Day: 30 May 2016

Things that you learn about yourself at a festival – Auckland Writers Festival 2016

robertafsmith4 Comments

Mother TongueYou’d be forgiven for believing that what you learn at a festival is all about writers and readers and books. But, truth is, you learn a whole heap of other stuff too – like yourself. You learn a lot about yourself.

Here’s what I learnt:

  • I cannot pack light – I even pack “what if” stationery.
  • I’m really good at taking notes in the dark. My “blind” notes are superior to those written in the harsh light of fluorescence. It is a minor and little-recognised talent.
  • Big haired people will traverse entire auditoriums to sit right in front of me, thereby affording me the opportunity to write poisonous little asides in my notebook – in the pitch dark.
  • At a festival, I can attend events all day, contribute to an audio recording at night, and then blog well after midnight. All this on a diet of caffeine, darling little ginger friands and Japanese noodles from the outlet across the road, that is: nothing green and crunchy passes my lips. This is not the me most of you know. There is, admittedly, a lot more in the way of colourful language while I’m doing it. But it can be done.

    AWF16
    Masha, Moata and Roberta: late at night – still blogging to be done!
  • But one of my main festival joys is being regifted the beauty of the English language. At festivals, I am reawakened to an abundance of words that I have just stopped using. I am jolted out of my language laziness and fall in love with words all over again. Not all these words are that rare, but they are heard less and less nowadays, words like this:

All languages change: new vocabulary is created and many wonderfully evocative words fall out of use. But what can I do to stem the dumbing down of English? For starters I can be on Red Alert for the beauty and specificity of our wonderful language.

And that is the gift of Auckland Festival to me.

Find out more

Superheroes and villains

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heroesvillainswebtile

Have you recently been bitten by a radioactive spider? Do you like to wear colourful tights under cover of darkness? Can you leap earthquake-damaged buildings in a single bound?

If you answered yes to any of the above (or even if you didn’t), Central Library Peterborough needs your help! We’ve received word that the local supervillains are planning to descend on us between 1-3pm on the 25th of June, and we’re woefully unprotected*!

If you don’t have a secret identity pre-prepared, we can help you create your own superhero masks and cuffs on the day, and if you’re feeling out of practice we’ll have some superhero training activities to test your superpowers. When you’re ready, hunt for the supervillains around the library! Or have a go at our comics table — design your own superhero/villain costume, participate in our collaborative comics, and colour in some of your favourite comics characters!

There’ll be spot prizes on the day, so dust off your Armageddon costumes and head over to Central Library Peterborough for some comics-related shenanigans.

Cover of Sewing Dress-up: 35 Cute and Easy Costumes for KidsIf you’re after some inspiration or practical advice, we can help –

*Barbara Gordon/Batgirl is out of town for a library conference

Te Kupu o Te Wiki – Pukapuka (book)

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Kia ora. To encourage the use of Te Reo Māori we are publishing weekly kupu (words) and phrases that can be used with children.

Kupu (word)

pukapuka
book

Whakahokia ngā pukapuka.
What would you like for lunch, my darling?

Whāngahia te Reo