Winnie the witch

The original author of Winnie the witch was Valerie Thomas, an Australian teacher who has travelled most of the world on a broomstick. She too has a black cat just like Wilbur. Korky Paul is the illustarator, born in Zimbabwe, studied fine arts and now lives in Oxford, England. Laura Owen is the present author of Winnie and has managed rather well to capture and maintain the humour started by Valerie 20 years ago.
'Winnie's Book Day' is a must read for all book and library lovers. It's funny and zany whilst promoting books. It is book week and the story teller is unable to turn-up at school.Winnie has been asked to read to the 'little extraordinaries' instead. Of course Winnie can not read but that does not stop her using books and her magic wand to entertain the little extraordinaries.
Abracadabra see what you will find.

We're going on a bear hunt

This is a fabulous picture book which can be enjoyed by both children and adults. The story is written in such a way that the reader ends up developing a fun repetitive chant which becomes interspersed with glorious onomatopoeia. The text outlines the adventure a father and his children

have and the surprised discovery of a bear!

My copy of this book is held together with sellotape and 10 years on, my girls can still chant the story with such joy!

We're going on a bear hunt.

We're going to catch a big one................

A New Initiative

Lots of work and planning is going ahead behind the scenes with a new idea for the Matamata library. In July we are hoping to start a 'Toddler Time' reading session for those enthusiastic pre-schoolers who eat books [ metaphorically not literally]. A great way to whet your appetite is to introduce you to the beautiful Gwenda Turner books and one of my favourites is "Pat-A-Cake". Here we are introduced to the delights of mess and baking. Gwenda provides a chocolate cake recipe at the back of the book which is so easy to make and delicious to eat.

CAPTAIN PUGWASH by JOHN RYAN

Ahoy there me hearties!

Captain Pugwash first set sail over 50 years ago and I can certainly remember, as a child growing up in England watching a 10 minute cartoon of him .

Captain Pugwash is the most unlikely of pirates; he's big, fat, greedy and a total coward. His ship, 'The Black Pig' is crewed by an equally useless bunch of lazy pirates except for Tom , the cabin boy. In the adventures, Pugwash is pursued over the Seven seas by a ruthless villan called Cut-Throat Jake. Jake's attempts to capture Pugwash are always humourously thwarted by the loyal, sharp minded Tom .

These stories are ideal for young readers, especially boys; my 6 year old son giggles away as he devours story after story.