21st May International Tea Day

International Tea Day is observed annually on 21st May according to the United Nations.The concerning resolution was adopted on December 21, 2019 and calls on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to lead the observance of the Day. An International Tea Day has been celebrated on 15th December, since 2005, in tea producing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda and Tanzania.

I have not written about tea on either of these dates before, so I am writing now in the hope that I will remember to celebrate it in the library next May. I want to celebrate this day because there are so many books to pull off the shelves for a display.

Factual books first:

•Teatime Around the World  by Denise Waissbluth and Chelsea O'Byrne

Let's go on an adventure to discover new cultures and friends through tea! In this fun and lyrical picture book for ages 4-8, you  will learn how tea is enjoyed in Thailand, Japan, Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Uruguay, South Sudan, India, and more countries!

• The Story of Tea  by Alex Woolf

• The Tale of Tea  by Shalini Vallepur

 

Let's have a tea party!:

Series such as Fancy Nancy, Angelina Ballerina, Pinkalicious, Mr Putter and Tabby and Madeline all have a tea party book.

• Tea Party Rules  by Ame Dyckman and K.G.Campbell

• The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi

• Daddy Lion's Tea Party by Mark Sperring and Sarah Warburton

• Sun and Moon Have a Tea Party by Yumi Heo

• The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

• No Dragons for Tea  by Jean E. Pendziwol and Martine Gourbaldt

• Tea With Rex  by Molly Idle

• Squishy McFluff: Tea with the Queen by Pip Jones and Ella Okstad

• Luli and the Language of Tea by Andrea Wang and Hyewon Yum

•  Phoebe Dupree is Coming to Tea by Linda Ashman and Alea Marley

• Ash Invites Her Friends to Tea by Fu Wenzheng

• Fu Finds His Way by John Rocco

• Chimpanzees for Tea  by Jo Empson

• How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea by Kate Hosford and Gaby Swiatkowska

• Teatime by Tiffany Stone and Jori van der Linde

While not strictly about tea, but rather the train that brings tea to the outback, they are perfect for this time of year.

• Tea and Sugar Christmas  by Jane Jolly and Robert Ingpen

• The Shop Train  by Josie Wowolla Boyle

Then look for these short novels:

• The Giants' Tea Party  by Vivian French

• Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party by Megan McDonald

• Tea Party Parade  by Nick Sharratt 

• Mr Monkey and the Fairy Tea Party by Linda Chapman

• Maybelle Goes to Tea  by Katie Speck

• Cloud Tea Monkeys  by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham

If you don't care for tea, but are enamoured of teapots, look for these:

21st April Tea Day

”You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
~ C.S. Lewis

There is nothing nicer than a good read and a cup of tea. So celebrating Tea Day is a must. Tea is not something children give a lot of thought to, because very few of them actually drink tea, but so many children's picture books feature tea. At the very minimum they finish with and 'they all had tea'...it is a warm, secure, happy, family feeling to finish with. Think of The Elephant and the Bad Baby at the end where everyone goes back to the baby's home and his mother gives them tea and pancakes. Think of Alfie Gets in First and how after the problem of the locked door is finally solved everybody sits down for a cup of tea. Yes, these books are old but the pattern continues and now there are even stories with tea in the title.

Many years ago when I started teaching I did a lengthy integrated social science unit called 'What's in a cup of tea?' and my Year 5 class and I explored the tea industry, the sugar industry and the milk industry for a whole term. What fun it was and given my knowledge now of children's literature I would have had plenty of good books to add to it. What a shame the current curriculum doesn't allow for such tangents or flights of fancy anymore.

Below are covers of books in our library that feature tea parties, cups of tea or the importance of tea. The Biography of Tea pictured above gives a comprehensive history of tea and its role in many cultures.

8th August International Cat Day

I haven't written about any form of Cat Day before because where do I start and finish when talking about children's books about cats, but today I had a thought. This week one of my Year 2 students was reading the picture book biography about Wanda Gag and that gave me reason to pull Millions of Cats  off the shelf to show her. What a good place to start a post about cat books!  This book was first published in 1928 and although illustrated in black and white, young students do still enjoy the repeating refrain and imagining that number of cats. Compare this with a very new 2016 cat' picture book, Brendan Wenzel's They All Saw a Cat which also has a repeating refrain, a clear, crisp cat, but looks very closely at perspective, point of view and subjectivity.

"The cat walked through the world, with its whiskers, ears and paws ...and the child saw A CAT, and the dog saw A CAT, and the fox saw A CAT. Yes, they all saw the cat.' In simple, rhythmic prose and ingeniously stylised pictures, Brendan Wenzel takes young readers on a walk alongside a cat."

And in between these two there has been a myriad of cat books and series of books with a cat as the main character.

Some favourites:
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss
• Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr
• Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine
• Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
• Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires
• Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin and James Dean
• Squishy McFluff the Invisible Cat by Pip Jones
• Ballet Cat by Bob Shea

And don't forget poetry!
• The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
• Cats Sleep Anywhere  by Eleanor Farjeon
• Macavity; Mr Mistoffelees; Skimbleshanks by T.S Eliot and Arthur Robins

29th July International Tiger Day

International Tiger Day is held annually to raise public awareness of tiger conservation issues. It is becoming more important each year as the number of tigers are decreasing quite rapidly. Recently I heard the tiger keeper from Australia Zoo interviewed on Conversation Hour on the ABC and I found what he had to say fascinating. It lead to me doing a bit of research and thinking it would be a fun topic to explore with students at school.

