New braille books
This issue contains braille books added to the collection since the last issue of Sound and Touch in September 2010.
Abbreviations:
BR - Braille books held at Parnell Library
HA - Braille handouts held at Parnell Library
HL - Braille books held at Homai Library
NBP - National Braille Press
RNIB - Royal National Institute of Blind People
RNZFB - Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
TV - Twin vision picture books
v. - volume(s)
VAILS - Vision Australia Information and Library Service
The following braille books are contracted, single spaced, double sided, Unified English Braille Code (UEB).
Adult Non-Fiction
Annual Report 2009-2010: the year in review by Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. 2 v. RNZFB.
HA59478
Biographies
Cleo: how an uppity cat helped heal a family by Helen Brown. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Arena Allen & Unwin, 2009. The author wasn't a cat person but her nine-year-old son Sam lost his heart to a newborn kitten. Before the kitten could leave her mother, Sam had died. His younger brother insisted they take the kitten and quickly absorbed her into the grieving family. Cleo's antics over the next twenty-three years hold the family together through thick and thin. This is a heart-warming story that proves the value of human resilience and animals' healing love. 7 v. RNZFB.
BR4739
Never have your dog stuffed by Alan Alda. London: Arrow, 2007. He's one of America's most recognizable and acclaimed actors; a star on Broadway, an Oscar winner and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing, during his eleven years on M*A*S*H. Now his memoir provides insight into a life filled with honesty, turbulence and laughter. 4 v. RNZFB.
BR4740
What a ride, mate!: the life and times of the Mad Butcher by Peter Leitch with Phil Gifford. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2008. Peter Leitch, aka the Mad Butcher, is a legend in his own lifetime. He is a larger than life character who left school at fifteen and went on to build a nationwide chain of successful butcher shops. Along the way he has earned a reputation as a generous, foulmouthed league supporter with a heart of gold. 6 v. RNZFB.
BR4752
History
Dreams from my father by Barack Obama. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2008. As a writer in the 1990s, this son of a black African father and a white American mother, describes his search for identity and belonging. His journey travels from a small Kansas town to his mother's family in Hawaii; then to his childhood home in Indonesia and finally to Kenya. There he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. 5 v. VAILS.
BR4776
Glory days: from gumboots to platforms by Dr Glam aka Ian Chapman. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2009. The 1970s were a cabaret of influences, a fragmented, eclectic decade of disparity. Let Dr Glam be your guide through the glorious decade when orange and brown vinyl reigned supreme and too much was never enough. 6 v. RNZFB.
BR4746
Sport
Beneath the Maori moon by Malcolm Mulholland. Wellington: Huia, 2009. This is the story of 100 years of Maori rugby; the songs, the joys, the battles, the teams and always the pride of pulling on that black jersey. 7 v. RNZFB.
BR4745
Adult Fiction
Adventure Stories
Deadly shoals by Joan Druett. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. Wiki Coffin's ship has reached the Rio Negro, an area where men disappear without a trace. Wiki takes up the hunt for a missing ship but the trail leads to a body half-buried in a salt hill with its skull picked clean by vultures. As Wiki investigates the murder he discovers the killer has set his sights on another target, the Expedition itself. Sequel to: Run afoul - BR4775. 4 v. VAILS.
BR4774
Run afoul by Joan Druett. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. As Wiki Coffin's ship heads into Rio de Janeiro they collide with a Salem trading ship. He is astonished to find his estranged father is the captain of the trader. The two adventurers' reunion is cut short by two mysterious deaths. When Wiki's father is charged with murder Wiki must solve the crimes before his ship sails. Has sequel: Deadly shoals - BR4774. 4 v. VAILS.
BR4775
The Family
The forgotten garden by Kate Morton. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. On the eve of the World War I, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. Decades later she arrives at the Cornish coast to discover a strange manor house where a walled garden hides a rotting cottage. Nearly 100 years will pass before the little girl's story will be unveiled, as whispered truths and family secrets slowly unravel. 7 v. VAILS.
BR4783
My sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2005. A child is conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister. Now a teenager, that child begins to question her moral obligations. She has undergone countless medical procedures to help her sister and now decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body. 5 v. VAILS.
BR4779
Fantasy Novels
Daughter of the forest by Juliet Marillier. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2000. Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum, faces the difficult task of saving her family who have been bewitched by a terrible foe. Exiled from Sevenwaters and running from the enemy, she must choose between the life she has always known and a special love. Winner of the 2001 Alex Awards (adult books appealing to Teen readers). Has sequel: Son of the Shadows - BR4773. 7 v. VAILS.
BR4772
Historical Novels
The dark mountain by Catherine Jinks. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2008. Two fiercely strong women, a mother and daughter, are at odds, as one hides the truth and the other is determined to find it. In 1836 a violent incident in the Belanglo wilderness sets off a chain of events that transforms lives. A serial killer and an abusive step-father create worlds of madness and terror. 6 v. VAILS.
