Momo celebrating time to read

Pog by Lyn Lee illustrated by Kim Gamble

2012-02-12T00:03:00.000-08:00

Did you know that right now you are older than you have ever been? Pog knows this and he is fond of reminding anyone who cares to listen. "I'm two metres tall and older than I have ever been ... I'm not afraid of anything."

It is true that he is two meters tall but Pog is afraid of one thing - he is afraid of children. Pog is the middle child of this monster family. There is his mum who is as busy as a dung beetle, his dad who is often away on mysterious business, his grandmother, a baby called Bedlam and the perfectly named older brother Vandal.

Pog has been enjoying life but now, like all young children, he must head off to school. His mum insists he must walk with Vandal. Pog is sure he can walk alone until his brother mentions they might meet children along the way. "Pog was shocked. He thought children only came out when it was dark, like a night mist, or a bad dream." Pog is in fact so shocked he sticks with Vandal all day. On the way home Pog hears a sound in the bushes. He tells Vandal it might be children. "Don't be stupid.' growled Vandal. 'There's no such thing." But this child is quite real and Vandal flees down the road leaving Pog to sort out the matter. On looking behind the bushes he finds a little boy who is having a bad dream and needs to wake up. Pog takes Tom home and puts him in the wardrobe (that is where children hide waiting to scare good little monsters!) then Pog goes to bed and dreams Tom back home.

This wonderful picture book Pog is a delight from beginning to end. Kim Gamble supplies perfect pictures of Pog and his family along with an amazing wardrobe and Lyn Lee gives her young readers the experience of a deeply rich vocabulary with words like crooned, pout, flummoxed and cowered.

If anyone has ever said "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" to you then you simply must read this joyous book tonight! I am sure you can tell it is a real favourite of mine. You could follow this up by reading I'm coming to get you by Tony Ross and the monster baby series by Pat Hutchins starting with The Very worst Monster then look for Where's the Baby.

When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

2012-02-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

Just as I set out to re-read When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit I read a newspaper article about how this book had been given to a little six year old child in her school library. The parents were naturally quite upset. Firstly because this is not a book for such a young child and secondly because they were not yet ready to talk to their child about her devastating family connection with the holocaust. It makes me sad to read about school libraries that lend books without care. I am always so concerned to match children with books and I am not afraid to tell a child to wait until they are a little older if a book is meant for a more mature audience.

Anna is living in Germany in 1933. Hitler is on the rise so wisely her parents decide to move to Switzerland. Anna's father is a journalist and of course considered dangerous to the regime. Essentially this is a story of being a refugee, of the years leading up to World War II and the rise of Hitler. There are small references to the persecution of the Jews and one tiny paragraph that mentions a concentration camp but overall this is not a harrowing holocaust story certainly nothing like The Boy in striped pyjamas by John Boyne or Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli or the Once, Now and Then trilogy of Morris Gleitzman.

When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit is a quiet, personal and gentle and would be of interest to Senior Primary students. I would follow this up by reading The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin, Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon by Ida Vos, Fredrich by Hans Peter Richter, and picture books such as Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti and Let the celebrations begin by Margaret Wild.

It is also interesting to discover Judith Kerr is the author of all the picture books about Mog the cat and that When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is really about her real life experiences. You can read more abou the plot and these connections here.

Secret letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstern

2012-02-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

Everyone at some time in their life longs for the perfect friend - a friend who listens, who helps you unconditionally and who gives you the confidence to try new things. Victoria is this friend. Ten year-old Ernest is leading a strange life with his elderly grandmother, Precious, and an old lady called Germaine who comes in to cook and clean each day.

Ernest’s mother has died in childbirth and his father left when Ernest was just one day old and so he has been living all this time with his grandmother but because she has seen huge sadness in her own life she can only attend to his basic needs of food and shelter. There is no emotion in this austere flat in Paris. Life is about routines not real love and in addition time has stood still. There is no telephone, no television, no packaged food and Ernest is dressed like someone from another century. He is not even allowed to use the lift in his building and must climb 57 steps each afternoon after school.

All of this is turned upside down by the arrival of Victoria. She instantly “falls in love” with the handsome Ernest but more importantly she interprets so many aspects of his character correctly. In so many ways I wish she was my friend too! Victoria bounces into all their lives along with her madcap family of 13 boys and one girl.

Here are some things to think about. What would you do if you had never seen your father and then on your very first visit to a supermarket you see a book with his name on the cover? Several days later you see the man himself on television (one of the first programs you have ever seen) and finally a parcel of letters arrive from this father. Not just a small parcel – one letter for every day of your life so far.

Secret Letters from 0 to 10 was originally written and French and has received many awards. We have another book in our school library by Susie Morgenstern called A Book of Coupons – it is also a wonderful book. I give Secret Lesson from 0 to 10 a score of ten out of ten.

Finally I would like to show you the strength of this writing by sharing a few quotes

“I have never been to a restaurant in my life. I have never been out on a Sunday. I have never eaten couscous. My grandmother has never been outside her apartment for as long as I have known her. It is a great day when a “never” is erased. But when three “nevers” are erased in one day and are replaced by three “first times”, that day is three times as great.”

Ernest eats the same bland food every day until Henrietta takes over from Germaine. “When Ernest arrived home for lunch, he was greeted by heavenly smells wafting through the door. Usually he wasn’t hungry, but today he followed his nose to the kitchen, where he wanted to plunge his entire head into the bubbling sauce.” You can read more about the food in this book here.

Ernest arrives home just as his grandmother has seen Ernest’s father on television (it has been newly installed by Henrietta). “Germs are contagious, and so are tears. Ernest flopped down beside his grandmother and sobbed as if he’d known how to all his life. They stayed there crying long enough to water the dried-up plains of their hearts.”

If you enjoy Secret Letters from 0 to 10 you should also look for Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, Extra Credit by Andrew Clements, Granny Torrelli makes soup by Sharon Creech, Callie and the Prince by Sylvia Johnson, all the books about the Silk Family by Glenda Millard. Younger students might like to read Freddie the Frightened and the Wondrous Ms Wardrobe.

Duck for Danger by Ann Grocott

2012-02-04T01:45:00.000-08:00

Eyes can be a terrific way to identify the bad people in a book. Here are some examples : he had “eyes of palest blue (that) showed no warmth whatsoever” … and of another “his smile was as big as that of a crocodile … (his) peculiar cabbage green eyes were curiously blank.”

This book Duck for Danger is filled with gloriously evil characters and wonderful loyal friends. There should be a warning on the cover – be careful who you trust.

Micky, short for Michaela, and her mother have travelled to London to sort out some legal affairs since her dad has died. Both are excited about the trip but following a stopover in Bangkok Mrs Massey falls ill and on arrival in London she is rushed off the plane and taken straight to hospital.

The airport authorities are taking care of Micky when two people turn up claiming to be relatives. One of them is the man described above with the pale blue eyes and the other is a woman – “her pallid lips cracked into a mirthless smile, barring frighteningly large, very long and strong-looking teeth”. These people have the slightly abhorrent sounding name of Smalley-Hughes. Before Micky can ask any questions she is whisked out of the airport and put into the back of a vehicle that looks strangely like a hearse then on arrival at the home of the Smalley-Hughes’ she finds herself locked in an upstairs room containing a cupboard filled with human sized cloth dummies.

If you are able to find a copy of this wonderful book, at this point in the story I am sure you will be holding your breath like I was hoping Micky can escape this mad house. I can tell you that she does escape but her adventures are only just beginning. Micky is on the run in London. Luckily she finds a wonderful boy called Nizbo who knows this city like the back of his hand. The mystery is part of the title. Micky finds a duck in a box of chocolates. Showing great restraint, Ann Grocott does not reveal this detail until page 60. “Both of them stared the object in Micky’s hand. It was a small but exquisite work of art. A duck, made of gold and encrusted with jewels. Each wing glittered with the green fire of emeralds. The breast was a glory of sky-blue sapphires. The beak was showered with amber stones the colour of a tigress’s eyes. A sprinkling of icy flashing diamonds trailed from it jaunty tail to its neck and the eyes of the wonderful ornamental duck were two wine-red rubies.”

Micky and Nizbo know this treasure is extremely valuable. They know others are looking for it. Micky is desperate to find the owner so she puts a cryptic advertisement in The Times and waits for a reply. Mean while the villains seem to be staking out the hospital making it impossible for Micky to contact her mum. Micky herself also has several narrow escapes from their clutches.

My own bookshelves at home are crammed full of favourite books. With no access to my own school library for the next year I am working my way along these shelves re-reading favourites. Duck for Danger is a book I first read over twenty years ago and it is a book I often recommend as a great class read-a-loud. It is of course long out of print but you might be lucky and find this terrific action packed thriller in an Australian Primary School library. I can only say I hope you do. As far as I can discover Ann Grocott only wrote two books. I would love to know why. Duck for Danger is a book that has not dated even slightly and I know many middle and upper primary students would love this tension-filled tale.

Sorry the photo of the cover is a little strange. There were no images of this cover so I took my own photograph.

Bye Bye Baby by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

2012-01-31T02:27:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the little book called "Are you my mother?" by PD Eastman? Every young child knows the baby bird will find his mum of course but the real fun comes from all the odd characters he encounters along the way.

This is exactly the premise of Bye Bye Baby. Our little hero has lost (or misplaced) his mother. Along the way he meets a cat, a teddy, a clockwork hen and an old uncle. All join him on his quest until disaster strikes. The baby crumples into a heap and calls out "I want my mummy!" At that very moment a mummy appears from around the corner and she is pushing a pram. With the rain falling everyone travels home to enjoy a warm bath, a dry nappy and a pot of tea with a ginger biscuit.

As they all sit by the fire the old uncle begins to read a story. "There was once a baby who had no ... daddy!" And off we go again.

The illustrations are so special. You can feel the cold of the rain, the roughness of the pavement and the warmth of home along with all the lovely little details that Janet Ahlberg adds to her scenes just like the ones in The Jolly Postman, Peepo and The baby's catalogue.

This joyous picture book should be shared over and over again with your little baby. The lines that match with the cover illustration are delightful : "There was once a baby who had no mummy. This baby lived in a little house all by himself. He fed himself and bathed himself. He even changed his own nappy." I do fear this book might be out of print but look in your library today you are sure to find it. My favourite character is the clockwork hen (cluck)! I also love the subtitle "A sad story with a happy ending."

Frindle by Andrew Clements illustrated by Brian Selznick

2012-01-31T02:02:00.000-08:00

There are some books that I talk to students and teachers about every year or perhaps even every week! One of these is Frindle. As I have now said goodbye to my school library for a whole year I am working my way along my own home library shelves and last night I picked up this old favourite.

Surprisingly I have only read this outstanding book once but my memories of the teacher, the classroom, Nick the hero and of course the heartwarming ending have are still so vivid even after fifteen years.

Chapter two opens with the ominous words “Fifth grade was different. That was the year to get ready for middle school. Fifth grade meant passing classes. It meant no morning recess. It meant real letter grades on your report cards. But most of all it meant Mrs. Granger.”

Let’s begin with Mrs Granger. Just like my third grade teacher, Mrs Granger has two outfits – one is gray, one is blue. She never wears pants and even when the weather is extreme she does not sweat but it is her eyes that I especially love. “She was small as teachers go… but Mrs. Granger seemed like a giant. It was her eyes that did it. They were dark grey, and if she turned them on full power, they could make you feel like a speck of dust.”

Andrew Clements clearly loves Mrs. Granger and when he describes her reactions to the ‘war’ between this special teacher and Nick, it is her eyes that give the reader a real insight into what might unfold.

Mrs. Granger is a huge fan of the dictionary. Not as a book but as a place to expand our knowledge of words. As is often the way with my reading this has a link with my real life. Over the Summer I clipped a newspaper column about words from the Sydney Morning Herald by David Astle. He challenges his readers to gain a word each week (Oxford or Wordsmith).

When Nick tries to distract Mrs. Granger by asking where do all the words come from, he does not expect to land himself a homework assignment. He does manage to sidetrack the next lesson with his oral presentation but this is just the beginning of the battle. Nick is an ideas person and this idea seems brilliant. Invent a new word. The new word is Frindle. It is not in the dictionary (yet!) and so Nick finds himself going head to head with the formidable Mrs. Granger but along the way he will learn quite a lot about himself, discover new loyalties including the loyalty of his parents, gain a better understanding of the power of words, and he will even begin to realize the news media can have a huge impact on our lives.

If you have been reading my blog you will know I am a huge fan of Andrew Clements. One more coincidence. I saw the movie Hugo based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret last week – the author/illustrator Brian Selznick did the art work in Frindle – I like connections like this. It is also quite odd and yet very exciting to discover Frindle warrants its own entry in Wikipedia. I will admit that when I finished reading Frindle last night I almost reached for my newest dictionary just to see if it contained this memorable word!

City of Lies The Keepers Book Two by Lian Tanner

2012-01-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

How do you feel about trilogies and quartets? Ever since Harry Potter it seems so many authors feel compelled to write Book One, Book Two, Book Three and so on. In some cases the second book can be disappointing so I have been holding on to this book, City of Lies, The Keepers Book Two, for about five weeks. I was very keen to revisit the world of Goldie Roth and her friend Toadspit but I was fearful of being disappointed.

Let me tell you right now this second book is even better than the first. I adore Goldie Roth. She is such a strong girl with a warm heart and an indomitable spirit.

When we left The Museum of Thieves Goldie had been asked to become the Fifth Keeper of the Museum of Dunt but this seems impossible after the hardships endured by her loving parents. Goldie sets out one evening to visit the museum to explain that she cannot become the fifth keeper. She is joined by her friend Toadspit and his sister Bonnie but a short distance into their journey Bonnie is kidnapped. This is not a random incident but part of a huge plan by the dreaded Fugleman as he plots to regain power in Jewel.

Lian Tanner has created an entire world in her book so vividly that the reader is swept up into the dangers, smells, and strange customs. Corruption and deception abound.

There were so many parts of this story that I enjoyed. The food of course. There is a scene when people throw food at a band of musicians including sausages, cheese, pies, a goose, cakes, oranges and a leg of roast mutton. “The meat was still hot, and dripping with rosemary and olive oil. It smelt better than anything Goldie had ever smelled in her life.”

I also love the voice Goldie hears in her head. Advice, as a reader you know she must follow, but which she sometimes ignores at her peril. For me this gives the book an element of reader participation as I found myself ‘talking to Goldie’ urging her to listen.

Lian Tanner introduces an important new character in this book. A young boy called Mouse who is unable to speak. He tells fortunes using twelve mice who deliver scraps of paper that the boy assembles into a message. This idea seems so inventive. As does the idea of the ‘Imitation of Nothingness’ that Goldie and Toadspit used in the first book and now use again to save the life of Mouse when Cord, a mercenary, threats to throw the little boy to the sharks. There are times when I would like this skill. “I am nothing. I am the wind in the rigging… I am the smell of the sea. I am the taste of salt water… I am nothing. I am the memory of nothing. I am the smell and taste of nothing.”

The plot for this book is so rich and complex I know I have not told you even a tiny fraction of it. All I can say is grab this book quickly and read it. You will not be disappointed. Also take a look at the web site which adds to the richness of this series. One thing I have not talked about is the title. Lies play a central role in this story and the way these lies help Goldie and her friends is another wonderful aspect of this highly imaginative narrative.

Here is a great idea. Lian Tanner has a link on her web site of other books you might enjoy. I have read nearly all of them and thoroughly agree with her choices. You might also enjoy The rescue of Princess Althena by Kathryn England, the Bartlett series by Odo Hirsch, Sun Sword Trilogy by Belinda Murrell or the Percy Jackson books.

Lian Tanner also has a competition one for kids and one for adults… take a look but note entries close on 19th February.

Twenty Thousand hits

2012-01-25T01:40:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog - whoever you are?

Today I passed twenty thousand hits.
I started this blog in 2008 but I wish I had begun it so much earlier.
Why I love blogging about children's books :

It helps me to clarify my thoughts

It is so exciting when real authors read my comments and comment back

This is a fabulous way to keep a record of all the books I read.

I love to share books and so I now direct my students, staff and other people to my blog.

It is terrific to find all the things that relate to a book such as web sites for authors, pages of questions and videos.

With my Feedjit widget I can see that there are visitors from all around the world and this acts as a great incentive to keep blogging plus it makes me feel connected to the world and makes me proud of my little blog.

I use my blog to make other reading suggestions and this is useful for me too as I make connections between books.

I do think my critical eye has become sharper through blogging and I am certainly aware that I read in quite a different way as I think about how I might comment on a book as I am reading it.

Finally this is one way I can express my passion for all the amazing children's books available in our world today! And indirectly say thank you to their creators who have given me such riches.

I put a picture of Momo at the top of this blog because it is an allegory about time. We all need to make time for reading. I also put this because my blog is called momotimetoread!!

Thanks again for reading my blog

Momo.

The Heart of Glass book three in Tales from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French

2012-01-23T01:52:00.000-08:00

I am not going to write very much about The Heart of Glass Tales from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French. If you have read the first and second books then you will already be hooked on this series and I probably do not need to convince you to read on. If you have not read the first two books you should do this before you pick up this book.

The Heart of Glass is another highly imaginative story. I marvel at the way writers like Vivian French can conjure such terrific characters, adventures and scenes.

In this third installment Marcus and Gracie have travelled to the Unreliable Forest of Flailing on a dwarf-spotting expedition. This should not be dangerous except that they have set out at a time of high activity in the dwarf world. Princess Fedora is about to marry Prince Tertius and the dwarfs have a huge order for gold. They are having some difficulty reaching this gold because time is short so the dwarfs have called on the trolls for assistance. In particular the dwarfs have called on King Thab and a bargain has been made. King Thab wants a Princess in exchange for supplying one troll as a laborer for the dwarfs. King Thab also wants power but so does Mullius Gowk who is in an Old Troll. Mullius is the last of the Old Trolls. “The High King of the Old Trolls had never known the meaning of the word mercy. He had lived for hundreds of years and had never once done a good deed. … after his death there had been stories … of his unrelenting cruelty and unceasing quest for domination.”

There is also a prophecy about power involving a Trueheart :

When Trueheart’s life in ended here
The High King’s heart will beat once more
And power come to those who reign.
A King of Kings will rule again

Trolls, dwarfs, Gracie (a Trueheart), bats, underground tunnels, greed, bargains and silly royalty are the perfect ingredients for a rollicking adventure. Good will of course triumph over evil but you will be so absorbed in the characters and twists and turns of the plot that by the end this hardly seems to matter.

As with the first two books in this series I read The Heart of Glass in just one sitting. It is good to see Vivian French has included a character list this time so you can keep track of everyone. I highly recommend this series for Middle Primary readers. Read an extract here.

Little Fur Book One from The Legend of Little Fur by Isobelle Carmody

2012-01-19T01:47:00.000-08:00

This book has been our library shelves for quite a long time. I do recommend this series to our students from time to time but until now I had not actually read any. (I am never sure I should do this but it is impossible to read every book and I once heard Nancy Pearl say it is fine to recommend books you have not actually read yourself). By chance I found the CD of book two from this series at a sale and so today I decided to read Little Fur so A Fox called Sorrow on CD will make sense.

I love the writing of Isobelle Carmody and if you have read The Red Wind then you will be sure to make lots of connections with this earlier book Little Fur from the series The Legend of Little Fur.

From the opening lines the scene is set of a human world filled with destruction and a small forest of seven precious trees called the Old Ones. Little Fur is an elf troll and therefore of mixed blood. She is also a healer and protector of the trees. Various animals come to Little Fur for healing and she has a collection of poltices, salves and tisanes for this purpose. News reaches Little Fur that the humans are burning the trees. She realizes her precious Old Ones are in great danger. Little Fur needs to seek advice so she undertakes an extremely dangerous journey to talk with Sett Owl the wisest creature of the area. She is accompanyed by a crow and two cats. The owl advises her to find a mysterious creature living deep in a crevasse. So Little Fur has to continue her awful journey through the desolate human landscape. Making all this more difficult is Little Fur’s need to stay in contact with the earth at all times. She cannot walk on man-made surfaces like roads or concrete. Her powers and connection to the Old Ones will be lost if she breaks this contact with the earth.

I love three aspects of the story – the illustrations by Isobelle Carmody herself, the moments of extreme tension when Little Fur is attacked by dogs, trains, and trolls, and I especially like the vocabulary used by Isobelle Carmody. She certainly does not talk down to her audience with words like abide, craned, haughty, revulsion, befallen, interrogated and braided.

One of the best scenes is when Little Fur reaches the human cemetery. She has no real understanding of what she sees and cannot understand human speech but she is always in touch with the emotions of any situation. “All of the humans began to sing. The sweetness and beauty of their song took her breath away, but more than that, she was astonished to smell that, as they sang, their grief was gentled and lightened. It was as if their singing was healing them.”

Here are two quotes from newspaper reviewers which I think get close to the heart of Little Fur :

'Isobelle Carmody's Legend of Little Fur books evoke a dreamlike sense of warmth and tenderness.' Sydney Morning Herald

'Isobelle Carmody's impish, environmentally passionate character is completely convincing, taking readers into a world that's familiar, and yet in Carmody's hands, refreshingly original.' Sunday Age

Little Fur is a wonderful book. It is a fantasy but it is also a love story. Little Fur loves the Old Ones and this is what drives her desire to help her world. As in Max by Bob Graham – Little Fur is a small hero … and the world needs more of these.

There are four books in the Legend of Little Fur series and I look forward to continuing my journey knowing I am in the safe hands of a wonderful storyteller. I highly recommend Little Fur for Middle and Upper Primary readers.

Babymouse Queen of the world by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

2012-01-17T01:11:00.000-08:00

If you love Olivia, Eloise, Junie B Jones and Billie B Brown then you must meet Babymouse. There are more than ten Babymouse graphic novels beginning with Babymouse Queen of the world! We currently have four from the series in our school library.

Babymouse is the quintessential outsider but she has big dreams. Once you realize her dreams are the pink sequences in these junior novels you will be able to sit back and enjoy the ride.

In Babymouse Queen of the world, Babymouse is desperate to be cool, to be like Felicia Furrypaws. Babymouse discovers Felicia is having a slumber party. How can Babymouse obtain an invitation? She tries food – cupcakes, she tries giving Felicia a brand new book, she tells Felicia a joke but none of these things work. Then comes the day the students need to hand in their book reports. We already know Babymouse is a keen reader, she has a huge pile of fabulous books beside her bed, she would prefer to read than do her homework and Babymouse is a library user as evidenced by her late library book which is trapped inside her locker – the door keeps getting stuck. Babymouse is faced with a dilemma similar to the one we read about in Billie B brown The second Best Friend. She can hand Felicia her book report and gain an invitation to the slumber party but what will she say to Wilson her best friend? He is expecting her to come over for a movie night.

My favourite scene in Babymouse Queen of the world is when Babymouse tries to decide what to wear to the slumber party. “She had to find the perfect outfit”. It made me think of Olivia trying on all those clothes.

I have read so many glowing reviews of the Babymouse series. The are filled with gentle humor and perfect endings. I think adults and younger readers would enjoy reading the Babymouse books together. There are so many references to movies, fairytales, everyday life and these are sure to make you smile.

My favourite in the series so far is Babymouse cupcake tycoon because it is about the library! Babymouse accidentally causes a huge flood and so all the students need to get on with some fundraising to replace the books by selling cupcakes. The student who sells the most cupcakes will win a fabulous prize. If you are interested in exploring a wide variety of advertising techniques with your students you should look no further than Babymouse Cupcake tycoon.

You can see a fabulous little video about the creators of Babymouse. Also Babymouse has a great web site but be warned the music might drive you crazy. I think students in Grades three and up will enjoy the Babymouse books. You can also read a great review here of another title from the series.

The Bag of Bones by Vivian French

2012-01-16T01:54:00.000-08:00

There is trouble stirring in the five kingdoms with the arrival of Truda Hagnail and the Deep Magic she practices. Deep Magic has long ago been outlawed but Truda has ambitions to become the Queen of Waddington or even the ruler of all five kingdoms. We first met Gracie Gillypot in Robe of Skulls. When we left that story Gracie had moved in with the Crones along with her faithful friend a troll called Gubble. For the first time in her life she found kindness and good food.

As Gracie begins her newest adventure Gubble finds some berries. “Gracie stopped and picked a handful … she was pleased to find the berries tasted of chocolate cake. She had eaten them before, and knew they had a delightful habit of tasting exactly like her favourite foods. The first time she had taken the journey to the House of the Ancient Crones she … had the same kind of berries to eat – but at that time Gracie had only eaten potato peelings or porridge skin, and the glories of the berries had almost passed her by.”

Gracie has set off because early one morning a quill pen starts writing messages on the wall of her room and even the house itself seems intent on sending Gracie on a mission to find the source of the Deep Magic and thus save the Kingdom.

Gracie cannot do all this alone, of course. Once again she is assisted by the bat Marlon and his nephew Alfie, along with Prince Marcus and another trueheart girl called Loobly. It is Loobly who has a very special destiny which I will not disclose except to say you might like to think about Cinderella when you are reading this second installment in the Tales from the Five Kingdoms.

This is a series that you need to read in order but I did enjoy The Bag of Bones and now look forward to reading Heart of Glass. In the third book I am sure there will be a little more of the developing romance between Gracie and Marcus. The other aspect of this series which I have enjoyed is the way Vivian French has alternating plots and viewpoints in each chapter. This device certainly keeps the reader on his or her toes and means, for me at least, that I need to read these books quite quickly so I can keep track of all the characters - good, evil, human and animal.

Midnight is a place by Joan Aiken

2012-01-14T02:26:00.000-08:00

“So how you can you teach people not to worry?’ ‘You ask some large size questions’ .. ‘You can do it in two ways. … Either you make their lives so much better that they don’t have to worry – or you teach them that worrying doesn’t help, but is only a waste of time.’ … ‘I think both ways together would be best,’ said Anna-Marie. ‘For some people will always be worrying – if only about whether the soup is going to be thick enough or the milk will go sour. So you make them comfortable and you tell them not to unquiet themselves.”

Wisdom like this abounds in Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken. This is another old book from our library collection. We have disposed of this copy but re-reading it over the last two days has convinced me to purchase a new copy. It was first published in 1974 but Joan Aiken is such a skilled writer this book must be considered a classic.

If you are an adult reader who loved Oliver Twist and other novels by Charles Dickens then you will want your child to read Midnight is a Place. The only difficulty for a young reader might be the phonetic spelling Aiken uses for the various English and French accents but I am sure with a little perseverance a young reader will manage these. The Secret Garden is one possible way to introduce this way of writing.

Lucas has lost both his parents and has been sent to live with his guardian Sir Randolph who is a drunken gambler. Sir Randolph fraudulently won the estate of Midnight Court following a wager many years earlier. As the story opens Lucas has been living in this house for two years with only his tutor, Mr Oakapple, for company. It is Luc’s birthday tomorrow and as he looks forlornly out the window he sees a carriage arrive containing a young French girl. Before Lucas can discover why this girl has been sent to Midnight Court or exactly how she is connected to the family, he is taken down to the mill.

The mill is a carpet factory. It is an incredibly dangerous place. “It was not so much that the sights were frightening, though some were that; but they were so strange, so totally unfamiliar compared with anything that he had ever seen before; the shapes and movements of the machines were so black, quick, ugly, or sudden; the noises were so atrociously loud, the heat was so blistering, the smells so sickly, acid or stifling.” The most awful part is the pressing machine. The carpets are spread out under a great metal slab. Very young children work as snatchers. They must quickly run onto the carpet before the press falls to remove any fluff or dirt. Just prior to Lucas’s arrival a young child has been killed.

The grimy town, factories, unions and poverty are reminiscent of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and Lyddie by Katherine Patterson or Bread and Roses, too.

Lucas and Anna-Marie do have a special destiny but before this can be fulfilled both will be in great danger. Lucas will be forced to work as a tosher looking for treasure in the underground sewers. These scenes are so vividly explained you will feel the claustrophobia, smell the stench and hear the rats and hogs as they charge after human flesh. Meanwhile Anna-Marie will go to work at the carpet mill where she will experience some of the horrors I just described first hand. Luckily both children will find some true friends and their good sense, kindness towards one another and ingenuity will save the day.

I highly recommend Midnight is a Place. You can read more of the plot here. Also there was a television series.

Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

2012-01-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

Angel Creek is a very powerful book. No part of the plot developed as I predicted. Sally Rippin made me feel as though I was down at the creek. "They crept through Nonna's vegetable patch, ducking between the tomato plants lined up like rows of watchful soldiers.... on the other side of the fence it was dark... the party seemed miles away, drowned out by the rushing water and the whispering of the peppercorn trees... There had been rain in the last few days and the creek was flowing fast. All the rubbish from the suburbs was pushed up onto the banks or caught up in the reeds."

As the three cousins explore the creek in the early evening they discover an angel. "There in the shallow depths was a pale, pale, child with glass-like eyes ... and long white hair that billowed like clouds. It rocked gently under the water, a thin white dress caught up around its knees. And it had wings."

One of these wings is badly damaged and so the children decide to move the angel to the shelter of an old shed on the school grounds. Their journey is made more hazardous by the presence of local bullies and the threat of discovery.

The next day is Christmas Day, it is Summer, it is very hot but the children's elderly Nonna has been rushed to hospital. Life has been turned upside down. With no presents and no celebration the three cousins are left to fend for themselves. There is something strange going on. A series catastrophes seem to befall the family - a smashed car, the baby becomes ill and an old loved tree crashes to the ground.

This book is mainly a story about transitions and the focus is on Jelly. She is in Grade Six and about to head off to High School. She has had to leave her Primary school friends behind as the family have moved into a new house in a different part of town. Jelly also needs to make sense of her extended family and think about relationships especially with her cousins.

It is not often I specify an audience for a book but I do think Angel Creek is really only suitable for girls in senior classes. Take a look at this review. After reading Angel Creek you must read Skellig by David Almond (and then see the movie) and Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech. Then look at books by Catherine Bateson which are about growing up such as Being Bee and The Wish pony. Also take a look at Cicada Summer and Junonia which are also books about growing up and change.

If you want to know more about Angel Creek here is another detailed review.

Library Lil by Suzanne Williams illustrated by Steven Kellog

2012-01-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

In my last two blog entries I talked about how Maisy finds the book she needs, Nicholas discovers the wonder of books and now in Library Lil by Suzanne Williams we read about the importance of libraries in a community.

As a child Lil is a keen reader and library user. When she grows up she becomes a librarian but the people of Chesterville are not avid readers. Television is their favourite form of entertainment. Then one night a massive storm destroys all the power poles. Lil pushes her bookmobile up and down the streets and by the end of the night everyone is reading a book by candle light. The electricity is off for two weeks – just long enough for everyone to become hooked on books. Now for the twist. Bust-em-up Bill and his motorcycle gang ride into town. Bill likes to watch television on Tuesday nights but there is no television in the bar. This obviously means Lil and Bill are headed for a confrontation.

Steven Kellogg adds wonderful illustrations to this book. I have been a fan of his work ever since I read The Rattlebang Picnic by Margaret Mahy.

There are two little videos here about using library shelf markers and book care along with some lesson ideas.

Nicholas at the library by Hazel Hutchins illustrated by Ruth Ohi

2012-01-07T21:56:00.001-08:00

A few things happened when I read (re read actually I bought this book in Canada in 1994 and my copy has an author signature) this book. Firstly I have been thinking about the culling or weeding we recently did in our school library. While I know we need space and bulging shelves are not attractive I also hate the idea of removing gems from our collection. While I was thinking about this I heard a radio program about the culling that recently occurred in a University library. The speaker described how libraries are places where it is fun to simply discover things. If everything is in a stack or only available if you know the title then you cannot serendipitously stumble upon treasures. His arguments related to research but I think this is equally true for fiction and for young library users.

This is the process described in Nicholas at the Library. Nicholas and the head librarian randomly search through the library discovering all sorts of wild tales.

Nicholas is not keen on the library at all. He loves to build forts so while his mother is occupied in a different part of the library, Nicholas piles up books from the A, J and O sections. As he moves twelve books from the O section he spies a little chimpanzee “the kind that could ride in a pencil case or bathe in a cereal bowl.” Nicholas tell his mother but she takes no interest, he tells the check-out man but he cannot deal with items that do not have a book card so finally Nicholas tracks down the head librarian.

She is sitting on a pile of books on top of her desk reading a book. What a delightful image. The head librarian immediately recognizes that this is a lost story-kind of chimpanzee. She shows Nicholas a magic ring and together they embark on a wild adventure through the pages of books like Robinson Crusoe, Goldilocks, and more. “They raced through Christmas books. They climbed mountains and drove trucks and rode in covered wagons. They sailed through ocean books. They sped through books of colour and shape. They traversed whole alphabets and went to bed 127 times. Some books felt scary the moment Nicholas jumped into them, and others were like a hot summer day, or a song, or the smell of pepper.”

It seems they might not be able to find the right book in time. Nicholas even wonders if the book they need has been checked out or discarded! Naturally enough they do find the right book which they then settle down to read together. Thank goodness it had not been discarded.

Maisy goes to the library by Lucy Cousins

2012-01-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

At this time of year my thoughts turn to school and the return of the children to our school library. I have my own little collection of ‘library’ related picture books.

Maisy goes to the library by Lucy Cousins tell us three things about libraries. In a library you can, of course, find books but more than this you can find THE book to perfectly match your interest. You can find your book because libraries are organized in a special way! Libraries are great places where you can do so many things. Maisy and her friends attend a uproarious storytime. Finally, when you have a book, you need a quite place to sit and read. I especially love the description of the book Maisy finds. “Aquarium? That’s it! So Maisy looked by the aquarium … and that’s exactly where she found a book about fish …and it was sparkly!”

If you would like to find other books about libraries take a look at this list.

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

2012-01-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

I am having a great time re-reading titles I have recommended for years. Today I read Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson first published in 2001. I find it interesting the way the human brain works. My memory of this book mostly related to the journey along with Amazon River on the Arabella but that happens right near the end of the story. I had completely forgotten about Maia’s time with the awful Carter family.

Maia has lost both her parents which is really a sad beginning but she is not a penniless orphan. Her guardian is managing her money, there is plenty, and she is attending a prestigious and comfortable boarding school so all is well but as the story opens all this is about to change. Mr Murray, her guardian, has found some distant relatives. Adding to this shock Maia is told this family live in Brazil on the Amazon River near the town of Manaus. The family, the Carters, consist of a mother, father and twin girls called Beatrice and Gwendolyn. Maia imagines exotic adventures, wild animals and fun with two friendly girls. For the reader, though, Eva Ibbotson has put in some subtle warning signs and we know her imaginings are about to be shattered.

The twins are diabolical, the father is reclusive with a repugnant hobby collecting false eyeballs and the mother is obsessive about insects and disease. Eva Ibbotson is such a powerful writer I felt at times I could even smell this house in the Amazon with all the insect sprays and perfumes. “All the windows were covered in layers of mosquito netting and the shutters were kept partly closed so that the rooms were not only hot but dark. .. There were no pictures, no flowers. The smell of Lysol was overpowering.”

Maia is a friendly girl and her ability to make loyal friends is an important key to her survival and ultimate success. Her companion is a mysterious lady called Miss Minton but once again Eva Ibbotson gives the reader just enough little hints that we know Miss Minton is kind and very wise and if she is keeping secrets from Maia it is for a very good reason. Maia also makes friends with a young boy called Jimmy or Clovis who has been kidnapped in England and forced to join a troupe of travelling show people. Her other important friend is Finn Taverner. His father has recently died. Finn’s mother was from an Indian tribe called the Xanti. All these characters and others are connected and that is the part of this story I enjoyed the most.

Reading this splendid book again I am very happy I have been recommending it for over ten years. If you love adventure, you love stories where all the little pieces neatly fit together at the end but in ways you simply would not have guessed then this is a book you must read. I do not rate books but I would give Journey to the River Sea ten out of ten. I was interested to read President Obama gave this book as a gift to his daughters (it is a book boys can read too). I now need to read Little Lord Fauntleroy to make even more connections.

I have put two covers on this post because I really like the butterfly one but our library copy is the blue one. If you want to see a really cute video about this book click here. Here are some discussion questions for teachers. If you need to see more of the plot or read some reviews click here.

Con-Nerd by Oliver Phommavanh

2012-01-02T02:03:00.000-08:00

There are some very funny moments in Con-nerd by Oliver Phommavanh :

“I sit down and serve myself a bowl of bran thingies. Mama only bought them because the box said they have vitamins to make you smarter. You don’t have to be smart to know that they taste like cardboard sprinkled with wood chips. My brain’s craving Coco Pops.”

Connor’s brain is at the heart of this story. His brain wants to draw cartoons his mother wants his brain to study for the Selective High School entrance test. His coaching clinic tutor wants his brain to answer multiple choice questions quickly. His friends want Connor to use his brains to impress a special girl in his class. This creates, as you can imagine, some huge clashes and dilemmas for Connor or Con-nerd as he is nicknamed by a neighbour. Will Connor be able to draw his cartoons? Will he honor his family and become a doctor? Can he ever be happy, have friends and please his demanding mother at the same time?

I did enjoy Con-nerd but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. I enjoyed all the little insights into schools and teachers and the subtle and no subtle way Oliver Phommavanah (who is himself a teacher) pokes fun at this. In a moment I will quote a few examples. There were two parts of this book that frustrated me. I wanted to see the cartoons that Connor was creating and I had some problems understanding why one of the ‘cool’ kids, a major school trouble maker, wanted so badly to be friends with Connor – especially since he is or was a major nerd! Proof of this comes from his awards from school such as quite achiever, best library borrower of the year four years in a row, and more.

