new zealand authors – Kids' Blog

Top 10 Children’s eBooks May 2016

Dusty20 June, 2016

The Star Wars back stories are a great place to find those little tendrils that become the storylines for some of our favourite space faring epics.

Everyday obstacles can be just as epic. The journal keepers of this world know how school, family and friends can be the source of trials and tribulation that can fill pages with intense action and adventure.

The diary of a wimpy kid ebooks let you keep up with the all the events with Greg and co. You can take part in the adventures in another form of online entertainment too try these Wimpy kid games out.

Here’s your Top 10 eBooks for May:

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling

4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J. K. Rowling

5. Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy: Collecting The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, by Patricia Wrede

6. The Ugly Truth: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, by Jeff Kinney

7. Star Wars: A New Hope: The Life of Luke Skywalker, by Ryder Wyndham

8. Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, by Ryder Wyndham

9. The ACB With Honora Lee, by Kate de Goldi

10. Dog Days: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, by Jeff Kinney

Finalists for the NZ Children’s Book Awards announced

admin8 June, 2016

Early this morning the finialst titles were announced for the 2016 Children’s Book Awards. These awards seek to find the best books written fro children in New Zealand in the last year. There are 6 categories – Young Adult, Illustration, Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Te Reo Māori. There are also children’s choice awards for each of the 6 categories – finalists that are voted for by children rather than the book award judges.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Monday 8th August. You can find out more about the awards at the Booksellers website.

Have you grabbed your pizza wheel yet? Hell Pizza are one of the big sponsors of the awards. Until stocks last, you can grab a pizza wheel from the library. Get each section clicked for each book you read, and once you have completed a wheel (7 clicks) you can exchange the wheel for a pizza. Yum!

Here are the 2016 finalists:

Junior Fiction:

Enemy Camp by David Hill

From the cutting room of Barney Kettle by Kate De Goldi

Lily Max – Satin, Scissors, Frock by Jane Bloomfield

The bold ship Phenomenal by Sarah Johnson

The girl who rode the wind by Stacey Gregg

Non-Fiction:

ANZAC Heroes by Maria Gill

Changing Times: The story of a New Zealand town and its newspaper by Bob Kerr

See what I can see: New Zealand photography for the young and curious by Gregory O’Brien

The beginner’s guide to adventure sport in New Zealand by Steve Gurney

Whose beak is this? By Gillian Candler

Picture Book:

Allis the little tractor by Sophie Siers

Finding Monkey Moon by Elizabeth Pulford

Haka by Patricia Grace

The house on the hill by Kyle Mewburn

Little Kiwi’s Matariki by Nikki Slade Robinson

Illustration:

Changing Times: The story of a New Zealand town and its newspaper Illustrated by Bob Kerr

Finding Monkey Moon Illustrated by Kate Wilkinson

Hush: a Kiwi lullaby Illustrated by Andrew Burdan

Much ado about Shakespeare Illustrated by Donovan Bixley

The house on the hill Illustrated by Sarah Davis

Te Reo Māori:

Tamanui te Kōkako Mōrehu o Taranaki by Rebecca Beyer and Linley Wellington

Te Hua Tuatahi a Kuwi by Kat Merewether

Whiti te Rā! by Patricia Grace

Hell Pizza Reading Challenge

admin8 April, 2016

Love pizza? Love reading? Then we have the deal for you!

To celebrate the 2016 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, Hell Pizza will give you one free pizza for every 7 books you borrow and read from the library.

Sounds too good to be true? Trust us; we wouldn’t lie to you, especially about pizza.

Here’s the deal…

Pop into your local library and grab a pizza wheel from the friendly librarian. They look like this:

Image pizza wheel

Whenever you issue a book from the library, ask the librarian to click and sign your pizza wheel.

Once you have all 7 wedges on your pizza wheel clicked and signed off, you can take it into any Hell Pizza shop and exchange it for a FREE 333 pizza from their Hellthy menu. Wow!

There’s no limit to how many pizza wheels you can complete, so make sure you ask for another from the librarian. We will keep handing them out until we run out.

Good news! You can use your pizza wheel in both your public and school library. So anything you read from your school library can be clicked off your wheel too.

The finalists for the book awards will be released in early June, and the winners announced in August. So keep your ears to the ground for more news.

Special Event! New Zealand Festival Children’s Story Reading.

admin1 March, 2016

ACB Poster medium Mar 16 To celebrate the New Zealand festival, and the stage production of Kate De Goldi’s “The ACB with Honora Lee”, Wellington Central Library will be hosting a special one-off children’s story reading event.

Join us for a morning of Kate De Goldi’s stories at Wellington City Library. Jane Waddell, director of “The ACB With Honora Lee” reads ‘Uncle Jack’ and there will be live excerpts from the NZ Festival production.

This event is free, bookings are not required, and is suitable for children aged 8+

Don’t miss out!

