2nd July World Porcupine Day

Established in 2018 – as World Porcupine Day or as National Porcupine Appreciation Day, it’s the perfect day to celebrate and learn more about these distinctive rodents. 

The porcupines found in North and South America are good climbers and spend much of their time in trees. Some even have prehensile (gripping) tails to aid in climbing. The North American porcupine is the only species that lives in the U.S. and Canada, and is the largest of all porcupines.

Other porcupine species live in Africa, Europe, and Asia. These animals usually live on the ground and can inhabit deserts, grasslands, and forests.

Known for their quills the porcupine’s body is covered with about 30,000 of them.  Each quill has at its tip about 700 to 800 overlapping scales or barbs that enable the quill to readily penetrate the body of its victim.  Porcupines cannot shoot their quills, but they do detach readily when touched.  Quills are replaced continuously, taking just several months to grow one back. 

Books in the library to celebrate the porcupine:

• A Porcupine Called Fluffy  by Helen Lester  Lynn Musinger

• Duck, Duck, Porcupine!  by Salina Yoon

There are three books in this series about Big Duck, Little Duck and Porcupine.

• Mine, Mine, Mine! Said the Porcupine by Alex English & Emma Levey

• I Love Cake! Starring Rabbit, Porcupine and Moose by Tammi Sauer & Angie Rozelaar

• Porcupines by Victoria Blakemore

• How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop & Gwen Millward

• Valentine the Porcupine Dances Funny  by  Derrick Brown & Jenny Lewis

• No Hugs for Porcupine by Zoe Waring  (Hug a Porcupine Day is 24th October)

• Hugs From Pearl  by Paul Schmid

• Perfectly Percy by Paul Schmid

• Mr Prickles: An Quill-Fated Love Story by Karen LaReau and Scott Magoon

• Pins and Needles  by Stephen Krensky & Kristyna Litten

• Elmore by Hollie Hobby

• A Friendship Yarn by Lisa Moser & Olga Demidova

and a short novel that is lots of fun

• Stinkbomb and Ketchup Face and the Quest for the Magic Porcupine  by John Dougherty

15th February Hippopotamus Day

Coming up is Hippo Day! A great day to celebrate in a library because  -
1. Hippos are in danger, and humans are their biggest enemy. So we need to know more about these 'water horses'.
2. Some of the best 'reads' for children  feature hippos.

One of my all time favourite serial reads with a class is The Twentyseventh Annual African Hippopotamus Race by Morris Lurie. It is such fun and yet at the same time has so much to discuss with students. Can hippos really swim? What should Edward do about Sebastian? What makes Edward a good friend? a good grandchild? a good swimmer and competitor? What does 'gosh' really mean? Great to read before a sports day, swimming carnival, when you want to discuss bullying or even just hippos and Africa.

A wonderful pourquoi story, Hot Hippo  by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway explains for students why hippos don't actually swim, but spend a large part of their day in the water.

Another book that students love is Hippos are Huge! by Jonathan London and Matthew Trueman. This illustrated information book tells students about just how big and dangerous hippos are.

Hippos have even made it to the realm of 'true animal stories' since the December tsunami that swept baby hippo, Owen into the sea. Kenyan villagers worked to rescue Owen and he has now become best friend with Mzee, an elderly giant tortoise. Many books feature these two. See Owen and Mzee and its sequel by Isabella Hatkoff et al; A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer and Mama by Jeanette Winter.

Hippos can also be something that authors use for humour. Look at the popularity of the very long lasting series that started with There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and Deborah Niland. And more recently, Hippospotamus by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross,  The Hippo-not-amus  by Tony and Jan Payne and Hippobottymus by Steve Smallman and Ada Grey.

And maybe because hippos can be cantankerous they often feature in children's books about feelings and behaviour. See  Greedy Grumpy Hippo; Big Bully Hippo; Hurty Feelings; and  The Hippo who was Happy. 

For even more hippo books for your display, look at these.

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20th October International Sloth Day

October 20th, 2015 is International Sloth Day, so says this website. Other sites say that it is the third Saturday in October which means that it was last Saturday, 17th October. Whenever it is doesn't matter because there is so much fun to be had with young children and reading about sloths. There are so many picture books to explore, film clips to watch and toy sloths to hug. See the amazing sloths made by Andrea Vida among other more commercial ones. The books below are in our library. If these are not enough see pinterest page here.

12th June Johanna Spyri (1827 - 1901) Helen Lester (1936)

Johanna Spyri's story of Heidi, a five year old orphaned girl who goes to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss alps was a world-wide success story towards the end of the 19th century. It is the most popular piece of Swiss literature ever. It has been translated from German into fifty languages and made into a film many times. Children still like the story today and it is is now accessible to much younger children thanks to Usborne books. The library has a young reader version and a picture book version and both are borrowed frequently.

Helen Lester is probably best known for her series of books about the mischievous penguin Tacky. She used to be

teach primary school aged children and says on her website that she has taught children who behave like all of her characters, especially Tacky and Pinkerton. She seems to specialise in writing stories that deal with behaviour. Her characters are spirited, but endearing and made even more endearing by Lynn Munsinger's illustrations. If you look at Helen's website and move the cursor you will be affronted by these hyperactive characters and you will see this for yourself.