Australian Backyard Birdies by Andy Geppert

Is this book non fiction? Possibly? Is this book fiction? Yes in part. Where does it fit? Does that matter? This is a book to enjoy and explore and share with a child. 

The word ‘birdies’ in the title identifies this as a book for younger readers as do the rounded corners on the covers. So much care has gone into the design of this book – stitching effect on the spine, the end papers, the cat on the title page, the sticky tape on each feather and the folded corner of notebook paper on the glossary page. If you take a close look at the purple "sticker" on the cover it says "The somewhat factual field guide."

Each bird in Australian Backyard Birdies looks directly at the reader and this adds a surprising emotional layer to each page. 

There is a lot of fun to be had here. This book is with tons of humour and heart – perfect for a very young child. There are real birds such as the seagull, pigeon, budgerigar, kookaburra, noisy miner bird, and the Willie wagtail but on page 20 we meet the ornamental flamingo (you can see him on the cover) and the giant inflatable swan.

The water colour art is so well done. I especially love the painting of the budgerigar. The maps, feathers, scientific name, size/scale when compared with a bucket and colour splotches give this book a scientific feel. 

In contrast the glossary is a ‘spoof’ which is certain to be enjoyed by adult readers. There is also space to tick off each bird after it is spotted as you do in a real bird spotting book. 

Read this interview with Paperbark Words where Joy Lawn talks to Andy Geppert. 

Adults and children alike will enjoy the humour of this book, made even funnier by the juxtaposition with the usually serious format, which includes an index, glossary and scientific names. Reading Time

As you read Australian Backyard Birdies, it's like author and illustrator, Andy Geppert is chatting with you, and adding a dash of humour, too.  Kids' Book Review

Andy Geppert won the CBCA Creighton Award (now called the New Illustrator award) in 2011 for his book Little Big Tree. Andy also illustrated a CBCA Notable book with the title Meep.  I was excited to discover Andy has a new book coming this year:

The Go-Away Bird by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Catherine Rayner

The Go-Away bird rejects every offer of friendship from her rain forest companions. 

"I am the Chit-Chit bird. Will you chat with me? We can talk of the weather and other things like the colour of eggs, the the ache in our wings."

"I'm the Peck-Peck bird. Will you eat with me? There are juicy berries on every twig. We can peck, peck til we both grow big."

The four potential friends are each rejected and then along comes a huge brown bird - the Get-You Bird. This huge bird will not go away simply because the Go-Away bird demands this. Luckily the rejected friends see the danger. They form a team and save the day. But what of the Go-Away bird? Her life has been saved - how will she react? How should she react? I love stories that contain a life lesson but not in a didactic way. With an older group you should take a look at Shelter which is a perfect book if you want to talk about rejection and forgiveness. 

Everything about this book is of the highest quality as you would expect from the team of Julia Donaldson and Catherine Rayner. Too many authors attempt rhyme and it just fails but rhyme in the hands of a master like Julia Donaldson can sing. In fact in this book the words do feel like a song. The rhyme is not used for every line and the repetition of "go away" is simply a perfect way to engage young children.  This is a book that should be added to preschool read aloud program.

Make sure you take time to notice the fern leaf pattern on the end papers which is repeated on the title page and then used in various ways throughout the book. 

This is a delightful story about the value of friends especially in times of need. Kids' Book Review

A lovely tale about needing time to oneself, but also the value of friendship and teamwork. Lovely. Rogan's Books

This is a stellar author/artist partnership. Julia’s witty, bouncy rhyming text is pure pleasure to read aloud and highly join-in-able; and Catherine’s art is simply awesome – richly coloured and textured, superbly expressive: every spread is a joy to linger over – after you’ve read the story aloud once first. Red Reading Hub

Companion reads:

The Bad Mood

Oddbird

Little Wise Wolf

Welcome

Elmore

Maxine by Bob Graham

Maxine has arrived.  She is a new baby sister for Max.  Have you met Max? He is a small hero. I adore him. Max, the book, was a CBCA honour title in 2001. His little sister has taken twenty years to arrive but I think it was worth the wait.

