4th April World Rat Day

World Rat Day is a holiday to recognise the rat as a great companion because pet rat fans desire recognition for this little creature. Did you know that humans share 99% of their DNA with rats? The day was founded to challenge the stigma surrounding rats' poor reputation. However, it wasn't always the case! The Chinese zodiac honours the rat as the first animal in the twelve-year cycle, associating those born in the year of the rat with positive personality traits, such as optimism, intelligence and diligence.

I have written about this day before and added a list of books, so I am only going to refer here to books that have been published since that post.

These four are worth a read for very different purposes!

• The Cat and the Rat and the Hat  by Em Lynas and Matt Hunt

Cat is sitting on his favourite mat, when who should come along but Rat with a very nice hat? Cat wants Rat's hat and will stop at NOTHING to get it. But when Bat arrives wearing a fancy cravat, well, what could be better than that? Chaos ensues as both Cat and Rat decide they MUST have Bat's fancy cravat for themselves!

• Bear and Rat by Christopher Cheng and Stephen Michael King

Bear and Rat are the best of friends who do everything together, 
but Rat wonders if Bear will always be there to hold her hand, 
no matter what happens ...

• The Many Hats of Louie the Rat  by Sakshi Mangal

An inventive rat saves the day with perseverance, creativity, kindness, and some helpful hats. Louie the rat loves turning not-so-useful things into ingenious inventions, but none of the other rats in town seem to appreciate his odd, often ineffective gadgets.

 • The Little Rat and the Golden Seed  by Li Jian

This Chinese-English bilingual children's book tells the story of the Little Rat and the Grandpa - unlikely allies who embark on an adventure to find a golden seed. They encounter rough seas, fierce guards and tall mountains, but - in the end - bring home a golden rice seed and save the village from going hungry.

There's even a new graphic novel series for young readers that features a rat, Gnome and Rat  by Lauren Stohler.

• Gnome and Rat are best friends who live together in a charming forest. Rat enjoys drinking tea and finishing crossword puzzles. And Gnome... well, Gnome likes to polish his pointy red hat and eat delicious sausages.

These funny friends share various adventures, whether it's celebrating Hat Day, perfecting magic tricks, or tracking down a new signature hat for Gnome.

2nd April International Children's Day

 

In 2025, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is sponsored by IBBY-Netherlands and the poster is made by two Dutch creators of children’s books. The theme of the 2025 International Children's Book Day is The freedom of imagination, and the motto is the last sentence of the poem ‘The Language of Pictures’:

‘Make pictures for my poem, and please feel free: these words belong to you even though they came from me.’

The poem comes from the illustrated poetry collection Alle wensen van de wereld (2021) by Rian Visser and illustrator Janneke Ipenburg. This book was awarded a Zilveren Griffel in the Netherlands and the Gouden Poëziemedaille (Gold Poetry Medal) in Belgium.

I know very little about Dutch Children's Literature and this poem and illustration made me feel guilty that I didn't know more. Of course I know about Dick Bruna and Miffy is still popular in my Early Childhood Library. Miffy books are on display in the library at the moment along with other famous 'rabbits' in children's books eg Max and Ruby (Rosemary Wells), Simon (Stephanie Blake), Davy (Brigitte Weninger), Hopper (Marcus Pfister) and Betty Bunny (Michael Kaplan).

The other author Dutch author illustrator I know and admire is Max Velthuijs. His series of books about Frog will make you smile.

Other than those two, the library has very few other Dutch children's book makers... at least one book by each of these:

• Jan Jutte

• Wouter van Reek has a series of books about Coppernickel

• Annemarie van Haeringen

• Sarah van Dongen

• Mies van Hout

• The Tjong-Khing is an Indonesian-born children’s book illustrator based in the Netherlands who has won Dutch picture book prizes several times. 

Time to do some more research and find some more!

Meanwhile I have written more comprehensively about Children's Book Day here and Momotimetoread has here.

28th March Weed Appreciation Day

 Who would have thought...there's a day to celebrate weeds!

This day is designed to remind us that some weeds are beneficial to us and our ecosystem. Humans have used weeds for food and as herbs for much of recorded history. Some are edible and nutritious, while other weeds have medicinal value.

A weed is basically any plant that grows where it's not wanted, but remember what fun you had as a child collecting dandelions or clover flowers to make things.  

Dandelions are a food source for insects and some birds. Humans eat young dandelion leaves and enjoy tea and wine made from the leaves and flowers. The Native Americans used dandelions to treat specific ailments. Nutritionally, dandelions contain a source of vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, and fibre.

Not a lot of picture books explore weeds, but these two do.

And this is a good time to read Quentin Blake's The Weed!

An inspiring fable about the power of nature, encouraging children and adults alike to care for the environment and each other. The Meadowsweet family suddenly and expectedly find themselves at the bottom of a giant crack in the earth. With the help of their pet bird, Octavia and a magical seed, the family go on a journey to the surface. A charming, fantastical story about discovery, the potential for growth, the power of an idea and the importance of having faith in the unknown.

It is dandelion Day on the 5th April and there are many more books to celebrate this day. See Pinterest.

30th March Pencil Day

National Pencil Day commemorates the day Hymen Lipman received his patent for a pencil with an eraser attached. Before that time, pencils and erasers existed separately. Lipman combined the two making two tools much more convenient to use. 

In the United States, most pencils are painted yellow. Did you know that Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casings to write his books? He began each day with six sharpened pencils and only when all six became unusable did he resharpen them.

I first wrote about this day in 2011, but so many more books about pencils have been published since then, that there is enough now for a very good display and fun lunchtime activities.

