5th February Did You Fart? Day

Who'd have thought that we needed a day to celebrate this bodily function? Well German cartoonist Bastian Melnyk thought so back in 2006.

Whether you try to hide it or not, we all fart. Everybody does, and as an average person in normal health, flatulence can happen between 10 and 20 times per day, and that is because we can produce about 500 to 1500 millilitres of gas per day. 

The age-group of children I teach are fascinated with all bodily functions and children's authors and illustrators have certainly capitalised on that. If you type the word 'fart' into a bookshop website, hundreds of books come up. Most are of very little literary merit, maybe written by celebrities, but they do make children laugh and thus sell multitudes.

When I started in the school library there weren't a lot of books on this topic, so if a teacher sent for a book about flatulence because it was a problem in their classroom, I sent back a book like The Gas We Pass   by Shinto Cho. This meant the children had a science lesson. They did not roll around laughing. Now it is much easier to find books, but I do not have a lot of the humorous ones in the library, as parents will buy these for their children at a department store. 

The library has:

• The Gas We Pass  by Shinto Cho

A simple and straightforward description of a natural process.

• Everybody Toots!  by Jonny Leighton and Mike Byrne

Jerboa is going about his day when he releases a squeaky, stinky toot which shocks the shy creature into thinking he’s done something wrong. Luckily, Elephant is on hand to weigh in with a wise word; after all, no matter how cheeky it might sound, EVERYBODY TOOTS! 

• Walter the Farting Dog  by William Kotzwinkle and Glen Murray

Warning- this book may cause flatulence! Walter is a wonderful dog, except for one small problem. Gas. He can't help it. It's just the way he is. Fortunately, Billy and Betty love him in spite of his gas problems. But Father says he's got to go. He's smelling up the house. Poor Walter. He's going back to the dog pound tomorrow. There are four other books in this series.

• Farley Farts  by Bruno Hachler and Birth Muller

Farley Frog needs to fart all the time - at home, at school, at the doctor's. This keeps getting him into trouble as you can imagine! But when he is banned from farting, he blows up like a big balloon and flies off into the air. 

• I'm Trying to Love Farts  by Bethany Barton

As long as there have been people, there have been farts. And as long as there have been farts, they've been hilarious!  Bethany Barton  explores the digestive system, how food becomes energy, and what our bodies do with what is left over. Equal parts funny and informative, it will leave you with a whole new appreciation for our bodily gases.

• Fluff the Farting Fish  by Michael Rosen

Elvie is desperate for a puppy that she can train up to do amazing tricks. But it's not a puppy Mum returns from the pet shop with, it's a fish. Elvie trains up Fluff the fish. He can't sit, he won't bark on command, but he does have a very special fishy talent all of his own . . .

This series about Marty is by Simon Mitchell and Gus Gordon.

Marty isn't good at anything much at school, but he does have one highly unusual talent: his ability to fart on cue. Unfortunately it's not a talent that impresses many people, until he is discovered by farting coach, Mr Windybottom. Marty's amazing talent takes him into the secret, fantastic, highly competitive world of World Championship Farting!

2nd February World Tutu Day

 

It is World Tutu Day ...

what fun!

 'Tutu' refers to the iconic dancing outfit worn around a ballerina's waist. The first tutu was introduced in the Paris Opera Ballet by dancer Marie Taglioni during a performance called "La Sylphide", which was the first to feature dancing on tip-toes! Her tutu, called "Romantic tutu", was designed as a bell-shaped garment covering most of her legs. And guess what? It was such a success that it remained the typical clothing for dancers until today! Although, from the late 1800s, tutus began to shorten up, thus allowing ballerinas to move more freely.

I looked at the library catalogue thinking there wouldn't be many books with 'tutu' in the title. How wrong I was...there are lots, so tomorrow I will put the library's tutu-wearing teddy out on a table with all of these books... and that does not include ballet books with a tutu on the cover illustration!

 

31st January International Day of the Magicians

31st  January is International Day of the Magicians, on the day Giovanni Bosco died. He was an Italian priest who lived in the 1950s, who dedicated his life to the education of street children in an extraordinary way. He was teaching catholicism using magic! International Day of the Magicians celebrates him, and the sense of wonder magicians give to people. A magician is someone that creates illusions, making the impossible... possible!

Today is a good day to have fun reading about magicians!

or you could read about a real magician eg. Houdini

29th January Read Your World Day or Multicultural Children's Book Day

Read Your World Day, formerly known as Multicultural Children’s Book Day, is an annual event that highlights multicultural books and the authors, illustrators, and publishers who create them. It is a unique opportunity to shine the spotlight on diverse/multicultural books, authors, and publishers.

Read Your World Day’s Criteria for “Multicultural” or “Diverse” Children’s Books

• Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
• Books that are written by an author of diversity or color from their perspective. Search #OwnVoices to discover diverse books written by diverse authors.
• Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, races, religions, languages, and traditions. These books can be non-fiction but still written in a way that kids will find entertaining and informative.
• Books that embrace special needs or even “hidden disabilities” like ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
• Books that show readers what is POSSIBLE–like a book that shows an Asian child as an astronaut, a child from Sudan as an actress, or a biracial child as a world leader.

Multicultural Children's Book Day was  founded by co-creators Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen. They were frustrated by a lack of diverse and multicultural children’s books available to their own families and decided to take matters into their own hands.

It is much easier to find diverse children's books than it used to be, but that does not mean that we don't make a concerted effort to share diverse books with our children.

I follow several websites to make sure I am up-to-date with what is on offer from publishers for my young students. These provide so much extra information and enable me to feel more confident purchasing a book I haven't seen 'in the flesh' for the school library.

Read Your World has reading lists.

Empathy Lab provides booklists

Inclusive Books for Children provides very well annotated booklists.

Diverse Book Finder allows you to search for books.

Social Justice Books reviews books and makes recommendations.

Next week on the 4th February it is also World Read Aloud Day, so why not make the book you choose to read aloud to celebrate this day one that gives your audience a window or mirror into a diverse world. Here in Australia it is the beginning of a new school year and teachers are getting to know a new group of students and I am sure they will be a diverse bunch!

27th January Chocolate Cake Day

 

Chocolate Cake Day celebrates the cake more people favour. It comes in so many different guises, but even a simple chocolate cake is yummy, easy to make and mood-lifting. So make a chocolate cake and share it while you read one of these:

This is a page from 13 Words   by Lemony Snicker

17th January Benjamin Franklin Day Kid Inventors' Day

17th January is celebrated worldwide as Benjamin Franklin Day. He was born on this day in 1706 in Boston, the fifteenth child to a family with a modest soap and candle business. Franklin was a polymath, someone who had expertise in a variety of subjects, and an active inventor, author, printer, passionate about music and politics. He stopped attending school at the age of ten. 

Look for these biographies to learn more about his inventions and politics.

It is also Kid Inventors' Day because Benjamin Franklin first began inventing things as a child. Last year I wrote about this and gave a list of books to look for in the library. The Aussie Child Network also has lots of tangents to explore.