26th April Richter Scale Day

Richter Scale Day. This occasion is an acknowledgement and celebration of the birthday of the man who taught the world how to measure earthquakes – Charles F. Richter. He was born in 1900 and came up with the Richter Scale in 1935 while he was working at the California Institute of Technology. Since then, the world has been able to compare various earthquakes and investigate their relative power for destruction. The worst earthquake occurred in Chile in 1960 and it measured 9.5 on the Richter Scale.

Books about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, rocks and the earth are among the most borrowed non fiction books after dinosaurs, transport and biographies so the library has a large selection. Earthshake is a stunning collection of poems about the earth and Moo and Moo and the Little Calf Too is a picture book story based upon a real situation created by the 2016 magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand.

21st April Tea Day

”You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
~ C.S. Lewis

There is nothing nicer than a good read and a cup of tea. So celebrating Tea Day is a must. Tea is not something children give a lot of thought to, because very few of them actually drink tea, but so many children's picture books feature tea. At the very minimum they finish with and 'they all had tea'...it is a warm, secure, happy, family feeling to finish with. Think of The Elephant and the Bad Baby at the end where everyone goes back to the baby's home and his mother gives them tea and pancakes. Think of Alfie Gets in First and how after the problem of the locked door is finally solved everybody sits down for a cup of tea. Yes, these books are old but the pattern continues and now there are even stories with tea in the title.

Many years ago when I started teaching I did a lengthy integrated social science unit called 'What's in a cup of tea?' and my Year 5 class and I explored the tea industry, the sugar industry and the milk industry for a whole term. What fun it was and given my knowledge now of children's literature I would have had plenty of good books to add to it. What a shame the current curriculum doesn't allow for such tangents or flights of fancy anymore.

Below are covers of books in our library that feature tea parties, cups of tea or the importance of tea. The Biography of Tea pictured above gives a comprehensive history of tea and its role in many cultures.

9th April Unicorn Day

What mythological creature has been more beloved over the centuries than the unicorn? Symbols of purity and enchantment, unicorns are loved by both children and adults alike and are integral parts of many fairy tales and legends.

Unicorns certainly do appear to be popular in children's books and just as well because I am constantly asked for a 'unicorn book'. Luckily I have quite a few in the library to choose from. The most popular are probably Amy Krouse Rosenthal's two books about Uni the Unicorn and Amy Young's books about Sparkle, but if you look on this Pinterest page you will see there are many others to choose from and to use for a quick display to celebrate this day.

A group of able Year 2 students  have taken to reading the series of graphic novels about Phoebe and her unicorn too, so come tomorrow unicorn books will be walking out the door of the library.

2nd April Ferret Day

Yesterday was Ferret Day and I thought momentarily about including it on my blog, but as not many people  in Australia really keep ferrets as pets, I didn't. Then today my friend at Momo Celebrating Time to Read wrote about a new Australian poetry book on her blog  which included a poem from Brisbane author/illustrator Elizabeth Nussey which had a line saying 'ferrets fandango' so I reneged and thought why not include it on my blog.

The library had five ferret books, five more than I thought we would have! And Lorna Hendry's wonderful new book Pets  also has ferrets so we can do a Ferret Fandango display!

My Pet Ferret  by Lynn Hamilton

Fergus - Fabulous Ferret  by Alison Prince

A Small Ferret Wrote This Book by Rebecca Elliott

 The Ferret's a Foot by Colleen A.F. Venable
This is Book 3 in a graphic novel series especially for young readers called Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye

Ferret on the Loose by Heather Gallagher