The Green Bath

What do you need to know?

Written by Margaret Mahy
Illustrated by Steven Kellogg
Published by Arthur A Levine Books - An imprint of Scholastic Inc.

It begins with Sammy, whose obnoxious neighbors get to go to the beach in their brand new boat, while he has to get clean for a visit from grandma. Worse, it's a bath in the strange tub his dad just bought at a tag sale! But the magic of the tub soon has Sammy roaring out to sea, befriending a giant sea serpent, conquering pirates in a huge soapy battle, and returning home with the greatest of treasures. 

Bath time will never be the same! (Plus Grandma's got surprises of her own!)

Margaret Mahy (1936 - 2012)

- worked as a librarian in NZ before becoming a full time writer.
- beloved by generations of readers
- wrote over 150 books
- 2006 received the Hans Christian Andersen award for her contribution to children's literature

Steven Kellog
- lives in Essex, New York
- has illustrated many books including  Is your Mama a Llama? and The Day Jimmy's boa Ate the Wash

Monday 4 August

Exciting Times!

The new screen and apple TV have been installed in the Library. Today we used the new TV - Thank you so much to the PTA who have funded this. It is a vast improvement on the projector and whiteboard we have been using.


Author Presentation - Niamh Calder presented her work on RA Spratt.

An excellent presentation - thanks Niamh!

Literary Terms

Biography
Autobiography
Foreword
Afterword

This weeks word - genre

Cian shared his presentation of The Three Bears…. Sort of! This presentation was made for the Year 5/6 students who are preparing for the quiz in September. The application that he used is called Videoscribe - this is a great presentation tool - however it is not a free application - so please check with your parents before you download it.

We introduced Narrable - this is another presentation tool - this one is free and easy to use.

Here is an example of a presentation using Narrable. This was downloaded from the internet.




You can consider using Narrable when you next need to do a presentation.


Andrew shared a great presentation on how to use the application overdrive to search books in the Christchurch Public Library. You can place books on hold and also take out ebooks and read them on an iPad or ebook reader.

Overdrive is a free application - thanks Andrew! You made it look easy! Remember everyone that you need one of the new blue library cards to access the library in this way.

Book Reviews

Several people have completed Book Reviews - these will be posted very soon - watch this space!

Monday 28 July

Today kicked off with a bit of general book knowledge.

Last week we talked about biographies and autobiographies.

Do you know the difference?

Biography
Definition: A biography is a nonfiction (true) account of someone's life.  It is written by someone other than the subject of the biography. It is written by someone else.

For more information on biographies click here.

Autobiography
Definition: An autobiography is a nonfiction (true) account of someone's life.  It is written by the subject of the autobiography - it is written by the person themselves.

For more information on autobiographies click here.

This week we focused on the foreword and the afterward in a book.

      fore·word

      noun \ˈfȯr-(ˌ)wərd\  
a section at the beginning of a book that introduces the book and is   usually written by someone other than the book's author

  af·ter·word

  noun \-ˌwərd :

a final section that comes after the main part of a book

New Book: 
Friday Barnes written by RA Spratt

We are having problems making the prezi work in blogger so in the meantime click here to see the presentation.

Good Reads

Today we also had a look at the application Goodreads.It is a great tool for keeping track of what you are reading. You can access goodreads on your computer or you can get the app on your iPad or similar device. You can keep a list of what you want to read, what you are currently reading and what you have read.

What do you use to keep a track of what you are reading?

Monday 21 July

Welcome back to Term 3!!

It was great to see everybody at Lit Club today. The library was full to the brim - it is just so good to see the enthusiasm from you all.

We started with a quick quiz based around How to train a Dragon. How many of went to this movie in the holidays?

Holiday Reading Competition. 

We have a lot of entries for the Holiday reading Competition - Read to a Pet! You can view these photos here.

Which photo do you like best? Comment below!

Bronze, Silver and Gold Badge Criteria

Keep working towards your next step - if you need help with Goodreads or Shelfari please ask. We are going to provide some instruction on how to use Goodreads and Shelfari in the near future.

Presentation of Theodore Boon: Kid Lawyer Author John Grisham

Check out this presentation to learn more about this book!

And finally this week… try this quiz!

In London this summer  the National Literary Trust has created a project called Books About Town,they have specially commissioned artwork that depicts the scenes and characters from classic stories to be placed on fifty book benches all over the capital.  

Click here to be taken to the quiz.

Have a great week!

Monday 26 May

NZ Post Awards Link

Click here to vote for your favourite book.




Today we had presentations from Julia and Georjarna, Elsie and Lucy, Grace S.


Julia and Georjarna

to be uploaded

Grace P

To be uploaded

Grace S

To be uploaded

Elsie and Lucy (a book review)

To be uploaded


New Book - The Tale of a Tail - Margaret Mahy

add link to book review

Monday 19 March

this post will be updated later today

Term Two Week 2

Today we celebrated the success of our two year 7/8 teams at the regional Kids Lit Quiz last Friday. We were excited to see how well they did and even though we were not placed we know that we improved our performance from last year by a huge amount and therefore both teams achieved their goals.

Today we had another look at the NZ Post finalists - next week we will be voting on our favourites in the hope that we might win book vouchers for ourselves and book vouchers for school. Check out this link - anyone can vote! How many of these books have you read? Maybe they can go on your 'Plan to Read' list.

Picture Book Finalists

Non-Fiction

Junior Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

 

Featured Author: James Patterson

Middle School Series

Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class–5,000 points! Running in the hallway–10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm–50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.

Maximum Ride: Book 1 The Angel Experiment

WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE.

Do not put this book down. I'm dead serious - your life could depend on it. I'm risking everything by telling you - but you need to know.

STRAP YOURSELF IN for the thrill ride you'll want to take again and again! From Death Valley, California, to the bowels of the New York City subway system, you're about to take off on a heart-stopping adventure that will blow you away...

YOUR FAITHFUL COMPANIONS: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways - except that they're 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they're free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they're prime prey for Erasers - wicked wolflike creatures with a taste for flying humans.

THE MISSIONS: Rescue Angel from malicious mutants. Infiltrate a secret facility to track down the flock's missing parents. Scavenge for sustenance. Get revenge on an evil traitor. And save the world. If there's time.

Thriller-writing sensation James Patterson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller When the Wind Blows, invites you on a quest full of nonstop action, adrenaline, mystery, and suspense. Want to come along for the ride?

Listen to an excerpt from the book now!

 

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