20th September Tradies Day

Every year, on the third Friday of September (This year it’s on the 20th), we celebrate National Tradies Day here in Australia. Tradies is a shortened form of the word tradesmen. And it is good to see that now it isn't only men, but women too, so tradies is a much more inclusive word. 

So, can we celebrate tradies with picture books? Of course we can.

My great nephew constantly wants to be like his father, a builder, even down to dressing like him. On Dress Up Day for Book Week at his preschool he dressed in high vis and boots, a hard hat and went off to school grasping his favourite book, Tiny Tradies  by Tami Sussman and Tom Jellett which I gave him as a birthday present. I got photos which really made me smile.

It is quite easy to find books about builders, but plumbers, electricians, mechanics, tilers, plasterers and others are harder to find.

My nephew and the preschoolers I teach also enjoy any of the books from Sally Sutton 

and Sherri Duskey Rinker

Look for books like these as well.

and of course also explore the nonfiction section of your library.

Animal builders and architects...so they build

There's two large display areas in the library and now one is sorted with Camelids, I've been thinking about the other one. I have thought about a bowerbird display to go with ALIA's National Simultaneous Storytime's book Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker, which is coming up in May, but really we don't have enough books unless I expand it to include everything blue or go off tangentially. I began to think about how many animals are fantastic builders and / or architects and who they are.

I've decided upon

• beavers

• bowerbirds

• weaverbirds

• termites

• bees

• wasps

• spiders

• meerkats

This will expand the display and offer a wider variety of reading for the students. This idea came from this book which I took off the shelf because it has a bowerbird on its cover.

• We Build Our Homes by Laura Knowles and Chris Madden

Each spread looks at a different animal, told as though from their viewpoint and using poetic, evocative language. The 25 amazing animal architects featured include bower birds and weaver birds, gophers and beavers, termites, honey bees, and many more.

I will accompany this book with others such as

• Animal Architects  by Julio Antonio Blasco and Daniel Nassar

Each spread contains a beautiful, colorful illustration of each animal and its home, plus a unique fold-out information panel, with stats and a simple architectural diagram showcasing the creation of the 'architect'. Look inside chimpanzee nests, beaver dams, termite mounds, stork nests and many more.

• If Animals Built Your House by Bill Wise and Rebecca Evans

The reader gets to live alongside animals in their wild and wacky homes. From foam-nest tree frogs and mound termites, to alligators and pack rats, readers can see how similar and very different animal and human homes can be. 

• How Animals Build by Moira Butterfield and Tim Hutchinson

An  illustrated lift-the-flap hardback that explores the incredible world of animal architects. Children can open flaps and unfold spreads to discover amazing animal homes up high, underground, on land, and under the sea. From spider webs and rabbit warrens, to bird nests and ant colonies, and even coral reefs and beaver lodges, we reveal the secrets to these extraordinary structures and how they're built. 

• Built by Animals  by Christiane Dorion and Yeti Yun

Meet 26 animals who have inspired the materials and techniques that are used by humans in the building world today.

• Sticks and Stones Animal Homes   by Tai Snaith

Find out where 15 animals make their homes in countries around the world. Some weave, some burrow, some build and some just get lucky. Which house would you most like to share? 

• Animal Architects by Amy Cherrix and Chris Sasaki

Did you know the natural world is a construction zone? All over Earth, on land and at sea, animals are building the most amazing things. From tricky trapdoors to undersea cities to palaces of pebbles and more

•  Animal Architects  by Libby Romero

Ever wondered why beavers build dams? Or how spiders weave their intricate webs? In this reader, you'll meet brilliant birds inventive insects, and amazing mammals that all share a special skill. Packed with beautiful and engaging photos, this leveled reader introduces kids to the most extreme engineers of the animal kingdom.

• Builders  by Raina Ollivier, Karel Claes and Steffi Padmos

There are animals that prefer to live alone and others that live in groups.Animals build nests, dig tunnels, build roads and dams, and webs.Discover the amazing beaver, cross spider, sociable weaver, termite, stork, meerkat, honeybee, Japanese pufferfish, and mole. See who these special builders are!

Then any book about individual animals and what they build I will also include. Some you might have are:

• The Lodge that Beaver Built by Randi Sonenshine and Anne Hunter

• Mama Built a Little Nest  by Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins

• Mama Built a Little Den by Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins

• Building by Henry Cole

• Nesting  by Henry Cole

• Bird Builds a Nest by Martin Jenkins and Richard Jones 

• This is the Nest that Robin Built by Denise Fleming

• Home Is ... by Hannah Barnaby and Frann Preston Gannon

• All Kinds of Nests by Eun-gyu Choi and Ji-yeon  Kim

• And So they Build by Bert Kitchen 

• A Wasp Builds a Nest  by Kate Scarborough and Martin Camm

• The Burrow Book by Richard Orr and Shaila Awan

The display at school:

13th August Builders Day

Builders' Day is the professional holiday of all people involved in the construction process, although engineers and architects have their separate professional days as well. It was first celebrated in the Soviet Union on August 8, 1956.

Building and construction is a great topic for Prep school aged children. They love building things themselves, they love playing in the sand with trucks and diggers and they are fascinated by flouro clothing and hard hats.

There's an abundance of picture books about building and they make a wonderful display in the library. Put out some plastic trucks, diggers and blocks and there will be the opportunity for building.

Start with a fabulous book like Christy Hale's Dreaming Up  as a focus and then add whatever else you think will be borrowed. I would add:

• Ready, Set, Build! by Meg Fleming and Jarvis

• Building a House by Byron Barton

• Blue, the Builder's Dog  by Jennifer Storer and Andrew Joyner

• A Girl Can Build Anything by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo Pat Zietlow Miller 

• Watcha Building? by Andrew Daddo and Stephen Michael King

• Let's Build a House by Mike Lucas and Daron Parton

• Let's Build a House by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

• Let's Build a Backyard by Mike Lucas and Daron Parton

• Let's Build a Boat by Jane Godwin and Meg Rennie

• Let's Build  by Sue Fliess and Miki Sakamoto

• Building a Home  by Polly Faber and Klas Falhen

• Building Our House by Jonathan Bean

• The Little Red Fort  by Brenda Maier and Sonia Sanchez

• Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus

• Construction  by Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock

• B is for Bulldozer  by June Sobel and Melissa Iwai

• If I Build a House  by Chris Van Dusen

• Skyscraper  by Jorey Hurley