Thursday, May 25, 2023

Sheffield Children's Book Award shortlist announced!

We are very excited to tell you about the shortlist for the Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2023!

We have a short film that features all the books and explains how you can take part. Why not take a look then pick your favourite and vote?


All the books are available from your local library and staff will be happy to help you vote for your favourite. You can find details of your local library here.

If you are wanting to discover a new author or genre of book for your child, then we are sure that at least one of these books will become a new favourite.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we have!


Baby Books

Snap! Snap! I’m a Crocodile! by Jo Lodge. Published by Boxer Books.

Hello, Frog by Isabel Otter, illustrated by Sophie Ledesma. Published by Little Tiger.

Tatty Mouse Rock Star by Hilary Robinson, illustrated by Mandy Stanley. Published by Catch a Star Books.




Toddler Books

The Smile, by Marie Voigt. Published by Oxford University Press.

Ruffles and the New Green Thing, by David Melling. Ruffles and the New Green Thing. Published by Nosy Crow.

Puddling! by Emma Perry, illustrated by Clare Alexander. Published by Walker Books.




Picture Books

One Camel Called Doug, by Lu Fraser, illustrated by Sarah Warburton. Published by Simon and Schuster.

The Huddle, by Sean Julian. Published by Oxford University Press.

Who Will Kiss the Crocodile? by Suzy Senior, illustrated by Claire Powell. Published by Little Tiger.




Emerging Reads

The Secret School Invasion, by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham. Published by Nosy Crow.

The Wobbly Life of Scarlett Fife, by Maz Evans, illustrated by Chris Jevons. Published by Hodder Children’s Books.

Trixie Pickle Art Avenger, by Olaf Falafel. Published by Puffin.




Shorter Novels

Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good, by Louie Stowell. Published by Walker Books.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll, illustrated by Lauren Child. Published by Simon and Schuster.

Wilder Than Midnight, by Cerrie Burnell, illustrated by Sophia Watts. Published by Puffin.




Longer Novels

Running Out of Time by Simon Fox. Cover illustration by Petur Antonsson, published by Nosy Crow.

Tyger, by S. F. Said, illustrated by Dave McKean. Published by David Fickling Books.

Leila and the Blue Fox, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Tom de Freston. Published by Orion Children’s Books.



Young Adult

The Bones of Me, by Kel Duckhouse. Published by Flying Eye Books.

The Butterfly Assassin, by Finn Longman. Published by Simon and Schuster.

The Stranded, by Sarah Daniels. Published by Penguin.


Thursday, March 16, 2023

On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe - An interview with Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock

Those disappointed to miss the sold-out February 8th event with scholar of indigenous, meso-American and Atlantic world history Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock can find a transcript of her interview here. 

We discussed her important new book, On Savage Shores, which upends the familiar Eurocentric perspective of the Age of Discovery by exploring the stories of the tens of thousands of indigenous travellers, royal diplomats, slaves, servants, translators, and performers in 16th century Europe, all of them “explorers” in their own right, who had a lasting impact on the European societies they visited, lived in and integrated into. Many of these stories are being told in English for the first time in her book.

On Savage Shores is an absorbing, sensitive and eye-opening read, and this interview gives a flavour of the vivid stories and startling insight that recommend it.



 
Colette Bernasconi: I suppose the story of the Indigenous discovery of Europe begins in 1492 with the men, women and children that Columbus kidnapped. Can we start there?
 
Dr Dodds Pennock: Yes, so people focus on Columbus going to the Americas of course, his “discovery” – I always use air quotes when I say discovery because it seems really weird to talk about discovery of a place people already live. It’s like me going round and discovering  your house. So from 1492 he brings back Indigenous peoples to Europe. There are Indigenous peoples in Europe from the very moment Columbus returns. He brings back a group of Taíno people from the Caribbean, a relatively small group of people. We think he kidnapped about 20 people, although maybe a few of them are high-profile people who volunteered to go with him. It’s hard to tell, this is always the problem in the sources. But they are brought to Spain and those who survived are brought to the Spanish court and there they met Ferdinand and Isabella and they are baptised and given godparents from among the royal family.

