13th June Pigeon Appreciation Day

Really, it is very hard to appreciate pigeons! But, they are extremely popular at school, both in the playground and in the library. There are two pigeons which seem to be almost permanent fixtures in the playground and the children have named them Dave and Gary. As the school teacher librarian this really makes me smile, because this means that something has got through in library.  Gary by Leila Rudge was read to every child in the school when it was on the shortlist for Book Week. In this story Gary is the pigeon who is the odd one out in his roost because he cannot fly. He is a failed homing pigeon. Dave comes from a very popular series of chapter books with the title Dave the Pigeon... by Swapna Haddow. In fact, they are not the only popular pigeons in the library. Of course Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus  series is popular. As is Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood's series Real Pigeons  and there's some stand alone titles that 'walk out the door'.

• How to Be Famous by Michel Shalev
• Pigeon P. I. by Meg McLaren
• Pigeon Pie Oh My! by Debbie Singleton
• Keith Among the Pigeons by Katie Brosnan

This article on the history of the pigeon gives great insight into why they have been around so long  why they have been used during wars and why we should look past the vermin or pest labels.
Their contribution to history as homing birds and messenger bearers has been well-documented in children's books.
See:
• Pigeon Hero  by Shirley Raye Redmond
• Flapper VC  by Mark Wilson
• Fly Cher Ami, Fly! by Robert Burleigh
• Lofty's Mission by Krista Bell and David Miller

There are other titles listed on this Pinterest page...more than enough titles for a great display!

28th August Book Week 2017

Well, Book Week 2017 has come and gone. The Early Childhood list of books didn't particularly inspire me to do great things with the books and children, but we did read them. As predicted Chip by Kylie Howarth was the big winner with the children in Kindergarten and Year 1. The library now has masses of seagulls flying 'aerobatically' around the library. It was interesting the connections the children made between the books. The biggest connection was one I hadn't predicted or planned for... and it was that three of the titles The Snow Wombat, Go Home Cheeky Animals  and Gary all had a map in them. Maps are in the new Geography syllabus and Kindergarten were right into following the trail of Gary and the wombat. They were very keen to discuss whether Gary and the wombat took the quickest routes home and if they didn't, why not? When I shared Snow Wombat I also shared Penelope the Pygmy Possum as it too is set in the high country, and the children were keen to draw a map to show where Penelope's partner went to get back to her.

The reading of the road signs in The Snow Wombat  also set the children off on a tangent about what they meant and Kindergarten who had studied Australian animals last term wanted to revisit Sebastian Lives in a Hat  and Wilhelmina Wombat, two books about orphaned wombats. 

The thing that surprised me most sharing the shortlisted books was how little my city-living 5 to 7 year olds knew about living on a farm, living a long way from a city or what it meant to live with a drought. These experiences are just so far removed from any experiences they have had. They are well-travelled but not within Australia. They loved the 'mud' page in All I Want for Christmas is Rain and given more time I think doing an art activity that involved painting with mud or a collage  like those in Nannie Loves would have been worthwhile.

Other events, such as  tabloid reading activities that all the teachers, class and specialists got involved in were well-received  and the children were quick to tell me where they had been and what was read. The teachers all wrote a Book Week message to go with their chosen book and then the books were displayed in the library for loan.

Oh well, now for Book Week 2018 and its Early Childhood Shortlist. Let's hope there's more to work with and a little more depth. It tends to sell the children it is supposed to be for, very short.

14th June Skunk Day

There are no skunks, sloths, meerkats or lemurs in Australia, but toys and picture books have certainly made them popular animals with the children that frequent the library. We have just purchased Mac Barnett and Patrick McDonnell''s new book The Skunk to add to the books that can go home with the skunk toy and it went home the first day it was on display, Skunk Day!

17th July Suzanne McGuinness

Today is author/illustrator Suzanne McGuinness' birthday. I learned this courtesy of Eric at the Happy Birthday Author blog. It was fortuitous as I am planning my term's reading and one of the books on our Book Week shortlist is Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge's beautiful book No Bears. I wanted to read this to my classes but also wanted to look at a book with a bear in it, that was published recently too. I chose My Bear Griz by Suzanne McGuinness because while it has a similar warmth for young children and an obvious point of view and storyteller, it has a very different style of illustration and is not Australian. I love the bear and despite knowing grizzly bears are dangerous, as someone who lives in a country without bears I do want to hug Griz. I am really looking forward to sharing these two books, identifying visual jokes and talking about similarities and differences with the students. I learned from Eric that this is Suzanne's first picture book so I will now stop looking for more as I have been doing. I thought she was English, but have learned that she is American. Now Suzanne we need more of your beautiful illustrations. You can see some on her website and blog.