June 23, the anniversary of the granting of a patent to American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868 is celebrated around the world as Typewriter Day. So, take out your old typewriter from the attic, dust it and get started on your magnum opus! Bring out a typewriter and start typing.
Yesterday I just happened to be sharing Tom McLaughlin's picture book, The Story Machine with some Kindergarten classes. We had a great discussion about typewriters. Some of the children were keen to explain that their grandparents had one and they were allowed to use it. This fascinated the children who'd never seen one. This got me thinking about other books that featured a typewriter and I could only think of Mini Grey's Hermelin: the Detective Mouse and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. There must be others. Now I'll be on a mission when I'm reading and shelving.
Then this morning when I started my search I found out that there was a day to celebrate typewriters and it is very soon, the 23rd June!I have found two more picture books that look as if they would be worth exploring, but we don't have them in our library.
• The Typewriter by Bill Thomson. We have his other books, Fossil and Chalk which are well-borrowed so I will get this one. And I love the cover of this with its smiling typewriter
• Typewriter by Yevgenia Nayberg, but it's price will exclude a sight-unseen purchase.
If you don't have The Story Machine there is a video of Tom McLaughlin reading it here.
I had been exploring author/ illustrators reading their own books during the home-learning period to encourage my students to make their own books and the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education in the UK) has many fine examples.
