Get your reading eyes ready, set up your novel nook, grab the cat and book in some reading time… the Summer Reading Challenge is back!
Starting 1 December 2018 and running through to 31 January 2019, your challenge is to read and review as many books from the reading list as possible. There are lots of instant and major prizes to be won.
Find out more at the Summer Reading Challenge page.
How many will you read? Challenge yourself… Challenge your friends…
The popular LitCrawl has teamed up with Annual 2 and Wellington Central Library for the first ever KidsCrawl! Come along and hunt down a story using the KidsCrawl map. There’s famous people to meet, and a story to uncover and piece together…
KidsCrawl will feature authors and illustrators Bill Manhire, David Larsen, Giselle Clarkson, Michael Petherington, Susan Paris, Kate De Goldi, Gavin Mouldy, Kate Camp and Elizabeth Patrick.
Where and When:
10th November, 10am – 11am
Wellington Central Library, meet in the YA area by the help desk
Email kidscrawl@litcrawl.co.nz to register for the event (ask your parents first!).
Before you storyhunters turn up for the KidsCrawl, here’s a guide to what you could read to get ready:
Annual and Annual 2, edited by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris
Fiction, comics, poems, essays, art, satire, and things to do! This is a book for intrepid readers to dip into, pore over, return to again and again. Annual features a dictionary of crazy words that come in handy on car trips, a sophisticated “spot the similarity”, a found poem from school newsletters, a maths-nerd’s memoir full of tricky logic puzzles, comics that embrace other worlds, a very unlucky zebra, and top-class fiction that spans Christchurch Botanic Gardens in the 19th century, the loss of a brother, a Kiwi beach holiday, and a Fontanian boarding school.
The Curioseum : collected stories of the odd & marvellous, edited by Adrienne Jansen ; illustrated by Sarah Laing
What happens when you take 22 of New Zealand’s best children’s story writers and let them loose ‘backstage’ at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa? Authors from around the country were invited to choose one of the museum’s taonga (treasures) as a starting point for an imaginative journey. The result is a truly original compendium of stories and poems for children with spirited, original illustrations from the award-winning Sarah Laing.
Secret world of butterflies, by Courtney Sina Meredith, Giselle Clarkson
Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet, do a dark red poo when they come out of their chrysalises and that some drink the tears of crocodiles? How does the world look to them, do they ever sleep and how are some of them able to fly so high? This book will open your eyes to these magical creatures around us.
But wait! There’s more! The fun doesn’t start and finish with the KidsCrawl. You could take home your own copy of Annual 2! Enter for your chance to win.
Looking forward to the holidays? So are we! There are heaps of great activities planned for you. Here’s the low down…
Royal New Zealand Ballet Dance Workshops
Inspired by The Nutcracker these 45 minute sessions give participants a chance to dance! RNZB dance workshops for children aged 5-8 years. Places are limited, register early for these popular workshops at the RNZB website.
Tawa Community Centre: 2nd October 10 – 10.45am
Newlands Community Centre: 2nd October 2 – 2.45pm
Wellington Central Library: 3 October 10 – 10.45am (This Workshop Is Full)
Island Bay Community Centre: 4 October 10 – 10.45am
Diorama Workshop and Competition
Be in to win a family pass to the RNZB’s The Nutcracker Season! Work together with your friends and family on the fun and creative challenge. Recreate your favourite scene from The Nutcracker in a shoebox diorama. Bring your own shoebox and use our craft supplies. These workshops are open to families with children of all ages. Bookings are required for these workshops, please contact the host library to register.
Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library: 2nd October 10.30 – 11.30am
Wadestown Library: 2nd October 11am – 12pm
Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library: 2nd October 2.30 – 3.30pm
Karori Library: 3rd October 2.30 – 3.30pm
Wellington Central Library: 10th October 11am – 12pm (Bookings not required)
Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: 10th October 2 – 3pm (Bookings not required)
Brooklyn Library: 11th October 11am – 12pm
Khandallah Library: 11th October 11am – 12pm
Johnsonville Library: 11th October 2 – 3pm (Bookings not required)
Family Movies
Bring a blanket and pillow, and relax at our fun family movies. A different G or PG rated movie from the library collection will be showing each time, and are suitable for the whole family. Ideal for children aged 4+ years accompanied by their caregivers. Bookings required for the evening movies at Johnsonville, Newtown, and Karori Libraries.
Wellington Central Library: 1st – 12th October, at 2pm in the children’s section (no movie showing on 7th October)
Johnsonville Library: 5th October 5.30 – 7pm (Reserve your place by contacting the event library)
Newtown Library: 5th October 6 – 7.30pm (Reserve your place by contacting the event library)
Karori Library: 11th October 6 – 7.30pm (Reserve your place by contacting the event library)
Let’s Go lego
At Let’s Go 
Lego, your creative skills will be put to the test as you use our Lego collections to design and build your masterpieces. Each session will have a different theme that will inspire you to hone your skills and become your very own Lego Legend. Bookings not required. Suitable for children aged 5+ years accompanied by their caregivers.
Wadestown Library: 2nd October 11am – 12pm
Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library: 4th October 3.30 – 4.30pm
Khandallah Library: 5th October 3.30 – 4.30pm
Karori Library: 6th October 2 – 3pm
Tawa Community Centre: 8th October 10am – 12pm
Miramar Library: 10th October 10.30 – 11.30am
Tawa Library: 11th October 3.30 – 4.30pm
Island Bay Community Centre: 12th October 10.30 – 11.30am
Johnsonville Library: 12th October 3.30 – 4.30pm
Newtown Library: 13th October 10.30 – 11.30am
Storytelling and Puppet Making
Come and listen to the story of The Nutcracker and be transported into the enchanting world of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Mouse King. Followed by a fantastical puppet making workshop where you will create your own magical puppets to tell a story! Suitable for children aged 4+ years accompanied by their caregivers.