The fiction tiger titles are borrowed, but the nonfiction books on tigers (in fact any big cats) are very popular in my library. Whenever we put together a display and include a few cuddly toy tigers the books walk out the door. So having a global celebration of tigers is a good excuse to put together a display this week. What is in our library is here on pinterest.

Do a quick survey to see which is the most popular tiger book in your library. I love The Tiger-Skin Rug  by Gerald Rose. The librarian I share the library with loves Augustus and His Smile  by Catherine Rayner. One of the preschool teachers constantly has The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr on loan to her. One of the Kindergarten teachers has become a fan of The Rat and the Tiger by Keiko Kasza since doing a philosophy PD course and the students have become loyal fans of two newer books Mr Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown and The Sea Tiger by Victoria Turnbull.

The shortlist for The Environment Award for Children's Literature 2015 was announced in July and Our Class Tiger by Aleesah Darlison is on that shortlist in the non-fiction category. See the full shortlist here.

14th March Beds, Sheep and Sleep.

I had been meaning to write more about beds and sleep because I have found it fascinating what is being borrowed from the library display. I thought of three topics and each is really a blog on its own, but this week I ran out of time to write each night. So here is an amalgamation.

Topic 1 Magic Beds
Probably the most famous book for this category is Bed Knob and Broomsticks by Mary Norton. Every child who had had this story read to them yearns for a bed like this. Another short novel that my children love is Ten in a Bed by Allan Ahlberg. Here a girl named Dinah Price is visited by a number of fairytale characters while she is in bed. But there are picture books too where the bed is capable of magic journeys and occurrences. Try:
• The Magic Bed by John Burningham
• Big Bouncy Bed by Julia Jarman and Adrian Reynolds
• Luke and his Amazing Space Bed by Luke Sheridan and Jen McCartney
• Outer Space Bedtime Race by Robert Sanders and Brian Won

Topic 2 Counting Sheep
How can there be so many stories about counting sheep when trying to sleep? My favourite is The 108th Sheep by Ayano Imai, but there are lots of others:
• One More Sheep by Mij Kelly and Russell Ayto
• When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura
• The Sleep  Sheep  by Anna McQinn and Hannah Shaw
• Counting Sheep  by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell

Topic 3  What's Under the Bed?
Starting with books that have that as the title:
• What's Under the Bed? by Joe Fenton
• What's Under the Bed by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
• There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer
• Under the Bed by Paul Bright and Ben Cort
• The Crocodile Under the Bed by Judith Kerr
• Emus Under the Bed by Leann J. Edwards

7th - 14th February Marriage Week

The week before Valentine's Day is designated Marriage Week. Once I would have thought that wasn't of interest to students under 8, but how wrong would I have been? A while ago one of the preschool classes spent a whole week planning, preparing for and conducting a wedding and reception in their room and the playground. They were so involved. They made invitations, decorations, placecards, the script for the celebrant and designed the outfits using the dress-up box clothes. I even got an invitation to the wedding so I made a gift and went along. The teacher asked me for some books to share with the children so I went looking in the library. We had some but not a lot, so I have added a few more since then. I especially love The Rabbit's Wedding but some of the newer ones have people as characters rather than animals. How to Get Married, by Me, the Bride and Lilly's Big Day will make you smile. The Perfect Flower Girl  is a good choice because it is the story of a Lebanese Muslim wedding and Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding will give you a Chinese perspective. The others cover things that are important to the children, such as being a flower girl or what to do at a wedding. I have quite a display being planned in my head for the end of this week, Love, Kisses, Hugs and Weddings ... so many great picture books to choose from, just as soon as Pancake Day and Umbrella Day are over.

14th June Judith Kerr (1923) Laurence Yep (1948)

Long before I started teaching very young children I had read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and then had to read the sequels, The Other Way Round and A Small Person Far Away. I was besotted with war stories and the fact that it was partly autobiographical made it even more exciting. Then when teaching I discovered The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat. Both of these have really stood the test of time. They are still out of the library frequently nearly forty years since they were first published. I despaired when Judith killed off Mog in Goodbye Mog, but having read interviews with her about why she decided to do it I am now better able to accept it.

Judith Kerr is now in her late eighties and still the books keep coming. Last year there were was One Night at the Zoo and not long before that Twinkles Arthur and Puss. How amazing that she is still thinking about writing and drawing! There is a new book coming this year and a fortieth anniversary edition of Mog.

While her picture books are not 'out there' in the way Eric Carle's were forty years ago or Emily Gravatt's are now, her books do beg to be read aloud and her delicate pencil drawings provide a warmth and gentleness perfect for reading with young children, especially when they

were favourites from your childhood.

Laurence Yep is a Chinese American author who usually writes novels but has the occasional picture book worth exploring. Recently I purchased Auntie Tiger for the library. It is an adaptation of a Chinese tiger version of Little Red Riding Hood. The friendly-looking tiger on the cover is really 'a wolf in sheep's clothing', hungry and looking to eat the two sisters.