World Hand Hygiene Day and Global Handwashing Day

World Hand Hygiene Day takes place on May 05, 2020. The day is declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and encoures patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. According to WHO, every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care. 





October 15th is Global Handwashing Day! This year, the Global Handwashing Day theme focuses on the links between handwashing and food including food hygiene and nutrition. Handwashing is an important part of keeping food safe, preventing diseases, and helping children grow strong. Global Handwashing Day is an international handwashing promotion campaign to motivate and mobilise people around the world to improve their handwashing habits. Washing hands at critical points during the day and washing with soap are both important.  

Neither of these days are for quite a while yet, but I feel as if I spent a large part of today locating books in the library that would help teachers have a conversation with their students about why it is important to wash their hands well and often. As schools prepare for the impact of Covid 19 the conversations are also turning to germs and what they do. A prep student actually asked me yesterday for a book on viruses. I don't think he was panicked, but rather, curious. 

So now I have a list of books for the teachers and parents and have put these books on display. See:

• Wash Your Hands by Margaret McNamara and Mike Gordon (one of the Robin Hill School readers)

• I Don't Want to Wash My Hands! by Tony Ross (one of the Little Princess titles)

• Germs are not For Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick and Marieka Heinlen   

• Atchoo! by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan

• Germs Make Me Sick! by Melvin Berger and Marylin Hafner

• Germs by Ross Collins

• Sam's Science: I Know How to Fight Germs by Kate Rowan and Katharine McEwen

• The Giant Book of Germs by Lorna Hendry

15th February Hippopotamus Day

Coming up is Hippo Day! A great day to celebrate in a library because  -
1. Hippos are in danger, and humans are their biggest enemy. So we need to know more about these 'water horses'.
2. Some of the best 'reads' for children  feature hippos.

One of my all time favourite serial reads with a class is The Twentyseventh Annual African Hippopotamus Race by Morris Lurie. It is such fun and yet at the same time has so much to discuss with students. Can hippos really swim? What should Edward do about Sebastian? What makes Edward a good friend? a good grandchild? a good swimmer and competitor? What does 'gosh' really mean? Great to read before a sports day, swimming carnival, when you want to discuss bullying or even just hippos and Africa.

A wonderful pourquoi story, Hot Hippo  by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway explains for students why hippos don't actually swim, but spend a large part of their day in the water.

Another book that students love is Hippos are Huge! by Jonathan London and Matthew Trueman. This illustrated information book tells students about just how big and dangerous hippos are.

Hippos have even made it to the realm of 'true animal stories' since the December tsunami that swept baby hippo, Owen into the sea. Kenyan villagers worked to rescue Owen and he has now become best friend with Mzee, an elderly giant tortoise. Many books feature these two. See Owen and Mzee and its sequel by Isabella Hatkoff et al; A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer and Mama by Jeanette Winter.

Hippos can also be something that authors use for humour. Look at the popularity of the very long lasting series that started with There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and Deborah Niland. And more recently, Hippospotamus by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross,  The Hippo-not-amus  by Tony and Jan Payne and Hippobottymus by Steve Smallman and Ada Grey.

And maybe because hippos can be cantankerous they often feature in children's books about feelings and behaviour. See  Greedy Grumpy Hippo; Big Bully Hippo; Hurty Feelings; and  The Hippo who was Happy. 

For even more hippo books for your display, look at these.

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16th July World Snake day

It's World Snake Day! I'm certainly not enamoured of snakes, but the students I teach are. In fact the snake books in the library are nearly as popular as the shark books. Usually they want to borrow expository texts and marvel at the photos. We have many books that satisfy this need, the most popular probably being Damian Goodall's The Snake Book: Slip Sliding Away, but if you are looking for some picture books, these are some of the newer and more popular ones in the library:

• I (Don't) Like Snakes by Nicola Davies and Luciano Lozana
• Python by Christopher Cheng and Mark Jackson
• There's a Snake in My School!  by David Walliams and Tony Ross
• Boa's Bad Birthday by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
• Anna and Otis  by Maisie Paradise Shearring
• I Saw Anaconda by Emma Dodd and Jane Clarke

If you want to share a short novel, try:
• Akimbo and the Snakes  by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Snake Who Came to Stay by Julia Donaldson
• Snake and Lizard  by Joy Cowley

I have written about snakes before here.

