11th June World Wide Knit in Public Day.

World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes. It originated as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each other's company.

Knitting is not only for grannies. It is a beneficial hobby, and it improves your mental, emotional and physical health.

It is surprising how many children's picture books feature knitting. Even if it isn't central to the story, there is often a character knitting in the pictures. Betsy Bird has made a point of studying these picture book knitters to make sure they are holding the knitting needles correctly. The article also gives examples of books that include knitting that you may not have explored.

In the past children used to love learning to knit, doing French or finger knitting and making pompoms, but in the current crowded curriculum crafts like these are no longer school activities, so when I do a display of 'knitting' or 'craft' books they are not as popular as they once were. 

For more picture books with knitting see this Pinterest.

5th August World Oyster Day

Listening to the radio this morning ,I learned that it is Oyster Day. It is a day to celebrate eating oysters as well as appreciating oysters.

The NSW oyster trail stretches from the Tweed River on the North Coast to Wonboyn Lake on the South Coast. NSW is home to more than 280 oyster farming businesses, spread across 32 coastal estuaries, so we do need to know about it.

I wondered 'if it is oyster day is it also pearl day, but I can't seem to find any reference to Pearl Day, so here I am celebrating both oysters and pearls.  

Contrary to the generally held view that pearls are found by chance in oysters, that is not the case. Most pearls are now produced on pearl farms. almost all are now produced from farms. Australian South Sea pearls are found along the northwest coast of Australia, and this part of the world produces more white South Sea pearls than any other location. Broome is considered to be the pearling capital of the world. In the 1880s pearlers turned their sights toRoebuck Bay (Broome) in the West Kimberley. By 1910 Broome was the largest pearling centre in the world.

I didn't think there would be many picture books about pearls and probably even less about oysters. I could think of Going for Oysters  and Molly Idle's Pearl, but when I started to look I remembered that there is a parable in the bible about a pearl and that the idiom, 'the world is my oyster' is often explained in picture book format. This metaphor simply 'means that everything is open to one, and if one is lucky they could encounter something special. The metaphor that informs the saying is that if you have an oyster there is a chance that there may be a pearl in it.'

Have fun reading some of these:

And if you can't find any of these, there's always lots of books in the library whose main character is named 'Pearl' !

21st May World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

The 21st May is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The United Nations proclaimed it to promote diversity issues, when a policy practice is not inclusive of differences regarding where one comes from. In the workplace, they can arise as language barriers, social tensions, conflicting beliefs, integration difficulties, negative stereotypes, and misinterpretations. It’s an international day dedicated to understanding the depth, value and strength of cultural diversity. While celebrating the richness of the world’s diversity, it also highlights the need for intercultural dialogue.

We live in a global world, and it would be foolish not to recognise the value of cultural exchange. Diversity enhances creativity, communication, tolerance, adaptability, empathy, multiple perspectives, intercultural and language skills and given the multicultural nature of most schools it is easy to place value on diversity and what it offers. Last week at school we celebrated International Day and many members of the parent body ran workshop activities for rotating groups of children.

Any book from the Inclusive Books for Children  booklists is also something you could share on this day. The good thing about these lists is that they are annotated so that you can quickly ascertain whether the book does what you are hoping to draw attention to.

On the weekend I bought this book at the book shop I was visiting with a friend. I now know that it too is on the IBC lists. It is perfect for today. It tells the story of a young girl, Falasteen's school experience when  her classmates are tasked with finding their families' home countries on a map, but no matter how hard she looks, she cannot find Palestine. She turns to her family for answers and each of their stories helps her understand her people's history and her own place in the world. This book has a powerful message about inclusion and diversity, but it is only one of many picture books you could choose to share. I also just noticed that this is the first book listed on the 2025 Notable Books for a Global Society and it was the Honour Book for The 2025 Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

I haven't seen this book but reading the blurb, it feels that the premise is good so I need to search it out.

18th May Book shortlists to watch out for!

Around this time of year, I know to check what is on shortlists for picture book awards. They are always good indicators of what is to come, indicators of what authors and illustrators are doing, indicators of what is new and good suggestions for my own reading. Two that I particularly watch for are Oscar's Book Prize  and The Alligator's Mouth Award because they are of significance to the readers I teach.

Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual award for the best picture book for pre-schoolers and young children. The prize was founded in 2014 by James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand in memory of their three-year-old son Oscar Ashton who died unexpectedly in 2012. It aims  to reward the creativity of early-years literature and to highlight the importance of reading with children.

There are seven classes of preschoolers using the school library and this award enables me to find books for this age group that the teachers may not have met. Each year a teacher will read one of the shortlisted books, enjoy it and then come and ask for more books by that author or illustrator.  

This year's winner is Just the Two of Us by Polly Noakes. We have only two other books of hers, so this gives me some homework to do. I purchased the first  Gina Kaminski  book, Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf because it appeared on so many shortlists, but it has not proved to be a favourite with teachers or children, so given the price of this new one I haven't purchased it and I'll wait til August and get the paperback. Hank Goes Honk  is funny and sure to be a hit.  It is illustrated by Duncan Beedie and his books are popular in the library, as are Fred Blunt's. 

Much has been written already about There's a Tiger on the Train, but despite ordering it quite a while ago it still hasn't arrived. It is available in bookshops in Australia now, but it wasn't when I ordered it. This picture book is by Mariesa Dulak who won the 2020 FAB prize, which is awarded by the publisher Faber to new writers and illustrators from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds. It has illustrations by Rebecca Cobb who is well known by preschoolers and has another book of her own A Wild Walk to School  on the shortlist for Picture Books to Shout About together with Duncan needle's Heavy Metal Badger.

