16th January Appreciate a Dragon (Dragons Day 1)

Happy New Year! It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon and the International Year of Camelids. It's 2024!

To coincide with Appreciate a Dragon Day and in preparation for Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon we have planned to display dragon books in the library to start the New School Year which begins at the end of January. We have so many books featuring dragons, so over a series of blogs, I will introduce you to what is on offer for our library users. There are seven days so you will be able to make a long list of books to get from your library.

Firstly, my young students associate dragons with fairytales, knights, breathing fire and having battles, and yes the stories they choose to read do feature these kind of dragons, but there's many more to explore. There's chapter books, myths and legends, Asian folktales and dragons who are friendly. 

Are you ready to battle a dragon? This is the signage above the library display but many of the dragons in the pictures displayed above the books make the dragons look friendly, fun and not too scary because the readers who frequent my library are under eight or parents and teachers of these students who are at preschool or in Kindergarten, Grade 1 or Grade 2.

For my very young readers I would start with books such as these:

• How to Catch a Dragon by Carol Hart and Ed Eaves

• Sylvia and Bird by Catherine Rayner

• This is Not a Fairytale  by Will Mabbit and Fred Blunt

• Me and My Dragon  by David Biedrzycki

• King Jack and the Dragon  by Peter Bently and Helen Oxenbury

• Jill &  Dragon  by Lesley Barnes

• Again!  by Emily Gravatt

• Look Out, It's a Dragon! by Jonny Lambert

• Ellie's Dragon  by Bob Graham

• Dragon Dancing by Carole Lexa Schaefer and Pierr Morgan

• George and the Dragon  and  George, the Dragon and the Princess by Chris Wormell

4th April Happy Easter with Betty Bunny

I have a family at school who discovered Betty Bunny on a visit to the library. They are regular and prolific borrowers, a mother and her two young sons who are now 4 and 6, but who have been visiting the library for over two years. When they read and love a book they come in looking for more 'by that author 'or 'more about this character'. And this is how their love for Betty Bunny began. The library only had Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake when they first borrowed it and wanted more. While I waited for another to arrive they borrowed the chocolate cake book again and again. So as each new title has been published I've made sure we have purchased them. Just before Easter, Betty Bunny Loves Easter arrived. We hurriedly covered and catalogued it and sent it home on the second last day of school with the boys for Easter. On the last day there were two excited boys at the library who just had to give me a very excited rundown about Betty's Easter book. This is what makes the job of a teacher librarian in a Prep School so special!

Betty Bunny is your typical, if somewhat precocious preschooler, so preschool children can laugh at her and her misdemeanours. There is always plenty to discuss as the result of her behaviour too. In Betty Bunny Didn't Do It, Betty tries to blame the Tooth Fairy for breaking a lamp, but Mum is always a step of Betty despite Betty's negotiating skills. Here is an interview with Betty Bunny's creator Michael B. Kaplan explaining how the series came about. The books are illustrated by Belgian born, Canadian illustrator Stephane Jorisch.

Presently there are five books and a Betty Bunny toy:
• Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake
• Betty Bunny Wants Everything
• Betty Bunny Didn't Do It
• Betty Bunny Wants a Goal
• Betty Bunny Loves Easter

14th February Library Lovers Day

It is not Valentine's Day tomorrow. It is Library Lover's Day!
There is just so much to love about your library. My school library was just so busy this afternoon, full of parents and children reading while they waited for older siblings, borrowing books to read for the Premier's Reading Challenge and just generally enthusing with others about what the library has to offer them. At one stage there were ten parents in the queue at the circulation desk and I could not see the door! A teacher dropped in to borrow and ended up staying to help with 'crowd control' and shelving. She will know next time not to pop in between 2.45 pm and 3.45pm if she doesn't want a job.

Preschool lessons started yesterday. The four year olds were just so excited about coming to the library to borrow a book. We had fun with Pete the Cat, sang his song, talked about why he had odd shoes  and a heart  on his blue coat and then borrowed books. We had mothers come in today to tell us that their child had the book out of the bag and was wanting it read before they even had afternoon tea. Another was pleased that her child could sleep tonight and would no longer be asking 'when is it library day?' They feel so grown up coming to the library without a parent! It is so easy to make four year olds love the library.