Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Te Tai Tamariki Bookchat


Book Discussion Group
A Few Words - by Trevor Agnew

All my life I have found great pleasure in books, and it has always been my intention to join a book discussion group. Until now, I have never found a group prepared to take books for young people seriously.
Last month I found my ideal group. Te Tai Tamariki The Children’s Literature Trust offered a chance to join interested people in a discussion on The Duck in the Gun, by Joy Cowley and Robyn Belton, as well as When the Empire Calls by Ken Catran.  We had a lovely wide-ranging discussion, with all kinds of surprising bits of information about both books bobbing up. It was an evening that was of great benefit to school librarians and teachers but could be enjoyed by anybody. It was informative. It was relaxed. It was fun. It was my ideal book chat group.
There was only one drawback – not many people came. In fact, if we don’t get better numbers, there may not be any more of these gatherings. So here are the details of the final discussion group. I’ll see you there.


The time: 6.30pm
The date: 7 November 2012
The place: Children’s Bookshop, 227 Blenheim Road Christchurch
(next to the Mad Butcher, lots of parking)

The books:  Works of Margaret Mahy.  What’s your favourite?  What special memories do they evoke?  Shall we talk about the three new books – Man from the land of Fandango, Mister Whistler, Footsteps through the fog?

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