In contrast The Alligator Mouth Book Award celebrates  the best in highly illustrated children’s fiction for readers aged 6 - 8. There are 12 classes of children at school in this age group and these lists have enabled me to learn about series that might not yet be available in Australia. This is where I learned about Adventuremice  which won last year and the series Pizazz, Indigo Wilde, Kate on the Case, Flamingo Hotel, Sam Wu  and Dave Pigeon all of which have their fans.

Other UK shortlists I browse

• Inclusive Books for Children Awards These fiction book awards showcase the best of the diverse voices and stories published in the UK and Ireland. 

• UKLA Book Awards The only national awards entirely judged by teachers, demonstrate how important it is to them, that all children and young people can find themselves represented in the books that they read or study.

• The Children's Book Award The Children’s Book Award is the only UK award voted for solely by children from start to finish. Over 1,000 new books are submitted to be read and reviewed by local Testing Groups across the country.  

10th May World Collage Day

Collage describes both the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a supporting surface.

The term collage derives from the French term papiers collés (or découpage), used to describe techniques of pasting paper cut-outs onto various surfaces. It was first used as an artists’ technique in the early twentieth century.

Collage can also include other media such as painting and drawing, and can contain three-dimensional elements. Often it includes found objects like fabric,  pebbles and detritus.

Collage is a popular illustration choice for many children's book illustrators and many of the illustrators who use it as a technique would appear in my list of top ten illustrators. Australian picture books feature collage and Jeannie Baker is probably the best-known proponent, so much so that she has published a book about collage. Her website.

Other Australians who use collage

• David Miller

• Patricia Mullins Her website here.

• Alice Lindstrom Read about her and see her work  here.

• Kylie Dunstan

                                                      • Kelly Canby

Like Jeannie Baker, Lois Ehlert's books all use collage. She has a book about herself and collage, but please look at her books to see just how innovative she is.

The list of American collage illustrators is long and has a very rich history, starting with Eric Carle who painted his own paper to use in collages, Ezra Jack Keats and Leo Lionni whose rabbits and mice are so endearing. I love doing an author study of Leo Lionni with young children because the books have such good themes and messages, but they also include collage that children can replicate.

These three would be on my top ten illustrator's list:

• Melissa Sweet   her website

• Ed Young his website

• Steve Jenkins his website 

Taking into account that there will be no new books from any of these illustrators, except Melissa Sweet, we do need to look for other illustrators.

See books by Susan L. Roth, Rebecca and Ed Emberley, Ashley Barron,  Ellen Stohl Walsh, Carin Berger, Pamela Zagarenski, Christian Robinson, Rachel Isadora, Barbara Reid and Salley Mavor. Barbara Reid uses plasticine, Salley Mavor uses textiles and every now and again you get a book like Stepping Stones which uses stones and books by Hanoch Piven which use everyday items.

Of course there are British illustrators who use collage too. See Lauren Child and Emily Gravett to start with as their multi media illustrations include collage.

Two illustrators I find fascinating but do not have many books by are Sara Fanelli and Manon Gauthier. And of course there will be illustrators that I have missed that you do need to know. My memory probably isn't as reliable as it should be.

2025 The Year of the Snake (Part 2)

How many words for 'snakes' are there? I made a quick list...adders, asps, pythons, serpents, vipers... these are the generic ones, but when I ask the children I teach, they want to talk about specific kinds of snakes such as cobras, anacondas, boa constrictors, rattlesnakes and taipans. The library does not have books that are only about one type of snake. They are not that easy to find at the level I need and if you can find them, they are very expensive. Luckily we have lots of snake books with indexes so the students will get to be very adept at using this feature.

If we do a snake display at the library I can see that I will need to be ready to be told everything everyone now knows about snakes. I will also need to be mindful not to scare young children who do not want to know about snakes.

A good book to share with reticent children is

Anna and Otis  by Maisie  Paradise Shearring

Other 'fun' snake stories that allow for interaction with the listeners are:

Snake Brought Cake by Sam Smith and Daron Parton

Can You See Sassoon? by Sam Usher

Boa's Bad Birthday by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

The Greedy Python by Richard Buckley and Eric Carle

Verdi by Janell Cannon

Hide and Snake  by Keith Baker

One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree  by Daniel Bertram and Brian Wenzel

   

18th to 24th November Book Week Scotland

While reading today I learned that it is Book Week in Scotland and it got me thinking about Scottish children's book authors and illustrators. On the blog this year I have done a post on Italian authors and illustrators and French, so why not Scottish.

Of course there's the well known Scottish children's authors that everyone knows such as Robert Louis Stevenson; Kenneth Grahame; J.M. Barrie; Alexander McCall Smith and J.K. Rowling but there are others who make wonderful picture books such as (off the top of my head):

• Vivian French

• Debi Gliori

• Catherine Rayner

• Alison Murray

• Mairi Hedderwick

• Morag Hood

• Lynne Rickards

• Lindsey Gardiner

• Chae Strathie

• Ross Collins

• Sally Anne Garland

• Meg McLaren

• Alistair Chisholm

• Emily MacKenzie

I'm sure I've missed some. I looked up these to check I was correct and now that I have looked them all up, I know Lynne Rickards was born in Canada, but she does live in Scotland now with her Scottish husband and children. If Lynne counts then so should Meilo So, who was born in Hong Kong but now lives in the Shetlands. Julia Donaldson used to live in Scotland but has moved back to England.

And of course there's lots of children's authors who write wonderful novels. Pamela Butchart and Alistair Chisholm could start this new list.

PS Two author illustrators hailing from Scotland now live here in Australia.

Cate James in Sydney  and

Zoe Ingram in Adelaide.