Rainy day activity: Watch ‘Mrs Mo’s Monster’ online

admin30 September, 2015

Love the book? Now you can listen and watch Author and Illustrator Paul Beavis read aloud Mrs Mo’s Monster.

(This video was filmed inside Wellington Central Library with the generous permission of Paul Beavis and Gecko Press)

Mrs Mo’s Monster is also available as an eBook. Check out the further adventures of the Monster in the sequel ‘Hello World!‘

You can find more video storytimes at the Stories Online page. Enjoy!

Toot! Toot! Join us for a special Storytime

admin29 September, 2015

Joy Ramirez, author of the new book ‘Toot the World’s Tiniest Whale‘ will be reading aloud her book at Central Library’s Preschool Storytime, with extra fun activities and colouring sheets for the children to enjoy.

Toot – The World’s Tiniest Whale is the debut children’s picture book from up-and-coming Auckland author Joy Ramirez. The story is packed with unique and loveable characters like: Toot – a whale the size of your thumb, Henry the Fifth – the royal goldfish, Lord Squigglebottom, and Princess Bambella. Check out the website for more info.

Wellington Central Library, Children’s Section

Friday, 2nd October, 10.30am

This free programme is perfect for 2 – 5 year olds and their caregivers. Bookings not required.

Mrs. Mo’s Monster visits Johnsonville Library

debbie21 July, 2015

Author and illustrator Paul Beavis visited Johnsonville Library during the school holidays for a storytime and a live drawing session.

Paul read his book Mrs. Mo’s Monster to us and then he taught us some actions that go with the book so we were able to act out the story when he read it for a second time.

Paul also showed us how he draws monsters so we were able to go home and create our own special monsters with what he had shown us.

Check out our photos. We loved having a chance to be little monsters ourselves!

2015 NZ children’s book award finalists announced

admin18 June, 2015

Pirates, orcas and penguins leap from the pages of the 22 books picked as finalists in the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

2015 is the 25th year of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and the judges have just announced a great line up of finalists. These are the best books written by New Zealanders in the last year, so best you go and grab them off the library shelves.

Do you want to help choose the winners in the NZ Children’s Book Awards? Be part of the Children’s Choice voting and have your chance to vote for the NZ books you think are the best.

Picture Books:

Construction by Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock

I Am Not a Worm by Scott Tulloch

Jim’s Letters by Glyn Harper and Jenny Cooper

Keys by Sacha Cotter and Joshua Morgan

Little Red Riding Hood . . . Not Quite by Yvonne Morrison and Donovan Bixley

Non-Fiction:

Ghoulish Get-Ups: How to Create Your Own Freaky Costumes by Fifi Colston

Māori Art for Kids by Julie Noanoa and Norm Heke

Mōtītī Blue and the Oil Spill by Debbie McCauley

The Book of Hat by Harriet Rowland

Under the Ocean: explore & discover New Zealand’s sea life by Gillian Candler and Ned Barraud

Junior Fiction:

Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand by Leonie Agnew

Dragon Knight: Fire! by Kyle Mewburn and Donovan Bixley

Monkey Boy by Donovan Bixley

The Island of Lost Horses by Stacy Gregg

The Pirates and the Nightmaker by James Norcliffe

Young Adult Fiction:

I Am Rebecca by Fleur Beale

Night Vision by Ella West

Recon Team Angel: Vengeance by Brian Falkner

Singing Home the Whale by Mandy Hager

While We Run by Karen Healey

Māori Language Award:

Hoiho Paku by Stephanie Thatcher

Ngā Ki by Sacha Cotter and Joshua Morgan (Translated by Kawata Teepa)

Did you know that Prince George will receive a copy of each of the winning books? He’s going to have an amazing collection of great NZ books!

The winners will be announced on the evening of Thursday, 13 August at Government House in Wellington.

Winners Announced! Did your favourite win?

admin16 June, 2015

At a lavish ceremony on the evening of 15th June, the winners of the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards were announced. The winners are the best books, according to Librarians, that have written and illustrated by New Zealanders in the last year.

(LIANZA – Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa)

Here are the winners:

Russell Clarke Award for Illustration:

Mrs Mo’s Monster by Paul Beavis (See Paul Beavis in the library during the School Holidays!)

Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction:

Maori Art for Kids by Julie Noanoa and Norm Heke

Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction:

Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand by Leonie Agnew

Young Adult Fiction Prize:

Night Vision by Ella West

Librarians’ Choice:

I am Rebecca by Fleur Beale

Te Kura Ponamu for best te Reo book:

Kimihia by Te Mihinga Komene and Scott Pearson

Top 10 children’s non-fiction for May

Dusty9 June, 2015

There’s a varied set of popular facts whisking out the library door for autumn time reading. World War One fascination has continued from the ANZAC centenary with some great books. Philippa Werry, a NZ Post book awards Children’s finalist has created a great store of facts and stories surrounding ANZAC day in her book and her blog. Star wars and minecraft still have a special place in the Top 10 – of course they do