5th January The Year of the Horse

 

Chinese astrology says the Year of the Horse will begin in 2026, signifying 12 months of freedom, energy and ambition. The horse is a symbol of strength, elegance and adventure. The horse is the seventh zodiac sign in the 12-year cycle.  

• The Year of the Horse  by Oliver Chin and Jennifer Wood

Lunar New Year feels later this year. It starts on Tuesday, 17th February and the celebrations culminate on the 3rd March when the Lantern Festival is held. 

Despite the fact that we will have been back at school for nearly three weeks by then, I will still start the library displays with Lunar New Year and a focus on Asian children and celebrations. Many of my students will have been to Asia in the school holidays. It is also a good time to display the bilingual books that are in Mandarin and English. The parents especially like these because they know the stories they tell.

As well I will display the library's abundance of books about horses. It is a long time since we did a horse display and we do have a number of children who like to read about horse riding. I wrote about horses on 12th December when it was National Day of the Horse Day in the USA. Here I wrote about the coming of the Year of the Horse and suggested picture books to include in a display. There is also an entry in the blog under 1st August , the Horses' Birthday here in Australia. These three focus books which pick up on the 'strength, elegance and adventure'  of horses could be a good starting point.

Strength

• Horse Power; How Horses Changed the World  by Jennifer Thermes

elegance

• One Horse Waiting for Me  by Patricia Mullins

adventure

• Lightning Jack by Glenda Millard and Patricia Mullins

And if you want to read about the adventures of 'real' horses here's some Australian gems:

• The Legend of Jessie Hickman by Mark Greenwood and Frank Lessac

• Phar Lap  by Jackie Karin and Patricia Mullins

• So She Did: the Story of May Wirth  by Simi Genziuk and 

Renee Treml

I have written about Lunar New Year in January of most years, but in 2023 I did more research than usual so as to cover any students who celebrated Lunar New Year, but who weren't of Chinese heritage eg Korean, Vietnamese