Archive for Holidays
Summertime Reading Club Challenge – Week 2
This is the second of our weekly Summertime Reading Club challenges. Each week we’ll set you a challenge and you have to comment on the challenge post to go in the draw for the weekly prize, a $50 PaperPlus voucher and a Hoyts movie pass. We’ll draw the winner on Thursday and announce the winner on Friday when the next challenge is posted.
Congratulations to last week’s winner – Ben.
Week 2 Challenge
Leave a comment telling us:
Which author would you most like to meet?
If you could ask them one question what would it be?
Make sure you leave your name and email address as well so that we can contact you if you win.
See below for terms and conditions Read the rest of this entry »
Join the Summertime Reading Club
Join the Summertime Reading Club in 2012. This very popular summer activity starts again on 21 December and runs to 18 January 2013. Complete the Summertime Reading Club challenge and you’ll be in to win some awesome prizes including Paper Plus vouchers, an iPod, a digital camera and an iPad!
Simply take a challenge card, complete four of the challenges and then return the card to the library to be in to win.
There are two levels to choose from:
- Easy (for 5 – 8 year olds)
- Hard (for 9 – 12 year olds)
Each week on the Christchurch Kids Blog we’ll also have a Sumertime Reading Club Challenge. You can enter each week for your chance to win Paper Plus vouchers and Hoyts movie vouchers.
Keep your eyes peeled next week for the Summertime Reading Club challenge card that you can download from the Kids page of the library website.
My Christmas traditions – Zac’s Kiwi Christmas
Christmas in New Zealand is the complete opposite of traditional images of Christmas. Movies, books and Christmas cards nearly always show Christmas as cold and snowy, with people wrapped up in their warm clothes and gathered around a crackling fire. In New Zealand though, it’s warm and (if we’re lucky) sunny, with people in shorts, t-shirts and jandals.
One of my traditions that I start Christmas day with is getting up early to watch cartoons and What Now. If there’s nothing much on TV I bring out my old favourite videos, Red Boots for Christmas and The Santa Bears. When I was younger my family would go and have a picnic in Hagley Park for lunch where everyone would bring something different to share. These days my family brings lunch to my parents’ house.
Christmas can be a really expensive time of the year, so we decided a few years ago to just have a present exchange. You have to buy 1 present for 1 person and there is a limit to how much you can spend. You might get a serious present or something silly, and there’s not so much mess to clean up afterwards.
At night after we’re all full of turkey, ham, new potatoes, ambrosia and Christmas Pudding, we sit down and watch the Royal Variety Concert on TV.
What are your Christmas traditions?
Of Pie and Poetry
Tomorrow (today for you) is the Thanksgiving holiday in America. Families and friends gather for turkey dinner with stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, corn bread, jello salad, green salad…
And after all that? Pie. Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, mincemeat pie, chess pie, apple pie. You get the idea. A feast.
I have a particular fondness for pie, as anyone who’s read my books may have noticed. Pie appears in all four of my published novels as well as the novel I’m working on now. I didn’t set out to write about pie, but clearly it’s on my mind a lot. Look back at stories you’ve written. Do your favorite things make frequent appearances?
Pie takes front stage in The Luck of the Buttons when we discover that the comically unlucky Button family gathers for pie whenever there’s trouble. And the Buttons find themselves in trouble a lot. The pie eating (and trouble) continue in Button Down.
Pie in my life is nothing but good luck, and I’ll be baking my a pumpkin pie tomorrow, my favorite. I will give thanks for readers like you who make me want to write books.
Because every celebration deserves a poem, I’ll share with you one of my favorite poems of thanks from childhood.
The Sun by John Drinkwater
I told the Sun that I was glad,
I’m sure I don’t know why;
Somehow the pleasant way he had
Of shining in the sky,
Just put a notion in my head
That wouldn’t it be fun
If, walking on the hill, I said
“I’m happy” to the Sun.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Celebrate International Ivy + Bean Day these holidays
At the library on Friday 12 October (the last Friday of the school holidays) we’ll be celebrating International Ivy + Bean Day. If you don’t already know who Ivy and Bean are, they’re two very cool characters who get up to all sorts of fun and games. The books are written by Annie Barrows and illustrated by Sophie Blackall and we have all of their books in the library.
To celebrate International Ivy + Bean Day we’re having special Ivy + Bean parties in some of our libraries. You can bring a friend along and enjoy activities, games, giveaways and a reading of the latest Ivy + Bean story. It’s all FREE and there is no need to make a booking, so just come along. Here’s where the parties are on Friday 12 October:
- Shirley Library, 10:30-11:30am
- Upper Riccarton Library, 10:30-11:30am
- Diamond Harbour Library, 3:00-4:00pm
Look out next week for our interview with Ivy and Bean. You’ll laugh your socks off!
