6th January Bean Day (Part 3)

Now for having fun with Jack and the Beanstalk. When I survey my four kindergarten classes to see which fairytales they know, unlike many others, they do know this story. When questioned further they know there is  a giant, magic beans and a beanstalk. A few children will know Fee Fi Fo Fum, but not many. So they are very happy to read and compare versions and then look at 'corrupted' modern retellings. If you know the original well then it is easy to laugh at the spoofs. Many of the spoofs are in small chapter book format too, so they are ideal for my budding readers.

I love Raymond Brigg's Jim and the Beanstalk. Mary Pope Osborne has swapped Jack for Kate in Kate and the Beanstalk. Who can resist a book with the title Jack and the Baked Beanstalk? It has a modern twist where the beans come in a can, but still Jack's mother throws the can out the window in disgust. Jack  by Liesl Shurtliff is a novel length 'true story of Jack and the Beanstalk' which takes the concept of fractured fairytale to its full extent and makes a good serial. It's Not About the Beanstalk by David Parkin is a short chapter book which is part of a series about three friends who explore fairytales from around the world. Collect together all the versions of the beanstalk story you can find and have some fun!

30th March Take-a-Walk-in-the-Park Day

It is the last week of term before Easter holidays and it is frantic at school, so the thought of just walking out the door to the park for a little time out really does appeal at the moment. Perhaps I'll get to do it next week. I have several favourite park books, but am only going to mention a few.

1. Off to the Park!  by Stephen Cheetham because it is new, tactile and perfect for preschoolers.

2.  Not Like That, Like This!  by Tony Bradman because it always makes me smile when I read it with classes and see their reaction to what the father has done while visiting the park with his son.

3. A Walk in the Park  and Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne because they are perfect for discussions about point of view and how each participant can have been in the same place and yet have a very different story to tell.

So sometime in the holidays savour a walk in the park, breathe in the fresh air and take sometime time to reflect on the good things in life.

22nd January Blair Lent (1930 - 2009) Brian Wildsmith (1930) Tony Bradman (1954)

Three birthdays! Firstly, Blair Lent, the American illustrator of Arlene Mosel's classics Tikki Tikki Tembo and The Funny Little Woman and Elphinstone Dayrell's African folk tale Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky. Some sources say his birthday is the 20th, others 22nd and I have no way of confirming which at the moment.

The next birthday is the English author illustrator, Brian Wildsmith who was born on the same day, but is still alive. His illustrations are so very different from Lent's, mainly because his trademark is bold colour. Like Eric Carle was doing in America, Wildsmith was creating a brightly coloured very inviting collection of books. He grew up in a mining village where everything was gray and he wanted to see colour. He has said, "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a child's visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life." If you want to be bombarded with wonderful illustrations and colour go to Google's Wildsmith images and revel in just how many there are. I would love to visit the museum in Japan that is dedicated to his work and where over 800 of his original artworks are on loan. It is hard to single out books of his...there are so many...but today three:

1. Cat on the Mat because it is the book that every child should learn to read on. It does exactly what you want...has very strong picture text ties...it is repetitive...it uses high frequency sight words and most importantly it looks like a real book, not a reader.

2. Professor Noah's Spaceship because it is clever and puts the story of Noah in a modern context where pollution is a problem. And

3. Animal Gallery because it has superb illustrations with some very novel collective nouns. The last in the book is a 'dray of squirrels' very fitting as yesterday was Squirrel Appreciation Day. He also has a book called Squirrels, but unfortunately it is out of print.

And, lastly English author Tony Bradman. He is responsible for so many wonderful stories that have been published as bridging novels by Orchard books. The children in my library have learned about King Arthur, Robin Hood and Beowulf from him. They have laughed while reading his Happily Ever After series of twisted fairytales and recently they have discovered Tom who is the main character in the Creaky Castle books.

5th September Father's Day

There are so many books in my library that we put out for Father's Day displays, and the young children are so enamoured of their fathers that they rush to borrow them. Many borrow them to read to their father. Mothers borrow them to read with their children too. The same does not happen when it is Mother's Day! Some of my favourites are pictured here. Dennis Whelehan's The Dad Library is out of print, but may be in your library too. It tells the story of a child who thinks he would like a father with other attributes, only to realise that there is something 'wrong' with every dad. David Cali's A Dad Who Measures Up, similarly looks at what makes a good dad, but this time from the perspective of a young girl who is looking for a dad who needs to be as good as her mum. I like the humour of Tony Bradman's Not Like That, Like This! where a father explains to his son at length what not to do and then does it himself. And I have included Geraldine McCaughrean's Father and Son, in case you are looking for a book for a liturgy or chapel, and this one looks at the father and son relationship of Joseph and Jesus.