House of secrets follows three siblings and their family as they are forced to move to a mysterious new house in San Francisco and end up embarking on a journey to retrieve a dark book of untold power. The Walker kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games. But everything changed when their father lost his job. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by a troubled fantasy writer. Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey, to retrieve a dark book of untold power and uncover the Walker family’s secret history. Oh and save their parents and maybe even the world.
All you have to do to get in the draw is enter your name and email address in the form below. Competition closes Sunday 26 May.
Do you want the chance to meet the Crusaders and win some awesome prizes? You need to join the Reading Crusade.
The Reading Crusade starts on Monday 11 March and runs until 19 April (that’s 6 weeks). It’s a reading competition that takes place every second year and is brought to you by Christchurch City Libraries in conjunction with the CRFU (Canterbury Rugby Football Union).
Download your reading log from the Christchurch City Libraries’ website or get a paper copy from their teacher or local library.
Read four books of your choice.
Complete a reading log. This reading log needs to be verified online by a teacher, parent or librarian.
You can enter as many times as you like, so if you read 20 books you’ll get 5 entries in the draw. Everyone who completes a reading log (and gets it verified online) is entered into the draw to win tickets to the prizegiving ceremony on Monday 13 May, where you could meet the Crusaders.
If you love The Spook’s Apprentice series come along and meet Joseph Delaney in Christchurch this Wednesday (20 February). You can come and meet him at Upper Riccarton Library, from 7:00-8:00pm on Wednesday 20 February. He’ll talk about his books, you can ask him questions, and even get your book signed.
It’s a free event but you need to book a space. Just call the library on 03-941-7923 to book.
This is the fourth, and last, 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 – Sarah.
This week’s winner is Hadas.
Week 4 Challenge
Leave a comment telling us about a book that you’ve read in the holidays and why you liked it.
Make sure you leave your name and email address as well so that we can contact you if you win.
This is the third 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 – Robin.
Week 3 Challenge
Leave a comment telling us:
Which book character would you want as your best friend?
Make sure you leave your name and email address as well so that we can contact you if you win.
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.
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.
Would you like to win a set of 6 postcards featuring everybody’s favourite skeleton detective, Skulduggery Pleasant? Derek Landy’s wonderful publishers had a whole heap of these very cool postcards left over after Derek’s tour of NZ so we’re very lucky to have some to give away here on the blog.
If you would like to get your hands on a set, just enter your name and address in the form below and I’ll pick 10 lucky winners on Friday (Canterbury kids only please).
On Sunday 19 August, from 10am-3pm at Catholic Cathedral College, you can come along to the Christchurch Storylines Free Family Day. It’s your chance to meet your literary heroes – authors, illustrators, storytellers and book characters and it’s absolutely FREE!
As well as meeting some of our best authors and illustrators you can get your face painted and have a go at some of the fun activities, including pen a poem or design a book cover.
Are you Skulduggery Pleasant’s biggest fan? Would you like the chance to interview Skulduggery’s creator, Derek Landy, when he comes to Christchurch next month? If you answered yes to both of these questions we’ve got an amazing competition for you.
Derek Landy is coming to Christchurch on Friday 10 August, from 4pm at The Children’s Bookshop on Blenheim Road. One lucky winner will get the chance to meet Derek and ask him your burning questions about Skulduggery Pleasant and his mates. If that wasn’t awesome enough, they’ll also win a full set of the Skulduggery Pleasant books. We’ll also choose a runner-up who will get a full set of the books.
Thanks to everyone who entered the competition. There were some great entries and it’s clear that you were all HUGE Skulduggery fans.
The overall winner is Romy, who gets the chance to interview Derek Landy in Christchurch and gets a full set of Skulduggery books. The runner up is Tierney, who gets a full set of Skulduggery books and can hopefully get them signed by Derek at the event.
