There are 12 Fergus the Ferry books, and they are all based in Sydney Harbour. Fergus has adventures such as going to the zoo, helping with a fire, competing in the ferry races, etc.

These delightful picture books for beginning readers are written in rhyme by J. Noble, and illustrated by Peter Townsend. And, like Thomas, Fergus has friends like Angus and Tess the helicopter, and there are also bullies like Boris that need to be taught not to be so rough!

Books for the young and the young at heart!

The First Readers set have also been added to with more fairy tales such as Snow White, and the Gingerbread Man. As well as the familiar story, the book also has some puzzles in the back, to help with memory, words and sentence construction.

This First Readers set is for children who want to read 'chapter books' but can't yet handle a full junior fiction story.

The library has several collections of these books which give the children confidence to progress.

They still have illustrations, but they are 'book sized' rather than picture books, and include much more text, with more vocabulary, than the picture books, and some of them include activities for the parents and children to do together after enjoying the book.

If your child needs some reading help, think about joining the Bookends Literacy Assist programme, where seniors are available to listen to children reading aloud for a twenty minutes in the afternoon .

It's an after school activity, and you can pick any time between 3pm and 5pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and 3pm and 4pm on Friday. As the children read, the seniors encourage and assist with pronunciation, expression and so on.

Bookings are essential for this programme to ensure that there are enough seniors available for the children coming, so ring the library staff on 674902190 to book a day and a time for your child.