1st March Pig Day

In the USA today it is National Pig Day. Dick King Smith would be pleased, because as a pig farmer he thought all pigs were beautiful and wrote a book saying so. Even if you don't think they are beautiful  you do have to wonder why they are so endearing in so many children's books. Take the phenomena of Peppa Pig.  The three and four year olds just cannot get enough of her. The box that houses her books is always empty. Wibbly Pig  is another favourite with the preschoolers and we have a box full of them as well. Then the preschoolers start school and the boxes of Elephant and Piggie  become the new favourites.  By Year 2 , a new series about pigs becomes a favourite - Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo. See, pigs everywhere! Year 2 also love Wilbur  from Charlotte's Web  and Babe or The Sheep Pig, as Dick King Smith's book was called long before the movie popularised it.

Walking through Big W yesterday I saw a large print,  hardback Charlotte's Web with Garth William's illustrations coloured in. Such a bargain at $18.00.

Added to these books are other series such as Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig ..., Colin McNaughton's Preston Pig, Kristi Yamaguchi's ice-skating Poppy  and the numerous versions of The Three Little Pigs  and the myriad of spoofs or fractured versions of it. And how many children's books are called Pigs Can't Fly? Obviously we should be celebrating Pigs!

7th - 14th February Marriage Week

The week before Valentine's Day is designated Marriage Week. Once I would have thought that wasn't of interest to students under 8, but how wrong would I have been? A while ago one of the preschool classes spent a whole week planning, preparing for and conducting a wedding and reception in their room and the playground. They were so involved. They made invitations, decorations, placecards, the script for the celebrant and designed the outfits using the dress-up box clothes. I even got an invitation to the wedding so I made a gift and went along. The teacher asked me for some books to share with the children so I went looking in the library. We had some but not a lot, so I have added a few more since then. I especially love The Rabbit's Wedding but some of the newer ones have people as characters rather than animals. How to Get Married, by Me, the Bride and Lilly's Big Day will make you smile. The Perfect Flower Girl  is a good choice because it is the story of a Lebanese Muslim wedding and Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding will give you a Chinese perspective. The others cover things that are important to the children, such as being a flower girl or what to do at a wedding. I have quite a display being planned in my head for the end of this week, Love, Kisses, Hugs and Weddings ... so many great picture books to choose from, just as soon as Pancake Day and Umbrella Day are over.

16th April Garth Williams (1912 - 1996)

Garth Williams was the illustrator for many books that are now classics. His first illustrating job was E.B White's Stuart Little. He went on to illustrate Charlotte's Web and the Little House on the Prairie books.

For me, he is an expert at anthropomorphising animals, so I was very pleased when I read this in an article by Gordon Campbell, "a critic once called Williams the Rembrandt of animal portrait artists...The creatures in his drawings are fully

animal, but the human emotions they are expressing are also palpably and vividly present."

I especially like his rabbits in The Rabbit's Wedding and Randall Jarrell's The Gingerbread Rabbit. I didn't know that The Rabbit's Wedding was controversial at its time of publication because a black rabbit marries a white rabbit at a time when interracial marriage was 'frowned upon'. When I read it to children we all just see it as a nice story about rabbits!

I also find it interesting that my favourite of Russell Hoban's Frances books is Bedtime For Frances, the only one illustrated by Garth Williams. I thought it was the story, but maybe my subconscious likes the story because of the Williams' illustrations.

4th February Russell Hoban (1925)

I have had some of the best Aidan Chambers' Book Talk sessions with books written by Russell Hoban. I love looking at the language in How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen. I have had groups of children try to play and or write rules for the games depicted in it. I have had groups of children laugh out loud at Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong and argue at great length about her bustle and iron hat and what she keeps in them. The two books about Tom and Captain Najork are 'not to be missed' books.

Another one that works equally well with classes is Ace Dragon Ltd, also illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is fun to discuss what Ltd stands for and then once the readers know to ask whether they think Ace was indeed limited. The concept of the moon being made of gold and being able to turn it into straw leads to comparisons with the fairytale Rumplestiltskin.

And lastly how could anyone ignore the books about Frances the badger. We don't have badgers in Australia, but that is irrelevant to enjoying these books. Frances could be any animal because she is just such a great example of anthropomorphism. Children relate to her rivalry with her sister, with her stalling of bedtime and her reluctance to try new foods and laugh at her. They wouldn't laugh at a child who does that because it would be too close to home. These stories were first published in the sixties but they have certainly stood the test of time. They are illustrated by his then wife, Lilian Hoban and in 1992 more colour was added to her original illustrations. Look for Bread and Jam for Frances, A Baby sister for Frances and my favourite Bedtime for Frances.