4th July World Firefly Day

Scientists have carried out extensive studies on fireflies. Some have been relating to their unique feature of emitting energy in the form of light, while other studies revolve around the deteriorating population of fireflies. In 2022, the theme of the event is 'Watch Us, Don't Catch Us'. This is done to raise awareness about the depletion of the firefly population. Like other natural resources, the firefly can become extinct too. The event can be celebrated by taking care of fireflies, watching and admiring their beauty from afar, and building a better environment to sustain a firefly's life in the future.

There are more than 2,000 described species of Lampyridae fireflies, 25 of which are found in Australia. The fireflies, which are actually bioluminescent beetles,  inhabit the forests and mangroves of coastal New South Wales, Queensland, and the Northern Territory. The sole firefly species in the Sydney area is the Blue Mountains firefly (Atyphella lychnus). Not a lot of people are aware this country has fireflies, let alone two dozen different species, because they’re not in places commonly seen by the public and they are normally seen for only a short period during spring and summer.

We mightn't see real fireflies very often, but we certainly can read about them in books.

The library has these:

• The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

• Sam and the Firefly  by P.D. Eastman

• Fireflies!  by Julie Brinckloe

 • Fireflies in the Night  by Judy Hawes & Ellen Alexander

• Daddies Are for Catching Fireflies  by Harriet Ziefert and Cynthia Jabar

• Firefly Home  by Jane Clarke and Britta Teckentrup

• Follow the Firefly  by Bernardo Carvalho

• Among a Thousand Fireflies  by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder

• Fly Firefly!  by Shana Keller and Ramona Kaulitzki

• How the Firefly Got Its Light  by Pradyumna Kumar and Urvashi Butalia

• Good Night Firefly by Gabriel Alboroza

• Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman and James Muscarello

• Light the Sky, Firefly! by Sheri Bestor and Jonny Lambert

Others slightly off topic, but worth a look at or put out as part of a display

• Glowing with Electricity: Science Adventures with Glenda the Origami Firefly by Thomas Kingsley Troupe and James Robert Christoph

• Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems  by Paul B.Janeczko and Melissa Sweet 

3rd July World Meerkat Day

World Meerkat Day started in Dubbo, Australia. It was an initiative of Karen Ellis, the meerkat keeper at Taronga Western Plains Zoo and it has now become a day to heighten awareness of meerkats at several world zoos. She felt that lots of animals had a day, but meerkats didn't and as they were her favourite animal she decided to instigate it.

Meerkats are mongooses famed for their upright posture. They often stand on their rear legs and gaze alertly over the southern African plains where they live. Mothers can even nurse their young while standing.

Meerkats  work together in numbers. A few will typically serve as lookouts, watching the skies for birds of prey, such as hawks and eagles, that can snatch them from the ground. A sharp, shrill call is the signal for all to take cover. While a few individuals guard the group, the rest busy themselves foraging for the foods that make up their varied diet. Meerkats will eat insects, lizards, birds, and fruit. When hunting small game, they work together and communicate with purring sounds. 

Beautiful pictures and easy reading format will help children fall in love with meerkats as they are a popular choice of characters for children's books.

Meet meerkats first then read about their antics!

• Meerkats  by Katie Woolley

• Meerkats  by James Maclaine

• Meerkats by Laura Marsh

• Meerkats  by Valerie Bodden

• Baby Meerkats by Ginjier L. Clarke

• Meet the Meerkat by Darrin Lunde 

• Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett

• Meerkat Splash by Aura Parker

• Little Meerkat by Aleesah Darlison

• Meerkat Choir  by Nicki Greenberg

• Milly the Meerkat by Oakley Graham

• Legs: The Tale of a Meerkat Lost and Found by Sarah Dodds 

• That Naughty Meerkat! by Ian Whybrow & Garry Parsons

• My Meerkat Mum  by Ruth Paul

and a few short chapter books

• Meerkat Madness  four titles in series by Ian Whybrow

• The Mystery of Meerkat Hill one of the titles in the series by Alexander McCall Smith about the eight year old Precious Ramotswe.

• Ninja Meerkats  ten book series by Gareth P. Jones.

2nd July World Porcupine Day

Established in 2018 – as World Porcupine Day or as National Porcupine Appreciation Day, it’s the perfect day to celebrate and learn more about these distinctive rodents. 

The porcupines found in North and South America are good climbers and spend much of their time in trees. Some even have prehensile (gripping) tails to aid in climbing. The North American porcupine is the only species that lives in the U.S. and Canada, and is the largest of all porcupines.

Other porcupine species live in Africa, Europe, and Asia. These animals usually live on the ground and can inhabit deserts, grasslands, and forests.

Known for their quills the porcupine’s body is covered with about 30,000 of them.  Each quill has at its tip about 700 to 800 overlapping scales or barbs that enable the quill to readily penetrate the body of its victim.  Porcupines cannot shoot their quills, but they do detach readily when touched.  Quills are replaced continuously, taking just several months to grow one back. 

Books in the library to celebrate the porcupine:

• A Porcupine Called Fluffy  by Helen Lester  Lynn Musinger

• Duck, Duck, Porcupine!  by Salina Yoon

There are three books in this series about Big Duck, Little Duck and Porcupine.

• Mine, Mine, Mine! Said the Porcupine by Alex English & Emma Levey

• I Love Cake! Starring Rabbit, Porcupine and Moose by Tammi Sauer & Angie Rozelaar

• Porcupines by Victoria Blakemore

• How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop & Gwen Millward

• Valentine the Porcupine Dances Funny  by  Derrick Brown & Jenny Lewis

• No Hugs for Porcupine by Zoe Waring  (Hug a Porcupine Day is 24th October)

• Hugs From Pearl  by Paul Schmid

• Perfectly Percy by Paul Schmid

• Mr Prickles: An Quill-Fated Love Story by Karen LaReau and Scott Magoon

• Pins and Needles  by Stephen Krensky & Kristyna Litten

• Elmore by Hollie Hobby

• A Friendship Yarn by Lisa Moser & Olga Demidova

and a short novel that is lots of fun

• Stinkbomb and Ketchup Face and the Quest for the Magic Porcupine  by John Dougherty

21st June World Music Day

The Fête de la musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June. On Music Day the citizens of a city or country are allowed and urged to play music outside in their neighbourhoods or in public spaces and parks.

What fun! Let's make music!      

I used a new book by Sophy Henn  The Music in Me as a starting point and  to convince students they are all capable of making music. Then added

• Never Play Music Right Next Door to the Zoo by John Lithgow & Leeza Hernandez

• Animal Music by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt

• The Musical Life of Gustav Mole by Patrick McNee & Kathryn Meyrick

• I am the the Music Man  by Debra Potter

• Ah, Music!  by Aliki

• Violet's Music by Angela Johnson & Laura Huliska-Beith

• Music is for Everyone Jill Barber by & Sydney Smith

• M is for Music by Kathleen Krull & Stacy Innerst 

• Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!  by Wynton Marsalis  & Paul Rogers

18th June Go Fishing Day

It's winter in Australia, but yesterday was a glorious weather day here in Sydney and ideal fishing. My son was always keen to go fishing and luckily his dad often took him. I just do not have the patience! My son now works at a marina and has ample opportunities to fish. It is a shame he doesn't eat fish. Everything he catches goes back.

When he was young I really struggled to find books about fishing for him, but now I have built up quite a collection for the young children who use my library. See here. I don't know how many times I had to read A Fisherman's Tale  by Keith Faulkner. It was a family nightmare when it fell apart and no amount of contact could resurrect the flaps.

Below are two favourites and one I would like to source for my grandma friends who have to go fishing!

Refugee Week 19th - 25th June.

All libraries can and should celebrate 

Refugee Week! 

Go here to my pinterest page to see books that you can read to and with children or you can use to make a display. There are so many really good ones!

There will be many lists of books on offer, Just google picture books refugees and see.

22nd April Narwhal Appreciation Day

We missed it! At school yesterday I was collecting together the books we have on narwhals for a display next term. This was initiated by my purchase of the lovely new Nature Storybook Narwhal: The Arctic Unicorn by Justin Anderson with illustrations by Jo Weaver.  Then today I thought i'd investigate whether there was a day for their celebration and there is, 22nd April. If I write about it now I will remember it for next year.

What are narwhals?

The narwhal, Monodon monoceros is unique amongst whales by having a specially adapted canine tooth protruding from its head. Normally only the male narwhal will grow a tusk. It is really the only tooth it will possess. It is a sort of inside out tooth, covered in nerve endings and softer on the outside and hard towards the centre.

The narwhal population is estimated to be in the region of 170,000 animals which live in the Arctic seas bordering the North Atlantic. Today, like all Arctic animals it is under threat from climate change and also to inbreeding and its low genetic diversity.

Are they related to unicorns?

The narwhal looks like a cross between a whale and a unicorn with its long, spiralled tusk jutting from its head. There are many legends about the tusk of the narwhal – it is essentially the origin of the myth of the unicorn as European whalers that were in the Arctic would catch narwhals and bring tusks back to Europe with great stories about what kind of animals the tusks were attached to. But in terms of the biology of the animal, the tusk is actually used for social structure, to establish dominance hierarchies and ranks of males within narwhal pods.

