21st June World Giraffe Day

World Giraffe Day is an annual event initiated by the Giraffe Conservation Federation to celebrate the longest-necked animal on the longest day of the year. I have blogged about it before but this time I want to highlight two biographies about Anne Innis Dagg, the first giraffologist and the new book by Nicola Davies and Emily Sutton, The Season of Giraffes.

When Anne Innis Dagg saw her first giraffe in a zoo she was entranced. So much so that a love for giraffes shaped her whole life. She decided at a young age that she would one day travel from her home in Canada to study giraffes in their natural environment in Africa. 

After overcoming obstacles based on her gender, Anne succeeded in fulfilling her dream in 1956 and became the world's leading scientific expert on giraffes and continues to be an advocate for giraffes in their natural environment through her foundation.

Her work is now accessible to child readers through these two books.

• Anne and her Tower of Giraffes (2022) by Karlin Gray and Apart Varma 

Read a review 

•The Girl Who Loved Giraffes and Became the World's First Giraffologist (2021)by Kathy Stinson and Francois Thisdale. See review here.

The Seasons of the Giraffes is an inspiring story of how giraffes have dealt with modern climate change. Here's the blurb:

In this powerful picture-book, bestselling children's author Nicola Davies writes in collaboration with conservationist Kisilu Musya to explain how one of the world's best-loved animals has dealt with the challenges of climate change. Giraffes were once a part of daily life in Niger – but after severe droughts one year, when the rains eventually return, the giraffes are nowhere to be seen. However, as award-winning artist Emily Sutton's magnificent illustrations capture, The Season of Giraffes ultimately has a hopeful, celebratory story to share ... and an important point to make about how human beings can change for the better.

Here's Nicola Davies blogging about this book.

1st February Wear Red Day

The first of February is Wear Red Day, a day to think about our hearts and the blood that makes them healthy, but to celebrate,  the books I recommend here have nothing to do with hearts and much more to do with the colour RED. School starts this week for the students I teach and the kindergarten teachers this week have been collecting books for their classroom libraries. Each of the classes has a colour, KRed, KYellow etc and each teacher has a small collection of books about that colour to read and talk about. Some colours are easier to find books about than others, but Red was easy. As well as The Red Book, Clifford, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Red Hen, here's what I put in their box:

13th December World Violin Day

Unfortunately there is no one at school to celebrate Violin Day. We are already on summer holidays, but at my school all of Year 2 take part in a 'strings program' where they learn to play the violin or cello. When they first begin, being in the room next door at school, is excruciating but by the time the end of year concert comes round I am amazed at how good they sound, so next year when the Year 2 students are allocated their new instrument I am going to do a display in the library of all these wonderful 'violin' books.
• Patrick by Quentin Blake. When Patrick plays his violin extraordinary things happen.
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman among other things this is a fun introduction to the orchestra
• A Violin for Elva by Mary Lyn Ray and Tricia Tusa. Elva wants a violin but her parents say no.
• The Pear Violin by Bingbo and Gumi. A clever squirrel turns half a pear into a violin and makes beautiful music in the forest.
• Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Hana has had three violin lessons when she decides to enter a talent quest.
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic tells the story of Joshua Bell, a famous classical violinist who gave a free concert in a subway in Washington.
• The Violin Man  by Colin Thompson is about Oscar who plays his violin outside a theatre but longs to play inside the theatre.
• The Anzac Violin by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton is the true story of New Zealand soldier, Alexander Aitken who took his violin everywhere he went.
• Ada's Violin by Susan Hood and Sally Were Comport tells the amazing story of a group of children who play musical instruments built from recycled rubbish in Paraguay.
• The Magic Violin by Victor Kelleher. Jimbo plays the violin just like Year 2 do at the beginning...terribly.
• Kizmet and the Case of the Smashed Violin  by Frank Woodley is a short chapter book that has Kizmet trying to find out who is smashed a priceless Stradivarius violin.

22nd April Kathy Stinson

Happy birthday to another Canadian author, Kathy Stinson. She is the author of some of the most perfect books for preschoolers. I particularly like Red is Best which has now been in print for over twenty five years and still encapsulates life for a child between three and five. Maybe things haven't changed as much as we sometimes like to think they have. My three year old daughter would only wear purple, in a similar way that Kelly, the child in this book, would only wear red, because red is best! Her red stockings make Kelly jump higher, her red pyjamas keep monsters away and her red boots take bigger steps. And fellow Canadian Robin Baird Lewis' illustrations are a lovely bonus.