Book Week - 16 to 22 August 2014

Book Week this year will be celebrated at Narellan and Camden Library from Monday 18 August to Friday 22 August. The theme for this year is "Connect to Reading". The Children's Book Council of Australia state that "connect to reading is about enjoying the experience of exploring story, and travelling to other worlds".

For all sessions of storytime held during Book Week children will be invited to dress up to help celebrate this special occassion. Children can come dressed up as their favourite book character or simply wear any dress up outfit they have at home.

Each year a series of books are shortlisted for book of the year in several different categories. For the full list of books that have been selected for the short list visit the Children's Book Council of Australia website.

Those books that have been shortlisted are part of the library collection. Visit the library catalogue to find and/or reserve your book.

Summer READS Winners

Well done to all those who participated in the Summer READs program over the school holidays.

Winners have now been drawn and notified.

Congratulations to the following winners:

• Kirralee
• Tayla
• Declan
• Galen
• Zara
• Jade
• Ben
• Angel
• Serena
• Steph
• Harriet
• Olivia
• Mitchell

Picnic by the Pool

Storytime Graduation

Do you attend storytime at Narellan or Camden Library and your child is starting school next year? Then make sure you visit storytime during the first week of December for our storytime graduation. During this week all children starting school next year will be asked to come to front to receive a 'graduation' award to say thank you for being part of storytime family and to wish them the best of luck for starting school.

Dates of storytime sessions where graduation certificates will be distributed are:

• 11am, Tuesday 3 December 2013 (Camden Library)
• 11am, Wednesday 4 December 2013 (Narellan Library)
• 11am, Thursday 5 December 2013 (Camden Library)
• 10am and 11am, Friday 6 December 2013 (Narellan Library) 

Speech Pathology Australia - Book of the Year Awards 2013

Speech Pathology Australia - Book of the Year Awards turn 10! The awards aim to clebrate children's books that promote good oral language and literacy skills. This year's winners contain some of the best known and loved children's authors in Australia.

2013 award winners are:

Best Book for Language & Literacy Development - Young Children (ages 2-5 years)
Seadog by Claire Saxby

Best Book for Language & Literacy Development - Lower Primary (ages 5-8 years)
Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester

Best Book for Language & Literacy Development - Upper Primary (ages 8-12 years)
After by Morris Gleizman




Best Book for Language & Literacy Development - Indigenous Children 
Two Mates by Melanie Prewett

Transition to School

Is your child starting school next year? Then check out the Starting School booklet by Big Fat Smile.

This booklet includes hints and tips for school readiness activities and assessing whether a child is ready for school, as well as information on immunisation, healthy lunches, outside school hours care and more. A handy month-by-month checklist also outlines key dates for the year before your child starts school.

Library Kids

During the month of May Narellan Library will be running a range of FREE performances for children aged 2 to 6 on Saturday mornings as part of the yearly Library Kids program. View the flyer for more details.

April School Holiday Activities

During the April school holidays the library will be running a range of activities for children, tweens and youth. View flyer for more details.

Bookings: Bookings are essential and are to be completed online. Click here for online bookings.

Back to School.....

The Summer school holidays are over and it's time for children to go back to school.
For some children they are starting school for the first time. Some children may be very excited about this whilst others may be a little anxious.

Below is a selection of fiction and non-fiction books that you might find useful to assist in preparing your child, and yourself, for their first day of school and help make their transition as smooth as possible.

FICTION BOOKS

The first day of school / Toby Forward; illustrated by Carol Thompson

First Day / Dandi Daley Mackall; illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke

It's your first day at school, Annie Claire / Nancy White Carlstrom; illustrated by Margie Moore

Bella goes to school / Ian Whybrow; illustrated by Rosie Reeve

Countdown to kindergarten / Alison McGhee; illustrated by Harry Bliss

Jojo's first day jitters / Jane O'Connor; illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser

Off to kindergarten / by Tony Johnston ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet.


NON - FICTION BOOKS

Ready, set, go? / Kathy Walker.

Ready, set ... go! : off to school : fun learning activities for 4-year-olds / Becky Daniel.

Starting school : how to help your child be prepared / Sue Berne.

Thriving at school : a practical guide to help your child enjoy the crucial school years / Dr John Irvine and John Stewart.

Getting ready to start school: parents and experts share advice and experience / Netmums with Hilary Pereira and Hollie Smith

January School Holiday Activities

During the January school holidays the library are running a range of activities for children, tweens and youth.

Information is now available in-house or via the library wesbite. Look for the heading 'Holiday Activities - Information and Bookings'.

Bookings are essential for all activities and are to be completed online via the link provided on the front page of the library website. Bookings will open Monday 17 December 2012.

Picnic by the Pool

Kids Gardening Workshop @ Camden Town Farm

Storytime Graduation Ceremony

Is your child starting 'big school' next year?

 

Join us at Narellan and Camden Library on the following dates for a small 'graduation ceremony' for those children who will be leaving Storytime to attend 'big school' year:

*Tuesday 27 November @ 11am (Camden)
*Wednesday 28 November @ 11am (Narellan)
*Thursday 29 November @ 11am (Camden)
*Friday 30 November @ 10am and 11am (Narellan)

If your child is starting 'big school' next year please advise the storytime staff to ensure that your child receives an award.

Storytime will cease for the year on Friday 21 December.