Mum, Superhero Madam Thunderbolt and Dad, Captain Lightning, are delighted to welcome their new baby girl into their family. She is born with her 'mask fully formed' on the stroke of midnight. This must mean she is both Monday's child fair of face and Tuesday's child full of grace. Grandma and Grandad give baby Maxine her first gifts - a hand knitted Super Cape and a pair of boots made from the softest leather. Max gives his sister one of his own favourite books - "Veterinary treatment for Animals." In later pages we see Max in his bedroom and it is clear he is very interest in animals which makes a lot of sense when you think about the baby bird he rescued all those years ago. 

What do we discover about Maxine?

She has red, curly hair. Her very first words may surprise you.

Maxine is very clever "She started school four years ahead." Wait til you see her room which is filled with books and a baby grand piano.

BUT in her heart Maxine would like to be just like the other kids who wear ordinary clothes like t-shirts and jeans. Maxine also wonders about her future and we the readers wonder about her flying ability.

Things to notice:

Once again we have the wonderful yellow lighting bolt family home which you will remember from Max. And the family car is a thunderbolt too.

Little dog bandit is back wearing his mask.

If you look really closely you can see the Underhill family are also shopping at Jeans Junction.

Once again Bob Graham gives his readers beautiful end papers, aerial views, tiny details and touches of humour. Do you remember the nappy change scene in Max? You'll need to look closely but baby Maxine needs a new nappy too. I well remember reading Max to groups of students who roared with laughter as we watched the yellow stained nappy deposited into the nappy bucket. 

Check out the book in mum's bag in the scene when Maxine has just been born. I also need to mention Maxine's  lunch box and school bag.

Look for the school motto - Tempus Fugit (Time flies).

The dedication quote is perfect 'Be yourself, everyone else is taken' - Oscar Wilde. 

Publisher Blurb Walker Books: Max has a new baby sister – Maxine! Max is there for her first words, her first steps and … her first flight! But as Maxine grows up and starts school, she doesn’t feel like she quite fits in. In fact, she’s not sure if she feels comfortable in her superhero guise at all. Can Maxine convince her family that not all superheroes wear capes? With a strong, incredibly smart girl at its centre, this is a book to inspire any child to dream big and be exactly who, and how, they want to be.

How wonderful to have two books about this superhero family. If you don't already have a copy of Max I suggest you add it to your shopping list along with Maxine. 

This is a pair of books you will want to own and together they would make a very special gift to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. Momotimetoread

CBCA 2022 Book of the Year short list

The CBCA have been awarding our Australian Children's books for 76 years. 

I have been a judge for this year (Picture Book of Year and New Illustrator) and so I cannot go into any detail about the books but I wanted to share the six short lists with you.  This is always an exciting day. Here is a link to all of the titles in the six categories and from this link you can also read the critiques written by the 15 judges.  Here is a video where you can see all of the books close up:

Older Readers

Entries in this category should be books for young people aged between 13 and 18 years (secondary school level). Readers require a degree of maturity to appreciate the themes and scope of emotional involvement. Books in this category may be fiction, drama, illustrated text, poetry or graphic novels.

Younger Readers (you could use my side bar search to check out my blog post about each of these)

Entries in this category should be books published for children in the age range from 7 to 12 years (lower to upper primary school level). Books in the category may be fiction, drama, graphic novels, illustrated text or poetry.

Early Childhood Picture Book

Entries in this category should be books suitable in content and style for pre and beginning readers for children in the age range 0 to 6 years (pre-school and infant level). This include works of fiction, poetry, wordless, board and concept books. The illustrations reflect all the text on the page and often do not add extra meaning to the storyline. 

Eve Pownall (Non Fiction)

Entries in this category should be books with the prime purpose of documenting factual material. Consideration should be given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. This includes works of non-fiction, autobiographies and biographies. This does not include activity books, text books or procedural texts. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years.

I am not able to share anything about the New Illustrator or Picture Book of Year at this time. But here are the general descriptions. 

New Illustrator

Entries in this category are for books where the illustrator is emerging or new to the field of children’s book illustration. The entry must be the illustrator’s first children’s illustrated book published where illustrations form a significant part of the book’s narrative or information content. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years

Picture Book of the Year

Entries in this category should be books of the genre in which the text and illustrations achieve artistic and literary unity and the story, theme or concept is enhanced and unified through the illustrations. A picture book can be written and illustrated by a sole creator or a collaborative effort between two or more creators. The text and illustrations work cohesively. The illustrations are an integral part of or extend the meaning on the page. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years.

Earlier today five children's book experts shared their own favourite books from 2021 eligible for the 2022 awards.  This presentation used to be called the Claytons short list. Each of the panellists took a different approach. One presented all of their favourite Young Adult (Older Reader titles) - well over 15 books you could add to a High School Library. Two of the presenters selected just six which mirrors the actual short list and one presenter included two of their favourite well designed fiction books from past years (2019 and 2020) as well as their choices from 2021. All five speakers offered amazing wisdom by talking about plot, illustrations, themes and book design. This event is run by the CBCA NSW branch each year. It may not be too late for this year because the videos will be available for a couple of weeks. The presentations by the Claytons judges is a terrific resource because you will hear about so many wonderful books that you might like to add to your school library or add to your own reading list. There are only 30 books on the CBCA short list but in 2021 hundreds of terrific books were published. 

Happy Short list Day to everyone!

Can you see the ducks mummy?

Image Source: Wikipedia 

A friend of mine shared a Facebook post today which deeply resonated with me. Being a good Teacher-Librarian I decided to dig a little deeper to find the original source of this post. My friend quoted a post by Jean-François Gignac (4th January 2020) and in turn Jean-François was quoting Dr. Ovid a paediatric neurologist. When I hunted down the article I discovered it all originated on a blog post by Victoria Prooday, Occupational Therapist.

I am going to quote a few words from this piece that I think others need to read. Just before I do that take a look at the title of my post - Can you see the ducks mummy? I live near a lake and there are lots of ducks sitting on the shore in the sun or paddling on the lake often surrounded by tiny fluffy chicks. Every day I walk along the lake path and every day I see parents, and sometimes grandparents too, so completely distracted by their phones that when little children ask questions and exclaim with delight on seeing the lake ducks the child is ignored. I weep. A beautiful opportunity for a conversation, for an interaction, for a shared experience is lost and lost forever. 

I dream of creating an advertising campaign where I share the importance of reading to and with children and the importance of talking to children and the importance of putting that phone away so parents, and other adults can pay attention to their child. I deeply worry about the generation of children who have been ignored while their parents give all of their focus to small screens. 

My other impetus for this post comes from the regular comments I hear from colleagues who are deeply worried about the children in their care. Children who have no curiosity. Young children who are unsettled, distracted or just tired. Students who today seem to have such limited knowledge of words. My Teacher-Librarian friends are finding, when they read to the children in the library, they have to stop to explain or clarify the meaning of words, words that in previous years children readily understood. And there are other issues, way beyond the scope of this blog post, connected with the children's own use of phones and other devices - viewing inappropriate content; cyber bullying; body image; eye damage; limited time given to exercise; no time set aside for reading or talking; and more. 

Now back to the article:

Title: The silent tragedy affecting today’s children

Today's children are being over-stimulated and over-gifted with material objects, but they are deprived of the fundamentals of a healthy childhood, such as:

• Emotionally available parents
• Clearly defined limits
• Responsibilities
• Balanced nutrition and adequate sleep
• Movement in general but especially OUTDOORS
• Creative play, social interaction, unstructured game opportunities and boredom spaces

Instead, in recent years, children have been filled with:

• Digitally distracted parents
• Indulgent and permissive parents who let children "rule the world" and whoever sets the rules
• A sense of right, of deserving everything without earning it or being responsible for obtaining it
• Inadequate sleep and unbalanced nutrition
• A sedentary lifestyle
• Endless stimulation, technological nannies, instant gratification and absence of boring moments

What can we do?

The article gives some good advice to parents. I won't quote all of it here just a few of the important points:

• Spend at least one hour a day outdoors doing activities such as: cycling, walking, fishing, bird / insect watching
• Implement a consistent sleep routine to ensure your child gets enough sleep. The schedules will be even more important for school-age children.
• Teach them to wait and delay gratification.
• Provide opportunities for "boredom", since boredom is the moment when creativity awakens.
•  Do not feel responsible for always keeping children entertained.
• Do not use technology as a cure for boredom, nor offer it at the first second of inactivity.
• Avoid using technology during meals, in cars, restaurants, shopping centres. Use these moments as opportunities to socialise by training the brains to know how to work when they are in mode: "boredom"
• Turn off the phones at night when children have to go to bed to avoid digital distraction.
• Connect emotionally - smile, hug, kiss, tickle, read, dance, jump, play or crawl with them.

And to this list I am going to add - read to your child. Read every day. Read books of all kinds - funny books, serious books, books with scrumptious art, non fiction, old books, new books - just go to your library and grab a bunch of books and plan to do this every week or two. And I will add talk with your child too. 

Here the ten Mem Fox Read Aloud commandments:

• Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud. From birth!
• Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. Or the same story a thousand times!
• Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
• Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners
• Read the stories that your child loves, over and over, and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations and volume and speed, on each page, each time.
• Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games
• Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.
• Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.
• Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.
• Please read aloud every day because you just adore being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Read to your bunny often,

It's twenty minutes of fun. 

It's twenty minutes of moonlight, 

And twenty minutes of sun. 

Twenty old-favorite minutes, 

Twenty minutes brand-new, 

Read to your bunny often, 

And . . . 

Your bunny will read to you.

Oddbird by Derek Desierto

Oddbird arrives at the water hole. None of the other fancy birds have entered the water even though it is a very, very hot day. They are way too concerned about their appearance. The water might ruin their fabulous feathers. 

But Oddbird is different. He is grey. His feathers are dull. He is hot after his long flight. He dips his toes into the cool pool and immediately all the other birds begin to verbally attack him. Oddbird bursts into tears and flies away.

In the surrounding jungle, Oddbird notices all the colour in nature. He picks up various colourful pieces and transforms himself into a fabulous bird. His little swimming suit is especially cute. Back at the pool none of the other birds recognise him - well not until he climbs up the tall ladder and dives into the pool. All of his colourful accessories fall off and of course now the other birds can see the fancy bird, they had admired just minutes ago, is just Oddbird. If you read this book to a group of older students I would stop at this point and try to predict what could happen next.

Make sure you spread out the covers so your class or library group of young reading companion can enjoy the full spread. The vibrant birds, each with their distinct personality, is a fabulous image. You can see the whole spread at the top of this post. 

The obvious companion read to go with Oddbird would be Scary Bird although I do think Scary Bird has a deeper message.

Here is the trailer for Oddbird. Here is an interview with The School Library Journal where derek talks about Oddbird. Take a look at this interview with Let's Talk Picture Books.  This is the first picture book Canadian animator Derek Desierto has made where he is both the author and illustrator. His previous book was:

You might also like to compare this book with:

Elmer

A Year in Fleurville by Felicita Sala

Recipes from balconies, rooftops and gardens.

In spring the people in Fleurville grow asparagus and then they make a delicious asparagus quiche. In Summer the cherries are ripe - time for a cherry clafoutis. High above the city peppers grow on a rooftop garden - perfect for those stuffed peppers. Now it is autumn and the pears are ripe. How about a plate of pear and ricotta pancakes.

My favourite pages in this scrumptious book come near the end where we see assorted seeds, gardening tools and a double spread of vibrant fruit and vegetables groups by seasons. 

Image source: Scribble Kids Books

A Year in Fleurville is the companion volume to Lunch at Pomegranate Street. These are two books that should be in every school library collection and I think they would be wonderful to also have in your home library collection. Read some review comments here. There are so many benefits that come from cooking with your child and even more joy if the cooking involves produce from your own garden - large or small. 

I love the illustrations in this book by Felicita Sala. She says "the illustrations in this book are made with watercolours, gouache and coloured pencils (with) hand lettering."

Here are some other books by Felicita:

The Little Prince adapted by Louise Greig illustrated by Sarah Massini

"At sunrise a strange little voice broke my sleep. Please draw me a sheep. I blinked. 

The voice belonged to a charming little prince."

This is a new Picture Book adaptation of the famous book Le Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery and I think it manages to cover most of the plot.  If you want to introduce this story to younger children this picture book version is well worth finding especially if you and your young reading companion are happy just to read this as a fanciful tale and you have no need to seek deeper meanings. The illustrations in this picture book are also very appealing. 

