On Friday at Shirley Library we hosted the New Zealand launch of Barry Hutchison’s The 13th Horseman. We had some giveaways, a feast fit for a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and some special launch videos from Barry in Scotland.
If you weren’t able to get to the launch on Friday you can still join in the fun here and find out about this awesome book. Barry made 3 videos especially for his readers in NZ, in which he introduces The 13th Horseman, reads from the book, and answers some questions. Come on in and join the party!
Barry introduces The 13th Horseman
Barry reads an excerpt from The 13th Horseman
Barry answers some questions about The 13th Horseman
If you’re a huge fan of the Eragon series you’ll probably be jumping up and down with excitement right now. Christopher Paolini, author of the Eragon series, is touring New Zealand in June. Christopher will be in Christchurch on Saturday 30 June and you can meet him in person at the Armageddon Expo at Addington Raceway.
If you’ve never been to the Armageddon Expo before it’s two days of movie screenings, animation screenings, eating challenges, Dragonball Z contests, autograph signings and much more. For more information check out the Armageddon Expo website – http://www.armageddonexpo.com/nz/
War Horse is one of the movies I can’t wait to see. It’s directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the amazing book written by Michael Morpurgo. To celebrate the release of the movie we have 4 War Horse prize packs to give away, thanks to Hardie Grant Egmont. Four lucky kids will win a copy of the book and a double movie pass to go and see the movie.
All you have to do to get in the draw is leave a comment telling us: What is your favourite animal story and why? Leave a comment on this post with your answer and your name and email address (so that we can contact you if you win).
Thank you to everyone who entered the competition. The winners of the War Horse prize packs are:
I’ve been reading lots of short stories lately because we’ve been getting some cool collections of short stories in the library. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is a collection of short stories written by 14 amazing authors, including Kate DiCamillo, Louis Sachar, Jon Scieszka and Lois Lowry. The stories are based on the original illustrations from the book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, in which there are only illustrations with a title and caption. If you’ve never seen The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, you should definitely get this from the library to have a go at making up your own stories to go with the pictures.
There are stories for everyone in this book, from the magical and funny to the strange and unsettling. There are naughty children, different dimensions, a wizard, floating nuns, aliens, ghosts, and a horrible stepfather who gets his comeuppance. All of the illustrations are amazing and you could make up all sorts of stories about them. I liked some of the stories more than others. Some of them are really strange and others just left me thinking ‘what just happened?’ My favourite story is The Harp by Linda Sue Park, about two sisters who are always bickering and get a spell put on them by a wizard. Get a copy of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick and discover this strange collection of stories from some of your favourite authors.
What happens when some of the coolest children’s book authors and illustrators play a writing game that starts with one person’s ideas and ends with a novel of 27 episodes? You get The Exquisite Corpse Adventure. The title makes it sound like it should be a horror story, but it’s actually a weird, crazy, funny, out-of-control story put together by some of the coolest authors around. If you’ve read or participated in the FaBo story that Kyle Mewburn started, The Exquisite Corpse is the same idea.
The story starts with twins Nancy and Joe escaping from the circus, where they have lived since they were babies. With the help of different clues, Nancy and Joe search to piece together the Exquisite Corpse and find their parents. Each chapter is written by a different author, so just when you think you know what’s going to happen next, the story can go off in a completely different direction. The story is a little bit like Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth because they meet lots of weird and wonderful characters and get into some tricky situations. The first chapter hooks you in by imagining what could happen in the rest of the story:
“…there is a good chance that Nancy and Joe will have to deal with werewolves and mad scientists, real ninjas and fake vampires, one roller-skating baby, a talking pig, creatures from another planet…plenty of explosions, a monkey disguised as a pirate, two meatballs…and not just one bad guy but a whole army of villains.”
Pick up The Exquisite Corpse Adventure if you dare and be prepared to be taken on a wild ride. Recommended for 9+ 8 out of 10
This is the world-famous in Queenspark School series called Warriors!! This is such an awesome series by cat-lover Erin Hunter, and this is my summary of the first book, Into the Wild.
This story is about an ordinary but adventurous housecat - kittypet in Warrior-speak – called Rusty, who meets Graypaw - a Warrior apprentice – while out exploring in the forest. Graypaw is being followed by his mentor, Lionheart and the ThunderClan leader Bluestar. The she-cat invites Rusty to become a ThunderClan warrior, he accepts, and becomes Firepaw, because of the way the sunlight almost sets his fur on on fire. But a mysterious force is on the loose in the forest. What will the Clans do to stop it?
