The Truth about Verity Sparks

Here is a review of one of the books on the New Book stand this week - for confident senior readers.  Quirky, fun, and imaginative!

BOOK REVIEW: The Truth about Verity Sparks (Susan Green, Walker Books)

Written by: Bookseller+Publisher magazine

Posted: 20 September 2011 at 1:11 pm

The Truth about Verity Sparks is an engaging mystery for the 10-plus age group. Set in the late 1800s, it concerns Verity Sparks, a lowly hat maker in class-ridden London. Verity lives a meagre existence until she realises that she has a unique talent in finding lost objects. Before she knows it she has joined the Confidential Inquiry Agency (with its amusing acronym) and proves to be quite adept at solving mysteries. Her own past is murky, however, so she and her newfound friends set out to discover the truth. Susan Green has written a story with a strong female heroine that is sure to engage both girls and boys. At first, Verity is painted as somewhat ignorant and Green cleverly introduces ‘big’ words via other characters. Imaginations will run wild with the thrill of not knowing what is going to happen next, and The Truth about Verity Sparks certainly delivers. Let’s hope Susan Green has further adventures up her sleeve for Verity, as there is definitely scope for more.

Katie Horner is the former assistant editor of Bookseller+Publisher and was an avid ‘Nancy Drew’ fan in her day. This review first appeared in the July issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.

This book is a finalist in the Australian Children's Book of the Year competition for 2012.  Winners will be announced in August. 

Junior Storytime

It's the Juniors' turn for a blogpost this week...
and, since the weather has turned a bit colder, it might be nice to get cosy and listen to a good story.  
A classic fairytale, anyone?

Dinosaur Rescue by Kyle Mewburn

Have you seen the Dinosaur Rescue series on our Star Reads shelf?  We have the fist two out in the library so far... 'T-Wreck-ASaurus', and 'Stego-Snottysaurus'.  
They are written by Kyle Mewburn, who also wrote 'Kiss Kiss Yuck Yuck', 'Ant's Pants', 'The Grumble Bee' and 'Daisy's Maze'...and many more.

Here is a trailer for 'Stego-Snottysaurus' to give you an idea of what the series is like!

Book 3 in the series, 'Velocitchy-Raptor', is on the New Books stand this week, so look out for it!

Dinosaur Rescue is a series that would be perfect if you really like reading chapter books from the Star Readers shelf, and if you have a great (and slightly gross) sense of humour!

NZ Post Winners!

The NZ Post Children's Book Awards for 2012 have been announced!

Overall winner is 'Nice Day for a War' (also winning the Non-Fiction prize)



The winner in the Picture Book category is 'Rahui',



while the Children's Choice Award goes to 'The Cat's Pyjamas'.



The Junior Fiction Award was won by 'Super Finn'.

Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators!!!

Maurice Sendak - author and illustrator

Maurice Sendak, the author of Where the Wild Things Are (and many other wonderful books) has died this week.  To celebrate his work - and to remind you of how great his books are - here is a link to his most famous book, read by Gwendolyn Sandford.  Some of you will have seen the movie, too!

As a footnote for all the Andy Griffiths lovers out there...last June, I posted a blog link to an Andy video of him reading to his cat.  Can you figure out how to find a previous post and watch the video? (Hint: check the blog archive on the bottom right.....)

Andy Griffiths visit

We were lucky enough to be able to take Kea and Ruru Rooms to Maidstone Intermediate on Wednesday May 9th, to see Andy Griffiths speak.  Andy is the author of 'Just Crazy', 'Just Annoying', 'The Cat on the Mat is Flat', and most recently 'Just Doomed', coming into our library very shortly!

 Andy was a truly entertaining speaker, and gave us lots of good ideas for plotting a story...showing us with words, and also with props!  Here are some photos of the day, including Finn, Rory, and Morgan, who got books signed by Andy at the end of the afternoon.

Book People Unite!

In America, a group called 'Reading is Fundamental' give books to children who don't have any - a bit like the Books in Homes programme in New Zealand.  Here is the new TV ad they have produced to publicise their ideas - in America, it is called a Public Service Announcement.  See who you can recognise!

Senior students especially will enjoy this next video, where the characters talk about their experiences in making the ad.  So clever!