Read Grow Inspire The Slogan for Book Week 2023 (Part 2)

If you watch this video on Youtube you will see and hear Matt Ottley talking about his inspiration for the Book Week Slogan. He talks about why he chose to feature a seahorse on his poster. He states that it represents growth, strength, beauty and spirituality. You can read about the symbolism of seahorses here. Hopefully it inspires you to explore seahorses more. If you want to learn more about seahorses quickly, then watch this slide share.

Torres Strait Islanders revere seahorses and seahorses feature in Indigenous Art. These works of art could be used as a provocation or thinking routine,  as a comparison to the poster or a photograph of seahorses...

• https://www.baduartcentre.com.au/artists/weldon-matasia/seahorse-meaning-symbolism

•https://www.cairnsartgallery.com.au/collections/seahorse

• https://umi-arts.myshopify.com/products/postcard-seahorses

• https://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/artists/alan-ah-kit/seahorse/

Now at my school, it is time to get all the seahorse books off the shelves and make a display, so that students can read all about seahorses and be inspired to act in their defence as there is an endangered  seahorse right on their doorstep in Sydney Harbour. See this article and filmclip. My students will recognise the locations!

Now for some books. This is what the library has... some factual, some stories on both seahorses and sea dragons. What is the difference? Have the students find out by reading. It is a shame so many are out of print, but I am pleased we bought so many before American books became too expensive for Australian school libraries.

• The Sea Hides a Seahorse by Sara T. Behrman and Melanie Mikecz

• Seahorse: the Shyest Fish in the Sea  by Chris Butterworth and John Lawrence

• Seahorses by Jennifer Keats Curtis and Chad Wallace

• Seahorses by Valerie Bodden

• Fry to Seahorse by Camilla De la Bedoyere

• Seahorses and Seadragons by Debbie and Brendan Gallagher

• Sea Horses and Pipefish  by Stanley Swartz

• Seahorse by Greg Myers

• The Way of the Weedy Seadragon  by Anne Morgan and Lois Bury

• Seahorse's Wild Ride by Steve Parish

• Leo the Littlest Seahorse by Margaret Wild and Terry Denton

• Seadragon Sea  by Margaret Spurling

• I am a Sea Horse: The True Story of a Dwarf Sea Horse by Trisha Speed Shaskan and Todd Ouren   

• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

• One Lonely Sea Horse by Paxton Freymann and Joost Elffers

• Secret Seahorse by Stella Blackstone and Clare Beaton

• Ocean Lullaby  by Sally Odgers and Lisa Stewart 

• The Seacret of Driftus and Sprout  by Maree Coote

• Peanut Butter and Jellyfish  by Jarrett J. Krosoczka 

• Sully the Seahorse by Natalie Pritchard and Natalie Merheb

• Seahorses are Sold Out by Constanze Spengler and Katie Gehrmann  

For beginning readers looking for longer texts these short novels are popular

• Sylvie's Seahorse  by Mara Bergman

• The Not-So-Tiny Tales of Simon Seahorse: Simon Says Book 1 by Cora Reef and Liam Darcy There are nine titles so far.

• Seahorse Stars  by Zuzu Singer and Helen Turner. There are six titles.

Why do some titles have seahorse as two words? Another mystery to solve.

Seahorses, something so small and hard to find truly are inspiring! We can learn so much from them!

In the video Matt Ottley set students a task to find something for each letter of the alphabet, so make an alphabet poster where the students can record their answers. I need to find out more about the other creatures in the poster...an octopus, a starfish, a flying fish, a Bird of Paradise...

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

CBCA Notables

Well the Children's Book Council judges have announced their list of twenty books for the 2020 Notables for the Early Childhood category. This means that the shortlist will come from this group and then ultimately the winners too. As an Early Childhood teacher/librarian, I am so often disappointed by what makes this list. The books often  either sell this age group short because they are for the very young end of this age group or they have no plot to hook children, but instead rely on rhyming doggerel. This year they are not for the very young. There's no lullabyes and there are some books with wonderful artwork.

I spend the whole of my teaching days with children between three and eight. They want and need a plot, quality artwork, good vocabulary and the books need to warrant revisiting.

This year in the lead up to Book Week I am tempted to create my own shortlist of Australian picture books to explore because four books I think should be on the list and which I know will work with my students, didn't even make the Notables. These four fabulous books are:

Dumazi and the Big Yellow Lion by Valanga Khoza and Matt Ottley. In this  story Dumazi is on her way to the waterhole when she encounters a lion caught in a trap. The lion wants her to set him free, but she knows that lions roaming free are dangerous. Written by Valanga Khoza who has lived in Africa, so set in Africa, accompanied by superb artwork and a CD of the story read by the author with outstanding music performed by the author and illustrator. The quintessential work of art!


Fly! by Jess McGeachin
Lucy finds a bird with a broken wing, which she is sure she can fix. But not everything that’s broken can be fixed. This story of determination highlights a beautiful daughter father relationship. It is a debut book and has so much depth and so many conversation starting points.


