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

4th May International Firefighters' Day Greenpeace launched 1971

On this day in 1971 Greenpeace was launched so what better day to share Simon James' Dear Greenpeace. In thispicture book Emily corresponds with Greenpeace about a whale in her pond. Read it and then bounce off into a bigger discussion of what Greenpeace does.

May 4th is also International Firefighters' Day, a day to remember all the good things that firefighters do to help people and communities. This is extremely important in Australia given the number of serious bushfires we experience. There are a large number of nonfiction books about firemen and they are always popular with young boys who think that is what they want to do when they grow up. As soon as the firetruck visits the preschool or school I have lots of children asking for books about firemen. Some picture books in the library that feature firemen and firetrucks are:

• The Firefighters by Sue Whiting and Donna Rawlins. Here a group of preschoolers have fun playing firefighters with their teacher.

• Tito, the Firefighter by Tim Hoppey is the story of a New York firefighter who gets help from a Spanish speaking boy when he attends a fire.

• A Day in the Life of a Firefighter by Linda Hayward is part of the DK series of books about Jobs People Do so perfect for that unit of work many classes do on Community Helpers.

• Firefighters by Katie Daynes is one of that wonderful series Usborne Beginners.

• Where There's Smoke by Robin Lovell and David Miller is the story of an Australian bushfire.

• Flick the Fire Engine by Jamie lawrence and Mark Russel. There is a series of three adventures about Flick, a fire engine from New Zealand.