15th February World Whale Day

Driving through Mona Vale today I saw a sign advertising celebrations for World Whale Day and thought what a pity it was so close to so many other celebrations because children love whales and reading about them and it would have made a wonderful library display. Luckily in Australia we have National Whale Day as well in June so there will be another opportunity to put together a wonderful display of  books about whales.

In fact in the last month or so I have bought several new books for the library that feature whales and these four have especially memorable illustrations and are worth borrowing to read.

• If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano &  Erin Stead
• The Storm Whale by Benji Davies
• Whale Shines by Fiona Robinson
• Welcome Home by Christina Booth

And of course there's always older favourites that always work well when read aloud such as:
• The Lighthouse Keeper's Rescue by Ronda & David Armitage
• My Friend Whale by Simon James, and
•  The Morning I Met a Whale by Michael Morpurgo & Christian Birmingham

7th August Lighthouse Day

It is Lighthouse Day in the USA. It is celebrated later, the third weekend in August in Australia and I have written about this occasion before here, but I have had so many requests from teachers for books with lighthouses in them since 2010, that the library now has quite a collection. Here they are. Some are part of a series of books about the same characters. (See The Lighthouse Keeper books by Ronda and David Armitage and the two in The Littlest Lighthouse Keeper series by Heidi and Daniel Howarth.)

8th May

As Mother's Day approaches and I watch what is borrowed from the Mothers' Day display in the library I note the difference between what mothers borrow and what their children borrow. I love Sarah Garland's books because I could always relate to the frazzled mother she depicts in her wonderful series of books for preschoolers, but my clientele of mothers don't relate to her in the same way that my generation of mothers did. Kate Kellaway wrote about Sarah Garland in The Guardian in December 2007:

Sarah Garland's books could not find a French publisher because her mothers were judged insufficiently chic. What French madame would be seen in a shapeless green duffel coat, pushing a buggy uphill, with the baby's bottle (lid off) peeping out of her pocket? Garland is one of the best and most sympathetic chroniclers of English family life precisely because her pencil doesn't lie about the slog of bringing up children. She has a loving, unsentimental eye. She can be festive but is never false. I have always been profoundly grateful to her for drawing a mother I can relate to - as have millions of others who adore her work.

All the more reason to love her I say. Interestingly, mothers do borrow books where Dad is in charge or the children are 'pitching in'. These have been borrowed:

• Tucking Mummy In by Morag Loh and Donna Rawlins

• When Dad Did the Washing by Ronda and David Armitage

• Mr Large in Charge by Jill Murphy (but not Mother Know Best also by Jill Murphy)

• Mums Don't Get Sick by Marilyn Hafner

21st August International Lighthouse Day

International Lighthouse Day has become Lighthouse Weekend in Australia. It aims to bring focus on lighthouses, the people who built and manned them and their contribution to maritime history. As Australia is an island, lighthouses abound, have a place in many people's communities and as such are part of the history, folklore and literature of the place. The Australian National Maritime Museum runs activities for children to support this weekend's festivities.

Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head in Sydney is Australia's first and longest operating navigational light. There has been a navigational aid there since 1791, within a year of the First Fleet's arrival and a lighthouse since 1818.

At school there are opportunities to look at lighthouses in literature and there are many depending upon the age of the children you want to share with. For me however, I never need an excuse to enjoy the problems of Mr and Mrs Grinling in the Armitages' series of books about The Lighthouse Keeper. With these wonderful stories, not only will children extend their knowledge of lighthouses, but their vocabulary and problem solving skills as well! If you just want to have some fun, why not revisit some episodes of Paul Jennings' Round the Twist, a long-running television series about the Twist family who live in a lighthouse. Many of these can be found on Youtube.

11th March Wanda Gag (1893 - 1946) Ezra Jack Keats (1916 -1983) Jonathan London (1947) Ronda Armitage (1943)

It would seem that if you want to make it in the world of children's books, then the 11th March is a good day to be born! There are four birthdays today, starting with Wanda Gag whose books were among the first picture books that were specifically designed for children. Millions of Cats with its repetitive, rhythmic refrain "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats" and fancy curly font is a classic, and still in print! If the Caldecott Medal had existed in 1929 it surely would have won, instead of receiving a Newbery Honour Award.

Secondly, someone who also has an enduring reputation, Ezra Jack Keats. He won the Caldecott in 1963 for The Snowy Day. Peter, the main character in this story appears in many of Keats' books, growing older in each one. Peter is an African American child with such endearing physical features and the books depict the simple routines of family life and a multicultural urban setting with great warmth. See A Letter For Amy; Goggles! and Peter's Chair.

Next, another American, Jonathan London. As well as all his Froggy titles he has a series of picture books about animals in the wild which are beautifully illustrated by Jon Van Zyle. My favourites are The Eyes of Gray Wolf and Honey Paw and Lightfoot, perhaps because being about wolves and bears, animals that I have no experience of, I find them fascinating.

The other author, Ronda Armitage was born in New Zealand but now lives in Britain. She is probably best known for The Lighthouse Keeper series of books which are illustrated by her husband, David Armitage. My favourite is still the first book, The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch. I use this series of books with Kindergarten to teach problem/solution. Mr Grinling always seems to have a problem and Mrs Grinling always manages to solve his problems. The vocabulary is rich and the children remember words like 'catastrophe', 'varmints' and 'lackaday'. More recently she has written two books about Small Knight and George which have illustrations by Arthur Robins.