Postscript to Queen's Jubilee

On Monday we put out our display of books that celebrate Queen Elizabeth and this afternoon as we were about to leave I had a quick look at the display ...not much left. We had scrummaged around and added things that I had long forgotten about and they too had gone. Quite a few of the students had watched the concert and seen the Queen having tea with Paddington, so they were keen to borrow Paddington books! When they had gone others went too.

Books we added:

• Paddington at the Palace  by Michael Bond and R.W.Alley

• Horrid Henry Meets the Queen by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross

                                                                                           

• Me, the Queen and Christopher  by Giles Andreae and Tony Ross

• Don't Chew the Royal Shoe!  by Kate Leake

• Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party by Megan McDonald and Peter Reynolds

In this quarto-sized  book of beautiful dog photos  there is a photo of a corgi wearing a crown and it was such a good centrepiece for the display. Wish I'd taken a photo of it before all the books disappeared.

• Eyes on Dogs  by Maggie Fischer

Then we just added any book that featured London, Buckingham Palace, London buses, taxis, beefeaters and guards and there were so many. Nearly every series visits London...Maisy, Charlie and Lola, Topsy and Tim, Katie, Madeleine...

18th May International Learn to Swim Day

International Learn to Swim Day is the perfect opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of teaching children to 

International Learn to Swim Day in May is designed to draw attention to the fact that every child needs to know how to swim and it aims to  heighten awareness of the importance of learning to swim and be water-safe.

In Australia we are heading into Winter not Summer.  Though to be fair, many Australian children swim all year round as swimming squads do run through Winter and often occur in indoor pools. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children.

Teaching children to swim is high on the list of things my parents ask for books on, especially the ones with preschoolers who don't like the water or those of children who are not careful around water. 

Lottie and Walter by Anna Walker  is a new book, but perfect for reading with a child who is reticent about swimming and or giving it a go.  Heather Fell in the Water by Doug MacLeod is perfect for the other extreme. Heather is continually falling in water and her parents decide she will need to wear waterings (floaties) all the time.

Below is a list of books  in the library which will help encourage learning to swim.
Two factual books
* Learning Swimming by Katrin Barth
* Swimming  by Nick Rebman, and then lots of stories where children can see themselves, laugh at others and explore what to do next.

* The Magic Moment  by Niall Breslin
* George Goes Swimming by Nicola Smee
* Peppa Goes Swimming
* Topsy and Tim Learn to Swim by Jean Adamson
* Maisie Learns to Swim by Lucy Cousins
* Edward's First Swimming Party by Rosemary Wells
* Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London
* Grug Learns to Swim  by Ted Prior
* Ruby Learns to Swim by Phillip Gwynne



* A Swim in the Sea by Sue Whiting
* Echidna Jim Went for a Swim by Phil Cummings
* Saturday is Swimming Day by Hyewon Yum
* Little by Little by Amber Stewart
* The Deep End  by Rebecca Patterson

* Clem Always Could by Sarah Watt
* Lollipop and Grandpa Go Swimming by Penelope Harper
* Grandpa's Big Adventure by Paul Newman
* The Deep by Tim Winton
* Mona the Champion by Sonia Holleyman







And some short chapter books to keep the swimmers interested
* Horrid Henry's Swimming Lesson  by Francesca Simon
* The Deep End by Ursula Dubosarsky
* Ella and Olivia Little Lifesavers by Yvette Poshoglian
* Diary of a Super Swimmer by Shamini Flint
* Sporty Kids: Swimming by Felice Arena

18th October Vampire series for beginning readers

Well just as I thought I was doing a good job of encouraging the children to borrow all the witch and wizard series in the library, I got 'but where are the vampire books?' Ten years ago this age group did not know about vampires or werewolves, but now these two are sometimes asked for. Is it television or older siblings?

Well luckily after a quick search I came up with two series:
• Mona the Vampire by Hiawyn Oram. This series is old, out of print currently, and mine have two different covers depending on whether they were published before or after it was a television series, but they are still borrowed and read as 'readers' for Year 1 students. we have four titles.

• Vampire School  by Peter Bently.  These are newer, about the same length and there are six books in the series. They are set in a school called St Orlok's which you have to be a vampire to attend. Lee, Bella and Billy are students in Miss Gargoyle's class. We appear to have a mixture of covers from two different issues of this series as well.

Then recently I purchased a new series of books about Isadora Moon which are written and illustrated by Harriet Muncaster. Isadora is half fairy and half vampire because her mother was a fairy and her father a vampire. These four stories are attractive beginning chapter books from Oxford and like many of the new books for newly fluent readers these feature one colour and here it is pink. They stayed on the shelf this morning for less than ten minutes! So far they are popular, let's see if they continue to walk out the door with very little upselling.

I also have
• Three Little Vampires by Georgie Adams
• Daisy and the Trouble With Vampires by Kes Gray
• Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire  by Francesca Simon
• Jake Cake The Visiting Vampire by Michael Broad

23rd February Francesca Simon (1955) Walter Wick (1953) Sonya Hartnett (1968)

See last year's entry for Francesca Simon.

Walter Wick is the photographer responsible for those wonderful I Spy books. On his website in the Features section you can see how these books were made. It is amazing and awe-inspiring at the same time! He has done other books. I particularly like A Drop of Water and Optical Tricks.

Australian author Sonya Hartnett published her first book when she was only 15 years old. She usually writes for a young audience, but more recently she has ventured into picture books. In 2008 she was the first Australian to win The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award which is an award given to someone in Children's Literature whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren. Her debut picture book, published in 2010 was The Boy and the Toy. It is the story of a boy whose father leaves him with a toy for company while he goes away. At first the boy and the get along famously but things change. Hartnett cleverly gets her message across without saying anything too explicitly, that what the toy is doing is quite wrong and what it means to be a good friend. The illustrations, also a first, by Lucia Masciullo an Italian born illustrator who now lives in Australia are detailed enough to show strong emotion in both the boy and the toy.

23rd February Francesca Simon (1955)

What do you say about someone who has been as successful as Francesca Simon? Her Horrid Henry series is a huge hit with the children I teach and not only with the boys! The children are always surprised when they find her name on other books because for them she is synonymous with Horrid Henry. When you read the sales statistics on her website http://www.francescasimon.com you can't fail to be in awe.

If you haven't discovered Helping Hercules or Don't Cook Cinderella, two of her other novels for 7 to 10 year olds, they are well worth a look too. Where I work, Year 1 study fairytales and Year 2 Greek myths so these two books make good read-aloud serials while the unit of enquiry is underway or extension reading for the able readers.