23rd March Rain and Floods

So much of the east coast of Australia is experiencing heavy rainfall and we have been stuck in classrooms now for over a week. Australian children are not used to being outside in all weather. They do not have good wet weather gear so instead they stay inside and go 'crazy'. In the library I've had a lot of fun supplying students with books about rain and floods. They are preoccupied with it, especially the boys. There is not a flood book left in the library and once I looked I was surprised just how many we did have.

My favourite flood story is The Useless Donkeys by Lydia Pender and Judith Cowell. Of course its out of print, but the artwork showing the continuous rain is so good. It is set on a farm where the family keep two  donkeys, that the children love but dad wants to get rid of. When the floodwaters rise the donkeys end up on an island in the paddock. The oldest two children row to the   island to rescue the donkeys.

Another favourite that is also out of print is Children of the Yangtze River by Sven Otto S. In this story children need to vacate their school because the river is rising. They move animals and families to higher ground and once the river abates they help rebuild a village. 

Here's some other books about floods that are in the library and more easily sourced:

• Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

• Flood  by Alvaro F. Villa

• Flood  by Gillian McClure

• Flood Warning  by Katharine Kenah and Amy Schimler Safford

• Elmer and the Flood by David McKee

And some that just highlight incessant rain without a flood:

• Rain School by James Rumford

• Home in the Rain  by Bob Graham                                                                

• The Rhythm of the Rain by Grahame Baker-Smith

• Rain by Sam Usher

• Singing in the Rain by Tim Hopgood

• Rain!  by Linda Ashman and Christian Robinson                                                

• Rain Rain Rivers by Uri Shulevitz

• Who Likes Rain? by Wong Herbert Yee

• This Beautiful Day by Richard Jackson and Suzy Lee

• Float by Daniel Miyares

And when a child asks where do the animals go when it rains?                                

• Where Do They Go When it Rains?  by Gerda Muller

• Where Does Kitty Go in the Rain?  by Harriet Ziefert and Brigette Barrager

And you'll need to share some poetry:

• It's Raining, It's Pouring by Peter, Paul and Mary and Christine Davenier

• Talking Like the Rain by X.J.  and Dorothy M. Kennedy and Jane Dyer

• Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jnr and John Archambault

4th April International Carrot Day

Yesterday at school we had our Easter Hat Parade and there were lots of carrots featured on hats and that got me thinking about how many picture books feature carrots too. In fact there is a book on this year's UKLA Book Award shortlist that has a carrot as a main character, Colin and Lee Carrot and Pea. This shortlist is chosen by students and teachers so the books have stood up to classroom reading scrutiny.

As it happens to be International Carrot Day on the 4th April, when the students get back from Easter break the first display of books they will see as they walk through the library doors will be celebrating carrots.

There they will see:
• Colin and Lee, Carrot and Pea by Morag Hood

• The Giant Carrot by Allan Manham & Penny Dann
• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
• Too Many Carrots by Katie Hudson
• Carrot Soup by John Segal
• Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
• Chickens Can't See in the Dark by Kristyna Litten
• Lottie and Dottie Sow Carrots by Claire Burgess
• The Princess and the Pea and Carrots by Harriet Ziefert
• Dozy Bear and the Secret of Food by Katie Blackburn & Richard Smythe
• Carrots Grow Underground by Mari Schuh
• Planting Radishes and Carrots by Faye Bolton
• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
• When Carrots Ruled the World  by David LeBarron
• Parrot Carrot by Jol & Kate Temple
• Wolfish Stew by Suzi Moore & Erica Salcedo
• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley
• T-Veg: The Story of a Carrot Crunching Dinosaur by Smitri Prasadam-Halls


What have I missed?

17th April Haiku Poetry Day

Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan and for hundreds of years, school children in Japan have been introduced to poetry through the work of Issa. He was born in central Japan in 1763 and began writing poetry as a young child. Issa had a deep love for the natural world and it is the natural world that is the subject of not only his poems, but most traditional haiku. The book Cool Melons is a classic introduction to Issa's poems and an inspirational book about haiku, nature and life.

Traditionally haiku consist of 17 on ("syllables"), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively. They take nature as their subject and include  the juxtaposition of two images or ideas.Today's haiku play with the format, but usually stick to the three lines and about 17 syllables. See this lesson on youtube.

The teachers at my school make good use of the books of haiku that I have in the library, so I am happy to add new ones if I know they will be used. We have these.There is something for everyone here and quite a range. Betsy Snyder writes haiku for the very young, even for board books. There is a couple of 'how to' books, anthologies of poems and stories told in haiku.

 If you are looking for  beautiful books that use haiku as an integral part of their storytelling technique, read  Hi, Koo! by Jon J. Muth and Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein and Ed Young. Whether  studying haiku or just just sharing a good book these two are worth the effort.

