9th July Crane Day Cockatoo Island

Travel to the era when steam power ruled – and meet one of Cockatoo Island’s ‘Iron Giants’ – with Crane Day 2022, which is being held during the Winter School Holidays on Saturday 9 July.

Between 10am and 2:30pm, visitors to the island will be able to see the No. 2 Travelling Steam Crane in action for FREE. This metal behemoth (together with the nearby Mort's Dock Steam Crane) has been restored to its former steam-powered glory by our skilled Volunteer Restoration Team.

I know lots of young children who would love this . They're the same children who will watch a construction site for hours without seeming bored and are likely yo give a running commentary to highlight all that is happening.

Read up about cranes before or after your visit:

• What Can a Crane Pick Up? by Rebecca Kai Dotlich & Mike Lowery

• Georgio and His Star Train Crane  by Jessica Spanyol

• Crane Guy  by Sally Sutton & Sarah Wilkins

• Colossal Cranes by Tony Mitton & Ant Parker

• Cranes  by Amanda Askew

• Cranes  by Kathryn Clay

• Cranes  by Aaron Frisch

• Cranes Lift!  by Beth Reinke

• Crane & Crane  by Linda Joy Singleton & Richard Smith

Crane Day is observed in Sweden on the 25th March to celebrate the return of the cranes (birds).  Given we have quite a few books in the library about these birds it might be good to celebrate them with a display in March.

4th April School Librarian Day

It is School Librarian Day! Great! There should be one, but it should say School Teacher Librarian Day so that it acknowledges the difference between what a librarian does and what a school librarian might do that is different from the usual job description of a librarian.

There are masses of picture books celebrating libraries,  librarians and their virtues and they start with a very young audience. See Lola at the Library and Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian, but there's not as many that celebrate librarians in a school setting.


My Library has two series and really the school teacher librarian is a bit 'scary' in both.
There's The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy where Miss Lotta Scales is a dragon who protects the Sunrise Elementary School's library books from the children, but when she realises the books are meant to be read, she turns into Miss Lotty, librarian and storyteller. I have a doll of the dragon who when turned upside down and her dress is repositioned turns into Miss Lotty. The students like the doll more than the stories but are happy to borrow the book in order to take the doll! In the sequel Return of the Library Dragon, just as in real schools now, someone orders that the books in the library could go and be replaced by computers. Miss Lotty bursts into a fiery rage in order to ensure that the books will remain and children will be able to READ. This book's story creates 'fiery' discussions among the students.

 The other series about a school librarian, Mrs Skorupski and her fourth grade class, starts with Our Librarian Won't Tell Us Anything. It is written by Toni Buzzeo who is a School Teacher Librarian. There are four books in the series covering all aspects of her job. To all my fellow teacher librarians have a wonderful day!

While weeding the shelves, I found another teacher librarian this week in Mary Ann Fraser's series about I.Q. the pet mouse in Mrs Furber's classroom. In I.Q.Goes to the Library the class go off to the school library and Mrs Binder the teacher librarian introduces the class to all that is on offer at the library.

School Libraries Matter