31st March RIP Tomie dePaola

"In this gorgeous and contemplative New York Times bestselling picture book, legendary author-illustrator Tomie dePaola reminds us that mindfulness--being quiet, still, and present with one another--is a very special thing. Everything is in such a hurry, busy as busy can be.  
The birds are flying so fast, the dragonfly is zooming over the water--even the trees are waving their leaves. 

So what if we sit here, you next to me...and we can just be? "

This is what I did when I heard the sad news about the passing of Tomie dePaola, who was such a 'giant' in the  children's picture book world. Everyone is getting more time to sit, notice things around them and just be at the moment so how fitting that we have this book to remind us of wonder, awe, beauty and the skills of an author illustrator!

Pause and remember his brilliance while you watch and read.

21st March Common Courtesy Day

How appropriate at this troubled time in the community. Common courtesy has almost disappeared at the shops when it comes to people wanting something for themselves. How sad. I think we need it more than ever at the moment, so now that we've moved on in the library from hand washing and germs, I'm moving on to Common Courtesy!

What does common courtesy mean?
It is politeness that people can usually be expected to show!


Common Courtesy Day is a great way to remind ourselves that the world is better off when we show gratitude and graciousness in both big and small ways.

So what books to put in this display? I could put any books about manners, but some are definitely better than others because some are far too didactic. Below are some that warrant reading and sharing. The reader will laugh at the despicable behaviour but once recognised they will know it is inappropriate.

Magic Little Words by Angele Delaunois and Manon Gauthier is the gem to get you started. It presents one word and its meaning on each double-page spread and because there is not  much text it allows for lots of talk.

Hello, Goodbye  by David Lloyd and Louise Voce is very simple and for very young children, but greeting each other  is an important concept.

The Elephant and the Bad Baby  by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs is a classic that many children will know but will be happy to tell you what the baby and the elephant did wrong.

Please Mr Panda by Steve Antony has a storyline similar to Elfrida Vipont's but has other concepts to explore besides manners.

"Say Please, Little Bear" by Peter Bently and Rob McPhillips. Daddy bear is the kind of parent you hope every child has. He enjoys having fun with his child, but expects exemplary behaviour.

The Magic Word  by Mac Barnett and Elise Parsley. Here humour takes over, but the underlying message isn't lost.


One Word from Sophia  by Jim Averback and Yasmeen Ismail. Sophia tries all sorts of negotiations, but in the end only needs one word.

My Little Gifts  by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey.

Norris the Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner.

Betty Bunny Wants Everything by Michael Kaplan and Stephane Jorisch

Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins

Yuk! said the Yak by Alex English and Emma Level

Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman and K.G. Campbell

We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

No Slurping, No Burping! by Kara LaReau and Lorelay Bove

You're a Rude Pig, Bertie by Claudia Bolt

All Mine! by Zehra Hicks

How Do You Do, Mr Gnu? by Billy Coughlan and Maddie Frost

Me First! by Michael Escoffier and Kris di Giacomo

Give Me Back My Book! by Travis Foster and Ethan Long

Plankton is Pushy by Jonathan Fenske

17th March St Patrick's Day

Great display of GREEN books today!

16th March Panda Day

On March 16, conservationists and animal lovers alike spread the word about one of the world’s most endangered and adored animals. Panda Day brings together the efforts of an international community dedicated to protecting and restoring habitat for pandas. Pandas are very sensitive creatures and disruptions in their environment lead to issues with them reproducing. They do not reproduce readily in captivity so this makes ensuring their natural habitat remains even more pertinent.



Fortunately, children are besotted with pandas so any display of books we do in the library which features them, is very quickly depleted, even more so than polar bears. It is good that these two 'bear' days are so close together as it means we can quickly replace one display with the other. Our library has ample books to do this. See pandas here and polar bears here.

Mr Panda books are such a favourite with the preschoolers and Kindergarten students so these five books are never in the library. Once they have gone though, there is still plenty of fiction to go round. For the same age group there is Neil Gaiman's Chu and Sophy Henn's Pom Pom.


For older students who also like a series of picture books about the same character there is Jon J. Muth's series about Stillwater. These require a more sophisticated level of  reading and beg discussion so they are good to read with an adult.

If you then read through the large number of other narrative and expository texts, there's still some beginning chapter books to explore!

Every March 16th

Hashtag

#PandaDay

Tagged as

1. Animals

Watch our highlights channel

 Panda Day is dedicated to spreading awareness about this majestic teddy-bears of nature, spreading the word that deforestation is leading to the destruction of their habitats, and has placed them on the endangered animal list.

World Hand Hygiene Day and Global Handwashing Day

World Hand Hygiene Day takes place on May 05, 2020. The day is declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and encoures patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. According to WHO, every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care. 





October 15th is Global Handwashing Day! This year, the Global Handwashing Day theme focuses on the links between handwashing and food including food hygiene and nutrition. Handwashing is an important part of keeping food safe, preventing diseases, and helping children grow strong. Global Handwashing Day is an international handwashing promotion campaign to motivate and mobilise people around the world to improve their handwashing habits. Washing hands at critical points during the day and washing with soap are both important.  

Neither of these days are for quite a while yet, but I feel as if I spent a large part of today locating books in the library that would help teachers have a conversation with their students about why it is important to wash their hands well and often. As schools prepare for the impact of Covid 19 the conversations are also turning to germs and what they do. A prep student actually asked me yesterday for a book on viruses. I don't think he was panicked, but rather, curious. 

So now I have a list of books for the teachers and parents and have put these books on display. See:

• Wash Your Hands by Margaret McNamara and Mike Gordon (one of the Robin Hill School readers)

• I Don't Want to Wash My Hands! by Tony Ross (one of the Little Princess titles)

• Germs are not For Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick and Marieka Heinlen   

• Atchoo! by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan

• Germs Make Me Sick! by Melvin Berger and Marylin Hafner

• Germs by Ross Collins

• Sam's Science: I Know How to Fight Germs by Kate Rowan and Katharine McEwen

• The Giant Book of Germs by Lorna Hendry

8th March International Women's Day

We always celebrate this day in our library and I have written about it on this blog several times before, but given the diatribe this week about children's picture books that was on a popular website I follow, I feel the need to recommend some picture books with female main characters that are certainly worth meeting. The posts were going on and on about how all the characters in the picture books for very young children, even if they were animals, were male, 'even the Gruffalo!' While I agree that, that may well be the case, and that 'he' is used more than 'she' in books, there is so much more available to children today than there used to be. The popularity of the series Little People Big Dreams by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara  proves that books about girls can be popular. They are among the most popular books borrowed from our Prep school library and many of the children have some copies of their own. Kate Pankhurst's Great Women series is also popular.

We keep popular series in boxes because Preschoolers want to be able to find their friends quickly. Most of the series do have male main characters, but there is Maisy and Angelina Ballerina (both mice),  Miffy, Eloise, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious and these are more popular than say, Pete the Cat; Splat the Cat; Scaredy Squirrel  and Grug.

For stand alone, any of these picture books have girls as the main character and are well worth searching out in your library. Happy International Women's Day!

• One Word From Sophia by Jim Averback and Yasmeen Ismail (See Nothing! and I'm a Girl! by Yasmeen Ismail)











• Pearl Power  by Mel Elliott (There are now three books about Pearl)













• Izzy Gizmo  by Pip Jones and Sara Ogilvie (There are now two books about Izzy)













• Dear Girl  by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal (See Amy's Uni the Unicorn books as well for a strong female main character)

• Where's Jamela? by Niki Daly (the five stories about Jamela who lives with her mother and grandmother give readers a very positive view of what women are capable of)