January 26th New School Year Display 2: The Year of the Ox

 In the Chinese Zodiac, 2021 is The Year of the Ox and as Chinese New Year falls on the 12th February, very early in the school year and many of the students celebrate this festival, it is a good topic for a display at the beginning of the school year. We have a large collection of books on the Chinese Zodiac and the story of each of the animals and they are always popular with both teachers and students. I will write about these in my next blog, but today I want to focus on a display of what the library has to offer for oxen.

Of course there are only a few books that are strictly about oxen, but I have broadened it to include other bovines such as cows, bulls, buffaloes, yaks, gnus and bison and once I started collecting together books for a display I found quite a lot. See Pinterest page here.

As for previous years there is  a new book illustrated by Li Jian The Little Calf,  which tells the story of how the kind ox earned his place as one of the Chinese Zodiac Animals. From there it's just a matter of collecting lots of your favourite 'bovine' books such as these stories:

• Xo, Ox: A Love Story by Adam Rex

• Click, Clack, Moo - Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin and the rest in this series          

• The Cow that Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill and its two sequels

• Cow by Malachy Doyle

• Kiss the Cow by Phyllis Root

• The Cow Who Fell in the Canal by Phyllis Krasilovsky

• Myron's Magic Cow  by Marlene Newman

• The Cow Who Fell to Earth by Nadia Shireen               

• Clancy the Courageous Cow  by Lachie Hume

• The Story of Ferdinand  by Munro Leaf

• The Littlest Yak by Lou Fraser

• Yak and Dove by Kyo Maclear

• Yak and Gnu by Juliette MacIver

• Gnu and Shrew by Danny Schnitzlein

• Bumping Buffalo by Mwenye Hadithi

• The Buffalo Storm by Katherine Applegate

• There's a Bison Jumping on the Bed by Paul Bright

And then add all the expository bovine books you have and you have a wonderful bovine
display!