29th July World Rain Day

Throughout human history, people and cultures around the world have celebrated rain and its life-giving power. All life depends on rain and rain keeps our world green and fresh. Rain Day celebrates all that is wet and beautiful.

Rainfall is the main way water gets to the ground, providing drinking water for animals and plants, replenishing groundwater, and filling our rivers and lakes. When you think about it from this perspective, you understand why rain is critical for our lives and why it should be appreciated and celebrated.

In the library it is very easy to celebrate. I put 'rain' in the title search of the catalogue and we have over 100 books without looking at books about weather, mud, hail, monsoons or any other things related to rain or water. That's enough books for a display! Some of them are beautiful and not borrowed that often.

Of course in Australia, how you feel about rain depends a lot upon where you live as droughts and floods seem to be occurring somewhere constantly.

The books below are some of the books that have 'rain' in their title. Often I put a question with a display to make the children think. It could be simple like 'What do all these books have in common?' or 'How do you feel about rain? Which book on display do you think will match your feelings about rain?'

Water (Part 3)

I said there was a fine line between drought and floods. Here on the east coast of Australia, we have moved on from bushfires to floods! They came before the Alvaro Villa  Flood book I ordered has even arrived. I spent last week at school finalising bulk loans and doing PD and in a quiet moment covered a new book The Water Dragon: A Chinese Legend retold in English and Chinese by Li Jian. The cover of the book is extremely enticing, the limited colour scheme appealed and the dragon looked very friendly so I found myself reading it to see if I should loan it to the classes doing the unit of study on water. The main character a small boy, Ah Bao, finds a red stone while out gathering wood. The stone is magical and brings about abundance of things ( a bit like Lily Toy Hong's magic pot in Two of Everything). It has not rained since Ah Bao found the stone and the villagers are suffering the famine caused by drought. Ah Bao dreams of a water dragon and sets off in search of him. Along the way he meets various animals who give him pieces of themselves and warn him about a greedy red monster. I can't tell anymore without ruining the story, but the water dragon does indeed save the villagers from drought.

This story also reminded me of Little Sima and the Giant Bowl, by Zhi Qu and Lin Wang, another Chinese folktale where a small boy, Sima, lives in a village that  is also in the grips of a long drought. A wizard gives his family a large porcelain bowl and says that their luck will change. It does and rain falls and fills this bowl which has pride of place at Sima's home. The full bowl then creates a new challenge for Sima.

It would seem from these and other stories set in China, that this country also sees the presence of water as a valuable natural resource that requires looking after.

Water (Part 1)

Given the bushfires, extreme heat, preparing for going back to school and doing the bulk loans for classes who are doing a unit of study on Water, I have got to thinking about the fine line between drought, bushfire and flood and how prevalent these are as topics in children's literature not only in the Southern hemisphere where they are prevalent now. Every culture seems to have stories based on the weather extremes experienced by people and animals. Today I want to highlight some Australian books that show these extremes and how people cope, and often develop a very strong community as a result.
Two books that look at the effects of drought are:
• Two Summers by John Heffernan and Freya Blackwood. The young male narrator here explains the differences in the farm a visiting friend will see this visit when there is drought compared to a previous visit without drought.
• Water Witcher by Jan Ormerod. Although set in the past, this story about Dougie and his family carting water and handfeeding animals shows the hardship and the stark environment drought causes.

Then there are books that show the pleasure and relief that rain brings when the drought breaks.
• Here Comes the Rain by Clare Good and David Cox. Here Grace watches and waits. her grandfather has told her all the signs of rain to look for. She watches the ants, horses and other animals looking for the signs.
• Rain Dance by Cathy Applegate and Dee Huxley. Here too, a young girl waits for rain, then ''the first drops beat out a hesitant rhythm on the corrugated-iron roof," and then the girl dances in pleasure..."the rain is so heavy, it almost hurts as it pelts my head and shoulders."
• Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein and Bronwyn Bancroft. Once again we see people waiting for rain, looking for signs of rain and then celebrating when it finally arrives.

And, then what happens when the rain comes or it is too much.
• The Story of Rosy Dock by Jeannie Baker and Flood Fish by Robyn Eversole and Sheldon Greenberg both tell of what happens when the Finke River, which is usually just a dry river bed, floods in outback Northern territory on the edge of the Simpson Desert. The first tells of the ramifications in detail. The second recounts the fun a child has swimming with fish in water that isn't usually there.
• Flood by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley recounts the Brisbane floods of 20011 and the human drama that unfolded there. Whatley's illustrations 'make you feel the water and mud'.


While not all of these books are still in print, school libraries will have them and the visual imagery in all of these books is outstanding. You get to feel the hardship, the anguish, the horror, the joy and the suddenness of weather in parts of the harsh Australian environment.

16th June World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Tomorrow, the 17th of June is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. This may seem like a lot to explain to children in a prep school, but they certainly understand what a desert is and what drought is, so reading books about these two things could lead to a discussion of the troubles that these cause and what we can do about it. The aim of this day and a definition for 'desertification' is available at websites such as this. This year's slogan is 'Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere', so perhaps a good place to start your reading is with a factual, but simple book about soil such as Dirt: The Scoop on Soil.

Then choose from a multitude of wonderful picture books such as:

• these three illustrated yet factual books, Drought by Tricia Oktober, Sand Swimmers by Narelle Oliver and The Desert by Jane Bowring and Kim Gamble.

• Water Witcher by Jan Ormerod.

• Two Summers by John Heffernan and Freya Blackwood

• The Story of Rosy Dock by Jeannie Baker

• This is the Oasis by Miriam Moss

• Lila and the Secret Rain by David Conway and Jude Daly