18th December Bake Cookies Day

It's time to bake again, and this time it is cookies. What are cookies? Well the dictionary says that a cookie is 'a small, flat, sweet food made from flour and sugar'. As a child I would have called that a biscuit. As I lived in a family of six, my mother made a batch of biscuits and a slice most days. We never had bought biscuits.

I thought biscuits were English and Australian and cookies were American, but more and more the word 'cookie' is used in Australia too. I even see labels that say 'Anzac Cookies', something that to me was always 'Anzac Biscuits'.

Whatever they are called, it is the time of year for making cookies of all sorts, be they shortbread, gingerbread, sweet or savoury. You will have no trouble finding recipes. Then if you want to read before, during or after the cooking look for some well known books where cookies or biscuits are shared.

And just to prove me wrong about the word 'cookie', here is a very new Australian picture book that uses the word 'cookies'.

So to offset this, I'm sharing the latest in the Frank and Bert series.

16th December Las Posadas

 

Just as for other religious celebrations we can rely on Tomie dePaola to have created a picture book about it. Poinsettia Day is celebrated on the 12th December in Mexico and Tomie dePaola helps children understand its significance in his story The Legend of the Poinsettia. Then he does it for Las Posadas in his book The Night of Las Posadas.

Las Posadas, is celebrated  between December 16 and 24. It commemorates the journey that Joseph and Mary made from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a safe refuge for Mary to give birth to the baby, Jesus.  When they were unable to find lodging in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were forced to seek shelter in a stable, where the Christ Child was born.

Las Posadas is celebrated in cities and towns across Mexico. Each evening during the festival, a small child dressed as an angel leads a procession through the streets of the town. The procession is primarily made up of children dressed in silver and gold robes carrying lit candles and images of Mary and Joseph riding a donkey. Adults, including musicians, follow the procession, which visits selected homes and asks for lodging for Joseph and Mary. Traditionally, the procession is always refused lodging, though the hosts often provide refreshments. At each stop, passages of scripture are read and Christmas carols are sung.

Mass is held each day after the procession, and, at the conclusion of the service, children break open piñatas filled with candy, toys, and, occasionally, money. The piñatas are usually crafted in the form of the Star of Bethlehem, which is said to have guided the three wise men to the newborn Jesus.   Encyclopaedia Britannica

The three wise men also appear in The Legend of Old Befana, and The Story of the Three Wise Kings other Christmas stories by Tomie dePaola.

If your family are fans of eating panettone at Christmas, it is good to also read Tony's Bread to be reminded of why it is that shape and tastes the way it does. 

Just reading Tomie dePaola's Christmas stories will make you extremely knowledgable about Christmas traditions in many parts of the world. See:

15th December National Cupcake Day

It is Cupcake Day in America on the 15th December. In Australia, Cupcake Day is on the third Monday in August and it is a fundraiser for the RSPCA.

Whenever you decide to celebrate it, it is a day to make cupcakes! Kids love cooking things that they can eat.

Use a book such as:

There are other picture story books about cupcakes and some of them even include a recipe. Go to the library and look for:

Primates, Apes, Monkeys?

Yesterday when I was writing about monkeys, I got so confused about what was a monkey, strictly speaking. Then what is an ape? And what is a primate? So just as I did for Big Cats I went on a search to sort my thinking out.

A primate is any mammal of the group that includes lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, apes and humans, so there are primates other than apes, monkeys and humans.

One major difference between apes and monkeys is that apes have no tails, and almost all monkeys have tails, so the quickest and easiest way to tell a monkey and an ape apart is by looking for a tail. Apes are also typically larger than monkeys, as is demonstrated in the size of gorillas and orangutans. 

The gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo and orangutan are called great apes in recognition of their comparatively large size and humanlike features; the gibbons are called lesser apes. The great apes are much more intelligent than monkeys and gibbons. Apes also tend to live longer than monkeys. Martin Jenkins book above will help solve these questions.

Monkey species include baboons, macaques, marmosets, tamarins, and capuchins. Ape species include humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, and bonobos. In evolutionary and genetic terms, ape species are much closer to humans than monkeys are.

