16th January Appreciate a Dragon (Dragons Day 2)

Do you like dragons? I am not a great lover of reading fantasy, but watching what the young readers that use the library like to read, I know under eights, beginning to be independent readers, like to read about good versus evil, magic beings, duels and fights and adventures where the small are victorious.

Dragons have been part of human history for centuries. These creatures have appeared in the folklore of cultures all around the world.They are mythical creatures with loud flapping wings, flaming breath, and steely scales. They are viewed as unstoppable masters of chaos and so many stories, be they books or films, songs and craft activities feature them. For a large collection of books to choose from see this Pinterest page. 

School for Australian children does not begin until the end of January, so we will not be at school to appreciate the designated day, but our school library has planned a big display of dragon books to begin the year because it aligns well with Chinese New Year as it is the Year of the Dragon. 

It is also a good time to show students all the beginning reading series that feature dragons, and there's certainly many to choose from.

• M P Robertson's The Egg series. These are four picture books with plenty of text and amazing illustrations and these books are a great place to start your 'battle' with dragons.

George knew something wasn't right when he found more than he had bargained for under his mother's favourite chicken. George takes the enormous egg inside and puts it in his room. There he reads stories to it until finally the egg begins to rumble and out pops a baby dragon. 'Mummy' it says. George takes it upon himself to teach the hatchling 'dragony' ways, until one night the dragon flies away to find its own kind.

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- The Egg; The Great Dragon Rescue; The Dragon Snatcher  and  The Dragon and the Gruesome Twosome.

• Paul Jennings Rascal series. There are 14 titles in this series and the stories become addictive with the five year olds in my library. We have the pocket sized copies which adds to their appeal because they look like chapter books.

Ben wants a dragon the same way most kids long for a pet dog. When Dad keeps refusing Ben's request, Ben cleverly finds an important use for the dragon, should the family get one.

• Dav Pilkey's Dragon series. This series has been reissued as part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, which is aimed at children who are learning to read. There are five titles.

Lonely Dragon has made a friend, and he loves spending time with his new buddy! He enjoys telling scary stories, cracking funny jokes, and fixing a midnight snack for them to share. But when his friend appears to be ill, Dragon demonstrates what it means to be a true friend.

– A Friend for Dragon; Dragon's Fat Cat; Dragon Gets By; Dragon's Halloween  and  Dragon's Merry Christmas.

• Margaret Ryan's The Littlest Dragon series is perfect for newly independent  readers.

The youngest of ten dragon brothers, the Littlest Dragon, known as Number 10  always has the best and brightest ideas for getting his own way.

- The Littlest Dragon; The Littlest Dragon Gets the Giggles; The Littlest Dragon Goes for Goal and The Littlest Dragon at School

• Shoo Raynor's Dragon Series has three books starting with Dragon Gold  where we are introduced to Harri who wants to win a school competition to make a dragon that can fly.

- Dragon Gold; Dragon White  and Dragon Red.

• Dragon Masters by Tracey West is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches which is aimed at newly independent readers. They have easy-to-read text, high interest content, fast-paced plots and illustrations on every page. There are at least 25 books in this reading marathon. In 2023, one of my Year 1 boys  managed to read them all!

Eight year old Drake is snatched up by King Roland's soldier and taken to the castle. He is to be trained as a Dragon Master. At the castle, he is joined by three other young Dragon Masters-in-training: Ana, Rori, and Bo. The Dragon Masters must learn how to connect with and train their dragons--and they must also uncover their dragons' special powers.

• Draglins  by Vivian French (8)

Meet four teeny-tiny dragons in some wonderfully endearing adventures as they leave their home in the attic and go out into the great outdoors. 

• The Dragonsitter series by Josh Lacey. There are ten books in this series.

Eddie is a young boy trusted with an incredibly big task: he must look after his uncle's pet dragon, Ziggy, every time his uncle is off on a holiday. The only problem is Ziggy is a very naughty pet dragon who always seems to get himself (and Eddie) into lots of  trouble.

• Luma and the Pet Dragon  by Leah Mohammed. At the moment there are three titles in the series.

When Luma Dewan wakes up on the morning of her seventh birthday, she knows that today will be special. But she has no idea just how wonderful and extraordinary it will be. For today is the day she will meet Timir – a real talking dragon. Or at least when Luma is around that's what he is. When anyone else is there, he becomes an ordinary grey puppy with a fluffy tail, 

- Luma and the Pet Dragon; Luma and the Hiccuping Dragon  and Luma and the Grumpy Dragon.

