Monday, August 27, 2012

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:
  • "The Grumble Bee" by Kyle MEWBURN illustrated by Ingrid BERZINS
  • "The Pet Shop Revolution" by Ana JUAN
Fiction:
  • "The Christmas Toy Factory" by Geronimo STILTON (Geronimo Stilton series)
  • "Billie B Brown : The Night Fright" by Sally RIPPIN (Billie B Brown series)
Senior Fiction:
  • "Iris's Ukulele" by Kathy TAYLOR
  • "The 4 Powers of Daren Saner" by Michael OEHLEY
Non-Fiction:
  • "Terror Below! True Shark Stories" by Dana DEL PRADO
  • "Day Moon" by Robin FRY

Thursday, August 23, 2012

A Warmer Climate Anyone?

Feeling like a change from the wet winter weather we've been having?  Mmmm, perhaps not such a drastic change as this!

You can find out more about this photograph here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:
  • "Beach Bag Boogie" by Lindsay WOOD, Illustrated by Rebekah HOLGUIN 
  • "Otto the Book Bear" by Katie CLEMINSON
Fiction:
  • "Battle of the Borders : Isolus" by Mac PARK (Boy vs Beast series)
  • "The Dancing Bear" by Michael MORPURGO 
  • "Farticus Maximus : Bottomus Burps of Britannia" by Felice ARENA (Farticus Maximus series)
Senior Fiction:
Non-Fiction:
  • "Submerged : Magical Tales by Kiwi Kids"
  • "The History of Vampires and Other Real Blood Drinkers" by Sylvia BRANZEI

Friday, August 17, 2012

Skulduggery Pleasant Kingdom of the Wicked

Would you like a chance to win your own autographed copy of Derek Landy's latest Skulduggery book?

Then get on over and enter and take your chance to win one of two copies up for grabs.  The competition is open to New Zealand entries only and closes on Wednesday 22 August 2012 - SO BE QUICK.


Mrs Keane recommends ...

Picture Books:

The Interrupting Chicken
by David Ezra Stein

The Cat's Pyjamas
by Catherine Foreman

Goldilocks and the Three Bears          by Lauren Child &
illustrated by Polly Borland
& Emily Jenkins

Queen Victoria's Underpants
by Jackie French &
illustrated by Bruce Whatley

Slinky Malinki Early Bird
by Lynley Dodd



Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Monster Prize Competition


Can you draw Monsters?

Would you like to win a $50 prize pack?

Zac at My Best Friends Are Books blog is hosting an awesome competition on his blog to celebrate the release of the latest book in Cristy Burne's Takeshita Demons series, Monster Matsuri.  Thanks to Walker Books Australia, kids from Australia and New Zealand can enter the Takeshita Demons Monster Prize Competition to win 1 of 10 $50 prize packs.

To get in the draw you need to send a picture of your favourite montster. It can either be a monster of your own creation or a monster from a book or movie.

The COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED but you can head over and find out who won, go to Takeshita Demons Monster Prize Competition

Monday, August 13, 2012

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:
  • "Mind your Gramma!" by Yvonne MORRISON; Illustrated by Nikki Slade ROBINSON 
  • "Old MacDonald's Farm" Illustrated by Donovan BIXLEY
Fiction:
  • "Running Wild" by Michael MORPURGO
  • "Pyramid Puzzle" by Susannah McFARLANE (EJ12 series)
  • "Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People" by Dav PILKEY (Captain Underpants series)
Senior Fiction:
Non-Fiction:
  • "The Extraordinary Everglades" by Jeff CORWIN

Friday, August 10, 2012

Derek Landy visits Upper Hutt

Yesterday Irish author Derek Landy visited Upper Hutt, he was co-hosted by Hutt International Boys School (HIBS) and St Brendan's School. The event was held in HIBS auditorium and students from the Hutt Valley, and perhaps a bit further afield, were welcomed by Kapa Haka performed by St Brendan's senior students. (Well done seniors, I've had some great feedback from other schools about your Kapa Haka.)

Derek began by talking about his life - from childhood till now, it took about nine minutes...  He filled in some of the rest of his talk telling us about his pets, his German Shepherd - who now lives with his parents, and two Staffordshire Bull Terriers that he adopted as older dogs.  He also told us how he became a Dog and Cat person after originally being a Dog person.  It was all the fault of this little grey cat who kept visiting him in his new house and staring at him as he was working on his next Skulduggery book. The cat kept visiting, and kept visiting and he noticed it was getting a bit thin, so he started to feed it (big mistake!) He didn't know if the cat was a boy or a girl, and he didn't ask. He soon found out when two cute wee kittens arrived.  Now he had three cats!  Derek soon discovered that cats can multiply a bit like rabbits if you're not careful and at one point he had 13 cats in his house. Lucky for him he managed to find homes for most of them with other people.

Derek is "World Famous" for his Skulduggery Pleasant series of books for children and young adults - and he has a few adult fans too I hear! We found out some interesting facts about the Skulduggery books and here are a couple that I remember from yesterday. 
  • It took him six months to write the first draft of the first Skulduggery Pleasant book, and in this first draft Tanith Lee was killed.
  • The only character that is based on a real person in some way is Skulduggery Pleasant who is based on Derek Landy  Stephanie/Valkyrie who is based on a martial arts student he knew - this helped him with how a teenage girl would react to things, he didn't know this since he was never a teenage girl.
  • There may one day be a Skulduggery Pleasant movie.
photo by Mr Lawrence
After question time those who were interested (and who remembered to bring their Skulduggery book along) were able to go and get a book signed by Derek.  A few St Brendan's students had books with them for signing - of course us adults were only in the photo with Derek Landy and the students to make up the numbers - Honest!

You can find out more about Derek Landy and the Skulduggery Pleasant books in my earlier blog post here

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Book Fair 2012 - Update

St Brendan's Book Fair is over again for another year. A BIG Thank you to everyone who came along and supported our major library "fundraiser". The value of sales this year earned us 30 free new books for our library collection. A BIG Thank you also to the families who purchased "Red Dot" books for donation to the library - keep a look out for them in the library later this term, they will all have special Book Fair 2012 Donation book plates inside!

Friday, August 3, 2012

A Sweet Book!

Something to get your teeth stuck into!
Or should that be:
Something to get stuck in your teeth!

You can find out how to make these books here.