Most of the apes have a celebratory day of their own and are easier to celebrate with picture books. Anthony Browne has made that very easy because so many of his picture books feature gorillas or chimpanzees, but not so sure about books about bonobos and gibbons. I know very little about bonobos, but when you read about them here as I did you realise we should know so much more about them as they share a remarkable 98.7% of our DNA, making them our closest living relatives. Bonobos are biologically conditioned to look for peaceful solutions, unlike their more rambunctious cousins, the chimpanzees so they are often referred to as peace ambassadors and they share their day with Valentines Day.

World Gorilla Day 24th September.

World Chimpanzee Day is 14th July.

World Bonobo Day is 14th February.

World Orangutan Day is 19th July.

World Gibbon Day is 24th October.

14th December International Monkey Day

Monkeys, also known as simians, live all over the world. More than 260 species of monkeys populate Africa, Central America, South America, and Asia. They range in size from very small like the pygmy marmoset to the larger mandrill. Monkeys tend to walk on all four limbs. As a member of the primate family, they are considered a lesser ape. Most monkeys have a tail, though not all do. Monkeys are divided into two categories – Old World monkeys and New World monkeys. Old World monkeys live in Africa and Asia while New World monkeys live in South America.

Monkey species include baboons, macaques, marmosets, tamarins, and capuchins. Some of these monkeys have their own celebratory day.

It is International Baboon Day on 3rd December. It is International Macaque Day on 16th March. It is International Tamarin Day on 21st September, but I would find it very hard to celebrate these days in the library with books because we do not have that many books about specific monkeys.

I'd start this celebration of monkeys with a book such as Fourteen Monkeys  by Melissa Stewart and Steve Page so as to have the simians sorted.

Then some more non-fiction:

       

Next explore the myriad of fun 'monkey' stories.

See this Pinterest page for ideas.

Finish with Quentin Blake and Emma Chichester Clark's series about three little monkeys.

 

Big Cats

Having just written about Cheetah Day and realising that although I have a Pinterest page for tigers and lions, I do not have one that features the other big cats. So here I plan to summarise all the days that are associated with Big Cats. There is not a combined day for all big cats.

The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus Panthera, namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard, as well as the non-pantherine cheetah and cougar. Wikipedia

Mass: Cougar: 53 – 72 kg, Tiger: 90 – 310 kg, Leopard: 31 kg · See more

Lifespan: Cougar: 8 – 13 years, Tiger: 10 – 15 years, Leopard: 12 – 17 years, Lion: 15 – 16 years, Jaguar: 12 – 15 years

Speed: Cougar: 64 – 80 km/h, Tiger: 49 – 65 km/h, Leopard: 58 km/h, Lion: 74 km/h, Jaguar: 80 km/h, Cheetah: 80 – 130 km/h

There is a celebratory day for each of the big cats!

So if you are planning your year you can have several displays. I would struggle to find enough books for Cougar Day, but the rest I have written about on this blog with book suggestions.

Leopards in May. (3rd)

Cougars in June. (12th)

Tigers in July.(29th)

Lions in August. (10th)

Snow Leopards in October. (23rd)

Jaguars in November (29th)  and 

Cheetahs in December (4th)

4th December International Cheetah Day

I forgot to finish and then publish this blog, so I'm doing it late. It will help me and perhaps someone else next year.

With fewer than 7,000 individual cheetahs remaining in the wild, this day highlights the urgent need for conservation efforts to protect cheetahs. 

Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals. Their slim, aerodynamic bodies, long legs, and specialized spine allow them to achieve this remarkable speed, while their semi-retractable claws provide extra grip during sprints.

Beyond their speed, cheetahs have exceptional vision, enabling them to spot prey from far away. The black “tear marks” running from their eyes to their mouths reduce glare from the sun, aiding in precision hunting during the day. Cheetahs rely more on sight than scent when tracking prey, setting them apart from other big cats.

Any display of cheetah books is always popular, but these books are the most borrowed.