starting up at Karori Library next week! Learn about everything from short fiction and poetry to scriptwriting and more at these fortnightly meet-ups during the winter months. Check the details below:

Where: Karori Library, 243 Karori Road, Karori
When: Every second Thursday, 4:00-5:00, from the 31st of May to the 26th of July
What: Creative writing workshops for teenagers, focussed on developing your command of language, ability to evaluate and critique your own writing, and — most importantly — create whole new worlds with a stroke of your pen.

Registrations are not required. If you’d like more information, call Karori Library on 476 8413, or talk to your local librarian.

Hark, what worlds from yonder pencil spring?

 

Creative Writing Workshops with Anna Mackenzie

Is there something you’ve always wanted to say, but you’re not quite sure how to say it? Or perhaps you know how to say it, but you’d like to learn how to say it better? Maybe you like how you say things, but you’re searching for ideas on what to talk about?

Well, you’re in luck. The wonderful Anna Mackenzie is coming to Wellington City Libraries to run two creative writing workshops for all you creative folks out there!

Dates and Times:

Karori Library, Thursday May 3, 4:00-6:00pm
Johnsonville Library, Friday May 4, 4:00-6:00pm

You can register either in person at the Libraries where the workshops are taking place, or by calling Karori Library on 476 8413, or Johnsonville Library on 477 6151.

Anna Mackenzie

Comicfest 2017!

I hope you’ve heard about our amazing event Comicfest! It’s now a yearly event that celebrates free comic book day and puts the spotlight on some of our amazing local talent. There’s competitions, talks from said local talent, and of course, free comic books!

Check out the Comicfest 2017 Facebook page for details.

Halloween Countdown!

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsI love Halloween – in my opinion it’s the best holiday of the year. So every week in October I’ll be doing a round up of the best scary fiction, movies, crafts and other interesting bits and pieces. If I have time I might have a chat to the other librarians and get their recommendations as well.

If you’re like me, you want to get your costume and Halloween prep started early – we’ve got some great books on cosplay and other crafts!

Yaya Han is a big name in the cosplay world and she’s edited this great book of photos of amazing cosplayers – great inspiration for taking your halloween costume to the next level. 1000 incredible costume & cosplay ideas displays the best of the best. If you’re not quite at that level yet (like me) then pinterest is a great place to start.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThere are quite a few awesome Halloween crafting books – it was hard to pick just a few! Here are some of my favourites: Artful Halloween, Creating your vintage Halloween and Glitterville’s handmade Halloween. There’s also the AntiCraft, one of my favourite craft books ever.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy these round-ups. You’ll certainly be ready by the time the 31st of October rolls around…

Two Free Coding Classes

Title image

Got an idea for a website but don’t know how to develop it? Get along to these two free coding classes during the April school holidays. They’re perfect for beginners and a great way to learn how to code using CSS/HTML, and you’ll get a chance to create your own live website. BYOD.

Places are limited and bookings are required: bookings and info

Sunday 12th April, 9am – 3pm, Central Library: for 12-14 yr olds

Monday 13th April, 9am-3pm, Central Library: for 15-18yr olds

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, August 10-11

There’s no shortage of shindigs to get you out of the house and into the streets of Wellington this weekend. Here’s a quick run-down of what we’ve circled with our highlighter.

The New Zealand International Film Festival continues and included is the world premiere of Fantail. Rachel and Rebecca made some picks in last week’s Trailer Tuesday. Also in film this weekend is the fundraising screening of documentary Maidentrip about kiwi-born Laura Dekker’s solo adventure around the world aboard yacht Guppy. Proceeds to Wellington Ocean Sports.

One of Wellington’s best and formerly hidden treasure troves of Zines and art, Matchbox Studios has a grand opening at its new street front location.

The next round of New Zealand’s Got Talent auditions stop into the St James.

Museum of Wellington City & Sea continue with their L!VE Music sessions on Sunday.