One of them becomes Columbus’ translator and is adopted as his godson almost – Diego Colón he becomes – and he’s incorporated into European society. Another becomes a kind of spectacle at court, the prince wants to keep him and some of the others simply kind of go back and we don’t know what happens to them next. This is often what happens in these stories, you have little fragments. But Columbus is then responsible for bringing large numbers of Indigenous people. He is the single largest trader in enslaved Indigenous people in the first few years. Three thousand he enslaves in the first decade. So you then have large numbers of people coming to Europe enslaved as well.
 
Colette: I had no idea about the scale of the Indigenous enslavement. There are some huge numbers in there and the book starts with the chapter on slavery because of what a huge part that was. I learned in your book that 650,000 Indigenous people were taken away from their homelands and enslaved elsewhere in the 16th century, and this at a time when it was technically illegal in Spain. So what can you tell us about this “lesser-known slavery”?

Dr Dodds Pennock: It's really fascinating that the enslavement of Indigenous people happened on such a large scale and hasn’t become part of our understandings really either of global history or of transatlantic history or of the slave trade more widely. Andrés Reséndez has a wonderful book called The Other Slavery, which was written for a popular audience, so it’s as readable as a book about slavery can be, but he estimates that between 2.4 and 5 million native American people were enslaved up to 1900. Not all of them were shipped across the Atlantic.

It is, as you say, illegal to enslave Indigenous people in Spain, so those people are enslaved all across the Americas. But in Spain in the period that I’m studying in particular, it is the Spanish and Portuguese who do most of the enslaving and this is at a time when they see the Indigenous people as vassals, as potential Christians, so they’re not supposed to just go around enslaving them. So what we have in the first 50 years is loopholes. Once they decide that these people shouldn’t be enslaved, they create loopholes in the law that allow enslavement. One loophole is if you are a cannibal. And of course what happens it that they then go around declaring whole areas cannibal islands, that’s where [the word Caribbean comes from, from “Carib” peoples who were alleged to be cannibals]. You can be enslaved if you subject to a thing called “rescate”, which means like ransom or rescue, which is being rescued from a worse fate, so essentially either being enslaved to someone who’s not Christian because of course that must be worse, or being rescued from human sacrifice, so you see Europeans going around saying, “They were going to be sacrificial victims and we rescued them!” Or if you were captured in a “just war”, and of course you run into the question of what it means to be in a “just war”. And so there are all these loopholes that allow for legal enslavement. And what that creates is a situation in which people are arguing not about whether people should be enslaved but about whether they’re legally enslaved. Which seems really strange to us from the contemporary point of view but is incredibly important to me as a historian because one of the most important sources for Indigenous peoples’ experiences in Europe is the suits that they try to win their freedom in the courts and in those freedom suits they tell their stories of how they ended up in Europe so we get quite a lot of their own personal testimony.
 
Colette: One fact that again was totally new to me was how while a lot of these slaves’ journeys start with things like facial branding and kidnapping, really brutal stuff, a lot of those journeys end with the slaves successfully petitioning for their own freedom in Spanish courts. There are quite a few interesting stories in the book around that. I don’t know if you’d like to tell us one of the stories.
 
Dr Dodds Pennock: Well, I was thinking, you were talking about being branded on the face, one of the most detailed stories that we have is about a young man called Martín, who appeals for his freedom in 1537 and this is before the New Laws of 1542 which supposedly make it illegal to enslave people at all. So he is from a place called Tenayucan, near Mexico City and what happens is that a man called Gonzalo de Salazar – who is really famous in Mexico as a brutal tyrant – goes to the village and says to the elders, “Do you have a young man that you’d like to give to me as a page?” And it’s quite clear, they keep repeating this in the testimony, that he is a free man of a free people. And so Martín agrees to go as a page, or is given by his community, his parents, it’s not quite clear, and as soon as he goes, Gonzalo de Salazar brands him on the face. And that must have been absolutely horrifying as a free young man to be subject to that.

He spends some time in Mexico, he’s actually a translator in the house of the conquistador Hernando Cortés. But then his master is exiled to Spain, for being a brutal tyrant pretty much, and he takes Martín with him. Martín then spends some time working in the households of people who are connected to Salazar, not in his household. And he seems quite happy with that, or as happy as far as we can tell; he doesn’t have any complaints about it. But then one of his masters dies and Salazar decides he wants to take him back to his house, and at that time Martín decides to appeal for freedom and it’s quite clear that he’s not prepared to go back to Salazar’s home. Perhaps he’s also learned that in Spain he can appeal for his freedom; he’s learned about the law courts.

