Ursula Moray Williams Creative Writing Competition winners

Congratulations to all the winners in the Ursula Moray Williams Creative Writing Competition. Click here to see the list of winners. Keep up the great writing! And look out for our special Ursula Moray Williams centennial year writing competition to be held as part of the centenary celebrations next year. Write on!

The photo shows (from left) Chelsea Farrant, Year 1-3 Runner Up for her story The monster next door; Samantha Elliott, Winner of the 2010 Ursula Moray Williams Cup for Children's Writing and winner of Year 4-6 for her story The enchanted library; and Susanna Blogg, Winner of Year 11-13 for her story The Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Special thanks to The Friends of the Library and the South Canterbury Aoraki Reading Association for their sponsorship of the competition.

Kids' Book Quiz winners!

Happy winners in the first ever South Canterbury Aoraki Kids' Book Quiz hosted by Pleasant Point Primary School at the end of last term. Twenty teams competed fiercely to win books donated by Scholastic, Random House and Timaru District Libraries. The winners were:
Year 7 & 8:

1st Big Hearts from Sacred Heart School, Timaru
2nd Sparta team from St Josephs School Timaru
3rd Mockingjays from Bluestone School

Year 5 & 6:
1st Rapid Readers from Gleniti School
2nd Brainy Bookworms from Bluestone School
3rd Raspberries from St Josephs School Timaru

Congratulations to all these great readers!! We look forward to next years' event to see who will be rewarded for year of reading widely... :-)

Library Week Story competition!!! Enter here ...

The Library Week Interactive Story Competition is open to year 6, 7 and 8 students and runs until Friday. New Zealand author Kate De Goldie has opened the story and children will contribute creative writing each day to build an ongoing story.
Click here to read the story so far and to enter

Write on ...

Read Every Day prizewinners

Congratulations to the winners in the Read Every Day July School Holiday Programme who received their prizes last Thursday at the Children’s Library. Entries were well up on previous years with over 400 received. The theme was RED, inspired by the Sir Peter Blake Trust Red Sock Day and also short for Read Every Day. Holiday competitions included a quiz, scavenger hunt, creating a new red book character, word puzzles on a leadership theme, and poetry writing to celebrate NZ Poetry Day. Prize-winning poems will be posted soon ... watch this space!

The heat is on ...

The heat has been turned up for Team Cuisine from Barton Rural School. Xtreme Reader Connor Chisnall has turned his hand to cooking and has just competed in the Regional Cook-Off for the Maggi Intermediate Kitchen Showdown. Great work guys!!!

More holiday highlights ...

I see red I see red I see red…
Steina's fabulous red hearts, lightning bolts, smiley faces and balloons were in hot demand in the school holidays. Here are some of her happy customers!

Pets love libraries too!

Olly and his little red hen “Hiccup” came in to see what all the fuss was about.


Milly the Jack Russell pup loves cuddles but really wanted to help choose some books. Here she is with her owner Maddy.


Jacob Haussmann and Brandon Rae brought their guinea pigs to visit. Jade
made friends with Rosy Cheeks.

Holiday highlights

The big event of the holidays was the visit of the firefighters of “Green Watch” from the Timaru Fire Service and their fire engine! If you see yourself in the photos come in and tell us and collect a spot prize!

The hunting of the sock ...

Ella Davey about to embark on the Red Sock Hunt in the Children's Library. Happy hunting Ella!
(originally posted 4 July)

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!

(originally posted 14 June)

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 :-)

(originally posted June 2)

Welcome!!!

Welcome to our new Kids' Blog. Here you will find news about library events, holiday programmes, new books, competitions, literary happenings and more!
Our earlier blogs were posted on the Timaru Libraries' blog under What's Hot. We will re-post them here together with news as it happens. We look forward to your feedback.