6th February Lame Duck Day

I was reading today and happened to notice that it was Lame Duck Day and that made me think that I hadn't written about ducks or Duck Day on this blog. Of course being a Lame Duck has very little to do with ducks, but given how many picture books feature ducks I got to thinking about them. Well there's Rubber Ducky Day ( January, 13th), Donald Duck Day (June, 9th) and even Dead Duck Day (June, 5th) but there does not appear to be World Duck Day or International Duck Day. What a shame. There are so many endearing ducks in picture books, starting with my all time favourite Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

The children I teach are aged between four and eight so their introduction to 'ducks' in picture books is usually a version of Five Little Ducks,  but very quickly they move to the series about ducks that we have in boxes in the library. There is
• Daisy Duck by Jane Simmons
• Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
• Baby Duck  by Amy Hest and Jill Barton
• Duck in a Truck  by Jez Alborough
• Sarah and Duck by Sarah Gomes Harris
• the madcap duck in What is Chasing Duck? in the Giggle Gang by Jan Thomas
• the zany Katy Duck by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Henry Cole
• Duck Duck Dinosaur  by Kallie George and Oriol Vidal
• Duck Duck Porcupine by Salina Yoon.

Of course there's other ducks to fall in love with such as
• Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
• Just Ducks  by Nicola Davies and Salvatore Rubbino
• Alexander in Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen
• Ben and Duck by Sara Acton
• The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, and the newer
• Duck!  by Meg McKinlay and Nathaniel Ekstrom
• I'm a Duck  by Eve Bunting and Will Hillenbrand
and if you are looking for a serial for this age group there's always Meg McKinlay and Leila Rudge's
• Duck For a Day  and Definitely No Ducks
And if this isn't enough duck books, look here.

26th January Ashley Wolff (1956)

Last year I bought a book called Baby Bear Sees Blue and was just 'blown away' by the illustrations. I love linoprints and they are probably my favourite form of artwork.  Many of the artworks in my home are linoprints. I wondered why I hadn't seen any other books by this illustrator, so went in search of other books by Ashley Wolff. Surprisingly there were quite a lot already in the library, but none had memorable illustrations like this one. I hadn't remembered that Wolff was the illustrator of all the books in the series about Miss Bindergarten. I love the illustrations in Compost Stew  but hadn't realised they were hers. So now I am on the lookout for more of her books. I was pleased to see that I need to buy Baby Bear Counts One  which was published at the end of last year. I went to Ashley Wolff's website to learn more about her and her techniques for the bear books. There I learned that her bear books were  inspired by the bear cub in McCloskey's Blueberries For Sal and I found this review

Wolff’s illustrations, black linoleum-block prints washed with watercolors, feature bold lines, strong
compositions, and sensitive uses of color that will draw readers into the pictures. Excellent for group
sharing…. The quiet text is made up of Baby Bear’s questions about the sensory wonders of his world and his mother’s replies, and given a chance, young children will be happy to supply the answers first. An engaging concept book with just enough narrative for its audience.

~Booklist

As well as linoblocks she uses collage and two books about grandparents interest me now - I Call My Grandpa Papa and I Call My Grandma Nana. These books explore the names various children and cultures have for their grandparents - just perfect for Grandparents' Day at school!

Happy Birthday Ashley Wolff. You are now on my radar!

15th September Robert McCloskey (1914 - 2003) Tomie dePaola (1934)

Robert McCloskey is the author of the children's book that has brought me the most pleasure during my thirty year teaching career. That book is Make Way For Ducklings which won the 1942 Caldecott Medal. I love sharing it with each new Kindergarten class, most of whom nowadays have not ever seen it. They comment upon the lack of colour in the illustrations and say that it is not a book that they would be interested in, but once I read it to them, there is total awe and the lack of colour seems irrelevant. The setting does not mean much to Australian children either, but they follow Mr and Mrs Mallard and their ducklings closely as you read. Many of the children make connections with Pamela Allen's Alexander's Outing and the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. The names of the ducklings roll off their tongues when they are retelling the story. Not many of McCloskey's other books have stood the test of time in Australia, probably because of their Maine setting. Last year I finally got to go to Boston as you can see from my photo and see Nancy Schon's wonderful bronze statues in the Public Garden. I was amazed at how many children were there squabbling over who was going to sit on which duckling. Obviously there are other readers out there who love them too.

The other pleasure I had while in Boston was a visit to the Eric Carle Museum and while I was there there was an exhibition of Tomie dePaola's work. What a bonus! I would have gone there no matter what was on display, but to see so much original Tomie dePaola was special. I particularly like his artwork and had seen him draw when he visited Australia a very long time ago. One of my treasured teaching resources is an autographed edition of his book Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose. Tomie dePaola has published so many books(about four a year) it is so hard to say which are my favourites, but I do enjoy reading The Legend of the Poinsettia and Tony's Bread at Christmas. These two books explain to children why poinsettias and panettones are popular during the festive season. There is a very interesting interview with him at Reading Rockets.