23rd October Book Week

Another Book Week over! Every year I say do I have to do Book Week next year? It always seems like so much work and often so unrelated to books. This year's Book Week seems to have gone on forever because it was postponed from Term 3 to Term 4 in the hope that Covid would be over and we could once again have visitors in the school. We were lucky we did have an author visit 'in the flesh', not on Zoom and it was a huge success. Kate and Jol Temple came to talk to grades K to 2. They were hugely entertaining as well as informative and the children were certainly inspired. One Year 1 student told me it was the 'highlight of 2020'! We have ibis in our school playground, so the children were fascinated by  Bin Chicken  and I am in awe of Room on Our Rock and the way it gives two points of view, simply by reading the book backwards.

We did have a Book Week Parade and the students did a marvellous job of kitting themselves out, many without spending money, but instead using ingenuity and creativity. I suggested they come as a 'curious creature' or a 'wild mind' instead of a book character and many did do this. There was a myriad of Ada Lovelaces, Jane Goodalls, Albert Einsteins, David Attenboroughs, inspired by the Little People Big Dreams series of books, Bindi and Robert Irwins, from their series of books, Saucepan Men and Silky from The Faraway Tree.

The teachers got into the spirit too. I dressed as Ann Carroll Moore, the first librarian to advocate for children's libraries. I had shared the book  Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough with some of my classes and it seemed ideal. She certainly had a 'wild mind', as we now have many children's libraries including the most fantastic one that I work in which caters for 3 to 8 year olds, and as many of my students think 'has a book on everything'!

Every year I look at the Book Week theme and think how am I going to do that with such young children, but as the year rolls on and I think about it some more I manage something and this year was no exception. I have had great fun especially with curious creatures. When I was told next year's theme,  Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds I immediately thought...oh it is so long and so all encompassing, but no doubt as I mull it over and talk to friends, ideas will flow. On to next year. An author or illustrator needed...get thinking!

Curious Creatures

The book The Curious Ar-Chew is the perfect book to share with a young class while you are exploring the Book Week theme, Curious Creatures Wild Minds. 

 "Three woodland friends (a hedgehog, a goose and a rabbit) puzzle over the identity of a very strange creature asleep in the hollow of a tree. It has orange rubbery feet like a goose, long ears like a rabbit  and a thick woolly coat like a lamb. "  

I read it to my four Kindergarten classes this week and  the story certainly captured their interest and kept them guessing as to what the creature was. When the answer is revealed on the last page there was a loud sigh of  'oh yeh', as they put the clues together. We had talked the previous week about just what 'curious' meant and many remembered that it had two meanings. The hedgehog, the goose and the rabbit were curious to know what the creature in the hollow was. They thought it was 'curious' because it was 'strange' to them. Once the children knew that the creature was a child they then wanted to talk about whether she was curious or not. We made a list of things she could be curious about. With older children you could also discuss who has the wild mind in this story and get them to support their reasoning with evidence from the book.

This book is the debut picture book for New Zealand author Sarah Grundy. It won the Storylines Joy Cowley Award in 2016 for Sarah and the illustrators, husband and wife team Ali Teo and by John O'Reilly. If you do not have this book in your library, but you have a subscription to Story Box Library, you will find it there.

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

When the CBCA announced this slogan for Book Week I did wonder how I was going to explain it to and enthuse my under eight year old audience in the library. 'Curious' is a word I use with them quite often and I know that they like to use that word. It is good that it has two meanings.

1. eager to know or learn something  & 2. strange or unusual     
Then if we add 

synonyms: for 1. inquisitive: intrigued; interested

for 2: odd; peculiar; unusual; bizarre; weird; eccentric    

We then have quite a lot to work with. I have had fun collecting books to put together a display. I added the 'wild' from wild minds to make half of the display to be a collection of books that explore unusual wild animals. I started with questions like

• What is an okapi?

• What is an axolotl?

• What is a pangolin?

• What is a tenrec?

• What is uakari?

• What is an ibex?

• What is an aye-aye?

• What is a wonga-wonga?

and then I realised there are so many animals I could add to this list. Just look in books such as 

• Weird and Wonderful Animals  by Rosella Trionfetti and Cristina Banfi

• The World of Weird Animals Series  by Jess Keating

         Pink is for Blobfish

         Cute as an Axolotl

         Gross as a Snot Otter

         What Makes a Monster?

• Who are You Calling Weird?  by Marilyn Singer and Paul Davis  

• Weird Animals  by Mary Kay Carson

• Lesser Spotted Animals by Martin Brown

• Even More Lesser Spotted Animals by Martin Brown

• Who Am I? by Steve Jenkins

• Tenrec's Twigs  by Bert Kitchen

And for those very mixed up animals, read:                                

• Hello Hello  by Brendan Wenzel

• The Wild Fluffalump by Mwenye Hadithi

• Greedy Zebra by Mwenye Hadithi

• Call Me Gorgeous  by Giles and Alexandra Milton

See more on Pinterest here.

17th August Reading is my secret power

It is Book Week in Australia, a time to celebrate books, especially Australian books, authors, illustrators and reading. As I only teach 4 to 8 year olds I found it harder this year to get enthused about the books on the shortlists. I shared the Early Childhood shortlisted books with my Kindergarten and Year 1 classes, but felt that in the main they were aimed at an even younger audience.   I read my Year 2s The All New Must Have Orange 430  from the Picture Book Shortlist, which they did enjoy and discussed the message at length, but I didn't feel invested in any of the others on the list, too much background needed.

So, instead Year 2 classes and I have shared books where the theme of Book Week, Reading is my secret power  and the theme of the power of reading has opened their eyes and mouths to just what reading or the lack of it means. We have had lots of lively debate, some good personal reflection and connections and lots of questions. All good.

Firstly, we read that wonderful book by Nadia Wheatley, The Greatest Gift of Charlemagne the King. Why is it out of print? The debate at the end of this story about what the greatest gift is always amazes me. The students fall into three camps, those who think it is the book, those who think it is the library and those who think it is the ability to read. Remember these animated students are 7 or 8 and they are loudly and vehemently stating their case.

Secondly, we read Nasreen's Secret School  by Jeanette Winter. I stopped at the part where it says the girls were not allowed to go to school and separated the students into boys and girls. The boys were asked to discuss what they thought it would be like to have no girls in the class. The girls were asked to discuss what they thought it would be like to stay home from school every day. Four different Year 2 classes all had very different views on this. We then kept reading and discussed at the end what would happen long term without schools.

Thirdly, we read Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges which continued this theme of education only for boys. The girls in particular had very little difficulty putting themselves in Ruby's shoes and had lots to say about being excluded from a university education. I paired this with The Girl Who Buried her Dreams in a Can an autobiographical picture book by Tererai Trent so that the students realised that this is not a phenomena applicable only in Ancient China or Afghanistan, but also happened in parts of Africa.

We haven't read these two books yet, but I plan to also share with the students what happens when learning to read is not easy or doesn't happen when you're young, by sharing Patricia Polacco's Thank You, Mr Falker and Amy Hest's Mr George Baker.

22nd - 26th August Book Week

Well another Book Week in Australia is over. This year's theme Australia: Story Country proved to be a good one and each class at my school celebrated with an Australian book that they read and  used as inspiration for discussions and response activities that highlighted places in Australia, either in the form of travel to places mentioned or to the home of authors, illustrators or famous Australians.
Each class did a one page 'postcard' to display for the whole school population and visitors to read read in the corridor. It was a huge success. On Grandparents Day on Friday the corridor was full of children showing adults their work and discussing the books displayed along side. See images below that when joined together made a long Rainbow Serpent winding its way to the library. Not all classes work is here as some had photos or identified specific children. The teachers chose the books to either fit with a unit of enquiry, because it was a favourite book or author or because the students showed interest in it. I was so impressed with the range and what each class did.

There are four classes per grade. The books chosen were:

Kindergarten
* My Place  by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins
* Silly Birds  by Gregg Dreise
* Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (new paperback single story editions) by May Gibbs and Mark McLeod
* Koala Lou  by Mem Fox and Pamela Lofts
Year 1
* Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester
* Bright Star  by Gary Crew and Anne Spudvilas
* Where the Forest Meets the Sea  by Jeannie Baker
* Tiny: A Little Dog on a Big Adventure  by Jennifer Castles and Steve Otton
Year 2
* Enora and the Black Crane  by Arone Raymond Meeks
* Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox and Nicholas Wilson (US) and Lorraine Ellis (Aus)
* Home  by Narelle Oliver
* You and Me Murrawee by Kerri Hashmi and Felicity Marshall

25th February Cynthia Voight (1942) Narelle Oliver (1960)

While I love Cynthia Voigt's books, she writes for young adults and not for the age group I deal with on a daily basis. An author who does write for the clientele of my library though is Narelle Oliver. She is an Australian, lives in Brisbane and does wonderful things with linocuts, my favourite art medium.

I first got hooked on Narelle's work when I used The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay in a circle- time-type discussion about how everyone has a special talent and something to offer the whole group. It was so successful and became a class favourite, with students often referring back to it in class discussions when wanting to make a point about strengths and weaknesses.

After that I made a point of following her and 'hanging out' for the next book. When Home came out, I was immediately smitten. I sang its praises to anyone who would listen. I spoke about it at literature workshops, I read it to children and drooled over the art work. Here Narelle has combined linocuts with coloured pencils, pastels, collage and photography. The book is set in Brisbane and like many of her books it explores the loss of natural environment and features the victim animal's point of view. And I can't wait to use it again during Book Week because with 'Across the story bridge' as a theme you have to use a book with such stunning illustrations of the real Story Bridge in Brisbane!

Then last year there was Fox and Fine Feathers and she did it again, a wonderful book with linocuts, a theme from nature and birds who triumph once again. Look at her website http://www.narelleoliver.com and discover everything she has to offer!