12th November Michael Rosen Day

On  Tuesday 12th  November enjoy a day of poetry, stories and creativity to celebrate 50 years since Michael Rosen's first book.

We all know We're Going on a Bear Hunt , but there are so many other resources to explore. I had fun with Year 2 recently reading and hearing Michael's poetry, but next week I plan to share with other grades too.

I have put out a display of Michael's books in readiness and am hoping many of them will be borrowed. There is something for everyone.

Popular with the preschool and illustrated by Robert Sterling

There's the books about Rover that are illustrated by Neal Layton

There's the picture books illustrated by Bob Graham

The books inspired by nursery rhymes and fairytales illustrated by Nick Sharratt and David Melling

 

Short novels for beginning readers

There's so many really good stand alone picture books:

And of course there's all the poetry anthologies. There's a new one coming in January.

16th January Appreciate a Dragon (Dragons Day 1)

Happy New Year! It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon and the International Year of Camelids. It's 2024!

To coincide with Appreciate a Dragon Day and in preparation for Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon we have planned to display dragon books in the library to start the New School Year which begins at the end of January. We have so many books featuring dragons, so over a series of blogs, I will introduce you to what is on offer for our library users. There are seven days so you will be able to make a long list of books to get from your library.

Firstly, my young students associate dragons with fairytales, knights, breathing fire and having battles, and yes the stories they choose to read do feature these kind of dragons, but there's many more to explore. There's chapter books, myths and legends, Asian folktales and dragons who are friendly. 

Are you ready to battle a dragon? This is the signage above the library display but many of the dragons in the pictures displayed above the books make the dragons look friendly, fun and not too scary because the readers who frequent my library are under eight or parents and teachers of these students who are at preschool or in Kindergarten, Grade 1 or Grade 2.

For my very young readers I would start with books such as these:

• How to Catch a Dragon by Carol Hart and Ed Eaves

• Sylvia and Bird by Catherine Rayner

• This is Not a Fairytale  by Will Mabbit and Fred Blunt

• Me and My Dragon  by David Biedrzycki

• King Jack and the Dragon  by Peter Bently and Helen Oxenbury

• Jill &  Dragon  by Lesley Barnes

• Again!  by Emily Gravatt

• Look Out, It's a Dragon! by Jonny Lambert

• Ellie's Dragon  by Bob Graham

• Dragon Dancing by Carole Lexa Schaefer and Pierr Morgan

• George and the Dragon  and  George, the Dragon and the Princess by Chris Wormell

16th Ice Cream Day

Ice cream is celebrated on the third Sunday in July in America and other parts of the world. It is probably in July because it is summer and hot. In Australia it is not summer, but the ice cream shops in my beachside suburb still seem to have customers. Do Americans really eat more ice cream than Australians?

I am always tempted to write ice cream as one compound word icecream. The spelling checker moves it apart. the dictionary says it's two words, but why? I wonder if Bonnie Bader explains why in her book Curious About ice Cream.

Putting together a display? Look for these:

• Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems

• Vanilla Ice Cream by Bob Graham

• Gorilla Loves Vanilla  by Chae Strathie

• There's Broccoli in my Ice Cream by Emily MacKenzie

• Izzy the Ice Cream Fairy  by Tim Bugbird

• Ice Cream Summer  by Peter Sis 

• When Ice Cream Had a Meltdown  by Michelle Robinson

• Splat the Cat: I Scream for Ice Cream by Rob Scott

• I Scream Ice Cream by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Easy chapter books:

• Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer  by James  Kochalka

• Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream  by Tom Watson

• Captain Awesome vs the Evil Ice Cream Jingle  by Stan Kirby

• Spy Penguins: The Spy Who Loved Ice Cream by Sam Hay

And a biography:

• The Sweetest Scoop by Lisa Robinson and Stacy Innerst is a biography about the entrepreneurial, activist duo behind Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, met when they were twelve years old. Ben liked art, Jerry liked science, and they both loved food . . . especially ice cream!

Read Grow Inspire Book Week Slogan 2023 (Part 5) INSPIRE

 INSPIRE     WHO?

Inspire the World: A Kid's Journey to Making a Difference by Sammie Vance and Talitha Shipman

Obviously not every child is going to be a Sammie Vance. Sammie felt inspired to talk to her school principal about her plan for a friendship bench at her school, but what started as 8-year-old Sammie Vance's mission to get a buddy bench for her school to fight loneliness grew to be so much more. Now Sammie is making a difference beyond her hometown. In her first-ever book, Sammie shares how she's inspiring others through recycling, community, giving, determination, bravery, helping, being herself, and celebrating. She wants to inspire the world one kid at a time. Her website will tell you more. But, the good thing about introducing your students to Sammie Vance is that it shows them that a child can make a difference.

There are plenty of books you could use to inspire children or where they can see what has inspired people to do things. Our school has made a concerted effort to encourage Voice and Agency in our students. This too can be initiated by reading. Schools read about worm farms and get one, read about native bees and get a hive for their playground, read about the perils of plastic and change their lunch eating habits!

Below are some books which I think make good starting points for inspiration:

Grow  by Cynthia Platt and Olivia Holden Looking at a drab abandoned city lot, a girl has an idea. As she begins pulling weeds, neighbours young and old, black, brown, and white come to help. The community joins together, creating a colorful garden for all to enjoy. It is possible for one child to make a difference? Or

The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers where Funni loves the old, disused car park, and spends a lot of time there flying her kite and playing her recorder, but something is missing. Definitely. So Funni decides to create a garden in the neglected space and after weeks of careful nurture, her garden in the sky takes shape.

The Wild Garden  by Cynthia Cliff

This book takes a look at the community garden as well as the environment beyond the community garden. Its message is about not expanding the planned community garden because it will take away the needed wild plants that the wildlife needs. We need to stop taking away from nature and learn to live with nature.  When the town wants to expand the garden Jilly and her grandfather show the people what the expansion will do and inspire them to wonder more broadly about the nature around them. Imagine if everyone learned to live with the nature as it is and help the wildlife instead of taking their space and needed ecosystems?

You Are a Beautiful Beginning by Nina Laden and Kelsey Garrity-Riley

Three children come together to build a magnificent and cozy treehouse for all their forest friends. Along the way, they discover the truth behind the adage that 'it is not the destination, but the journey.' his meditative and magical picture book encourages readers old and young to discover their own endless potential. This meditative and magical picture book encourages readers to discover their own endless potential. 

Wild Ideas  by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim

Wild Ideas looks deep into the forests, skies and oceans to explore how animals solve problems. Whether it's weaving a safe place to rest and reflect, blowing a fine net of bubbles to trap fish, or leaping boldly into a new situation, the animals featured teach us a lot about creative problem solving tools and strategies. It  invites readers to indulge their sense of wonder and curiosity by observing the natural world, engaging with big ideas and asking questions.

We Move the World  by Kari Lavelle and Nadi H. Ali. Meet some of the world’s most beloved movers, shakers, scientists, activists, dreamers, and doers from the past and present who model what every childhood first can lead to! Neil Armstrong, Misty Copeland, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and more were once kids they grew up to lead us to the moon, dance in the ballet, and break barriers. From first steps to solving puzzles and learning the alphabet, all the small things are only the beginning: they can lead to future activism and innovation that just might change the world!  Or

Children Who Changed the World  by Marcia Williams which tells the incredible true stories of child activists such as Baruani Ndume, the teenager who gave a voice to fellow refugee children in Tanzania.

In Our Hands by Lucy Farfort

When the world is plagued with isolation and cursed to live without colour, it is up to a group of determined children to grow a seed of hope that will inspire everyone to come together and build a better future. 

I Am One: A Book of Action by Susan Verde and Peter H. Reynolds

On the first page, the main character asks a beautiful bird, "How do I make a difference?" They doubt their ability to make a difference because they are "so small." However, when the bird gives them a seed, they realize that "beautiful things start with just One." They can plant a seed and start a garden They can also start a journey, paint a masterpiece, compose a melody, and break down walls. All these actions start with "one" thing: a first step, a first stroke of paint, a first musical note, and a first brick. 

Now, I hear you saying it's for Book Week and none of these books are Australian, so here's a favourite of mine (I have a framed print of the cover illustration courtesy of my friend at Momotimetoread who knows how besotted I am about plants and trees).

Florette by Anna Walker 

Mae’s family moves to a new home in the city.  Mae wishes she could bring the garden with her. She’ll miss the apple trees, the daffodils and the butterflies in the long, wavy grass, but there’s no room for a garden in the middle of the city ...Or is there? What she finds there sparks something special and beautiful that will make her feel much more at home.

If you are lucky enough to have a copy of Bob Graham's new book The Concrete Garden by the time Book Week comes around you could read it as it promises to be a timely, inspiring and uplifting story about hope and the power of creative expression.

