6th February Lame Duck Day

I was reading today and happened to notice that it was Lame Duck Day and that made me think that I hadn't written about ducks or Duck Day on this blog. Of course being a Lame Duck has very little to do with ducks, but given how many picture books feature ducks I got to thinking about them. Well there's Rubber Ducky Day ( January, 13th), Donald Duck Day (June, 9th) and even Dead Duck Day (June, 5th) but there does not appear to be World Duck Day or International Duck Day. What a shame. There are so many endearing ducks in picture books, starting with my all time favourite Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

The children I teach are aged between four and eight so their introduction to 'ducks' in picture books is usually a version of Five Little Ducks,  but very quickly they move to the series about ducks that we have in boxes in the library. There is
• Daisy Duck by Jane Simmons
• Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
• Baby Duck  by Amy Hest and Jill Barton
• Duck in a Truck  by Jez Alborough
• Sarah and Duck by Sarah Gomes Harris
• the madcap duck in What is Chasing Duck? in the Giggle Gang by Jan Thomas
• the zany Katy Duck by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Henry Cole
• Duck Duck Dinosaur  by Kallie George and Oriol Vidal
• Duck Duck Porcupine by Salina Yoon.

Of course there's other ducks to fall in love with such as
• Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
• Just Ducks  by Nicola Davies and Salvatore Rubbino
• Alexander in Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen
• Ben and Duck by Sara Acton
• The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, and the newer
• Duck!  by Meg McKinlay and Nathaniel Ekstrom
• I'm a Duck  by Eve Bunting and Will Hillenbrand
and if you are looking for a serial for this age group there's always Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge's
• Duck For a Day  and Definitely No Ducks
And if this isn't enough duck books, look here.

20th January Penguin Appreciation Day

Penguins are an especially popular choice of character in children's books! They are endearing, different from other birds because they can't fly, live on ice and can dive and swim in a way that humans envy.Why then do we need to have an Appreciation or Awareness Day for penguins? It really is just a time to celebrate penguins, but it is also a good time to reflect on the fact that some of the 17 species of penguins are being threatened by climate change.

What to read? Here's some fiction and non-fiction that is enjoyed in my library:

• Cuddly Dudley by Jez Alborough

• The Penguin Who Wanted to Find Out by Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard

• Solo by Paul Geraghty

• Nanu, Penguin Chick by Theresa Radcliffe and John Butler

• Emily and Alfie by Meredith Hooper and Emma Quay

• Little Penguin by Patrick Benson

• The Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins and Jane Chapman

• The Emperor's Kingdom; Living on the Ice by Roger Kirkwood

• Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems by Judy Sierra and Ariane Dewey

• The Penguin Book: Birds in Suits by Dr Mark Norman

and of course there's always the Atwater's Mr Popper's Penguins and the myriad of movie

s and DVDs about penguins and Jeanne Willis' new book Penguin Pandemonium.

13th November Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) Jez Alborough (1959)

Happy Thought
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

While this seems very simplistic now to me as an adult, and very much a product of the time and place of Robert Louis Stevenson's birth, I still remember many of the verses from A Child's Garden of Verses with great fondness and this one in particular when I am feeling sorry for myself. Nowadays we probably remember Stevenson more for Treasure Island; Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but for the very young he wrote poetry and I still share some favourites with children I teach. We have a lovely illustrated picture book of his poem My Shadow, which is illustrated by Penny Dale, Bed in Summer is always good for a discussion about daylight saving and Where Go the Boats? for when discussing rivers, currents and the loss of toy boats. You might think that Jez Alborough is far removed from Robert Louis Stevenson, but he too writes poetry. He has published many books written in verse and the poetry anthology Guess What Happened at School Today? On his website he says that "as a child I loved the poems of A.A.Milne. I remember reading Wheezles and Sneezles for the first time and thinking: this is brilliant. I love the way he used words. When I think about how I use rhythm and rhyme it makes sense to me now. He was like a beacon shining the light on a path."Jez Alborough has the added talent of also being able to illustrate his own books. His duck series which began with Duck in a Truck is enthralling to young children because it is written in verse. His series about Eddy and Bear is too. The favourite of all of Jez's books in my library though, continues to be Cuddly Dudley, the story of a penguin who just wants some time to himself away from the huddle of other penguins!