October Pizza Month

October is Pizza Month in the USA. The children I teach love pizza, so much so that if I want to reward them for finishing something like the Premier's Reading Challenge we have a pizza party in the library. The students love the thought of eating in the library even if the reality isn't what they think it will be! We read Adam Rubin's Secret Pizza Party and everyone is sworn to secrecy so that the students who weren't there have to keep wondering what it was like.

My students will be back at school next week after two week's holiday when they probably ate plenty of pizza, but nevertheless I have put out a table full of these resources (all the pizza books in the library) to celebrate Pizza Month. I will also add some cook books which have pizza making.

6th September Pet Rock Day 16th September Collect Rocks Day

September seems to be the time to think about ROCKS! There is Pet Rock Day on the 6th or 14th depending on which website you look at and then there is Collect Rocks Day on the 16th. I grew up in an area where there was large amount of igneous rock and I had a science-teacher father who was besotted with geology and physical geography. I loved collecting rocks, especially those pieces of basalt that had been made into smooth pebbles by the pounding of the sea. These rocks were great for drawing on, decorating, making into people and rock art. And now I'm an adult I still have a 'thing' for rocks. Recently in Ireland I found myself picking up rocks and making totems on the pebbly beaches. I wrote on beaches with stones and made rock art constantly. old habits resurfaced because of the abundance of rocks to work with...and yes I did bring two rocks home! One of them is from the beach that the movie Ryan's Daughter was filmed on, the other from a town called Greystones just south of Dublin where as you guessed the beach is made from large grey pebbles. As you can also probably guess I loved The Giant's Causeway which makes rocks appear so clever.

The children at school do borrow books about rocks and crystals. They seem to run in bursts and if one child gets interested I often find the interest spreads. Below are some of my favourite rock books in the library and here is the connection to my pinterest page where I have both children's books and projects that use rocks. If you decide to 'adopt a rock' read Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs a Rock. Children probably won't choose to read this book themselves because of the illustrations and their lack of colour, but the text is perfect and once you read it, the children understand and are keen to choose a rock.

14th November Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) Astrid Lindgren (1907 - 2002) William Steig (1907 - 2003) Nancy Tafuri (1946)

I will write about Monet on 19th November when there isn't a birthday as three heavy-weights on one day is too many.

Astrid Lindgren is the Swedish author responsible for Pippi Longstocking, the redhaired rascal who does everything parents squirm at and children just wish that they could do. At the time Lindgren wrote her stories, nine-year old girls were, neat, quiet and obedient, in fact submissive, not stronger than any one else, self-sufficient and off having adventures. Something that girls today still relate too. The new addition of Pippi Longstocking that has large print and very white pages as well as illustrations by Lauren Child is extremely popular. It is also good to see picture book versions where it is just a chapter at a time. Following her death in 2002 the Swedish Government established the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in her memory. The award is the largest monetary award for children's and young adult literature. In 2008 Australian author, Sonya Hartnett received the award.

William Steig was born in the USA to Polish Jewish immigrants and was a cartoonist for the New Yorker before embarking on a career in children's books. He won the Caldecott Medal in 1970 for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and he is the author of Shrek! the picture book that became the basis for the movie phenomena. His books often have a talking beast as the good-hearted protagonist who overcomes adversity with the help of magic, just as Sylvester and Shrek.

Nancy Tafuri is also American. She is probably best known for Have You Seen My Duckling? but she has authored and illustrated many other books for the very young. Her books tend to have minimal text and larger than life creatures. She says that she most identifies with Beatrix Potter and her animals have a similar warmth without wearing clothing. She offers this as advice to new writers, "research the age group and keep it simple" and that is exactly what she has done. She has not ventured into any other age group or experimented with longer texts.