11th January National Milk Day

It is National Milk Day in the US today. It is World Milk Day on he 1st June, it is World School Milk Day in the UK on 25th September and it is Chocolate Milk Day on 27th September. No matter which day you celebrate milk on, there are three different opportunities to do so. I have time to write now so I can prepare a list of books for a display in June when my students will be at school.

I dislike milk intensely and I'm sure it is because we were made to drink milk that had sat in the hot sun curdling, from when it was delivered until we drank it at morning tea time around 11 am. Milk was delivered free of charge to school children in NSW in an endeavour to make sure we all had a daily dose of goodness and calcium. There was no such thing then as flavoured milk and we weren't allowed to put Milo in it.

School children today have a much bigger choice when choosing a milk drink and it is not compulsory to drink it at school. Some of the five year olds I taught last year are such city children that they had no idea where milk even came from other than 'out of the carton'. That was quickly remedied by books, a film  and a visit to a farm where they each had a turn at trying to milk a cow. There were some hilarious photos of these attempts.

It is important for children to know about where there food comes from and to recognise milk as a global food. There is a large variety of non fiction books that do milk and dairy foods very well. Look for:
• Milk from Cow to Carton  by Aliki
• From Grass to Milk by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
• Journey of a Glass of Milk by John Malam
• • From Milk to Icecream  by Bridget Heos

There are fewer stories about milk but these are good ones to look for and they cover a range of ages, include humour and address empathy and point of view well:

• Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch
• Don't Spill the Milk by Stephen Davies and Christopher Carr
• Milk Goes to School by Terry Border
• Fortunately, the Milk  by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
• Chocolate Milk, Por Favor by Maria Dismondy and Donna Farrell