22nd - 26th August Book Week

Well another Book Week in Australia is over. This year's theme Australia: Story Country proved to be a good one and each class at my school celebrated with an Australian book that they read and  used as inspiration for discussions and response activities that highlighted places in Australia, either in the form of travel to places mentioned or to the home of authors, illustrators or famous Australians.
Each class did a one page 'postcard' to display for the whole school population and visitors to read read in the corridor. It was a huge success. On Grandparents Day on Friday the corridor was full of children showing adults their work and discussing the books displayed along side. See images below that when joined together made a long Rainbow Serpent winding its way to the library. Not all classes work is here as some had photos or identified specific children. The teachers chose the books to either fit with a unit of enquiry, because it was a favourite book or author or because the students showed interest in it. I was so impressed with the range and what each class did.

There are four classes per grade. The books chosen were:

Kindergarten
* My Place  by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins
* Silly Birds  by Gregg Dreise
* Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (new paperback single story editions) by May Gibbs and Mark McLeod
* Koala Lou  by Mem Fox and Pamela Lofts
Year 1
* Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester
* Bright Star  by Gary Crew and Anne Spudvilas
* Where the Forest Meets the Sea  by Jeannie Baker
* Tiny: A Little Dog on a Big Adventure  by Jennifer Castles and Steve Otton
Year 2
* Enora and the Black Crane  by Arone Raymond Meeks
* Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox and Nicholas Wilson (US) and Lorraine Ellis (Aus)
* Home  by Narelle Oliver
* You and Me Murrawee by Kerri Hashmi and Felicity Marshall

8th May

As Mother's Day approaches and I watch what is borrowed from the Mothers' Day display in the library I note the difference between what mothers borrow and what their children borrow. I love Sarah Garland's books because I could always relate to the frazzled mother she depicts in her wonderful series of books for preschoolers, but my clientele of mothers don't relate to her in the same way that my generation of mothers did. Kate Kellaway wrote about Sarah Garland in The Guardian in December 2007:

Sarah Garland's books could not find a French publisher because her mothers were judged insufficiently chic. What French madame would be seen in a shapeless green duffel coat, pushing a buggy uphill, with the baby's bottle (lid off) peeping out of her pocket? Garland is one of the best and most sympathetic chroniclers of English family life precisely because her pencil doesn't lie about the slog of bringing up children. She has a loving, unsentimental eye. She can be festive but is never false. I have always been profoundly grateful to her for drawing a mother I can relate to - as have millions of others who adore her work.

All the more reason to love her I say. Interestingly, mothers do borrow books where Dad is in charge or the children are 'pitching in'. These have been borrowed:

• Tucking Mummy In by Morag Loh and Donna Rawlins

• When Dad Did the Washing by Ronda and David Armitage

• Mr Large in Charge by Jill Murphy (but not Mother Know Best also by Jill Murphy)

• Mums Don't Get Sick by Marilyn Hafner

4th May International Firefighters' Day Greenpeace launched 1971

On this day in 1971 Greenpeace was launched so what better day to share Simon James' Dear Greenpeace. In thispicture book Emily corresponds with Greenpeace about a whale in her pond. Read it and then bounce off into a bigger discussion of what Greenpeace does.

May 4th is also International Firefighters' Day, a day to remember all the good things that firefighters do to help people and communities. This is extremely important in Australia given the number of serious bushfires we experience. There are a large number of nonfiction books about firemen and they are always popular with young boys who think that is what they want to do when they grow up. As soon as the firetruck visits the preschool or school I have lots of children asking for books about firemen. Some picture books in the library that feature firemen and firetrucks are:

• The Firefighters by Sue Whiting and Donna Rawlins. Here a group of preschoolers have fun playing firefighters with their teacher.

• Tito, the Firefighter by Tim Hoppey is the story of a New York firefighter who gets help from a Spanish speaking boy when he attends a fire.

• A Day in the Life of a Firefighter by Linda Hayward is part of the DK series of books about Jobs People Do so perfect for that unit of work many classes do on Community Helpers.

• Firefighters by Katie Daynes is one of that wonderful series Usborne Beginners.

• Where There's Smoke by Robin Lovell and David Miller is the story of an Australian bushfire.

• Flick the Fire Engine by Jamie lawrence and Mark Russel. There is a series of three adventures about Flick, a fire engine from New Zealand.

26th November Sally Odgers (1957) Simon French (1957)

Sally Odgers is a prolific Australian author who writes for a large age range and on a wide variety of subjects. In my library she is popular because of her series Jack Russell:Dog Detective which she writes with her husband. In these a dog also named Jack Russell lives with his friend Sarge and together they solve mysteries. Her website says that she has a number of Jack Russell dogs so it is little surprise that she has chosen them as characters for books. She is also responsible for another series of books, Little Horrors, about bad fairies, which she writes as Tiffany Mandrake. The main characters in this series are based on traditional bad fairies, the sort present in literature and life before the Victorian era, but they also behave like and have a lot in common with girls around seven to eight, the audience who read them. This year Sally released a large picture/information book called Fantastic Creatures which is illustrated by Mark Salwowski and it is constantly being borrowed and at times almost fought over.

Simon French is also an Australian author. He started to write his first novel while he was still at high school and went on to write many more novels for young adolescents, but as a teacher of very young children he has also written picture books. Two that are set in a multicultural infants classroom are Guess the Baby and What Will You Be? Both are illustrated by Donna Rawlins.

16th March Donna Rawlins (1956) Giles Andreae (1966)

Donna Rawlins is probably best known by Australian teachers for her illustrations of Nadia Wheatley's text for My Place which celebrated the Bicentennial so aptly. This book has been so successful that it now has a 20th anniversary edition and has been made into a television series. In a Prep school library though she is better known for her colourful illustrations in books for a much younger audience. Among them is Sue Whiting's The Firefighters; Simon French's Guess the Baby and What Will I Be? and a favourite of mine, Morag Loh's The Kinder Hat.

Giles Andreae, like Donna Rawlins has produced many picture books but as the writer not the illustrator. It is interesting that he chooses not to illustrate his own books because he is well known as the creator of the Purple Ronnie cartoons and cards. He is also a poet and popular books such as Giraffes Can't Dance and Commotion in the Ocean attest to this fact. He has gone on though to create other series of books, such as the Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs books, the Billy Bonkers novels and the Pants books. I like the way he includes his children in his books, with Captain Flinn for son, Flinn; Nat Fantastic for son, Nat and The Magic Donkey Ride for daughter Freya. No matter whether his words are illustrated by Nick Sharratt, Russell Ayto, Vanessa Cabban, Guy Parker-Rees or David Wojtowycz they seem to be read and borrowed. Oh to be so talented!