Toddler Time

On Thursday we gave a big warm welcome to Hinuera and Te Poi play centres. It was fantastic to see so many bright, enthusiastic and cheery people.Children and adults came along dresed-up as either their favourite book character or animal. We had such a variety with the 'cat in the hat', princesses, jockey, pirates, a bunny, butterfly, miss Muffet and the Fat Controller.

Songs, stories and action rhymes reflected the theme and everyone had great fun.

Toddler Time sessions are held each week @ 11am on a Thursday for anyone wishing to come along. Reading is a fundamental skill which everyone must have, so why not start at an early age by coming along and help develop those life-time reading habits.

Elegy directed by Isabel Coixet

The word elegy means: a mournful poem or song, a lament for the dead. This is a beautiful art film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winner novel 'The dying animal' by Philip Roth. What starts out as desire, possession and lust turns into a most unlikely love story. A New York college professor who fills his time with art, music and literature becomes captivated by the beauty of a young college student. Not only is she physically beautiful but her heart and mind match. Elegy charts their intimate relationship and their transformation as people as their love develops, a love which is incapable of being erased. ' Beauty is what you see, love is what you don't see coming'.
Why the title? I think the end of the film explains this rather well.

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.

October 2010

Hi there to our regular readers and to those who have just discovered us. For the regulars, you will have noticed that there were no entries for the month of September. It was a busy month. The APNK [ Aotearoa people's network] has now been installed in the library which means the public has free use of the internet and a wealth of educational data bases as well as access to a variety of programmes: come and make a film, use skype, view your photos and much more. Come and explore the available resources.

Toddler time will recommence on Thursday 14th October {first thursday of the new term} with some new songs, stories and rhymes. Alison is away for this first week so it will be Elaine taking the session. Tell your friends and come along for half an hour of fun.

The first book club evening for October met today and people appear to be enjoying this. A small entusiastic bunch get together once a fortnight to talk about books. Anyone is welcome to come along and join in.

NZ Post Book Award winners for 2010.

The award winners were announced on 27th August 2010 and are as follows:

NZ Post Book of the Year Award goes to Judith Binney for 'Encircled Lands.'

The Fiction award was won by Alison Wong for 'As the Earth Turns Silver'.

Brian Turner was the winner of the poetry section with 'Just This'.

The illustrated non- fiction award went to Al Brown for 'Go Fish: Recipes and Stories from the New Zealand Coast. This book also took the people's choice award.

These books are available in the Matamata Piako District libraries. Come in and have a read.

Rug up & Read

This is another new initiative from the public library. It is a winter reading programme aimed at everybody[ there is no age limit!]. The programme is designed to encourage all to read books and write a review on each book read. The reviews go into several draws and the best one wins a prize. The programme is going to run until the end of September so there is plenty of time to rug up with a good book.

Come in to the library and collect a booklet containing all the information and get started.

Book Club

Last friday [6th Aug] a small group of people met in the library to talk about setting up a new book club. The group plan to meet on a fortnightly basis, starting at 6pm, here in the public library.

At the moment there is no prescribed format for the club but two ideas are : bring a book along that has been a particular favourite and everyone read and discussthe same book .

If you are a lover of reading and like talking about books, why not consider this opportunity and get together with some like-minded people.

Contact Susan for further details.

The loblolly boy by James Norcliffe

This book is the winner of this year's junior section of the New Zealand Post book Awards. It is a fantasy set in present day about an unhappy boy who becomes a Loblolly boy: a human who doesn't exist in our world, a sort of ghost who can fly and go unnoticed by other humans. Initially this idea seems attractive and fun but it doesn't take long for the Loblolly boy to feel lonely. A view from a 'special' telescope provides him with images he is unable to explain until, by chance he meets up with a couple of girls who can see him. ' From here the plot twists and turns before ending favourably.
It all sounds very complicated but it is not because the plot is written simply and clearly. It is a book that will stimulate the young reader's mind and leave one wondering.

From an adults perspective the idea that 'the grass is always greener' is not always the case.

Toddler Time

Our first story and music time went well with lots of pre-schoolers, from 18 months to 4+ years, joining in. Elaine read 3 picture book stories which engaged both boys and girls. Alison was her usual enthusiastic self and had every one up and dancing to easy songs. These fun sessions are going to be held every Thursday from 11- 11.30am Please come along and enjoy.

Stories for 6 year olds

We have just had the school holidays and over that time I have been able to explore and read new books with my 6 year old boy. here are some of the ones Samuel has particularly enjoyed.

Zac power [mission series] by H.I. Larry. These are great stories about a secret agent [Zac Power] who works for the Government Investigation Bureau and generally has 24 hours to save the world....... and go to the dentist! A simpler series in the Zac Power collection is the Test Drive series. A 6 year old would be more able to read these himself.

Akimbo and the crocodile man by Alexander McCall-Smith.

Five books make up this series of adventures. Akimbo, the son of a ranger has many experiences helping others with the wild African animals. The stories are gentle but at the same time engaging and quite a change from the fast paced 'fighting' stories.

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.

This was the first time reading 'Flat Stanley' and I am not so sure what Samuel's thoughts on the book are but I quite enjoyed it. Stanley became flat when a wardrobe fell on him. Surprisingly, his family accepts this rather well and discovered they can inflate him again using a bicycle pump. The books take you through the adventures Stanley has being flat. A different idea but good fun.

Battle boy- Aztec attack by Charlie Carter & Secret agent Jack Stalwart by Elizabeth Singer Hunt.

These books are variations on a theme: detectives travelling the world saving others from the 'baddies'. They are engaging for 6 year olds and incorporate history and facts relating to the story setting. A good way of learning facts whilst having fun reading a story.