Christmas books for Over 6s

Now for Advent Books to read to the over 6s. I love sharing these because there are so many opportunities to talk about the 'real meaning of Christmas', to consolidate work that classes have done in history units in class, to hark back to discussions in Circle Time and to draw on travel experiences.

1.  Cat in the Manger by Michael Foreman;  The Witness by Robert Westall;  Room For a Little One by Martin Waddell or any other nativity story where the point of view is changed. These three look at the story from the animals point of view. There are many others as well. The donkey's view also often appears in picture books. It is always interesting to be a bystander and report on an event and I enjoy asking students to do this themselves so these stories give them a starting point to form their own view. I read about a picture book this week that gives Joseph's view. How modern!

2.  Refuge by Anne Booth or Flight by Nadia Wheatley. While these two stories appear to tell the story of the journey to Bethlehem they also allow the reader to broaden the concept of Mary and Joseph's journey to encompass the plights of refugees in their journey in search of a safe place.

3. The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaola. I have included this as a folktale that explains why poinsettias are part of the Christmas tradition. If you can't find this, look for Cobweb Christmas  by Shirley Climo or  The Spider's Gift by Eric Kimmel  which are folktales explaining why we have tinsel on trees.

4. The Christmas Caravan by Jennifer Beck is a lovely story about Simon who wants to enter a competition. This gives you many opportunities to discuss competitions, decorating homes at Christmas and what is required to really appreciate Christmas. It also looks at Southern hemisphere Christmas traditions. Perhaps pair it with The Boxing Day Test by Sharon Willis.

5. Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and Susan Jeffers. While strictly speaking it is not a Christmas story it has snow and Susan Jeffers has used touches of red and green with the black and white of night and snow to evoke a very special setting in New England in Winter, when it is Christmas. The vellum cover on the book adds to the mystery and gives it the feeling of a present.

6. Silent Night  by Lara Hawthorne is a new book that brings this beautiful carol by Joseph Mohr to life by featuring the world's diversity as it moves through the lyrics. There are other versions though which highlight the origins of the carol. See Silent Night Holy Night which has beautiful Robert Ingpen illustrations and Silent Night which has Susan Jeffers' illustrations.

7. The Story Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden. This story can just be read from the novel version, but I love the picture book edition illustrated by Barbara Cooney. I serialise it with my year 1 classes and right from the first sentence, 'This is a story about wishing.' they are hooked.

8. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and P.J Lynch is another picture book which draws readers in, allows them to empathise with the characters and be surprised by the ending. The students love the foreshadowing and the lightening of the illustrations as the story progresses and Jonathan's demeanour changes.

9. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston and Barbara Cooney. I usually read this book to Year 2 in the week of  Remembrance Day in November. This makes the discussion of World War 1 and Ruthie's father's absence very pertinent. This is the nativity play story for older students. They revisit their nativity plays, the standing on chairs and the carol singing.

10. In Flander's Fields by Brian Harrison-Lever  and Norman Jorgenson tells the story of Christmas in the trenches during World War 1 when the fighting stopped, a robin is rescued and the soldiers sing Silent Night in English and German.


11. Fair's Fair  by Leon Garfield. This short chapter book has been published in many formats and with various illustrations. If you can't find the picture book version illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain read it to students without pictures and make them visualise for themselves because hers are so evocative that the rest pale to not be worth sharing.  This story about Jackson, an orphan is set in Victorian times and is told with such suspense that it is a bit scary but the ending is just what student readers require. A good friend found me a new copy of this at the Lifeline Book Fair, so you too could be lucky.

12. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Quentin Blake. I recommend this to parents of avid readers because when they share it their children make comparisons with Fair's Fair and other books they have read at school and they bring it back saying what great discussions the family had. I grew up with this story as my father had a record of someone reading it that we listened to every Christmas.

Others not to be missed:
Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo; The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg; Manger by Lee Bennett Hopkins; and Cat on the Hill by Michael Foreman.