And so he lodges an appeal, and at that time Salazar essentially tries to murder him. He brutally attacks him and according to Martín if some people hadn’t been there to pull him off he would have been killed. So Martín appeals to be taken out of his home while the case is settled and fortunately they do do that. They don’t always. Sometimes they leave them in the homes of these people. So imagine you’ve asked your brutal owner for freedom, you’ve appealed for freedom and then the courts say you’re just going to have to stay in the house with them for a year or so while we sort this out. That happens a lot. But, in Martín’s case, he does manage to get out of the house. There’s a fascinating argument about some clothes, he wants to be given some clothes and Salazar, even though they can’t be worth anything to him, refuses. But, for Martín, these clothes clearly are a symbol of his independence and the few assets that he’s got. And he spends a lot of time trying to get them back, and he does eventually, and then it’s quite a long court case in which Martín asserts that he was enslaved as a child, which even then was not legal. Salazar’s case rests on the fact that he [Martín] was legally enslaved and also that he’s been well treated and he ought to think himself lucky. And there’s quite a lot of testimony – it’s all in the book I’m not going to go into it all now – but what’s interesting is that the brand which Salazar argues shows he is the legal owner is actually why he loses in the end, because Martín was too young to have been branded legally. He’s only in his early twenties when he petitions for his freedom and so he must have been a child when he was branded and brought to Spain, and it was declared that he was illegally enslaved and he is free. And then he disappears from the records. I mean if I had my entire life to trawl through Spanish and Mexican records I might find him. But probably not because his name is Martín which is one of the five most common names in Mexico. So it’s really frustrating to see these rich lives and then them just sort of disappearing.
 
Colette: And apart from slavery what kind of lives were people living in 16th century Europe?

Dr Dodds Pennock: Well, incredibly diverse. You have a lot of people come as translators and go-betweens. Some people who come as family members of Europeans come to Spain and Portugal but also to France. And there are a lot of people in Normandy and around the coastal regions and the Basque regions, especially from Brazil, as part of the brazilwood trade, which is massive in France. And people are just kind of living normal lives alongside Europeans; they would have been a common sight. You have a lot of people who are brought as, it’s an uncomfortable word, as a ‘spectacle’, things to look at.

So there’s this amazing case in France, in the middle part of the 16th century, where they set up a whole Brazilian village on the banks of the Seine and they bring over what they say are 50 genuine “sauvages” is the word they use and translated is “savages” but I tend to avoid that if I can, because it’s considered a racial slur in the Americas, but this is the word used at the time. I’m rambling now but they bring these people and a whole village with monkeys and parrots and trees painted to look like Brazilian trees and all the cream of the European aristocracy are there, all the French monarchs even maybe Mary Queen of Scots is there, this incredible audience. And they have a fake battle between different kinds of Indigenous people. And the way people have tended to study this is as a spectacle of European power. It’s about Indigenous people as objects and about European power. But there are actual people there. What do these people do? What do they think they’re doing? What happens to them after this?

And the other big category of people that we have quite a lot of records of is diplomats, people who come to Europe as representatives of their families and their communities. There is a Brazilian king at the court of Henry VIII. Hardly anybody seems to know that. I was speaking to Suzannah Lipscomb on her podcast – she’s a Tudor specialist and she didn’t know that. But it’s not hidden, it’s in the published records and he seems to be there as a diplomatic representative of his community.

And then there are nobles in France and Spain and we have the records of their appeals. There’s an Inkan princess who’s exiled to Trujillo in western Spain and she and her family lived there. You can go and see the Palace of the Conquest. People go to Trujillo to see statues of Francisco Pizarro and his horse. It’s a place of conquistadors, but just around the corner there’s the Palace of the Conquest and there’s her husband and her face on the palace, the face of an Inkan princess on a Spanish palace in a corner of western Spain. It’s astonishing how diverse, how embedded in European society they were.
 
Colette: In the chapter Spectacle and Curiosity, you’re describing how these Indigenous people are also looking back at Europeans, a gaze referred to in the title of your book. What do we know about how they saw European society?
 
