27th April International Hyena Day

April 27th is International Hyena Day which advocates for changing the public's perspective on hyenas, and seeing their importance on Earth. 

Hyenas don't have the greatest reputation due to centuries of bad publicity through literature and folklore. 

Spread through Africa and Asia, hyenas are intelligent mammals living in clans of 10 to 120 animals. They are skilled hunters, and not only scavengers which still makes them essential to prevent the spread of disease. They have highly acidic stomachs to break down their food, even though it isn't the freshest quality.

Hyenas are vulnerable to extinction because of habitat loss and persecution by farmers and poachers.

When I share any book about African animals with students they like the 'big ones' and the scavengers...the hyenas, jackals and vultures. Our library doesn't have many books on the scavengers. It only has four information books, but we do have some stories that are worth a look:

• Hungry Hyena by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway

• Pinduli by Janell Cannon

• The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

• Hey! What's that Nasty Whiff? by Julia Jarmin and Garry Parsons

• Henry Hyena, Why Won't You Laugh? by Doug Jantzen

• Noka's Surprise Party by Fiona Moodie

• That's Not Funny! by Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds

15th February Hippopotamus Day

Coming up is Hippo Day! A great day to celebrate in a library because  -
1. Hippos are in danger, and humans are their biggest enemy. So we need to know more about these 'water horses'.
2. Some of the best 'reads' for children  feature hippos.

One of my all time favourite serial reads with a class is The Twentyseventh Annual African Hippopotamus Race by Morris Lurie. It is such fun and yet at the same time has so much to discuss with students. Can hippos really swim? What should Edward do about Sebastian? What makes Edward a good friend? a good grandchild? a good swimmer and competitor? What does 'gosh' really mean? Great to read before a sports day, swimming carnival, when you want to discuss bullying or even just hippos and Africa.

A wonderful pourquoi story, Hot Hippo  by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway explains for students why hippos don't actually swim, but spend a large part of their day in the water.

Another book that students love is Hippos are Huge! by Jonathan London and Matthew Trueman. This illustrated information book tells students about just how big and dangerous hippos are.

Hippos have even made it to the realm of 'true animal stories' since the December tsunami that swept baby hippo, Owen into the sea. Kenyan villagers worked to rescue Owen and he has now become best friend with Mzee, an elderly giant tortoise. Many books feature these two. See Owen and Mzee and its sequel by Isabella Hatkoff et al; A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer and Mama by Jeanette Winter.

Hippos can also be something that authors use for humour. Look at the popularity of the very long lasting series that started with There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and Deborah Niland. And more recently, Hippospotamus by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross,  The Hippo-not-amus  by Tony and Jan Payne and Hippobottymus by Steve Smallman and Ada Grey.

And maybe because hippos can be cantankerous they often feature in children's books about feelings and behaviour. See  Greedy Grumpy Hippo; Big Bully Hippo; Hurty Feelings; and  The Hippo who was Happy. 

For even more hippo books for your display, look at these.

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16th July World Snake day

It's World Snake Day! I'm certainly not enamoured of snakes, but the students I teach are. In fact the snake books in the library are nearly as popular as the shark books. Usually they want to borrow expository texts and marvel at the photos. We have many books that satisfy this need, the most popular probably being Damian Goodall's The Snake Book: Slip Sliding Away, but if you are looking for some picture books, these are some of the newer and more popular ones in the library:

• I (Don't) Like Snakes by Nicola Davies and Luciano Lozana
• Python by Christopher Cheng and Mark Jackson
• There's a Snake in My School!  by David Walliams and Tony Ross
• Boa's Bad Birthday by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
• Anna and Otis  by Maisie Paradise Shearring
• I Saw Anaconda by Emma Dodd and Jane Clarke

If you want to share a short novel, try:
• Akimbo and the Snakes  by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Snake Who Came to Stay by Julia Donaldson
• Snake and Lizard  by Joy Cowley

I have written about snakes before here.

14th July Pandemonium Day

I love the word 'pandemonium' and so do young children. They feel a great sense of achievement when they say it. Therefore I really enjoy reading books to my preschool classes that use that word. Some of my favourites are:

My year 2 readers get quite engrossed in Jeanne Willis' Penguin Pandemonium series too.

I also love the origin of the word, not that I would be teaching Kindergarten about Milton.

 1660-70; after Pandaemonium, Milton's name in Paradise Lost for the capital of hell; see pan-, demon, -ium

Given how many times it is spelled to feature 'panda' in the title though perhaps it should have been spelled with the 'a' not the 'e'.

26th October - 1st November Bat Week

We've had bats flying across the windows in the library as part of a bat display for three weeks now. I cut the bats out from black cardboard folded in half (I used this Martha Stewart template) so they look as if they are flying and move if there is any breeze. They look very effective and have certainly helped the bat books be viewed and borrowed. Brian Lies' bat books which started with Bats in the Library  and now has four titles were the most popular but the pinterest list here shows that we had quite a few to choose from and several toys. Bat Week is well worth celebrating book-wise.