Wellington’s gonna get a pop-up chocolate factory on Queens Wharf this weekend – YUM! If you need more convincing their website has a puppy picture.

Newtown’s National Hockey Stadium will host matches between Capital & Southern.

The always thought-provoking World Press Photos exhibition is in town and hanging out on Willis Street.

If you haven’t had a chance to yet Young & Hungry is in its last weekend at Bats. It’s well worth the outing.

In new music for the playlist this week Indie band Typhoon, from Portland Oregon, have released a sneak peak of their new album White Lighter. They’re a bit of a well kept secret and it’s not really a sneak-peak it’s a peak in entirety. If you’re a fan of indie bands like the Fleet Foxes, Beirut, Boy & Bear, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Band of Horses etc we reckon you’ll dig these guys.

Have a good one!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, July 27-28

Another weekend in Wellington is lurking just ahead of us. Here’s some heads-ups for ways to spend it.

Rūamoko has been a busy lad this week. If you’re keen on a sweet geology-heavy hangtime then you can checkout his antics here.

Soldout Splendour In The Grass has lured a whole bunch of epic bands down under this weekend but, and it’s a really big but, they’re all the way over in Australia’s New South Wales. If you want to get a sneak peak at some of the big acts (and there are plenty of them) you can do that right here at the “Best-Of-The-Fest” stream.

There’s no shortage of musical fairy dust in our own town this weekend though with acts like the Veils, Shapeshifter, The Phoenix Foundation playing 18+ shows (links to our CD collection included).

The Naked And Famous have dropped a new single from their upcoming second album In Rolling Waves.

 

The Naked And Famous – Hearts Like Ours by The Naked And Famous

The Wellington season of Young And Hungry, a festival showcasing young playwriting talent, kicks off at BATS Friday night with three sweet plays. More info here.

The (actual) New Zealand (full and proper, in its entirety) International Film Festival 2013 is finally upon us. Their website and full schedule is here. Looking forward, very much, to seeing The National’s (who’re playing over at Splendour In The Grass) film Mistaken For Strangers about life on the rock ‘n’ roll road.
Enjoy your first week back at school!

There’s a good chance you’re not going to get to get to experience them while they’re here if you’re under 18, so here’s a short film with the Veils playing some of their tunes for you.

Enjoy your first week back at school!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, July 20-21

How’re your holidays going? Great, we hope! Here’s this weeks run down of Wellington’s weekend fun times to help keep them lively.

Firstly though, did you know we’re having a sweet games fest at Wellington Central Library over the next few Wednesdays? We’ll supply the warmth and games, all you need to do is turn up!

Ever wondered what goes on behind the doors of the St James at the Royal New Zealand Ballet company? They’re having an open day this Saturday for all you keenly interested ballerdudes and ballerettes.

There’s a best-of-three trans-Tasman Futsal, a smaller indoor version of soccer, tournament at ASB Stadium.

Want to spend the weekend watching baby pandas? Well you can! Thanks to Atlanta Zoo’s Lun Lun you can watch TWO baby pandas (twins). Woah!

There’s a swell looking, all ages, fundraising performance at Paramount Theatre of Echolalia. Here’s a brief description; “Inspired by the humour and directness of autistic children while working on a holiday program, McArthur’s delightful character Echo doesn’t register social niceties. A young woman on the spectrum preparing for a much needed job interview, Echo unwittingly puts our unspoken social rules under the spotlight…and finds a lot of them wanting.”

If none of that floats your boat, why not spend the weekend making a robot that can do flips like this one?

Tada!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, June 13-14

It’s… holiday time!

Here’s a slice of what’s on in Welly-hood this weekend to kick your holidays off with some excitement and/or amazement.

The Company NZ are presenting Block Party up on the hill at Wellington High School – it’s a showcase extravaganza from this super talented dance school. Not to be confused with Bloc Party. Here’s a sweet video of the tutors busting some moves.

