23rd July How to Get Children Reading Again by Emma Jacobs

This is the title of an article which appeared in the Financial Review on the 18th July. It was written by Emma Jacobs who is a London-based freelance journalist, producer and researcher. She  writes features with a particular focus on work, changes in the workplace and office life, but here she is writing about the future of reading, reading for pleasure, libraries, and bookstores.

Emma started her article by citing a school in England that makes every effort to remind students of the joy of books. They are read to every day, visited by authors and encouraged to pick out books to enjoy in their own time. Nicki Duckett, the teacher who oversees reading at the school, which has as its ambition to marry the “skill” and the “will” to read. In the 20 years she has worked in education, she has observed how the proliferation of gaming and smartphones, a busy school day, plus extracurricular clubs and activities create “more demands on children’s time”.

This is true in Australia too. Schools organise extracurricular clubs before and after school and even at Lunchtime. Students have their time managed for them by their parents and their school. Students are no longer allowed to be 'bored'.

Emma quotes English research that shows that children’s reading enjoyment has sunk to its “lowest point in two decades”, but then adds the decline in Britain is emblematic of a trend across the Western world.  The English government is reviewing the curriculum and under its broader “plan for change”, there are “ambitious targets to ensure more children start school ready to read”.

Emma talks about the provision of school libraries and how their numbers are reducing. She mentions the difference between girls (39.1%) and boys (25.7%) who read for pleasure. She states that from birth, parents are less likely to buy books as presents for boys than girls or to take boys to a library.

The article then goes on to look at some initiatives that are being trialled in the hope that reading joy is experienced by more people, but like the two previous newspaper articles that I commented upon, here and here, she emphasises that reading with children also helps cultivate good habits. She cites these figures, a minority, 41% of under-fours are read to frequently, down from 64% in 2012. 

So another article that is imploring adults to read to children more often! Teachers give parents permission to do this, they constantly remind them to, but when will education authorities and schools give teachers permission to read to students more than they are now?

Students need to be able to touch and read physical books. This means parents and teachers need to read from books, not devices, they need to visit libraries and bookstores (not online bookstores), there needs to be books in every classroom, some extracurricular clubs need to be using books, adults need to be passionate and proactive about reading and not make it an addendum 'if we have time'. Reading or being sent to the library should not be a punishment ...'if you don't finish your work you can go to the library to do it'.

Why have schools stopped their USSR (Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading) or DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) times? Schools that still have them are doing so much better in the reading for pleasure realm.

30th July World Snorkelling Day

Snorkelling (two letter l in Australia and Britain) is the practice of swimming through the water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. It requires little effort as long as one knows how to swim, as you don’t need training or any complicated equipment.

The first use of ‘snorkel’ was in November 1950, when the Honolulu Sporting Goods Co. introduced a ‘swim-pipe,’ urging children and adults to ‘try the human version of the submarine snorkel and be like a fish,’ likely referring to the German word ‘schnorchel’ that originally referred to an air intake that was used to supply air to the diesel engines of U-boats.

Of course, people living by the ocean already had used this genius technology. If we go back 5,000 years, we would observe sea sponge farmers in Crete using hollowed-out reeds to go underwater and hunt what they needed. Leonardo da Vinci drew designs for a very similar underwater breathing device.

Barney B. Garden filed the first patent application for a swimming breathing tube on December 9, 1929. Joseph L. Belcher submits a patent application for another one on July 30, 1932, and despite being the second person to do so, World Snorkelling Day is commemorated on that date. 

Today, both separate snorkels and snorkels integrated into a swimming mask are available for snorkeling enthusiasts. It should be noted, however, that the integrated version of the device is only suitable for recreational surface snorkeling and underwater photography; you’ll need a separate device for other underwater activities such as underwater team sports or spearfishing.

There are some books where we see children snorkelling but more often than not they also have an air tank so it is more likely to be scuba diving. That aside, here are some books to look for at the library.

Dive! is a beautiful nonfiction book by the master illustrator Chris Gall, of Dinotrux fame. The subtitle The Story of Breathing Underwater explains  how we breathe underwater, what tools we can we use to go deeper and deeper into the oceans and what's down there?

The Brilliant Deep  by Kate messner and Matt Forsythe

A picture book biography of Ken Nedimyer, brilliantly chronicles the groundbreaking efforts of one coral restoration pioneer, from his first optimistic experiment of transplanting coral – with the help of his daughter to his founding of the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Diving Deep by Michelle Cusolito and Nicole Wong

From snorkeling to freediving, scuba, submarines, and Challenger Deep, discover the different technologies scientists use to explore the ocean in this deep-sea STEM picture book.

Flying Deep  by Michelle Cusolito and Nicole Wang

Climb aboard Alvin, the famous deep-sea submersible credited with helping to find the Titanic, and take a trip two miles down to the bottom of the ocean. Experience a day in the life of an Alvin pilot and join scientists at the seafloor to collect samples and conduct research. Along the way, discover what one wears, eats, and talks about during a typical eight-hour trip in a underwater craft and find out more about the animals that live deep in our oceans.

