22nd October Nut Day

On 22nd October it is Nut Day, a day to celebrate nuts and all they have to offer animals, including us, nutritionally. This is not easy to do in schools as so many students have nut allergies. Some students are allergic to peanuts only, Peanut Day is the 13th September, but there are lots of other nuts. How many can your students list? Read April Pulley Sayre's Let's Go Nuts! and make a list.

Looking through the library catalogue for books about 'nuts' I realised that if I exclude the peanut books and the peanut butter books then what I was left with are mainly about nuts and squirrels and the nuts are acorns.

I love oak trees and acorns. I spent many hours as a child collecting acorns and making acorn people and boats and I would have dearly loved to see a squirrel run down the branches of the oak trees, but I live in Australia so no squirrels. That doesn't mean though that there cannot be a 'nut' book display and a cuddly toy squirrel set amongst the books.



Start with the classic Chicken Licken, Chicken Little or Henny Penny, where an acorn falls on a chicken's head and he runs off to tell the king that the sky is falling. Silly, but good fun with all that poultry following him without questioning the initial premise. Then there is a lovely new book by Lou Peacock and Yasmeen Ismail simply called Nuts! which takes sharing and quarrelling to a new level.


If you still want others with squirrels:
• We Need More Nuts! and Please, No More Nuts! by Jonathan Fenske
• Aw, Nuts!  by Rob McClurkan
• The Nut Stayed Shut by Mike Henson
• The Nutty Nut Chase by Kathryn White and Vanessa Cabban
• Scruffle-Nut by Corinne Fenton and Owen Swan
• Nuts to You!  by Lois Ehlert
• Nuts to You  by Lynne Rae Perkins (illustrated novel)

Without squirrels:
• I Want that Nut! by Madeline Valentine ( mouse and a chipmunk)
• Oh, Nuts! by Tammi Sauer and Dan Krall (chipmunks)
• Nuts in Space by Elys Dolan (an elite crew of furry animals)
• a series by Eric Litwin (of Pete the Cat fame)and Scott Magoon
The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House (Hazel and Wally Nut and family)
The Nuts:Sing and Dance in Your Polka Dot Pants
The Nuts:Keep Rolling!

24th May Escargot Day

Escargot Day is observed each year on May 24th. This day is in honour of the famous French dish of cooked land snails. Escargot is French for edible snails, an acquired taste that was popular in French restaurants in the past, but not so much now. I couldn't find when Snail Day was celebrated so decided to put together a display of 'snail' books to honour the 24th. The students at my school learn French and we have an abundance of wonderful books which feature snails, so why not?

If you are doing this too, start with these picture books:
• Escargot by Dashka Slater & Sydney Hansen. This is such fun and can be found here on Youtube if you don't have a copy of the book.
• Snails Legs by Damian Harvey and Korky Paul
• Super Snail by Elys Dolan
• Snails Are Just My Speed by Kevin McCloskey
• Snail Trail by Ruth Brown
• The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freedman
• The Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni
• Snail and Turtle Are Friends and Snail and Turtle Rainy Days  by Stephen Michael King
• Matisse's Magical Trail by Tim Hopgood and Sam Boughton 
• Snippet the Early Riser by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
• Clementine by Sebastian Loth
• Sylvia  by Christine Sharp


Just a few information books:
• Watch Out Snail! by Gail Hay
• Let's Look at Snails by Michelle Levine
• Snail-Snaily-Snails by Bonnie Bader
' Here are some chapter books worth looking for:
• Snail and Worm by Tina Kugler (this is a series)
• Annie's Snails by Dianne Wolfer
• The Adventurous Snail by Dick King Smith
• Sophie's Snail by Dick King Smith (this is one of six Sophie adventures)
• The Worst Child I Ever Had  by Anne Fine
• The Story of a Snail Who Discovered the Importance of Being Slow by Luis Sepulveda



And for fun look for these two art books
• Snail Trail: A Journey through Modern Art by Jo Saxton
• How the Snail Found It's Colours by Jeong-Yi Kee