Very, very alluring eh? Well, in my words this book is O FOR ORSOME!. Firepaw is a mysterious, mischievous, adventurous and interesting kittypet that I have enjoyed following throughout the series. He has no urge to stay with his twolegs (housefolk), and wants to explore an interesting forest just outside the twolegplace (suburb).
I give this series a complete 100000000/10 stars, because it is my favourite series, and everyone else that I have recommended this to has loved it too! This series is intriguing, and you just can’t wait to pick up the next one because they are so good.
The series order is: #1 Into the Wild, #2 Fire and Ice, #3 Forest of Secrets, #4 Rising Storm, #5 A Dangerous Path, and #6 The Darkest Hour. Once you have finished this series, there is another called The New Prophecy, which follows the enormous adventures of his latest apprentice, Brambleclaw, and his two daughters, Squirrelpaw and Leafpaw-the medicine cat apprentice.
Imagine living in a world where the sun hasn’t shone for many months. Because there is no sun, the colour has gone out of the world so everything is grey and gloomy, plants and trees have withered and everyone is miserable. There is still magic in the world though and this magic has the power to change everything.
Liesl hasn’t left her house in several months. After her father died, her cruel stepmother locked her in the tiny bedroom in the attic and she’s never allowed out. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice, until one night a ghost appears. His name is Po and he comes from a place called the Other Side. Will is an alchemist’s apprentice, helping his mean master gather the ingredients for his strange magical experiments. One night Will makes a dangerous mistake when he accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing Liesl’s father’s ashes. Will’s mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws them together on an extraordinary journey.
Liesl and Po is one of the most unique and magical books I’ve read. Lauren Oliver’s writing is amazing and she transports you to this weird and wonderful world where the sun hasn’t shone for years and the colour has gone out of the world. She writes in such a way that it makes you think she must have gone through the whole story picking out the perfect words to describe her characters and the world they live in. Here’s her description of Will,
“He was wearing a large lumpy coat that came that came well past his knees and had, in fact, most recently belonged to someone twice his age and size. He carried a wooden box – about the size of a loaf of bread – under one arm, and his hair was sticking up from his head at various odd angles and had in it the remains of hay and dried leaves…”
This is the fourth book in the Frog Princess series by E. D. Baker. The series goes like this: A Prince Among Frogs, Dragon Kiss, The Frog Princess, Dragon’s Breath, The Dragon Princess, Once Upon A Curse, No Place for Magic, and Salamander Spell.
In Dragon’s Breath, Emerelda, Eadric and Grassina go on a quest to save Haywood from ‘otter-hood’. On the way they face many challenges and threats. But something terrible will happen concerning a family curse and a grumpy old witch …! My favourite part is when they meet Ralf, the dragon, and fight the Giant spider, as frogs – I thought this was interesting and scary because I HATE SPIDERS!
My favourite character was Ralf. Ralf is a dragon who is blue as well as being a young dragon prince whose grandfather is King Grumble Snort.
I really liked how this book is a real adventure and not just a normal fairy tale where five minutes later, they get married! It also doesn’t have the usual gender stereotypes fairy tales have.
I recommend it for 8-13 years old and I give it a 10 out of 10.
“I AM A BEAST. A BEAST! Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright. I am a monster. You think I’m talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It’s no deformity, no disease. And I’ll stay this way forever-ruined-unless i can break the spell. Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on prowls by night? I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and perfect life. And then, I’ll tell you how I became perfectly……..BEASTLY.”
This book is a modern version of “Beauty and the beast” It is a romantic book and is much better than the movie (Like most books/movies) It tells you a good lesson too. Someone’s inside is more important than the outside. Three things that I liked about it were … the good lesson, that it is a modern take on a classic Disney movie, and that it is nicely paced. Its a very good book that I recommend for year 8 up girls, that love romantic stories.
Last week we introduced you to The Unicorn Riders series by Aleesah Darlison and Jill Brailsford. There are four Riders and each is assigned to care for a unicorn that is as unique as they are. The Riders are: Willow (Head Rider), Quinn, Krystal and Ellabeth and they each have a different symbol which represents different things, like loyalty, perfection and wisdom. The unicorns are: Obecky, Ula, Estrella and Fayza and they have different coloured horns which give them different gifts.
