How do you do books?

If you are anything like me, you will try to wedge just one more book into your bookshelf, hoping the books on either side will simply squish over and make way. You tell them to ‘suck it in’ to make space on the shelf as your book collection keeps on expanding.

And how do you like your books arranged? Tallest to shortest? Alphabetical? Or my favourite, in rainbow order?

If you don't have lots of books at home, perhaps you are a library lover instead? Does your local library have some of those book trolleys that you can wheel around pretending you are at the supermarket picking things off the shelf? “Oooh Joy Cowley, I need one of those and let me check my list; I need one Gavin Bishop, Taniwha flavour and two juicy Claire Mabey novels.” Do you scan your library card onto the self-checkout machine and beep the books through yourself or do you prefer to take them to the friendly librarian at the counter instead?

Image of Kimberley Kearney by Alexa Kearney

By the way, are you a good book buddy? That’s someone who recommends books to their BFF’s. The books you really enjoyed, the real gems that tickled your funny bone, had a crazy plot twist or made you so terrified you had to sleep with your light on! Perhaps there’s a series of books you love that you could pass on to your school pals? Why not set up a book club one lunchtime per week where you can hang out and read together because reading doesn’t have to be done alone. Lazing in the shade of a tree on a sunny day or lounging on some oversized cushions and beanbags in the library on a wet day, books are a great excuse!

“But my school doesn’t have a library!” I hear you say. Well, no matter, my excellent solution is… a Book Swap Meet! Let me explain how this works.

Step one: Find a suitable space to hold your event, this may be somewhere outside or an empty classroom, or you may have a super cruisy principal who will let you borrow their office for a bit!

Step two: Gather a group of friends or keen readers together and ask them to bring a couple of books from home or from a community book stand that they would like to swap (make sure they name their book first if they would like it returned at the end). This could take place during morning break or before school, it should take around 20 minutes. This is a great opportunity to share books from your own culture and introduce the language/s you speak at home to your friends.

Step three: Display the books around the room, and if you wanted to, you could add a little recommendation card next to your book with a couple of reasons why it's a good read.

Step four: Everyone takes a book home to enjoy and brings it back ready for the next swap meet.

During this, our very first (or inaugural if you're into fancy words) NZ Children’s Book Week why not get your own class involved? What about 10 at 10, where everyone reads for 10 minutes at 10am every day? Short and sweet! This could be a great time for tuakana (older kids) to read to teina (younger kids) from a different class. Why not create a display of NZ books that you love and encourage the other classes to do the same? It could even be a competition! My picture book The Lost Words is a useful tool for learning kupu Māori. I challenge you to learn a kupu hou or a new māori word each day during Book Week.

Okay, choosing what book to read can be challenging, so here’s some tips.

Pick up a book that catches your eye on the shelf at the book shop or the library and close your eyes for a second or just stare down at the floor and see if it sparks a feeling inside of you, it might be a flash of excitement, or joy or curiosity. Try a few until you feel a real pull. Read the blurb on the back, then open to a random page and read a few sentences. What did you feel? Did you want to know more? This is a good sign that this will be a good read for you!

Something else you may need to know when you are choosing a book to read is the Five Finger Rule. It says, turn to any page and read the whole page. Anytime you get stuck on a word or don’t know what it means you put up one finger. If you have 5 fingers up before you get to the bottom of the page, this book might be too tricky for you. BUT, my take on the Five Finger Rule is this: if you reach the end of the page with less than five fingers then this is a book for you to read independently. And if you get to all five fingers, this is still a book for you! Are you confused? Let me explain, this book will be a good one to read together with an adult or an older sibling who can help you out with the tricky bits or it could be one you could read along with an audiobook.

Ah audiobooks! I love audiobooks nearly as much as I love real books made out of paper that you can hold in your hands, but you will often hear me shouting “Turn that audiobook down please!’ That's because it's not music always blaring loudly from my children’s bedrooms, it's audiobooks! Whether you have a Yoto player or use Spotify on your Alexa, there are lots of audiobook options. One of my favourites is the BorrowBox platform which many public libraries provide for free as part of your membership. Just pop in and ask one of the wonderful librarians or have a look on the library website for the green BorrowBox logo. You can borrow and download audiobooks and listen to them wherever and whenever, they are especially good for car rides because let’s face it, not many of us can read in the car without feeling a wee bit queasy! Listening to one at night when you’ve switched off the light can be a great way to drift off to sleep too. In our house we like to say that reading every night is the perfect way to get your dream juices flowing! Every story gives us a fresh perspective, takes us somewhere different or takes us back to the familiar. So, get hooked on books this Book Week and check out all the exciting events that are happening this August!

For more about Kimberley's work, check out her Writers File, and to learn more about what's happening around the motu for NZ Children's Book Week, we've got you covered.