On his journey to Earth, the Little Prince visits a series of planets. He meets a King, a show-off, a drinker, a businessman, a lamp-lighter, a geographer. Three of these are depicted in this new picture book version. I like the way the businessman who is obsessed with numbers is shown on a planet crowded with technology. Louise Greig leaves out the show-off, the drinker (this might please you), and the geographer. As in the original story he does meet the fox but not the snake. 

After reading this new picture book adaption of The Little Prince I went back to read the novella - I read a translation by Alan Wakeman illustrated by Michael Foreman. 

"This is my secret. It's very simple: we only really see with our hearts. 

What matters is invisible to the eyes."

There are a few very famous children's books which I find are somehow beyond my comprehension - The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle ; The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

If you think there must be more to this story Penguin UK list seven timeless life lessons from The Little Prince.

1.     Don’t be too fond of numbers

2.     Look after the planet

3.     Don’t judge others by their words, but by what they do

4.     Relationships make life worth living

5.     The important things in life you cannot see with your eyes, only with your heart

6.     It is the time you give to something that makes it precious

7.     And finally, remember to look up at the stars

If you are interested in how well The Little Prince has been translated take a look at this article which compares ten the work of ten translators. 

Here are some comments about the original story:

1001 Children's Books you must read before you grow up:  "The story, absurd though it is in structure, strikes a cord with readers young and old, even though its subject matter is not particularly childish."

101 Books to read Before you Grow up: "This is an honest and beautiful story about loneliness, friendship, sadness and love. ... but don't be fooled by its small size, it is an intelligent story meant to be thought about deeply and encourage you to build castles in the air."

Charlotte Huck Children's Literature in the Elementary School: "A popular fairy tale of our time for adults and children ... Some children will find the hidden meanings in a tale such as The Little Prince; others will simply read it has a good story; and still others will be put off reading it altogether because it isn't real. Children vary in their capacity for imaginative thinking."

The Little Prince was first published in 1943. It has been translated into 300 languages and sold millions of copies. The story has been adapted into other forms such as plays; television; and opera. There are also at two schools one in France: L'école Le Petit Prince; and one in Ontario: L'école élémentaire catholique Le Petit Prince. Before France adopted the Euro, drawings from The Little Prince were on their 50-franc banknote. 

Here are a few other spin off titles due for publication this year:

Even though I found The Little Prince a confusing story I am intrigued to read this new edition translated by Michael Morpurgo especially after the reading I have done for this post which has increased my understanding of the novella The Little Prince:

And this one looks quite special by Italian illustrator Manuela Adreani. It is not a picture book version as it has 80 pages. 

Sarah Massini is the illustrator of Star in the Jar. Louise Greig is the author of The Night Box. 

Nano by Dr Jess Wade illustrated by Melissa Castrillón

The full title of this book is Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small.

"This book is made from paper - stone would be too heavy - 

and glass would be too delicate. 

Imagine a book made of chocolate - it would melt!"

Publisher blurb: Everything is made from something ... but the way we make things, from the materials we use to the science and technology involved, is changing fast. Nano offers a fascinating narrative introduction to this cutting-edge area of STEM, better known by the name "nanotechnology". With words by Dr Jess Wade – a highly skilled physicist and trailblazing campaigner for diversity in STEM fields – and beautiful, dynamic pictures by award-winning artist Melissa Castrillón, this is the perfect book for budding young scientists and engineers.

Things I learnt from this book:

• Your body has eleven elements - sulphur surprised me
• There are over 100 kinds of atoms
• One layer of graphite can be extracted to make a new material called a graphene
• A graphene is so thin it is see-through but it is also stronger than steel and bendier than rubber
• Graphene is a nanomaterial - it is one atom thick
• Graphenes are used to make windows that wash themselves!
• Graphenes are used in medicines

Find out more about the application of Nano Science with our own Australian scientist Veena Sahajwalla and her TEDTalk.

This book should be added to EVERY school library. It is such a perfect book to introduce the science of atoms and the uses of nano materials.  AND I am so pleased to tell you this book is not very expensive and there is a paperback edition. (9781406394603).

I think I have found a new favourite illustrator - Melissa Castrillón. Her work has a retro feel which really appeals to me.