31st May World Otter Day

 

World Otter Day occurs on the last Wednesday of May, which is May 31st this year. The sea otter has a whole week, Sea Otter Awareness Week. It  takes place during the last full week of September to celebrate and inspire deeper awareness of these marine mammals.

World Otter Day brings all otter species to the attention of many people. It focuses on raising awareness about how important otters are and also highlights the threats that they face. There are certain issues faced by otters that some people are largely unaware of, such as the huge trade in these animals for pets and fur.  

There are 13 species of otter, and all of them are listed in the IUCN Red List.

Otters have been highly successful in making their habitats in oceans, lakes, rivers and wetlands around the world. They can be found from North to South America, Africa to Asia, and all across Europe. However, there are no otters in Australia unless they are at a zoo. At Taronga Western Plains Zoo there is a family of  Asian Small-clawed Otters which are the smallest of the 13 otter species. Small-clawed Otters are best known for their dexterity which means they are good at using their hands. The incomplete webbing between their fingers gives them a great range of motion and they hunt for food using their hands rather than their mouths like other species.

At high school Ring of Bright Water  was an English class text and it certainly made me fascinated with both otters and Scotland. Whenever I'm at a zoo outside of Australia they are the first animal I look for on the zoo directory.

Otters are the subject focus for a lot of children's books. Many make the word 'otter' playfully say or mean something else, such as here in these titles:

• I Love You Like No Otter by Rose Rossner (I Love You like No Other)

• Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller (Do Unto Others)

• Otter Chaos by Michael Broad (Utter Chaos)

There is a series of picture books and easy readers by Sam Garton

Of course there are other picture books as well.

see my Pinterest page for suggestions. Some are no longer available new but search in the library.

There are a large number of short novels

And of course there are information books:

Traditional nonfiction:

Narrative nonfiction:

15th February Hippopotamus Day

If you look at my Pinterest page for hippos you will see that hippos are quite a phenomenon in the world of children's books. They feature not only in traditional nonfiction books, but they are the main characters in narrative nonfiction which relate the lives of real-life hippos such as Fiona and Mzee. They are the stars of great novels such as Morris Lurie's The Twenty-Seventh Annual Hippopotamus Race, they feature in folktales such as those about a tug of war between and elephant and a hippo, they become the brunt of humour and even best friends when you see the series of books Duck and Hippo by Jonathan London and Andrew Joyner or those by Jeff Mack about  Hippo and Rabbit.

Find out about real hippos first:

• The Truth About Hippos by Maxwell Eaton III

• Hippos are Huge!  by Jonathan London

Learn about famous hippos like Fiona and Mzee:

Fiona is a hippopotamus that was born six years ago at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. She was born prematurely and is famous for surviving. She now has quite a lot of books written about her.

• Saving Fiona  by Thane Maynard

• Fiona the Hippo  by Richard Cowdery

Owen is a baby hippo who was rescued after the  December 2004 tsunami. Villagers in Kenya worked tirelessly to rescue him and he became the best friend of a 130 year old tortoise named Mzee.

•  Owen and Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff

• Mama and Owen  by Marion Dane Bauer

• Mama by Jeanette Winter

Read folktales:

• Hot Hippo  by Mwenye Hadithi

• The Great Tug of War  by Beverley Naidoo

• Clever Tortoise  by Francesca Martin

• Tug of War  by Naomi Howarth

Then have fun reading stories such as these:

• There's a Hippo on the Roof Eating Cake  by Hazel Edwards and deborah Niland

• Happy Hippo  by Charles Santoso

• The First Hippo on the Moon by David Walliams and Tony Ross

• Zippo the Super Hippo  by Kes Gray and Nikki Dyson

• Hilda Must Be Dancing  by Karma Wilson and Suzanne Watts

• The Twenty-Seventh Annual African Hippopotamus race  by Morris Lurie

They even feature in art books. There is a small blue hippo, an ancient Egyptian relic named William  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has a book about him

• The Little Hippo by Geraldine Elschner

13th August International Wolf Day

Wolves once ranged the majority of the world’s northern hemisphere and were adapted to a wide variety of ecosystems. Over time, that has changed.  Wolf numbers are now vastly reduced in these areas.

Originally, the Grey Wolf was the world's most widely distributed mammal. It has become extinct in much of Western Europe, in Mexico and much of the USA, and their present distribution is more restricted; wolves occur primarily but not exclusively in wilderness and remote areas.

Currently, wild wolf populations representing two distinct species of wolf are found in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa – the gray wolf (Canis lupus), and the red wolf (Canis rufus). Worldwide, the gray wolf, is not under threat.  The red wolf,  found in North America, is considered critically endangered. The biggest threat to wolves is humans whose tolerance of them is a problem.

Given that Australian children would never see a wolf in the wild, it always fascinates me to see how many students at school are so interested in them, not in storybook wolves which there are plenty of, but rather in real wolves and not all of them think they are ferocious and should not exist. They are very sympathetic to wolves and so because of this the library has quite a large collection of nonfiction books about wolves such as these:

         

                        

11th June International Lynx Day

The lynx is a solitary cat that haunts the remote northern forests of North America, Europe, and Asia. Lynx are covered with beautiful thick fur that keeps them warm during frigid winters. Their large paws are also furry and hit the ground with a spreading toe motion that makes them function as natural snowshoes.

These stealthy cats avoid humans and hunt at night, so they are rarely seen.

There are several species of lynx. Few survive in Europe but those that do, like their Asian relatives, are typically larger than their North American counterpart, the Canada lynx. European lynx are now protected by the EU.

All lynx are skilled hunters that make use of great hearing (the tufts on their ears are a hearing aid) and eyesight so strong that a lynx can spot a mouse 250 feet away.

The first time I heard of a lynx was when I was reading Randall Jarrell's novel The Animal Family. I love reading this book to classes and they are always curious about the lynx because it is not something they know about.

Before the Internet, besides this book there wasn't much in the library that gave students in Australia a clear idea about a lynx... an occasional short reference in a book about Wild Cats. My school library has a copy of the long-out-of-print Jonathan London and Patrick Benson picture book Let the Lynx Come In  and the more recent  Life-Sized Animal Tracks by John Townsend which clearly shows what the feet of a lynx do in the snow.

           

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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