The 21st July is in Australia. We started term 3 on Monday with lamingtons for morning tea on our PD day. They were yummy and we all said what a good way to start the term. I also thought to myself, what a good way to start a term in the library where the theme Australia: Story Country was going to be at the forefront. The children know the story of
Possum Magic so well that they are quick to tell you that Hush eats a lamington to make himself visible again.
Lamington Day
In Hobart, late one night, in the kitchens of the casino, they saw a lamington on a plate. Hush closed her eyes and nibbled. Grandma Poss held her breath - and waited.
"It's worked! It's worked!" she cried. And she was right. Hush could be seen from head to tail. Grandma Poss hugged Hush, and they both danced "Here We Go Round the Lamington Plate" till early in the morning.
So from that time onwards, Hush was visible. But once a year, on her birthday, she and Grandma Poss ate a Vegemite sandwich, a piece of pavlova and half a lamington, just to make sure that Hush stayed visible forever.
And she did.
Just bought the 2015 edition of The Possum Magic Cookbook and it has a lamington recipe along with other Australian classics.
The Lamington Man by Kel Richards is an Australian Gingerbread man story and while it is lightweight it would be fun to share with the story of Lord Lamington and how lamingtons came to be.
Yesterday with my Kindergarten classes we talked about things that were 'Australian', authors that were 'Australian' and places in Australia. We talked about where they went in Australia during the holidays and we located them on a large map of Australia that I have affixed to the floor in the library. This proved to be a big success. The sign around the kangaroo's neck says 'Hop in and read!' The Kindergarten students did lots of hopping on the map as you can imagine.
The 23rd July is Patricia Coombs' birthday and in an earlier blog on her birthday I was bemoaning the fact that her Dorrie stories were no longer in print, but now that she has turned 90 there are four titles back in print in lovely little hardbacks. The print is still small, the illustrations as they were in the originals but for my fussy readers they look new, the paper is white not yellowed and they feel good to hold. Now to try them out on a new audience. I wonder if the publishers will do any more titles?