Here are some of the scenes to make teachers laugh:

“Last year, Ms Fermanis had a ‘fast finishers’ folder full of brain teasers and exercises. I finished the whole folder in a month. After that Ms was just happy letting me read and draw.”

“The selective schools also look at our reports. I’ve got no problems there. The teachers cut and paste the same comments. ‘Connor is a focused student who excels in all his subjects ..’ ‘Focused means extra-nerdy and is another way of saying I have no friends.”

“We’re saved from a boring afternoon by a Year Six meeting at the undercover sails. These meetings are a great bludge because the teachers always run out of things to say and they just let us talk until the home bell rings.”

“I usually go to home sport and wait for the rejects to arrive. Home sport teachers are rejects too. They take us outside for a game until we’re hot and tired, which is usually about three minutes. Then we head into a classroom and I get to draw until home time.”

I often talk in my blog about life imitating art or perhaps art imitating life. I recently read the newsletter from a Primary school like the one Connor is attending and the Principal wrote something very profound about after school coaching and extra home work :

I will not name the school or the Principal but here are two paragraphs from the school newsletter

I am also aware that in recent times there has been an explosion in coaching clinics for students and cannot accept that a student could not do his school homework because he had not finished his coaching clinic homework. The coaching industry is not regulated and in my opinion the educational outcomes and value of many of these companies may be questioned. …

That being the case I have decided that from 1st December there will be no homework given to students at our school. It will give the students, parents and teachers a well-deserved break from “homework”. (Parents could also consider giving their child a break from coaching as well!)

You may consider this decision an early Christmas or Birthday present or forty years of educational experience speaking on behalf of children. However, if you really feel the need to give your own child your own “homework” you could try reading or listening to them.

The last sentence is quite curious. Does this Principal mean listening to the children when they talk to their parents or does he mean listening to them read?

If you enjoyed Thai-riffic look for Con-nerd and follow this with The Punjabi Pappadam by Robert Newton and Nips XI by Ruth Starke. You can read heaps more about this book at the author's site. When you look deeply into the internet you can see Oliver Phommavanh has had quite a lot of media exposure with this book. On ABC radio (Life Matters), Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 9 and Penguin kids tv.

What my senior students are reading - a list!

2011-12-31T01:52:00.000-08:00

One of my annual tasks, and it is a joyous one, is to take a close look at the books recommended by Grade 6 students as they leave our school. This is a part of their Year Book entry along with friends, food, movies and nicknames.

For a change this blog entry (my final one for 2012) is simply a list. I think this list is interesting for several reasons. There is a great mix of titles here. Nearly every child talked about a different book and this makes me smile because so many of these books were titles I enjoyed too. I am always happy to see the students make such great choices from the abundance of our wonderful school library. I feel proud that nearly all of these books are in our library because of me. At a time when there is talk of taking away the position of Teacher-Librarian I wonder if the children (in a school with no teacher-librarian) would produce such an eclectic list. There are only two titles on this list which were read as class novels – The Phantom Tollbooth and Nips XI.

Here is the list in no particular order :

Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda
Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Nips XI by Ruth Starke
Locket of Dreams by Belinda Murrell
Charlie Small Journals
Harry Potter series
Varjak Paw SF Said
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
Alice Miranda series by Jacqueline Harvey
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
EJ12 series by Susanah McFarlanne
UFO in USA by Dave Hackett
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Anastasia’s Album by Hugh Brewster
Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
Treasure Fever by Andy Griffiths
Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
Hugo Pepper by Paul Stewart
The Gizmo by Paul Jennings
Cherub series by Robert Muchamore
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
Marley and me by John Grogan
The day my bum went psycho by Andy Griffiths
Darren Shan series
High Rhulain (Redwall) by Brian Jacques
Hocus Pocus Jellypoo Blues by Laura Milligan
Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden
Red Dog
Just Annoying by Andy Griffiths
A dog called Grk by Joshua Doder
Holes by Louis Sachar
Raven’s Mountain by Wendy Orr
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth
The invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Misadventures of Bartholomew Pif by Jason Lethcoe
Conspiracy 365 January by Gabrielle Lord
Percy Jackson series
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
Guardians of G’Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky
Runaway Train by David Belbin
Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech
The amazing adventures of Chilly Billy by Peter Mayle
Spy Dog by Andrew Cope
Dark Materials series Philip Pullman
A long walk to : a novel by Linda Sue Park
Ingo by Helen Dunmore
Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton
Tins by Alex Shearer
Boom! by Mark Haddon
Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo
Ivory Rose by Belinda Murrell
Gone by Morris Gleitzman

In addition to these titles which are all in our school library some more sophisticated students cited Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Tomorrow when the war began by John Marsden, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and a number of surfing biographies. Why not add a comment to my blog and let me know which titles you have read on this list or which titles you might add.

Happy New Year!

The Robe of Skulls by Vivian French illustrated by Ross Collins

2011-12-30T01:09:00.000-08:00

This book is like a very fizzy drink. It is effervescent. The plot just gallops along filled with fabulous evil characters and special heroes all leading to an ending that is totally satisfying.

A Grade 5 student raved about this book and the other three in the series so I was keen to read this one over the summer. This afternoon I thought I might just read the first chapter. Three hours later I finished the whole book! If you have been reading my blog you will know this means I thoroughly enjoyed The Robe of Skulls.

The story opens with Lady Lamorna preparing an order for the dress of her dreams. Black velvet, red petticoats, rows and rows of skulls along the hemline and embroidered with spiders and poison ivy. Does Lady Lamorna sound evil? Of course she does but surprisingly she is by no means the most evil character in the kingdom. That role falls to Foyce “when you looked into her eyes it made your bones go icy cold.” You can read part of the first chapter here.

Foyce and Mange, another evil character, have taken Gracie as a slave. One day, when she is desperately trying to make a meal out water, a little bat arrives with the promise of freedom, adventure and a better life.

“Correct me if I am wrong,’ said the bat, ‘but would the main ingredient of water soup be water?’ Gracie nodded. ‘I do use hot water and cold water. It doesn’t make much difference to the taste, though.’”

Meanwhile two young Princes are living in a nearby castle and are training to take on their royal duties. Prince Arioso is studious and compliant but his twin brother Marcus, just ten minutes younger, is bold and desperate for adventure. Mysteriously their tutor Professor Scallio seems to have plans for Marcus which involve a forbidden map.

Our little bat, called Marlon, draws these characters together and, along with the three Ancient Crones, everyone arrives at a very satisfactory place except perhaps Foyce and Mange.

If you enjoy Robe of Skulls you will need to read the three sequels and then find Which Witch by Eva Ibbotson and The Starkin Crown by Kate Forsyth. I rarely say this but Harry Potter fans will enjoy this book too.

Junebug by Alice Mead

2011-12-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

Junebug has only 100 pages and yet it packs in a powerful story of growing up African American, poor, in a single parent family and in “the projects”. Luckily Junebug is living near water. I looked on Google maps to see New Haven, Connecticut and now I understand about the ferry trip he takes with his mother and little sister Tasha.

More on that ferry trip in a moment. Junebug has a big dream. The dream to go sailing. As the story opens we hear Junebug's thoughts as he imagines he is on a small yacht trimming the sails and following the breeze. Reading this book at this time in Australia feels quite serendipitous as the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race is just concluding. While it is wonderful Junebug has such a magical dream by contrast he is living in such a dreadful environment. It almost makes you cry out in pain for him and his sister. His neighborhood is dominated by poverty and drug dealers.

“There’s just a wall of old, smashed-up windows rising up to the sky. The embankment is piled high with dead leaves and trash stuck up against the fence … burned out cars sit in the lot, with no tires on them.”

There is one small glimmer of kindness in the form of a library run by volunteers and housed in a small space in the basement of his apartment building. One truly special lady comes each day and she has begun to teach Tasha to read. I love the way she uses Peter Rabbit to do this. Then in an awful heart wrenching scene violence erupts outside the door of the library and Mrs Swanson, an elderly lady who works as a volunteer running the library declares “That’s it … as of today, the library is closed. I refuse to stay here any more. I’ll tell the church. The reading program is over.”

Turning ten will mean Junebug will be forced to participate in a gang and this is something he dreads but can see no way to avoid until his mother mentions she has the chance of a new job in a different part of town, a new job of living in and caring for elderly people so Junebug and Tasha would live in a new home and attend a different school.

Now back to the dream of sailing. Junebug has a fabulous plan. He has been collecting bottles and he plans to write notes to place inside each one. For his birthday he has told his mother all he wants is corks. Can you make a connection between the bottles, corks and the ferry ride?

I now discover there are two more books about Junebug so I will need to investigate these for our library. I have also discovered that Oprah has book lists for children and that this title once appeared on her list. I don't usually give books a rating but I would give this one ten out of ten!

Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien

2011-12-26T19:53:00.001-08:00

Quite by accident I seem to be reading Newberry Winners at the moment. The real reason these books are bubbling to the top of my huge reading pile is that in early December we did a huge cull of our school library shelves – this is called weeding. We weeded out over 1400 old fiction books. A few of the titles we removed are important books like the one I am about to discuss Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH so we will of course purchase new copies. The sad thing about paperback books is the way, over time, the pages discolor. The other sad thing is that quite a few of the books we need to replace are long out of print. Luckily this is not true for Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

I know I must have read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH sometime long ago (it was first published in 1971) but I really had only a very scant memory of the plot and so it has been a delight to sit down today and read the whole book in one sitting.