This week you can win the first four books in the series, Quinn’s Riddles, Willow’s Challenge, Krystal’s Choice, and Ellabeth’s Test. All you have to do to get in the draw is to tell us what: What would your symbol be if you were a Unicorn Rider? The competition closes on Friday 11 November.
Unicorn Riders is a brand new fantasy series for girls by Aleesah Darlison and Jill Brailsford. If you’ve read the Rainbow Magic Fairies and want something a little different then these books are for you.
Avamay is a magical yet dangerous kingdom. The Unicorn Riders protect the people with courage and skill. They ride as one.
There are four Riders and each is assigned to care for a unicorn that is as unique as they are. The Riders are: Willow (Head Rider), Quinn, Krystal and Ellabeth and they each have a different symbol which represents different things, like loyalty, perfection and wisdom. The unicorns are: Obecky, Ula, Estrella and Fayza and they have different coloured horns which give them different gifts.
If you were to meet the characters from your favourite books who would they be? Would you want to meet Harry Potter, Matilda, or Percy Jackson? You certainly wouldn’t want to bump into Count Olaf, Captain Hook, or Voldemort. In Far Rockaway by Charlie Fletcher, Cat finds herself face to face with some of the heroes and villains of classic adventure stories.
Cat and her grandfather, Victor made a pact that one day, just for fun of it, they’d take the subway and stay on it until the very end of the line, at a place called Far Rockaway. They never get to make this trip together because, while crossing the street in Manhattan, Cat and Victor are knocked down by a speeding fire truck. Cat wakes up in a world made from all the books her grandfather used to read to her, and filled with the most memorable characters from classic adventure stories, including The Last of the Mohicans and Treasure Island. Cat needs their help to find the mythic castle of Far Rockaway, and get herself and her grandfather home alive.
Far Rockaway is part fantasy, part adventure and full of pirates, indians, and zombies. I really like the way that Charlie Fletcher has weaved Cat’s story in with three completely different stories. If you know the characters from the classic adventure stories you’ll see what a fantastic job Charlie has done of transferring them to another story. There were a couple of characters I didn’t know but this has made me want to go and read those stories and discover who they were. Cat is a great character, who’s brave, loyal and kicks butt when she needs to. I like what she says about girls in stories,
“Why do the guys get to do all the rescuing? I mean I loved all the stories you gave me and read me, but one thing: where were the real girls? Half the books, they weren’t there at all, and the other half they’re wimped-out girly-girls getting all weepy and falling in love with the mysterious complicated dude or waiting for the right guy to save them.”
If you want a swash-buckling adventure story about the magic of stories then join Cat on the journey of a lifetime in Far Rockaway. Recommended for 10+ 9 out of 10
The Son of Neptune is the latest book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. If you loved the Percy Jackson series you’ll love this new series with new demigods and mythical creatures. Percy Jackson even makes an appearance in The Son of Neptune. Reserve your copy now at the library or at home on the library catalogue.
More than any other book I read as a child The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster gave me a love of words, perhaps the most important thing a writer needs. It’s a celebration of words –it twists them, puns them and pushes them. There are so many cool bits: like the man who is short and tall, thin and fat all at the same time; and the orchestra that plays colours. Part of the appeal of Tollbooth is in the illustrations by Jules Feiffer. I love his faceless Trivium character (very Dr Who) who says
‘What could be more important than doing unimportant things? If you stop to do enough of them, you’ll never get to where you’re going.”
I sometimes see this devious fellow hanging around. He tries to distract me from writing by telling me to other jobs. He says ‘there’s always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing.’
Hope Tintin month at the library is going blisteringly well. Wish I could be there to see Zac in his plus-fours (Tintin’s trousers).
Earwig is a an orphan girl who lives at St Morwald’s Home for Children with her friend Custard. Earwig is quite happy living here and she says that “anyone who chose me would have to be very unusual.” She is a pretty unusual child but she seems to be able to make anyone do anything that she wants, like cooking her favourite food or playing hide and seek in the dark. One day a very strange couple come to the orphanage looking to adopt a child. The woman has two different coloured eyes and a raggety look to her face, and the man is very tall and looks like he has horns on his head. They adopt Earwig, but she discovers that the woman is a witch and only wants her as a slave to help her with her spells. Earwig is trapped in the house and wants nothing more than to go back to the orphanage with her friends. Will she be able to outwit the witch and escape? And who or what is the mysterious man with the horns?
