On Tuesday author/illustrator Dinah Priestley visited St Brendan's and spoke to our Juniors and Year 3 & 4 students. She brought along a furry friend "Oscar" to help her out. Dinah read her book Oscar, Star of the Opera a picture book about a dog who becomes a famous opera singer. The idea for Oscar came from her own dog who had once burst into song while she was listening to Pavarotti - a very famous opera singer. She explained that ideas for stories often came from things like this that happen in your everyday life. Dinah shared her other stories too, including some that she is still working on, however it was Oscar who was the star of the show as children from each group were encouraged to put on the mask & costume and become Oscar, Star of the Opera while Pavarotti sang in the background.
Note: Dinah made the Oscar mask herself too - isn't she clever?
Thank you so much for your visit Dinah, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Photo by Mrs Banks
Books we have in our library: Oscar, Star of the Opera and That's Not Cricket.
Dinah's visit was part of the New Zealand Book Council's Writers in Schools programme. You can find out more about Dinah and her books at the New Zealand Book Council website here.
One in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.
The Adventure books are a series of 14 books written by Willard Price between 1948 and 1980. Willard Price was a journalist and naturalist who traveled the world working for National Geographic and other publications. The series tells the Adventures of Hal and Roger Hunt, whose father John Hunt, owns a wildlife park in America. He is a wildlife specialist who specializes in taking animals alive. His two sons are both years ahead of their classes, so he makes them an offer: stay in school, or take a year out to travel the world and learn the family business. Not surprisingly they choose the second option. During their year away, the boys travel to Africa with their Safari team; North & South America and the South Seas with Captain Ike and the Lively Lady; the waters of Australasia with Captain Ted and the Flying Cloud, as well as India, the arctic and other exotic places. Hindered by opponents, ranging from humorous and incompetent to deadly and dangerous, dealing with rare and dangerous animals and learning from the locals, the boys take readers on a thrilling ride across the world.
We have three compendium books, each containing two of the Adventure Series stories, in the fiction section of our library.
Upper Hutt Public Library has the three compendium books as well as three other single titles in the Children's section.
You can find out more about Willard Price and the Adventure Series from: here (most of the above information was adapted from there too).
Something for Harry Potter fans as they wait for the release of the eighth and final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 on the 14th of July.
Bloomsbury, the publisher of the Harry Potter books, is asking Harry Potter Fans everywhere to vote for their favourite character and help decide who is the official Favourite Harry Potter Character.
I can't help but think the favourite character will be Harry Potter .... but, it could be Professor Dumbledore .... or then again it might be Professor Snape .... Oh I don't know, I guess we'll just have to wait till 30th August to find out.
I found out about the Favourite Harry Potter Characterpoll here too.
Have you been tempted to read the Skulduggery Pleasant series of books or wondered what they are all about?
Take a look at this book trailer which was released late in 2010, about the same time as the latest book in the series - Mortal Coil. It gives you a quick peek into the world of Skulduggery Pleasant.
The next book in the series Death Bringer is due to be released on Thursday 1st September 2011, and three more books are planned to complete the series. You can find out news and more at the Skulduggery Pleasant Homepage, and watch an interview with author Derek Landy here. You can even listen to an interview with Skulduggery Pleasant - below the Read a Sample links.
The Skulduggery Pleasant books are for older readers and can be found in our Senior Fiction section.
Another in a series of posts about popular children's authors and their books.
Michael Morpurgo is, in his own words, “oldish, married with three children, and a grandfather six times over.” Born in 1943, he attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury - at least one of these was horrible enough to inspire him to describe it obliquely in The Butterfly Lion. He went on to London University to study English and French, followed by a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army. He then took up teaching and a job in a primary school in Kent. It was there that he discovered what he wanted to do - write children's books. Michael Morpurgo has a gift for magical storytelling, and his books also often tackle social issues. Out of the Ashes, for example, is about the foot and mouth crisis in the United Kingdom in 2001. He is probably one of the best-known writers for children around today and has published over 100 books, many of which have received awards and/or been translated into other languages.
While teaching he realized that many of his students had very little experience of animals other than what they see on television, this gave Michael and his wife the idea of setting up Farms for City Children. They moved to Devon over thirty years ago to develop this idea and now run three farms where over 2000 children a year stay for a week as 'farmers'.
In our library we have a Picture Book Wombat Goes Walkabout by Michael Morpurgo and a number of Fiction & Senior Fiction books, including Cock-a-doodle-doo, The Nine Lives of Montezuma, The Butterfly Lion, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Shadow,Out of the Ashes and Private Peaceful.
Upper Hutt Library currently holds copies of more than 50 children's books by Michael Morpurgo and two audio books.
The above information about Michael Morpurgowas adapted from here, here, and here.
The Adventure books are a series of 14 books written by Willard Price between 1948 and 1980. Willard Price was a journalist and naturalist who traveled the world working for National Geographic and other publications. The series tells the Adventures of Hal and Roger Hunt, whose father John Hunt, owns a wildlife park in America. He is a wildlife specialist who specializes in taking animals alive. His two sons are both years ahead of their classes, so he makes them an offer: stay in school, or take a year out to travel the world and learn the family business. Not surprisingly they choose the second option. During their year away, the boys travel to Africa with their Safari team; North & South America and the South Seas with Captain Ike and the Lively Lady; the waters of Australasia with Captain Ted and the Flying Cloud, as well as India, the arctic and other exotic places. Hindered by opponents, ranging from humorous and incompetent to deadly and dangerous, dealing with rare and dangerous animals and learning from the locals, the boys take readers on a thrilling ride across the world.
Picture Book:
Browsing Book:
In our library we have a Picture Book Wombat Goes Walkabout by Michael Morpurgo and a number of Fiction & Senior Fiction books, including Cock-a-doodle-doo, The Nine Lives of Montezuma, The Butterfly Lion, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Shadow, Out of the Ashes and Private Peaceful. 
