4th December World Pear Day

Happy World Pear Day, everyone! Today marks a very special occasion – the day that we all come together to celebrate pears! This fruit is enjoyed by people all around the world, and there’s no better way to celebrate than by enjoying some delicious pears while reading a story. Are there any stories about pears? You might be surprised to learn that pears do feature in some picture books. See:

• The Pear in the Pear Tree by Pamela Allen

When John and Jane went out walking what did they see? They saw a pear in the pear tree. This humorous rhyming story tells of their attempts to reach the pear. 

• Too Many Pears! by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley

Pamela the cow absolutely loves pears - fresh pears, pear pie, stewed pears, any pears - they are all irresistible to Pamela. Finally it takes a clever little girl to convince Pamela that there is more to life than pears... 

• A Pair of Pears and an Orange by Anna McGregor

An adorable story about making new friends and finding creative solutions to playground problems.
A pair of pears rocked on a seesaw.
A pair of pears played ping-pong.
A pair of pears rode their tandem bike.
Until one day, someone new wanted
to join their fun.

• Orange Pear Apple Bear  by Emily Gravett

By rearranging just four words, Emily Gravett creates a series of playful images which are a sheer joy - and intensely satisfying.

• Little Pear Tree  by Rachel Williams and Jenny Bowers

Watch as a tiny seed grows through the seasons into a fine pear tree in this beautiful book. The charming text makes this the perfect interactive primer to a key scientific topic. 

• Parker and the Pear  by Jim Pluk

Parker gets puzzled after a strangely shaped green thing drops from a tree and plops at his feet. He has never seen a pear before, much less tasted one. What will happen when he tries to return the fruit to its place high in the tree? 

And my favourite

•That Fruit is Mine! by Anuska Allepuz

One day, deep in the jungle, five elephants discover a new tree - a tall tree - and, atop that tree, the most mouth-wateringly delicious fruit any of them had ever seen. "MINE!" each elephant cries. "Mine, mine, mine, mine, MINE!" But who will get there first? And will the elephants spot the five tiny mice, planning and plotting, slowly approaching that tip-top branch?  

Pears were cultivated in China as early as 2000 BC. Pears were also cultivated by the Romans, who ate the fruit raw or cooked. Romans introduced the fruit to Britain. Pears became a much-desired commodity among the the trading routes of the ancient world. In the 18th Century, the pear tree was included in the famous carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Here's some picture books of the carol by well-known illustrators, Jan Brett, Anna Wright, Lara Hawthorne and Jane Ray.

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.

6th February Lame Duck Day

I was reading today and happened to notice that it was Lame Duck Day and that made me think that I hadn't written about ducks or Duck Day on this blog. Of course being a Lame Duck has very little to do with ducks, but given how many picture books feature ducks I got to thinking about them. Well there's Rubber Ducky Day ( January, 13th), Donald Duck Day (June, 9th) and even Dead Duck Day (June, 5th) but there does not appear to be World Duck Day or International Duck Day. What a shame. There are so many endearing ducks in picture books, starting with my all time favourite Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

The children I teach are aged between four and eight so their introduction to 'ducks' in picture books is usually a version of Five Little Ducks,  but very quickly they move to the series about ducks that we have in boxes in the library. There is
• Daisy Duck by Jane Simmons
• Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
• Baby Duck  by Amy Hest and Jill Barton
• Duck in a Truck  by Jez Alborough
• Sarah and Duck by Sarah Gomes Harris
• the madcap duck in What is Chasing Duck? in the Giggle Gang by Jan Thomas
• the zany Katy Duck by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Henry Cole
• Duck Duck Dinosaur  by Kallie George and Oriol Vidal
• Duck Duck Porcupine by Salina Yoon.

Of course there's other ducks to fall in love with such as
• Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
• Just Ducks  by Nicola Davies and Salvatore Rubbino
• Alexander in Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen
• Ben and Duck by Sara Acton
• The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, and the newer
• Duck!  by Meg McKinlay and Nathaniel Ekstrom
• I'm a Duck  by Eve Bunting and Will Hillenbrand
and if you are looking for a serial for this age group there's always Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge's
• Duck For a Day  and Definitely No Ducks
And if this isn't enough duck books, look here.

14th June International Bath Day

It is International Bath Day. So many children's books feature bathing, either as the story, a good way to finish a story or 'for shock value' with very young children, so on this day for celebrating baths I have put together a fun display in the library. I know most of the books will leave the library.
Remember even Harry the Dirty Dog and Paddington Bear have baths!

Probably the most well known bath story would be Pamela Allen's Mr Archimede's Bath. This book is still in demand both with children and teachers who are using it for a science lesson. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley  by John Burningham is perfect for a visual literacy lesson as it tells two conflicting stories through the pictures and words. My preschoolers love Emma Quay's Rudie Nudie 'because they have no clothes on!'. One of my Year 2 teachers serialises Harry the Poisonous Centipede by Lynne Reid Banks and the children giggle at the thought of a centipede coming up the drain in the bath. The picture books about bath monsters, sharks and giraffes in the bath and  have a similar effect on younger reader.

When my son was young he was mad on fishing and we had a Keith Faulkner book, A Fisherman's Tale about a boy who caught a fish that he kept in the bathtub because it kept growing until it was obviously a whale. I think it was his ultimate fantasy. Maybe There's a Dinosaur in the Bathtub will do that for a young reader today. Whale in the Bath by Kylie Westaway would be one of the most borrowed picture books this year so far. I'm sure the Premier's Reading Challenge sticker helps but given the number of books in the library with stickers it must have something else going for it. And if it is a while since you've read Glenda Millard's Unplugged!  dig it out and at least you'll feel warm.


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24th - 31st October Honey Week

It is Honey Week in the UK, but I thought I'd dig out books that feature honey, put them out on display and celebrate in the library anyway.
All the pizza books went on the first day so I am hoping these will be borrowed too. Besides it's a good excuse to revisit Elizabeth Honey's poem Honey Sandwich which is in her book of poetry by the same name. There are masses of books about bees (see pinterest page here) but here I've included only the books that have honey in their title and where honey means that wonderful tasting golden syrup that bees produce, not someone's name.

3rd April Pamela Allen (1934) Debra Frasier (1953)

Pamela Allen is a New Zealander, but Australian children think she is Australian because her books are published here. She did live here for quite a time , but has settled back in

Auckland. She is prolific, and as the author and illustrator she makes a great choice for teachers who want to do an author and/or illustrator study. Her books are always out of the library and they are so well used they often need replacing. My favourite is Alexander's Outing and the children's favourite is Mr McGee and the Biting Flea. They love the fact that Mr McGee is hopping all over the place with his clothes off!

The second author celebrating a birthday today is American, Debra Frasier. Like Pamela Allen she too is an author/illustrator, but she has many fewer books to study. I first got to know her work when I purchased Out of the Ocean. A Year 1 teacher borrowed it and used the

wonderful collages in it as an art focus and her class then produced an amazing mural for an art show. Since then the book has been popular. In the library we also have Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster. This hilarious story lends itself to dressing up, and having a parade of 'vocabulary'. On Debra's website their are examples of

schools who have done just that!