20th November Matisse: Life & Spirit, Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou

The Art Gallery of NSW is holding an exhibition of art by Henri Matisse from 20th November until March and it will be something truly special! In preparation I have taken all the books about this French artist off the library shelves in order to start next year with a display celebrating his life and work. Many of the teachers at school focus on his work in art lessons during the year, but given that some students will visit the gallery in their school holidays and some others might be inspired to go in Term 1 after reading about him, a display in the library is warranted. We have over thirty books  about his work so it will look good. We can cater for the preschooler, the artist and the readers! Here is some of what will be in the display:

Blue and Other Colours with Henri Matisse

A Magical Day with Matisse by Julie Merberg & Suzanne Bober

   Oooh! Matisse by Jean-Yves Verdu & Mil Niepold    

         
Matisse's Magical Trail by Tim Hopgood & Sam Broughton

How the Snail Found its Colours by Haneul Ddang & Mi-Ran Yang

Henri's Scissors by Jeannette Winter

Matisse King of Colour by Laurence Anholt

Henri Matisse: Cutting with Scissors by Jane O'Connor & Jessie Hartland

Cut-Out Fun with Matisse by Nina Hollein & Max Hollein

Colourful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse by Marjorie Blain Parker & Holly Berry

Matisse's Garden by Samantha Friedman & Cristina Amodeo

The Mermaid and the Parakeet by Veronique Massenot & Vanessa Hie

Two picture books to read:

A Bird or Two by Bijou Le Tord

When Pigasso Met Mootisse by Nina Laden

and the piece de resistance

The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan & Hadley Hooper

For lunchtime cut and paste sessions a la Matisse which I will do with the students who choose to be in the library at lunchtime, inspiration will come from

The Swimmers by Ana Bianchi

11th January Brian Floca

American author illustrator Brian Floca celebrates his birthday on the 11th January. He won the Caldecott Medal in 2014 for his detailed, but beautiful nonfiction book Locomotive. The books he both writes and illustrates seem to be about transport and things that he says he was interested in as a child, but he has also illustrated picture books for other authors. My favourite is Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox. This story is based on a true story about Elizabeth, an elephant seal who keeps coming ashore in Christchurch, New Zealand and lies on the road and no matter how far away the boats take her she keeps coming back. It makes me smile and the children I have read it to love it. And thirdly, he illustrates chapter books. This began while he was studying under illustrator, David Macaulay who introduced him to the author Avi. This led to Floca illustrating all six of the Poppy books, wonderful stories about Poppy, a mouse, and her friend, Ereth, a porcupine as well as other more recent books also written by Avi. There is a very informative interview with Brian here.


Look for picture books by Brian Floca:
• Moonshot
• Lightship
• The Racecar Alphabet
• Five Trucks

Picture books illustrated by Brian Floca:
• Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas  by Lynne Cox
• Ballet for Martha  by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
• The True Gift by Patricia MacLachlan

Chapter book series:
• Max and Mo a set of early readers by Patricia Lakin about two hamsters who live in the art room at a school.
• The Tales from Dimwood Forest  series of six books about a mouse called Poppy, and her family's problems with the owl Mr Ocax.
• Marty McGuire a series of books about third grade tomboy Marty written by Kate Messner and ideal for middle grade readers.

27th February Birds

Hard to believe we've been back at school already for over a month. The time has flown. There seems to be so much to do at the beginning of a school year. Over the last six months or so I seem to have bought so many picture books that feature birds and so many of them have simply outstanding illustrations. It got me thinking about how many books we already had in the library about birds so we decided to turn the library into an aviary to start the year's displays. It has been amazing. The teachers at school think it odd because they know I don't like birds, that is real birds. I'm quite scared of them since I had a magpie in the library and he couldn't get out. However I really like pictures of birds. They make for great illustrations, greeting cards, posters, sculptures etc so it was easy to decorate the library. I used some old books as my initial focus to sort out the wording to accompany the display -

• Have You Seen Birds?  by Joanne Oppenheim and Barbara Reid. Like all of Reid's books this uses wonderful plasticine collage for the illustrations but my children do not engage with the text.
• Birds, Birds and More Birds by Matt Cosgrove
• Birds  by Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek. My preschool teachers love this book.
• Birdsongs by Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins. Perfect for having fun with the noises birds make.

I put out all the old favourites such as Edward the Emu; Edwina the Emu; Olga the Brolga; Enoch the Emu; Samantha Seagull's Sandal; Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus; Leonardo Pigeon of Siena; Pidge; Jeremy; Waddle Giggle Gargle; How the Birds Got their Colours; The Birdwatchers; Vuture's View; Condor's Egg; Owl Moon; Owl Babies; The Owl Who was afraid of the dark; Feathers for Phoebe; The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay; Puffling; Little Owl Lost; Mozzie and Midgie and King of the Birds.

The library also has two beautiful biographies about two prominent bird lovers which we featured:
• The Boy Who Drew Birds  by Jacqueline Davies and Melissa Sweet. This is the story of John James Audubon
• For the Birds by Peggy Thomas and Laura Jacques. This is the the story of Roger Tory Peterson

And then all the new ones. I have put All I Said Was by Michael Morpurgo first because it is a great book to start a discussion about birds and their characteristics because in this story a boy wishes he was a bird, becomes a pigeon and then experiences the consequences of the change.

3rd March Patricia MacLachlan(1938) World Read Aloud Day World Maths Day

Many things to celebrate again today. Firstly Patricia MacLachlan. Years ago while teaching Year 5 I was smitten by her novels. I couldn't read enough of her books. I especially loved Baby and Journey but now that I teach younger children I have discovered her picture books. Two that are in my library are Painting the Wind and Who Loves Me? They are very different and for different audiences. The first, illustrated with oils by Katy Schneider is a the story of a young boy who loves painting. Each summer he goes to an island and observes four painters who also go to the island each summer and this summer is revelatory for him. The second is a gentle bedtime book about love and as a cat owner the reassurance of the cat resonates with me. It is the only book illustrated by Amanda Shepherd that I know. I need to track down some more.

While there are many children's books with a maths focus I am not going to 'do' maths today.

Today is the first World Read Aloud Day. It is a day initiated by LitWorld. Visit their website http://www.litworld.org/ and watch the videos, read the articles and decide what you might do next year.

I read aloud nearly everyday and not just because it is my job. I love to be read to too. My second class teacher read The Adventures of the Faraway Tree and I was hooked. Unfortunately she followed it up with The Hobbit and I haven't read any Tolkien since. My elderly Year 7 English teacher serialised The Wind in the Willows and I was transported to the riverbank. I have had great success reading serials to classes. I love to read Jill Tomlinson books, especially The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and Penguin's Progress, Morris Lurie's The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race and Pearl S. Buck's The Big Wave.

Still need convincing? See Caroline Grant's Four Reasons We Need to Read to Our Kids; Mem Fox's Ten commandments for reading aloud; Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook; Daniel Pennac's Right Number 9 from The Rights of the Reader .