Friday, June 29, 2012

Christopher Paolini visits Upper Hutt

Photo by Lis at HIBS
Students from  Hutt Valley schools, and perhaps some from further afield, were yesterday treated to a presentation at Hutt International Boys School by Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance Cycle series. Christopher told us a little about his early childhood - he really did not want to learn to read, he even told his mother he "hated reading". At about age 5 he experienced a complete switch and became hooked on reading. The culprit was the first book he ever borrowed 'by himself' from the library, he doesn't remember the exact book but recalls it had a bright appealing cover and was a detective type story where tomato sauce was mistaken for blood!   
Christopher was Home Schooled and after graduating at age 15 he became quite bored. He dug a 2 metre deep hole in the backyard and using an abandoned satellite dish, hay bales and hunks of tree bark he created his own Medieval Mead Hall accessed via a tunnel.  He realised he needed something to keep him occupied, other that digging holes, this is when he started planning the Inheritance Cycle books.

Christopher signing books afterwards 
Christopher read favourite passages from each of the four books, briefly explaining why he liked them and then it was question time.  Earlier we'd heard that Eragon (the character) wasn't always called Eragon, at first he was going to be called Kevin!  During question time we found out that originally, when Eragon (the character)was called Kevin, Eragon (the book) was called Inheritance. We also discovered that he spends quite a lot of time online gaming - once he challenged someone who logged on as Eragon, unfortunately they were better than him and when he lost the game "You have been killed by Eragon" flashed across the screen.

My favourite Q & A was about where he got the idea for the Razak.  It turns out this idea came from the Potato Bug or Jerusalem Cricket found in Montana - Christopher described it as looking similar to the Weta found in New Zealand only smaller. One night he took a torch to investigate the horrible noise coming from another room in the house .... he discovered a huge ugly black monster - the larger than life silhouette of a Jerusalem Cricket that was sitting on the back of the couch!

New Zealand Tree Weta
Picture from here

Potato Bug or Jerusalem Cricket
Picture from here
These two bugs look pretty similar to me too.

You can find out more about Christopher Paolini here or you can watch him talk about the Inheritance Cycle books in an earlier blog post here.

P.S.  You can also read a recent interview with Christopher Paolini in Christchurch - here.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Coming Next Term ...

There are no books on the New Books Display this week, but here is a sneak peek of what to keep a look out for next term:

More Horrible Histories and a number of children's classic titles

The latest in the Just! series by Andy Griffiths

A bunch of titles by Michael Morpurgo

A series of books about the All Blacks, and a Lego Ideas book

And still more from EJ12 the Boy vs Beast and My Story series

Hope you have a great time over the holidays - see you back at school next term.

P.S. Don't forget to return your overdue books before the end of this week!

Monday, June 18, 2012

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:
  • "Are You My Mother? " by P.D. EASTMAN
  • "On the Road to Tuapeka" by Ben BROWN & Scott TULLOCH
Fiction:
  • "Captain Underpants and the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space" by Dav PILKEY (Captain Underpants series)
  • "Magic Ballerina : Christmas in Enchantia" by Darcey BUSSELL (Magic Ballerina series)
  • "George and the Big Bang" by Lucy & Stephen HAWKING
  • "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael MORPURGO
Senior Fiction:
  • "Hero at Dunkirk" by Vince CROSS (My Story series)
Non-Fiction:
  • "The Fan's Guide to the Spiderwick Chronicles" by Lois H. GRESH

Friday, June 15, 2012

Monday, June 11, 2012

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:
  • "The Story of Ferdinand " by Munro LEAF
  • "You Can't Scare a Princess!" by Gillian ROGERSON & Sarah McINTYRE
Fiction:
  • "Butterfly Meadow : Twinkle Dives In" by Olivia MOSS (Butterfly Meadow series)
  • "Cliffhanger" by Jacqueline WILSON
  • "The Last Summoner" by Sherryl JORDAN
Senior Fiction:
  • "Marshmallow Skye" by Cathy CASSIDY (Chocolate Box Girls series)
  • "Skulduggery Pleasant : Death Bringer" by Derek LANDY (Skulduggery Pleasant series)
Non-Fiction:
  • "Strange School Stories" by Mary Packard

Friday, June 8, 2012

More Amazing Book Sculptures

I found this picture here.
One of many book sculptures created by Brian Dettmer who sculpts one page at a time using tweezers and surgical tools to remove sections of a page, no pages are moved or added to books, just parts removed!

You can find out more about this and other amazing book sculptures by Brian Dettmer here.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Quizzicals Books Coming Soon...

Last month team Quizzicals won a $75 book voucher as 2nd prize in the Upper Hutt Library 2012 NZ Post Book Awards Quiz.  You can see my earlier blog post about the quiz here. With help from Quizzicals team members I've chosen three new Senior Fiction books for the library:  Skulduggery Pleasant : Death Bringer by Derek Landy; Marshmallow Skye by Cathy Cassidy & The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. 
Look out for these books on the New Books Display in the library soon. 


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

On the New Books Display this week

Picture Book:
  • "The Aunties Three " by Nick BLAND
  • "Snowed Under and Other Christmas Confusions" by Serge BLOCH
Fiction:
  • "The Talented Clementine" by Sara PENNYPACKER (Clementine series)
  • "Battle of the Mutants - Aquaterros" by Mac PARK (Boy vs Beast  series)
  • "The Comic Con" by Jake BELL (Nate Banks series)
  • "Scatterbungle" by Edrei CULLEN (Flitterwig series)
Senior Fiction:
  • "Mocking Jay" by Suzanne COLLINS (Hunger Games series)
Non-Fiction:
  • "North - The Greatest Animal Journey on Earth" by Nick DOWSON