Fun galore with New Zealand IceFest

If you’re looking for something to do with the kids these holidays (or just looking for something to do) then check out NZ IceFest.

When I saw that the grand opening involved sled dogs pulling a tram, I decided this was a must for the Young Lad, so despite the familial protest that 9:30 was too early for anything on a Saturday, I took him along – leaving Miss Missy and Mr K to enjoy their lazy Saturday morning.

I thought we’d be there for half an hour tops, but little did I know what fun awaited us at the IceFest Hub! First the excitement of seeing the tram being pulled by the team of dogs. Then the wonder as a block of ice was slowly turned into a beautiful sculpture of an emperor penguin feeding its young (not a kangaroo as the Young Lad suggested).

Well, the wonder was perhaps more on my side: while I enjoyed being dusted with snow, Edward Scissorhands style, and watching the sculpture slowly taking shape, the Young Lad joined the general hilarity of kicking chunks of ice around with the other children.

We then listened in as the guys at Scott Base were asked about snotcicles and what happens to the poop (it is frozen and sent to New Zealand for processing – who knew?!), topics sure to delight the boys in the audience.

IceFest is on until 12 October and you’re sure to find something to interest you, from the serious to the hilarious. There will be experts talking about climate change, movies and clowns for the kids, and, if snotcicles are your thing, there are plenty more opportunities to talk to Scott Base.

• Check out IceFest activities for kids at the library
• Browse the catalogue for books on Antarctica
• Read more about Antarctica on our website
• View photos of IceFest on our photostream

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

You probably know the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Twelve sisters disappear at night and come back with worn out shoes — where have they gone? The father offers a reward for anyone who can solve the mystery.

The mystery of The Girls at the Kingfisher Club has already been solved. A father, determined for a male heir, perseveres until he has twelve daughters living on the top floor of his New York apartments. Twelve sisters, aching for freedom, slip out each night to whatever Manhattan speakeasies seem safest. The story mostly follows Jo, the General, but also manages to capture the disparate personalities and hopes of her eleven younger siblings.

While I loved the historical element of this book (1920s New York!), the characters really steal the show. One of my favourite moments was when the father, stern faced and suspicious, confronts all twelve daughters for the first time. Suddenly he’s vulnerable in the face of his own offspring, especially Jo, trained by necessity to guard and look over her sisters and constantly worrying: am I my father? She certainly shares his iron will, his strength and his stubbornness, but while her father uses his power to cage others, Jo uses hers to set her sisters free. The sisters aren’t perfect by any means; they squabble and hate and love each other equally, living together with an invisible line marking each sister’s territory. There’s loneliness on that crowded floor, but there’s also a connection between prisoners that never really fades.

She was still trying to discover how people related to each other, and how you met the world when you weren’t trying to hide something from someone. It was a lesson slow in coming.

If you’re thinking this doesn’t sound like a light read, you’re right, but it’s worth it for the elegance of Genevieve Valentine’s writing, and watching twelve princesses free themselves while carrying their shoes in their hands.

All copies unavailable? Try these similar titles which I also wept over:

• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (kindness in the face of adversity)
• Rose Under Fire, Elizabeth Wein (friendship in a World War II women’s concentration camp)
• The Diviners, Libba Bray (magic in 1920s New York)

Off the shelf

As followers of our blog will know, voracious reader Robyn has been sharing with us on a regular basis the titles that she has been adding to her For Later list. This time she reports back on some of the titles that have graduated to her Completed shelf.

Some things that recently moved from my For Later shelf to my Completed shelf. A veil shall be drawn over those items that moved from my For Later shelf to my list of Books That I Took Out in 2014 But Did Not Read Or Use.

History of 20th Century Fashion – the cover is wonderful but the book disappointed me a bit  – more for a serious student than a frivolous flicker of pages.

The First World War Galleries –  fascinating. Objects speak louder than words. And clothing louder than that – the jacket with one arm missing that features on the cover positively shouts.

New Zealand’s Historic Samplers  – See above. “A sampler may be the only words of a woman which survive” says the author, and these surviving pieces of fabric and thread provide a glimpse into the lives of women and girls from the earliest of colonial days. They truly are stitched stories.

Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activisim – a great introduction to the world-wide movement of Craftivism. Lots of lovely pictures and just the right amount of words. Inspirational.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?

Te Kupu o te Wiki – The Word of the Week

Kia ora. To celebrate Te Reo Māori we are publishing kupu (words).

Kīwaha (colloquialism)

Koia kei a koe
What a sad guy

Kupu (word)

kaiako
teacher

Ko Whaea Hēni tōku kaiako.
Whaea Hēni is my teacher

Browse our Te Reo Māori resources.