I have students who have read Linus the Little Yellow Pencil  by Scott Magoon and then drawn faces on their own pencils, but there are other books to explore:

• Pencil by Ann Ingalls and Dean Griffiths

• Pencils on Strike  by Jennifer Jones 

• Little Red Writing by Joan Holub and Melissa Sweet

• When Pencil Met Eraser by Karen Kilpatrick

• Perfect  by Max Amato

• Pencil & Eraser  by Jenny Alvarado (book 1 in a new graphic series)

• Dreams of a Pencil  by Xiaonan Zhang

• Arabella and the Magic Pencil  by Stephanie Ward

• My Pencil and Me  by Sara Varon

Look here for more titles.

And keep an eye out for these two that are coming soon:

• The Pencil  by  Susan Avingaq   

• The Pencil  by Hye-Yun Kim
a wordless picture book, follows a pencil's life cycle from tree to factory to store shelf and back to tree, drawn on the pages of a book.

And if you can't celebrate Pencil Day, then you can use them for a display on Rubber Eraser Day on 15th April.

Eraser  by Anna Kang

23rd March World Optometry Day

World Optometry Day is a day that celebrates optometrists and their contributions to vision care and eye health around the world.

It is not a day I will celebrate in the library, but I am surprised by the number of students I teach who do wear spectacles, far more than when I first started teaching, so it strikes me that parents and teachers today are more conscious of eye care. My sister who works in eye health would say that too, but she does despair at the number of parents who want help for their children, but who are reluctant to encourage their children to do the exercises or safeguards that the health professional suggests 'because they don't like it'. Intervention then takes a lot longer than planned.

I have written about World Sight Day before and listed book resources that would support reading on the topic of sight. Here are three to use for this specific day;

The Eyes by Lorna Hendry

 The Flying Optometrist  by Joanne Adderton

Maisy Goes to the Eye Doctor by Lucy Cousins

(although it says doctor in the title they do go to an optometrist)

23rd March World Bear Day

World Bear Day celebrates all types of bears! Moon bears, sun bears, spectacled bears, sloth bears, black and brown bears! There are eight species of bears and six of these are considered vulnerable or threatened according  to the IUCN Red List.

We have just celebrated Polar Bear Day and Panda Day, so now we can focus on the other bears. Start with a book like Meet the Bears  by Kate Peridot, A Book of Bears  by Katie Viggers or Something About a Bear  by Jackie Morris which introduce the eight bears and where to find them.

Then, here are some books that give positive messages about saving bears.

And coming later this year, this book by Catherine Barr.

In the past I have used picture books to look at Bears in Captivity. You can see some of the books I used for this unit on this Pinterest page.

22nd March International Seal Day

Today is International Seal Day, which is focused on celebrating and protecting these majestic marine mammals 🦭 While today is dedicated to seals, fittingly, this week is also Sustainable Seafood Week, which highlights an important action we can take to protect seals and marine life in the wild. Choosing MSC-certified seafood prevents the overfishing of our oceans and protects wild seals 🐟

This is from Instagram posted today from Taronga Zoo here in Sydney. They also had an article in the newspaper today about a sea lion pup that has been born at the zoo. I plan to use it with my Year 2 literacy group next week as we are looking at endangered Australian mammals and what can be done to ensure their futures. This is where I learned that it is International Seal Day.

Seals, whose scientific name is Pinnipedia, are found on every continent on Earth, principally in cold water environments. There are 33 different species alive today, from gigantic ones, such as the elephant seal, and small ones like the Baikal seal. These semi-aquatic marine mammals are thought to be close relatives to bears and the animal group that includes weasels and otters. 

While they look similar, sea lions are not seals. Belonging to the same suborder known as Pinnipedia, sea lions, seals, fur seals, and walruses share a common classification as 'pinnipeds', derived from the Latin words for fin or flipper-footed. Sea lions have little ears (seals only have ear holes), longer flippers and are generally a lot rowdier than their seal counterparts. International Sea Lion Day is on the 30th May.

The library doesn't have a lot of books about seals, but these have lovely illustrations and will give you information and a story.

See What a Seal Can Do  by Chris Butterworth

Lying about on the sand like a fat sunbather, seals might seem like slow, dozy creatures – but nothing compares with their grace and speed when they're underwater! Seals can dive like rockets and twist like a dancer. They can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas  by Lynne Cox

is the incredible story of Elizabeth, a real-life elephant seal who made her home in the Avon River in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. When Elizabeth decides to stretch out across a two-lane road, the citizens worry she might get hurt or cause traffic accidents, so a group of volunteers tows her out to sea. But Elizabeth swims all the way back to Christchurch. The volunteers catch her again and again—each time towing her farther, even hundreds of miles away—but, still, Elizabeth finds her way back home.

Saving Seal  by Diane Jackson Hill

Seal has made his home in the waters of a coastal village, but he often finds himself trapped and ensnared in the plastic rubbish filling the Bay. Fortunately, he is rescued by Lizzie and Grandpa Dave.

Seal Surfer  by Michael Foreman

A boy and his grandfather watch as a baby seal is born on the rocks near their home and from that day a special friendship is created between them. Despite his disability, the boy is a keen surfer, and he enjoys many afternoons surfing with the seals. One day, however, he gets into trouble in rough seas, and the young seal saves him.

The Seal on the Beach by Mara Bergman

Maggie is on holiday with her aunt and uncle. Meanwhile her mum waits for Maggie’s baby brother to come home from hospital. On a walk across the wild Norfolk shoreline, Maggie finds a seal pup stranded on the beach, all alone. She is the sweetest thing Maggie has ever seen. But without her mum, how will the seal survive? Who will rescue her and will she ever be returned to the sea, and find her family again?