16th July Guinea Pig Appreciation Day

Guinea pigs are a species of rodents that are adopted as pets due to their domesticated nature and cute appearance. However, guinea pigs were not always kept in homes — they were originally seen as livestock and their meat was consumed by people. Said to have originated from the Andes mountains of Peru, the animals were initially wild and had to be trained. 

They are certainly a popular pet at school and because of this they are also a popular topic to read about. Luckily many authors have recognised this fact and have written a series of novels which have them as main characters. We all know Michael Bond's Olga and Betty Birney's Humphrey, but there are others.

Do you know Charlotte Middleton's Christopher Nibble? (picture books)

Ali Pye's Harry Stephenson?

Colleen Venable's, Guinea Pig Private Eye,Sasspants?

Jennifer Gray's Fuzzy and Coco from Guinea Pigs Online ?

Pip Jones' Piggy Handsome?

These are series for your die-hard guinea pig fans. Of course there are other stand alone picture books, novels and nonfiction. See here.

Hamsters have a celebration of their own on 12th April, but I often do combined displays, as we do not have hamsters in Australia. Stinky and Jinks, Pigsticks and Harold and Super Turbo are hamster series that students enjoy.

2nd April Ferret Day

Yesterday was Ferret Day and I thought momentarily about including it on my blog, but as not many people  in Australia really keep ferrets as pets, I didn't. Then today my friend at Momo Celebrating Time to Read wrote about a new Australian poetry book on her blog  which included a poem from Brisbane author/illustrator Elizabeth Nussey which had a line saying 'ferrets fandango' so I reneged and thought why not include it on my blog.

The library had five ferret books, five more than I thought we would have! And Lorna Hendry's wonderful new book Pets  also has ferrets so we can do a Ferret Fandango display!

My Pet Ferret  by Lynn Hamilton

Fergus - Fabulous Ferret  by Alison Prince

A Small Ferret Wrote This Book by Rebecca Elliott

 The Ferret's a Foot by Colleen A.F. Venable
This is Book 3 in a graphic novel series especially for young readers called Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye

Ferret on the Loose by Heather Gallagher

16th September International Red Panda Day

Red Panda Day celebrates that smaller panda that is found in the Himalayas. It looks cute, but it features in children's books far less than the bigger black and white panda. In my library there is only one fiction book, Red Panda's Candy Apples and it is written by a New Zealand author Ruth Paul. It is the sequel to Hedgehog's Magic Tricks in which the red panda is a character. A new fiction book, Amy the Red Panda is Writing the Best Story in the World by Colleen Venable will be published in November. The blurb on websites says

" An exuberant, hilarious guessing game about storytelling, creativity, friendship, and patience-with the most adorable animal menagerie you'll find anywhere! Amy the Red Panda starts to tell her best friend Mervin the Sloth a story when-uh-oh-a rainstorm of letters pours down! When it stops, Amy reads a sentence in the sky: Amy the Red Panda is writing the best story in the world... Marvin is there to give Amy just the right inspiration. A companion to Mervin the Sloth Is About to Do the Best Thing in the World, this funny-bone-tickling picture book brings back a cast of zany, irresistible animal friends and an inventive, playful format."

There are more nonfiction titles. Among them, these three: