We hope you have been enjoying the virtual storytime videos that our staff have been sharing recently through our YouTube channel ✨
Today, we would to highlight a couple of these awesome storytimes in languages from our communities, and share some of our favourite books in Spanish & Mandarin!
Firstly, the wonderful Blanca and Isabel from Karori Library share a sweet story called ¡Me Rompí la Trompa! by Mo Willems:
Up next, Qiyu and Joseph at Arapaki Manners Library share a bilingual telling of the fantastic Ruru’s Hangī written by Chris Gurney and translated by Juechen Shao:
To keep up to date with Our Languages For Kids you can ‘save’ this playlist of our videos on YouTube.
Language Collections at Our Branches
Almost all of our branches have children’s books available in Chinese, Spanish, German, French, and Samoan (along with English and Te Reo Māori). Many more languages are available at branches across our system! Here is a picture of the recently updated languages section at Karori Library, ātaahua!
Karori Library has books in Arabic, Chinese, French, Filipino, German, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and languages of the Pacific for you to enjoy!
Chinese language book picks from Khadro
Our wonderful librarian Khadro at Newtown Library has chosen some of her favourite books in Chinese to share with us today. We also love the beautiful decorations on the wall at Newtown Library, celebrating Chinese language and culture.
The War of Colours / Heller, Eva
This book explores the complexity of colours and all of the ways they enrich our everyday lives, from the yellow of the stars to the splashes of indigo in the sky!
How Animals Sleep / Bartíková, Petra
Take a short flick through the jungle, the swamp and the outback to explore all of the different ways wildlife catch the Z’s. from the seagulls squawking at the beach to the Giraffes that lounge the safari.
Bear and Duck have one mission: get back home safely. But what happens when they take a few bad turns?
Spanish language book picks from Rogelio
Our librarian Rogelio at Arapaki Manners Library has also chosen some of his favourite Spanish-language books for kids to share. Find more recommendations for wonderful children’s books in Spanish on our blog: ¡Nuevos libros en español! | New Books in Spanish!
Gustavo : el fantasmita timido / Drago, Flavia Z
“Conoce a Gustavo. Él es un fantasma y como a cualquier ser paranormal le encanta hacer lo que le es normal: atravesar paredes, hacer volar objetos y brillar en la oscuridad. También le encanta tocar el violín. Pero Gustavo tiene un problema. Él es muy, muy tímido, y aunque su deseo más grande es tener amigos, nunca se ha atrevido a hablarle a ninguno de los monstruos en su pueblito. Con el Día de Muertos cerca, ¿se atreverá Gustavo a dejar que lo vean?” (Catalogue).
¡Hermanos! / Bonilla, Rocio
“Un libro fantástico para hablar del amorodio entre hermanos. Un relato muy original y divertido que se lee en ambos sentidos. ¡Tener un hermano es muy molesto! Parece un mono, siempre haciendo payasadas. ¡Tener una hermana también es un rollo! Todo le parece mal y no me deja jugar a lo que quiero. Pero, a veces, los hermanos son una gran ayuda y juntos viven momentos muy divertidos. Quizás, tener un hermano o una hermana no está tan mal. Pero, ¿ser tres hermanos? ¡Eso sí que no!” (Catalogue)
The boy who touched the stars = El niño que alcanzó las estrellas / Hernández, José M.
“Juan Marcos is eager to continue his studies in the United States and rents a room from family friends living in El Barrio, or Spanish Harlem. Soon, he has a job wrapping packages at a department store that pays as much as he made teaching high school at home. As he interacts with the Puerto Rican community in New York, he witnesses the problems his compatriots encounter, including discrimination, inadequate housing, jobs and wages. Despite these problems, friendships and romances bloom and rivalries surface, leading to betrayal and even attempted murder!” (Catalogue)