Highlights at Highlands

Well, being Scottish and all I am naturally drawn to the Highlands. What do we have there in our Highlands suburb? A lovely old building filled wall to wall with books!

On Friday, I got a text from Rose Simango at Highlands Branch Library (there she is in the picture) to say there were children for storytelling and was there a reader free? Fantastic! 

However, I was stuck at the side of the road with a policeman trying to extract a $20 spot fine. Really? Are spot fines still on?

‘If you can’t pay you will have to go to court tomorrow. Better call someone’  he said. So I did, I called Rosa and said I would do my best to be there as I did not have the contact details of other Highlands readers on me.

 But, I said, I was a bit held up.

The uniformed chap walked off and left me sitting. Should I stay? Should I go? Children were waiting. Eventually he came back after about 10 minutes of my not budging.

          'Did you give me anything?' he said.  

 'Nope' said I. ’I am waiting for the summons paper, I shall just have to go to court as I still do not have the cash.’ He began scribbling on the paper and I reached out to receive it.

‘What cash do you have?’ he mumbled without looking up.

‘No cash’ I said firmly. More writing on the paper. Must be an essay on un-compliant motorists.

           'Well then you can go' he stated, waving his hand skyward. 

Back to books. Jeanette covered Mount Pleasant this week and so I was able to head across to Highlands at 2.30pm where 15 eager faces were listening to Rosa retelling a bible story in Shona. Little eyes widened even more when I appeared. Wow! 

‘They like you’ said Rosa afterwards. I had read ‘Cockadoodle Doo, Mr Sultana’ again. This is so telling of how open the hearts of children really are to an interested soul. They just know when you like them. And guess what, all but one were BOYS. Can you believe it! Mostly Grade 4 and 5. Boys, reading and listening to stories! At least 3 young men from grade 7 too. Our only girl was very possessive of me and was a bold Grade 1 (she volunteered to read, plonked herself on my story teller chair then went awfully quiet). We all looked at each other until the penny dropped, her reading level was not quite there. She was all confidence. So, I shared the chair with her and she held the pages of Ntsiki’s Surprise (another little reader..no surprise..) as I read that aloud. She proudly displayed the pictures page by page.  I always make the point of having a readers/story tellers chair for me. Not sure why. I think it settles them and provides a focal point. I then ask them to sit in this chair when they read to us. As we all get bolder, we can move around and tell the story with our whole bodies. 

We then had a bookshelf sprint and Tonderai chose a fun story about a birthday cake and a magician which he was then suddenly too shy to read so his colleague in a big fluffy red jumper did the deed, and very well too for a grade 4. I was impressed.

Now, this is not the first reading session they have had at the library. Last week my friend Justine and her mate Taryn pitched up for a reading session. Justine is my super fit and gorgeous Body and Soul gym class teacher. She arrived about 3pm. They had a look around and found some old but enjoyable books, then proceeded to do a little reading to 7 lovely children. The little ones could not sit still despite enjoying the story of a laughing elephant called Elsie (this book was from the library). The next story was called 'Possum Magic' by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas. 

Justine tells me it is a cure little story about a possum that is invisible and needs to travel all over Australia to find people food to make her visible again. Dan aged 9 actually read this one out loud. Well done! The last story for the day was in Shona and read by Ngoni. He is aged 7 and read the WHOLE book by himself too. He even translated it for other in English along the way, very smart cookie. It was about 10 yellow soccer shirts that got blown all over the place by the wind. Justines' son found a great book on how to make things, which was taken home after becoming a library member. Good on you Scholtz family! Every membership counts. Ever thought of taking your children to the library of an afternoon to read? One of the cheaper have fun options around. They can draw whilst you read (bring their crayons and scribble books too) or you can all read together. 

 

So go and visit Highlands Branch Library. The grounds need a little TLC as you can see from the picture below, but inside you will find a friendly face and a whole lot of good books to read. Come on, let’s help put the highlight back into Highlands Branch Library.