Monday, February 21, 2011

On the New Books Display this week

Picture Book:
Fiction:
Senior Fiction:
Non Fiction:

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Knife & Packer

The third in a series of posts about popular children's authors and their books.

Knife & Packer are a writing and illustrating team whose names are really Duncan McCoshan (Knife) and Jem Packer.  Knife and Packer spent most of their childhood in London, where they still live today. As a child Knife loved to draw and Packer loved to read - enjoying everything from Dr Brainstorm to Willard Price and Asterix to Tintin.  They first met in 1993 and to begin with they did cartoons and cartoon strips for newspapers and magazines (in fact they still do!).  But Knife and Packer loved developing crazy characters, and children’s books were the perfect place to put them. Their first book was published in 2001 and was all about teachers, Teachers The Naked Truth.  Since then they have written and illustrated more than 20 books, including books about Fleabag Monkeyface, Zac Zoltan's Mad Monster Agency, Captain Fact and Freak Street.
 
Working as a team is quite unusual, as unless the author also illustrates their own books, authors and illustrators mostly work separately, with the illustrator brought in to provide pictures after the book has already been written. Knife and Packer develop all the characters, stories and designs together. They meet up every couple of days, but mostly email ideas and sketches backwards and forwards. They love meeting their readers and have done hundreds of events in schools, libraries, bookshops and festivals. They also enjoy seeing their books translated into lots of languages including Thai, Chinese, Portuguese and Korean.

We have copies of  Teachers The Naked Truth and the Freak Street series. Other books by Knife & Packer, including series about Fleabag Monkeyface, Zac Zoltan's Mad Monster Agency and Captain Fact are available at Upper Hutt Public Library.

The above information and more information about Knife & Packer and their books can be found here and here.

Monday, February 14, 2011

On the New Books Display this week

Picture Book:
  Fiction:
    Senior Fiction:
Non-Fiction:
  • "Why Should I Walk More Often" by  M.J.KNIGHT

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Little Women



The third in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.

Little Women, a novel written by Louisa May Alcott, is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It was originally published in two volumes in 1868 (Little Women) and 1869 (Good Wives), and was first published as a single volume in 1880. It is the story of four sisters - Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth - and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the American Civil War. The novel  is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences growing up with her three sisters and was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. Two sequels featuring the March sisters were also published, Little Men in 1871 and Jo's Boys in 1886.

A number of Movie and Television adaptions have been filmed, the most recent in 1994.

We have a copy of Little Women in the Senior Fiction.  Other books by Louisa May Alcott are available from Upper Hutt Public Library.

For more information about Louisa May Alcott try this biography.


The information above was adapted from  here and here.


Monday, February 7, 2011

On the New Books Display this week

Picture Book:
Mature Picture Book:
  Fiction:
  • "Rocky Road" by Suzannah McFARLANE (EJ12 series)
  • "Top Secret Pass it on" by Jaqualine CHAPMAN 
  • "Rose"by Holly WEBB
Senior Fiction:
  • "Conspiracy 365 - September" by Gabrielle LORD (Conspiracy 365 series)
Non-Fiction:
  • "Learn to Skateboard with Luka" by Lee & Errol PETA
  • "Martial Arts Made Easy" Peter LEWIS

Thursday, February 3, 2011





Welcome back to school for 2011. I hope you had a good time over the holidays, did some cool stuff and read some great books. ( If you think they would be great books to add to our library then let me know - in the comments below)

In the library this week I am updating the classroom lists and adding new students to the library database so that you are all in your correct classroom for 2011.

There is still some tidying up to do in the library this week, but next week things should be back to normal. There will be new books on display and the library will be open for classroom visits and also at lunchtime.

See you then.