August 2015 : Term 3

Our Term 3 host was Steph and the Napier Boys' High School 'Memorial  Library'.  A lovely old library, with an alcove that is dedicated to remembering our ANZAC's.  Thanks for the opportunity to have a look at your library Steph, and for the yummy nibbles :-)


Favourite Reads

Picture Books:

Oi Frog! by Kes Gray
- Frog doesn't want to sit on the log and wants to sit on different objects.  Cat advises him that other animals sit on these.
- A great book for rime and word patterns/spelling
- Really funny read
- Great read-aloud

How many legs by Kes Gray
- A really funny counting rhyme book

This is a ball by Beck & Matt Stanton
- A book to mess with your mind
- Good for getting children to interact with the storyteller

Click, Clack, Peep by Doreen Cronin
- Another book from the 'Click, Clack, Moo' and 'Click, Clack, Boo' author
- Great read-aloud

Batmouse by Steve Smallman
- Mouse dreams of being bigger & different than what he really is
- A fun read

Book-o-Beards by Donald Lemke
- 'A wearable book'
- Interactive beard book
- Great fun to take photos of the children (and adults!) wearing the beards

The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers
- So fantastic
- The crayons write letters to their owner
- Good resource for letter writing

It's a Book by Lane Smith
- Awesome book
- Recommended at a previous meeting

Sick Simon by Dan Krall
- "You are a germ hero"
- A slimy germ filled book
- A humorous way of getting an important message across
- Awesome read

Enemy by Davide Cali
- Sophisticated Picture Book
- War themes
- Illustrations are very stark
- Propaganda making you think about 'The Enemy', but in reality it's not that way


Children's Fiction:

The Warlocks Child series by Paul Collins & Sean McMillan
- Australian authors
- Quick and easy read
- Fantasy
- Friendship, betrayal, family conflict
- Told from three perspectives - each chapter is headed with the character
-- Dantar, his sister Velza, the Dragons
-- Also includes some of the other secondary characters
- Easy to follow the characters and storyline

The Mapmaker Chronicles by A.L. Tait
- Fantasy
- Follows main character 'Quinn'
-- Mum teaches him to read
-- Has a photographic memory
-- King has just heard that 'the world is NOT FLAT!!!'
-- Quinn is sent to the palace to train as a mapmaker to explore the world
- Upper Primary Year 5/6+


YA Fiction:

The Nemo Paradox Bk1 20 Million Leagues Over the Sea by K.T. Hunter
- A great Space-Opera
- Steampunk / Sci-Fi with a bit of espionage, mystery and suspense thrown in
- "A romp in the universe of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne"
- "A little bit of Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters in space"
- Based on the original '20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' but after Earth had been invaded by Martians
- Lots of reference to New Zealand in the settings (although author is from Tennessee, USA) 
- A really great concept
- An awesome read

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
- Friendship
- 'Sick Lit'
-- Themes of sickness and death
- Good for Level 2 NCEA

Miss Hazel & the Rosa Parks League by Jonathan Odell
- Same kind of book as 'The Help'
- Set in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement
- Story told by main character and one of the black maids
- Main character falls from grace and she goes from being privileged to being a field hand
- Bad things happen but things come right in the end
- A 'Nice' Book
- Good for girls

Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
- Really interesting 
- Sci Fi / Conspiracy mystery
- Friendship story
- Told in the form of 'actual letters'
- American boy is allergic to electricity
-- Lives in the middle of nowhere 
-- Doctor suggests he might like to write to boy in Germany who has no eyes and a heart defect
--- Has a pacemaker so the boys can never meet in person
- Beautiful sense of 'voice' from both boys
- There is a girl element
- Really really good read

Gifted Bk1 by Donald Hounam
- Forensic sorcerer
- Alternative reality - science has been replaced by sorcery
- Has a really dark thread running through it
-- A real 'blackness' to the story
- Isis type stuff against sorcerers
- Self Harm
- Hate crime
- Very Dark and Diseased society
- Frank is an engaging character
- Appeal to 'Screaming Staircase' readers
- Better read for Junior High +

What Waits in the Woods by Kieran Scott
- Kelly has come from the City and moved into a rural area
- Doesn't really fit in anywhere
- Invited to go camping with other girls
- Plays on the fact 'you think you know what is going to happen'
- Light / Enjoyable read

Tabula Rasa by Kristen Lippert-Martin
- Thriller
- Meet main character as she is coming out of last of 7 surgeries to remove her memory
- Wraps up a bit too quick at the end
- Recommended at a previous meeting

Endgame : The Calling by James Frey (Pittacus Lore)
- 'Hunger Games' mixed with 'I am Number Four'
- Last person standing saves their entire race
- "Can't figure out if I really want to read it"
-- "Note sure if I'm enjoying it, but keep picking it up"

Singing Home the Whale by Mandy Hager
- New Zealand Author
- Read after Recommended at a previous meeting
- Really well done

Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin
- "Enjoyed it I think"
- Rape scene was unsettling for quite a long time
- Recommended at a previous meeting

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos
- 'Wonder' for Teens
- Bullied as a child and tied to a tree
-- Lightening hits the tree and he is badly burned
-- Lonely kid
- Friendship
-- Power dynamic
-- Popular guy doesn't 'need' to be friends with the 'disfigured' boy
- Start a band to get girls
-- Go on tour as they get quite popular
-- Everyone else is invested in the band except the popular guy
- "Who your friends are"
- Good for Level 2 NCEA

An Island of Our Own by Sally Nichols
- Like 'Counting by 7's'
- Cancer (mother died)
- Family
- 19 year old boy looks after siblings and has a job doing dishes
-- Quite hard at home
- Aunt dies and leaves them 'something' 
-- Clues to finding 'treasure'
- Get lots of help from a big 'maker-space' in London
- Nice gentle story
- Maybe use for Level 1 NCEA
-- More a junior novel
-- OK for Intermediate school

Me being Me is exactly as insane as You being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy
- Book written in lists
- Totally draws you in to Darren's story
-- Parents split up and Dad has just come-out as gay
- Very clever
- Good for Gifted kids and Reluctant readers

Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman
- This is a 'biggie'
- "Had to keep putting it down and thinking about it"
- Teenage boy has a breakdown and is diagnosed as a schizophrenic
- Part hallucination / Part what's happening in the real world
- Ends up in a psychiatric ward
- Very clever
- Really well done
- Pretty heartbreaking
- Illustrated by the 'boy' as he is an artist
-- Images are actually drawn by Neal's son while he was in hospital going through a similar situation



Adult Fiction:

Great Zoo of China by Matthew Riley
- "Boy is it action packed!!!!"
- Jurassic Park with Dragons
- Dragons laying dormant for hundreds of years
- Dragons are very inteligent
- Great 'map' of the zoo
- Seriously action packed
- Short chapters
- Good for Level 2 NCEA

Girl of Shaddows Bk2 by Deborah Challinor
- New Zealand Author
- Set in England and Australia
-- Four women all end up in prison for various deeds
-- Form and alliance
-- All sent to Australia as convicts
- Good solid story
- Great characters

Lost Empress by Steve Robins
- American author who is into genealogy
- Each of his stories involves / weaves crime into it
- Each book is based on some factual event

- Set in England and Canada just as war is breaking out
- Main character is threatened that unless she spies for the Germans she won't see her children again!
- Twist at the end
- 'Lost Empress' was a ship that sunk

Secret Life of Luke Livingston by Charity Norman
- New Zealand Author
- "Charity is a really cool person!"
- Transgender themes
- Really well done between Luke and his wife
- Really buy into the story
-- Feel for his wife
- Sooooo good!!!
- Recommended at a previous meeting

Evie's War by Anna Mackenzie
- New Zealand Author
- Anna's 9th book
- Our own 'Jan Clothier' is in the acknowledgements page AND has a character named after her - Nurse Clothier
-- So exciting!!!

- Historical
-- Characters travel from New Zealand to England
-- Set during WWI
-- Friendships are formed on the boat trip
-- Main character wants to help with the war efforts
-- Helps in the hospitals, but mother has no idea what she is doing!

- Really enjoyed and really well done
- Not a 'light' novel
- Loved the language used in the book
- Quite factual
- Diary format - short entries
- Great novel for anyone researching WWI


Emergence Bk1 by John Birmingham
- Fantasy, Contemporary, Military
- 'Save the world'
-- Kind of an Anti-Hero - he's a hero but not in the nicey-nice way they are usually depicted
- Geo-political undertones
- Review on 'Bite the Book' 
- Really really good read
-- **Warning** Lots of swearing


Non Fiction:

Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison
- Young Adult NF
- At 19 Peter left Australia to go to Africa to be a tour guide ... He's still there
- Appeal to boys
- 'She'll be right attitude'

Rhyme & Reo : aeiou by Jessica Ngatai
- Children NF
- A fun way to learn Maori vowels
- Help learn the correct pronunciation of basic vowel sounds used in Te Reo
- Good teaching resource

The Design Library : Maori Design by Penny Brown
- Upper Primary / Young Adult NF
- CD included
- Contemporary and Traditional Maori designs
- Copyright free 
- Great source book of ideas
- 9781844488421

Making Machines with Screws by Heinemann Raintree Publishers
- Middle / Upper Primary NF
- Very easy, straightforward instructions on how to make things
- Simple machine projects
- Hands-on projects
- Part of a series - Levers / Pulleys / Ramps ...
- 9781410968098 

Are you what you eat? A guide to what's on your plate and why! by DK
- Upper Primary
- Healthy eating and nutrition
- Explains what foods you should eat to fuel your body
- Awful lot of detail
- Quizzes, facts, questions
- 9781465429445


Other Tips and Hints

Adele has started a Children and Teen Fiction - Book Reviews Wordpress - Helping You Choose A Book From Napier/Taradale Libraries
- Tags for Action, Grief, Horror etc
- 3 Categories - Extending Readers / Intermediate Readers / Teen 
- Check it out - It's awesome


Must Watch!!!!!  Movie trailer for 'The Martian' - Andy Weir
- Soooooo amazing
- Inadvertently humorous
- Very grown up Andy Griffiths "In the shower" story
- The book is a real page turner
- All the science in it is accurate