Holiday Reading - eBooks for Kids

Too hot to visit the library? If you are a member of any of the branches of Newcastle Region Library you can borrow these eBooks at home. Here are just a few of the titles being borrowed this Summer:

Hatched: The Grimstones by Asphyxia

Artemis Fowl: the Ultimate Quiz Book by Frankie Taylor and Jack Goldstein

The Tunnels of Tarcoola by Jennifer Walsh

The Night before Mother's Day by Doug MacLeod

Raven's Mountain by Wendy Orr

Rainbow Street Pets by Wendy Orr

Little Else: On the Run by Julie Hunt

Phyllis Wong and The Forgotten Secrets of My Okyoto by Geoffrey McSkimming

Vinnie's War by David McRobbie

The Storymaze series by Terry Denton

Naughty Stories : That Dirty Dog & Other Naughty Stories for Good Girls and Boys by Christopher Milne

Mr Badger and the Difficult Duchess by Leigh Hobbs

Moonstone Promise by Karen Wood

Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees by Odo Hirsch

NeverSeconds: the Incredible Story of Martha Payne by Martha and Dave Payne

101 Drama Games for children :  Fun and Learning with Acting and Make-believe by Paul Rooyackers and Cecilia Bowman


To borrow these books visit EBL or use the search box below. You will need your library card number and PIN. Contact staff on 4974 5340 if you need help.

For eAudiobooks, eMusic and more visit our eCollections page.

Kid's Library

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman a review by The Bookchook

The Light Between Oceans  is  a beautifully written novel that tells the story of right and wrong and how sometimes they look the same. It is the story of a lighthouse keeper and his wife who make one choice that will ultimately impact on the lives of many others.

In 1918, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia after having survived the horrors of the Western Front. He takes a job as a lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock, off the coast of south-western WA. Tom brings his young wife, Isabel, to the island and their life together seems charmed. Three years later, after two miscarriages and one still-birth, Isabel is tending the grave of her newly lost baby when a small boat drifts ashore, carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Against Tom's judgement, they claim the baby as their own and name her Lucy. A rift between Tom and Isabel grows as Tom struggles with the decision they made. When Lucy is two, they return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world and one of them is desperate to find her lost baby.

The Light Between Oceans is filled with mesmerising images such as the following extract about the death of the town's children -

"The town's cemetary had always recorded this truthfully, and its headstones, some lolling like loose, grimy teeth, told frankly the stories of lives taken early by influenza and drownings, by timber whims and even lightning strikes. But in 1915, it began to lie. Boys and men from across the district were dying by the score, yet the graveywards said nothing."

It also tells of a life 'on the lights' and the dedication and commitment of the lighthouse keeper.

The Light Between Oceans is written with great compassion - all the characters are essentially good people put in an impossible situation. It deals with a complex moral dilemma that leads one to question what is really right and wrong.

The Light Between Oceans was the subject of a nine-way publisher auction in the UK and international rights in seventeen territories. It is a brilliant debut novel for M.L. Stedman and I highly recommend it. But be warned, you may need a few tissues on hand as you read this compelling and beautiful work.

Publication Date: 2012

Publisher: Vintage (Australia)
Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Graphic Novels @ your library

Our graphic novel collection is always growing and evolving to include new and classic manga, comics, graphic novels and picture books for all ages. Here is a small selection of what's new this month with a snappy single sentence sum up!

 

Black Butler vol. 6-9 by Yana Toboso

A travelling circus, missing children and an investigation that may lead Ciel into trouble beyond even Sebastian's inhuman powers....

Thief of thieves vol. 1: "I Quit" by Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer and Shawn Martinbrough

Q: How do you quit a life of crime when you're addicted to stealing? A: Become a thief of thieves; life gets complicated when you're running from both sides of the law.

Sakura Hime: the legend of Princess Sakura vol. 2-4 by Arina Tanemura

A teenage princess, demons, cute and sassy companions, sounds like a shojo manga smash-hit to me!

The Stand vol. 2: American Nightmares by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins

A human-made super virus is accidentally released from a U.S. Army base, for the survivors the nightmare has only just begun...

Kobato vol. 4-6 by Clamp, William Flanagan and Alexis Eckerman

We find out more about Kobato and Ioryogi, but what are they? How did they get here? and where are they going?

Saga vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

A sci-fi/fantasy epic, think Star Wars meets Game of Thrones, raising a child amidst a galactic war is never easy....