Timothy, the youngest child of Mrs Frisby and her late husband Jonathan, is very ill and while Mrs Frisby has been able to obtain some medicine from Mr Ages he has also warned her that Timothy must stay in bed for many weeks to recuperate and that it is vital he stay warm inside their home. Unfortunately our family of mice live under a field that is due to be ploughed any day now as Spring has just begun. Normally the family would move to their Summer residence but this seems impossible when Timothy is so ill. When Mrs Frisby returns from her visit to Mr Ages she stops to help a young crow that is caught in a fence. This simple act of kindness means Jeremy, the crow, promises to repay the favor. He suggests Mrs Frisby should ask the local owl, considered a very wise animal, about the dilemma of moving. As Mrs Fribsy says “All doors are hard to unlock until you have the key.”

The key is this case involves requesting assistance from a group of rats who live under a thorny rose bush near the farm house. All travel around the farm is made more treacherous by the presence of the farm cat, aptly named Dragon. Mrs Frisby is determined to save her family and so, on the advice of the owl, she visits the rats. It is here that she discovers the true identity of these remarkable rats, their connection to her husband and her role in the saving of more than one life.

We do have the two sequels to this book in our school library which were written by Robert C O’Brien's daughter but right now I am content to leave the ending to my own imagination.

After reading Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH I have many suggestions for where to go next :

If you love mice, rats and other small creatures you should read the Redwall series by Brain Jacques, The cricket in Times Square by George Selden or for younger readers take a look at Tumtum and Nutmeg by Emily Bearn.

If you would like some terrific books to read aloud to the whole family look at The Gerander trilogy by Frances Watts

If you are interested in science experiments involving animals and the moral dilemma associated with this practice take a look at A Pig called Francis Bacon by Stephen Measday and the two sequels.

If you like the way the rats and mice outwit the farmer then pick up Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl or Charlotte’s web by EB White.

If you love rats then read A rat’s tale by Tom Seidler.

If you love owls read Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky.

If you want to continue the theme of kindness towards others you should read The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz.

I was amazed when I put "Mrs Frisby" into Google to see nearly 2,000,000 hits. There is a wealth of material out there if you want to use this book with a class. Here are two examples. There is also a animated movie but the small part I previewed seemed to be a poor interpretation of an important book.

Snow by PD Eastman illustrated by Roy McKie

2011-12-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

I am in Australia and we do not have snow at Christmas but I picked this book up off my shelf today because I was feeling quite nostalgic (Christmas does that to me) and because this is a very old book I fondly remember from my childhood. First published in 1962 Snow is book number 27 in the Beginner Book series. PD Eastman wrote and illustrated quite a few of these famous books including another favorite of mine Are you my mother?

Beginner books were/are special because they are very simple to read, they rhyme and yet they also manage to tell a story often with humor which is something you average class reader could never do. I was sad to hear a teacher comment in my school the other day that a Grade 5 boy in her class had not heard Cat in the Hat and further dismayed to realize this same teacher did not immediately send up to our library for a bundle of Beginner Books – we have nearly all of them.

Reading this book today I found I remembered all the little scenes such as the snow fort, the dog sliding down the snow on his tail, the melting snow man and most importantly, the attempt by the children to save some snow in their refrigerator.

When I first read this book around age four I had not seen snow and yet the lively text and joyous illustrations gave me a good grasp of the cold and the fun.

PD Eastman met Geisel (Dr Seuss) when they were in the army together. In 1958 PD Eastman wrote his first beginner book Sam and the firefly. This is another Beginner book I loved as a child and it probably explains my fascination with fireflies (Eric Carle The Very Lonely firefly) even though we do not have these in Australia.

If you enjoy Snow you might also look for Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats which is in our library and Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. As a bonus both of these also have fabulous illustrations. For a full list of the the PD Eastman books take a look at the web site.

Snow!
Snow! Snow!
Come out in the snow.
Snow! Snow!
Just look at the snow!
Come out!
Come out!
Come out in the snow.
I want to know
If you like snow.
Do you like it?
Yes or no?
Oh yes! Oh Yes!
I do like snow.
Do you like it
In your face?
Yes!
I like it any place.
What is snow?
We do not know.
But snow is lots of fun
We know.
What makes it snow?
We do not know.
But snow is fun
To dig and throw.

The 13th floor a ghost story by Sid Fleischman

2011-12-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

I first read this book in 1995 and today I re-read it and was surprised just how much of the plot I remembered.

The 13th floor a ghost story is a terrific action packed adventure filled with pirates, witch hunts and humor. Buddy is twelve and, following the death of their parents, he is living with his sister, a young lawyer. Liz and Buddy come from a family who settled in Massachusetts in 1910 but the family history goes back even further to a Captain Crackstone a pirate from 300 years ago. Legend has it that the Captain buried some treasure which has never been found and that his real name was John Stebbins is thus related to our hero Buddy Stebbins.

Money is short and it seems Liz will need to sell the family home. She heads off to work one morning and never returns. The evening before someone left a cryptic message on the answer machine. It is from a girl called Abigail Parsons. Her language and instructions are very strange, almost old fashioned. Searching for this sister leads Buddy to the Zachary Building where he finds the non existent 13th floor and is transported onto a pirate ship in 1695 where he meets the real Captain Crackstone. Luckily Buddy has his school back pack with him. It is fun to discover how many items in this bag prove useful along the way.

Liz has also been transported via the 13th floor but she arrives as Abigail is about to be tried for witchcraft. Liz is a passionate advocate and is ready to fight the case but 17th century Boston is not ready for an outspoken young woman to speak at the trial. I think this part of the plot and the references to the Salem witch trials are my favourite parts of the story.

If this all sounds complicated that is true but it is also a beautifully crafted, fast paced and occasionally very funny story which I do think middle Primary students can easily follow. Buddy needs to find his sister, Liz needs to save Abigail, and of course our 20th century family need to find a way to restore their fortune and keep their house. There is a very neat little twist at the end.

I am sad to discover Sid Fleischman died in 2010 but he does have a useful web site. Look for many of his books in our school library. I also enjoyed The whipping boy and Jim Ugly. You can read The 13th floor a ghost story book online here. I should also mention the excellent full page illustrations throught this book done by Peter Sis. Look for his picture books in our library too!

Black-eyed Susan by Jennifer Armstrong

2011-12-23T01:28:00.000-08:00

Here is another old book which we have had to take out of our library due to wear and tear. Black-eyed Susan is a mix of Little House on the Prairie and Sarah Plain and Tall.

Susie lives on the plains of Dakota. Even though I am not at all familiar with this landscape, Armstrong is such a lyrical writer I have a vivid picture in my mind from her words. “There wasn’t a tree within twenty miles of us, just some twisty box elders and cottonwoods along the creek … we shared the view again seeing how the land lay about us and fell in swells and rises, the movement of the wind visible in the movement of the grass.”

Susie lives in a sod house made from the earth with her mother and father but while Susie celebrates life every day by standing on the roof, arms outstretched to welcome the sun, her mother is living in the fog a deep depression. She can no longer leave the house and seems unable to smile or enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Susie and her father travel to town. Susie sees a piano for the first time and has fun interacting with the owners of the local general store. On the way home they meet up with a family of eight from Iceland who are moving west to start a new life. Susie and her father invite them to stay the night and this encounter becomes a turning point for Susie’s mother. She can now move on with her life and she might even bake a pie!

The title comes from the flowers her father plants each year on the roof of their sod house. “Every spring he planted them thick on the roof .. and when they bloomed in summer you could see our house standing out from the green prairie from just miles away.”

I probably should not have reviewed this book since it is no longer in our school library but perhaps you will be lucky and find one somewhere. If not you must read Sarah Plain and Tall and you might also enjoy Hill Hawke Hattie by Clara Gillow Clark.

Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats

2011-12-23T01:12:00.000-08:00

Jennie’s Hat was one of my top one hundred picture books which were my focus last term. This is a simple story which demonstrates the rewards a simple act of unselfish kindness to others can bring.

Jennie longs for a new hat but when it arrives from her aunt it is so plain. Jennie can hardly hide her disappointment. Then she remembers it is three o’clock and time to go and feed the birds as she does every Saturday afternoon.

Coming home from church in her plain hat the next day she notices the birds are following her. Then the birds swoop down onto her hat and when they fly away Jennie now has the most magnificent hat complete with a nest of chirping birds.

Ezra Jack Keats uses vibrant collage illustrations to show the joy Jennie feels as her new hat is created. We have a lovely new copy of this picture book in our library. If you love hats you must read this book and check out the endpapers where Keats has created a lovely fabric design. You might also enjoy the Daisy Dawson series especially the first book Daisy Dawson is on her way. You can hear the whole story here.

Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

2011-12-20T17:16:00.000-08:00

As usual I love to begin my holidays with a good book and for the start of this Summer break I picked out a book I read quite a long time ago. It is one I often recommend to my senior Primary students.

Heartbeat is a verse novel and as I have mentioned in other review of verse novels this genre always seem to pack a very emotional punch.

Annie and her friend Max love to run. For Annie running is a release, a joy, fun! For Max running is a competition, an obsession, the way to forge a new destiny. Being twelve and thirteen their lives are changing. Annie will soon have a new sibling. Heartbeat is a chronicle of the development of the new baby from just a few cells “little tiny cells multiplying every second” through to delivery. At the other end of life, Annie and her parents share their home with her elderly grandfather. He was also once a runner but his life is slowly drawing to a close and his memory is failing. “He says he is falling to bits little pieces stop working each day and his brain is made of scrambled eggs.” These two aspects of Annie’s life lead her to think very deeply about life and relationships.

“Max also reminds me
that when I was ten
I suddenly jumped of a swing
and said
‘Why are we here?’
…
Am I supposed to do something
Important?
It doesn’t seem enough
to merely take up space
on this planet
in this country
in this state
in this town
in this family
…
I do not yet know
what I should be
or
do.”

