New Zealand Poetry Day

National Poetry Day is a celebration of poetry in New Zealand. It’s a day which gives communities all over New Zealand an opportunity to enjoy the written word out loud. What makes the day work is a series of public events and activities that aim to involve as many people as possible in celebrating the extraordinary world of New Zealand poetry. Enter our New Zealand Day Poetry Competition, prizes will be awarded to selected poems and announced at our Poetry Day Readings on Friday 30th July in the Main Libarry. For more details email nigel.brown@timdc.govt.nz.

BNZ Literary Awards 2010

After 51 years, the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards are getting a facelift and are being renamed as the 'BNZ Literary Awards', with the Premier Award becoming the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award.

For over half a century BNZ has been proud to support New Zealand's preeminent Short Story writing competition, which was founded to acknowledge the work of Katherine Mansfield and celebrate New Zealand literature.

For many of New Zealand's famous writers, such as Frank Sargeson, Keri Hulme, Maurice Shadbolt, Charlotte Grimshaw and CK Stead, winning the main Award was where it all started. So make sure you send us your short story between 1 June and 23 July 2010. For more information visit the BNZ website here.

But wait there's more ...

A big thankyou to Bailey, Emily, Emma, Harrison, Kim, Mikayla and Tim for sharing their awesome work!

The posters

Reading Rock Stars!

Did you know that Roald Dahl once hid a dead rat in a lolly jar? Or that Jacqueline Wilson can’t stand being late? The Bluestone School Room 10 reading group, the Rock Stars, have been engrossed in literary research and yesterday presented their findings to the Children’s Library staff. Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Megan McDonald and Beatrix Potter are among the authors whose lives and works have been read, studied, and compared with others. Interesting tidbits about the authors and reviews of their books are displayed on the Rock Stars’ posters on the Storywell walls. Check them out!

Hot Reads for Cool Nights

Yes it’s true! There IS a bear who looks remarkably like Albert le Blanc tucked up in bed in the Children’s Library reading bear books! Why? Because the kids’ Hot Reads for Cool Nights winter reading challenge is underway. All you need to do is read! But first, come in to one of our libraries to register and collect your registration pack which contains a reading log, free bookmark, Hot read form and - because chocolate and reading go so well together - a small choccy bar :-)