6th June Doughnut Day

In the United States the first Friday in June is National Doughnut Day and in England there was a whole week from 10th to 17th May designated as National Doughnut Week, yet here in Australia we haven't gone to those lengths to celebrate doughnuts. Children here certainly like them and eat them, but should we celebrate  a very sugary, deep-fried, doughy 'ring' ? I don't know. I did go looking in the library for doughnut books though, and found just as many with the 'donut' spelling. I wondered why there were two spellings and found an explanation here.

We only had five books that feature doughnuts/donuts:
• Daisy the Donut Fairy by Tim Bugbird. This is by far the most popular and you can see why when you look at the cover. The 'fairy/pink-loving' girls make sure it is always borrowed.
• If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff is part of the popular 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' series.
• The Donut Chef by Bob Staarke.
• The Doughnut Ring a short chapter book by Alexander McCall Smith
• Doughnut Danger by Anthony Masters, a reader from the I Am Reading series.
And a picture book where the word 'doughnut' is used as a name
• Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase  by Bruce Whatley.

After a bit of research I think that probably the ones I should have are:
• Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller
• The Case of the Missing Donut  by Alison McGhee

Oh well, maybe by next year I will have enough titles to put together a display!

11th January Caldecott Award Announcement

Yesterday, the American Library Association presented its top awards. The one I am always most interested in is the Caldecott Award and this year it went to illustrator Erin E. Stead for A Sick Day for Amos McGee which is written by her husband Philip C. Stead. Often I have to go and buy the book because it hasn't been released widely in Australia, but this year I won't need to, as we have this book in the library. It is a very gentle story about a zookeeper who gets a cold and therefore does not go to the zoo, so his worried animals come to visit him. The illustrations are delicate woodblock prints and as you know if you have been reading this blog, linoprints are my very favourite pieces of art, so yes I do like this book!

Another book with stunning linoprint illustrations by Rick Allen, won its author, the poet Joyce Sidman a Newbery Honor Medal. It is Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. This lovely book of twelve poems appeals to all age groups because of its illustrations and sensual language. I was hoping her other book, Ubiquitous would be honoured in the Caldecott awards, but I can live with this alternative. On Joyce's website there is a trailer for Dark Emperor. The soundtrack is haunting and inviting at the same time and it makes you wish that some books did come with accompanying sound effects.

And thirdly, of interest for my clientele, Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo, Alison McGhee and Tony Fucile won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for a book for beginning readers. It is already popular in my library.

8th July Alison McGhee (1960)

Alison McGhee is a very talented American author. She seems to write for all ages and in all forms, making her the perfect creative writing teacher which she is also an expert at. I haven't read any of her novels, but reading that she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize I feel the need to rush out and find Shadow Baby .I first met her work in the picture book, Mrs Watson Wants Your Teeth. The subject of losing teeth is always very important with the age group of children I teach. They were fascinated by the concept of a teacher who was collecting baby teeth. Rumours abounded at school about how one of our Year 1 teachers was just like Mrs Watson. Then I twigged that the girl in this book was also in Countdown to Kindergarten, another book written by Alison and illustrated by Harry Bliss, so now I often put them on display together.

More recently I have followed her reflective titles that are illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, Someday (perfect for Mother's Day), Little Boy and Always. Her two most recent picture books have been illustrated by Taeeun Yoo, Only a Witch can Fly and So Many Days (every library needs a print from this of the child reading). The piece de resistance of her picture books has to be, Only A Witch Can Fly. Granted this is a beautiful book because of Taeeun Yoo's amazing linoleum block illustrations, but the poetic text combined with these illustrations makes it a very special book and it would be a shame if it was seen purely as a Halloween book. It is so much more. Make the unusual poetic stanzas accessible to young children by reading them aloud, probably more than once, talking about the words and pictures and then discussing the theme of determination and finding one's own way to do something.