24th November Fairy Bread Day

The 24th November is Fairy Bread Day everywhere, but it means more to Australians because fairy bread is native to Australia — something we can all be very proud of. 

Fairy bread is sliced white bread spread with margarine or butter and covered with hundreds and thousands, which adhere to the bread. It is typically cut into two triangles. It dates back to the 1920s in Australia, and is first recorded in The Hobart Mercury, which describes children consuming the food at a party. It continues to be popular at children's birthday parties and every Australian adult will have fond memories of fairy bread parties. A dear friend of mine actually has her birthday on the 24th November so I'm sure she'll be having fairy bread parties for quite some time yet. 

If you are reading a book set in Australia and a birthday is celebrated there may well be mention of fairy bread, but Ursula Dubosarsky took the iconic Australian party food and made it the focus of a whole book for beginning readers. Becky wants lots of fairy bread at her party, but there is too much. It is amazing all the things she thinks to do with it. For the readers in my library it is a favourite in the Nibbles series. 

Another beginning novel that is out of print but likely to be in many Australian school libraries is Bob the Builder and the Elves by Gillian Rubinstein. In this delightful story messy Bob has elves who clean for him and when they leave they leave him fairy bread to eat. He wants these elves gone from his house and enlists the help of his friendly neighbour, librarian Lily Sweet. Even some of the boys at school enjoy this story. Blake Education has teaching activities to go with this book.

There must be other Australian stories that feature fairy bread. Can you think of any? Interestingly the most iconic Australian book featuring food, Possum Magic doesn't feature it.

The name 'fairy bread' supposedly came about from a line in a poem, Scottish-born novelist  Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1885. It is poem 37 in 

A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods.  1913.

37. Fairy Bread

COME up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.

13th November Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) Jez Alborough (1959)

Happy Thought
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

While this seems very simplistic now to me as an adult, and very much a product of the time and place of Robert Louis Stevenson's birth, I still remember many of the verses from A Child's Garden of Verses with great fondness and this one in particular when I am feeling sorry for myself. Nowadays we probably remember Stevenson more for Treasure Island; Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but for the very young he wrote poetry and I still share some favourites with children I teach. We have a lovely illustrated picture book of his poem My Shadow, which is illustrated by Penny Dale, Bed in Summer is always good for a discussion about daylight saving and Where Go the Boats? for when discussing rivers, currents and the loss of toy boats. You might think that Jez Alborough is far removed from Robert Louis Stevenson, but he too writes poetry. He has published many books written in verse and the poetry anthology Guess What Happened at School Today? On his website he says that "as a child I loved the poems of A.A.Milne. I remember reading Wheezles and Sneezles for the first time and thinking: this is brilliant. I love the way he used words. When I think about how I use rhythm and rhyme it makes sense to me now. He was like a beacon shining the light on a path."Jez Alborough has the added talent of also being able to illustrate his own books. His duck series which began with Duck in a Truck is enthralling to young children because it is written in verse. His series about Eddy and Bear is too. The favourite of all of Jez's books in my library though, continues to be Cuddly Dudley, the story of a penguin who just wants some time to himself away from the huddle of other penguins!