16th January Appreciate a Dragon (Dragons Day 1)

Happy New Year! It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon and the International Year of Camelids. It's 2024!

To coincide with Appreciate a Dragon Day and in preparation for Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon we have planned to display dragon books in the library to start the New School Year which begins at the end of January. We have so many books featuring dragons, so over a series of blogs, I will introduce you to what is on offer for our library users. There are seven days so you will be able to make a long list of books to get from your library.

Firstly, my young students associate dragons with fairytales, knights, breathing fire and having battles, and yes the stories they choose to read do feature these kind of dragons, but there's many more to explore. There's chapter books, myths and legends, Asian folktales and dragons who are friendly. 

Are you ready to battle a dragon? This is the signage above the library display but many of the dragons in the pictures displayed above the books make the dragons look friendly, fun and not too scary because the readers who frequent my library are under eight or parents and teachers of these students who are at preschool or in Kindergarten, Grade 1 or Grade 2.

For my very young readers I would start with books such as these:

• How to Catch a Dragon by Carol Hart and Ed Eaves

• Sylvia and Bird by Catherine Rayner

• This is Not a Fairytale  by Will Mabbit and Fred Blunt

• Me and My Dragon  by David Biedrzycki

• King Jack and the Dragon  by Peter Bently and Helen Oxenbury

• Jill &  Dragon  by Lesley Barnes

• Again!  by Emily Gravatt

• Look Out, It's a Dragon! by Jonny Lambert

• Ellie's Dragon  by Bob Graham

• Dragon Dancing by Carole Lexa Schaefer and Pierr Morgan

• George and the Dragon  and  George, the Dragon and the Princess by Chris Wormell

31st December Universal Hour of Peace

To follow on from my last post and to put more emphasis on the peace angle, here is the perfect book, Peace on Earth by Smitri Halls and David Litchfield. You need to own this book, but you can read it all here.

'Peace on Earth Goodwill to All' is something we all desire, given the conflict raging in the world at the moment and this book is a child-friendly way to have a conversation about conflict and how it might so easily start. A group of friends set off full of joy and anticipation on a journey, but when they become lost, hurtful words cause distress and pain. The friends find strength and inner courage to reconcile their differences and the illustrations show the metaphoric light as the means of restoring harmony.

Given the conflict between Gaza and Israel, many parents have been asking for books that will help explain to their young children why wars happen. The suggestions here from UNICEF in How to talk to your children about conflict and war and from APS in How to Talk to Children About the Hamas-Israel Conflict  are a good place to start.

As UNICEF notes: “It’s important not to minimise or dismiss their concerns. If they ask a question that might seem extreme to you, such as ‘Are we all going to die?’, reassure them that is not going to happen, but also try to find out what they have heard and why they are worried about that happening. If you can understand where the worry is coming from, you are more likely to be able to reassure them.” 

To start discussions with your child or a class choose an age-appropriate book. Some suggestions that I have used:

• The Squirrels Who Squabbled  by Rachel Bright and Jim Field

• Everybody's Welcome  by Patricia Hegarty and Greg Abbott

• Why? by Nikolai Popov

• A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope  by Michael Foreman

• The Journey  by Francesca Sanna

• The Hawk and the Dove  by Paul Kor

• The Librarian of Basra  by Jeanette Winter

• Noor and Bobby  by Praline Gay-Para and Lauranne Quentric

• The Conquerors by David McKee

• The Forgiveness Garden by Lauren Thompson and Christy Hale

• Go Away, War!  by Elzbieta Gaudasinska (this little book is old but you might find it in a library under this title or Jon-Jon and Annette. It is a translation from French. This moving and hopeful parable about children and war tells how Jon-Jon and Annette play together as best friends until the war comes and they are forbidden to see each other. You can read the book here.)

Every year on December 31st, thirty minutes before midnight, is Universal Hour of Peace . You will have one hour to set an intention around building peaceful relations with others and yourself. The holiday was founded in 1995 by Dr. Barbara Condron from the School of Metaphysics to celebrate peace and call the people of the world to live in peace.

To read with children books that are specifically about peace (maybe not thirty minutes before midnight) see:

• Peace by Baptiste Paul and Miranda Paul

• What Does Peace Feel Like?  by Vladimir Radunsky

• I Am Peace  by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds

• Peace is an Offering by Annette LeBox andStephanie Graegin

• Can You Say Peace?  by Karen Katz

• Talk Peace  by Sam Williams and Mique Moriuchi

• Let There Be Peace and Let it Begin With Me by Jill Jackson, Sy Miller and David Diaz

21st December Anne and Samantha Day

Anne and Samantha Day, celebrated on June 20 and December 21 every year, is a special tribute to celebrate both Anne Frank and Samantha Smith. Anne and Samantha Day takes place twice a year on the summer solstice and the winter solstice. This day is meant to let the world know about the pain, suffering, uproars, and revolution brought by these young women.

Who were Anne and Samantha? What was their contribution to the world?

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl whose writings in her diary — “The Diary of a Young Jewish Girl” — impacted generations. Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929, to Otto and Ruth Frank. The Frank family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands. However, they were still not safe as the Nazis invaded Amsterdam in 1942 and the family needed to go into hiding behind a wall. Here she wrote her diary. Unfortunately the family was betrayed and Anne's father was the only family member who survived. He later found her diary.

Samantha Reed Smith was the daughter of  a social worker, Jane Goshorn Smith. She was born on June 29, 1972. When she was only ten years old, she wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov, who was the leader of the Soviet Union. She wanted to understand the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union.

In July 1983 Smith and her family spent two weeks in the Soviet Union, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, and Artek, a children’s camp on the Black Sea. After returning home, she gave numerous television interviews. In a December 1983 speech at the International Children’s Symposium in Kobe, Japan, she suggested that U.S. and Soviet leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks every year, because a leader would not want to bomb a country that “his granddaughter was visiting.” On August 25, 1985, Smith and her father, Arthur were killed in a commuter plane crash.

These girls were young but very aware of the world they were living in just like so many of the young people today who also are very unhappy about what is happening in the world especially in relationship to the current conflicts and the number of civilian casualties.

Anne Frank and Samantha Smith deserve our recognition as positive influences on schoolchildren. Both of them understood that no matter how difficult the current circumstances are, it is important to strive towards a peaceful future for all nations.

What to do to celebrate this day? Learn more about the two girls, be inspired to do something that involves writing or read about conflict and how it affects children.

You could start with books such as these:

• Anne Frank  by Isabel Sanchez Vegara

• Behind the Bookcase by Barbara Lowell

• The Woman who Rescued Anne's Diary  by Meet Pincus

• Anne Frank by Josephine Poole

• America's Youngest Ambassador  by Lena Nelson (This is not a book for children but it certainly gives adult readers plenty of food for thought)

4th December Santa's List Day

On the night before Christmas, 
so the old stories say, 
Saint Nicholas rides 
in a magical sleigh. 
But what is the truth, 
and what are the legends? 
Who is this giftgiver, 
and why all the presents? 

Around Christmas we spend a lot of time thinking about presents, but have you ever wondered why we give gifts? Learn about the life of Saint Nicholas and discover why he became known as one of the greatest giftgivers of all time. Told as a delightful poem by Ned Bustard.

Yes, it is time to write your letter to Santa! He needs time to organise your present. This is the day when children should start working on their holiday wish lists.

It is also the day that Santa puts together his list of naughty and nice children. Have you been naughty or nice?

The first mention of such a list occurs in the song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie wrote the fun Christmas song in 1934. The song included the lyrics, “He’s making a list, He’s checking it twice, He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.”  

This used to be something the young children I teach worried about, and we had a book in the library that I cut up to make a frieze as part of our Christmas decorations, but not anymore, they feel sure that Santa will come 'no matter what'! When I read The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree  by Gloria Houston to classes and they hear that at the time of WWI the 'naughty' children received 'lumps of coal' or a 'willow switch' they are astounded and sure that the author is wrong.

So instead this year I read some folktales about gift bringers, so that they got the idea that gift bringing has been a thing for quite some time. The legend of Santa dates all the way back to 280 A.D. This is when the real St. Nicholas was born in modern-day Turkey. Through the years, many traditions have evolved regarding St. Nick, who came to be known as Santa Claus.

We read:

• Old Befana by Tomie dePaola which tells the story of the Italian gift bringer, Befana who leaves gifts for children on the 5th January, the Eve of Epiphany and sweeps their rooms clean.

• Babushka is the Russian gift bringer who like Befana sets off to see the baby Jesus In Bethlehem with her gift of toys, but instead gives the gifts to children along the way. There are many versions of this folktale, but our school library has these:

- Babushka by Dawn Casey

- The Tale of Baboushka  by Elena Pasquali

- Babushka  by Sandra Ann Horn

- Baboushka by Arthur Scholes

• St Nicholas is the Dutch gift bringer. Children get gifts on St. Nicholas Feast Day, December 6th.

- The Legend of St Nicholas by Dandi Daley Mackall

- The Legend of St Nicholas  by Demi

- The Gift from St Nicholas  by Dorothea Lachner

- Saint Nicholas: the Story of the Real Santa Claus by Mary Joslin

• The Tomten  by Astrid Lindgren tells the tale of the Tomten who is a small gnome-like creature who takes care of a farm in Sweden during the long winter nights. In Sweden, the Tomten is the one who brings children gifts on December 24th.

If you would like to know the names of other gift bearers from around the world, this website has  a long list.

• Another folktale about Christmas and gift giving is the Mexican story  The Legend of the Poinsettia  by Tomie dePaola.

In fact it is worth exploring all the Christmas stories retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. It will take you to many different places.