Merry Christmas and happy reading.

Christmas Books for Under 6s

I have been really enjoying following quite a few bloggers who have been highlighting an advent book each day in the lead up to Christmas. Some have done one a day since the beginning of December. Others such as my friend at Momo Celebrating Time to Read have chosen twelve books. Two teacher friends with young children and another with grandchildren have been enjoying opening a book parcel each day during advent for a shared reading experience. This got me thinking about which books I would put on an advent list or wrap for my advent reading. As the teacher librarian in a school I find myself constantly thinking about what to read to whom. When I read to my preschool and Kindergarten classes in Term 4 as a lead up to Christmas, I read from these books. All have been very successful. You will notice how many of them are either very well known or are by authors who write prolifically for this age group.




1. The Christmas Book by Dick Bruna. I chose this one because it tells the Nativity story chronologically and simply but uses lovely language and is illustrated in the typical Bruna manner, that the children recognise from the Miffy books.

2. How Many Sleeps Till Christmas? by Mark Sperring and Sebastien Braun. This is about waiting patiently, not something children find easy to do at this time of the year. The title question is one that children ask every day as they are counting down.

3. What Do You Wish For? by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker. This book is especially pertinent to Australian children as it depicts a summer Christmas and a typical Australian child's street. Ruby needs to write a wish, but she struggles to decide upon one. Such a good thing to be talking to children about at this time of giving as well as receiving.

4. Max's Christmas by Rosemary Wells. I chose this one because I am the mother of a Max and a Ruby. My children loved this and all the Max and Ruby stories. Max's droll questions make everyone laugh. I also like this story because Santa appears in it, but without a huge emphasis on presents.

5. Angel Mae and the Christmas Baby by Shirley Hughes. This is the story of many children under six. Mae's mother is pregnant and tired. Her brother wants the baby to be a boy and Mae wants a girl, so squabbles ensue. It also features the school nativity play which is something most children will experience at some point in their schooling.

6. The Gift of Christmas  by Christine Leeson and Gaby Hansen. I have two copies of this story in the library. They have different titles, but are the same text and illustrations. The Very Special Christmas came with flashing fairy lights on the tree in the book, so you can imagine how much the children like it when we get to the decorated tree at the end. Molly Mouse collects a variety of decorations for the tree and the lights finish it beautifully.

7. Jingle Bells by Nick Butterworth. This is not the Christmas carol. Lottie and Jack are mice and they are having problems with the cat. The bell is part of the solution. When I bought this book for the library it was tied closed by beautiful red satin ribbon which had two bells on the ends, which is extremely fitting when you know what Mrs Mackie finds addressed to the cat.

8. Threadbear by Mick Inkpen. A story about a well-loved toy bear whose squeaker does not work. The bear thinks Santa will be able to help him. It has large fold out pages that the children love, even if they don't wear well.

9. Baboushka (various available) or The Legend of Old Befana by Tomie DePaola. I would choose one of these because they are folktales specific to either the Russian or Italian Christmas tradition that relate the story of the Three Kings going to Bethlehem.

10. Dream Snow by Eric Carle. This one because none of the other stories have snow and as with many of Carle's books it has paper engineering and music, a novelty which will keep everyone interested.


Then 11. and 12. would come from:
Wombat Divine by Mem Fox and Kerry Argent; Doing Christmas by Sarah Garland; The Snowman (show the filmclip) by Raymond Briggs; The Silver Christmas Tree by Pat Hutchins and Summer by June Factor and Alison Lester.