Join our Winter Reading Club
Winter Reading Club is a fun reading challenge that you can take part in throughout the June and July. From Monday 18 June you can visit your local library and pick up your challenge card. Just complete four challenges and you will get a mini prize pack.
Find out how to enter the Winter Reading Club – Read the rest of this entry »
Enter the Library Explorers Challenge to win cool prizes
Throughout April we’re running a Library Explorers Challenge where you can answer a series of questions and go in the draw for some great prizes. We have Paper Plus vouchers and movie passes to give away.
All you have to do is grab a question sheet from your library (or download it here – April challenge), go to the Kids website to find the answers, enter your answers and your contact details into the form and you’re in the draw for the whole of April.
Week 1 winner – Maifea Fetu, age 12, won a movie pass
Week 2 winners – Lucy Constable, age 12 ($20 Paper Plus voucher) and Anthony Orr, age 11 (child’s movie pass)
Week 3 winners – Tyler Timms, age 11 ($20 Paper Plus voucher) and Grace Boddington, age 12 (child’s movie pass)
Thanks to everyone who entered. This competition is now closed.
Books at the Movies these holidays
Our Summertime Reading Club starts on Friday, giving you the chance to win prizes just for reading books. You can read all about how to join the Summertime Reading Club here on the blog.
Throughout the Summertime Reading Club we’re going to be highlighting some of the great movies that are coming out these holidays. You may have noticed that there are lots of movies based on books – Hugo (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, and War Horse (based on the book by Michael Morpurgo). We’ll be having lots of exciting giveaways where you can win copies of the books and movie passes.
Our first competition, starting Friday, is all about Tintin, so keep your eyes peeled!
Books at the Movies – The Adventures of Tintin Competition
There are so many great movies coming out in cinemas in the Christmas holidays, and the one I’m most looking forward to is The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. The movie is based on three of Herge’s Tintin books – The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure.
Thanks to HarperCollins NZ, Random House NZ and Hardie Grant Egmont we have a MASSIVE Tintin prize pack to give away. The winner will get a copy of the amazing book, The Art of the Adventures of Tintin, a set of the Tintin movie tie-in books, a Tintin poster and a movie pass to go and see the movie at Hoyts. One runner-up will win a Tintin poster and a movie pass.
Thanks for entering our Tintin Competition. Here are our lucky winners:
Main prize winner is – Leo
Runner up – Bryn
What is Your fav Holiday???????????
(a) Christmas
(b) Easter
(c) Birthdays
(d) School Holidays
(e) Other (please specify)
Write in a comment
Celebrate Tintin Month these school holidays
This month Christchurch City Libraries is hosting a month-long celebration of Tintin and Belgian culture. There are lots of events that you can come along to during the school holidays including:
- Tintin and Belgian culture corners in community libraries
- Tintin readings by members of the Belgian community
- A Tintin colouring competition for children
- Screenings of original animated Tintin films
- Previews of the new movie
We are showing Tintin in Tibet at Shirley Library on Tuesday 18 October from 2:00-2:45pm and I’ll be dressing up as my favourite character. To find out what is on at each library, check out the library events page. Here’s the latest Secret of the Unicorn Trailer for you to enjoy.
Monster Matsuri cover art….revealed!! What do you think?
Hi! I’m Cristy Burne, author of the Takeshita Demons books and Star Author for July.
This week has been an exciting one in the world of Takeshita Demons…
Why? Because the cover for Book 3, Takeshita Demons – Monster Matsuri, has been revealed!!! Woo hoo! What do you think?
More demon stuff to do…
- Read the first page of Monster Matsuri at my blog
- Read an interview about writing the Takeshita Demons books here on the My Favourite Books blog
- Try this quick quiz: IS YOUR PERSIMMON HAUNTED?
- And a Japanese language question: Does anyone know what “matsuri” means in Japanese? What do you think a monster matsuri might be?
- Enter the Make a Monster competition and win a copy of Takeshita Demons! We’ve had some awesome entries so far!
Happy writing and reading!
Cristy
–
Cristy Burne
Author of the Takeshita Demons series
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The BEST school holiday ideas
Yay – holidays! The only problem with the holidays is figuring out what to do, so we’re here to help fight boredom with the BIGGEST list of ideas. You can help us add to the list as well by telling us what you’re doing.
So…
- Go to the library. You can get books to read when you’re wrapped up warm inside, DVDs to watch on a rainy day, audiobooks to listen to in the car, plus heaps more. Find out about the libraries that are open.
- Enter our Make-a-monster, invent-a-demon Star Author Competition here on the blog.
