26th April Bookmobile Day

Bookmobiles, or vehicles that transport free library books, is a service that has been in use since the early 19th century. The American School Library was one of the first travelling libraries. They would travel to rural towns and small communities and give children the chance to read new books. 

I don't know how many bookmobiles there are in Australia, but I know some rural council areas do still have a mobile library service.

When I read about this day I looked in my library catalogue and was absolutely stunned to see that there were ten books:

• Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown

Ana loves stories. She often makes them up to help her little brother fall asleep. But in her small village there are only a few books and she has read them all. One morning, Ana wakes up to the clip-clop of hooves, and there before her, is the most wonderful sight: a traveling library resting on the backs of two burros-all the books a little girl could dream of, with enough stories to encourage her to create one of her own.
 

• Biblioburro A True Story from Columbia  by Jeanette Winter

Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there's barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution—a traveling library! He buys two donkeys—Alfa and Beto—and travels with them throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages. 

• My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs

Why would librarians go to the trouble of packing books on the backs of camels or driving miles to deliver books by bus? Because, as one librarian in Azerbaijan says, "Books are as important to us as air or water!" 

• Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston

The true story of Miss Dorothy, an enterprising and dedicated librarian who drove a bookmobile to bring books to her neighbours in Appalachia.

• The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman and Gabrielle Grimard

Inspired by Afghanistan's first library bus. It is still dark in Kabul, Afghanistan when the library bus rumbles out of the city. There are no bus seats--instead there are chairs and tables and shelves of books. And
there are no passengers--instead there is Pari, Mama's library helper. The girls they visit are learning to write English from Mama.

• Ready to Fly  by Lea Leon and Jessica Gibson

The true story of Sylvia Townsend, an African American girl who falls in love with ballet after seeing Swan Lake on TV. Although there aren’t many ballet schools that will accept a girl like Sylvia in the 1950s, her local bookmobile provides another possibility. A librarian helps Sylvia find a book about ballet and the determined seven-year-old, with the help of her new books, starts teaching herself the basics of classical ballet. 

• That Book Woman by Heather Henson and David Small

A moving tale that honours a special part of American history—the Pack Horse Librarians, who helped untold numbers of children see the stories amid the chicken scratch, and thus made them into lifetime readers.

• Moose's Library Bus by Inga Moore

Moose recycles an abandoned bus from the junkyard and makes a mobile library – a book bus! Now the whole neighbourhood can experience the magic of stories together. 

• Library Lil by Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellog

The town's residents are too busy watching TV, which to her ""was an evil that ranked right up there with poison ivy and mosquitoes."" When a storm knocks out the electricity for two weeks, the resourceful bibliophile hooks the population on reading as she pushes a bookmobile (whose battery is ""deader than a pickled herring"") through town, using muscle power.

• The Book Boat's In  by Cynthia Cotten and Frank Lessac 

This nostalgic picture book is based on the 1800s book boat that traveled along the Erie Canal.   

And one to look for that I haven't seen Colourful Mondays A Bookmobile Spreads Hope in Honduras  by Nelson Rodriguez

An empowering story about the impact of literacy in underprivileged communities, based on a real bookmobile program in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Luis's favourite day of the week is Monday, the day the bookmobile comes to his neighbourhood. 

25th April Penguin day

World Penguin Day is a celebratory and educative initiative that encourages people to learn more about penguins and their environment, how important they are to our ecosystems and the threats they face. 

Found all over the Southern Hemisphere, from Antarctica to the Galápagos Islands, penguins are famous for their endearing waddles, their dedicated chick hatching efforts and, for those based in icy climates, their trick of huddling to stay warm. 

While the day originated from the Adélie penguin’s migration habits, it celebrates all species of penguin and highlights the plight of these water-loving creatures. Of the 17 or so species around today sadly 10 of them have been deemed endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and 3 are considered near threatened.

I have written about penguins before here, but as they are a favourite animal of mine and it was along time ago I do want to celebrate it again. In the last week of last term at school I happened to share two penguin books with Year 2 who had been looking at Australian animals and animal classification. I read to them about Little Penguins because they are a penguin that they may see on mainland Australia. We used to have quite a group of them in Sydney, but dogs and foxes have meant this small colony is no longer easy to see. Some of the children had been to Phillip Island in Victoria.

One of the  two books I read,  Flipper and Finnegan  by Sophie Cunningham is about two Little Penguins from Phillip Island who are caught in an oil spill. They were saved from the effects of the oil by knitted jumpers. You can see and hear the book read by ABC Education.

The other  Chooks in Dinner Suits  by Diane Jackson-Hill is also about a Little Penguin colony on a Middle Island off the coast of Warrnambool in Victoria. They too were in danger, this time from foxes and dogs who could get to the island at low tide and attack the penguins. A farmer suggested using dogs such as he had to guard his free-range chickens on the island to guard the penguins. These Mareema dogs do an amazing job during the penguin breeding season. You can see the island and dogs in this film clip or this one.

Another book I could have read is The Accidental Penguin Hotel  by Andrew Kelly which is about the story of a Little Penguin colony who have made their home on a man-made breakwater in St Kilda in Melbourne. It shows children that penguin colonies can adapt and thrive in city areas.