Not very much is known about narwhals, largely because they are difficult to study: They live in remote places, far from civilisations, in a habitat that is dark for half the year, covered in ice for half the year, and not easy to access. We do know that narwhals have adapted to be one of the deepest diving marine mammals, capable diving to depths of more than 1,800 metres  and able to spend a large amount of their time below 800 metres. Not many animals can sustain such intense pressures below the surface of the water and stay under the water for so long.

What is in the library?

* All the popular Narwhal and Jelly series up to Book 6 by Ben Clanton as well as the puppets. Book 7 is coming in October, Narwhalicorn and Jelly.

* Wendell the Narwhal by Emily Dove

* Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima

* Watch Out Little Narwhal by Jane Riordan and Richard Watson

* Starwhal by Matilda Rose and Tim Bugden

• Iced Out by C.K. Smouha and Isabella Bunnell

* Someday, Narwhal by Lisa Mantchev and Hyewon Yum

* Little Narwhal Not Alone by Tiffany Stone and Ashlyn Anstee

* Narwhals by Katie Woolley

* Narwhals Are Awesome  by Jaclyn Jaycox

Postscript to Queen's Jubilee

On Monday we put out our display of books that celebrate Queen Elizabeth and this afternoon as we were about to leave I had a quick look at the display ...not much left. We had scrummaged around and added things that I had long forgotten about and they too had gone. Quite a few of the students had watched the concert and seen the Queen having tea with Paddington, so they were keen to borrow Paddington books! When they had gone others went too.

Books we added:

• Paddington at the Palace  by Michael Bond and R.W.Alley

• Horrid Henry Meets the Queen by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross

                                                                                           

• Me, the Queen and Christopher  by Giles Andreae and Tony Ross

• Don't Chew the Royal Shoe!  by Kate Leake

• Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party by Megan McDonald and Peter Reynolds

In this quarto-sized  book of beautiful dog photos  there is a photo of a corgi wearing a crown and it was such a good centrepiece for the display. Wish I'd taken a photo of it before all the books disappeared.

• Eyes on Dogs  by Maggie Fischer

Then we just added any book that featured London, Buckingham Palace, London buses, taxis, beefeaters and guards and there were so many. Nearly every series visits London...Maisy, Charlie and Lola, Topsy and Tim, Katie, Madeleine...

4th June Cheese Day

Really, cheese day? 

Cheesemaking has been around since  ancient times as it is said to have started all the way back in 8,000 BC.  At present, cheese has made its presence known in almost every corner of the world as it can be served frosty, sweet, savoury, or even deep-fried.

Travellers from Asia are believed to have brought the art of cheesemaking to Europe. In fact, cheese was made in many parts of the Roman Empire when it was at its height. The Romans, in turn, introduced cheesemaking to England. During the Middle Ages-from the decline of the Roman Empire until the discovery of America-cheese was made and improved by the monks in the monasteries of Europe. For example, Gorgonzola was made in the Po Valley in Italy in 879 A.D., and Italy became the cheesemaking centre of Europe during the 10th Century. Roquefort was also mentioned in the ancient records of the monastery at Conques, France as early as 1070.

Can we celebrate cheese by reading picture books? Of course. These books feature cheese...

Some information books:

• From Cow to Cheese by Penelope Nelson

• Milk and Cheese  by Nancy Dickmann

Some picture books:

• I Don't Like Cheese by Hannah Chandler and Lauren Merrick

• Dinosaurs Love Cheese by Jackie French and Nina Rycroft

• Mack and the Missing Cheese by Chae Strathie and Nikki Dyson

• The Great Cheese Robbery  by Tim Warnes

• Horace and Morris Say Cheese by James Howe and Amy Walrod

• Cheese Belongs to You by Alexis Deacon and Viviane Schwarz

• Supermouse and the Big Cheese Robbery by M.N. Tahl and Mark Chambers

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Some short novels:

• Hamster and Cheese by Colleen Venable (book 1 in a fun series of graphic novels.

• Princess Pulveriser Grilled Cheese and Dragons by Nancy Krulik and Ben Balistreri

• Toto the Ninja Cat and the Incredible Cheese Heist by Dermot O'Leary and Nick East

•  Geronimo Stilton The Mysterious Cheese Thief  There are references to cheese through all the Geronimo Stilton tiles)

For fun think of all the times the word 'cheese' is used but does not mean the thing you eat.

Who is the Big Cheese? See the series of picture books by Elise Primavera and Diane Goode about Louise the Big Cheese.

'Say cheese!' See picture book by Frances Watts

'Like chalk and cheese' means...