- Walk around the Botanic Gardens and have fun in amongst the trees. There are lots of great places to hide or you could have a leaf fight.
- Go to your local park and play on the playground or have a game with your friends. Take a ball or a frisbee and use up all your energy.
- Go swimming at one of the Christchurch City Council pools - Pioneer Leisure Centre and Jellie Park are still open.
- Go and see some of the cool movies on these holidays. There’s the last Harry Potter movie, Deathly Hallows Part 2, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, or Transformers: Dark of the Moon
- Play some board games or card games with your friends and family. You can even make your own and challenge your friends.
- Make your own book trailer for your favourite book. All you need is PowerPoint, Movie Maker and a bit of creativity. Here are some instructions to get you started.
- Write a story or a poem and send it through to us and we could publish it on the blog.
- Bake something yummy like a cake or some biscuits. Check out our books on baking.
- Learn a new skill like magic tricks, juggling, skateboarding or knitting.
- Go to a KidsFest activity. There are heaps on around the city and we have some great FREE events in the library, including Pandemonium at the Library and The Adventures of Tintin story readings.
If you have any other cool ideas, especially ones that are free, add a comment and let us know.
The Queen’s birthday?
So this weekend we get an extra holiday because it’s the Queen’s birthday. I wonder what the Queen does for her birthday? It must be hard to buy a birthday present for the Queen. Any idea what YOU would buy the Queen? It’s very nice of her to give us all a holiday.
I’m going home to Millers Flat for four whole days. Hopefully it’s nice weather, because my garden is slowly becoming a jungle, and I’m hoping I can get it looking a bit tidier by the end of the weekend. Or maybe I should give up and let it grow into a jungle. It would be pretty cool to live in a jungle. Except the monkeys would probably keep sneaking into my house ans stealing my bananas. And it might be hard to sleep with elephants trumpeting all the time.
Speaking of elephants, my new book (well, it’s kinda new, because it only came out in February) is about an elephant with little ears. The book’s called Three cheers for No-ears. In the story, No-ears gets teased by all the other elephants because he has tiny ears. But in the end he discovers that small ears can be useful sometimes, too. I don’t know what I’d do if I had tiny ears. OR huge floppy ears!! But I think it would be very useful to have a tail… or maybe not. Hmmmm, do you think having a tail would be cool, or not?
OK, I better get back to work. I’m visiting the Balmacewan Intermediate school writing group this afternoon. It’s always fun meeting keen young writers. Have a great weekend!!!
On ANZAC Day, we will remember them
ANZAC Day is celebrated on 25 April every year to remember all the people who served and especially those who died in the two World Wars and other major conflicts.
The library has lots of material about ANZAC day, including Diggers’ Poems – written by returned soldiers after World War I. There’s plenty more to choose from as well:
- Checking out the ANZAC Day and Gallipoli page on our website;
- Read True Stories of the Second World War or Under Fire: Children of the Second World War tell their stories;
- Goodnight Mister Tom is one of the best stories set during war time, but you could also try The Silver Sword, Rose for the ANZAC Boys, and War Horse;
- Visit Anzac Poppy to find out more about how people are commemorating ANZAC day in 2011.
There are also a number of dawn parades and memorials around Christchurch and Canterbury that you could go along to to remember those that died fighting for their country.
Waitangi Day – Monday 6 February 2011
This Sunday is Waitangi Day, so no day off school this year for those of you who start back this week. If you need information for school project the library has a lot of information on its website.
There are also a number of activities on to celebrate. I spent the day out at Okains Bay two years ago and it is a great day out. How does your family celebrate Waitangi Day?
E noho ra
The Peco Incident by Des Hunt
Take two cousins Danny and Nick, eco tourists Brio and Roost, Harriet the Parriet, Albatross and Penguins colonies and what do you have? The latest page turner by Des Hunt – The Peco Incident.
Danny lives on the Otago Peninsula and is dreading his cousin Nick coming to stay. He’s ok if he takes his Ritalin but guess what he forgot to pack. The boys become involved with an outbreak of bird flu which threatens the birds of Taiaroa Head. Did the outbreak come from the Peco chicken farm or are Brio and Roost more sinister than they seem?
Des has written a great read. As you’re reading you can imagine the wild rugged landscape of the Peninsula. The relationship between the boys allows for some wonderful humour throughout the book. There is also plenty of adventure as it becomes a race against time among the cliff tops of Taiaroa Heads to save the rare birds.
‘Maybe we should check her out on the web,’ suggested Nick. ‘She might be one of those eco-terrorists.’
It was a good suggestion. That was the thing about Nick. He could be real dumb at times, but he was actually quite intelligent. The problem was recognizing the clever bits in amongst all the rubbish.