13th December World Violin Day

Unfortunately there is no one at school to celebrate Violin Day. We are already on summer holidays, but at my school all of Year 2 take part in a 'strings program' where they learn to play the violin or cello. When they first begin, being in the room next door at school, is excruciating but by the time the end of year concert comes round I am amazed at how good they sound, so next year when the Year 2 students are allocated their new instrument I am going to do a display in the library of all these wonderful 'violin' books.
• Patrick by Quentin Blake. When Patrick plays his violin extraordinary things happen.
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman among other things this is a fun introduction to the orchestra
• A Violin for Elva by Mary Lyn Ray and Tricia Tusa. Elva wants a violin but her parents say no.
• The Pear Violin by Bingbo and Gumi. A clever squirrel turns half a pear into a violin and makes beautiful music in the forest.
• Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Hana has had three violin lessons when she decides to enter a talent quest.
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic tells the story of Joshua Bell, a famous classical violinist who gave a free concert in a subway in Washington.
• The Violin Man  by Colin Thompson is about Oscar who plays his violin outside a theatre but longs to play inside the theatre.
• The Anzac Violin by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton is the true story of New Zealand soldier, Alexander Aitken who took his violin everywhere he went.
• Ada's Violin by Susan Hood and Sally Were Comport tells the amazing story of a group of children who play musical instruments built from recycled rubbish in Paraguay.
• The Magic Violin by Victor Kelleher. Jimbo plays the violin just like Year 2 do at the beginning...terribly.
• Kizmet and the Case of the Smashed Violin  by Frank Woodley is a short chapter book that has Kizmet trying to find out who is smashed a priceless Stradivarius violin.

11th December International Mountain Day

The theme for 2018 International Mountain Day is Mountains Matter. The website states

'Considering the crucial role they play in providing key ecosystem goods and services to the planet and their vulnerability in the face of climate change, we need to step up and raise attention to mountains.'

To raise attention of anything, I turn to books and in particular picture books so here I want to highlight two, an old one and a new one.

• Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker (2001)  This poetic text is accompanied by intense oil paintings that reveal geological details from the base to the tip of mountains. It is accompanied by Water Dance and Cloud Dance but stands alone as a testament to the beauty of mountains. We turned these books into a dance performance for a K -2 school concert. It was stunning.

• Mountains of the World by Dieter Braun (2018) This is a beautifully detailed and illustrated collection of the mountains of the world, part of the new range from Flying Eye Books.

If you haven't access to these two books in your library, of course there are others which will help children be enthralled by mountains. These two will help:

• How Mountains are Made by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• Mountains  by Seymour Simon



If you want to be more specific, these two books allow students to 'feel' the Himalayas:

• The Top of the World Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
• Our Village in the Sky by Janeen Brian and Anne Spudvilas




And for two new stories with magnificent illustrations

• Up the Mountain by Marianne Dubuc
• Secrets of the Mountain by Libby Walden and Richard Jones

13th November World Kindness Day

On the days before 13th November, I couldn't get into my blog and I wasn't feeling 'kind' towards my computer at all and then I went away. Now I'm back and I can once again get into my blog. Not sure what was going on. I had collected together the books I wanted to mention, so I'm doing it now ready for next year.

World Kindness Day is celebrated on the 13th November because this was when it came to be in 1998.

The purpose of World Kindness Day is to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion; and realise we are citizens of the world. As world citizens we have a commonality, and must realise that if progress is to be made in human relations and endeavours, if we are to achieve the goal of peaceful coexistence, we must focus on what we have in common. When we find likenesses we begin to experience empathy, and in such a state we can fully relate to that person or those people. While we may think of people from other cultures as being ‘different’ when we compare them with our own customs and beliefs, it doesn’t mean that we are any better than they are. When we become friends with someone from a different culture we discover that despite some obvious differences, there are many similarities.

There are so many picture books that could be used in classrooms to support this purpose. Any book that encourages us to think deeply about others, any book that encourages us to empathise with others, any book that makes us question our role and others' role in the world, any book that makes us feel uncomfortable about our position in the world, any book that causes us to pause...

I have written about this day before and focussed on books for young children about being kind, but today I just want to share some new titles that have been added to the library that will encourage you to pause and think.

24th November Fairy Bread Day

The 24th November is Fairy Bread Day everywhere, but it means more to Australians because fairy bread is native to Australia — something we can all be very proud of. 

