So They Build - Beavers

So they build...the library display initiated by planning for  NSS and the book Bowerbird Sings the Blues listed Beavers first in the list of animals that the library will highlight. Each of the animals will have their own short-term display.

The library doesn't have an abundance of books about beavers. We don't have beavers in Australia so they are a novelty for my students that they see mainly in story books. It is International Beaver Day on the 5th April and I have written about this day before so, here I propose to only list what is on display.

26th April Audubon Day

April 26th each year, National Audubon Day honours the birth of John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851).

As a child, John James loved to watch birds. He was a boy who loved the outdoors more than being inside. He believed in studying birds in nature and not just in books. His father took him to walk in the woods near his home in France, but as John grew up his father sent him to America to avoid having to fight in Napolean's army. His fascination for birds did not wane. He became enamoured of the American birds he saw in Pennsylvania. 

All of this is learned in Jacqueline Davies and Melissa Sweet's biography for children, The Boy Who Drew Birds. There is even a board book for babies about Audubon Little Naturalists: John James Audubon Painted Birds by Kate Coombs.

Audubon for Kids is great place to start exploring birds. It has things to see, make, watch and read. While it is American, there is much there for Australian children too.

There are so many wonderful books about birds. These are just a small sample of what is in the library which may help with the study of birds

• The Big Book of Birds  by Yuval Zommer

• Counting Birds by Heidi Stemple and Clover Robin

• Bird Count  by Susan Edwards Richmond and Stephanie Fizer Coleman

and a couple that encourage children to become involved with birds

• A Garden to Save the Birds by Wendy McClure and Beatriz Mayumi

• Love Birds  by Jane Yolen and Anna Wilson

• Bird Boy  by Matthew Burgess and Shahrzad Madani

26th April Bookmobile Day

Bookmobiles, or vehicles that transport free library books, is a service that has been in use since the early 19th century. The American School Library was one of the first travelling libraries. They would travel to rural towns and small communities and give children the chance to read new books. 

I don't know how many bookmobiles there are in Australia, but I know some rural council areas do still have a mobile library service.

When I read about this day I looked in my library catalogue and was absolutely stunned to see that there were ten books:

• Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown

Ana loves stories. She often makes them up to help her little brother fall asleep. But in her small village there are only a few books and she has read them all. One morning, Ana wakes up to the clip-clop of hooves, and there before her, is the most wonderful sight: a traveling library resting on the backs of two burros-all the books a little girl could dream of, with enough stories to encourage her to create one of her own.
 

• Biblioburro A True Story from Columbia  by Jeanette Winter

Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there's barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution—a traveling library! He buys two donkeys—Alfa and Beto—and travels with them throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages. 

• My Librarian is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs

Why would librarians go to the trouble of packing books on the backs of camels or driving miles to deliver books by bus? Because, as one librarian in Azerbaijan says, "Books are as important to us as air or water!" 

• Miss Dorothy and her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston

The true story of Miss Dorothy, an enterprising and dedicated librarian who drove a bookmobile to bring books to her neighbours in Appalachia.

• The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman and Gabrielle Grimard

Inspired by Afghanistan's first library bus. It is still dark in Kabul, Afghanistan when the library bus rumbles out of the city. There are no bus seats--instead there are chairs and tables and shelves of books. And
there are no passengers--instead there is Pari, Mama's library helper. The girls they visit are learning to write English from Mama.

• Ready to Fly  by Lea Leon and Jessica Gibson

The true story of Sylvia Townsend, an African American girl who falls in love with ballet after seeing Swan Lake on TV. Although there aren’t many ballet schools that will accept a girl like Sylvia in the 1950s, her local bookmobile provides another possibility. A librarian helps Sylvia find a book about ballet and the determined seven-year-old, with the help of her new books, starts teaching herself the basics of classical ballet. 

• That Book Woman by Heather Henson and David Small

A moving tale that honours a special part of American history—the Pack Horse Librarians, who helped untold numbers of children see the stories amid the chicken scratch, and thus made them into lifetime readers.

• Moose's Library Bus by Inga Moore

Moose recycles an abandoned bus from the junkyard and makes a mobile library – a book bus! Now the whole neighbourhood can experience the magic of stories together. 

• Library Lil by Suzanne Williams and Steven Kellog

The town's residents are too busy watching TV, which to her ""was an evil that ranked right up there with poison ivy and mosquitoes."" When a storm knocks out the electricity for two weeks, the resourceful bibliophile hooks the population on reading as she pushes a bookmobile (whose battery is ""deader than a pickled herring"") through town, using muscle power.

• The Book Boat's In  by Cynthia Cotten and Frank Lessac 

This nostalgic picture book is based on the 1800s book boat that traveled along the Erie Canal.   

And one to look for that I haven't seen Colourful Mondays A Bookmobile Spreads Hope in Honduras  by Nelson Rodriguez

An empowering story about the impact of literacy in underprivileged communities, based on a real bookmobile program in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Luis's favourite day of the week is Monday, the day the bookmobile comes to his neighbourhood. 

25th April Penguin day

World Penguin Day is a celebratory and educative initiative that encourages people to learn more about penguins and their environment, how important they are to our ecosystems and the threats they face. 

Found all over the Southern Hemisphere, from Antarctica to the Galápagos Islands, penguins are famous for their endearing waddles, their dedicated chick hatching efforts and, for those based in icy climates, their trick of huddling to stay warm. 

While the day originated from the Adélie penguin’s migration habits, it celebrates all species of penguin and highlights the plight of these water-loving creatures. Of the 17 or so species around today sadly 10 of them have been deemed endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and 3 are considered near threatened.

I have written about penguins before here, but as they are a favourite animal of mine and it was along time ago I do want to celebrate it again. In the last week of last term at school I happened to share two penguin books with Year 2 who had been looking at Australian animals and animal classification. I read to them about Little Penguins because they are a penguin that they may see on mainland Australia. We used to have quite a group of them in Sydney, but dogs and foxes have meant this small colony is no longer easy to see. Some of the children had been to Phillip Island in Victoria.

One of the  two books I read,  Flipper and Finnegan  by Sophie Cunningham is about two Little Penguins from Phillip Island who are caught in an oil spill. They were saved from the effects of the oil by knitted jumpers. You can see and hear the book read by ABC Education.

The other  Chooks in Dinner Suits  by Diane Jackson-Hill is also about a Little Penguin colony on a Middle Island off the coast of Warrnambool in Victoria. They too were in danger, this time from foxes and dogs who could get to the island at low tide and attack the penguins. A farmer suggested using dogs such as he had to guard his free-range chickens on the island to guard the penguins. These Mareema dogs do an amazing job during the penguin breeding season. You can see the island and dogs in this film clip or this one.

Another book I could have read is The Accidental Penguin Hotel  by Andrew Kelly which is about the story of a Little Penguin colony who have made their home on a man-made breakwater in St Kilda in Melbourne. It shows children that penguin colonies can adapt and thrive in city areas.

For more penguin books especially ones about the other 16 types of penguins see here.

24th April International Guide Dog Day

   

 

Dogs are a man’s best friend because of their loyalty and dedication, but assistant dogs take this to a whole new level. International Guide Dog Day is celebrated on the last Wednesday in April each year. It marks the establishment of the International Federation of Guide Dog Associations on 26th April 1989. International Guide Dog Day is an opportunity to celebrate the work of guide dogs around the world and raise awareness of the importance of guide dog services to help people who are blind or have low vision live life on their terms.

International Assistance Dog Day is on the 4th August. Assistance dogs help people with disabilities or illnesses to navigate through life. They help where they can and perform simple tasks like guiding their owner’s path, helping fetch an item, and lots of other activities. 

Here in Australia we also celebrate Hearing Assistance Dogs on 19th April, because on this day in 1982 Amber, the first Hearing Assistance Dog went to help a deaf recipient in South Australia. Since then more than 700 dogs have been trained to help individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Any of these dogs are amazing and should be recognised for all that they do. Reading about dogs that work as assistant dogs is something some of my students have really taken a likening to. They bring a book back and then say are there any more like this?

In the library look for:

• Looking Out for Sarah  by Glenna Lang

•  Gus the Guide Dog  by Gina Dawson

• I Love Vincent  by Laura Ljungkvist

The Little Paws series  by Jess Black 

• Welcome Home Harley

• Meg's Big Mystery

• Ringo's Road Trip

•  Goldie Makes the Grade 

• Training a Guide Dog by Wendy Macdonald

These books are about assistance dogs:

• Rescue and Jessica  by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes

• Tuesday Tucks Me In by Luis Carlos Montalvan  

• Mogie by Kathi Appelt

• Madeline Finn and the Therapy Dog by Lisa Papp

• Hello Goodbye Dog  by Maria Gianferrari

23rd April Picnic Day

Picnic Day seems to be celebrated in a lot of different places on lots of different days. It is National Picnic Day on 23rd April in the USA and as it is school holidays here in Sydney and the weather is glorious it is a good idea to go outside and eat . The definition of a picnic is an occasion when a packed meal is eaten outdoors. Another says that it is  a pleasant or amusingly carefree experience. Doesn't really need a definition, it just involves food and being outside.

The word 'picnic' comes from two French words 'piquer' (to peck) and 'nique' (trivial). See the origin here.

One of my favourite books to read aloud is Gotcha  by Gail Jorgensen. In this story Bertha, a bear is celebrating her birthday with a group of bears picnicking in a field. The gathering is interrupted by a fly buzzing. Like all good picnics here in Australia there may be flies, ants, seagulls or even brush turkeys and kookaburras as I found out last week at a barbecue picnic at Clontarf Reserve. The kookaburras made eating food quite unpleasant as they kept swooping in to steal food.

These are other books you could also share to inspire the need to picnic.

• Picnic  by John Burningham

• We're Going on a Picnic  by Pat Hutchins

• Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories by Jarvis

• The Lighthouse Keeper's Picnic  by Ronda and David Armitage

• The Bear's Water Picnic  by John Yeoman and Quentin Blake

• Picnic With Oliver  by Mika Song

• The Perfect Picnic  by Ciara Flood

• Florentine and Pig Have a Very Lovely Picnic by Eva Katzler and Jess Mikhail

• Polly's Picnic by Richard Hamilton and Sophy Williams

• Piglet's Picnic  by Jessica Souhami