If you haven’t heard already, it’s only a few days until May 12th when Tūhono submissions close, and we still want your poems! Tūhono is Wellington City Libraries’ annual poetry journal for kids and teens. You can find more info about how to submit, as well as this year’s theme, here. Poetry can be a daunting form of writing for anyone, but it needn’t be! The library has lots of cool books with some great examples and techniques for crafting your own poem. You may think that your poem needs to be incredibly wise or complex, but as poet Carol Ann Duffy once said: You can find poetry in your ev ..read more

So far Te Ara Pukapuka has travelled around the city from Churchill Park in Seatoun, to Khandallah Park, to Kilbirnie Park, to Waihinahina Park in Newlands, to Karori Park, to the latest installment which will be arriving at Central Park on May 11! For the Autumn 2024 installment at Central Park we have a brand new pukapuka that has been carefully chosen for this location. Wellington City Libraries and Wellington City Parks, Sport & Recreation got in touch with Upstream: Friends of Central Park and asked them if there were any particular themes, any critters or creatures that lived ar ..read more

The school holidays have come to end, term two is upon us, and we hope you had as much fun as we did over the holidays solving mysteries, decoding clues, crafting investigator kits, and generally getting involved in all things sneaky and SPYbrarian. Flip through this photo gallery to reflect on some of the nefarious activities and devious crafts that you got up to over the holidays! Wellington City Libraries and Community Centres would like to give massive thanks to authors Avril McDonald and Paul Beavis. Avril visited seven of our libraries in the first week of the holida ..read more

We’ve got lots of gorgeous new books in the collection for kids this month, so many we can’t share them all here!  But we’ve selected a handful we think you might like.  Read about a really fluffy buffalo and a colourful dinosaur; exploring the wilderness or learning about food; time travel or fitting in at school; Ancient Rome or fibre crafts.  Plus lots more! For more new items in the collection, go to: What’s new / April 2024 (wcl.govt.nz) Picture Books Buffalo fluffalo / Kalb, Bess “Buffalo Fluffalo arrives on the scene puffed up with self-importance. Stomping around and rai ..read more

Are you fascinated by the small scuttling things you see in rockpools, the native insects hiding in your garden, or the different bushes, weeds, and trees you see while out for a walk around Wellington? Why not finish off the school holidays in true environmental style and take part in the City Nature Challenge! From Friday 26 April to Monday 29 April cities around the world will be competing in the City Nature Challenge. During the challenge your goal is to search for, report, and log any sightings of wild plants, creatures, or organisms, living or dead, on the land, up the mountains, in the ..read more

What is the Fish Doorbell? The Fish Doorbell (or visdeurbel in Dutch) is exactly what it sounds like – a doorbell for fish! The Vecht, a branch of the river Rhine, flows through Utrecht.  As it goes through the city, the Vecht passes through the Weerdsluis lock – a lock is a bit like a gate that’s been engineered to help boats travel along rivers or canals uphill. If you’d like to know a bit more about locks, we recommend heading over to the Encyclopedia Britannica. To access this article on Britannica, just sign in with your library card barcode number and 4-digit pin. At this time of ye ..read more

Learn from the master himself! During the April school holidays, we are lucky to be hosting superstar author and illustrator Paul Beavis (Nee Naw, There Was an Odd Farmer Who Swallowed a Fly, Ring Ting Tūī) for a fantastic workshop at Te Māhanga Karori Library. Come along to Karori Library at 2pm on Friday the 26th of April to meet Paul, learn all about how a picture book gets made, and draw along with him to pick up some new skills from the master. Who knows, you might even be inspired to start writing your own picture book! Space is limited, so registrations are required — sign up here. Th ..read more

The 1st of April has finally arrived, and so we have officially opened submissions for Tūhono 2024, our annual poetry journal for children and teens! This year’s theme is “Tūmanako | Hope” — check out our last blog post for the full details. We are so excited to read your entries this year — just make sure you get them in before the 12th of May! Use the button below to submit your entry. Submit your poem for Tūhono 2024! Here’s a wee reminder of the guidelines this year: We want you to write a poem on the theme of “Tūmanako | Hope.” The kupu Māori ‘tūmanako has a wide range of meani ..read more

The School Holidays are getting closer! And we’re excited to announce our theme and programme for the April school holidays this year. From the 13th to the 28th of April, we invite you to join us for WHODUNNIT? at Wellington City SPYbraries and enter a world of detectives, spies, espionage, and mystery. We have a whole range of exciting activities planned for you – race against the clock to solve a mystery, search through your local library – sorry, SPYbrary – to solve the mystery of the Golden Tickets, create your own kit of spy gadgets, or put together a tricksy maze using our LEGO® set ..read more

This month’s new books for kids are all about exploration!  Exploration of space, place, story, and feelings, whatever realm you’re interested in finding more about, we have gorgeous new books to help and entertain you.  Take a look at this selection below… Picture Books Snail in space / Bright, Rachel “Gail the snail has always been told not to dream too big or reach too far, but Gail is not your average snail, and she has plans to be the first… SNAIL IN SPACE! Join Gail on her stellar adventure and discover the magic of reaching for the stars and giving it your all.” (Catalogue) Ch ..read more