When the children leave their homes,  Amanda is the last one out of the tower block. She brings some chalk with her. On every inch of the concrete outside, the children draw pictures of everything they could think of, from flowers and snails, to spaceships and queens. Before long, a beautiful and exotic garden is spread out across the concrete. You could compare this to The Chalk Garden by Sally Anne Garland where Emma uses her imagination to draw a beautiful flower garden with sidewalk chalk.  A tiny ecosystem develops outside her door, with real-life flowers that bud and bloom!

And lastly, I have just purchased Mother Earth: Poems to Celebrate the Wonder of Nature by Libby Hathorn and Christina Booth. The poems are good and you will enjoy reading them but the front endpapers are the piece de resistance. Here Christina Booth has painted a sublime illustration of nodes and tendrils pushing up through the dirt towards the sky surrounding a haiku, called Earth. There are teaching notes for this book here.

29th December Summer

It's Summer   

 

Take a trip to the beach where you'll find the best sandcastles ever built, fish and chips for lunch, lots of boats and a few perfect waves.

In my last blog I was bemoaning the Summer weather, but then it came good and now today it is very overcast again. When it was warm and sunny with brilliant blue skies and glistening sea I began thinking about which picture books epitomise Summer in Australia. They need to include the beach, swimming, doing nothing, cicadas, flies, mosquitoes, blue bottles, seagulls, picnics, cherries, mangos, zinc cream, sunburn, cricket, camping, fishing, outdoors, barbecuing... Of course they could include drought and bushfires, but I'm not including those here. I came up with this list. My childhood summers were a cross between Perfect  and Magic Beach as I grew up on the South Coast of New South Wales in a rural idyll like the farming area depicted by Freya Blackwood, but spent my school holidays at Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay at my grandparents' rental cabins so experienced the wonders of the beach depicted in Magic Beach  by Alison Lester.

Why I Love Summer by Michael Wagner and Tom Jellett *

Sunny days, weekends at the pool, games in the backyard, daylight until late and long, lovely holidays . . . that's summer, the best season ever.  

Summer by June Factor and Alison Lester *

Celebrate a special summer’s day and all that it brings: changing weather, family gatherings, lots of fun and . . . Christmas! 

Summer Time by Antonia Perenti and Hilary Bell *

Summer is here. Put your school shoes away, 
The long, lazy days can begin. 
Mangoes and magpies, municipal pools… 

Perfect  by Danny Parker and Freya Blackwood *

On a perfect day, the hours stretch endlessly ahead. Scribbling with chalk, running with kites, digging for shells ... paddling, climbing, dreaming. 

Greetings From Sandy Beach by Bob Graham *

The story of one family's camping holiday at the beach.

Magic Beach by Alison Lester

Visit a perfect beach where you can swim, surf, splash through the waves, build sandcastles, beachcomb, explore rock-pools, muck about in boats, fish from the jetty, and build a bonfire under the stars. 

Summer Blue by Trudie Trewin and Marjorie Crosby-Fairall

Marley and Moses lived in a place where the heat crept up and smothered the days in stifling stillness. And it stayed and stayed. A captivating story of a searing Australian summer and waiting for the welcome relief of rain.

Little Dog and the Summer Holiday by Corinne Fenton and Robin Cowcher

The summer holidays stretch out forever. Little Dog and his family set off with their caravan. A nostalgic and delightful story about the way family holidays used to be. 

Two Summers by John Heffernan and Freya Blackwood

Rick is coming to visit the farm again. But will he recognise the farm? Will he have as much fun as last time? Same friend. Same farm. Totally different landscape.

Australia at the Beach by Max Fatchen and Tom Jellett

A story of sun, surf, picnics, fish and chips, and one-legged seagulls. This is how one Australian family spends Australia Day at the beach, from packing up the car to getting dumped by a wave, playing beach cricket, and coming home sandy and exhausted.

Not a Nibble  by Elizabeth Honey

Holidays at the beach mean camping, swimming, finding crabs, feeding the seagulls, walking, reading. Everyone has plans for things to do.

Of course there's many other Australian picture books that could be on this list such as The Deep by Tim Winton, A Swim in the Sea by Sue Whiting, Jetty Jumping *  by Andrea Rowe and two that are no longer in print Mr Plunkett's Pool by Gillian Rubinstein and Sunny Faces  by Jeri Kroll. The cover of this last book shows children's faces that are slathered in zinc cream just like ours were and this illustration really makes me smile. Unfortunately I can't find a picture to show you and the book is at school and I'm at home. The books marked with an * are on Story Box Library if you don't have a copy in your library. Other books about summer can be found here.