Fairy bread is sliced white bread spread with margarine or butter and covered with hundreds and thousands, which adhere to the bread. It is typically cut into two triangles. It dates back to the 1920s in Australia, and is first recorded in The Hobart Mercury, which describes children consuming the food at a party. It continues to be popular at children's birthday parties and every Australian adult will have fond memories of fairy bread parties. A dear friend of mine actually has her birthday on the 24th November so I'm sure she'll be having fairy bread parties for quite some time yet. 

If you are reading a book set in Australia and a birthday is celebrated there may well be mention of fairy bread, but Ursula Dubosarsky took the iconic Australian party food and made it the focus of a whole book for beginning readers. Becky wants lots of fairy bread at her party, but there is too much. It is amazing all the things she thinks to do with it. For the readers in my library it is a favourite in the Nibbles series. 

Another beginning novel that is out of print but likely to be in many Australian school libraries is Bob the Builder and the Elves by Gillian Rubinstein. In this delightful story messy Bob has elves who clean for him and when they leave they leave him fairy bread to eat. He wants these elves gone from his house and enlists the help of his friendly neighbour, librarian Lily Sweet. Even some of the boys at school enjoy this story. Blake Education has teaching activities to go with this book.

There must be other Australian stories that feature fairy bread. Can you think of any? Interestingly the most iconic Australian book featuring food, Possum Magic doesn't feature it.

The name 'fairy bread' supposedly came about from a line in a poem, Scottish-born novelist  Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1885. It is poem 37 in 

A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods.  1913.

37. Fairy Bread

COME up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.

7th November Diwali

Today Diwali is being celebrated in Australia. This is the festival of lights, one of the most celebrated festivals in India. It has many beautiful traditions attached to it it and the children in Year 1 at school who are celebrating festivals this term enjoy this one immensely. They make lamps, design rangoon with coloured chalk on the playground and enjoy Indian sweets. For this reason the library now has a good collection of books to spread among the four classes. Among them are these:

3rd November Jellyfish Day

It is Jellyfish Day! This event is meant to honour our slightly slimy counterparts that can sometimes cause a bit of consternation at the beach.

It is celebrated in springtime, as this is the season when jellyfish will begin their migration to the shores of the northern hemisphere. Although an apparently very simple invertebrate they are beautiful creatures, that fascinate students and allow for some very creative artwork.

Did you know that a group of jellyfish can be called a bloom, a swarm, or a smack? Despite the word “fish” in their names, jellyfish are not actually fish. No bones about it, they are invertebrates! Besides their lack of bones, jellyfish also lack a brain. Instead, they have a network of nerves, but no central nervous system. When feeding, jellyfish use their tentacles to sting their prey – they eat plankton. But what eats a jellyfish? Many animals do, including tunas, sharks, turtles, and humans! 

I have written about this day before here, but today I was reading about them again and marvelling at them in these pictures that show very clearly that they are not all the same.

And, one of the most popular series in the library at the moment is about an unlikely friendship between a narwhal and a jellyfish, Ben Clanton's Narwhal and Jelly series. Books 1 to 3 are available and Book 4 will be here in February. Also I just bought a set of puppets so the students can make up their own Narwhal and Jelly conversations.

3rd November World Numbat Day

The numbat is one of those unique Australian animals. I know we have so many and this is not one that students generally know a lot about, so why not celebrate World Numbat Day? This website tells students what they need to know and shows them visually what makes them special. As well look for these in your school library  to use for a display and student reading.

10th October World Porridge Day

World Porridge Day celebrates that wonderful Scottish breakfast...porridge or oatmeal. Porridge appears in so many children's stories and picture books, probably as it is the epitome of warmth, family and comfort. Two of the best known porridge stories are traditional tales that appear in a large number of picture book versions - Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Magic Porridge Pot.  Every child has read a version of these, even if it was simplified to become a 'reader'.
There are other fun titles though which feature porridge so it will be easy to celebrate by cooking and  eating porridge while reading a book!