New Books - True Stories

Here are the latest true stories to come into the Library.

Wildboy - The story of Brando Yelavich, who walked around New Zealand with only what he could carry on his back. (Has been a TV series)

Malala’s Magic Pencil and Free as a Bird - Both of these stories are about Malala Yousafzai, who stood up for girls being educated and was shot by the Taliban.

Anzac Animals - 20 stories of animals who helped out during WW1 and WW2. Monkey, turtle, dogs, horses, camel and even a kangaroo.

How the Sphinx got to the Museum - The story of how a sphinx created for the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, destroyed by her stepson Thutmose III, discovered in pieces by an archaeologist from NY Metropolitan Museum, is brought to be on display at the Museum.

Escape to Freedom - Stories of children from Vietnam, the Congo, Iraq, Burma, Rwanda, Liberia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Somalia and Syria who have escaped their situations and sought freedom.

The Little Refugee - This is the story of author Anh Do (writes the Weirdo series) who came from Vietnam to live in Australia as a refugee. He calls himself Australia’s Happiest Refugee.

Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different - 100 one page stories of famous and not-so-famous men from the past to the present, who made the world a better place through compassion, generosity and self-belief. Some of those included are: Dynamo, Barack Obama, Patch Adams, Alan Turing, Bill Gates, Confucius, King George VI, Jamie Oliver, Jim Henson to name a few.

Kickin' it with Winston Reid -The story of how a young kiwi footballer achieved his dream of playing in the English Premier League.

The Extraordinary Mr Qwerty, Karla Strambini

This is the book that I read to the Years 4/5's this week.Mr Qwerty is an extraordinary character, with fantastical ideas. This book combines minimal text with mainly black and white illustrations, the text includes a few idioms and is well-paced. The illustrations are extraordinary they are made to be pored over, they add an extra layer of meaning to the story. The children really enjoyed the story, and got the idea that imagination and believing in yourself is vital as well as the point that no-one knows what is going on in anyone else's mind. A wonderful book.
Rating 8/10

Mrs Silver-Hessey

Bedtime is Cancelled, Cece Meng

'Bedtime is Cancelled' is the picture book that I read to the junior classes this week. It was very well received with lots of positive comments. The story follows the exploits of a brother and sister as they write a note to their parents to cancel bedtime, the wind carries off the note and the message is published and believed by people all over the world, the consequences of having no bedtime are funny as depicted by both the ideas in the text and the illustrations. The power of the press and of the impact social media can have are perhaps a little over the heads of the children but as an adult I appreciate the point made. Of course the new note penned on the last page gets all the children laughing. 

Excellent as a read-a-loud. Rating 7/10.

Mrs Silver-Hessey