Summer Reading Programme

Seniors need to have all their library books back now and in years gone by that meant that was the end of things, BUT this year we are allowing borrowing of library books if you are returning to Heretaunga College next year. To do this you need to get a form signed by your parents and have all your books back. You can come in any time to pick up books or take advantage of our Family Open Days to choose books. See the poster.
Start making comments on this blog about the books you are reading and be in to win a book voucher prize. Make sure you put your name in the comment.

Young Adult novels based on fairy tales

I've read a few books like this lately and the most recent one was Cinder by Marissa Meyer. See this book trailer.
Another couple in the genre are
The long, long sleep by Anna Sheehan
Between the lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Keep reading over the holidays

Here are some ideas

To find out more about these books and other books in the library, click on the ETaunga link (scroll down in this blog and look to the right of the page). Then look for site links, click on the library - catalogue. Then click on OPAC search. Look at the new items list and the reading lists for ideas.

Congratulations to Mary Fisher

Our wonderful ex student, Mary Fisher has represented New Zealand in paralympic swimming and won four medals to boot! We are sooo sooo proud of Mary. Here's the video of her coming a very close second in the 100m backstroke. We can't find the one of her gold medal win in the 200 medley.

Mary is so inspirational in that she not only swims, but achieves so much in music and is very driven academically.

August Reading Challenge House Competition



 

Library Week

Apirana Taylor

Visited our school on 31 July. He was very exciting and the students who saw him couldn't believe a poet could be so entertaining. His incorporation of Te Reo and traditional Maori instruments added to the performance.

Quiz

We had a record number of teams this year - ten in total and competitiveness was very high. The winning team was made up a group of year 12 girls - Katherine Tuck, Kiriana Tahana, Emma Groombridge and Haylee Groenveld.

Olympic Reading challenge

Tell us what books you've read in August to get house points. The books must be titles that we hold in the library.

Meeting the author

We've just had two fantastic opportunities to meet two amazing authors.

On Wednesday we had Mandy Hager visit our school. She is a New Zealand author and has written Run for the trees, Smashed, The blood of the lamb trilogy and recently The nature of Ash. All of which are absorbing teenage novels of quite different genres. My personal favourite is The blood of the lamb trilogy which is a dystopian fiction that has strong racism and human rights themes. All of her books include social issues, but are fast paced with lots of action.

Then on Thursday a small group of us were very lucky to be able to go to Hutt International Boy's School to see Chris Paolini - author of the Inheritence series. He was a very engaging speaker.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I've just read this fantastic book about a boy with a terrible facial abnormality. Auggie wants to be ordinary, but it's impossible for him to live an ordinary life when everyone notices his abnormality before they find out what he's like as a person. I loved this book because Auggie is such a strong character and the people whos lives he touches also add their perspective. I recommend that everyone reads this book. It will help you to be more accepting of others. Also watch the author interview to find out her inspiration for the story.

New library books

In a recent survey you told us that you want us to buy more new books. You'll be pleased to know that we've just bought many new titles. Here are just some of them. Don't forget to ask for anything that  you would like us to buy by using the suggestions for purchase form at the issues desk or clicking on the page link to suggestions for purchase on this blog.

To see all the new books, check out the list on the library OPAC. You can access the OPAC in several ways.

From a library computer just login and open Internet Explorer - the library home page will automatically come up. Click on OPAC search from here.

From a computer eslewhere in the school. Open ETaunga and click on the link that says HC library page.

From a computer outside the school. Google ETaunga and open the student portal. You will have to sign in at this stage with your school login. Click on School library catalogue link.

Death cure : the exciting conclusion to The maze runner trilogy

I've just read it and it was very exciting and tied up all the loose ends. If you haven't read this series yet, you need to start with The maze runner then The scorch trials. These books are dystopian fiction similar to The hunger games. Highly recommended.


If you like these kind of books then have a look at the reading list in the OPAC called dystopian fiction. You will find 82 titles listed there. Enjoy!

This new book looks fantastic.

Check out the trailer here. We have the book and it looks like it's going to be the next big series.

Upper Hutt Library Quiz

We sent one team to the Upper Hutt Library to compete in their general knowledge quiz that they run to celebrate NZ Post Childen's Book Awards. Congratulations to these students who came third overall.

Guess how many people are on the waiting list for The Hunger Games book at Auckland Public Libary.

Now read this NZ Herald articles to find out the answer
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10802788

Who would've believed it. I've checked at our public library and they have eight copies with 27 reserves. We have copies available right now as we're lucky to be able to offer some of the English Department copies for you to read. This changes on a daily basis though so be quick. We do have a waiting list for the two sequels as we don't have class sets of these, but our waiting list is not that big.

New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards

These are the books that are short-listed for this year that we have in our library.

Young Adult Fiction

The bridge by Jane Higgins
Calling the gods by Jack Lasneby
Dirt bomb by Fleur Beale
Sacrifice by Joanna Orwin

Yes by Deborah Burnside

Junior Fiction

Just Jack by Adele Broadbent

The travelling restaurant by Barbara Else

Picture books

Shaolin burning by Ant Sang

Non-fiction

Kimble Bent Malcontent by Chris Grosz
The life cycle of the tuatara by Betty Brownlie
New Zealand Hall of fame : 50 remarkable Kiwis by Maria Gill and Bruce Potter

Nice day for a war : Adventures of a Kiwi soldier in World War 1 by Chris Slane and Matt Elliott

Go here to vote for your favourite book onlinehttp://www.booksellers.co.nz/%5Bbooksellers-category%5D/%5Bbooksellers-category-lvl2%5D/vote-childrens-choice-award-2012




























Do you have an E-Reading device?

We'd like to know how many of our students have E-Readers. Please comment and let us know what you have. If you are reading E-Books do you know that you can now borrow them from the Upper Hutt City library for free? It's easy and you get to borrow the books and download them onto your device for one week and then they simply disappear so you don't have to remember to return your books to avoid getting overdue fines. If you need to renew them, then you simply reborrow them so long as no one else is waiting for that title.
You do need to have a password attached to your public library card, but that's easy to set up.
To find out more click here
http://www.upperhuttcity.com/Ebooks

We don't have E-Books available for borrowing from our school library yet as we are wating to see how many of you have devices first. Let us know if you think it will be a good idea to have this service available.

Welcome back to school - especially welcome to the new year nines

Do you love libraries and reading? Why not become a student librarian this year? You will learn how to issue and return books, shelve books, help with displays and complete certificate work.

Your privilages will be - eating lunch in the library office on your duty day, reading the new books first and writing reviews, creating posters & aiding with displays, recognition by way of certificates, references when applying for work, new skills learnt and experience gained and end of term treats.