Books Grow on Trees this Summer

The Summer Reading Programme is back for the 14th consecutive year and this time kids are being encouraged to go bush with The Big Bush Read. This hugely popular programme is delivered throughout the Eastern and Central region through funding provided by the Eastern and Central Community Trust. This year’s Big Bush Read theme celebrates the fantastic New Zealand bush and the wildlife that inhabits it, and recognises the need to protect it. Here in the Wairarapa we enjoy some wonderful wilderness areas such as the Tararua ranges and of course the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre, so the programme should have special appeal to the children of our region.


Kids enrolled in the Summer Reading Programme talk to library staff about the library books they have been reading (or had read to them by parents and caregivers) and in exchange receive incentive prizes. Children who complete the programme (by checking in to the library on four or more occasions over the six weeks it runs for) are also eligible to attend finale celebrations with more prizes, certificates, food and entertainment. As part of the programme libraries also host performances by visiting entertainers including storytellers and magicians during the school holidays. All of this is offered free of charge.

The Summer Reading Programme is designed for children ranging in age from 2 to 13 years. Also available is the ReadPlus programme which operates on a slightly different basis, and is aimed at ages 11 to 18. There is some cross over in these ages but it allows children to choose the programme that most appeals to them. This year the ReadPlus programme features artwork that takes a gothic twist on some well-known fairy tales, perfectly suited to the Twilight generation who like things a little dark and spooky.

In the Wairarapa the Summer Reading Programme and ReadPlus will be offered by Pahiatua, Eketahuna, Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough libraries. Masterton Library also has places available for speakers and readers of Māori to do the programme in Te Reo. Here at Masterton Library registration for both programmes takes place on the 2nd of December from 4:00 to 7:30pm, and the programme itself runs from the 13th of December to the 21st of January. If you belong to one of the other libraries get in contact with them to find out the details of when and how they are running the programme. For all libraries places are limited so avoid disappointment and make sure you secure your space in the Big Bush Read.

Thanks to the co-operation of local councils, the hard work of librarians, and the financial support of the Eastern and Central Community Trust, the Summer Reading Programme has been an incredibly successful initiative. Children enrolled on the programme have an opportunity to maintain and even improve their reading skills over the summer break - a period when many loose the gains they have made at school. For those not yet at school it is a chance to become more familiar with books and reading, and for all it is a chance to get to know their librarians. And on top of all these benefits, it’s also a whole lot of fun. So get lost in a book not the bush this summer with the Summer Reading Programme.

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library

Good Sports at the Library

The recent Commonwealth Games, and in particular that epic netball final between New Zealand and Australia, showcased the wonderful drama of sport. Unfortunately sport is often placed in competition with books, reading, and by extension, libraries. The reality is that books and sports can complement each other very productively and here at Masterton Library we have an extensive collection of books relating to sport. And contrary to our somewhat ‘bookish’ image, many librarians are very keen on sport, if not participating themselves, at least following it with a passionate interest.


The range of sports covered in our collection is vast, from racket games like tennis to air sports like hot-air ballooning; from ball sports like basketball to outdoor pursuits like mountain climbing. While we logically have more books on sports that enjoy greater popularity with the public, we also make an effort to cover less popular sports. We also have a large number of books on hunting and fishing but whether these are sports or recreation is a matter that is open to debate.

Books offer an opportunity to go deeper into sports than simply watching, to learn about the personalities of the competitors, the backgrounds and histories of different sports, events and contests. Many of the sports books we have in the library are biographies which are very popular with borrowers wanting to learn more about their favourite sporting heroes. Sports biographies are a great way to discover the personal histories of sports people, their views on sporting matters, and how they achieve at the highest level.

The majority of our sporting biographies are about New Zealanders such as Changing Colours: the Irene Van Dyck story, Changing Pace by Sir Richard Hadlee, or Murph’s Law about motorsport legend Greg Murphy. But we also have books about sporting figures from other countries including legendary Australian cricketer Don Bradman, My Side by English soccer star David Beckham, and Open by U.S. tennis great Andre Agassi. These profiles of leading figures in different sports offer an unparalleled insight into what makes a champion sportsperson.

And it’s not just the players who are the subject of sporting biographies. Ricki Herbert: a New Fire is about the former player who more recently has made his name as coach of the successful Phoenix and World Cup qualifying All Whites. Titch tells the story of the remarkable Gordon Tietjens, coach of the NZ Sevens team who won their fourth consecutive gold medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. A Life in Sport by Brendan Telfer and A Lucky Man by Keith Quinn tell the story of two broadcasters who have made their careers reporting on sporting events and matters.

