15th March Worm Day

I missed celebrating Worm Day in the library, but I might get to celebrate it next year so I am including it here. All the worm books from the library are in Year 1 classrooms because they are exploring their schoolyard and minibeasts. We have quite a number of books and some such as Elise Gravel's Worm and Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm are popular. Surprisingly there's even beginning chapter books featuring worms.

When I read what Worm Day is celebrating and why it was instigated, I'm not sure I would share any of that with students. Instead it is just a good excuse to read about worms, check out the school worm farm, play with the library's Lowly Worm toy,  and wonder why 'worms' go with 'book' to become 'bookworms'.

When you have read all these, check out this new book about twins Violet and Victor by  Alice Kuipers :

5th June Richard Scarry (1919 - 1994) Allan Ahlberg (1938)

American

Richard Scarry began his career

in children's literature

illustrating Little Golden Books in the 1950s. In 1963 he

wrote and illustrated Best Word Book Ever in

a style that became his trademark, so to speak, anthropomorphic animal characters that were busy with the details of everyday life. He is probably best known for his Busytown series of books. His books seem to have undergone a resurgence in popularity in the last five years and a new audience of children is enjoying them with parents who also enjoyed them when they were young.

The British author Allan Ahlberg is also prolific, but he does not illustrate his own books. His late wife Janet illustrated some of his early books, such as Each Peach Pear Plum and The Jolly Postman which are now classics and his daughter Jessica after illustrating Allan's Half a Pig has become an illustrator in her own right working with authors such as Mary Murphy and Vivian French. At school Jeremiah in the Dark Wood and Ten in a Bed are popular serials and the Funnybones series of books are always on loan from the library.