1st June World Milk Day

World Milk Day is an international day established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. 

During COVID19 at school we are making students take books from a display, so as to avoid too much touching or rummaging on shelves, so we are making sure there is plenty on display.  There would be five or six topics displayed at a time so when the students come tomorrow they will be greeted with a book display for World Milk Day. We were surprised just how much we had, about five books with 'milk' in the title, but when we extended it to cheese and cows there was an abundance.

Here's some milk titles:
• Don't Spill the Milk  by Stephen Davies
• Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch
• Oliver's Milkshake by Vivian French
• Tea With Milk  by Allen Say
• Milk Goes to School  by Terry Border

and a chapter book

• Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman


and some nonfiction books worth looking for
• Journey of a Glass of Milk by John Malam
• From Milk to Ice-Cream  by Bridget Heos
• Eat Smart Dairy by Vic Parker
• Dairy  by Honor Head
• From Farm to Table: Dairy by Woody Brambles 


Lots of fun 'cheese' picture books:
• The Great Cheese Robbery by Tim Warnes
•  The World-Famous Cheese Shop Break-In by Sean Taylor and Hannah Shaw
• I Don't Like Cheese  by Hannah Chandler
• Dinosaurs Love Cheese  by Jackie French
• Mack and the Missing Cheese  by Chae Strathie
• Cheese Belongs to You by Alexis Deacon



My favourite cow stories:
• Belinda by Pamela Allen
• Kiss the Cow by Phyllis Root
• Myron's Magic Cow  by Marlene Newman
• Cow by  Malachy Doyle
• Prudence the Part -Time Cow by Jody Jensen Shaffer
• The Cow Who Fell in the Canal by Phyllis Krasilovsky 


And if Tony  a poem by Ed Galing and Erin Stead is in your library borrow it too. In this story the narrator reminisces about how, when he was a boy , he would go out early each morning and greet Tony, the horse that pulled the milk cart. While on the topic of milk deliveries, I was always fascinated by the 'milk float' that delivers milk in London in the Shirley Hughes' Alfie stories.

16th March Panda Day

On March 16, conservationists and animal lovers alike spread the word about one of the world’s most endangered and adored animals. Panda Day brings together the efforts of an international community dedicated to protecting and restoring habitat for pandas. Pandas are very sensitive creatures and disruptions in their environment lead to issues with them reproducing. They do not reproduce readily in captivity so this makes ensuring their natural habitat remains even more pertinent.



Fortunately, children are besotted with pandas so any display of books we do in the library which features them, is very quickly depleted, even more so than polar bears. It is good that these two 'bear' days are so close together as it means we can quickly replace one display with the other. Our library has ample books to do this. See pandas here and polar bears here.

Mr Panda books are such a favourite with the preschoolers and Kindergarten students so these five books are never in the library. Once they have gone though, there is still plenty of fiction to go round. For the same age group there is Neil Gaiman's Chu and Sophy Henn's Pom Pom.


For older students who also like a series of picture books about the same character there is Jon J. Muth's series about Stillwater. These require a more sophisticated level of  reading and beg discussion so they are good to read with an adult.

If you then read through the large number of other narrative and expository texts, there's still some beginning chapter books to explore!

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 Panda Day is dedicated to spreading awareness about this majestic teddy-bears of nature, spreading the word that deforestation is leading to the destruction of their habitats, and has placed them on the endangered animal list.

29th July International Tiger Day

I have written about this celebration before here, but I need to tell you about some tiger books that have been added to the library since then and two of them are never in the library. As soon as they are returned, they leave again. They are:
• There's a Tiger in the Garden  by Lizzy Stewart
• Tiger in a Tutu by Fabi Santiago.

As well, this year I have purchased these
• Cinnamon  a fable by Neil Gaiman.
• Never Tickle a Tiger by Pamela Butchart
• Goodnight Tiger  by Timothy Knapman
• Tiger Tiger  by Jonny Lambert

There are 125 fiction books in the library featuring tigers as well as several lovely nonfiction titles, so come the end of the month the library will be roaring with tigers!

5th June Hot Air Balloon Day

Did you know that the hot air balloon is the oldest form of flight technology used for carrying humans? The first manned flight occurred in 1783. The balloon itself consists of an envelope, which is used to contain the hot air, and a gondola, where passengers and a means of creating hot air are typically housed. 

Recently a popular television program started its new season with a harrowing scene which involved a hot air balloon. My husband and son think this show is very humorous, but often I find myself squirming. A book I really enjoyed, Enduring Love began with an awkward hot air balloon incident too. It was made into a movie and I had to cover my eyes at the beginning of it while the hot air balloon scene was playing. You guessed it, there is absolutely no way I would ever get in a hot air balloon. I do think they look good sailing across the sky. They are beautifully bright and demand your attention, but my attention is from the ground with my feet touching the dirt.

Today I collected up some books to put together a display. We had a Donut Day display out for the 2nd of June, but it had been decimated so I had to find something to replace it. Obviously donuts are popular. I could have had several copies of the Mr Panda books. I have a Mr Panda toy and together with the books he is popular. 

Hot air balloons has proved an ideal replacement ...there are plenty of books across a wide reading range. Some special books worth mentioning are:

Picture books:
• The Great Balloon Hullaballoo by Peter Bently
• Flight of the Dodo by Peter Brown
• Miranda the Explorer by James Mayhew
• The Cloudspotter by Tom McLaughlin
• Hot Air: the Mostly True Story of the First Hot-air Balloon Ride by Marjorie Priceman
• Hot Air by Sandrine Dumas Roy (about global warming really...wonderful art)
• Sebastian and the Balloon by Philip C. Stead

Nonfiction:
• Hot Air Balloons by Joanne Mattern
• How Do Hot Air Balloons Work?  by Buffy Silverman

Novels:
• Emily Eyefinger and the Balloon Bandits by Duncan Ball
• Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman
• Meerkat Madness Flying High by Ian Whybrow

and two that are worth searching out in a library because they are out of print :
• Cinderella and the Hot Air Balloon by Ann Jungman
• The Balloon Farmer by Geoffrey Lehmann

10th November Neil Gaiman (1960)

Happy birthday to English author Neil Gaiman. Neil's best known books are beyond the reading capabilities of my clientele, but there are some picture books and easier chapter books for my under 8s. Hopefully having read these they will be keen to read books such as Coraline and The Graveyard Book when they are older.