The other truly special moments in this book come as Annie works on an art project. We have an art room in our Primary school and I would love to think there might be children who treasure this room the way Annie does : “Twice a week at school we have art class with Miss Freely in a room I’d like to live in.” The art project is to draw apples for 100 days. This simple idea provides a beautiful metaphor for the evolution of life Creech explores though this book.

If you enjoyed Don’t breathe a word by Marianne Musgrove and all the books by Sherryl Clarke and Sally Murphy (Pearl verses the world), Heartbeat is even better. Sharon Creech is a master writer of the verse novel. You might also enjoy an old but very special picture book we have in our library called A Rabbit named Harris by Nan Hunt. Take a look at my reviews of Love that Dog and Hate that Cat. (Sharon Creech made a comment about this review and it is one of my proudest blog moments!).

I often muse about the way a book reaches me. Earlier this year a senior student lost our copy of Heartbeat. After quite a long period we purchased a new copy and then about four weeks ago the old copy was unearthed in a different classroom. This original copy is in fairly poor shape so we have withdrawn it from our collection and thus I bought it home to read. My holidays are off to a fabulous start with the reading of this sensitive and affirming story. You can read some notes here by Sharon Creech and an extensive set of questions for teachers who might like to use this book with a class.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2011-12-17T02:26:00.001-08:00

I am not sure if I actually read The Secret Garden when I was a child but I do remember reading it at University. As I was working on our library stock take I discovered we had the CD of this classic read by Helena Bonham Carter so for the last week I have listened to this magical story driving to and from school.

Helena Bonham Carter has the perfect voice for this story especially the parts for the characters with Yorkshire accents. When Ben Weatherstaff encounters Colin, Mary and Dickon in the secret garden it is a moment of high emotion which made me cry.

“There was Ben Weatherstaff’s indignant face glaring at them over wall from the top of a ladder! He actually shook his fist at Mary.” He begins a tirade of abuse that Mary has betrayed his trust when he suddenly stops. Dickon has wheeled Colin over to the wall and Colin confronts Ben. Ben recognizes Colin as he has his mother’s eyes but also exclaims that he cannot imagine how a crippled boy like Colin could have made it out into the garden. This puts Colin into a rage and he stands up, supported by Dickon, and shows that he has neither a crooked back not crooked legs. Ben “choked and gulped and suddenly tears ran down his weather-wrinkled cheeks as he struck his old hands together.”

If you do not know this famous book it all begins when Mary, an only child of busy and disinterested parents, is caught up in a Cholera outbreak in India. When both her parents die she is sent to England into the care of her Uncle, a recluse who lives at the beautifully named Misselthwaite Manor which is located on the edge of the moor. I have never seen a moor but books like The Secret Garden and of course Wuthering Heights have given me a lasting impression of this landscape. At the manor Mary must amuse herself and so she wanders around the extensive gardens and discovers there is a mystery -a secret garden that has been locked up for ten years and the key is lost. Mary, with the help of a friendly robin, finds a way into the garden and she begins to tend and nurture it. She also discovers Colin.

Often I have to advise parents that ‘classics’ of their childhood memory may not appeal to modern children but I do not think this will ever be the case for The Secret Garden first published in 1912. The joy of watching the garden grow, of seeing Mary and Colin transformed into happy, healthy and friendly children and the care and love shown by Dickon and his mother are timeless threads.

I seem to always talk about food in this blog but another favorite scene of mine is when Mrs Sowerby, Dickon’s mother, sends along food for the growing children. “Dickon … bought forth two tin pails and revealed that one was full of rich new milk with cream on the top of it, and that the other held cottage-made currant buns folded in a clean blue and white napkin, buns so carefully tucked in that they were still hot.” The image of the blue and white napkin is such a lovely one.

We have several copies of The Secret Garden in our school library – an abridged version for younger readers, a beautiful illustrated large text illustrated by Robert Ingpen and the audio CD. Look for this wonderful story in our library soon. If you enjoy The Secret Garden you might also look for books by Rumer Godden especially Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and books by Noel Stretfeild which I have already talked about in this blog.

From the Mixed up files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

2011-12-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

I first read From the Mixed up files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler in 1969 just after it won the Newberry medal. I was in senior Primary school and I can even remember the look and feel of the hard cover edition in our school library complete with its special gold sticker. I remember I also loved the long title and the author who only used her initials.

I recently read Wonderstruck and all through the book I kept thinking of From the Mixed up files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler and then I read that Brain Selznick also had this book in his mind. Selznick says there are clues from the Mixed up files to be found in Wonderstruck but I have yet to discover them. This will take further careful study. Which leads me to today - I read this wonderful book once again all in one sitting and I loved it but I am also amazed at the parts I remembered and the parts I had forgotten and the parts I had invented.

I remembered the running away, the bed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art used by Claudia and Jamie, the fact that they had very little money, seeing the Angel statue for the first time and their attempt to solve the mystery. I did not remember the lovely relationship that forms between these siblings, their swim in the restaurant fountain nor the real reason Claudia needed to run away. In my distorted memory I thought part of the story happened in the basement of the Museum and I had the impression Mrs Frankweiler was a far more mysterious figure.

This is such an old book but we have a lovely new edition in our library with a heart felt afterword by E.L. Konigsburg. Even though a few really minor details are reflective of the time this book was written such as the cost of things and the use of typewriters, this book has really stood the test of time. I am certain any middle Primary reader in my library would enjoy it.

I imagine visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art who have read this book often try to find all the special places these children explore over their week of adventure. Konigsburg mentions this in her afterword. I also liked the way Konigsburg provided ways for the children to really live in the museum – washing their clothes, cleaning teeth, following school tour groups, eating at the cafeteria and even leaving the museum to do research in a real library.

Teachers looking for a way to explain the true purpose of learning should look no further than this timeless quote from Mrs Frankweiler

“But Mrs Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day.(says Claudia) … No … I don’t agree with that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but you can never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

Here is a link to the 1995 movie.

Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees by Odo Hirsch

2011-12-10T02:14:00.000-08:00

“Mrs Simpson was making walnut cakes … Darius counted ten cooling on the kitchen bench and suspected there were more in the oven. Mrs Simpson was icing one of them. She slapped the thick white cream on with a spatula and then rapidly spread and smoothed it with the skill that came from having iced thousands of cakes over the years…. ‘I don’t suppose any of you would like a piece,’ she said. Darius smiled. He didn’t suppose any of them needed to answer. Mrs Simpson cut three large pieces from the cake.”

When you pick up a book by Odo Hirsch you can be sure of several things. There will be delicious cakes, you will be in the hands of a master storyteller and at its heart any book by Odo Hirsch will ultimately be a celebration of community. Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees fulfills all these promises.

Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees is the sequel to Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool but it can stand alone. In this installment the bees have all mysteriously died throughout the district and this will have disastrous consequences for fruit and vegetable production for the coming year especially on the Bell estate. Mr Fisher, the gardener, has an enviable reputation as a master grower but with no bees his crops will not be pollinated and so the fruits will not form. His family will have to find work elsewhere. The Deavers, who are the estate bee keepers, can offer no solution so Darius attends a meeting of apiarists at the town hall. They suggest bringing in bee hives from other areas and it seems all will be well but the mayor George Podcock sabotages this plan. He loathes the Bell family. What can Darius do to save the crops and stop his friends Mr Fisher and his daughter Marguerite from leaving?

The answer comes unexpectedly from several sources involving his classmates, his mother and brother, his ambitious and hideous school principal, Mrs Lightman and his dedicated science teacher, Mr Beale.

I read this book in one sitting. Just like those cakes, I cannot help but devour books by Odo Hirsch. Look for this one in your library today and be prepared to cheer as our hero wins the day once again!

Read more about Odo Hirsch here.

The museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds

2011-12-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Have you read Coraline by Neil Gaiman? I found that to be a very disturbing book so be warned The Museum of Mary Child is also oddly disturbing. I discovered this title during our library stocktake and as it was one I had not read and because I loved The Three loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds (and her other title Claire du Lune which also lingers in my book memory) I picked it up to read.

I found the first two thirds of The Museum of Mary Child very difficult to put down but then the final scenes were so disturbing and yet I was somehow drawn to keep reading.

Heloise is an orphan who lives in austere and controlled environment with her harsh godmother. There is no colour in Heloise’s life. Even her bible has been censored so she cannot read large sections. Heloise spends her days sewing drab clothes for the neighboring orphanage and she herself is dressed in these same tones. Heloise does however, have a dream. She longs for a doll both as a plaything but more importantly as something to love. Finding a doll hidden under the floor of her room puts Heloise in great danger and sets her on an amazing adventure in search of her identity.

If you have read Fearless you will certainly want to read The Museum of Mary Child. Be warned though, this is not a book for a very sensitive reader. There are girls in our senior Primary classes who I think would enjoy The Museum of Mary Child. You might also enjoy People Might Hear you by Robin Klein (long out of print but in our library) and The Emerald Atlas. One final thing you might like to take a look at the alternate cover because I think it does show the sinister tone of this story in fact this review calls this book Gothic which is a term I did not think of but it is absolutely correct.

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood illustrated by Renata Liwska

2011-12-07T02:18:00.000-08:00

A few months ago a friend who is also a bookseller told me about The Quiet Book. The title only partly tells you about this special book.

It is a series of little scenes from early morning until late at night showing all the times we experience quiet and all the ways we experience it too.

Here are some :

Coloring in the lines quiet
Last one to get picked up from school quiet
Making a wish quiet
Best friends don’t need to talk quiet

Before the concert starts quiet
Story time quiet
Bedtime kiss quiet
“What flashlight?” quiet
Sound asleep quiet

The illustrations depict quirky little animals like bears, a porcupine, moose and rabbit all done in soft brown and grey tones with an occasional tiny touch of colour.