Newlands Community Centre: 9th October 2 – 3.30pm
Gamesfest
Get your game face on! Bring your own, or use the board games supplied, and challenge yourself and your friends to victory. Aim for a Scrabble high score, show your hand or perhaps perfect your poker face in your favourite card game! Suitable for children aged 6+ years accompanied by their caregivers.
Central Library: 3rd and 10th October 5.30 – 8pm
Stories @ Six
Come along for a fun family story evening run by the community for the community. Bring the family and enter into a magical time of stories and fantasy. Stories @ Six is ideal for families with children aged 4+ years.
Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: 4th October 6 – 6.30pm
Bey Blade Tournament
Let the battle of the Bey Blades begin! Bring your own Bey Blades or use the library ones, and challenge your friends to a battle. Who will emerge victorious? Suitable for children aged 6+ years accompanied by their caregivers.
Newtown Library: 4th October 3 – 4pm
Lego Stop-Motion Movie Workshop
Work as a team and learn how to create a stop motion film using ‘Stop Motion Studio’ and LEGO. BYOD tablet, or borrow one of the library ones (limited supply available). Numbers are limited, bookings required. Reserve your place by contacting Tawa Library. Suitable for children aged 7+ years accompanied by their caregivers.
Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: 5th October 10.30 – 11.30am (Bookings required, please contact the library)
All events are free. Parents/caregivers are expected to accompany and supervise children at all activities. Contact the host library for more information about each event.
Then tell us all about it in this survey! Tell us what you likes the most, what you didn’t like, which events you went to, and what you would most like to see at future Beyond the Page festivals.
There is a prize pack up for grabs for one lucky survey completer. Check out Beyond the Page on Facebook to see what you could win.
Be quick! You have until Monday 13th August to complete the survey.
Kia ora everyone! To Celebrate Māori Language week at Wellington City Libraries we are having a competition to name our Kōhunga Kōrero Puppets!
Tuī and Pūngāwerewere desperately need names and we think that you are the best people to name them. We would love you to come up with some great names. So when you’re in your local library this week getting some books to read, come up to the counter and we’ll write down your suggestions, along with your name and a contact number and put you in the draw to win prizes! The competition close this Rātapu (Sunday) the 17th of Mahuru (September)so be quick and next week we’ll let you know who the lucky winners are. Ka kite anō!
Thank-you for bringing your fantastic Seaweek pictures into the Wellington Libraries and sharing them with us. We were swept away by amazing picture that you all did. Big congratulations to all those who took part and especially to our winners. Here is a wonderful picture from one of our winners, Tilly from Karori.
Our other winners from Karori were Abby (left), pictured with the Finding Dory Playset she won, and Keddie holding her book.
Winners Joshua, Anna and Emma standing in front of some sensational Seaweek art
From Johnsonville our Seaweek winners were Anna, Oscar and Anna and from Ngaio our winners were Gabrianna and Grace. Thanks once again to all those who took part. Hope to see more of your wonderful art work in the libraries really soon!
Read, review and WIN! How many can you read ..?
The popular annual Summer Reading Challenge starts in 1st December 2016 and runs through to 31st January 2017.
Head over to the Challenge page to find out more and join in the fun.
How many can you read? Find out by reading, reviewing, and winning prizes over Summer. Click through to the Summer Reading Challenge
Wellington City Libraries is turning 175 years old! This makes us the oldest library system in New Zealand – wow!
To celebrate our birthday, we’re holding a party at the Wellington Central Library on Saturday 21st November.
For the creative and crafty people out there, we have a couple of competitions that you can enter.
The colouring competition is for 5-8yr olds. New Zealand’s first public library was a small hut on the Wellington waterfront. Colour in the picture of the hut, fill in your details on the back, and drop it in to any Wellington City library to enter.
The design competition is for 9-13yr olds. We want you to draw your idea of the library of the future! What do you think Wellington City Libraries will look like 175 years from now (that’s the year 2190, by the way)? Draw your design on the front, fill in your details on the back, and drop it into to any Wellington City library to enter the competition.
The competitions close on 29th November, and the winners will be announced on 1st December.
(Click the links above to download the competition forms to print at home!)
Good luck!
Summer is approaching, which means school holidays, beaches, Christmas, warm weather, ice creams, and lots of amazing books for you to get stuck into.
Reading’s not just for school you know, it’s a fun year-round activity where you can let your imagination loose, have an adventure, solve a crime, and be anything (and anyone) you want to be!
And the Summer Reading Challenge is the perfect way to explore the possibilities.
Starting on December 1st, and running for 9 weeks, the challenge is to read and review as many titles as you can from the Summer Reading Challenge booklist (available soon from your local library and online).
You’ll receive prizes for your reviews, and each review you write is an entry into the main prize draw – so the more you read and review, the better your chances at winning!
Each of the Wellington City Libraries also has a fun activity for you to do. Pop into your local library, complete the Summer Reading Challenge activity, and have your booklet signed off by the librarian. Each activity you complete is an entry into another prize draw.
Make sure you hand in your booklet to the library at the end of the challenge to have your activities counted.
The Summer Reading Challenge is FREE, and you don’t have to register. It’s open to all Wellington City Library members aged 5-12 years old. So what’s stopping you!?
Click through to the Summer Reading Challenge.