20th October International Sloth Day

October 20th, 2015 is International Sloth Day, so says this website. Other sites say that it is the third Saturday in October which means that it was last Saturday, 17th October. Whenever it is doesn't matter because there is so much fun to be had with young children and reading about sloths. There are so many picture books to explore, film clips to watch and toy sloths to hug. See the amazing sloths made by Andrea Vida among other more commercial ones. The books below are in our library. If these are not enough see pinterest page here.

12th -20th September NSW Bike Week

The weather here has been superb. It is Spring and you just want to be outside doing things. On the weekend the Festival of the Winds was on in Bondi. It is NSW Bike Week  from Saturday, 12 September until Sunday, 20 September and there are children in parks, at the beach and on the move. Hopefully it will still be like this in a week's time when it is school holidays. When I think of Spring at school I like to read Will Hillenbrand's Spring is Here to my preschoolers. It is one of the books in the series about Bear and Mole. Coincidently there is a title about kites, Kite Day and another title in the series about bike riding  is Off We Go! Here Bear is encouraging Mole to give up his training wheels. This too is the premise in other titles about bike riding (see list of titles below). 

I am often asked by parents for books about bike riding because their child is fearful and unwilling to take risks. I recommend Jeanne Willis' Don't Let Go! which hasn't failed me yet. Here a little girl persuades her father to teach her to ride a bike. She has all the trouble with balancing and speed control that every learner remembers - but at last she is whipping down the path in the park screaming: 'It's all right - you can let go now!' 

I notice that there has been a number of new books which feature bicycles lately including Byron Barton's My Bike, Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bike by Chris Raschka and two more about bears on bikes, Bike On, Bear! by Cynthia Liu and Bear on a Bike by Hannah Shaw which is coming soon.

I like to share two books set in Africa with older children who take having a bike for granted,  Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams and My Rows and Piles of Coins with fabulous illustrations by E.B.Lewis.  These two show how for a child without a bike the yearning for the freedom that comes with a bike is paramount.

And don't forget Mulga Bill's Bicycle. Read it with gusto and explain the history of it and penny farthings.

16th - 22nd February Chip Week

Only in Britain could they celebrate chips, but I'm sure Australians probably eat just as many chips, so we too, could celebrate Chip Week. We have more books with 'chip' in the title than I thought we would too. We have two picture books:

• The Best Chip by Kate Leake
• Don't Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate! by Caryl Hart & Leigh Hodgkinson

And two chapter books, both from popular series:

• Super Cat and the Chip Thief by Jeanne Willis
• Monster and Chips by David O'Connell

So tomorrow in one part of the library there will be pancake stories for Pancake Day and elsewhere chip books for Chip Week.

Let it Rip Potato Chip!
 

10th February Safer Internet Day

So what is Safer Internet Day?  Well, the day, which has been organised by Insafe since 2005 is held on 10 February.  The purpose of this awareness day is to promote safe and responsible use of the internet. It aims to teach young people about how to keep themselves safe online.  And, of course, the use of the internet in a safe and responsible way is paramount! These days, most young people have access to the internet with their mobile phone, tablets or laptops.  So the day aims to raise awareness of online safety for young people.

Online safety is even of concern for parents of very young children, and I am often asked whether  there is  anything they can read with their child to start a discussion. I can think of many book titles where the theme is limiting the use of technology, but not so many about safety. I usually  recommend these two story books, but there must be others.

• Chicken Clicking by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross is a humorous story about a chicken who just keeps clicking on the farm's computer, managing to shop for all and sundry.

• The Internet is Like a Puddle by Shona Innes and Irisz Agocs is less of a story, but it does discuss some of the pitfalls associated with electronic communication.  Shona Innes is an Australian psychologist who has written four books marketed under the series name The Big Hug Books.


And if parents just want to read to inform themselves I suggest Internet Safety by Nick Hunter, keeping in mind that anything written about the internet is out of date by the time it is published because nothing to do with technology stands still.

31st August International Bat Night

The 18th International Bat Night will take place this weekend. The last weekend in August has been set aside to celebrate bats since 1997. While people who live with bats in their neighbourhood may not be that enamoured of them there are good reasons to ensure their continued existence. Although this may be questioned since the linking in the news of fruit bats and the Ebola outbreak. While this is supposedly an International event, it appears to be about preserving colonies of European bats and Australian Bat Night is celebrated in March.

