14th May Mothers' Day

Every year at this time, besides checking in with my own children, I look at what books are new or recommended reading for young children . This year I purchased only one book to be added to our Mothers Day list. It is Mummy's Special Day (2023) by Frances Stickley and Caroline Rabei.

Like most schools we have a Mothers Day Celebration in the form of a breakfast with mum and each class does something special for their mothers. 

In the library we display all the picture books about mothers and the children and teachers borrow them. There are plenty, but when it comes to what I read to children in the library I try to pick a 'meaty', book where there is plenty to discuss. Often the discussion centres on what the children want to buy as presents for their mothers because dad is taking them shopping. As an antidote to this we talk about what they could give their mothers that costs nothing. This is hard for some children. 

Titles that are good for this discussion are: 

• Five Minutes Peace (1986) by Jill Murphy

• The Kinder Hat (1987) by Morag Loh and Donna Rawlins

• Mr Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1962) by Charlotte Zolotow and Maurice Sendak

• A Chair for Mother (1982) by Vera Williams 

• Pink Fluffy Slippers (1992) by Maureen Sherlock and Craig Smith

You will notice these books were published quite a while ago and except for the first one are probably hard to find. This brings up two dilemmas for me. 

1. Many older picture books have a longer, more complicated, satisfying plot and a worthwhile, yet subtle theme, but as they are old copies, irreplaceable because they are out of print they may no longer look enticing. Compare this with some more modern picture books for younger children which concentrate on 'writing in rhyme', have computer generated illustrations, teach a lesson, and thus are quite didactic.

2. If a book is 'old' it may be weeded from the library stock. This happens because weeding is ad hoc, done by an ill-informed helper or because someone has decided the library has too many books and new is better. Teacher librarians should have criteria for weeding a library, know what resources are used and when, and because they have favourites and teachers have favourites know what not to discard until the person is no longer on the staff.

The Trouble With Mum (1985)  by Babette Cole, Are You My Mother? (1960) by P.D. Eastman, Tucking Mummy In (1987) by Morag Loh and Mums Don't Get Sick  (1995) by Marylin Hafner are still favourites with teachers and mothers. They are 'old'. Should all these books be weeded? 

Compare the books above with I Love My Mummy (2010) by Emma Dodd and Giles Andreae, There's Only One Mum Like You (2019) by Jess Rackyleft, The Strongest Mum (2018) by Nicola Kent and Superhero Mum (2018) by Timothy Knapman and Joe Berger. Although short on depth, currently these books are all out of the library on loan, so they do appeal, but will they still be around in twenty to thirty years and remembered as favourites?

Doing special things with Mum is another thing to talk to the children about, using books like these as provocation.

• Saturday by One Mora

• One Day With Mum  by Helen Oxenbury

• Mum, Me and the Mulberry Tree by Tanya Rosie and Chuck Groenik

• The Big Big Sea  by Martin Fadell and Jennifer Eachus

• Any of the Shirley Hughes' books about Alfie and Annie Rose doing things with their mother or the Sarah Garland books Going Swimming, Doing the Garden etc.

16th June World Smell Day

World Smell Day is actually celebrated on the 16th June each year and it is not a day I knew existed until last week. While doing the bulk loans for next term I was surprised by how many books had the word 'smelly' in their title and I began to think about pulling them off the shelf and putting together a 'smelly' display. Having done this I then went looking to see if such a day existed and it does.

World Smell Day was first celebrated in 1988 and founded by Dr George Dodds. This year the hope of World Smell Day was 'to introduce you to the world of scents, aromas, odours and miasmas and encourage you to take a special interest in the many pleasurable smell sensations which come our way - and, perhaps, in actually training your nosing ability!'

Most of the books I have found for my display, however do not celebrate pleasurable smells, but rather the more unpleasant ones, that the children love to read about. There's the smelly

• the old favourite  The Smelly Book  by Babette Cole
• any book about Judy Moody's brother Stink, but start with Stink It Up! A Guide to the Gross, the Bad and the Smelly  by Megan McDonald
• the three picture books by Mark Chambers about Brian the Smelly Bear
• Dirty Bertie by Alan MacDonald and David Roberts, but start with the two picture books by David Roberts and then look for Pong.
• then there's the dog stories Smelly Louie by Catherine Rayner; My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks  by Hanoch Piven; Smelly Bill  and Smelly Bill Stinks Again by Daniel Postgate; and  The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog by Margaret Read MacDonald
• Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko
• Smelly Peter the Great Pea Eater by Steve Smallman
• Mo's Smelly Jumper  by David Bedford
• Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup
• What's That Awful Smell?  by Heather Tekavec
• The Day the Smells Went Wrong by Catherine Sefton
• Mr Tripp Smells a Rat by Sandy McKay and Ruth Paul
• The Children Who Smelled a Rat by Allan Ahlberg
• You Smell and so does everything else by Clive Gifford

Then there's the stinky
• My Stinky Dog by Christine Roussey
• Stinky! or how the beautiful smelly warthog found a friend  by Ian Whybrow
• Stinky by Eleanor Davis, a title from the wonderful Toon series.
• all the Sir Charlie Stinky Socks series of books by Kristina Stephenson
• all the Stinky Cecil series by Paige Braddock. Start with Stinky Cecil in Operation Pond Rescue
• one title in  the Sir Scallywag series Sir Scallywag and the Battle of Stinky Bottom by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul
• one title in the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series The Case of the Stinky Stench by Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney
• one title from the Pig and Fox series  A Pig, A Fox and Stinky Socks by Jonathan Fenske 

• introduce yourself to the Cosmic Colin by Tim Collins series by reading the first book Stinky Space Race
• introduce yourself to the Hound Hotel series by Shelley Swanson Sateren  by reading Stinky Stanley.
• introduce yourself to the Stinky and Jinks series which features Benjamin Jinks and his grumpy hamster Jasper Stinkybottom by David Lowe by reading book one My Hamster is a Genius
• do some science experiments with Stinky Science: Why the smelliest smells smell so smelly by Edward Kay
• Stinky Skunks and Other Animal Adaptations by Barbara Taylor
• Stinkiest! : 20 Smelly Animals  by Steve Jenkins

and the whiffy!
• A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems by Joan Rankin
• Hey, What's that Nasty Whiff? by Julia Jarman and Garry Parsons
• and there's the three wonderful stories about Whiffy Wilson by Caryl Hart. Start with Whiffy Wilson the Wolf Who Wouldn't Wash.

I told you there were a lot of books! If you want one that has some less unpleasant smells, read Anna Fienberg's gem, The Magnificent Nose. Think of all the wonderful aromatic words that will be added to a child's vocabulary while exploring these books.

10th September Babette Cole (1949)

British author/illustrator Babette Cole often manages to be controversial. Her humour does not enthuse everyone. Every book and website I looked at said that Babette was born in 1949, but her website biography says she was born in 1950. She has written over 70 books and sold millions of copies. She says that her book Mummy Laid an Egg is her most famous and it has sold a million copies, however every time an adult speaks to me about Babette Cole they tell me their view of 'that' book. They can love the rudeness of Dr Dog and yet be appalled by the skateboard scene in Mummy Laid an Egg. At least parents seem to know who Babette Cole is! The children like the Trouble With... series and the four descriptive titles; The Smelly Book; The Slimy Book; The Hairy Book and The Silly Book; and all the Princess Smartypants books. This year Babette has ventured into chapter books with her Fetlocks Hall series which combine her love of horses, fairytales and humour.