Dr Dodds Pennock: It is hard to tell because a lot of the sources that we have are from the point of view of Europeans who kidnapped them or saw them and wrote about them, but we do have some fragments that show us what Indigenous people thought. But I wouldn’t say all Indigenous people felt the same way, of course they didn’t. So we have to be careful not to say, “Indigenous people all felt like this,” but one of the very common themes that seems to come up is how horrified they are by the inequalities in Europe. Now that’s not to say that the Americas are an idyll of egalitarianism, that varies enormously. But what they don’t have are extremes of poverty. It’s very, very rare, even in the Aztec world where you have these very rich rulers, living in extraordinary luxury, because people then also have systems of communal care and agricultural grain storage to ensure that everybody gets enough.

So you have, for example, the writings of Michel de Montaigne, who says he met two Indigenous people at Rouen just a couple of years after that grand spectacle. They’re all over, they are there all the time, and he says the people he met ask, “Why aren’t people burning down these palaces, why aren’t people in the streets?”

And this is reflected then in the writings of later Indigenous travellers, they say, “Why on earth aren’t you caring for your elderly, for your poor, what’s going on there?” A young man who goes to France is very shocked by capital punishment and by the beating of children. He doesn’t understand why we would parent like that. He's from the northeast in what is now the United States.

You quite commonly see people not understanding why you would have primogeniture. Why would you make a young boy into a king? Wouldn’t you need somebody competent in charge? Why are all these grand warriors following this young boy-king around?

We don’t really see them commenting on gender roles, but it would almost certainly have been a big shock for them because actually women tend to be extremely important in Indigenous societies. So I would love to know what the people who went to see Elizabeth I thought, because that’s actually a totally different kind of power structure, but with a woman in charge.

You often have to speculate, but then you have this amazing song from Mexico, which is translated in the book, where the stories of Indigenous travellers have made their way into the kind of collective memory of what’s been going on and there’s this composition that talks about these different travels to Europe and it seems like they’ve kind of blended the pope and God in the imagination a little bit. Along with gold, gold has a lot to do with it. And you have these wonderful images of the papal basilica as this glittering, womb-like space. And we know that some Indigenous people from Mexico went to the papal court, so it’s coming from their observations; it's very, very interesting.

Find On Savage Shores on the Sheffield Libraries catalogue

Friday, January 27, 2023

Sheffield Libraries celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month

LGBTQ+ History Month is celebrated in the UK in February each year, to celebrate the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people. This year, the theme is #BehindtheLens, showcasing the contributions made by LGBTQ+ people to cinema and film. Once again we have a range of exciting events for you, from film screenings to author talks to our regular Queer Books for Kids bookchat! Read on to find out more.



Film screening: None of the Above



Wednesday 15 February, 6.30pm, free
Carpenter Room, Central Library
Book through Eventbrite

Award-winning trans author Travis Alabanza is in conversation with Reni Eddo-Lodge, in this screening of an event originally held at the British Library in July 2022. Travis will discuss their recently-published memoir, None of the Above, which explores what it means to live outside the gender boundaries imposed on us by society.

In partnership with the British Library and the Living Knowledge Network. Refreshments provided.



A Short History of Queer Women, with author Kirsty Loehr



Monday 20 February, 7pm, free
Carpenter Room, Central Library
Book through Eventbrite

No, they weren't 'just friends'! Queer women have been written out of history since, well, forever. From Anne Bonny and Mary Read who sailed the seas together as pirates, to US football captain Megan Rapinoe declaring 'You can't win a championship without gays on your team', A Short History of Queer Women sets the record straight on women who have loved other women through the ages.

Author Kirsty Loehr will be in conversation with our librarians. Copies of Kirsty's book will be available to buy and have signed, courtesy of Juno Books.

Refreshments provided.


Online bookchat: LGBTQ+ Books for Kids and Teens



Wednesday 22
nd February, 6pm, free
Online via Facebook

Looking for the best in new queer books for kids and teens? Liz and Zoey are back with their top recommendations for all ages, from picture books to Young Adult novels. In partnership with Lambeth Libraries.

The video will premiere on Facebook on Wednesday 22 February at 6pm, and will remain available for you to watch on catch-up at your leisure.


