iRead Teens Programme

This Summer Reading Programme is for teens 12+.

Enrolments for the Teens iRead Programme are now full in all three libraries.

If you missed out, keep reading anyhow. Call into the three libraries and check out the cool books in the Young Adult sections.

Be a Super Reader!

Be a Super Reader these summer holidays!

Enrolment are starting very soon for the Summer Reading Programmes.

This year we are excited to be introducing Pānui anō ngā Hautiua - our Te Reo component.

See the library website for more information - http://www.hastingslibrary.co.nz

Sorry - Havelock North programme now full. Some places left in Hastings & Flaxmere Libraries but be in quickly.

Bookish Betsy grapples with the Graphic Novel

Things have been a bit quiet in my world of late. “Why?” you ask. Well, it’s all because of the Graphic Novel. I simply have no time at all for real life now that I have found this new genre of book.

To tell you the truth, until recently I had no idea what a Graphic Novel was. It sounded quite wicked though. Recently I realised that my prudish sensibilities had left me missing out on a whole new aspect of popular culture. Graphic Novels, like their close relatives Comic Strips before them, have a BIG following and I may be one of the last to catch on.

My taste in graphic novels perhaps veers a little from the norm. Asterix and Obelix, with their rock wielding antics, are about as dangerous and dark as I go. But thankfully, in this world there is room for all tastes, and just lately I have found some incredible Graphic Novels that are thoughtful, funny, moving and sad – just how I like a good book. Ethel and Earnest by Raymond Briggs and Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth by award winning Chris Ware, are my current favourites. These tales, told in both picture and work, are so stark, vivid, and beautiful in their exploration of the human condition that I am converted for life.

If you are still wondering what a Graphic Novel is, or if you have not yet found our fabulous Graphic Novel collections, please feel free to ask one of your friendly librarians next time you visit.

NZ Premier of An Independent Mind

To mark Courage Day Hastings Library hosted the New Zealand premier of An Independent Mind, a 90 minutes documentary directed by Rex Bloomstein, featuring eight free speech heroes and villains from around the world, asserting their rights to express themselves. The telling of this documentary is designed to encourage people to reflect on the importance of freedom of expression with all its attendant complexities, challenges and limits.

Courage Day (15 November) marked the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. See The New Zealand Society of Authors website http://www.authors.org.nz/

Movies at the Muni - history talk

At the Landmarks History Group on Tuesday 11 November Michael Fowler talked about "Moving pictures in the Hastings Municipal Theatre".

The "The Reel Story: A history of Napier and Hastings Cinemas 1896 - 1996" by Michael Fowler and David Turnbull also had it's Hastings launch at this meeting.

The Landmarks History Group have held a very interesting series of talks this year in the library. Read more at their website: http://www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/sites/localhistory/.

Also the Landmarks History Group Blog gives a more in-depth account of each speaker and their topics.