In addition to books about sports and sportspeople, we have many books that offer advice on how to improve your own sporting performance. These range from those that offer general advice on matters like fitness, motivation, and nutrition, to those that target specific sport skills. Examples of these are Marathon Runners Handbook, Mastering Mountain Bike Skills, and Swimming Past 50. We also have a selection of magazine titles including Multisport and Triathlete, The Cut, and Walking New Zealand that cater to those with an interest in sports.

Given that it is our national game, it is not surprising that books about rugby form a large part of our collection of sports books. We have the unrivalled Men In Black and biographies of legendary players from the past including Colin Meads and local hero Brian Lochore, and more recent times such as Dan Carter, Tana Umaga, and Mils Muliaina. Beneath the Māori Moon is a celebration of the involvement, impact and success of Māori in rugby. For a deeper and perhaps more contentious view on the game, Chris Laidlaw’s Somebody Stole My Game looks at effect professionalism has had on rugby in New Zealand.

There are a number of sporting issues looked at by books in our collection. Breaking the Chain by Willy Voet looks at drug use in competitive cycling, How They Stole the Game by David Yallop looks at corruption in international football administration, and more positively Winning Isn’t Everything celebrates instances of great sportsmanship. We also have books like Why a Curveball Curves which takes a scientific approach to sports, and on a lighter note, The Bowler’s Holding, the Batsman’s Wyllie is a collection of humorous sporting quotations, such as “They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken” – Raymond Floyd.

Sport can provide great reading material, and books in turn can provide inspiration and information to help sports people improve their performance. And whether your sport of choice takes place on the field, on the snow, in the water or even in the air, we are bound to have a book that will interest you. And for those of you a bit bemused by sport and its prominent place in society, try Get Her Off the Pitch by Lynn Truss, the author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It tells, often hilariously, of the four years she spent as an unlikely sports reporter for The Times and is described as a book for those who love sports, those who can’t understand what the fuss is about, and everyone in between.

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library

Many Happy Returns

Over the past couple of weeks visitors to the library may have noticed some changes as we work to move our Returns Desk to a new location. Currently the Returns Desk is tucked in beside the main door, on your left as you walk into the building. We now have a returns slot fitted into the wall to the left of the Issues/Information desk, and the returning of books will be carried out by library staff behind a set of screen walls. We will continue to operate an after-hours return slot at the Queen Street door so there will be no change for those of you who rely on this option to get your books back.


We are hopeful that this change will help improve the service we offer to our borrowers. Some days we have to deal with a huge number of items that need to be returned, particularly on a Monday morning and especially after a long weekend. Many mornings we aren’t even able to see the returns person behind the pile of books waiting to be returned. Getting all these books out of the way will allow for a more streamlined and secure process. Moving the returns area to behind the main desk also means we will gain some much needed space.

When people return their books they often have something they want to discuss - perhaps they have identified something that needs repairing, books that need to be renewed, fines they want to pay, advice on more books by this or similar authors. It makes sense to offer all these options in one place rather than borrowers having to go back and forth between the Issues and Returns desks. We also have occasional borrowers who are not regular library users and miss the Returns Desk when they enter the library, bringing their books to the Issue Desk in a slightly confused state. Hopefully having the returns slot right beside the Issues/Information area will make the process simpler and easier for all.

Occasionally we have books returned to the library that don’t belong to us, belonging either to other libraries or borrowers own collections. Where possible we try to work out who the book is likely to belong to and contact the person to let them know we have it. In the case of other libraries’ books this is relatively straight forward as they are stamped with the libraries name, but in the case of personal books it can require a bit more detective work. If you think you may have wrongly returned a book here it is worth giving us a call to see if we have it.

A quick scroll of the Internet revealed that many strange items can get passed through a library’s returns slot including a book where a rasher of bacon had been used as a bookmark, a copy of Agatha Christie’s ‘The Body in the Library’ that appeared to have real blood on it, and a book on dog obedience that had been chewed on. It is also not uncommon for very overdue library books to be passed through the returns slot.

We get these quite regularly but none quite as bad as Camelback High School Library in Phoenix who late last year received two overdue library books that had been issued in 1959. 50 years later they were returned to the library along with a money order for $1,000 to cover the overdue charges. And if you have some overdue library books and feel guilty about returning them don’t feel too bad. Apparently the New York Society Library is still waiting for inaugural U.S. President George Washington to return two books he borrowed in 1789!

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library