31st May World Parrot Day

 

World Parrot Day is celebrated annually on May 31st. It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these attractive birds. There are many threats to the population and wellbeing of parrots. Habitat loss, climate change, and wildlife trade are some of the main threats. Many parrot species are in decline. There are over 350 different kinds of parrots but most live in tropical and subtropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

To be classified as a parrot, the bird must have a curved beak, and its feet must be zygodactyl, which means there are four toes on each foot with two toes that point forward and two that point backward. Common parrots are parakeets, macaws, cockatoos and cockatiels. Australia has an amazing number of very colourful parrots.

For a display in the library I would put out these books two books to start with and then add.

• Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth

• Kakapo Rescue  by Sy Montgomery

• The Parrot Tico Tango  by Anna Witte

• Parrots by Valerie Bodden 

• Two Parrots by Rumi Rashin

• The Parrot and the Merchant by Pippa Goodhart and Marjan Vafaian

• A Pandemonium of Parrots  by Kate Baker and Hui Skipp

• Papagayo  by Gerald McDermott

• Petunia Paris's Parrot  by Katie Haworth and Jo Williamson

• The Cocky Who Cried Dingo  by Yvonne Morrison and Heath McKenzie

• Pepi Sings a New Song  by Laura Ljungkvist

• Harold Finds His Voice by Courtney Dicmas

• Hello Jimmy! by Anna Walker

• Pardon Me! by Daniel Miyares

• Mango, Abuela and Me by Meg Medina and Angela Dominguez

• Cezanne's Parrot  by Amy Guglielmo and Brett Helquist

• Town Parrot by Penelope Bennett and Sue Heap

• Pedro the Puerto Rican Parrot by Beverly Jatwani and Sunita Chawdhary

• Polly Parrot Picks a Pirate by Peter Bently and Penny Dann

• The Gossipy Parrot  by Shen Roddie and Michael Terry

• I Said Nothing: the Extinction of the Paradise Parrot  by Gary Crew and Mark Wilson

If you do not have many parrot books, remember there'll be in a lot of parrots in pirate books!

13th July International Rock Day

I don't need to write at length about celebrating rocks. I have done so before, here and here, but since then some new picture books have appeared that are worth purchasing for the library.

My favourite, This Little Pebble by Anna Claybourne, is perfect for the keen rock collector in our Prep school who wants to find out more about where their rocks came from.

Bring Me a Rock  by Daniel Miyares makes you smile as you watch a group of insects attempt to cart off a pebble.

Mine!  by Jeff Mack cleverly tells a story with just one word.

A Stone for Sascha  by Aaron Becker, like his previous gems is a wordless book but with a profound message and somewhat sombre feel.

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt and Adam Rex,  reveals the epic tale behind everyone's favourite playground game!

Dave's Rock by Frank Preston-Gannon, another funny story about Caveman Dave that features rocks.

 A Rock Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas gives a myriad of things that a rock can be.

And a new one I would like to see and read, A Chip off the Old Block by Jody Jensen Shaffer.

11th November Origami Day

Origami Day was first observed in Japan. It honours the ancient art of creating objects from square pieces of paper.

The origami crane is one of the most recognized origami models around the world.

©bigstockphoto.com/Remains

Origami, which comes from the Japanese words, ori meaning folding, and kami meaning paper, originated in Japan in the 6 century, though for a long period of time the art was preserved for religious ceremonies. By the 17th century, origami had become mainstream in Japanese society and was being used for decorative and ceremonial purposes.

Amazing objects have been made that are indeed works of art, but at school we will be celebrating by making much simpler animals and having the children who are adept at origami teach their peers. When they have made a recognisable animal there is such a sense of achievement. 

We have a large number of books in the craft section of the library which give students ideas about what is possible, but we also have books where origami is central to the story or poetry in the book. Of course we have Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes  in picture book format but there are other picture books as well. See these:

• Newspaper Boy and Origami Girl  and The Little Bookshop and the Origami Army by Michael Foreman

• Origami Heart by Binny

• The Origami Master  by  Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

• Wild Weather  by Thomas Kingsley Troupe (this is one book in a series called Origami Science Adventures)

• Fold Me a Poem by Kristine O'Connell George and Lauren Stringer

• The Paper Crane by Molly Bang
• Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells 
• Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed
• Tree of Cranes by Allen Say (just perfect for the run-up to Christmas)
• Peace Crane by Sheila Hamanaka
• More-igami by Dori Kieber
• Butterflies for Kiri by Cathryn Falwell
• Float  by Daniel Miyares
• The Fog by Kyo Maclear and Kennard Pak
• Mole and the Newspaper by Laurence Bourguignon

and

• Origami, Poems and Pictures  by The British Museum would make a wonderful present as it comes with the paper and it becomes a family reading, viewing and doing activity.