Storytime

That's right, celebrating twenty years of Harry Potter. Yes twenty years ago we first met a young boy called Harry living in the cupboard under the stairs. How time flies! To celebrate, many libraries (and I'm sure book stores) held festivities. We had a Harry Potter night on Monday, complete with magician (who was amazing!) to keep the magic flowing. It was a great night...a great family night.  We had folks making bookmarks...looking at amazing potions... Using props for photo opportunities. Many photo opportunities....  There were snitches in cages and wands... I loved the creativity from my team mates... the library looked great! Full of colour and mystery... And everyone dressed up, for that day we lived Harry Potter. (some went above and beyond..they lived their characters). To me, that was the most important part of it all. Don't get me wrong, loved the feedback. So many parents came up to tell us what a g...

Last weekend I had a visit from my sister and her hubby.Then of course, we decided while she was in town to catch up with our two brothers. It was a busy weekend, full of shopping, garden nurseries, meals out and familial catching up. (What a breakfast! Totally not the usual muesli or toast weekday events. And oh so pretty) It was lovely to catch up with everyone. And to notice the differences as well as the similarities amongst us. My family are a very artistic and eclectic group. One brother does this sort of artwork... as well as carving fence posts he has come across...as you do. My sister paints and creates (and I have plans for these two and an Etsy store and me taking my ten percent as manager!) Even my niece has this artistic gene running through her body. Alas my creativity doesn't run along these lines and that's okay. So not only was I amazed at their abilities and overwhelmed by my lack of said abilities it was interesting to note how...

I just finished a book, set in 1757 which dealt with English and French spies...a bit of conflict...bit of romance...bit of revenge. And honestly if it hadn't had the date printed on that first chapter I would not have known where or when it was set. No one dressed in a particular way, no one appeared to eat (except for some broth when one character was ill)...they did drink ale and brandy though. And I craved some details. Not minute over-the-top details, but give me something to set the scene! My lovely daughter and I recently had a great day out in Melbourne. We wandered a few markets then lunched at H opetoun tea rooms. ..where even the queuing to get inside is part of the atmosphere. Where every detail, from flowers on the table to the mouth watering array of cakes, is all set to tempt. I mean who can resist? We then wandered for cocktails at Madame Brussels  .  Even though it was winter, the sun shone and it was lovely to sit out on the deck and ...

Not for me..actually who am I kidding...I have a million and one distractions. But this thought came about after Sunday, when I went to the Reading Matters Conference Public Day with some work pals. We went to two sessions at the State Library. Speculative Fiction with the panel of Jay Kristoff, Rachael Craw and Mariko Tamaki. Contemporary YA with the panel of AS King, Jennifer Niven and Lili Wilkinson. During the first panel, our lovely Miss H asked Jay a great question. He had been talking about going to a local newsagent when he was a boy, reading all the Stephen King novels, and hiding them so he could continue reading the next week. Miss H asked 'how do we get children such as yourself back into libraries' Jay's answer was ' I don't know. I grew up with a television with four channels. I didn't have all the distractions that kids have today.' And he's right. As a kid there was television, radio and that was about it. Perhaps one c...