4th October International Taco Day

The 4th of October celebrates the traditional Mexican icon known as a taco. The taco has travelled far and wide becoming a fast food staple all over the world.

A traditional Mexican version of the sandwich, a taco is a tortilla stuffed with filling. Usually made of corn or wheat, the tortilla can be filled with beef, chicken, vegetables, pork or seafood and served with cheese, cilantro or onions as garnish. 

Do we need a day to celebrate tacos? There won't be many books about tacos in the library. Wrong. There are more than sufficient for a taco display.

Just recently in a library lesson with a Year 1 class, we had a vote...which do you prefer, tacos or pizza? It was very close. Both were popular. This vote came about because my Year 1 students are besotted with the Pizza and Taco series of books. They are always OUT of the library and this annoys students who just have to read the next one and can't find it instantly. The students 'sell' them to each other. I didn't need to do anything, just make sure the next one arrived as soon as it was available.

There are currently four titles and the next is due early next year.

They are an hilarious young graphic novel series about Pizza and Taco, two best friends, with lots of toppings. They are by Stephen Shaskan. They are a sure-fire success with newly independent readers!

Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri have two picture books which feature tacos and they too are popular in the library. They come with toys which is always a bonus for my students because they love to take home a book and toy together.

Then there are several stand alone picture book titles too.

• It's Raining Tacos! by Parry Gripp and Peter Emmerich

• This is a Taco! by Andrew Congelose and Josh Shipley

• Little Taco Truck by Tanya Valentine and Jorge Martin

Some nonfiction procedural texts

•  How to Fold a Taco  by   Naibe Reynoso and Ana Varela   

• Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book  by Lotta Nieminen

• Tacos by Golriz Golfer

And then these two chapter books that are from popular series

• Stick Dog Gets the Tacos  by Tom Watson

• Max Meow Taco Time Machine by John Gallagher

4th October Taco Day

Tacos are the Mexican equivalent of a sandwich and they are very popular with children so it is only fitting that there is a day to celebrate their existence. The two Dragons Love Tacos books by Adam Rubin together with the toy dragon are popular in my library and are often off visiting a family. Read them tomorrow and enjoy a taco filled with your favourite filling.

October Pizza Month

October is Pizza Month in the USA. The children I teach love pizza, so much so that if I want to reward them for finishing something like the Premier's Reading Challenge we have a pizza party in the library. The students love the thought of eating in the library even if the reality isn't what they think it will be! We read Adam Rubin's Secret Pizza Party and everyone is sworn to secrecy so that the students who weren't there have to keep wondering what it was like.

My students will be back at school next week after two week's holiday when they probably ate plenty of pizza, but nevertheless I have put out a table full of these resources (all the pizza books in the library) to celebrate Pizza Month. I will also add some cook books which have pizza making.

21st January Squirrel Appreciation Day

It is very easy to appreciate squirrels when you have very little knowledge of them and for you they are lovely looking mischievous characters in children's picture books. But I get the feeling that for people who live with them they may well be like possums are for me where I live...pests! I have seen lovely big red ones in Switzerland,  very busy, but small red ones in England and  brown, quietly busy but not easily distracted ones in America, and I thought they were all gorgeous, but here in Australia we do not have squirrels, so I feel justified in appreciating them. I love Melanie Watts' Scaredy Squirrel books and so do the children who frequent my library. My timid and worried students can laugh at Scaredy while needing lots of reassurance themselves and they reborrow the same books from this series over and over again. I also love the squirrel series that starts with Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin. Here the squirrels are brazen and pesty. But, my favourite squirrel in a children's book has to be the endearing one in Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser, who helps Bear work out what snow is.