Earwig and the Witch is a funny story about a feisty girl trying to fit into her new family. All the characters are quite strange and I especially liked Thomas the cat. The cover is very cool and really draws you in, with the spiderwebs and spiders crawling all over it. Marion Lindsay’s illustrations are spectacularly spooky and I love the little pictures of crows or spiders on each page. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it ended so suddenly. I would have liked to know more about her life in the house. Earwig and the Witch is perfect for those girls who don’t like fairies, but who still like a bit of magic.
Brian Falkner’s new book, Northwood is one of the best books I’ve read lately. I always enjoy his books because they’re really unique. I asked Brian if could tell us a little bit about Northwood, so here are 10 things you didn’t know about Northwood.
1. Northwood, Lake Rosedale, Brookfield, and many of the other place names in the book are real places in Albany where I used to live.
2. When it says at the beginning “usually at this stage of a story the person telling it has some idea of how it will end, but I can tell you quite honestly that I have no idea at all” … that was true! I wrote the first chapter without any idea what would come next. The story just grew naturally and I found out what was going on one chapter at a time!
3. To some extent Northwood was inspired by my favourite Roald Dahl book: Matilda. I wanted to write a book like that about a girl with a special ability.
4. The very last sentence in the book is based a quotation from Bhudda that I found intriguing. I actually used this quote also in Brainjack, but it got removed in the final edit.
5. As a kid I loved Enid Blyton books, full of mystery and secret passageways. I always wanted to include a secret passageway in one of my books, and finally I did, in Northwood!
6. The story of Princess Annachanel of Storm was originally going to be a book by itself. The idea sat around for a long time and I never managed to turn it into a book, so I decided to include it as part of Northwood. I thought it worked well and added a sense of history to Castle Storm.
7. Jana, who comes from the Bahamas, originally spoke in “Broken English” which is a version of English spoken in the Bahamas. However it was a bit hard to understand, so we changed it to English, with just of tint of the Bahamanian style of talking.
8. I once had to spell rhododendron at a Trivia night, and failed.
9. Mr Jingles,who owns the safari park in Northwood, was the name of the mouse in a Stephen King story called “The Green Mile”.
10. My favourite line in Northwood is when Cecilia tries to explain to the twins where pizza comes from. I won’t explain it, you have to read it.
I hope you enjoy reading Northwood as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Have you ever wanted to learn Dragonese, from Cressida Cowell’s books? In this video you can learn how to say to following things in Dragonese: ‘Please would you be so kind as to spit out my friend?’ and ‘I don’t like that. It’s revolting, it’s gross, it’s really, really revolting.’ Have a go and impress your friends.
The best books grip you from the first few sentences and you want to keep reading until you get to the end. Northwood by Brian Falkner is one of those books. Here are the opening sentences:
“This is the strange story of Miss Cecilia Undergarment and the black lions of Northwood. It is probably not true, but who really knows for sure.”
Straight away, you want to know all about Cecilia Undergarment (like why does she have such a funny name?), why the story is so strange, and what are black lions? So now you’re sucked into the story and want to find out what happens to Cecilia.
Cecilia Undergarment lives with her extraordinary family in her extraordinary house, which is shaped like a huge bunch of balloons (to find out why you’ll have to read the book). Wouldn’t it be great to live in a house made of balloons! One day while looking out her window she sees a sad and neglected dog trying to escape from the house next door. She rescues the dog, but the dog’s mean owner destroys her home and sends her balloon room floating away, until it lands in the dark forest of Northwood. The forest is home to the ferocious black lions and anyone who has entered Northwood has never returned. Cecilia and the dog, Rocky find refuge in Northwood at Castle Storm, which is ruled by the horrible King Harry. Cecilia is determined to find a way out of Northwood, but King Harry will do anything to stop the people leaving.
Brian Falkner has created an amazing world. When I started reading I was transported into the world of Northwood and felt like I was right there with Cecilia on her adventure. I could picture the dark tarblood trees of the forest and the dusty rooms of Castle Storm, smell the damp forest, and hear the low rumble of the black lions. Cecilia is a really cool character and someone who you would want to be friends with. I also really loved Donovan Bixley’s illustrations, especially the way he portrays King Harry, and the cool cover that really stands out.
On Friday at Shirley Library we hosted the New Zealand launch of Barry Hutchison’s The 13th Horseman. We had some giveaways, a feast fit for a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and some special launch videos from Barry in Scotland.