The Story Behind Diving by Paul Robinson

Explore the underwater realms where divers discover vibrant coral reefs mysterious shipwrecks and fascinating sea creatures. This book shows you the amazing gear that helps divers breathe underwater the training required for different types of dives and the incredible sights that await beneath the surface. Learn about deep-sea explorers marine biologists and adventurous divers who have pushed the limits of underwater exploration.

Kid Scientist: Marine Biologists on a Dive  by Sue Fliess  

Maggie is a marine biologist. She and her team study all the living things in the ocean. Today is an exciting day: after months of research, the team is diving into the water with a traveling group of whales to record their songs and learn more about how whales communicate.

Else B. in the Sea by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Melodie Stacey

In 1930 Else Bostelmann donned a red swimsuit and a copper diving helmet and, with paints and brushes in hand, descended into the choppy turquoise sea off the coast of Bermuda. Else painted under the sea! She painted what she saw with her own eyes, and, back on land, she painted the never-before-seen deep-sea creatures.

Diary of a Marine Biologist  by Anita Thomas and Sarah Wilkins

Expert marine biologist Anita Thomas has written an accessible, informative guide to marine biology, full of adventure for everyone who loves the sea, and our planet!

And if you can't find these, perhaps your library has:

 

29th July World Rain Day

Throughout human history, people and cultures around the world have celebrated rain and its life-giving power. All life depends on rain and rain keeps our world green and fresh. Rain Day celebrates all that is wet and beautiful.

Rainfall is the main way water gets to the ground, providing drinking water for animals and plants, replenishing groundwater, and filling our rivers and lakes. When you think about it from this perspective, you understand why rain is critical for our lives and why it should be appreciated and celebrated.

In the library it is very easy to celebrate. I put 'rain' in the title search of the catalogue and we have over 100 books without looking at books about weather, mud, hail, monsoons or any other things related to rain or water. That's enough books for a display! Some of them are beautiful and not borrowed that often.

Of course in Australia, how you feel about rain depends a lot upon where you live as droughts and floods seem to be occurring somewhere constantly.

The books below are some of the books that have 'rain' in their title. Often I put a question with a display to make the children think. It could be simple like 'What do all these books have in common?' or 'How do you feel about rain? Which book on display do you think will match your feelings about rain?'

28th July Beatrix Potter Day

The 28th July 1866 was Beatrix Potter's birthday so on the 28th July it is a day to celebrate her contribution to literature, art and science. 

Many of the children I teach know of Beatrix Potter because of her character Peter Rabbit,  and most of them know of him because of movies and modern interpretations of her books that are not illustrated by Beatrix. When I show my students what the books looked like when they were first published they make comments such as 'they are so small'; 'there is so much white'; 'they're so cute'. Then when we look at the copyright page of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and see that it was first published in 1901, and then they work out how long ago that was they are very quiet. 'Is it the oldest book in the library?'

To celebrate Beatrix Potter's birthday I often get out the old books, whatever new versions and spin-offs we have and collect together some picture book biographies to make a display. Then I add some toys. The library has Peter, Jemima and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

Newer biographies:

Beatrix and Her Bunnies (2021) by Rebecca Colby & Caroline Bonne-Muller

Beatrix loves the countryside, but lives in a big, lonely house in London - if only she had a friend. Then she meets Benjamin Bunny and everything changes! 

Rebecca Colby effortlessly entwines the fascinating threads of Beatrix Potter's life: her deep connection with animals, her development as a writer and artist, her determination to be published and her role as a pioneering conservationist. 

Beatrix Potter, Scientist (2020) by Lindsay H. Metcalf & Junyi Wu

Everyone knows Beatrix Potter as the creator of the Peter Rabbit stories. But before that, she was a girl of science. As a child, Beatrix collected nature specimens; as a young adult, she was an amateur mycologist presenting her research on mushrooms and other fungi to England's foremost experts. Like many women of her time, she remained unacknowledged by the scientific community.

Saving the Countryside (2020) by Lindsay Marshall & Ilaria Urbinati

Growing up in London, Beatrix Potter felt the restraints of Victorian times. Girls didn't go to school and weren't expected to work. But she longed to do something important, something that truly mattered. As Beatrix spent her summers in the country and found inspiration in nature, it was through this passion that her creativity flourished. 

There, she crafted The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She would eventually move to the countryside full-time, but developers sought to change the land. To save it, Beatrix used the money from the success of her books and bought acres and acres of land and farms to prevent the development of the countryside that both she and Peter Rabbit so cherished. Because of her efforts, it's been preserved just as she left it.

There are some older biographies too:

24th July World Cousins Day

Cousins Day is an annual celebration of the special relationship that exists between cousins, a time to tell your cousins how much you appreciate them. “First cousins” are children of one’s aunt or uncle and whose closest common ancestor is a grandparent. Cousins often become lifelong friends through bonding at family reunions and get-togethers, holidays, birthday parties or weddings.

I don't have a lot of cousins and those I do have do not live nearby, so there is not that special bond, but my siblings and I have made sure that our children do know each other and see each other occasionally. 

Books about cousins 'weren't on my radar' until I heard debut author Sharara Attai speak at a CBC function about her new book. I then looked up the catalogue to see if we had any books because I could think of families at school whose cousins were also at school. We did not have many, so I thought this book would make a good addition.

What we had:

There are some others: