6th September Pet Rock Day 16th September Collect Rocks Day

September seems to be the time to think about ROCKS! There is Pet Rock Day on the 6th or 14th depending on which website you look at and then there is Collect Rocks Day on the 16th. I grew up in an area where there was large amount of igneous rock and I had a science-teacher father who was besotted with geology and physical geography. I loved collecting rocks, especially those pieces of basalt that had been made into smooth pebbles by the pounding of the sea. These rocks were great for drawing on, decorating, making into people and rock art. And now I'm an adult I still have a 'thing' for rocks. Recently in Ireland I found myself picking up rocks and making totems on the pebbly beaches. I wrote on beaches with stones and made rock art constantly. old habits resurfaced because of the abundance of rocks to work with...and yes I did bring two rocks home! One of them is from the beach that the movie Ryan's Daughter was filmed on, the other from a town called Greystones just south of Dublin where as you guessed the beach is made from large grey pebbles. As you can also probably guess I loved The Giant's Causeway which makes rocks appear so clever.

The children at school do borrow books about rocks and crystals. They seem to run in bursts and if one child gets interested I often find the interest spreads. Below are some of my favourite rock books in the library and here is the connection to my pinterest page where I have both children's books and projects that use rocks. If you decide to 'adopt a rock' read Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs a Rock. Children probably won't choose to read this book themselves because of the illustrations and their lack of colour, but the text is perfect and once you read it, the children understand and are keen to choose a rock.

28th March Byrd Baylor (1924) Julia Jarman (1946)

Today's two birthday girls are very different in their approach to writing for children. Byrd lives in Southern Arizona near the Mexican border and her books have a very strong sense of place. They depict her environment and it is clear that she loves the land and its unique qualities. My library only has two of her books, Everybody Needs a Rock and So You Are a Hunter of Fossils, both of which are sparingly illustrated by Peter Parnell because Year 1 do a unit of enquiry that looks at under the ground. These are perfect for this.

Julia Jarman on the other hand is British and her picture books have mischievous children as their main characters and are pure fun. Among her books that we have in the library Class Two at the Zoo, and Class Three at Sea illustrated by Lynne Chapman; Big Red Bath and Big Blue Train illustrated by Adrian Reynolds; and two readers, Tooth Fairy in Trouble and The Magic Backpack are extremely popular and regularly borrowed.