Our fantastic June Star Author, Susan Brocker has been writing some great posts about her stories and giving us some cool writing tips. One of her books that Susan has been talking about is her latest book, The Drover’s Quest, a historical story set in 1860s New Zealand. It’s a fantastic book and you can read my review of it here on the blog.
We’re starting our monthly Star Author Competition again this week with your chance to win a copy of The Drover’s Quest by Susan Brocker. Thanks to HarperCollins NZ we have 3 copies to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment, with your name and email address, telling us:
What is your favourite animal story?
This competition has now closed. The winner is Tierney.
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/
One of the funniest authors around, Andy Griffiths is coming to Christchurch for some school visits in May. If you’re not lucky enough to go to one of the schools he’ll be visiting you can come and meet him in person and get your books signed at The Children’s Bookshop (227 Blenheim Road) on Sunday 6 May, from 1:30-2:30pm.
Andy is the author of the ‘Just’ books, including Just Disgusting, Just Annoying, and his latest book, Just Doomed, as well as the Zombie Bums From Uranus series.
You can reserve Andy’s latest book, Just Doomed, at the library now.
The 2012 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Festival runs from 7-16 May, 2012 and celebrates the books that are finalists in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
We have some great events planned in Canterbury to celebrate the finalist books, including a competition that you can enter to win book vouchers. You can download the Canterbury Programme for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Festival and the entry form for the Canterbury Festival competition, Who’s Your Remarkable Kiwi right here.
I’m very excited to be your Star Author for the month. (Well, who wouldn’t be? Doesn’t everyone want to be a star from time to time? And yes, I did get to be a star on a Hollywood Red Carpet once with my friend Nim, though I’ll tell you more about that later . For now, here’s the Red Carpet video of what a true Hollywood star and I think about reading: Wendy Orr and Jodie Foster MS Readathon CSA
Although I’ve never been to New Zealand, I have a dog-walking friend who’s from Christchurch, and every time we walk the dogs together I learn a bit more about it, and especially on how her family and friends are coping after the earthquake. I think that’s why I feel so proud and excited to be on your blog, and it’s making me even more determined to get across there one day!
Books, reading and writing have always been a huge part of my life.
You know when people ask you where you read, or when you read? Anywhere and all the time, is my answer. At breakfast, when I’m brushing my teeth, when I’m waiting somewhere…
By the way, what’s the craziest place you’ve ever read a book?
March is the month that we celebrate New Zealand books, authors and illustrators. It’s New Zealand Book Month – and we’ll have some special events and competitions to celebrate our fantastic authors and illustrators. Stay tuned for:
Vote for your favourite New Zealand children’s author – everyone that votes goes in the draw to win a New Zealand book pack.
New Zealand children’s authors and illustrators answer our Fast Five questions. Find out how books have changed the lives of our best authors.
Our fantastic Star Author this month is Philip Caveney. Philip has written books in a couple of different series, including the Sebastian Darke and Alex Devlin series. His latest series is the Movie Maniacs series, and the first book is called Night on Terror Island.
You can win a copy of Night on Terror Island in our February Star Author Competition. Night on Terror Island is about a couple of kids who find themselves stuck in a movie, so we want you to tell us: If you could be trapped in a movie which one would you choose? To get in the draw leave a comment on this post with your answer, your name and email address (so that we can contact you if you win). Competition closes Monday 27th February, 2012.
House of secrets follows three siblings and their family as they are forced to move to a mysterious new house in San Francisco and end up embarking on a journey to retrieve a dark book of untold power. The Walker kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games. But everything changed when their father lost his job. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by a troubled fantasy writer. Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey, to retrieve a dark book of untold power and uncover the Walker family’s secret history. Oh and save their parents and maybe even the world.
If you love The Spook’s Apprentice series come along and meet 
One of the funniest authors around, 
Our fantastic Star Author this month is Philip Caveney. Philip has written books in a couple of different series, including the Sebastian Darke and Alex Devlin series. His latest series is the Movie Maniacs series, and the first book is called Night on Terror Island.