BR4782
The lieutenant by Kate Grenville. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2008. Daniel Rooke, soldier and astronomer, arrives in New South Wales on the First Fleet in 1788. The aboriginal people soon visit his isolated observatory and a child begins to teach him her language. Her lessons and their friendship are interrupted when Rooke is given an order that will change his life forever. This novel was inspired by the 1790 notebooks of William Dawes. 3 v. VAILS.
BR4785
Romance Novels
The pyjama girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati. Sydney: Random House, 2008. John takes over a small town stationery shop in South Carolina in hopes of reviving the business. He falls happily into the whirl of gossip, gifts and quintessential Southern hospitality. A cast of endearing locals befriend him but one person catches his eye, Julia, the beautiful, pyjama wearing owner of the luxury linen shop. She too has left a tumultuous past behind to try and find a new home. 5 v. VAILS.
BR4786
Thrillers
Blood men by Paul Cleave. Auckland: Black Swan Crime, 2010. Edward is a family man, with a great job, a bright future and a very dark past. His father is a serial killer, jailed for twenty years and he is never coming out. It's a past that Edward has struggled with his entire life, a life without his father. When suddenly he needs his father's help, Edward worries that he too will become a man of blood. 5 v. RNZFB.
BR4791
The ghost by Robert Harris. London: Random House, 2007. Adam Lang's career as Britain's controversial prime minister has ended in tatters after he sided with America in an unpopular war on terror. Now living on the American east coast, Lang is writing his potentially explosive memoirs. When his ghostwriter disappears and washes up dead, Lang hires a replacement. When the new ghost unravels the details of his predecessor's death he discovers Lang's dark secrets that could alter world politics. 4 v. VAILS.
BR4784
War Stories
The cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. Melbourne: Text, 2008. Sarajevo. As the mortars fall and the snipers conduct their deadly manoeuvres, a cellist sits at his window. The piece he plays is all that restores his hope. On this day a bomb falls in the street below him. For the next twenty-two days he plays the same piece in the crater below, in memory of the dead. We see those days through the eyes of three of the besieged citizens. 2 v. VAILS.
BR4781
Young Adult Fiction
The serpents of Arakesh by V.M. Jones. Auckland: HarperCollins, 2003. Abandoned on the doorstep of an orphanage twelve years ago, Adam has nowhere he really belongs. Then he wins a competition for a chance to test-drive a reclusive software genius's latest top-secret computer game. 4 v. RNZFB.
HL57094
Violence 101 by Denis Wright. North Shore, N.Z.: Penguin, 2007. Hamish is highly intelligent, disciplined, resourceful and fearless. He scorns signs of weakness and is obsessed with Charles Upham, Alexander the Great and Te Rauparaha, all men of action. Hamish is also a fourteen-years-old with a serious anger problem and a disturbing past. Newly placed in his third institution for young offenders, a vicious fight breaks out. 3 v. RNZFB.
HL56565
The way I see it by Nicole Dryburgh. London: Hodder Children's, 2008. Now eighteen the author tells of her struggle to overcome cancer, blindness and the inability to walk. She is always busy, writing, fund raising, horse-riding or socialising with friends. This is her triumphant story of a refusal to give up hope. 2 v. RNIB.
HL59863
Junior Fiction
Bushfire by Elizabeth Mellor. Seymour, Vic.: The Awakening Network Inc., 2010. Ruby's life changed forever one hot Australian summer day. With little warning she was plunged into one of the most terrifying events anyone is likely to face, a bushfire. Ruby, her parents and her dog Gypsy face the fear and danger together. 2 v. RNZFB.
HL58853
Friends, snake and lizard by Joy Cowley. Wellington: Gecko Press, 2009. This is a collection of stories about the friendship between Snake and Lizard. Their business, Helper and Helper, provides daily adventures as they meet a frog without its croak, a nosy porcupine and other desert creatures. Sequel to: Snake and Lizard - HL51158. 1 v. RNZFB.
HL58917
Froggy eats out by Jonathan London. New York: Puffin, 2001. After Froggy misbehaves at a fancy restaurant, his parents take him to a fast flies restaurant to celebrate their anniversary. 1 v. of print with braille overlay. NBP.
TV58660
Let's count = Me kaute taua written by Raina Fowlds. Tu Maia Educational Resources, 2008. Introduces, in English and Maori, the numbers from one to ten using simple illustrations and text. 1 v. of print with braille overlay. RNZFB.
TV59939
Mr Muggs the library cat by Dave Gunson. Manukau, N.Z: Scholastic, 2008. Mr Muggs the cat is allowed to live in the local library as long as he keeps the place free of rats. At night, Muggs and Pablo the rat live a secret life among the books. 1 v. of print with braille overlay. RNZFB.
TV58827