For more penguin books especially ones about the other 16 types of penguins see here.

24th April International Guide Dog Day

   

 

Dogs are a man’s best friend because of their loyalty and dedication, but assistant dogs take this to a whole new level. International Guide Dog Day is celebrated on the last Wednesday in April each year. It marks the establishment of the International Federation of Guide Dog Associations on 26th April 1989. International Guide Dog Day is an opportunity to celebrate the work of guide dogs around the world and raise awareness of the importance of guide dog services to help people who are blind or have low vision live life on their terms.

International Assistance Dog Day is on the 4th August. Assistance dogs help people with disabilities or illnesses to navigate through life. They help where they can and perform simple tasks like guiding their owner’s path, helping fetch an item, and lots of other activities. 

Here in Australia we also celebrate Hearing Assistance Dogs on 19th April, because on this day in 1982 Amber, the first Hearing Assistance Dog went to help a deaf recipient in South Australia. Since then more than 700 dogs have been trained to help individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Any of these dogs are amazing and should be recognised for all that they do. Reading about dogs that work as assistant dogs is something some of my students have really taken a likening to. They bring a book back and then say are there any more like this?

In the library look for:

• Looking Out for Sarah  by Glenna Lang

•  Gus the Guide Dog  by Gina Dawson

• I Love Vincent  by Laura Ljungkvist

The Little Paws series  by Jess Black 

• Welcome Home Harley

• Meg's Big Mystery

• Ringo's Road Trip

•  Goldie Makes the Grade 

• Training a Guide Dog by Wendy Macdonald

These books are about assistance dogs:

• Rescue and Jessica  by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes

• Tuesday Tucks Me In by Luis Carlos Montalvan  

• Mogie by Kathi Appelt

• Madeline Finn and the Therapy Dog by Lisa Papp

• Hello Goodbye Dog  by Maria Gianferrari

23rd April Picnic Day

Picnic Day seems to be celebrated in a lot of different places on lots of different days. It is National Picnic Day on 23rd April in the USA and as it is school holidays here in Sydney and the weather is glorious it is a good idea to go outside and eat . The definition of a picnic is an occasion when a packed meal is eaten outdoors. Another says that it is  a pleasant or amusingly carefree experience. Doesn't really need a definition, it just involves food and being outside.

The word 'picnic' comes from two French words 'piquer' (to peck) and 'nique' (trivial). See the origin here.

One of my favourite books to read aloud is Gotcha  by Gail Jorgensen. In this story Bertha, a bear is celebrating her birthday with a group of bears picnicking in a field. The gathering is interrupted by a fly buzzing. Like all good picnics here in Australia there may be flies, ants, seagulls or even brush turkeys and kookaburras as I found out last week at a barbecue picnic at Clontarf Reserve. The kookaburras made eating food quite unpleasant as they kept swooping in to steal food.

These are other books you could also share to inspire the need to picnic.

• Picnic  by John Burningham

• We're Going on a Picnic  by Pat Hutchins

• Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories by Jarvis

• The Lighthouse Keeper's Picnic  by Ronda and David Armitage

• The Bear's Water Picnic  by John Yeoman and Quentin Blake

• Picnic With Oliver  by Mika Song

• The Perfect Picnic  by Ciara Flood

• Florentine and Pig Have a Very Lovely Picnic by Eva Katzler and Jess Mikhail

• Polly's Picnic by Richard Hamilton and Sophy Williams

• Piglet's Picnic  by Jessica Souhami

Animal builders and architects

There's two large display areas in the library and now one is sorted with Camelids, I've been thinking about the other one. I have thought about a bowerbird display to go with ALIA's National Simultaneous Storytime's book Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker, which is coming up in May, but really we don't have enough books unless I expand it to include everything blue or go off tangentially. I began to think about how many animals are fantastic builders and / or architects and who they are.

I've decided upon

• beavers

• bowerbirds

• weaverbirds

• termites

• wasps

• spiders

• meerkats

This will expand the display and offer a wider variety of reading for the students. This idea came from this book which I took off the shelf because it has a bowerbird on its cover.

• We Build Our Homes by Laura Knowles and Chris Madden

Each spread looks at a different animal, told as though from their viewpoint and using poetic, evocative language. The 25 amazing animal architects featured include bower birds and weaver birds, gophers and beavers, termites, honey bees, and many more.

I will accompany this book with others such as

• Animal Architects  by Julio Antonio Blasco and Daniel Nassar

Each spread contains a beautiful, colorful illustration of each animal and its home, plus a unique fold-out information panel, with stats and a simple architectural diagram showcasing the creation of the 'architect'. Look inside chimpanzee nests, beaver dams, termite mounds, stork nests and many more.

• If Animals Built Your House by Bill Wise and Rebecca Evans

The reader gets to live alongside animals in their wild and wacky homes. From foam-nest tree frogs and mound termites, to alligators and pack rats, readers can see how similar and very different animal and human homes can be. 

• How Animals Build by Moira Butterfield and Tim Hutchinson

An  illustrated lift-the-flap hardback that explores the incredible world of animal architects. Children can open flaps and unfold spreads to discover amazing animal homes up high, underground, on land, and under the sea. From spider webs and rabbit warrens, to bird nests and ant colonies, and even coral reefs and beaver lodges, we reveal the secrets to these extraordinary structures and how they're built. 

• Built by Animals  by Christiane Dorion and Yeti Yun

Meet 26 animals who have inspired the materials and techniques that are used by humans in the building world today.

• Sticks and Stones Animal Homes   by Tai Snaith

Find out where 15 animals make their homes in countries around the world. Some weave, some burrow, some build and some just get lucky. Which house would you most like to share? 

• Animal Architects by Amy Cherrix and Chris Sasaki

Did you know the natural world is a construction zone? All over Earth, on land and at sea, animals are building the most amazing things. From tricky trapdoors to undersea cities to palaces of pebbles and more

•  Animal Architects  by Libby Romero

Ever wondered why beavers build dams? Or how spiders weave their intricate webs? In this reader, you'll meet brilliant birds inventive insects, and amazing mammals that all share a special skill. Packed with beautiful and engaging photos, this leveled reader introduces kids to the most extreme engineers of the animal kingdom.

• Builders  by Raina Ollivier, Karel Claes and Steffi Padmos

There are animals that prefer to live alone and others that live in groups.Animals build nests, dig tunnels, build roads and dams, and webs.Discover the amazing beaver, cross spider, sociable weaver, termite, stork, meerkat, honeybee, Japanese pufferfish, and mole. See who these special builders are!

Then any book about individual animals and what they build I will also include. Some you might have are:

• The Lodge that Beaver Built by Randi Sonenshine and Anne Hunter

• Mama Built a Little Nest  by Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins

• Mama Built a Little Den by Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins

• Bird Builds a Nest by Martin Jenkins and Richard Jones 

• This is the Nest that Robin Built by Denise Fleming

• Home Is ... by Hannah Barnaby and Frann Preston Gannon

• All Kinds of Nests by Eun-gyu Choi and Ji-yeon  Kim

• And So they Build by Bert Kitchen 

• A Wasp Builds a Nest  by Kate Scarborough and Martin Camm

• The Burrow Book by Richard Orr and Shaila Awan

International Year of Camelids: Alpacas and Llamas

The alpaca is a species of South American camelid mammal. It is similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are often noticeably smaller than llamas. The two animals are closely related and can successfully crossbreed. Wikipedia

Alpaca Day is on 10th September, but I am putting together a display of books for the International Year of the camelid and here is a list of what will be on display in the library.

Llama Day is on December. There are more books about llamas, than alpacas. Start with a book that compares the two, such as

• Llama or Alpaca? by Jamie Rice

• A Llama is not an Alpaca by Karen Jameson and Lorna Scobie

• Macca the Alpaca by Matt Cosgrove is book 1 in a very successful series of books that the students love. Now there's

• Alpacas with Maracas

• Macca's Makeover

• Macca the Backpacker    

• Macca's Christmas Crackers

• A Stack of Alpacas

•  Alpaca Picnic Panic

•  Macca and Al, Super Pals

• Dharma the Llama

• Llamas in Pyjamas

• Dharma the Christmas Llama

Other picture books:

• This Book has Alpacas and Bears by Emma Perry and Rikin Parekh

• The Alpactory Ready Pack Go  by Ruth Chan

• Alpaca's Maracas by Lesley Sims and David Semple

• Llamas in Pyjamas by Lesley Sims and David Semple

• The Llama Drama  by Rachel Morrisoe

• Llama Drama  by Yvonne Morrison and Neroli Williams

• The Big Freeze  by Pippa Curnick

• Lana Llama  by Lori Doody

• Maria Had a Little Llama  by Angela Dominguez

• Crafty Llama  by Mike Kerr and Renata Liwska

• No Probllama!  by Rosie Greening and Kali Stileman

• Funderpants  by Rosie Greening and James Dillon

There is a series of Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney which began with Llama Llama Red Pajama

There is a new series about Agent Llama by Angela Woolfe and Duncan Beedie

• Llama Destroys the World  by Jonathan Stutzman is book one in a three book series.

And if you can find this Peruvian legend  The Llama's Secret by Argentina Pelacious, this is  a rendition of the Great Flood story, in which a llama warns the people and animals to seek shelter on Huillcacato to avoid the rising sea.

Short chapter books:

• Harley by Star Livingstone and Molly Bang

• The Little Llama (Zoe's Rescue Zoo) by Amelia Cobb

• Llama Drama It's Showtime! (Awesome Animals) by Rose Impey

• A Llama Called Lightning  by Helen Peters

• The Nerd Herd  by Nathan Luff and Chris Kennett is a four book series where one of the main characters is a llama called Shaarma.

Non-fiction:

• Alpacas  by Michelle Hasselius

• Llamas  by Valerie Bodden

• Llamas  by Maya Myers

• Llamas  by Laura Butler

• Llamas by Katie Woolley

• How Many Llamas Does a Car Weigh? by Clara Cella