Leonard Doesn't Dance by Frances Watts and Judy Watson
The word play and vocabulary extension provided by this story about birds and dancing is more than enough, but there is also a theme worth exploring with children as well. Also take a look at Judy Watson's Pinterest page of bird drawings she did for the book.


Sarah's Two Nativities by Janine M. Fraser and Helene Magisson
At Christmas time, Sarah snuggles in each of her grandmothers' laps. Grandmother Azar tells Sarah stories from the Holy Koran and Grandmother Maria tells her stories from the Bible. She listens to two nativities stories about the birth of baby Jesus. They are the same in some ways, and different in others. What a perfect introduction for talking about Christmas in multicultural Australia.

Read these books, search out the teaching notes, look at the author and illustrator websites and then you will see how much fun you will have sharing them with classes. I'll probably add a couple more from the official list. I'll just wait and see what makes the shortlist. 

2nd June Danny Parker

I know it's a bit late, but I have just learned that Perth author Danny Parker celebrated his birthday on 2nd June and he is not in my blog's birthday list. I will celebrate his birthday in the library next year. He has certainly come to the forefront of Australian picture books recently with so many prize nominations. I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the depths of Molly and Mae which is a notable book nominated for the CBCA  Shortlists for 2017. His stories have certainly benefited from the high profile illustrators Matt Ottley and Freya Blackwood who have illustrated many of his stories. His chapter book series Lola's Toybox  has a steady following of Year 2 girls in my library too.

19th August Book Week Connect to Reading Part 2

I shared the shortlist for the Picture Book with my four classes of Year 2 students. I agonised over whether to buy The Rules of Summer as I thought the illustrations were quite dark and the rules worded rather negatively and that I would need to do too much scaffolding to do it justice in one or two thirty minute library lessons. I thought I would wait and see if it won and then decide. Well it did win and I am still not sure what I want to do!

The other shortlisted books were fun to share and easy to use the connection theme with. We stared with King Pig  because the students all wanted to read it. They thought it would be funny and they 'love' Nick Bland books. We book talked it in pairs where the students had to focus on what made it funny and discuss whether or not it had a message or theme. They easily recognised the theme but were surprised that a humorous story could have a serious message. This prompted revisiting other books they knew such as Click Clack Moo Cows that Type  and Farmer Duck.

It also led effortlessly to The Windy Farm which also looked as if it would be humorous. Similarly here the students worked out that this was not only funny but had a deeper message. Two of the classes were currently studying the environment and were keen to talk about energy sources and how common wind energy was. This led naturally to the book Energy Island  by Allan Drummond which tells the story of Samso, a Danish island that is powered by wind energy.

I thought Toby the character in Parachute  may have been too young for my Year 2 students to relate to, but in their Book Talk pairs they quickly began to talk about fears and make connections to themselves. The subject of 'security blankets' arose and one class and I revisited Lisa Shanahan's Gordon's Got a Snookie in order to once again look at the connection between humour and serious themes. The other three classes talked more about overcoming fears and we used Sonya Hartnett's  Come Down Cat to make connections, both literally with cats and heights, but inferentially about how to and when to be brave.

And lastly,  Silver Buttons  which was my favourite and the easiest to get the students involved in. We talked about small increments of time and what could be done in them. We timed activities with stopwatches. We looked at what is 'momentous' and what is 'mundane' and argued the story events inclusion or not.  The Book Talk final discussion was to sum up the book in one word. I was amazed by how well the students did this. There was the obvious 'minute', but others were 'time', 'life', celebration', and 'importance'. I used At the Same Moment Around the World and Just a Second as either pre or post reading.

King Pig  and  Silver Buttons were the most popular of the books we read when the students voted.

24th August Alexander McCall Smith (1948) Matt Ottley (1962)

Alexander McCall Smith is a Zimbabwean-born Scottish writer who writes prolifically for adults and children. He is well known for several series of books for adults, in particular The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but he also has two series of books for children; one about Akimbo, the son of the manager of a game reserve, who has adventures with a different African animal in each title; the other about Harriet Bean, a nine year old detective who has some decidedly weird aunts and an eccentric inventor father. He has also written a children's book about Precious Ramotswe, the detective in his Ladies' Detective Agency books which is available now in Scottish, but will not be published in English until next year. It is called Precious and the Puggies and in it Precious is at school in Botswana, is eight years old and solves her first case.

In contrast, Matt Ottley is a New Guinea-born Australian illustrator who went to secondary school in Sydney. When he visits schools he tells children that he is colour blind and they are fascinated that this can be the case when Matt makes his living from art. He does books for adults and children and has won the Australian Picture Book of the Year Award for his amazing graphic novel/picture book/musical combination, Requiem for a Beast, but it is not for my young clientele. His series of three books about a dog called Faust is though. Faust is a dog with an extraordinary group of friends and to whom unusual things happen. I particularly like Ottley's picture book Mrs Millie's Painting and his illustrations for Nadia Wheatley's Luke's Way of Looking.