20th - 30th May International Pickle Week

Apparently Pickle Week is celebrated for ten days, not seven during May and it has been since 1948. In Australia children look at you strangely when you talk about 'pickles'. We have gherkins, cucumbers, mustard pickles and dill pickles, but the actual act of 'pickling' is not something many children would have thought about, even though it has been around since the 1300s. I asked a class what it meant to be 'in a pickle' though and surprisingly a couple knew that if you were in a pickle you were in difficulty. They will be ready when they finally read Shakespeare's The Tempest and see this reference!

There are books to read now though...some which actually have the edible 'pickles' as a subject, some where it is used as a character's name and others where someone finds themselves 'in a pickle'. Have fun reading, pickling vegetables and eating pickles for these ten days.

31st December The Nutcracker

As the year ends and I now have time to reflect on year's end in the library and just how many Christmas books we have, I still have trouble discarding favourites and those by favourite authors or illustrators. This year we contemplated culling the large number of versions of The Nutcracker we have, yet as we agonised over which ones to let go we realised that every single version we owned had been borrowed during 2015, so ultimately none went. I have a diehard group of girls who will borrow anything that has to do with ballet, so James Mayhew's Ella Bella Ballerina and Marilyn Singer's Talulah versions had been borrowed several times. That is due too, to the power of a series. Tallulah stories are borrowed frequently. James' ballet series is even more popular at the moment than his Katie and artist series.

The story of the Nutcracker has two sources...a story by German author E.T.A. Hoffman called The Nutcracker and the King of Mice and the ballet The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky which was also based on this story and was first performed in 1872. At Christmas many ballet companies perform this ballet so many children know the story of Clara, the Land of Sweets and the Sugarplum Fairy. It's plot is very appropriate for young children as it is about overcoming obstacles and of course good triumphs over evil.

Some very well known illustrators have done picture book versions, even Maurice Sendak who was involved in designing the sets for a production. If your library doesn't have a version look at these four:
• Jane Ray
• Susan Jeffers
• Alison Jay, and
• Ian Beck (author Berlie Doherty)
From these you will be able to select the 'right' amount of text and still have a 'traditional' version of the story.

The other titles above are for more specific audiences. Bea in the Nutcracker  is an ideal introduction for a very young ballerina. Whatever you choose from above you will get exquisite artwork and a good read. Happy New Year.

23rd November The Twelve Days of Christmas

Browsing through the Christmas picture books I noticed that Alison Jay has done a new version of The Twelve Days of Christmas and I picked it up for perusal, and while it does have beautiful artwork in her trademark style, I did wonder how many copies one library needs of this song, especially a school library like mine where school finishes for the summer holidays three weeks before Christmas and the teachers do so little Christmas-wise with their classes. Some very well known children's illustrators seem to have enjoyed creating their own version - see among others Susan Jeffers, Rachel Isadora, Brian Wildsmith, Jane Ray, Jan Brett, Robert Sabuda, Britta Teckentrup and Jane Cabrera.

One of the most popular holiday songs of all time, 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' probably originated in France during the late Middle Ages and became popular in England as a chant sung without music. The 12 days are traditionally those following Christmas, with the last day being the end of the season. Over the years the lyrics have changed but the song remains a perennial favourite. 

I sometimes use the song to explain to students that the twelve days are the twelve days after Christmas Day that take us up to Epiphany, the day when the three kings went to visit baby Jesus and the day when traditionally we take down our Christmas tree and decorations.

As well there are many spin offs designed to suit a particular place. There are African (A Stork in a Baobab) and Latino (A Piñata in a Pine Tree) versions and here in Australia there are a myriad of innovations, with emus, kookaburras and platypuses up gum trees and even an underwater version by Kim Michelle Toft. The original by June Williams and John McIntosh is gentle and almost reverent, the newer ones such as the Heath McKenzie version and the Colin Buchanan version are loud and boisterous. At the Lifeline Book Fair this weekend near my home I could have bought a number of each version for as little as fifty cents each! Perhaps good for compare and contrast activities and as background to making your own.

30th April International Jazz Day

International Jazz Day is a yearly event on 30 April, organized by UNESCO to celebrate “the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.” The day was proclaimed during the UNESCO General Conference in November 2011.

Once I would have said that jazz music wasn't something my students were interested in, but I haven't had too much trouble getting them to borrow books such as these:

• Ben's Trumpet  by Rachel Isadora

• This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt

• The Jazz Fly by Matthew W. Gollub
• Sheep's Jazzy Jumper by Carrie and David Grant

• My Two Grandads by Floella Benjamin

and all the wonderful biographies that are part of the library's picture book biography collection:

• Dizzy  by Jonah Winter ( the story of Dizzy Gillespie)

• Mister and Lady Day by Amy Novesky (the story of Billie Holiday and the dog who loved her)

• The Little Piano Girl by Ann Ingalls and Maryann MacDonald (the story of Mary Lou Williams)

• Jazz Age Josephine by Jonah Winter (the story of singer Josephine Baker)

• Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka

• Before John was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane by Carole Boston Weatherford

27th January Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the son of a violinist who was considered a wonderchild because of his piano playing and ability as a composer. While there are plenty of expository texts about his life, there are also many picture books about him or his music. Some that we have are:

• Play, Mozart, Play! by Peter Sis

• Mozart Finds a Melody by Stephen Constanza

• Young Mozart by Rachel Isadora

• The Magic Flute by Kyra Teis

and this story that focuses on his sister who was also a clever musician

• For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch

21st November World Hello Day

Today is the 39th annual World Hello Day. Anyone can participate simply by greeting ten people. This demonstrates that you think personal communication is important for preserving peace. World Hello Day began in 1973 in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel. The day is observed now in 180 countries as an opportunity for people to express their concern for world peace. Your simple greeting sends a message to leaders encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.

There are several picture books which you can use to start the idea of greetings as a means of communication. Choose from:

Two suitable for very young children

• Hello, Goodbye by David Lloyd and Louise Voce

• The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka

Two which expose children to 'hello' in many languages

• Hello World! by Manya Stojic

• Say Hello! by Rachel Isadora

and a poignant story about a boy who feels left out and alone while other children play together which has an underlying message about how it doesn't take much to just say 'hello'

• Say Hello by Jack and Michael Foreman.

22nd November World Hello Day

Yesterday was World Hello Day. I thought that it was a funny thing to be having, so I looked up why it is celebrated. It was interesting to learn that anyone can take part simply by greeting ten people so as to emphasise how important personal communication is for preserving peace. So in classes today we talked about it and decided we would try to say hello to ten people each today. We read Say Hello by Jack and Michael Foreman and Duffy Everyone's Dog by Patricia Bernard and Cathy Netherwood. Both of these books stress how important it is to speak to and include others. They also are multicultural in that they look at the word for 'hello' in a multitude of languages. We then used the Say Hello to the World website to look up how to say hello in even more languages. Researching I also found that Rachel Isadora has a new book called Say Hello which is about Carmelita who goes walking with her mother and dog through her neighbourhood stopping to say hello to friends and shopkeepers along the way. As in Duffy, which is no longer in print, the greetings are in many languages, so if your library does not have Duffy and you are looking for a book this may prove to be a good purchase. I will certainly look out for it as I like Rachel Isadora's books.