Too Wet March

Well in February we sweltered because it was too hot. Now in March it is so wet and very often humid as well. The weather in Sydney has certainly been extreme. Just as well we have lots of books about 'rain'. Even without doing floods or any other extreme weather events we managed to find 30 books for a display. There are two exceptionally good new ones Rain by Sam Usher  and Watersong by Tim McCanna. Both of these are for very young children. They both feature stunning illustrations.
Watersong is a celebration of onomatopoeia. Rain is a narrative about Sam and his grandfather's adventure in the rain. If you are teaching preschool combine these with Who Likes Rain? by Herbert Yee. If you have older students revisit Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault's  beautiful word images in their poem Listen to the Rain. 


The children I teach often ask where do the animals go when it rains, so books such as Gerda Muller's  Where Do They Go in the Rain? and Harriet Ziefert's Where Does Kitty Go in the Rain? help address this question.

Just when the students start to whinge about not being able to go outside it is time to share Rain School by James Rumford and if you can find a copy, Children of the Yangtze River by Otto S. Svend because they will then appreciate their own school and ability to stay dry. These two stories show children as capable problem solvers, hard workers and useful in a time of difficulty.

8th November World Radiography Day

World Radiography Day 

is celebrated on 8 November each year. The date marks the anniversary of the discovery of x-radiation by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895.

I was pleased to see that there is a day to celebrate radiography because I have discovered this year that an early childhood library can never have too many books about x-rays. After sharks, snakes and dinosaurs, x-rays and bones would be the next most popular topic with 4 to 6 year old boys in my library. They especially like the books with the acetate pages that show what is under the skin or what is on the x-rays. If you are looking for books this is what is most popular in my library:
• Jessica's X-ray  by Pat Zora
• You Can't See Your Bones With Binoculars by Harriet Ziefert
• X-treme X-ray by Nick Veasey
• Bones: Skeletons and How They Work by Steve Jenkins

21st October Apple Day

Apple Day is an annual celebration, held in October, of apples and orchards. It is celebrated mainly in the United Kingdom where it is Autumn and harvest time. The first Apple Day was held in 1990. Given that the Granny Smith green apple originated in Australia in 1868 and apples are popular as snacks in Australian school lunchboxes we should celebrate it here too.

Apples and their place in our language and life could make for some interesting discussions with children, even a whole unit of study. Look at how many sayings there are. Just some that come to mind:
• an apple for the teacher
• an apple a day keeps the doctor away
• that apple didn't fall far from the tree
• rotten to the core
• you are the apple of my eye
• don't upset the apple cart
• don't let one rotten apple spoil the whole barrel.

Scrolling through my library catalogue there were more than thirty picture books which highlighted apples. Some were sheer celebrations of the apple such as Apple by Nikki McClure and Little Apple: A Book of Thanks by Brigitte Weninger; others such as The Apple Trees by Vivian French, One Red Apple by Harriet Ziefert, Apples Apples Apples  by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, From Seed to Apple  by Anita Ganeri and Apples Grow on a Tree by Mari Schuh explain the lifecycle of apples in an illustrated format suitable for young readers; some tell the benefits of and how to make apple pies (Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie; How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World) and yet others are just great stories for young children to enjoy and marvel at.

The most recent acquisition that sent me on this search for an Apple Day is The Apple Orchard Riddle  by Margaret McNamara and Brian Karas. I bought this because their earlier book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? had been such a success with the teachers and this story is also about teacher, Mr Tiffin and his class, and in it they go on a trip to an orchard and learn a lot about apples while trying to solve a riddle as well.

Other stories that I have shared with preschool or kindergarten classes to great effect are:
• Mr Brown's Magnificent Apple Tree  by Yvonne Winer and Maya Winters
• A New House for Mouse by Petr Horacek
• Red Panda's Toffee Apples by Ruth Paul
• The Very Helpful Hedgehog by Rosie Wellesley
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall and Shari Halpern
• The Apple Tree by Lynley Dodd
and two picture books with more 'meat' and things to talk about
• Hubert and the Apple Tree by Bruno Hachler and Albrecht Rissler
• One Green Apple by Eve Bunting and Ted Lewin. This story also features an excursion to an apple orchard, but the main character here is Farah, a Muslim immigrant who is new to the class.

7th July Harriet Ziefert (1941) Penny Ives (1956)

American author, Harriet Ziefert began her career as a teacher, but for the last 25 years has been writing books for young children. She is prolific, but says that as an author her 'main focus has been to create age-appropriate content, in an age-appropriate format - content that considers kids' emotional and intellectual development together.' And she has been very successful at this. Her books often have flaps so that they encourage interaction from the child who is listening to the adult read. In my library her series of stories about a cat called Nicky, which are illustrated by Richard Brown are very popular with preschoolers and then again with Year 1 who read them to themselves. Her series illustrated by Simms Taback look wonderful on display because of their bright colours and appealing appearance, so they are also borrowed frequently.

English author/illustrator Penny Ives also seems to focus on books for early childhood, but as she illustrates many of her own books, she has more control over their 'total look' and the whimsy of her illustrations is obvious. Besides her popoular Five Little Ducks done for Childs Play she is known in my library for her stories about another duck, Celestine, in Celestine, Drama Queen and Celestine and the Penguins.