2nd February World Tutu Day

 

It is World Tutu Day ...

what fun!

 'Tutu' refers to the iconic dancing outfit worn around a ballerina's waist. The first tutu was introduced in the Paris Opera Ballet by dancer Marie Taglioni during a performance called "La Sylphide", which was the first to feature dancing on tip-toes! Her tutu, called "Romantic tutu", was designed as a bell-shaped garment covering most of her legs. And guess what? It was such a success that it remained the typical clothing for dancers until today! Although, from the late 1800s, tutus began to shorten up, thus allowing ballerinas to move more freely.

I looked at the library catalogue thinking there wouldn't be many books with 'tutu' in the title. How wrong I was...there are lots, so tomorrow I will put the library's tutu-wearing teddy out on a table with all of these books... and that does not include ballet books with a tutu on the cover illustration!

 

31st January International Day of the Magicians

31st  January is International Day of the Magicians, on the day Giovanni Bosco died. He was an Italian priest who lived in the 1950s, who dedicated his life to the education of street children in an extraordinary way. He was teaching catholicism using magic! International Day of the Magicians celebrates him, and the sense of wonder magicians give to people. A magician is someone that creates illusions, making the impossible... possible!

Today is a good day to have fun reading about magicians!

or you could read about a real magician eg. Houdini

29th January Read Your World Day or Multicultural Children's Book Day

Read Your World Day, formerly known as Multicultural Children’s Book Day, is an annual event that highlights multicultural books and the authors, illustrators, and publishers who create them. It is a unique opportunity to shine the spotlight on diverse/multicultural books, authors, and publishers.

Read Your World Day’s Criteria for “Multicultural” or “Diverse” Children’s Books

• Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
• Books that are written by an author of diversity or color from their perspective. Search #OwnVoices to discover diverse books written by diverse authors.
• Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, races, religions, languages, and traditions. These books can be non-fiction but still written in a way that kids will find entertaining and informative.
• Books that embrace special needs or even “hidden disabilities” like ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
• Books that show readers what is POSSIBLE–like a book that shows an Asian child as an astronaut, a child from Sudan as an actress, or a biracial child as a world leader.

Multicultural Children's Book Day was  founded by co-creators Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen. They were frustrated by a lack of diverse and multicultural children’s books available to their own families and decided to take matters into their own hands.

It is much easier to find diverse children's books than it used to be, but that does not mean that we don't make a concerted effort to share diverse books with our children.

I follow several websites to make sure I am up-to-date with what is on offer from publishers for my young students. These provide so much extra information and enable me to feel more confident purchasing a book I haven't seen 'in the flesh' for the school library.

Read Your World has reading lists.

Empathy Lab provides booklists

Inclusive Books for Children provides very well annotated booklists.

Diverse Book Finder allows you to search for books.

Social Justice Books reviews books and makes recommendations.

Next week on the 4th February it is also World Read Aloud Day, so why not make the book you choose to read aloud to celebrate this day one that gives your audience a window or mirror into a diverse world. Here in Australia it is the beginning of a new school year and teachers are getting to know a new group of students and I am sure they will be a diverse bunch!

27th January Chocolate Cake Day

 

Chocolate Cake Day celebrates the cake more people favour. It comes in so many different guises, but even a simple chocolate cake is yummy, easy to make and mood-lifting. So make a chocolate cake and share it while you read one of these:

This is a page from 13 Words   by Lemony Snicker

17th January Benjamin Franklin Day Kid Inventors' Day

17th January is celebrated worldwide as Benjamin Franklin Day. He was born on this day in 1706 in Boston, the fifteenth child to a family with a modest soap and candle business. Franklin was a polymath, someone who had expertise in a variety of subjects, and an active inventor, author, printer, passionate about music and politics. He stopped attending school at the age of ten. 

Look for these biographies to learn more about his inventions and politics.

It is also Kid Inventors' Day because Benjamin Franklin first began inventing things as a child. Last year I wrote about this and gave a list of books to look for in the library. The Aussie Child Network also has lots of tangents to explore.

21st January Squirrel Appreciation Day

The 21st January is Squirrel Appreciation Day and as I live in Australia where the only squirrels in the wild are some northern palm squirrels that stem from those that escaped from Perth Zoo, I get to appreciate them mostly through picture books, where they make amazingly popular and  amazingly cute book characters. I have written about them before. Here you will see all the series of books for young children that feature squirrels.

Today, here's a 'scurry' of picture books that I like.

• Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep  by April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins

• The Squirrel's Busy Year  by Martin Jenkins and Richard Jones

• Nuts to You!  by Lois Ehlert

• The Squirrels Who Squabbled  by Rachel Bright and Jim Field

• The Leaf Thief  by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater

• Squirrel's Family Tree  by Beth ferry and A.N. Kang

•  Cyril and Pat  by Emily Gravatt

• The Very Special Thing  by Alex Willmore

More squirrel books to look for.