11th October Freedom Day

Freedom Day is what everyone in Sydney is calling the 11th October because it means strict lockdown is over and you can now do more. For many people this seems to mean 'shop' with queues outside shops such as Kmart. Shopping is not something I'll be rushing off to do. It does mean most of my students will be back at school from the start of next week so my life will change. 

When I think of 'freedom', I am much more likely to think of walls, barriers and metaphorical means of corralment. That got me thinking about how many picture books feature 'walls' and how I hadn't done a post or a book display at school about walls, and there are certainly many books without even collecting the ones about the Berlin Wall or the Great Wall of China. 

I do not have this one, but would really like to see it based on its blurb

Walls  by Brad Holdgrafer

Walls of all sorts: social walls, border walls, political walls, emotional walls, big walls, old walls, and small walls. Speaking to today's critical political issues, this playful and encouraging story about breaking down barriers helps children learn about inclusivity, equality, openness, and kindness while also reminding grown-ups of the same values. Walls is a timely and timeless story, told with bold and colourful illustrations. 

I like to read Sheep, Goat and the Creaking Gate by Claire Saxby to my preschool classes because it allows for great discussion about the gate and the grass being greener on the other side of the fence and what can be done about it.

Some that I like and that are in the library are:

A great place to start is the timeless fable about unity and breaking down barriers,

• Tillie and the Wall by Leo Lionni and 

• Little Mouse and the Red Wall  by Britta Teckentrup

about facing fears, discovering hope and coping with change.  

Then

• Suri's Wall by Lucy Estela and Matt Ottley

• The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee

• Sometimes a Wall by Dianne White and Barroux

• The Chickens Build a Wall by Jean- Francois Dumont  

• What is a Wall After All? by Judy Allen and Alan Baron

• The Wall: A Timeless Tale by Giancarlo Macri

• Through the Wall by Jonathan Standing (graphic novel)

• Beyond the Fence by Maria Gulemetova  

• Go Away War! by Elzbieta 

Next specific walls

• The Soccer Fence by Phil Bildner (what apartheid meant for children in South Africa)

• Hey, Wall by Susan verde and John Parra ( the wall being a place for a community art project)

• Banksy Graffited Walls and Wasn't Sorry  by Fausto Gilberti (an artist who spray paints on walls while noone is watching)

Two books about the Vietnamese Veteran's Wall

• The Wall  by Eve Bunting and Ronald Himler; and 

• Maya Lin: Artist- Architect of Light and Lines  by Jeanne Walker Harvey and Dow Phumiruk

The Great Wall of China

• The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mary and Jean Tseng

• Ming's Adventure on the Great Wall of China by Li Jian and Yijin Wert

• The Emperor Who Built the Great Wall by Jillian Lin and Shi Meng

The Berlin Wall

• The Wall;Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

24th May Escargot Day

Escargot Day is observed each year on May 24th. This day is in honour of the famous French dish of cooked land snails. Escargot is French for edible snails, an acquired taste that was popular in French restaurants in the past, but not so much now. I couldn't find when Snail Day was celebrated so decided to put together a display of 'snail' books to honour the 24th. The students at my school learn French and we have an abundance of wonderful books which feature snails, so why not?

If you are doing this too, start with these picture books:
• Escargot by Dashka Slater & Sydney Hansen. This is such fun and can be found here on Youtube if you don't have a copy of the book.
• Snails Legs by Damian Harvey and Korky Paul
• Super Snail by Elys Dolan
• Snails Are Just My Speed by Kevin McCloskey
• Snail Trail by Ruth Brown
• The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freedman
• The Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni
• Snail and Turtle Are Friends and Snail and Turtle Rainy Days  by Stephen Michael King
• Matisse's Magical Trail by Tim Hopgood and Sam Boughton 
• Snippet the Early Riser by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
• Clementine by Sebastian Loth
• Sylvia  by Christine Sharp


