16th January Appreciate a Dragon (Dragons Day 2)

Do you like dragons? I am not a great lover of reading fantasy, but watching what the young readers that use the library like to read, I know under eights, beginning to be independent readers, like to read about good versus evil, magic beings, duels and fights and adventures where the small are victorious.

Dragons have been part of human history for centuries. These creatures have appeared in the folklore of cultures all around the world.They are mythical creatures with loud flapping wings, flaming breath, and steely scales. They are viewed as unstoppable masters of chaos and so many stories, be they books or films, songs and craft activities feature them. For a large collection of books to choose from see this Pinterest page. 

School for Australian children does not begin until the end of January, so we will not be at school to appreciate the designated day, but our school library has planned a big display of dragon books to begin the year because it aligns well with Chinese New Year as it is the Year of the Dragon. 

It is also a good time to show students all the beginning reading series that feature dragons, and there's certainly many to choose from.

• M P Robertson's The Egg series. These are four picture books with plenty of text and amazing illustrations and these books are a great place to start your 'battle' with dragons.

George knew something wasn't right when he found more than he had bargained for under his mother's favourite chicken. George takes the enormous egg inside and puts it in his room. There he reads stories to it until finally the egg begins to rumble and out pops a baby dragon. 'Mummy' it says. George takes it upon himself to teach the hatchling 'dragony' ways, until one night the dragon flies away to find its own kind.

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- The Egg; The Great Dragon Rescue; The Dragon Snatcher  and  The Dragon and the Gruesome Twosome.

• Paul Jennings Rascal series. There are 14 titles in this series and the stories become addictive with the five year olds in my library. We have the pocket sized copies which adds to their appeal because they look like chapter books.

Ben wants a dragon the same way most kids long for a pet dog. When Dad keeps refusing Ben's request, Ben cleverly finds an important use for the dragon, should the family get one.

• Dav Pilkey's Dragon series. This series has been reissued as part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, which is aimed at children who are learning to read. There are five titles.

Lonely Dragon has made a friend, and he loves spending time with his new buddy! He enjoys telling scary stories, cracking funny jokes, and fixing a midnight snack for them to share. But when his friend appears to be ill, Dragon demonstrates what it means to be a true friend.

– A Friend for Dragon; Dragon's Fat Cat; Dragon Gets By; Dragon's Halloween  and  Dragon's Merry Christmas.

• Margaret Ryan's The Littlest Dragon series is perfect for newly independent  readers.

The youngest of ten dragon brothers, the Littlest Dragon, known as Number 10  always has the best and brightest ideas for getting his own way.

- The Littlest Dragon; The Littlest Dragon Gets the Giggles; The Littlest Dragon Goes for Goal and The Littlest Dragon at School

• Shoo Raynor's Dragon Series has three books starting with Dragon Gold  where we are introduced to Harri who wants to win a school competition to make a dragon that can fly.

- Dragon Gold; Dragon White  and Dragon Red.

• Dragon Masters by Tracey West is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches which is aimed at newly independent readers. They have easy-to-read text, high interest content, fast-paced plots and illustrations on every page. There are at least 25 books in this reading marathon. In 2023, one of my Year 1 boys  managed to read them all!

Eight year old Drake is snatched up by King Roland's soldier and taken to the castle. He is to be trained as a Dragon Master. At the castle, he is joined by three other young Dragon Masters-in-training: Ana, Rori, and Bo. The Dragon Masters must learn how to connect with and train their dragons--and they must also uncover their dragons' special powers.

• Draglins  by Vivian French (8)

Meet four teeny-tiny dragons in some wonderfully endearing adventures as they leave their home in the attic and go out into the great outdoors. 

• The Dragonsitter series by Josh Lacey. There are ten books in this series.

Eddie is a young boy trusted with an incredibly big task: he must look after his uncle's pet dragon, Ziggy, every time his uncle is off on a holiday. The only problem is Ziggy is a very naughty pet dragon who always seems to get himself (and Eddie) into lots of  trouble.

• Luma and the Pet Dragon  by Leah Mohammed. At the moment there are three titles in the series.

When Luma Dewan wakes up on the morning of her seventh birthday, she knows that today will be special. But she has no idea just how wonderful and extraordinary it will be. For today is the day she will meet Timir – a real talking dragon. Or at least when Luma is around that's what he is. When anyone else is there, he becomes an ordinary grey puppy with a fluffy tail, 

- Luma and the Pet Dragon; Luma and the Hiccuping Dragon  and Luma and the Grumpy Dragon.

• Dragon Slayers' Academy by Kate McMullan. There are twenty books in the series, too many to list.

Welcome to the Dark Ages, where dastardly dragons rule the land and the life of a weedy boy called Wiglaf is about to change forever. . . There's only one place an ordinary boy can learn to be a hero - the Dragon Slayers' Academy. Join Wiglaf on his quest to take on tyrants and battle the most fearsome of beasts!

More series, slightly longer and requiring more reading stamina tomorrow .

13th May Train Day

Train Day is celebrated on the Saturday closest to the 10th of May. The students I teach, all of whom are under eight would not see or catch a train very often. Where they live is not on a railway line, yet I still have many small boys who are fascinated by trains. I think the fascination probably starts with Thomas the Tank Engine, but it moves on to Benedict Blathwayt's Little Red Train  series and then I find that most of those smitten will borrow any train book. Consequently the library has a good collection. Some of the more borrowed ones are here:

3rd October Wizards - series for beginning readers

There's nowhere near the number of wizard series as there is for witches, and what there is, is extremely light-weight by comparison, but I do have boys who will ask for a chapter book about wizards. These are the three series that I suggest they choose from:

1. Woozy the Wizard by Elli Woodward. The three titles in this series are written in rhyming text and readers who can cope with the text, like Woozy, a confused old wizard who while meaning well does some very silly things.

2. Wizzbang Wizard by Scoular Anderson. There are only two books in this series. They tell readers the story of of Freddy Frogpurse who goes to visit his Great Uncle Sneezer to learn to become a wizard.



3. Oliver Moon by Sue Mongredien. This is the most popular of the series. There are twelve titles in this series and I have children who will read them all. Oliver Moon is the hardest working wizard at Magic School, but at home he has problems dealing with his unmagical parents.


The picture books about wizards are much better, (e.g.  Little Wizard by Kazuno Kohara, The Princess and the Wizard by Julia Donaldson) but my good readers want chapter books and they really don't mind if they are formulaic or a bit 'twee'. The boys who are keen soon move onto Kate McMullan's Dragon Slayer's Academy and become engrossed in the adventures of Wiglaf.

16th January Kate McMullan (1947)

I knew very little about American author Kate McMullan other than that she was the author of a popular book in the library called I'm Dirty. This book written in the first person is about a backhoe and it seems to appeal to young male readers. It is illustrated by Kate's husband Jim McMullan. While looking in the catalogue to see if we had any other books by Kate or Jim, I found a couple of easy readers about Fluffy, the Classroom Guinea Pig and I Stink! Looking at Kate's website it seems that there are four first person books by the husband and wife team. I need to purchase I'm Mighty and I'm Bad. Hopefully they will appeal in the same way. She has also written other series of books that at this time are unknown to me. Her series on myths sound like something my Year 2 would enjoy though.