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!

CBCA Notables

Well the Children's Book Council judges have announced their list of twenty books for the 2020 Notables for the Early Childhood category. This means that the shortlist will come from this group and then ultimately the winners too. As an Early Childhood teacher/librarian, I am so often disappointed by what makes this list. The books often  either sell this age group short because they are for the very young end of this age group or they have no plot to hook children, but instead rely on rhyming doggerel. This year they are not for the very young. There's no lullabyes and there are some books with wonderful artwork.

I spend the whole of my teaching days with children between three and eight. They want and need a plot, quality artwork, good vocabulary and the books need to warrant revisiting.

This year in the lead up to Book Week I am tempted to create my own shortlist of Australian picture books to explore because four books I think should be on the list and which I know will work with my students, didn't even make the Notables. These four fabulous books are:

Dumazi and the Big Yellow Lion by Valanga Khoza and Matt Ottley. In this  story Dumazi is on her way to the waterhole when she encounters a lion caught in a trap. The lion wants her to set him free, but she knows that lions roaming free are dangerous. Written by Valanga Khoza who has lived in Africa, so set in Africa, accompanied by superb artwork and a CD of the story read by the author with outstanding music performed by the author and illustrator. The quintessential work of art!


Fly! by Jess McGeachin
Lucy finds a bird with a broken wing, which she is sure she can fix. But not everything that’s broken can be fixed. This story of determination highlights a beautiful daughter father relationship. It is a debut book and has so much depth and so many conversation starting points.


Leonard Doesn't Dance by Frances Watts and Judy Watson
The word play and vocabulary extension provided by this story about birds and dancing is more than enough, but there is also a theme worth exploring with children as well. Also take a look at Judy Watson's Pinterest page of bird drawings she did for the book.


Sarah's Two Nativities by Janine M. Fraser and Helene Magisson
At Christmas time, Sarah snuggles in each of her grandmothers' laps. Grandmother Azar tells Sarah stories from the Holy Koran and Grandmother Maria tells her stories from the Bible. She listens to two nativities stories about the birth of baby Jesus. They are the same in some ways, and different in others. What a perfect introduction for talking about Christmas in multicultural Australia.

Read these books, search out the teaching notes, look at the author and illustrator websites and then you will see how much fun you will have sharing them with classes. I'll probably add a couple more from the official list. I'll just wait and see what makes the shortlist.