11th October International Day of the Girl

It is school holidays here, but I wish it was a school day because today is International Day of the Girl and my students and parents who are wealthy and educated still seem to need to be convinced at times that there is a gender gap. I have mothers saying to me, "Please don't let my boy borrow a pink book"; "Please don't let my girl borrow anymore building books"; "Do you have books that are boys' books?"; " My daughter loves Princess in Black,  what pink princess books could I borrow for her?"

This is in a country where women are more highly educated than men at the moment, but fewer of them are in leadership roles. This is at a coeducational school where the students have amazing opportunities and choices.

I am constantly putting together displays to counteract intrenched views. The library has an amazing collection of picture book biographies and picture books that feature girls and science, but today I would have put together a small display of books that encourage girls to be themselves, befitting this year's theme - GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable.

                      

I give every baby girl born to friends, a copy of Global Baby's Girls  and  a copy of one of Dream Big  by Joyce Wan or Baby Feminists  by Libby Babbott-Klein.













The display in the library would include these books:

      

Go girls!

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.

9th June Don't ...

Earlier in the year we had a display in the library of books with 'No' as the title. We did it as a joke initially because one of us said, "I wish someone would just say 'no' to these kids!"But, it was a big success. We'd hear the children, even preschoolers reading the titles with all sorts of different intonation. Then this past week we put out all the books in the library that say 'Don't Open this Book'. It was so sweet watching the children go up to the book read the title and prevaricate. Some came to ask if they could. Others tried to peep. Some said I'll borrow this and open it at home. Having only under eight year olds is so nice sometimes!

It was such a success that we then went looking for other titles that gave an instruction starting with 'don't' or 'do not'. Here's what we found and all but three were out of the library by yesterday!

20th - 30th May International Pickle Week

Apparently Pickle Week is celebrated for ten days, not seven during May and it has been since 1948. In Australia children look at you strangely when you talk about 'pickles'. We have gherkins, cucumbers, mustard pickles and dill pickles, but the actual act of 'pickling' is not something many children would have thought about, even though it has been around since the 1300s. I asked a class what it meant to be 'in a pickle' though and surprisingly a couple knew that if you were in a pickle you were in difficulty. They will be ready when they finally read Shakespeare's The Tempest and see this reference!

There are books to read now though...some which actually have the edible 'pickles' as a subject, some where it is used as a character's name and others where someone finds themselves 'in a pickle'. Have fun reading, pickling vegetables and eating pickles for these ten days.

16th - 22nd February Chip Week

Only in Britain could they celebrate chips, but I'm sure Australians probably eat just as many chips, so we too, could celebrate Chip Week. We have more books with 'chip' in the title than I thought we would too. We have two picture books:

• The Best Chip by Kate Leake
• Don't Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate! by Caryl Hart & Leigh Hodgkinson

And two chapter books, both from popular series:

• Super Cat and the Chip Thief by Jeanne Willis
• Monster and Chips by David O'Connell

So tomorrow in one part of the library there will be pancake stories for Pancake Day and elsewhere chip books for Chip Week.

Let it Rip Potato Chip!