12th November Michael Rosen Day

On  Tuesday 12th  November enjoy a day of poetry, stories and creativity to celebrate 50 years since Michael Rosen's first book.

We all know We're Going on a Bear Hunt , but there are so many other resources to explore. I had fun with Year 2 recently reading and hearing Michael's poetry, but next week I plan to share with other grades too.

I have put out a display of Michael's books in readiness and am hoping many of them will be borrowed. There is something for everyone.

Popular with the preschool and illustrated by Robert Sterling

There's the books about Rover that are illustrated by Neal Layton

There's the picture books illustrated by Bob Graham

The books inspired by nursery rhymes and fairytales illustrated by Nick Sharratt and David Melling

 

Short novels for beginning readers

There's so many really good stand alone picture books:

And of course there's all the poetry anthologies. There's a new one coming in January.

16th Roller Coaster Day

National Roller Coaster Day is a day in which people are encouraged to get out to their favourite amusement parks and enjoy a ride on a roller coaster. 

Here's another of those words like icecream (ice cream) where I think of roller coaster as one word, rollercoaster because it is a new entity not a coast that rolls or a roll that coasts. I'm not a fan of roller coasters or ferris wheels as I like to have my feet flat on the ground, but I do know that many children love them and can't wait until they are tall enough to go on the one they want to ride.

If like me you would prefer to live vicariously and read about them, try these:

Information:

• Ride that Rollercoaster! by Louise and Richard Spilsbury

• Amazing Rollercoasters  by Anita Nathan Amin

• Ripley Readers: Roller Coasters

Stories:

• Roller Coaster  by Marla Frazee

• The Roller Coaster Ride  by David Broadbent

• The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster! by Mo Willems

•  I Am (Not) Scared  by Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant

•  B is for Construction  by June Sobel and Melissa Iwai

• Little Elliot Big Fun  by Mike Curato

• When Amelia Earhart Built a Roller Coaster  by Mark Weakland

• Shark and Bot: Epic Roller Coaster Ride by Brian Yanish

• Fox Tails: The Biggest Roller Coaster  by Tina Kugler

• Roller-Coaster  by David Mezenthen

• Heidi Hecklebeck and the Wild Ride  by Wanda Coven

• Spy Dog: Rollercoaster!  by Andrew Cope

• Bear Flies High  by Michael Rosen and Adrian Reynolds

Search this out in the library or on Youtube because the story is worthwhile

Bear is playing on the beach and, seeing the seagulls wheeling above him, decides that he would love to learn how to fly. And there are four children with him who know exactly how to make that happen.
An exhilarating story about friends helping each other to realise their dreams - and having great fun doing it

• The Screaming Mean Machine  by Joy Cowley and David Cox 

This story is also out of print, but you will find it on Youtube. It  epitomises all of the roller coaster feelings. The language is wonderful and so good for showing students how to express drama and tension in their own writing.

A young girl wonders if, now that she is big enough, she will be able to overcome her fears and ride the roller coaster at the amusement park. 

15th January Bagel Day

What is a bagel? Some children asked me this years ago when I first read Mr Belinsky's Bagels to them, but now I sometimes see them in lunchboxes because they are now much easier to find in Australia. Of course we don't have as much choice as you might get in New York, but we certainly can enjoy sweet and savoury ones here. When my children were small my son used to love the blueberry bagels and my daughter liked them to be plain but have cream cheese and smoked salmon on them.

Bagels originated in Poland, many centuries ago. Bread was considered one of the most holy foods, and under Jewish dietary restrictions, bread could not be eaten until after hands were washed and a blessing was read. At this time, most Jews earned their living as peddlers, so when traveling the countryside they usually couldn’t eat bread because clean water was rarely available.

Boiling before baking made bagels fall out of the category of traditional bread. Therefore, Jewish people were able to eat this type of bread without having to go through the usual religious rituals of hand washing and blessing the bread before eating. Polish immigrants took bagels to America and now we can buy them all over the world. 

Why celebrate them with a day to themselves? Unfortunately, no one really knows who invented National Bagel Day. All that’s really known is that it was started sometime during the 2000s. The only thing that’s really known is that whoever created it gave us a good excuse to eat a bagel! And read about them...

Fun facts

• Bagels are always round

• Bagels are boiled before they are baked

• The name bagel comes from the German word “bougel,” a name which means bracelet.

