As the Curtin Library’s National Year of Reading blog continues to grow – you might like to check in on other National Year of Reading activities across the country. The April newsletter is now available for viewing here.
Three Books: John Curtin
Saving Australia: Curtin’s secret peace with Japan & 1942: Australia’s greatest peril, two books by Bob Wurth, and Friendship is a sheltering tree: John Curtin’s letters 1907 – 1945 by David Black
John Curtin, after whom Curtin is named, is well known as Australia’s prime minister through most of WWII and widely thought of as having saved Australia from invasion by the Japanese.
This last contention is hotly debated by researchers and historians – was Australia under a real threat of invasion and, if so, was it Curtin’s resolve and actions that “saved” us? There is no definitive answer, we all have to draw our own conclusions from the evidence presented in the many books on the subject and take into account the personal views and opinions of the authors.
1942: Australia’s greatest peril/Bob Wurth. Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia 2008
Bob Wurth, former foreign correspondent and Queensland state manager for the ABC, is one of the latest authors to tackle this subject. 1942: Australia’s greatest peril follows on from his earlier book Saving Australia: Curtin’s secret peace with Japan, which explored Curtin’s friendship with Tatsuo Kawai the Japanese ambassador to Australia at the time. Read more…
Stirling Libraries celebrate with a book hunt
Stirling Libraries are celebrating the National Year of Reading with a book hunt around the City of Stirling.
Dozens of best seller books are being hidden all over the area until Friday April 13. You can take part in the hunt by ‘liking’ the Stirling Libraries Facebook page to find out the clues.
Picture via in my Community: Stirling Library officer Roger Jenkins with library development officer Rachel Jackson and Mayor David Boothman.
Three Books: Three from the TRC
The TRC (Teaching Resource Collection), on level 5 of the library, houses a wonderland of fiction for all ages. I have chosen three books with death as a common theme, which differ in format and age suitability. They all have fabulous illustrations.
Old Pig by Margaret Wild
Old Pig/Margaret Wild & Ron Brooks. St Leonards : Allen & Unwin 1995
In a former life, I read stories to young children at Floreat Forum during the school holidays. The children frequently asked me to read Old Pig. Eventually I had to remove the book from the choosing pile because I couldn’t read it without crying. Read more…
Eat That Frog!
There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. You are literally swamped with work and personal responsibilities, projects, stacks of magazines to read, and piles of books you intend to get to one of these days – soon as you get caught up. But the fact is you are never going to get caught up” – Brian Tracy
Three Books: The Lachrymatory
The central characters of these three books are all young women who through no fault of their own struggle to cope in their environments. Set in Paris, Germany and the south of America and spanning from the 1930’s to modern day – they all share the common bonds of displacement and traumatic circumstances that they must overcome to survive. Read more…
The State Library’s Better Beginnings program welcomes the world of social media
The State Library of WA’s Better Beginnings program is getting behind social media, read all about it in the post from them below:
The first three years of a person’s life are the most fundamental in brain development and so reading to children from when they are first born is vital. This has always been the message of the State Library’s family literacy program Better Beginnings and it’s an important message that needs to be spread, so a new marketing campaign is under way to spread the word further.
A big part of the new campaign is using the network of audience in social media sites to send our message to as many people as possible; in Perth, right across WA, nationally and maybe even the world! Read more…
Bringing books to life for the National Year of Reading
To celebrate the official launch of the National Year of Reading on Tuesday 14 February 2012, 3D pavement chalk artist Jenny McCracken has created this 3D book out the front of the State Library of Western Australia, next to the black-and-white Makigawa sculpture. It doesn’t appear 3D until you look through a camera…very clever! Come and take a photo of yourself with Bunyip Bluegum…
The image will be at the State Library as long as the chalk lasts (probably a couple of weeks).
National Year of Reading 2012
Curtin University Library is proud to support the National Year of Reading 2012.
The National Year of Reading is about children learning to read and keen readers finding new sources of information, about supporting reading as well as oral traditions of storytelling. It is about the inspiration that comes from books and about becoming a nation of readers. Curtin University plays a significant role in fostering an educated society and all staff and students of the University community have the opportunity to be advocates for the benefits of reading. Read more…
