29th April World Wish Day

World Wish Day occurs on the 29th April each year and originated because of a seven year old child who was sick with leukaemia wishing for something to happen in 1980. His wish was granted and when people heard about it the Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded. It has become a well-known world-wide children's charity but I am writing about this day because of a request I had from a preschool teacher at the end of last term for books about 'wishing'. She had been talking to her class about wishes and realised that the children didn't really know what a wish was when she asked them what they would wish for during an activity.

There are so many books I could have given her. Narrowing it down to a small number was hard. Most of the picture books with 'wish' in the title have a Christmas setting so I avoided them except for Jane Godwin and Anna Walker's beauty, What Do You Wish For? , and gave her that and these:

• Wish by Roseanne Thong and Elisa Kleven
• I Wish... by Nick Ward
• I Wish For More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld
• The Wish Giver by Roseanne Hawke and Lenore Penner
• The Wish Factory by Chris Riddell
• The Fish Who Could Wish by Korky Paul
• The Wish Tree  by Kyo Maclear and Chris Turnham
• The Wishing Boat by Amanda Tarlau and Chris Saunders



We all make wishes and these wishes differ greatly in magnitude but it was interesting to see that a concept we as adults take for granted was something the three and four year olds at an affluent school needed to be introduced to through planned intervention. The classroom now has a wish tree and they talk about wishes and wishing in their regular discourse. If you have none of the books above buy The Wish Tree  or watch it here. Danielle Davis from the blog This Picture Book Life outlines an accompany activity she has planned for the book here and there are other ideas on the web.

9th July Ada's baptism

I have just come home from a lovely celebration for a friend's baby, Ada Grace. For the last week I have been agonising about what gift to give her. I always give this family books, so I felt quite sure they would expect me to arrive with books, but what to take? I had given Ada's older sister picture book bible stories for her baptism, but felt I had chosen the best of these then. So finally I decided to give Ada some books about exemplary Adas. Well as it turned out I had a lot to choose from, all of which she would grow into at some stage. In the end I bought a current favourite, Ada Twist, Scientist and one of the wonderful biographies on Ada Lovelace, Ada's Ideas, but it could have just as easily been any of these below. The one at the top right is book one of a new series about Ada Lace, an eight-year-old girl with a knack for science, maths, and solving mysteries with technology. It will be out in August and I will buy it for the library.

21st March World Poetry Day

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W. H. Auden 


I try to share poetry on Tuesday 21st March every year, sometimes just with the classes I teach, sometimes in assembly or sometimes I organise a whole school celebration. At my school the whole school is involved in eSmart Week events so unfortunately poetry will come off second best. All the more reason why my lessons in the library this week will all involve sharing poetry.

Here are five newish books that are well worth adding to any collection:
• Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer
This story celebrates poetry found in the world around us.  What is poetry? It is glistening morning dew. It is crisp leaves crunching. If you look and listen, it's all around you.
• All the World a Poem by  Gilles Tibo
Also for young children this is a tribute to poetry. Each poem is illustrated with paper collage art which is child-like and takes poetry to the level of the child.
•  A Great Big Cuddle Poems for the Very Young by Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell.
This wonderful book has just been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award. Enough said.
• Macavity The Mystery Cat by T.S.Eliot and Arthur Robins
This is a picture book version of this great poem. Arthur Robins has now done four of the cat poems as picture books...see Mr Mistoffelees, Skimbleshanks and Jellicle Cats as well.
• A Poem for Every Night edited by Allie Esiri.
This is a magnificent collection of 366 poems for older children, one to share ever night of the year. The poems - together with introductory paragraphs - have a link to the date on which they appear.

10th November Neil Gaiman (1960)

Happy birthday to English author Neil Gaiman. Neil's best known books are beyond the reading capabilities of my clientele, but there are some picture books and easier chapter books for my under 8s. Hopefully having read these they will be keen to read books such as Coraline and The Graveyard Book when they are older.

30th November Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) L.M. Montgomery (1874 -1942)

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, poet and Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He is best known as the author of Gulliver's Travels. Is this a children's book? The idea definitely appeals to children even if the length and language doesn't appeal to modern children. A good way to introduce the idea is to use a book like Usborne's Young Reading Gulliver' Travels or serialise an abridged version such as the one written by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by award winning Chris Riddell, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver. This book contains all of Gulliver's voyages and because Riddell has brought to life Swift's imagination in his depictions of the people, creatures and kingdoms, it is more accessible to younger readers than the original.

L. M. Montgomery was a Canadian author. She always published her books using her initials in this way. Her name was Lucy Maud, but she was known to family and friends as Maud. She is best known for her series about a young orphan called Anne. We first meet her as an eleven year old in Anne of Green Gables. As for Jonathan Swift's Gulliver, children often first meet Anne in a movie or television series, however also like Gulliver, young children can get to know her through abridged versions such as Mary-Claire Hellendorfer and Ellen Beier's Anne of Green Gables which is a picture book version.

13th April Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell is a British illustrator/author whose books often seem to turn reality on its head. He has a zany sense of humour and immense creativity in his books. He works closely with Paul Stewart on several series of novels for primary-school-aged children, but he has done picture books and the Ottoline books by himself. The third Ottoline will come this year.

Two of his picture books that are fail-proof with children are The Emperor of Absurdia and Mr Underbed. Both of these are full of amazing imaginary creatures that appear to be so friendly that no child would ever be scared.

There is minimal text, but detailed illustrations with plenty to look at and wonder about... such as umbrella trees, sky fish and dinner coming before lunch.

If you want to walk around smiling all day go to Chris' website and read the section about him and then go into fun stuff and watch him draw while he chats.