Central Hawke's Bay Youth Council

This is your chance to tell us why you want to join Central Hawke's Bay District's Youth Council and what you have to offer.
The purpose of the Youth Council is to:
Strengthen engagement between the Central Hawke's Bay District and young people and build young people's knowledge of Council processes to enable them to participate in the Council's decision-making processes and build the Council's knowledge of the needs of young people and how these can best be met.

For more information you can contact Shelley Burne Field on 857 8060. You can also access application forms by going to the Central Hawke's Bay District Council Website

July Winter Holiday Programme

Lots of cool stuff happening at the libraries this holidays:

Winter Warmers has started. There are only a couple of places left at Waipukurau so be in quick.

Read and review library books from 22nd June to the 31st July, 2009. Travel from Auckland to Wellington to receive your first incentive and get an invitation to the finale then continue on your reading journey down the country to Gore.

Once again this July we are presenting Maths is Fun at Waipawa Library between the 6th and the 9th July. Registrations are still open for all levels so register with Kylee, Miriam, Sue or Karen on 857 8123 or 8589154. Maths is Fun is a great holiday programme supported by the Eastern and Central Community Trust.

Book Reviews

I've been a bit busy this last two weeks doing more IT work than Library work so will turn over the blog to some of our local book club members for their reviews:

Sharleen:

The Perk by Mark Gimenz

"A great read, combining small town feuds, corruption and racial tension with the story of a widower with two young children returning to his roots and learning to let go of his idealised memories of his dead wife and form new relationships."

I found this book to be a real page turner with great characters and plot. I think it would appeal to a wide range of readers from John Grisham fans to those who like "The Horse Whisperer".

The Winter Queen by Boris Akukin

"This is a highly entertaining series featuring a young 19th Century Russian aristocrat and his Japanese servant as detectives.

The plots usually involve murder, political espionage and sometimes a love interest. The author is humorous and introduces us to 'newfangled' inventions of the time e.g. psychiatry and cruise ships."

Once you have read one, you may well be addicted - I think there's five in the series.

New YA books

Three good YA books are coming out of binding today. So I asked my girls to read them and give them a rating. Here are the results:

Girl Next Door by Alyssa Brugman Published by Random House
A great read apparently. Jenna-Belle's family is falling apart around her ears. Her Dad has disappeared and her Mum won't talk about it. The questions are - what is a home?
What happens to a family when life has turned into a disaster zone.
5 Star read for teenagers.

Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson and published by Egmont Press is an absolute gem of a read. Leo is running away from grief. She finds Finlay and Mary but someone is trying to find Leo and not for a good reason. Brilliantly written, great characters. First class read. Loved it.

Fate by Jennifer Lynn Barnes published by Random House is a follow-on to Tattoo which was a fabulous fantasy like novel about Bailey, Zo and Annabelle and their discovery of an ancient prophecy.
In Fate Bailey struggles with her double life. Ancient mystical being by night and high school student by day. Fate is all about choices. Will Bailey make the right ones? Find out by checking out this great read. 5+ stars.

Arriving Next Week

Coming into the library next week is a series with aspects of Nora Roberts, Christine Feehan, Beth Vaughan and Juliet Marillier in it. Jean Johnson's Sons of Destiny series is a great winter read.

So if you like your books to have a bit of romance and some frogs into princes plots then email Ngai to reserve your copy or hopefully by Thursday 28th Karen should have them on the system and you can reserve them from the catalogue.

(Cyber chocolate fish for the first person to spot the frog!)

NZ Post Childrens Book Awards

Congratulations to the winners of the 13th annual New Zealand Post Book Awards.

THE NEW ZEALAND POST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2009 and
Young Adult Fiction Winner

IS

The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi. Published by Longacre Press

The Non-fiction Winner is:

Back & Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious by Gregory O'Brien. Published by Auckland University Press

The Junior Fiction Winner is:
Old Drumble by Jack Lasenby. Published by HarperCollins

The Picture Book Winner is:
Roadworks by Sally Sutton & Brian Lovelock. Published by Walker Books

The Picture Book Honour Award goes to:

Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig by Diana Neild & Philip Webb. Published by Scholastic New Zealand

The Children's Choice Award goes to:

The Were-Nana by Melinda Szymanik & Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson. Published by Scholastic New Zealand

Best First Book Award Winner is:
Violence 101 by Denis Wright. Published by Puffin

CHB Green Kiwi Trust Inc.

Background
Following the success of the Spring Clean Week last year, a small acorn formed in the minds of like minded people and an idea was born......To reduce our carbon footprint by the promotion of environmental awareness in Central Hawke's Bay and to further beautify our area for the future.

The Idea
Why not Adopt a Highway? As we know the stretch of road between Waipawa and Waipukurau is being extensively upgraded ......this seems a great place to start. To unite the two centres together seems a good idea...from that small acorn a huge Oak tree is now starting to sprout.

How?
To achieve this, money is required and there is none, so, it has been decided to form a charitable society to enable the access of funds from the various charities.
Once the Trust is formed, a public meeting will be held to give all Central Hawke's Bay residents the opportunity to be a part of this initiative to preserve the beauty of the area for the future.

Goals for the Future

To invite all members of our community to be involved in this initiative by way of a public meeting.
To extend the Adopt a Highway to the stretch of road between Otane and Waipawa, the Takapau Road between Pukeora and Waipukurau and other main roads leading into Central Hawke's Bay.
To access "Share the Road" signage for our main roads.
To invite residents to Adopt a Street. This is to engender pride in our urban streets.
To beautify the shopping areas by introducing hanging baskets in our main streets.
To investigate the possibility of a communal vegetable/fruit garden.
To expand the Spring Clean Week.
To investigate the possibility of further cycle/walk paths.

Contact Ann Strong at the Council for further info.