Oceania’s two most Hipster* cities Wellington and Melbourne clash in derby time on the water front. Bust out the Purple and orange.

Au Contraire, the New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy convention, is in town. It comes with cool stuff like a floating market.

Something a bit different and enriching for the ears? Gale Force Gospel are putting on a concert of African American Song.

In theatre The Legend Of Hector visits BATS. “Drawing from sources as diverse as the Arthurian Legends, an old friend’s travel blog, and toilet-wall graffiti, The Legend of Hector goes right to the heart of the moments we feel most epic, and the moments we desperately wish for greater adventures.” – That sounds awesome!

Looking for something to watch? Here’s a list compiled by Rachel & Rebecca to quell your winter blues.

In playlist news Jay-Z released new album Magna Carta… Holy Grail  this week – you can judge that one for yourself. His wife Beyonce announced a tour to our shores. Australian folksters Boy & Bear are gearing up to release new album Harlequin Dream in August and here’s a track off it to chill to – ‘Southern Sun’.

*Not an actual fact.

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 6-7 July

Here is a run down of what’s going down about the town this weekend.

In sport our Super Rugby home team the Hurricanes play the Highlanders at the cake tin on Saturday Night.

Any regular reader might be aware of a soft spot for roller skates on this side of the screen so there is great joy in letting y’all know there is a Roller Disco out in Kilbirnie on Friday night.

Science might or might not be a fun subject at school but there is no denying its awesomeness. The Magnicent Science Variety Show in Newtown this Friday night could very well teach you some handy new ‘on-the-bus chats’ to impress your mates with. Science! Way cool.

While scientific things are in the foreground let’s talk about space. All ages Fringe Festival(‘s) favourite A Play About Space has a swift season at Bats this weekend. Science(-fiction) at it’s entertaining finest.

The New Zealand Film Archive and Square Eyes partnership of Around The World Saturday Matinee keeps on rolling with Kirikou And The Sorceress.

Feel like reading? If you haven’t already then have a gander at the 2013 NZ Post Childrens Book Awards winners and finalists, there are a heap of great reads to keep you cosy. Of course being your local library we’re here to help you find a copy of whatever it is you might fancy. Holler.

Soulstress Ladi6 is in town for the growed-ups this weekend. But that’s no reason to miss out. For this weekends playlist here’s Ladi6 ‘Shine On’ – the second track off of her latest album.

Chur!
Have a good one.

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 8-9 June

What up! Another weekend looms and here’s some sweet stuff to do with it.

No doubt you’ve heard about The Great Gatsby (a lot) by now, it feels like they’ve been building hype for eternity. It’s finally here and it looks pretty suave! (Rated M)

But did you know it was a book first? Sure was, it’s an American Classic by one great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also, it’s not The GG’s first dance across the silver screen.

Matariki 2013 celebrations start up in Poneke with the arrival of waka Te Matau a Maui. There’s a calender load of events to keep you busy over the next few weeks of the Maori new year celebration.

Sporty peepz!  The Championship Tournament of the Woman’s Basketball League is at Te Rauparaha Arena over at neighb’s Porirua. Maori ball game Ki o Rahi will have a Matariki special in Waitangi Park from 6pm Friday night (brought to you by body R2R).

The other big thing this weekend is our (Wellington’s) Jazz Festival. Before you scoff take note, Jazz is the original bad boy of music. You can thank it for paving the way to all our modern jams and the term “hipster”. Appreciate. There is a caps worthy TONNE of events going down for it. One pretty special looking one is the pop up jams planned for the city streets Friday and Saturday – keep your eyes peeled.

Shakespeare fans beware this Globe On Screen viewing at Lighthouse Cinema (a nice follow up to the recent Sheila Winn festivities).

Feeling exhausted yet?

