8th March Holi Festival International Women's Day.

This year 2023, Holi, the festival of colours, is today, the  8th March 2023. It looks like so much fun being covered in coloured powder. Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates spring, love, and new life and although religious is about having fun.

Vibrant colours bring joy and positivity to our lives so we thought we'd add some colour to the library. We put out any book that had the word 'colour' or a colour in the title. The library was saturated in colour on one side and on the other side we were celebrating amazing women for International Women's Day. 

4th March World Engineering Day

World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development was proclaimed by UNESCO at its 40th General Conference in 2019. It is has been celebrated worldwide on 4th March of each year since 2020 as a UNESCO international day of celebration of engineers and engineering.

I have a six year old boy who visits the library quite often to see if i have bought anymore books about engineering. He announced very early on that he was going to be an engineer! neither of his parents are engineers, but he is sure that's what he wants to do. Initially it was easy to provide him with books. I gave him these:

 

But where do I go now?

After searching through the catalogue and reading blurbs I will try:

I noticed how many of the books I was choosing had girls as main characters and thought how appropriate for this week as we will be celebrating International Women's Day. I have already done a display of biographies where I included books such as these:

Emily Roebling

Margaret E. Knight

Frances Gabe

 Zaha Hadid

(There are other biographies about Zaha as well)

Beatrice Shilling

Raye Montague

If you miss today, you can always celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June.

27th February International Polar Bear Day

I haven't written about Polar Bear Day since 2010, so felt the need to update it. So many wonderful children's books that share the plight of polar bears have been written since then. This topic seems to attract  very good illustrators. See any of these beautiful  books:

• If Polar Bears Disappeared by Lily Williams

• Ice Bear  by Nicola Davies and Gary Blythe

• The Polar Bear by Jenni Desmond

• The Ice Bear by Jackie Morris

• Sea Bear by Lindsay Moore

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

If you want more see this Pinterest page.

4th Friday in February SKIP THE STRAW DAY

Back on 3rd  January I wrote about Drinking Straw Day and then I said it might be better if we celebrated Skip the Straw Day instead because this day draws attention to the fact that straws form a very large part of the plastic pollution on both land and in the sea in this world. This day originated in the US.

The Coral Keepers, a group of teenage activists, established National Skip the Straw Day on the fourth Friday of every February in 2017. In the midst of frequent and intense discussions about the state of the planet and the potentially fatal effects of plastic waste on marine life in the world’s largest oceans, these high school students from Whitehall, Michigan established the day to educate others about the numerous biodegradable alternatives to these small but potent cylindrical sippers.

Despite straws being one of the first single-use plastic items to get targeted seriously by plastic reduction campaigns in the past decade, they continue to show up on beaches and in waterways around the world. It is getting more common for cafes and restaurants to offer alternatives to plastic straws or to suggest you go without, but there is still more to do.

You could use a poster in a lesson to start a discussion with students. See these:

From Plastic Pollution Coalition

From Wildlife Conservation Society.

From Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund

From Ocean Conservancy

Then revisit books such as these:

28th February World Tooth Fairy Day

Losing baby teeth is an inevitability of growing up, and for children the Tooth Fairy or the Tooth Mouse are meant to soften the blow of pain or bleeding that may have accompanied the tooth falling out. The children I teach are at the age where loosing a tooth is common place. When I first started teaching I remember being gobsmacked when one of my students told me how much the tooth fairy had left her. When my children were loosing teeth I remember my daughter saying that her tooth fairy was a cheapskate compared to her friends' tooth fairies. I googled to see what the going rate is at the moment...in 2022 it was just over five dollars so no doubt it will soon be higher.

Although most of us are familiar with the traditional “tooth fairy” who has been around for centuries, the Tooth Mouse is an alternative that is much more familiar around the world. In France the Tooth Mouse is known as La Petite Souris, which is translated to “little mouse” in English. This little mouse  leaves behind not money, but a little gift for the child. In parts of Africa children throw their teeth on the roof of their home in the hope that a mouse will take their teeth and by doing so return to them the gift of new teeth as strong as that of a rat or mouse. In Spain and Mexico a rat (Raton Perez) collects the children's teeth and leaves behind coins.

If you want to find out about all three read these:

 • The Tooth Mouse   by Susan Hood and Janice Nadeau

In this charming picture book written by Susan Hood, the Tooth Mouse (who replaces the Tooth Fairy in French-speaking countries) has called a meeting to announce her retirement. "I am not as spry as I used to be ... I have decided it is time to name my successor!" she tells the surprised crowd. Sophie, an energetic and very tiny mouse, desperately wants the job. "C'est moi!" Sophie thinks. "Choose me! Choose me!" But the position of Tooth Mouse --- or La Petite Souris --- isn't just given to anyone; it must be earned by participating in a difficult and dangerous three-part contest to determine which of all the mouse applicants is the most brave, honest and wise.

• The Amazing and True Story of Tooth Mouse Perez by 

Ana Cristina Herreros and Violeta Lopiz  This book will be available here in April!

Long ago, throughout the Spanish-speaking world, the Tooth Mouse brought children their permanent teeth, strong and straight as a mouse's. Tracing the Tooth Mouse's beginnings through to his descendants, this book artfully weaves the Tooth Mouse's changing habits as the world industrialises, with the growing independence of the child, as teeth fall out and the child learns to care for themselves.

• Throw Your Tooth on the Roof by Selby Beeler and G. Brian Karas

When you lose a tooth, do you put it under your pillow and wait for the tooth fairy? In Botswana, children throw their teeth onto the roof. In Afghanistan they drop their teeth down mouse holes. From Egypt to Venezuela, Spain to Korea losing a tooth is an exciting milestone that's honored with unique traditions. Discover the variety of customs from every corner of the globe.

There are many picture books about the tooth fairy, but I usually suggest this one because I like the sentiment, even though I don't love the illustrations.

•Tooth Fairy  by Audrey Wood.

When Matthew loses a tooth, Jessica decides to make the Tooth Fairy's visit doubly worthwhile. Fantastic for encouraging children to keep their teeth clean enough to warrant a place in the 'hall of perfect teeth'. 

And for every child who has the dilemma of a lost tooth...

• Dave and the Tooth Fairy  by Verna Wilkins and Carl Pearce

Dave has a wobbly tooth. He wibbles and wobbles it, but it won't come out. But then one day Dave lets out an enormous sneeze and the tooth flies across the room and vanishes. Dave searches high and low, but it's nowhere to be seen. How will he get the tooth fairy to visit him now? 

For more tooth fairy books see here.