Just a few information books:
• Watch Out Snail! by Gail Hay
• Let's Look at Snails by Michelle Levine
• Snail-Snaily-Snails by Bonnie Bader
' Here are some chapter books worth looking for:
• Snail and Worm by Tina Kugler (this is a series)
• Annie's Snails by Dianne Wolfer
• The Adventurous Snail by Dick King Smith
• Sophie's Snail by Dick King Smith (this is one of six Sophie adventures)
• The Worst Child I Ever Had  by Anne Fine
• The Story of a Snail Who Discovered the Importance of Being Slow by Luis Sepulveda



And for fun look for these two art books
• Snail Trail: A Journey through Modern Art by Jo Saxton
• How the Snail Found It's Colours by Jeong-Yi Kee

6th September Pet Rock Day 16th September Collect Rocks Day

September seems to be the time to think about ROCKS! There is Pet Rock Day on the 6th or 14th depending on which website you look at and then there is Collect Rocks Day on the 16th. I grew up in an area where there was large amount of igneous rock and I had a science-teacher father who was besotted with geology and physical geography. I loved collecting rocks, especially those pieces of basalt that had been made into smooth pebbles by the pounding of the sea. These rocks were great for drawing on, decorating, making into people and rock art. And now I'm an adult I still have a 'thing' for rocks. Recently in Ireland I found myself picking up rocks and making totems on the pebbly beaches. I wrote on beaches with stones and made rock art constantly. old habits resurfaced because of the abundance of rocks to work with...and yes I did bring two rocks home! One of them is from the beach that the movie Ryan's Daughter was filmed on, the other from a town called Greystones just south of Dublin where as you guessed the beach is made from large grey pebbles. As you can also probably guess I loved The Giant's Causeway which makes rocks appear so clever.

The children at school do borrow books about rocks and crystals. They seem to run in bursts and if one child gets interested I often find the interest spreads. Below are some of my favourite rock books in the library and here is the connection to my pinterest page where I have both children's books and projects that use rocks. If you decide to 'adopt a rock' read Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs a Rock. Children probably won't choose to read this book themselves because of the illustrations and their lack of colour, but the text is perfect and once you read it, the children understand and are keen to choose a rock.

2nd September Demi (1942) Ellen Stoll Walsh

Well it is a colourful day today! Both of these illustrators love bright colours and their books have great visual impact.

Demi, the pen name for Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt, comes from a very artistic family, married Tze-si Huang who was born in China, is a practising Buddhist and has travelled widely and studied many art techniques. In an interview she says, "Life is magic. Everything alive is magic. To capture life on paper is magic. To capture life on paper was the aim of Chinese painters. That is my aim too." Demi has a love also of gold leaf and intricate detail which she also includes in her illustrations. Many of her early books are retellings of folktales. See The Empty Pot, Firebird and One Grain of Rice. Her more recent books present important figures in history and /or religion, such as Gandhi, Buddha, Muhammad, and Mother Teresa.

Ellen Stoll Walsh, on the other hand, makes books for much younger children. They have less text and more gentle illustrations, which use torn paper collage in the style of Leo Lionni. She uses mice and other small animals as her characters. She is probably best-known for her series of concept books which feature a very attractive mouse family, Mouse Paint; Mouse Shapes and Mouse Count. Many teachers use Mouse Paint, together with Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow to introduce the colour wheel and mixing colours. I was very interested to read that Ellen was reading a Lionni title to her son, when she had the thought that she would like to make children's books too.

5th May Leo Lionni (1910 - 1999)

Leo Lionni would be celebrating his centenary today. We should all be celebrating his wonderful talents by revisiting all of his beautiful books and doing our own collage. A couple of years ago the children in Year 1 and I made Lionni mice to decorate the library. I found the pattern on a website so I went looking for it again today and found that Random House had a website full of activities, filmstrips and interviews especially to commemorate the centenary. The website also implies that many of Lionni's books have been reissued so that means I can replace the ones that are old and well-read and I can buy some that we don't have such as Let's Make Rabbits and The Biggest House in the World. Lionni's animal fables are perfect for Circle Time. Each one has an important message for its readers, subtly making suggestions for how to live their own life. If you haven't read Frederick then you really must. Leo Lionni says that he is Frederick and you may well have a Frederick in your class!