Beyond the Page: Week One Round-up!

Kia ora folks! It’s been a wonderful Week One of Beyond the Page, our fantastic literary festival for tamariki and their whānau.

Beyond the page is running during the July school holidays, and from the 9th to the 24th of July, our libraries are hosting a huge array of totally free events for kids and families, from sculpture workshops to VR experiences, and everything in between!

Rather than bore you with descriptions of all the fabulous stuff that’s been happening, we thought we’d share with you some of our favourite photos from events around the city. Here goes!

Before the Page: Creative Workshops with VIVITA

Before the official kick-off of the festival, on the opening weekend of the holidays we hosted our friends at VIVITA Aotearoa for two wonderful workshops at Miramar and Te Awe Libraries — Cardboard Costumes and Serious Sculpting:

A young person wearing a blue sweatshirt draws on the pommel of a stylised sword made from cardboard

A young creator inscribes something (magical runes, perhaps?) on the blade of a cardboard sword they have made at Cardboard Costumes at Miramar Library.


Four small sculpted figurines sit on a green cutting mat. From left to right, they appear to be a sentient brick wall, a one-legged, one-eyed monster, a white block-like creature with tentacle-like arms, and a frog-like creature with tentacles coming out of its mouth

Meeting new friends at Serious Sculpting at Te Awe Library!


Beyond the Page: Bricks, Boxes, Stop Motion, and More!

The first ‘official’ days of Beyond the Page saw a whole bunch of awesome events. Some highlights for us were Bricks and Giggles at Brooklyn Library; Zine Machine at Arapaki Library, Box Bonanza at Wadestown and Te Awe Libraries, and Stop Motion Stories at Karori and Kilbirnie Libraries:

Several colourful LEGO constructions sitting on a table. Among them are several blue-and-green landscapes, a house, a fire engine, and a garden.

A selection of wonderful LEGO® creations from Bricks and Giggles at Brooklyn Library

A large group of children gathered around a table. On the table are a range of craft resources, magazines, pens and pencils.

A cluster of keen zine-makers at Arapaki Library

Learning to animate some aquatic friends at Kilbirnie Library

Karori Library becomes a film studio for a day!

 

Spotlight on: Stories From Our Place

A big highlight for us all was being visited by the wonderful Sophie from Zealandia | Te Māra a Tāne for Stories From Our Place at Cummings Park Library. The torrential rain didn’t stop our intrepid explorers from venturing out into the bush behind the library for an awesome (if slightly damp) experience!

We started in the library…

…met some cuddly new friends…

…ventured out into the wild weather…

…and enjoyed the beautiful sights of Cummings Park in the rain!

We can’t wait to share with you more Beyond the Page goodness once Week Two is done and dusted as well! Find out more at the official Beyond the Page website.