Libby Gleeson visits Camden

On Thursday 11th October children's author, Libby Gleeson, came to visit Camden as part of National Year of Reading. 450 students were in attendance for the visit. During the presentation Libby talked about her books and love of reading.

Libby Gleeson (centre) with students from St Paul's Primary and  Teacher Librarian, Chris Jaques (far left).

Libby Gleeson presenting to students.

Speech Pathology Australia - 2012 Book of the Year Awards

The Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards raise awareness of the role speech pathologists play in assisting people of all ages to develop their language and literacy skills.

The awards have selected the best books for language and literacy development.

THE WINNERS ARE:

Young Children

Come Down, Cat! by Sonia Harnett

Lower Primary

The Little Refugee by Anh and Suzanne Do

Upper Primary

The Invisible Hero by Elizabeth Fensham

Indigenous Children

The Snake and the Boy by Azmen Sebastian

NYOR School Ambassadors - St Paul's Primary School

National Year of Reading (NYOR) School Ambassadors

Students featured in this blog post are students that have been selected as NYOR ambassadors from St Paul's Primary School. As ambassadors these students have written about what their favourite book is and why they like reading.

Adrianna Zoric - Year 5

My favourite book is.... Ravens Mountain by Wendy Orr. I really enjoy reading this book because of how deeply it takes you into the story. The whole point of a book is to engage you into the story and I strongly believe that this book achieves this very thoroughly. This book is another of Wendy's wonderful range of books that have amazed all of us through her content and description of characters. I personally recommend this book due to how wonderful and how creative it is.

I enjoy reading because.... you can enter another world with different characters and use your own imagination.

Anisia Zbiljic - Year 5

My favourite book is.... Horse Mad by Kathy Helidioniotis, I like this book because I also love horses and it is written in detail and the main character is about my age. Horse Mad is a serial and I get lost into that book every time I read it, no matter what is going on around me.

I love reading because.... it takes me to a different world. Reading is also relaxing and calming. I love reading because everywhere around you there are words that amaze, distract and  make you wonder. No matter what you do, if you come across a word you HAVE to read it!

Isabelle Borg - Year 5

My favourite book is...... Alice - Miranda in New York. This is my favourite book because Alice - Miranda is so much like me and many others I know. She is quite out there and is always looking to solve a problem. All of the Alice - Miranda series are great but this one really stood out to me. Alice - Miranda makes many bright and interesting friends as well as having a fun time in new york.

I love reading because.... it is very entertaining and you can go into another world.

Photos from the July School Holiday Activities

During the holidays Camden/Narellan Library had some wonderful activities to entertain the children (e.g. Magic Show, Balloon Twisting Workshop and Digging Dinosaurs Workshop). To see some of the great photos taken at the activities check out the albums on 'Camden Council Library Services - Children' facebook page.

NYOR School Ambassadors - Harrington Park Primary School

National Year of Reading (NYOR) School Ambassadors

Students featured in this blog post are students that have been selected as NYOR ambassadors from Harrington Park Primary School. As ambassadors these students have written about what their favourite book is and why they like reading.

Erin Creber - Year 1

                                   

 My favourite book is: “Daisy and the Trouble with Kittens” by Kes Gray.

I like it because it is about kittens. She says the trouble with …  and then goes on to tell a story. Daisy makes lots of new friends when she goes on holiday to Spain. She finds the kitten there. It makes me laugh and it has funny pictures in it.

Why I like reading?

I like to learn from reading information books. Some books can make me feel happy when I am sad. I enjoy reading to other people, my teddy, Grandma, Mum and Dad.

Breanna Craig - Year 4

My first real favourite book is:  “Treasure Island” by R.L.Stevenson

I like it because it was adventurous, descriptive and interesting. You never knew what was going to happen next. It has lots of events that go quickly and keep you interested.

Why I like reading?

It improves my vocabulary and my mind. I like how it puts you in another place. I like each book I read because it is really different.

Mitchell Oyston - Year 6

My favourite book is: "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini

 

I’ve read it over and over and I never get bored. It’s full of mystical dragons and a love story is in there too. There are lots of different mysteries that find the answers to which present more mysteries to solve. I really like that.

The Eragon series is about a poor, young, farm boy in the mountains who finds an egg and the story links him with Brom, the storyteller of their village.

Why I like reading?

I like reading because I can picture whatever story I’m reading in my head like I’m watching TV. I like reading also because it is really easy to find information in factual books and I can read almost every word fluently. Reading helps me pass the time and allows me to block out outside distractions. The more I read the easier it gets! Reading also allows me to write stories with more description and detail.

NYOR School Ambassadors

This year is National Year of Reading (NYOR). The NYOR 2012 is about children learning to read and keen readers finding new sources of inspiration. It's about supporting reading initiatives while respecting the oral tradition of storytelling. It's about helping people discover and rediscover the magic of books. And most of all, it's about Australians becoming a nation of readers.

As part of NYOR we have chosen students from local schools to be ambassadors. Those who have been nominated will feature in our blog and other library material. In their role as amabassador students have been asked to write about what their favourite book is and why they love to read.

The first school to feature in our blog will be Harrington Park Primary School.

July School Holiday Activities

The new program for the July school holiday activities has been released. These holidays we have lots of exciting activities for all ages 5 to 18 years. For full details of activities view the attached brochure.

Bookings will start Monday 25th June. All bookings and/payments are completed online via the library website . Look for the heading 'Holiday and Bookings - Information & Bookings'.