2nd July World Porcupine Day

Established in 2018 – as World Porcupine Day or as National Porcupine Appreciation Day, it’s the perfect day to celebrate and learn more about these distinctive rodents. 

The porcupines found in North and South America are good climbers and spend much of their time in trees. Some even have prehensile (gripping) tails to aid in climbing. The North American porcupine is the only species that lives in the U.S. and Canada, and is the largest of all porcupines.

Other porcupine species live in Africa, Europe, and Asia. These animals usually live on the ground and can inhabit deserts, grasslands, and forests.

Known for their quills the porcupine’s body is covered with about 30,000 of them.  Each quill has at its tip about 700 to 800 overlapping scales or barbs that enable the quill to readily penetrate the body of its victim.  Porcupines cannot shoot their quills, but they do detach readily when touched.  Quills are replaced continuously, taking just several months to grow one back. 

Books in the library to celebrate the porcupine:

• A Porcupine Called Fluffy  by Helen Lester  Lynn Musinger

• Duck, Duck, Porcupine!  by Salina Yoon

There are three books in this series about Big Duck, Little Duck and Porcupine.

• Mine, Mine, Mine! Said the Porcupine by Alex English & Emma Levey

• I Love Cake! Starring Rabbit, Porcupine and Moose by Tammi Sauer & Angie Rozelaar

• Porcupines by Victoria Blakemore

• How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop & Gwen Millward

• Valentine the Porcupine Dances Funny  by  Derrick Brown & Jenny Lewis

• No Hugs for Porcupine by Zoe Waring  (Hug a Porcupine Day is 24th October)

• Hugs From Pearl  by Paul Schmid

• Perfectly Percy by Paul Schmid

• Mr Prickles: An Quill-Fated Love Story by Karen LaReau and Scott Magoon

• Pins and Needles  by Stephen Krensky & Kristyna Litten

• Elmore by Hollie Hobby

• A Friendship Yarn by Lisa Moser & Olga Demidova

and a short novel that is lots of fun

• Stinkbomb and Ketchup Face and the Quest for the Magic Porcupine  by John Dougherty

14th February Valentines Day and Library Lovers Day

     

Love is in the air! Often on the 14th February I put together a display of picture books with the word 'love' in the title or I give each class a wrapped book to read that is about loving libraries. See here and here.

This year I went through the catalogue thinking of picture book 'romances' that I could use to make a display. As you would think, romance is not a topic for picture books for under eights, but I just wanted one for each day of the week and I definitely could find enough!

Here's what I chose. They are now all out on display with a red read heart attached!

 • Worm Loves Worm by  J.J. Austrian and Mike Curato 

Here's the blurb:

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of a worm ...and a worm. When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know-who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux? The answer is: It doesn't matter. Because Worm loves worm. 

• Dear Bunny by Michaela Morgan and Caroline Jayne Church

Here's the blurb:

Tino and Teeny are lovely lovelorn bunny rabbits, living just a few hops from each other. If only one of them could overcome their shyness and speak to the other When their efforts to woo each other with writing are ruined by a rainstorm it looks like they may never meet. Thank goodness there is a family of miniature matchmakers nesting nearby to help piece together their true feelings. 

• Frog in Love by Max Velthuijs

Here's the blurb:

Frog is feeling most unwell. He keeps getting hot, then cold, and something inside his chest is going 'thump, thump'. Hare says it means he's in love! But who with? And how can he show his devotion - perhaps by performing the biggest jump ever? 

•  Slug in Love by Rachel Bright and Nadia Shireen

Here's the blurb:

Doug the slug needs a hug. But who wants to hug a slug called Doug? After a long search for someone to snuggle, lonesome Doug is ready to give up hope. But you never know when love might come flying by! Young readers will love this funny and fabulous tale that shows there's a friend for everyone. 

• Slugs in Love  by Susan Pearson and Kevin O'Malley

Here's the blurb:

Marylou loves everything about Herbie-how his slime trail glistens in the dark, how he can stretch himself thin to squeeze inside the cellar window, and how he always finds the juiciest tomatoes. But Marylou is a shy slug. How can she get Herbie to notice her?

• Prince Charming and Baabarella  by Angelica Glitz and Annette Swoboda

Here's the blurb:

Prince Charming is short sighted and should wear glasses. But his vanity gets in the way. Baarbarella gets into a mess eating juicy berries. The four sisters will do anything to attract the prince. This zany version of the Cinderella story - played out by sheep - will entertain old and young readers alike. 

• Henry in Love by Peter McCarty

Here's the blurb:

Henry is a bit of a dreamer and not much of a talker.Then there's Chloe, who says what she thinks and knows how to turn a spectacular cartwheel.  
This is the story of how one blueberry muffin makes all the difference. 

• Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon

Here's the blurb:

When Penguin finds a lost mitten on the ice one day, he wonders who it belongs to--after all, every mitten has a mate! To unravel the mystery, he embarks on the biggest adventure of his life. Is love waiting for Penguin at the end of this incredible journey?

• Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl  by Tedd Arnold

Here's the blurb:

Fly Guy has met his match, and her name is Fly Girl. Fly Guy can do fancy flying. Fly Girl can do fancier flying. Fly Guy can eat gross stuff. Fly Girl can eat grosser stuff. Fly Guy can say his boy's name-Buzzzzzz! And Fly Girl can say her girl's name-Lizzzzzzz! Fly Guy is totally impressed, and totally smitten. Will Fly Guy and Fly Girl get married and leave Buzz without his dear pet? 

If you haven't any of these or you want something more overtly about Valentine's Day, many of the series have a Valentine's Day book, Splat the Cat  does, Pete the Cat does, Peppa Pig does, Curious George does...

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.