Beyond the Page 2024: Week One Round-up!
We're halfway through the school holidays, so we're also halfway through the Beyond the Page literary festival. Read on for some of our favourite photos from Week One events in our libraries!
We've had a fantastic time over the last week with Beyond the Page, our literary festival for tamariki and their whānau.
There has been a whole host of exciting events happening all over the Wellington region – and even out into the Wairarapa as well! – and we've still got a week of events to go!
To see what's going on for Beyond the Page at Wellington City Libraries, check out our previous story about Beyond the Page. If you'd like to venture out to a library farther afield, visit the full calendar of events over on the Beyond the Page website.
To get you even more excited for this week's upcoming events, here are some of the highlights and fabulous photos from Week One.
Tamariki Writing Competition
The very first Beyond the Page Tamariki Writing Competition is still happening!
We can't share any pictures of this activity, but if you're a writer aged 5-13 and would like to see something you've written published in a book, head on over to the Beyond the Page Website to enter!
You can also enter in person by bringing a typed copy of your piece into one of our libraries, or come on into one of our branches to use one of our computers to type up your entry and print it for free (as long as it's under ten pages long!).
We're accepting any kind of writing – short stories, poetry, plays, comics... Let your creativity loose!
Llamas at the Llibrary
Last Monday at Te Awa-a-Taia | Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library we welcomed our friend Stephen Mulholland and four of his friends, Ziggy the llama, Harvey the guanaco, and Iliahi and Durandal the alpacas for a special camelid-themed outdoor storytime.
Our audience listens to a story before the camelids come out.
The animals arrive!
The animal meet and greet begins!
Alien Junk Monsters
Simon Grove of Alien Junk Monsters and his crew turned two of our libraries into workshops, complete with hand saws and drills, where tamariki used materials to create fantastic junk monster puppets!
Alien-creators get stuck in at Te Awa-a-Taia | Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library.
Two young creators show off their puppet at Te Māhanga | Karori Library.
ULTRAWILD Storytelling and Drawing
Steve Mushin, recent winner of the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Elsie Locke award for non-fiction, joined us for Beyond the Page to inspire our young people to create their own wacky inventions to rewild the future.
A group of keen inventors at Waitohi | Johnsonville Library.
Steve and a young inventor share a design with the group.
Events with your librarians
There have also been a whole host of events run by your local librarians and community centre coordinators!
Outlining a new continent at Here be Dragons: Fantasy Map-making for Beginners at Island Bay Community Centre.
A librarian in a wizard's hat watches over the map-making at Here be Dragons at Ōtari | Wadestown Library.
Old donated toys are taken apart to become something new at FrankenToys at Te Takapū o Patukawenga | Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library.
A completed FrankenToys creation at Motu-kairangi | Miramar Library.
Tamariki plan out their Miniature Masterpieces at Newlands Community Centre.
The Miniature Masterpieces tiny art exhibition on display at Tari-kākā | Khandallah Library.
We can’t wait to share more Beyond the Page goodness with you once Week Two is done and dusted as well! Find out more at the official Beyond the Page website.