Film screening: No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics


Thursday 23 February, 6.30pm, free
Carpenter Room, Central Library
Book through Eventbrite

The story of the queer comic begins in a period of censorship in the USA, and marginalization even among underground cartoonists. No Straight Lines profiles five pioneers of this fascinating art scene – Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Rupert Kinnard, and Mary Wings – producing commentary on everything from the AIDS crisis and workplace discrimination to the search for love and a good haircut. 

Refreshments provided.

In partnership with Sheffield DocFest.


Sophie Labelle, author and cartoonist


Monday 27 February, 7pm, free
Carpenter Room, Central Library
Book through Eventbrite

Sophie Labelle is a neurodivergent trans cartoonist and novelist from Montréal, in French Canada. She is the author of the webcomic Assigned Male, which has been running since 2014.''The Best of Assigned Male'' was recently published by Hachette UK.

During her talk, she will speak about her art and activism, her artistic process, cyberbullying, community building through art, and growing up trans. This event is suitable for adults, teens and families.

Copies of Sophie's books will be available to buy and have signed. Please be aware that the library cannot take card payments.

Refreshments provided.



Thursday, November 24, 2022

Lord Mayor's Big Read: Christmas Book Gifting



This Christmas, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards, is inviting you to share the joy of reading with children from families that are struggling financially across the city.

Simply purchase a book by 12 December from our online shopfront, hosted by our bookselling partner La Biblioteka. You can choose from board books for babies, picture books, middle-grade (junior school) books, and young adult novels - our curated selection has something for every child!

Your book will be gifted to a family in need via our distribution partners S6 Foodbank, part of the Trussell Trust. S6 Foodbank run a network of foodbanks across the city, from Parson Cross to Woodhouse, and provided 28,258 food bank parcels to people in crisis over the last six months.

We will match your book to a child or young person on your behalf.

How it works

  • Visit our online shopfront and select your book(s)
  • Check that the 'BIG READ CAMPAIGN FREE FOODBANK DELIVERY' option is selected - you will not be charged for delivery!
  • On the payment page, untick the 'Deliver to different address' option. You do not need to put in an address for the library or the foodbank - our lovely booksellers will recognise it as a Big Read book gifting order and will do everything necessary.
  • That's it!
To find out more about the Lord Mayor's Big Read, click here.

Thank you and a very merry Christmas, from Sheffield Libraries, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, S6 Foodbank and La Biblioteka.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Black History Month 2022: Black Books for Kids and Teens




Did you miss our Black History Month bookchat? Or do you just want a reminder of all the books we recommended? No problem! You can now watch our bookchat video again over on our YouTube channel (now with subtitles) or you can access all our recommendations, PLUS some bonus titles, in this handy pdf.

We have something for everyone, from picture books to Young Adult and from non-fiction to graphic novels. Check out these fantastic books from some of the best Black authors and illustrators working today, recommended by your friendly local librarians Liz and Zoey.

All the books are available to borrow (or very soon will be) from your local library. Be first in the queue and reserve your copy now via the Sheffield Libraries catalogue or Lambeth Libraries catalogue.

If you've enjoyed one of our recommendations, or have a favourite read that you'd like to share with us, please leave us a comment, or follow @SheffLibraries and @lamlibs and join the conversation on Twitter!

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Celebrating Black History Month 2022




October is Black History Month in the UK, when people and organisations across the country shine a spotlight on Black history, and celebrate the ongoing achievements and contributions of Black people in the UK and beyond.

We at Sheffield Libraries have brought together a fascinating programme of events for children, young people and adults this month. Read on to find out more!


Black Books for Kids



Saturday 8 October, 11am, free
Delivered online through Facebook Live

Zoey Dixon from Lambeth Libraries and our own Liz Chapman are back with a fantastic selection of new books for children and young people by Black authors and illustrators. We have something for everyone, from board books to Young Adult and non-fiction to graphic novels. Join us online, and why not share some of your own favourites in the chat too?

The recording will also be available to watch afterwards via our Youtube channel.


The Extraordinary Life of Charles Ignatius Sancho, with Paterson Joseph




Friday 14 October, 7pm, from £5.00
Delivered online via the Living Knowledge Network
Book on the British Library website

Acclaimed British actor Paterson Joseph draws from his highly-anticipated debut novel to tell the extraordinary story of 18th-century writer, abolitionist and composer Charles Ignatius Sancho. Charles’s story began with his birth on board a slave ship in c.1729, before being orphaned and sold into slavery.

