28th July International Cockroach Appreciation Day

This week I read Mini Grey's outstanding new picture book The Greatest Show on Earth. This is the story of the entire history of Planet Earth. It is narrated by a group of insects who are putting on a show which will show the evolution of life on Earth. The insect that to me has a starring role is the cockroach! He almost looks appealing. This got me thinking about other books that feature that insect that Sydney-siders struggle with, cockroaches, and I remembered that Felicita Sala has also managed to make cockroaches the centre of attention and seem endearing in the two books she illustrated for Maggie Hutchings. I'm not sure we need a day to appreciate cockroaches though!

The students at school really enjoy these two story books which are told from the cockroach's point of view. They remind me of creative writing or 'composition' lessons as they were called when I was at school where we were often asked to write a story from an inanimate object or a speechless animal's point of view.

Cockroaches, as we all know have existed forever. As I often do I googles to see if there was Cockroach Day and lo and behold there is! It is called International Cockroach Appreciation Day and it is on the 28th July. We missed it, but I will be sure to do a display now for next year.  I'm  not sure they need my appreciation though. I will appreciate them vicariously through books.

Cockroaches even appear in folklore. Martina the cockroach appears in Cuban and Mexican folktales and versions of it are often published in English and Spanish. Not sure about the adjective 'beautiful' being associated with cockroaches, but this is the case again in this book where the cockroach is named Anastasia.

There are other stories worth searching out, such as Crickwing by Janell Cannon, another cockroach that you will feel sorry for.  Cocky Colin by Richard Tulloch, where Colin just wants not to live in the dark and be on show. The Super Fly  series where Super Fly and Fantastic Flea are forever trying to save the city of Stinkville from their arch nemesis, Crazy Cockroach. My all time favourite to read aloud is The Cockroach Cup  by Kim Caraher which is just the sort of thing we did as children, race cockroaches.

Luckily we have some more factual books which will give readers another view of cockroaches.

Have fun reading about them without having to deal with a live one! And if you want to buy something, buy the new Mini Grey. It is special.

23rd June Typewriter Day

June 23, the anniversary of the granting of a patent to American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868 is celebrated around the world as Typewriter Day. So, take out your old typewriter from the attic, dust it and get started on your magnum opus! Bring out a typewriter and start typing.



Yesterday I just happened to be sharing Tom McLaughlin's picture book, The Story Machine with some Kindergarten classes. We had a great discussion about typewriters. Some of the children were keen to explain that their grandparents had one and they were allowed to use it. This fascinated the children who'd never seen one. This got me thinking about other books that featured a typewriter and I could only think of Mini Grey's Hermelin: the Detective Mouse  and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type  by Doreen Cronin. There must be others. Now I'll be on a mission when I'm reading and shelving.

Then this morning when I started my search I found out that there was a day to celebrate typewriters and it is very soon, the 23rd June!

I have found two more picture books that look as if they would be worth exploring, but we don't have them in our library.
• The Typewriter  by Bill Thomson. We have his other books, Fossil  and Chalk which are well-borrowed so I will get this one. And I love the cover of this with its smiling typewriter
• Typewriter by Yevgenia Nayberg, but it's price will exclude a sight-unseen purchase.

If you don't have The Story Machine  there is a video of Tom McLaughlin reading it here.

I had been exploring author/ illustrators reading their own books during the home-learning period to encourage my students to make their own books and the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education in the UK) has many fine examples.