13th December World Violin Day

Unfortunately there is no one at school to celebrate Violin Day. We are already on summer holidays, but at my school all of Year 2 take part in a 'strings program' where they learn to play the violin or cello. When they first begin, being in the room next door at school, is excruciating but by the time the end of year concert comes round I am amazed at how good they sound, so next year when the Year 2 students are allocated their new instrument I am going to do a display in the library of all these wonderful 'violin' books.
• Patrick by Quentin Blake. When Patrick plays his violin extraordinary things happen.
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman among other things this is a fun introduction to the orchestra
• A Violin for Elva by Mary Lyn Ray and Tricia Tusa. Elva wants a violin but her parents say no.
• The Pear Violin by Bingbo and Gumi. A clever squirrel turns half a pear into a violin and makes beautiful music in the forest.
• Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Hana has had three violin lessons when she decides to enter a talent quest.
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic tells the story of Joshua Bell, a famous classical violinist who gave a free concert in a subway in Washington.
• The Violin Man  by Colin Thompson is about Oscar who plays his violin outside a theatre but longs to play inside the theatre.
• The Anzac Violin by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton is the true story of New Zealand soldier, Alexander Aitken who took his violin everywhere he went.
• Ada's Violin by Susan Hood and Sally Were Comport tells the amazing story of a group of children who play musical instruments built from recycled rubbish in Paraguay.
• The Magic Violin by Victor Kelleher. Jimbo plays the violin just like Year 2 do at the beginning...terribly.
• Kizmet and the Case of the Smashed Violin  by Frank Woodley is a short chapter book that has Kizmet trying to find out who is smashed a priceless Stradivarius violin.

12th October National Ride to Work Day

NSW Bike Week was held from 18th to 25th September and now today we have Ride to Work Day, neither of which have a direct impact at school, but they do promote the importance of good health and reducing our carbon footprint, so they are things that could be picked up as discussion starters with children. The Ride to Work website proudly states that 'over one hundred and fifty thousand Australian workers are expected to join the commuter revolution and ride to work.' I rode my bike to school every day during primary school and the school had rows and rows of bike racks. Granted it was in a flat country town and another era but it was an extremely enjoyable and sociable way to get to school. Now I swear at the bike riders who are riding their bike slowly and seemingly obliviously in the middle of the transit lane as I drive to school along a very busy commuter route. How times change.

There is a new book in the shops at the moment, simply called The Bicycle which would make a good follow up to any bike discussion you were having with children. It is a celebration of the bicycle in illustration put together by Colin Thompson as a result of a trip to Cambodia with Save the Children Fund. He writes about how this wonderful book came to be, here on the Readings website. A wide range of wonderful children's book illustrators, fifteen in total have contributed, including Quentin Blake and Shaun Tan and a favourite of mine, Freya Blackwood.

Then if the children are inspired by this book and the reasons behind it, Kate Petty's book for Oxfam, Bicycles will allow children to see the role bikes do play in developing countries.

18th October Colin Thompson (1942)

Colin Thompson lives in Australia and now we say he is Australian. How he came to be here I think is one of the best romance stories in the world of children's literature... an Australian teacher librarian raises money with her students to bring Colin Thompsonout from England on a visit to their school. He comes and likes it so much, he decides to stay and marries the librarian! Now he does his amazing artwork and writes his novels in Bellingen in northern New South Wales. You can read all about him and his work on his very comprehensive website. The readers in my library like to pore over the detail in the picture books that he illustrates himself, such as The Tower to the Sun; How to Live Forever; Castles and The Paradise Garden.