The Living Knowledge Network is a UK-wide partnership between national and public libraries, of which Sheffield Libraries is a member. The event will be live streamed online, and will be available to watch within 48 hours on catch-up.


An Ocean Apart - Meet the author, Sarah Lee



Wednesday 19 October, 6.30pm, free
Carpenter Room, Sheffield Central Library
Book via Eventbrite

It's 1954 and, in Barbados, Ruby Haynes spots an advertisement for young women to train as nurses for the new National Health Service in Great Britain. Her sister, Connie, takes some persuading, but soon the sisters are on their way to a new country - and a whole new world of experiences.

Inspired by real life stories of the Windrush Generation and her mother's own experiences as a nurse coming to Britain from the Caribbean, Sarah Lee's debut novel An Ocean Apart is a must for fans of Call the Midwife.


Lord Mayor's Big Read podcast, with Otis Mensah



Released on Monday 24 October, free
Listen via Anchor or your preferred podcast platform

In our Lord Mayor's Big Read podcast series, we are chatting to well-known Sheffielders about their favourite reads. Tune in to this special Black History Month edition to hear from writer, performance artist and former Sheffield poet laureate Otis Mensah about the books and poems that have inspired him along the way.


Historical Fiction Writing: a workshop for people aged 18-25, with Yvonne Battle-Felton




Saturday 29 October, 1.30-3.30pm, free
Sheffield Central Library
Book via Eventbrite

Calling young writers aged 18-25! Join acclaimed author Yvonne Battle-Felton for a special Black History Month writing workshop. Take inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance, Juneteenth, rap battles and Windrush to develop your historical fiction writing ideas.




Monday, July 4, 2022

10 ways to use your library this summer

As a Sheffield Libraries member, you have free access to a wealth of facilities to help you connect with culture, creativity, knowledge, and each other.  Becoming a member is FREE.


1.  Stock up on holiday reading 

In these uncertain times, let us help you escape into a good book, or make sense of the world through reading.  You can borrow up to 15 printed books and five eBooks, free of charge for a minimum of three weeks.  From the latest bestseller to all the old classics.  

Download the library app and search the catalogue.
 

2.  Keep the kids entertained during long car journeys

The hugely popular eLibrary was discovered by thousands of new members during the recent national lockdowns.  Enjoy access to thousands of free audiobooks, eBooks, eComics, and eMagazines, either on your desktop or through our Libby app.  

3.  Try our school holiday activities 

We’ve got lots going on to keep the kids entertained.  Sign them up for Gadgeteers, the Summer Reading challenge 2022, and check out our programme of family activities taking place across libraries.

4.  Research your family history

We subscribe to a range of online reference tools on your behalf, meaning you can access high quality content and save money.  Visit the Local Studies Library for help researching your family tree, and use Ancestry UK without subscription at all our libraries.  

5.  Check out a board game 

Pass those long summer evenings with friends by trying one of modern board games.  Board gaming is a fun way to sharpen your thinking, and spend quality time with your family and friends away from a screen. You can now borrow board games from Sheffield Central Library, just like a book.

6.  Explore Sheffield through time and space

Visit Storytrails at Sheffield Central Library on the 27th and 28th July to discover a range of exciting augmented and virtual reality experiences for all the family to enjoy. Explore untold stories through a virtual map made up of 3D models and audio recordings of local community members.


7.  Start a reading group with friends

Whether it’s drink in the garden, or 30 minutes grabbed in the staff canteen; try our free reading group sets service and share your love of reading with others.


8.  Experience foreign food without leaving home

Our libraries stock a massive range of cookbooks covering diverse world cuisine, as well as all the most popular celebrity chefs and bakers.  Let us help you spice up mealtimes.

9.  Discover Graphic Novels

We have an extensive collection of graphic novels at Central Library and online in the eLibrary,  from popular superheroes to powerful and thought-provoking works of art.  Much of the collection is aimed at adults, so if you’ve never tried a graphic novel before, why not give them a try.  You might be surprised.

10.  Take the first step in starting your business

We support entrepreneurs, inventors, and small businesses from that first spark of inspiration to launching and developing a business.  Visit our Business and intellectual Property Centre webpages and discover more…