Now read:

• Mr.  Belinsky's Bagels by Ellen Schwartz and Stefan Czernecki

• Bagels from Benny  by Aubrey Davis and Susan Petricic

• Barking Bagels by Michael Rosen and Tony Ross

• The Bagel King by Andrew Larson and Sandy Nichols

• Where on Earth is My Bagel?  by Frances and Ginger Park and Grace Lin

7th October World Smile Day

In 2022, World Smile Day will take place on the 7th of October 2022. The idea of the day is to do a simple act of kindness for someone to make them smile. If we all make the effort to do one thing to make each other smile, we'll all be grinning in no time. 

Smiling is a gesture that is understood across the world, whether you speak the same language or not. Sharing your smile makes you feel good, and makes the other person feel good too.

I have written about this day before and smiles before, but have realised that the library has even more books now that could also be used to celebrate this day. 

See these newer ones.

• The Smile Shop by Satoshi Kitamura

• The Smile by Marie Voigt

• How to Make a Shark Smile by Shawn Achor and Amy Blankson

• A Smile  by Raoul Follereau and Hoda Hadadi

• When You Smile by Charles Fuge

• The Lost Smile  by Nadia L King and Nelli Aghekyan

Then add a short chapter book The Smile  by Michelle Magorian

A couple of poetry books, Smile Out Loud  by Joseph Coelho and Even My Ears are Smiling by Michael Rosen

A biography,  Smile: How a Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry) by Gary Golio and Ed Young

And a non fiction gem,  Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins

19th April Banana Day

Banana Day is held annually on the third Wednesday of April.  

There are so many books you could use to celebrate Banana Day. These are only the ones in my library with the words banana or bananas in the title. There are many more where they are in the illustrations. 

Most of the books feature bananas as fruit, but a few look at 'going bananas' an idiom which means acting irrationally or crazy, something completely different and unrelated to the fruit. Where did this idiom come from? 

Young audiences will laugh at Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas, love the riddles in What Do You Call a Gorilla with a Banana in Each Ear? , be able to learn where bananas come from in  Juliana's Bananas and  thoroughly enjoy the poems in Michael Rosen's anthology of poems Bananas in My Ears. 

21st March World Poetry Day

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W. H. Auden 


I try to share poetry on Tuesday 21st March every year, sometimes just with the classes I teach, sometimes in assembly or sometimes I organise a whole school celebration. At my school the whole school is involved in eSmart Week events so unfortunately poetry will come off second best. All the more reason why my lessons in the library this week will all involve sharing poetry.

Here are five newish books that are well worth adding to any collection:
• Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer
This story celebrates poetry found in the world around us.  What is poetry? It is glistening morning dew. It is crisp leaves crunching. If you look and listen, it's all around you.
• All the World a Poem by  Gilles Tibo
Also for young children this is a tribute to poetry. Each poem is illustrated with paper collage art which is child-like and takes poetry to the level of the child.
•  A Great Big Cuddle Poems for the Very Young by Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell.
This wonderful book has just been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award. Enough said.
• Macavity The Mystery Cat by T.S.Eliot and Arthur Robins
This is a picture book version of this great poem. Arthur Robins has now done four of the cat poems as picture books...see Mr Mistoffelees, Skimbleshanks and Jellicle Cats as well.
• A Poem for Every Night edited by Allie Esiri.
This is a magnificent collection of 366 poems for older children, one to share ever night of the year. The poems - together with introductory paragraphs - have a link to the date on which they appear.

7th May Michael Rosen (1946)

Michael Rosen is an English poet and author who was the Children's Literature Laureate before the current incumbent Anthony Browne. Two of his books stand out in my early childhood library, but I'm sure that they are probably just as popular in other libraries as well. These books are We're Going on a Bear Hunt (illustrated by Helen Oxenbury) and Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy (illustrated by Quentin Blake and including a CD read by Rosen himself). I'm sure the calibre of the illustrators helps the popularity of these books, but even more so I think it is the rhythm of the words. Rosen has the gift of being able to write poetically without having to make everything rhyme. His poetry has much to teach children about what poetry is, is not and how much pleasure it can give. His poems are energetic, enthusiastic, cheeky, reflective, everyday and enjoyable all at the same time!

There is multitudes on the web about Michael Rosen and there are many more books to explore besides these two. A good place to start is his website and his performances on YouTube. And if you are at a school which isn't convinced about the need for a library and a teacher/librarian you have Michael Rosen on your side. Show this at a staff meeting.