National Storytime

As part of LIBRARY WEEK it was National Storytime Day today. At 10.30am throughout New Zealand, children (and children at heart) were listening to Itiiti's Gift, a charming story by Melanie Drewery and illustrated by the bubbly Fifi Colston (I can say that as I met her in person last week and she is extremely bubbly and fun). I had a group from Warkworth Primary School down for their regular visit this morning (they come in at least once a term) and National Storytime was part of it.

This New Zealand picture book was first published in 2006 by Reed Publishing. "Itiiti feels small and clumsy and shy next to her big, jumbly family... When her mum tells Itiiti that she has her own gift, Itiiti sets out to find it. To her surprise, her gift finds her."

Melanie Drewery and Fifi Colston have items on both our picture book and children's fiction shelves so check them out on our catalogue. One of my personal favourites by Melanie (so much so that an autographed copy of the book was one of the first gifts I bought for my niece last year) is The Treasure (which is also available in Te Reo) as she is a very special taonga for our family. This is the second time Melanie Drewery has been the author of the National Storytime Book. The Grumble Rumble Mumbler was a previous read aloud success. To find out more about Melanie, check out the NZ Book Council biography.

Meanwhile Fifi Colston has a new children's fiction book about to hit the shelves. Glory will be launched during the Storylines Festival in August/September. Glory is for all those kids who "thought they were going to win a prize, but didn't". Fifi told us last week she is now looking for someone to publish a book "1001 things to do with an empty egg carton", presumably so they don't threaten to overtake her workroom (which does make an interesting mental picture). You can read more about what Fifi is up to on her Blog "Fifi verses the world"