This week in Christchurch history (29 September – 5 October)

A Canterbury trooper, 3rd New Zealand Mounted Rifles (Rough Riders), preparing to depart for the Boer War (1899-1902)
[1900]
CCL Photo Collection 22, Img02211

30 September 1972
New Town Hall complex and James Hay Theatre (designed by Warren and Mahoney) opens. Ferrier Fountain commissioned.

1 October 1870
Opening of Canterbury Museum building, designed by B.W. Mountfort.

1 October 1948
City Council takes over Canterbury Public Library from University.

1 October 1953
Over 3000 hectares of Waimairi (showgrounds area), Heathcote (Bromley area) and Estuary included in City.

2 October 1916
Opawa joins city.

3 October 1983
Rugby player Robbie Deans becomes highest scorer of points in 79 year history of the Ranfurly Shield with 187 points from thirteen games.

5 October 1899
First Boer War contingent leaves Lyttelton.

5 October 1982
Paraplegic archer Neroli Fairhall (in competition with able-bodied athletes) wins gold medal at Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

A timeline of Christchurch events in
chronological order from pre-European times to 1989.

More September and October events in the Chronology.

Picture books: picks from our latest newsletter

Some picks from our September Picture Books newsletter:

Subscribe to our newsletters and get our latest titles and best picks straight from your inbox.

Have you read any of these books? If so, we’d love your feedback!

Family outing, 1950s : Picturing Canterbury

Family outing, Collins family. 1950-1955. Kete Christchurch, IMG_0067

• View more images from the 2013 Christchurch Photo Hunt

Childrens’ and Young Adult Book Sale

Want to stock up on some Kids and Teens books? Great! We are having a Childrens’ and Young Adult Book Sale at Fendalton Library on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 October. All titles are only $1 each! Come and grab some:

• Board books for your baby
• Picture books for your preschooler
• Into reading books for your beginner reader
• Chapter books for your series-devourer
• Fairy-tales for your little prince or princess
• Puzzle books for some school holiday brain-bending
• Craft books for some school holiday fun
• Non-fiction for every kids really, there’s some good stuff in there!

Fendalton Library is on the corner of Clyde and Jeffreys Road and is on the number 120 bus route. There’s off-street parking via Clyde Road and Jeffreys Road including disabled parking and bike stands outside library.

Childrens’ Books at the Book Sale. Flickr, CCL-2012-02-16-Booksale-IMG_9459

The bedside table blog

What’s on your bedside table right now?

I ask because bedside tables and their offerings are the new profiling tool, their little worlds in microcosm giving us copious info about who we are, who we want to be and who we should be dating.

In Enough Said, the last film ever made by James Gandolfini and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus,  Albert’s marriage breaks up partly because he has no bedside tables. When his ex discovers this she says:

Metaphorically speaking, he’s not
building a life for himself.
I mean, who would date
a person like that?

In The End of Your Life Bookclub, when Will Schwalbe looks round the bedroom of his dying mother, whose bedside table and the floor (every surface actually) is covered with books, he asks himself how much bleaker the room would look had his mother’s night table supported a lone Kindle.

And in the September/October edition of the ever trendy Frankie magazine, five young artists have been commissioned to draw their bedside tables. Way to go, Frankie!

What about my bedside tables at home? My little bedside world currently has  three books stacked on it:

• The Other Hand by Chris Cleave – this book is also sold under the title Little Bee and has been very popular in my Book Club. I love this book, it makes me want to speak in Jamaican patois. If you click on the link you will get the idea of the storyline.
• There’s also The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. This is an unusual, quietly meditative book in which you will learn a lot (more than may be desirable, to be frank) about a little forest snail.
• And The Tao of Pooh, which is my go-to book on those mornings when I can barely face the cone infested drive to a far-flung outpost of Library Land to get to a library that may or may not have stocked up on the full cream milk I require for my first cup of coffee.

In the parallel universe on the other side of the bed, my husband’s bedside table sports:

Italian Grammar for Dummies – bedtime discourse on the use of the subjunctive in Italian has entirely replaced any need for sedatives in our little world.

There’s also A History of Opera and a lone fiction work, The Panther, which he started reading seventeen months ago and hopes to complete when we travel again at the end of this year. I have to dust that book – often, and each time I wonder how on earth he is managing to remember the storyline.

How about you? Got any bedside books worth sharing?

Historical Fiction Newsletter Highlights

The old west, the new west and conquest in our September Historical Fiction newsletter.

     

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