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

29th July International Tiger Day

International Tiger Day is held annually to raise public awareness of tiger conservation issues. It is becoming more important each year as the number of tigers are decreasing quite rapidly. Recently I heard the tiger keeper from Australia Zoo interviewed on Conversation Hour on the ABC and I found what he had to say fascinating. It lead to me doing a bit of research and thinking it would be a fun topic to explore with students at school.

The fiction tiger titles are borrowed, but the nonfiction books on tigers (in fact any big cats) are very popular in my library. Whenever we put together a display and include a few cuddly toy tigers the books walk out the door. So having a global celebration of tigers is a good excuse to put together a display this week. What is in our library is here on pinterest.

Do a quick survey to see which is the most popular tiger book in your library. I love The Tiger-Skin Rug  by Gerald Rose. The librarian I share the library with loves Augustus and His Smile  by Catherine Rayner. One of the preschool teachers constantly has The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr on loan to her. One of the Kindergarten teachers has become a fan of The Rat and the Tiger by Keiko Kasza since doing a philosophy PD course and the students have become loyal fans of two newer books Mr Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown and The Sea Tiger by Victoria Turnbull.

The shortlist for The Environment Award for Children's Literature 2015 was announced in July and Our Class Tiger by Aleesah Darlison is on that shortlist in the non-fiction category. See the full shortlist here.

15th June The Power of a Smile Day

This week I have put together a small display highlighting how important it is to smile and the effect it can have because I wanted to celebrate Smile Power Day. I thought about doing this display after reading David Ezra Stein's book Because Amelia Smiled which tells about the pay forward concept that came about in New York when a small girl, Amelia smiled and this smile precipitated events all around the world. Walker Books says of it, 'David Ezra Stein's charmingly illustrated story reminds us that adding even a little kindness into the world is sure to spur more and more kindness, which could eventually make its way back to you!'

When I looked I found the library had all these other books about smiles too, among them:
• Augustus and His Smile by Catherine Rayner
• Smile! by Leigh Hodgkinson
• It's Lovely When You Smile by Sam McBratney and Charles Fuge
• Where's Your Smile, Crocodile? by Claire Freedman and Sean Julian
• The Girl Who Lost Her Smile by Karim Alrawi and Stefan Czernecki
• Melrose and Croc Find a Smile  by Emma Chichester Clark

And at school this morning when I got the books off the shelves to display I shared Taking a Bath with the Dog and Other Things that Make Me Happy by Scott Menchin and talked about what did make us smile. The opening words ...'I miss your smile today, Sweet Pea. What would make you happy?' asks the mother and then by the end Sweet Pea tells her  'I'm happy when I ...' and she lists off all the things that make her smile. I also read the afterword where Scott Menchin talks about his motives for writing the story and how he came to realise that 'what made me happy was doing what I enjoyed most.' Such a great book to get children thinking about the small things in life and how to make lists.

Remember to give everyone a big smile today as smiling can be contagious! Just watch this trailer and you'll see the power of picture books to make you smile.

9th June Catherine Rayner (1982)

I am very excited about this birthday. Catherine Rayner is very young and quite new to the children's book scene, with only six books so far, but each is a gem and she has already won the Kate Greenaway medal. She is 'a-not-to-be-missed' author/illustrator. You need to pore over all of her books marvelling at each picture. See how playful Posy looks, how special Augustus is, why Harris won the medal, how gentle Sylvia is, how Ernest struggles to fit on the page and how Norris and his friend share. You can see Catherine talk about Harris Finds His Feet on this video and see all of her books on her website.