23rd April Shakespeare Day

23rd April marks the 400th anniversary of the death of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Isn't it amazing that he is still so revered? There are anniversary events everywhere, even here in Australia. Australian musician Paul Kelly has even chosen this day to release a new album Seven Sonnets and a Song where he has set Shakespeare's words to music.

Although my library only caters to children under eight, their parents and teachers we will still celebrate Shakespeare with a display of books. Many parents like to share the little Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross and Usborne versions of the stories. In this way young children know the stories well before they meet the Old English language versions. Other parents are avid borrowers of biographies, so they will be borrowed from any display and some of my Year 2 boys who love Marcia Williams' 'comic' format books will borrow her Shakespeare stories, so as you can see it is well worth making the effort. My own favourite Shakespeare books are the poetry illustrated by James Mayhew in To Sleep, Perchance to Dream and the exquisitely illustrated version of Romeo and Juliet by Margaret Early, both of which will be hard to buy now but may well be in your library, as they are in mine. What is in my school library is on my pinterest page.

If you are short of books, find the witches poem from Macbeth and have fun reciting it, acting it out and just playing with the magic of the words. There is a version here already done as a readers theatre script. I would use a more abridged version with my Year 2 students such as this, where language is the key element, not the gore or frightening aspects that many of the film clips of it emphasise.

10th February Safer Internet Day

So what is Safer Internet Day?  Well, the day, which has been organised by Insafe since 2005 is held on 10 February.  The purpose of this awareness day is to promote safe and responsible use of the internet. It aims to teach young people about how to keep themselves safe online.  And, of course, the use of the internet in a safe and responsible way is paramount! These days, most young people have access to the internet with their mobile phone, tablets or laptops.  So the day aims to raise awareness of online safety for young people.

Online safety is even of concern for parents of very young children, and I am often asked whether  there is  anything they can read with their child to start a discussion. I can think of many book titles where the theme is limiting the use of technology, but not so many about safety. I usually  recommend these two story books, but there must be others.

• Chicken Clicking by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross is a humorous story about a chicken who just keeps clicking on the farm's computer, managing to shop for all and sundry.

• The Internet is Like a Puddle by Shona Innes and Irisz Agocs is less of a story, but it does discuss some of the pitfalls associated with electronic communication.  Shona Innes is an Australian psychologist who has written four books marketed under the series name The Big Hug Books.


And if parents just want to read to inform themselves I suggest Internet Safety by Nick Hunter, keeping in mind that anything written about the internet is out of date by the time it is published because nothing to do with technology stands still.

3rd December International Day of People with Disability

This year is the 20^th anniversary of International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), a United Nations sanctioned day that aims to promote an understanding of people with disability and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being. The day seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of the integration of people with disability in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. This morning on the radio I listened to a fascinating interview with Kurt Fearnley, an Australian athlete who has achieved amazing success despite being born without the lower part of his spine. His speed in a wheelchair led me to think of picture books which depict children in wheelchairs who are experiencing success at what they choose to do. Three that came to mind are:

• Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. This is the story about a boy, Ben and his grandfather who witness the birth of a baby seal. The boy loves surfing and feels very comfortable in the water swimming with the seals. One day when he gets into trouble in a rough surf, the baby seal comes to his assistance. The text in the story does not tell you about the boy's disability. You know only from observing a wheelchair in the illustrations.


• Arabella by Wendy Orr and Kim Gamble. This too is a story about a boy and his grandfather. Matthew is staying with his grandfather who is a keen sailor. Matthew wants to prove to himself that he can sail by himself but unfortunately chooses a time when a storm is brewing. Once again the illustrations hold the key to learning about Matthew's disability.


• Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. In this story the reader observes Susan taking part in a variety of activities. She appears to be having fun swimming, riding a horse, playing at the park and then right at the end the reader sees her wheelchair.

These three stories are easy to share with a class or group of children. They focus attention on the similarities between these children and all children and they provide readers with a lot to discuss.

3rd December International Day of Persons With Disability

International Day of Persons with Disability is celebrated worldwide and aims to promote a positive image of people with disability and showcase their skills, abilities, contributions and achievements. With young children such as the ones I teach it is important that they see that children with disabilities are more like them, than different from them, and four picture books that stress this, and in the process show their main characters positively are:

* Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

* Dan and Diesel by Charlotte Hudson and Lindsey Gardiner

The added bonus with both of these books is that the reader doesn't know Susan and Dan are disabled until the very end. Susan is in a wheelchair and Dan is blind.

* Arabella by Wendy Orr and Kim Gamble

* Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman

Both of these books are about young boys and their grandfathers. In each the boy is eager to assert his independence and manages to do so, one through sailing alone and the other surfing. Both have beautiful illustrations and plenty of drama so they make for good discussions about risktaking.

5th November Divali Hindu Festival Jeanne Willis (1959)

I wrote about Divali on the 23rd October.

Jeanne Willis is a British author who has written so many good books it is hard to know which ones to single out. She has many titles that have been illustrated by Tony Ross and these are always good (See Susan Laughs; Tadpole's Promise; Dozy Mare; and Rude Rhino). More recently there have been her 'bottom' books (see Bottoms Up and Sing a Song of Bottoms!) which are illustrated by Adam Stower. These and Who's in the Loo? illustrated by Adrian Reynolds are always popular with six and seven year old boys. And the girls are enjoying the picture books and short chapter books about Delilah Darling. So far there are four books about her, all illustrated by Rosie Reeve.

18th August Paula Danziger (1944 - 2004) Nicola Bayley (1949)

Paula Danziger is known in my library for her Amber Brown series of books. These are probably not what she is remembered for firstly, as she wrote mostly for teens. I remember loving The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, so when I saw the Amber Brown novels for younger readers with Paula as the author I was keen to read them. This series began with Amber Brown is Not a Crayon and the story complete with Tony Ross illustrations attracted girls from about 7 to 10 years old. Paula must have known who was reading these because she then brought out a new series of easier reads, A is for Amber in which Amber was younger, seven in fact and they were prequels to the longer novels. They still included her friend Justin and similar school and family dramas. The Penguin website is a good place to learn more about Amber Brown and get a complete list of titles.

Nicola Bayley is an English illustrator of exquisitely detailed beautiful artworks. Her stippled watercolours make books look like 'instant classics'. She is especially fond of cats and many of her books feature them. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2001 for her illustrations in Katje, the Windmill Cat. She has also illustrated a beautiful edition of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

10th August Tony Ross (1938) LeUyen Pham (1973)

Tony Ross is extremely popular in my library. He is a prolific British illustrator of children's books. He illustrates his own books as well as working with other authors and has become easily recognisable by children because of some well-known series that he has provided the artwork for. He is the illustrator for Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry books, Terence Blacker's Ms Wiz books, Lynne Reid Banks' Harry the Poisonous Centipede books, Paula Danziger's Amber Brown books, Ian Whybrow's Books for Boys, Andrew Matthew's series of Shakespeare stories and has done many of Jeanne Willis' picture books as well. His own series of Little Princess books about a precocious little princess makes children laugh out loud and the books in this box in the library are frequently borrowed. Tony Ross' illustrations tend to be very humorous. In an interview he said,

"I don′t write down to children. I try to understand their world and write up to it."

This is probably one of the reasons why children love his work!

LeYuen Pham is also an illustrator. She was born in Vietnam, but fled Saigon in 1975 and went to the USA where she now lives. She has illustrated books for authors such as Anna Grossnickle Hines (Whose Hat?; Whose Shoes?), Kathryn Lasky (Before I was Your Mother) and Karma Wilson (the series about Sweet Briar, a skunk who starts school and goes to camp).