4th April International Carrot Day

Yesterday at school we had our Easter Hat Parade and there were lots of carrots featured on hats and that got me thinking about how many picture books feature carrots too. In fact there is a book on this year's UKLA Book Award shortlist that has a carrot as a main character, Colin and Lee Carrot and Pea. This shortlist is chosen by students and teachers so the books have stood up to classroom reading scrutiny.

As it happens to be International Carrot Day on the 4th April, when the students get back from Easter break the first display of books they will see as they walk through the library doors will be celebrating carrots.

There they will see:
• Colin and Lee, Carrot and Pea by Morag Hood

• The Giant Carrot by Allan Manham & Penny Dann
• Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
• Too Many Carrots by Katie Hudson
• Carrot Soup by John Segal
• Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
• Chickens Can't See in the Dark by Kristyna Litten
• Lottie and Dottie Sow Carrots by Claire Burgess
• The Princess and the Pea and Carrots by Harriet Ziefert
• Dozy Bear and the Secret of Food by Katie Blackburn & Richard Smythe
• Carrots Grow Underground by Mari Schuh
• Planting Radishes and Carrots by Faye Bolton
• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
• When Carrots Ruled the World  by David LeBarron
• Parrot Carrot by Jol & Kate Temple
• Wolfish Stew by Suzi Moore & Erica Salcedo
• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley
• T-Veg: The Story of a Carrot Crunching Dinosaur by Smitri Prasadam-Halls


What have I missed?

25th July Ruth Krauss (1901 - 1993)

Ruth Krauss was a prolific children's author and many of her books are still in print. There are biographies that say she was born in 1901 and others that say 1911. Whichever she lived a long life. She was fortunate with her illustrators, getting to work with many well-known illustrators, namely her husband Crockett Johnson (of Harold and the Purple Crayon fame), Maurice Sendak (who she published eight books with between 1952 and 1960), Marc Simont and Helen Oxenbury. Maurice Sendak was so enamoured of Ruth Krauss' writing that he has been quoted as saying, "Prior to the commercialisation of children's books, there was Ruth Krauss."

Ruth Krauss' best-known book is probably The Carrot Seed. It was published in 1945 and has never been out of print. It tells the story of a very young boy who plants a carrot seed and patiently waits for it too grow. He tends it with love and has faith that it will grow despite all the adults who assure him that it will not. In contrast her story with Helen Oxenbury, The Growing Story has everything else growing as the seasons change, but the young boy feels that he hasn't grown at all. Both stories are very relevant to the age-group that I teach.