The children I teach are nearly as interested in bats as they are in sharks, maybe because they fly but aren't birds and maybe because they are fascinated with the way they hang upside down and use echolocation. Consequently the library has nearly as many bat books as shark books. Of course the most popular stories are the series by Brian Lies that started with Bats in the Library, Janell Cannon's Stellaluna  for which we have toys or puppets, Jeanne Willis' Daft Bat and the very old Robert Dickins' Boris the Bat, but many of the non-fiction readers are just as popular. Nicola Davies' Bat Loves the Night, one of the Nature Storybooks series is one of my favourites. Below are the most popular titles.

3rd December International Day of People with Disability

This year is the 20^th anniversary of International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), a United Nations sanctioned day that aims to promote an understanding of people with disability and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being. The day seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of the integration of people with disability in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. This morning on the radio I listened to a fascinating interview with Kurt Fearnley, an Australian athlete who has achieved amazing success despite being born without the lower part of his spine. His speed in a wheelchair led me to think of picture books which depict children in wheelchairs who are experiencing success at what they choose to do. Three that came to mind are:

• Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This is the story about a boy, Ben and his grandfather who witness the birth of a baby seal. The boy loves surfing and feels very comfortable in the water swimming with the seals. One day when he gets into trouble in a rough surf, the baby seal comes to his assistance. The text in the story does not tell you about the boy's disability. You know only from observing a wheelchair in the illustrations.


• Arabella by Wendy Orr and Kim Gamble. This too is a story about a boy and his grandfather. Matthew is staying with his grandfather who is a keen sailor. Matthew wants to prove to himself that he can sail by himself but unfortunately chooses a time when a storm is brewing. Once again the illustrations hold the key to learning about Matthew's disability.


• Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. In this story the reader observes Susan taking part in a variety of activities. She appears to be having fun swimming, riding a horse, playing at the park and then right at the end the reader sees her wheelchair.

These three stories are easy to share with a class or group of children. They focus attention on the similarities between these children and all children and they provide readers with a lot to discuss.

30th October Monsterfeast

With the run up to Halloween, I have been having fun with my preschool classes. We have been sharing monster stories and talking about what makes a monster, a monster, what makes them scary and how can you tell if they are scary? Of course the monster picture books in my library are not ones that are likely to give the children nightmares and most of the time the children thought they looked friendly 'because they are smiling'. It was good to see them interpret body language as well as their behaviour and spoken words.

First, we read with The Snagglegrollop by Daniel Postgate and Nick Price. The children loved identifying the parts he had - a nose like an elephant, horns like a goat, warts like a frog! Then in the story he meets a Quibblesnuff and they fall in love. The children were rolling on the floor. Then they decided they weren't at all interested in scaring children.

Secondly, we read The Scariest Monster in the World by Lee Weatherly and Algy Craig Hall. This monster smiled on the cover and rubbed his head like he was thinking. 'Not scary' the children predicted. He gets the hiccups and the children had great fun making the hiccup noises. He needs to be scared and the animals show him a mirror which fixes him. The children really liked this solution.

Next I thought we might turn the tables and read about monsters who were scared of children. We read Pog by Lynn Lee and Kim Gamble where the monster is scared of children. This Australian book is out of print, so if you can't find it in a library you could substitute Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins which is based on the same idea.

All in all the monster books have been very popular, frequently borrowed and a big success. Today in browsing time I caught a group of Kindergarten children poring over The Monster Shop by Julie Beech and trying to decide which monster they liked best and would buy given the choice.

Other popular monster books in the library are:
• Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere
• No Monsters Allowed! by Tracey Hammet and Jan McCafferty
• A Rumpus in the Night! and Another Rumpus by Nick Ward
• Stomp! by Jeanne Willis and Paul Howard
• If You're a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca Emberley
• There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca Emberley

20th January Penguin Appreciation Day

Penguins are an especially popular choice of character in children's books! They are endearing, different from other birds because they can't fly, live on ice and can dive and swim in a way that humans envy.Why then do we need to have an Appreciation or Awareness Day for penguins? It really is just a time to celebrate penguins, but it is also a good time to reflect on the fact that some of the 17 species of penguins are being threatened by climate change.

What to read? Here's some fiction and non-fiction that is enjoyed in my library:

• Cuddly Dudley by Jez Alborough

• The Penguin Who Wanted to Find Out by Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard

• Solo by Paul Geraghty

• Nanu, Penguin Chick by Theresa Radcliffe and John Butler

• Emily and Alfie by Meredith Hooper and Emma Quay

• Little Penguin by Patrick Benson

• The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins and Jane Chapman

• The Emperor's Kingdom; Living on the Ice by Roger Kirkwood

• Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems by Judy Sierra and Ariane Dewey

• The Penguin Book: Birds in Suits by Dr Mark Norman

and of course there's always the Atwater's Mr Popper's Penguins and the myriad of movie

s and DVDs about penguins and Jeanne Willis' new book Penguin Pandemonium.