Coming soon:  The Shah of Blah

International storyteller

Will perform free shows for kids of all ages at the Temuka, Geraldine and Timaru Libraries on Wednesday 11 January

Come along to see this fantastic performer who entrances audiences of all ages

10am Temuka Library

11.30am  Geraldine Library

2.30pm Timaru Library

And for adults: 

“Tall tales and true” an evening performance at 7pm at Timaru Library. 

Entry by gold coin donation with proceeds to Friends of the Library.

Kids' Blog

Read this for the latest news, events, and competitions.

Click here to get to our Blog

Ursula Moray Williams Centenary

Creative Writing Competition 

Congratulations to the winners!!!!

Judge Colin Davison, UK author of the Ursula Moray Williams biography Through the Magic Door, said “What a wonderful collection of short stories the competition has produced.  I was immensely impressed, and found some wonderful element in every single one of them.”

The Ursula Moray Williams Cup for Children’s Writing goes to Mafoa Siale of Bluestone School, Timaru, for her story “Winter”.  Mafoa was also winner of the Year 7-8 category. 

The prizewinners are:

Year 1-3

• 1^st   Holly Bamber, Timaru (Bluestone School) for “Intruders on Zing Zang Island”
• 2^nd  Hope Lovely, (Waimataitai School) for ‘The magic tree”

Year 4-6

• 1^st   Aimee King (Waimataitai School) for  “Steve the explorer and the underwater monkeys”
• 2^nd  Esther Shaw, Geraldine (Home educated) for “Happiness is more important than what you look like”

Year 7-8

• 1^st   Mafoa Siale, Timaru (Bluestone School) for ‘Winter’
• 2^nd  James MacKenzie, Timaru (Bluestone School) for ‘The storm’

Year 9-10

• 1^st  Aaron Braczek, Geraldine (Geraldine High School) for “Never trust a gypsy”

Year11-13

• 1^st   Susanna Blogg, Geraldine (Home educated) for “Close encounter with the third kind”
• 2^nd  Rebekah Blogg, Geraldine (Home educated) for ‘Dancing Breeze”

The competition was run this year to celebrate the centenary of the birth of noted UKchildren’s author Ursula Moray Williams, who visited Timaru in the 1980s and donated a cup for a children’s writing competition. Read more about Ursula Moray Williams in her biography "Through the magic door: Ursula Moray Williams, Gobbolino and the Little Wooden Horse" by Colin Davison.

Many thanks to Colin Davison, The Friends of the Library and Aoraki Reading Association South Canterbury for their support for this competition. 

Get Well Bags

If your child is sick or housebound phone us and we will select a Get Well Bag for you to call in and collect. 

These contain a selection of age-appropriate high interest books, talking books, puzzles, CDs, DVDs and other diversions from our collections.  Phone Sue on 6877480 to arrange.

Xtreme Readers

If you love reading, why not join the Xtreme Readers?

These cool kids meet at the Children’s Library on the last Friday of each month from 5-6pm.

At the meetings we take a look at the new books, share any great reads, preview and test-drive the holiday programme activities and have lucky draws for spot prizes.

Each month there is a different focus, usually with interactive fun activities,  with topics like great books turned into great movies, a close look at the annual book awards, the best and worst of the year’s books, visiting authors and other book or library-related topics.

Aimed at independent readers, the group is perfect for the avid reader who needs new ideas or the jaded reader needing inspiration!

Ask in the Children’s Library if you’d like to join!

Storytime

Storytime - every Friday 11.30am – 12 noon

A special half-hour of book-related fun with simple stories, rhymes, bubbles, balloons, stick games or songs for young children with an accompanying caregiver. 

These sessions, geared to preschoolers ages 2 and upwards, begin to introduce specific pre- and early literacy skills and are the beginnings of a lifelong love of literature.

AnyQuestions.co.nzhelps you find useful, accurate, online information for your homework.

It’s not a ‘quick answers service’ - instead our online librarians are trained to help you work out the sort of information you need, then begin searching with you.

Librarians from all over New Zealandare available each week day between 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm to help you search online.

To use AnyQuestions.co.nz you have to be attending a New Zealand primary, intermediate, secondary school or be home schooled.