Here’s a diddy for the weekend playlist. Lorde’s most recent ‘Tennis Court’. Peace!
Tennis Court by LordeMusic

Free Writing Workshop with Mal Peet

Mal Peet, award-winning author of Tamar, Exposure, and Life: An Unexploded Diagram is in Wellington this month, and he’ll be the guest star at a free, one-off workshop at the central library. The details are:

Sunday 16 June, 1 to 4pm
Wellington Central Library
To register, email sarah@bookcouncil.org.nz

“Most of us learn to write by stealing from other writers. This event is an invitation to aspiring writers to do some serious shoplifting.” (Mal Peet)

Winging Your Way Way Through The Weekend, 1-2 June

Kia ora folks!

Wintry splendour is raining down on us with things to do this weekend. It’s a pretty special one because we get one more day than usual – sweet! It’s the Queens Birthday (but not really, her real birthday’s in April. We’re just kind minions and let her have two). One way you could spend your extra day off is revelling in the glory of our monarch or you could do some of these things:

Te Papa re-opens the Visa Platinum Gallery with an Andy Warhol exhibit. “Warhol: Immortal” celebrates Mr. Pop Art himself. He did all sorts of really great things and liked Campbells Soup too. Not to be confused with The Dandy Warhols.

Geeks unite! The closest thing to a Comic-Con on our shores, Armageddon, visits Wellington for the first time this year.

Less Dance Dance Revolution more… real dance? Stage Challenge/J-Rock hit Wellington (starting tonight).

Another Film Festival is in town. Out Takes with the pun-tastic byline, “reel queer film festival” is screening a few choice youth flicks.

Maybe you’re one of the fine few who aren’t having a “weekend” and are instead working it away? Here’s an endgame for those hard earned pingers – they’re building Springfield!

To end NZ Music Month Shapeshifter release “Delta” just in time for the weekend playlist.

Later!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 18-19 May

Greetings!

Here’s our weekly run down of what’s on about this splendid city during the weekend.

The mind blowing moving image exhibition “Moving On Asia” has only a fortnight left at Wellington’s City Gallery.

Our freshest up and coming young comedians perform at Bats theatre in “Class Comedians“.

After some free film? The New Zealand Film Archive is currently hosting Samin Son TV – a self titled exhibition of Son’s time in the Korean Army. It sounds pretty interesting and is… the big ol’ price of NOTHING.

The Documentary Edge Film Festival continues.

In music news it’s still New Zealand Music Month. Lorde released the music video for Royals (below) this week – she’s going to be a superstar. The Naked And Famous snuck this single, ‘A Source Of Light’, into the webosphere off of their upcoming remixes and b-sides follow up to Passive Me, Aggressive You.

Big international drops for the weekend playlist include The National’s ‘Trouble Will Find Me’ (itunes streaming), Daft Punk’s  ‘Random Access Memories’ (itunes streaming) and Vampire Weekend’s  ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’.

Canada’s most famous (and only) astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield returned to earth this week but not before gifting planet earth another of his amazing videos. Music + science = awesome!

Happy weekending!

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 11-12 May

Brr! What a week. Floods, a (very tiny) earthquake and although the great day star showered us in splendour the mercury hasn’t climbed very high. It’s probably safer indoors with weekend warmers. We’re going for a blog in two halves today Wellington’s what’s on closely followed by a continuation of last weeks NZ music scrape over.

The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is in its final weeks and the hilarious “The Boy With Tape On His Face” performs in Downstage Theatre Friday night. 
 
Our friendly neighbours Lower Hutt have some sweet badge making going down for Youth Week at The Dowse Gallery if you’d like to pimp your bag, hat or jacket for free. Here’s a full run down of Youth Week events in the region.
 
Want to get inside a navy ship and see what goes down? HMNZS Wellington will be open up for your viewing pleasure on Queens Wharf this Saturday. Don’t forget the sea legs.

