6th September Pet Rock Day 16th September Collect Rocks Day

September seems to be the time to think about ROCKS! There is Pet Rock Day on the 6th or 14th depending on which website you look at and then there is Collect Rocks Day on the 16th. I grew up in an area where there was large amount of igneous rock and I had a science-teacher father who was besotted with geology and physical geography. I loved collecting rocks, especially those pieces of basalt that had been made into smooth pebbles by the pounding of the sea. These rocks were great for drawing on, decorating, making into people and rock art. And now I'm an adult I still have a 'thing' for rocks. Recently in Ireland I found myself picking up rocks and making totems on the pebbly beaches. I wrote on beaches with stones and made rock art constantly. old habits resurfaced because of the abundance of rocks to work with...and yes I did bring two rocks home! One of them is from the beach that the movie Ryan's Daughter was filmed on, the other from a town called Greystones just south of Dublin where as you guessed the beach is made from large grey pebbles. As you can also probably guess I loved The Giant's Causeway which makes rocks appear so clever.

The children at school do borrow books about rocks and crystals. They seem to run in bursts and if one child gets interested I often find the interest spreads. Below are some of my favourite rock books in the library and here is the connection to my pinterest page where I have both children's books and projects that use rocks. If you decide to 'adopt a rock' read Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs a Rock. Children probably won't choose to read this book themselves because of the illustrations and their lack of colour, but the text is perfect and once you read it, the children understand and are keen to choose a rock.

28th February Robin Klein (1936) Donna Jo Napoli (1948) Megan McDonald (1959) Tooth Fairy Day

I wrote about Tooth Fairy Day yesterday and Megan McDonald last year so today I want to focus on the other two birthday girls.

Robin Klein is an Australian author who has not written any new books in recent years, but many of her books are favourites and are constantly reimaged and reissued. She has some picture books and bridging novels such as Thing and Thingnapped spinoffs that are illustrated in colour by Alison Lester. I always enjoy sharing Thing with classes. Thing is a baby stegosaurus that hatches from a rock that Emily finds and takes home. Every child can relate to Emily and secretly wish that they had a dinosaur as a pet. Most of her more popular books are novels for upper primary and adolescents.

This week when I went to the bookshop I picked up a book with stunning illustrations. It was Mama Miti: Wangari Maathi and the Trees of Kenya written by American author Donna Jo Napoli and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. It is the first picture book by either of these artists that I have purchased for the library. Subconsciously I must have known that it was Donna Jo's birthday this week. The book is about Wangari Muta Maathi, a Kenyan woman who helped bring trees back to her deforested country. Napoli adopts a very lyrical text to tell the story of this remarkable woman whose vision has not only impacted on her own country, but on the whole world. This is not the first picture book to be written about this amazing woman, but it is certainly worth adding to the others and everyone must surely feel the need to touch the shiny illustrations that beg to be viewed.

22nd February Michelle Knudsen (1974) Norman Lindsay (1879 - 1931)

I know I wrote about Michelle Knudsen and her wonderful book Library Lion last year, but she has a new picture book out which I have just bought and I wanted to tell you about it. On Michelle's blog she says that it is being launched on her birthday at a bookshop in New York, but I bought it here in Australia about three weeks ago, and that never happens that we get books first, unless they are Australian books! The book, Argus is about Sally and the large, green, scaly creature that hatches from her egg when the rest of her classmates' eggs hatch to reveal cute, fluffy chicks, when the class is raising chicks for a science project. Lots of fun pursues as Sally tries to make her 'chick' conform. It reminds me of a cross between Robin Klein's Thing and Margaret Wild's Looking After Alice and Co. The illustrations by Andrea Wesson are wispy watercolours on predominately white backgrounds, but the gentleness of them suits the tone of the story.

Australian author, Norman Lindsay is the author of the classic, The Magic Pudding which has spurned many spin-offs, such as movies, toys and abridged versions of the book.