Introducing Puss-in-books ...

Thanks for voting! We had 120 votes (some from afar). Puss-in-books was the overall winner with 55% of the votes, followed by Matariki with 41%. Over to our feline friend:

Hi there, Puss-in-books is my name

Pawing your mouse is my game

Hope you’ll visit often

My nature may soften

when you stroke my snowy fur,

I begin to loudly PURR!

Kitty needs a name

Thank-you for making online suggestions for our library blog cat's name.  One of them was Matariki, because "the cat is black like the night sky and has a white chest, a big star!" Or there is Maggie, named after the well loved New Zealand author, Margaret Mahy who sadly passed away on 23 July 2012. Puss-in-books is meeoowrific name too.

Now we need you to vote for a name, because kitty wants to be nameless no more. Simply select the name you like on our poll (to the right of this post), or - if you have had a brainwave and want to suggest something different, please tick 'other' and then post your suggested name as a comment beneath this post. The closing date is Friday 22nd February, so get voting!

What books are just right for the young reader?

Hi all. I hope you all had a good holiday. What did you read? I would love to hear all about the books you read this summer.


For parents and teachers, here is a link to an interesting debate on what books are just right for the young reader. I read books like "Animal farm", "Lord of the flies", "Diary of Anne Frank", "Of Mice & Men", "I am David", etc when I was about twelve. My mother was studying English literature and she would pass her books on to me. I can't say that I was damaged by reading books above my emotional and cognitive level, but it would have been way more fun reading The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, etc. Some of the writers in this debate make interesting points about finding books that children will not only understand, but enjoy when they are at the right developmental stage. What do you think?



http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/12/26/what-books-are-just-right-for-the-young-reader/what-middle-school-students-need-to-read

Dare to Explore - coming to a library near you

Auckland Libraries Summer Reading Adventure

10 December 2012 - 25 January 2013

FREE for Auckland kids aged 5 - 13
It’s back! Sign up for Dare to Explore at your local library from Monday 10 December and get reading.
The Auckland Libraries Summer Reading Adventure runs throughout the whole summer holidays, and you can finish as many challenges as you want.
Take part in new Dare to Explore challenges and library activities, meet some new friends and come to the PARTY! Do activities at home, on holiday, at the library, on the internet and with friends.
Not a member of Auckland Libraries? It's easy to join - simply go online or speak to a librarian to sign up.

A gentle nudge

We have our annual library stock-take coming up, so please kindly return all your books by the end of this week. Many thanks.

Library displays

Who is looking forward to the Red Room being a library again in the near future? I am. We can have so much fun exploring the world of books and so much more. 

It would be wonderful to get you children involved in creating some wonderfully unique, creative displays ... Check out what these high school children in Melbourne have created ...

http://melbhslibrary.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/students-display-talent-and-creativity/

Celebrate Summer Reading!

Check out the events page for information on our school, Auckland Library and National Library summer reading programmes ... to help prevent the "summer slide" ...

Thanks for the names for our virtual cat. Please keep them coming (as comments) and when we have a few purrrdy good ones we will get a blog poll going so that you can vote for the purrrrfect name. Cheers.