There’s also a fascinating film festival in town this weekend. Documentary Edge Festival 2013 has all sorts of interesting offerings including Only The Young a study in youth and coming of age. 
This week we’ll take a look at the “naughties” (2000-2009) for the weekend playlist. At times you could’ve been forgiven for thinking that music had taken a turn for the worst this decade. International offerings like Axel F’s totem to annoyance Crazy Frog weasled themselves to number one. Reality superstar competitions started to change the face of how musicians are made (you web-savvy folk may’ve already encountered Dave Grohl’s thoughts about these competitions via meme). Here in New Zealand we had a go. Yes we did. New Zealand Idol delivered us (briefly) Ben Lummis and Michael Murphy, we also got Stan ‘yous’ Walker through Aussie Idol. The decade had gems, don’t get me wrong. The star of the decade was a (then) young rapper from Christchurch, Scribe. He dominated 2003’s charts with his debut single Stand Up. Hip Hop/R&B were the champion genres across the airwaves with acts like Savage (with Swing), Dei Hamo (We Gon’ Ride), swaggy Dane Rumble in his past life act Misfits Of Science, Nesian Mystik, P-Money (who has some new stuff too!) and Smashproof. Our other genres did well with Fur Patrol, Goodshirt, Atlas, Tiki Taane & company keeping the singles chart kiwi. Some other favourites include Stellar*, Zed, Salmonella Dub, Che Fu, The Datsuns, Fat Freddy’s Drop and Anika Moa. Many of these artists albums are still lingering in our CD collection, if any take your fancy have a dig through their discographies.
 
Here’s a kiwi music video treasure from the decade to take us out, cue Kora and their EPIC anime video for Skankenstein.

Winging Your Way Through The Weekend, 4-5 May

Kia ora!

Welcome to the last weekend of the school holidays. First thing’s first, pump up the volume and press play.

Marvel at John Williams conducting. Now there’s suitable ambiance may the fourth be with you! Today is Star Wars day – woohoo. George Lucas’ profound trilogy unleashed a science fiction frenzy on the world just short of 40 years ago and today geeks and not-geeks unite to celebrate the great trilogy-cum-saga. Light saber warbling and “Luke I am your father”-ing is totally appropriate today (and the other 364 days).

Nearly every day or month is a celebration to somebody somewhere. Obviously today (Saturday) has Star Wars covered and tomorrow, for instance, is Children’s Day in South Korea and Japan as well as Cinco de Mayo in The States and Mexico. Cinco de Mayo isn’t the celebration of mayonnaise I will add. Now in that vein I am proud to announce that, for those who aren’t already aware, we are four days into New Zealand Music Month. Throughout the month Teen Blog will bring you all sorts of NZ music know-how. Our libraries will also transform into venues for local musicians to perform – take that shush-fingers!

For a quick scrub-up on what exactly music month is about check out the official website here. In short though it is an epic celebration of the lads and lasses that have gifted ours and the worlds airwaves with amazing music. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll scratch the surface of some of the sweetest acts from the last few decades of kiwi music for weekend playlisting. This week we’ll start with the current decade. Globe conquering has been a bit of a pattern lately with The Naked And Famous first through the gates followed closely by Avalanche City’s Love Love Love (it was originally free to download). Many more have found international success too, especially Hamilton’s favourite child Kimbra. In our local charts Dunedin lads Six60 happened as too did J Williams & Scribe and Wellington’s Brooke Fraser. Away from the top of the charts acts like The Checks, Ladi6 and Cairo Knife Fight hungout with a huge amount of great and fresh music that is just too numerous to list here. As for new stuff be sure to keep an eye on/checkout The Phoenix Foundation, Minuit, Lorde, Shapeshifter and Beastwars.

For the duration of the month The New Zealand Herald will be streaming new and old recordings including their studio Sundae Sessions daily – a concert a day, sweet!

Finally, a video. We’re going to skip viral this week and stay in kiwi theme. Borrowing some funny from 2001 here’s Goodshirt’s Sophie. Enjoy!

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