Captain America vol. 2 by Ed Brubaker and Alan Davis

The Cap faces new battles as he returns for more action-packed adventures and intrigue!

These titles and more can be found on our online catalogue and are available for request now!

HINT: If you are having trouble finding graphic novels on the catalogue, do a 'Power Search' and select 'Graphic Novels' in 'Item Category1'. This will give you a list of all graphic novels in Newcastle Region Library's collection. You can also limit in a Power Search by the year published, author, series, library etc.

Can't find anything you like?

Let us know what YOU want to see in your library's graphic novel collection,

complete an online Purchase Suggestion form here

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

What library staff are reading....December 2012

Looking for something to read over the holidays 

OR simply curious to know what librarians actually read?

Here is but a small sampling of the multitude of moorish memoirs, mysteries and marvels we're devouring this December!

Port Villa Blues by Gary Disher

This is the second Wyatt novel - a fast paced gritty Australia crime novel by a former winner of the Ned Kelly award. Wyatt finds himself in trouble after a contract robbery where he helps himself to a little extra. The characters are believable if undesirable and the dialogue is very real. There is plenty of suspense and lots of action - this is a great read.

 

Bill the Bastard by Roland Perry

This is the true story of a remarkable horse called Bill who was one of the 200,000 Australian horses sent to the middle great in the Great War. Bill could only be ridden by one man - Major Michael Shanahan. This is a wonderful tale of a determined trooper and his stoic but cantankerous mount. They fought together and depended on each other for survival. This book is a warm and human story set in the most inhuman of times, it also provides an insight into the lives and conditions of the ANZACs in the Great War.

The Amber Amulet by Craig Silvey

A short story about a boy who has a secret identity as a superhero. It is available from our collection in both eBook and print.

Trick of the dark by Val McDermid

Who really killed Philip Carling? Available as an eBook.

Bunny Lake is missing by Evelyn Piper

A Hitchcock-like thriller in which a child is missing, but is she real or a figment of the mother's imagination? Available as an eBook.

Castles, Follies and Four-leaf clovers: Adventures along Ireland's St Declan's Way by Rosamund Burton

I don't usually read travel memoirs, but I loved this and was suprised to see the Irish-born author lives in Sydney. It's worth reading just to find out about the ancient sheela-na-gig, St Declan's role in promoting Christianity in Ireland and St Brigid's relationship to the Celtic goddess. Available as an eBook.

In the evil day by Peter Temple

Action and intrigue taking place across Hamburg, London and Johannesburg. Available as an eBook.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland

The Convent by Maureen McCarthy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Some of these titles are available as eBooks in our EBL eBook collection. Search for them and many other delightful December delectations below:

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

The Casual Vacancy - a review by The Bookchook

Author: J.K. Rowling

Publication Date: 2012

Publisher: Little Brown Book Group Limited

What's it all about?

 J.K. Rowling's highly anticipated first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, was launched amidst high media publicity and has had mixed reviews. The Casual Vacancy is a grim novel dealing with the realities and ugliness of modern life but there is none of the magic so beautifully crafted in the Harry Potter novels. Instead, Rowling has used her latest work as a tool to promote social good.

The novel is set in the small English village of Pagford and follows the political and personal fallout created by the death of Barry Fairbrother, a member of the parish council, a good man, with a mission to engage those less priviledged in society. The election brings to the surface simmering tensions over class, family and status, in a place of secrets, poisoned by "things denied, things hidden and disguised."

There is little to love in this work. The characters have few redeeming features. There's the extravagantly obese councillor, Howard Mollison, disaffected youths Fats and Andrew, and the real hero of the novel, skanky Krystal Weedon - "funny and tough; impossible to intimidate; always coming out fighting." This is a world far removed from Hogwarts, dealing with drug addiction, self-harm, rape, suicide and domestic violence. Not suprisingly, the adolescent characters are drawn with much greater depth and compassion than the adults in the novel.

This is a long book, with not a lot happening in the beginning. The action picks up on page 240 and from there the reader becomes immersed in the scandals unfolding in Pagford and the trouble-plagued council estate, The Fields. As the election spins out of control and the plot plunges toward a tragic ending, the covers of middle-class decency are ripped away to reveal the true ugliness beneath.

The Casual Vacancy is a thought-provoking read. It is overly long, but worth the effort of getting through the first-half. Rowling's message of the need for social good shows that we are all our brother's keepers - we should all take care of each other, regardless of our social standing. Which isn't really so different, after all, from the world of Harry Potter.

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.