• Dragon Slayers' Academy by Kate McMullan. There are twenty books in the series, too many to list.

Welcome to the Dark Ages, where dastardly dragons rule the land and the life of a weedy boy called Wiglaf is about to change forever. . . There's only one place an ordinary boy can learn to be a hero - the Dragon Slayers' Academy. Join Wiglaf on his quest to take on tyrants and battle the most fearsome of beasts!

More series, slightly longer and requiring more reading stamina tomorrow .

21st August International Lighthouse Day

International Lighthouse Day has become Lighthouse Weekend in Australia. It aims to bring focus on lighthouses, the people who built and manned them and their contribution to maritime history. As Australia is an island, lighthouses abound, have a place in many people's communities and as such are part of the history, folklore and literature of the place. The Australian National Maritime Museum runs activities for children to support this weekend's festivities.

Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head in Sydney is Australia's first and longest operating navigational light. There has been a navigational aid there since 1791, within a year of the First Fleet's arrival and a lighthouse since 1818.

At school there are opportunities to look at lighthouses in literature and there are many depending upon the age of the children you want to share with. For me however, I never need an excuse to enjoy the problems of Mr and Mrs Grinling in the Armitages' series of books about The Lighthouse Keeper. With these wonderful stories, not only will children extend their knowledge of lighthouses, but their vocabulary and problem solving skills as well! If you just want to have some fun, why not revisit some episodes of Paul Jennings' Round the Twist, a long-running television series about the Twist family who live in a lighthouse. Many of these can be found on Youtube.

30th April Paul Jennings (1943) Sven Nordqvist (1946) Nadia Wheatley (1949)

Sven Nordqvist is a Swedish author/illustrator. I first experienced his work when I purchased Pancakes For Findus for the library. It was published by New Zealand Gecko Press and I had purchased other books of theirs that had been popular in the library so I bought it too. Gecko Press translates and publishes good books from international authors and illustrators where the original book usually isn't written in English. Since this purchase I have learned that there are other books about farmer Pettson and his cat Findus and I have added these to the library as well. The illustrations are warm and humorous and add immensely to the text. It is a fitting book to read on Sven's birthday as in this story Pettson is making pancakes for Findus' birthday!

Paul Jennings is almost an Australian institution! I don't know for sure, but if they were looking for

the Australian author who has sold the most books I think Paul Jennings would be up there on that list. His books are extremely popular with children and libraries. As you can imagine his Rascal books are a huge hit in my Early Childhood library with the beginner readers. Look at Paul's website to see what rascals these dragons can be.

The first Paul Jennings story I ever read to a class was Flutter about a budgerigar going up a vacuum cleaner. It was a huge success with my male poor-readers in Year 5. It had cult status by the end of that year. For those boys it was the start of seeing a purpose for reading, even if it was only to read more Paul Jennings books. For me, Paul Jennings is a reading guru and I was so happy when he published his parent reference The Reading Bug...And How You Can Help Your Child to Catch It. I have used it at parent sessions and if you haven't seen it, you have to check out the cartoons at least.

Nadia Wheatley needs a whole entry to herself. Why is there so much on the 30th April? Nadia is an accomplished Australian author of a wide range of books from amazing novels, such as the historical The House That was Eureka for young adults, inspiring novels such as Lucy in the Leap Year and Five Times Dizzy for primary-school students, picture books such as Highway and Luke's Way of Looking for younger readers. And then to top all of these off she is the author of My Place, which I wrote about on its illustrator, Donna Rawlin's birthday and the co-author of Going Bush, a collaborative project where eight inner-city schools got to learn much more about themselves and their environment. And, if like me, you are a school librarian then you will always read The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King to classes during Library Week just in case they are not convinced about the wisdom and joys of books.

And talking about the joy of books, last year while I was in America I bought a beautiful book called Book Fiesta! I didn't know anything about the author or illustrator. I just loved its vibrancy and exuding joy for books. When I got home I found out that the author Pat Mora had initiated Children's Day Book Day as an annual family literacy event some years ago and that this book is about celebrating Dia, as it is known, an abbreviation of the Spanish El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros for this event. This day, celebrated on 30th April by libraries, schools and homes in America highlights

the joy of reading in all cultures and in all languages, highly appropriate then to be looking at a Swedish author and an Australian author who both see reading and writing as being integral to life!