This book would make a special gift for a young child and it is a perfect book to share with that same young child either quiety or with some gentle conversation about each scene.

It is in our school library along with the companion volume The Loud Book. You might also enjoy The Important book and Another Important book by Margaret Wise Brown and If you listen by Charlotte Zolotow.

The Spies of Gerander by Frances Watts The Gerander Trilogy Book Two

2011-11-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

There are so many wonderful little details in this second book of the Gerander Trilogy I hardly know where to start. Here is one example that made me laugh out loud. Two of our heroes, Alex and Alice have been sent as spies to the palace in Cornoliana, headquarters of the Sourian army in Gerander. Following heaps of adventures and mishaps they arrive at the palace and are to be taken to the notorious Lester. The sentry leads them through the huge palace and although he claims to have a photographic memory they soon become quite lost.

“They descended some stairs, and came to a halt in front an inconspicuous wooden door. The sentry tapped on it then, at the occupant’s command, opened the door. A tiny mouse with nearly combed grey fur and enormous pearl earrings looked up from her desk with an impatient expression. ‘Who are you?’asked the sentry in obvious astonishment. ‘I am the Undersecretary Assisting the Head of Floral Arrangement in the Department for Banquets,’ she replied loftily. ‘Who are you?’” I think it is the earring that really set this scene for me.

The Spies of Gerander picks up where The Song of the Winns ended with Alistair and Tibby Rose reunited with Alistair and Alice. Before you read on I recommend reading my review of the first in the series just so you have an idea of the plot so far.

Along with their Aunt Beezer and Uncle Ebenezer the group arrive at FIG headquarters only to be sent on new missions the very next day. Alistair and Tibby Rose, along with Slippers Pink and Feast Thompson, need to find the secret paths through Gerander which they now realize are part of the pattern on Alistair’s scarf, knitted by his mother who was captured four years ago, and they need to find the triplets parents Emmeline and Rebus. Along with this all members of FIG are working with the blessing of Zanzibar, who has escaped and is now in hiding, to free Gerander. Alice and Alex meanwhile have been sent as undercover spies to gather information on just what the Sourians are planning.

If you loved Toby Alone you must read the Gerander Trilogy. It contains the same political elements and acts of bravery and extreme adventures. Take a closer look at the cover. You will see a cupcake. Yes there is once again plenty of delicious food in this book but more importantly three cupcakes, along with some flower beds, show that resistance fighters have already infiltrated the palace so I am sure in the next book FIG will once again outwit and ultimately defeat the Sourians. I highly recommend this series. Look for them in your library today.

The third book will be published in 2012. While you wait you might also enjoy The Redwall books by Brian Jacques or if you are up for a challenge try Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.

Trouble-Maker by Andrew Clements

2011-11-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

There is always a wonderful sense of anticipation when a new Andrew Clements title arrives in our library. If you have been following my blog then you might have read my review of Extra Credit for example.

Trouble-maker is not quite at the level of Frindle, Extra Credit or The Landry News but it is nevertheless a good read. If you have read The Janitors boy then you have met a character like Clay who is the central character in this newest book. Clay cannot help creating mischief. He rumbles with his friends, sabotages his classmates, starts food fights in the cafeteria and regularly challenges authority figures especially the school Principal Mr Kelling. Here is a good example of Clay’s strategies when the class have a substitute teacher.

“The woman looked like she as about seventeen. She was all nervous and chatty, trying to be way too friendly with the kids. It would have been so much fun to mess with her head – maybe act like he only spoke Russian … or maybe he could start crying and tell her how his pet skunk died yesterday … or maybe pretend he was allergic to her makeup, see if he could get her to scrub all of it off her face. He could riff and goof and tumble her head around until she ran screaming out of the room … like some other subs had.”

The turning point for Clay comes when his brother Mitch arrives home after a short stint in jail. For Clay, Mitch is his hero. Clay thinks Mitch will be impressed and proud of his school mischief but the reverse is true. Mitchell’s experience in jail has been profound. He is determined his younger brother will never go to jail. Mitch makes Clay promise to reform. He organizes a new tidy hair cut and new school clothes for Clay and makes sure Clay is not out late with his friends.

This is all fine until Halloween. The home of the school Principal is vandalized and everything points to Clay.

This is a very short book but it shows the power of our thoughts and the power of an individual to change his or her outlook on life and relationships with others. I think middle Primary boys in particular would enjoy Trouble-Maker by Andrew Clements. You might also enjoy Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip, The Janitors Boy or Small steps by Louis Sachar (read Holes first). Slightly older students might also take a look at Wringer by Louis Sacher.

One final thing I loved the character of the school secretary Mrs Ormin – she is perfect!

Here are some discussion questions, an audio file and a good review if you need to read more about this book!

Picture books for Older students from my Top One Hundred list

2011-11-12T23:35:00.000-08:00

As a part of our one hundred book project I have been reading books on the theme of conflict with Grade 5. We started with War and Peas (Michael Foreman) which is about conflict but equally about wealthy nations and the developing world and our responsibilities to each other. The illustrations by Michael Foreman in War and Peas are quite scrumptious. The land belonging to the Fat King is depicted using cakes, biscuits and huge milk shakes. The final lines are so important when King Lion from the poor nation suggests they should now live in peace. The fat king replies “Peace … never heard of it. What’s the recipe?”

Our next book was Tusk Tusk by David McKee. I love to read the Elmer books to my Kindergarten students so it is good to revisit this talented author/illustrator with senior students. The elephants are at war. The issue is colour. The peace loving elephants flee into the forest and are never seen again. The black and white elephants annihilate each other and no elephants are left on earth until many, many years later some grey elephants emerge from the forest. Once again in this book it is the ending that is so important. I am sad to tell you the elephants with the small ears are looking at the elephants with the large ears and it seems conflict might once again be on the horizon.

Herbert and Harry (Pamela Allen) go fishing and catch a ‘treasure’ chest. Harry falls overboard and Herbert claims the treasure but with this comes the terrible burden of fear. Someone might try to steal his ‘treasure’ and so Herbert cannot sleep and he takes the ‘treasure’ to the top of a mountain far away and he buries it deep into the hillside and he sets up an enormous fortification to keep the ‘treasure’ safe. The heart of this story once again comes as a conclusion. Harry swam back to shore and has lived a long, happy life with his extended family. Years later Herbert still cannot sleep, ever watchful in case someone comes to steal his ‘treasure’. So who has had treasures in their life – Herbert or Harry?

Next we read The Butter Battle book by Dr Seuss. This is a book you could share with senior High School students but it is also accessible to Upper Primary even though the references to the Cold War are too abstract for them. The issue under conflict here is perfect and really demonstrates how sometimes we disagree over such trivial things. Do you put butter on the top or the bottom of your bread? The two sides in this conflict embark on an arms race to wipe each other out. The weapons and uniforms grow bigger and more outlandish as we turn each page until both sides develop a bomb. Neither can drop this bomb and so we have a stalemate. We also own the video of this story which is filled with lively songs.
Other titles we will explore over the next few weeks on this theme include Fox by Margaret Wild, Grumpy little King by Michael Streich, Clancy the Courageous cow by Lachie Hume (Notes), The General by Janet Charters illustrated by Michael Foreman, The Conquerors by David McKee and The bear with the sword by Davide Cali (Notes).

"One Hundred books" meets The Large Family by Jill Murphy

2011-11-04T14:22:00.001-07:00

This week our Kindergarten children met the delightful, and ever expanding, Large Family. Recently a friend gave our library a plastic moulded elephant display piece that had been used in a bookshop to promote these books by Jill Murphy so it seemed like a good time to revisit these old favourites.

We began with Five Minutes Peace where Mrs Large just needs five minutes to herself something we can all identify with. Lester, Laura and the 'little one' have different ideas, though, and as Mrs Large tries to relax in her warm bath each child visits her and offers entertainment. Lester wants to play his recorder, Laura wants to read her book and the 'little one', who in a later book we learn is really named Luke, wants to share all is toys. In the end they all get into the bath with the 'little one' still in his pyjamas.

Later in the week we read A Piece of Cake, All in one Piece, Mr Large in Charge and A quiet night in. We were also able to enjoy the audio versions and it was terrific to see the children engrossed in listening as opposed to looking at a video.

Look for all the wonderful books by Jill Murphy in your library soon. They are perfect for sharing.

Celebrating 100 books and Bob Graham

2011-10-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

As part of our 100 books to 100 classes project we have spent the last week exploring all the wonderful Bob Graham picture books in our collection. The week began with his newest title A bus called Heaven and ended with one of his first books Pete and Roland.

The celebration of community is an important theme in many Bob Graham picture books. It is little Stella who sees the real potential of an old bus which has been abandoned outside her house. Everyone comes together from the streets nearby to clean up the old bus, move it into Stella’s driveway and create a communal space inside for games, friendship and fun. Even the graffiti boys rise to the occasion by painting the bus with a glorious design after their night of tagging is discovered by Stella’s mum. As with any great story, however, there needs to be a moment of crisis. The local council are not happy to have the old bus partially over the footpath and so a tow truck arrives to take the now restored bus to the wreckers. Stella is a quiet, shy little girl but she bravely steps out to meet this challenge head on.

Stella reminded me of other wonderful young, yet strong, girl characters in Bob Graham’s books like Rose Summers in Rose meets Mr Wintergarten , Dimity in Dimity Dumpty and Kate in Let’s get a pup and The Trouble with dogs. In a way all of these characters are like Max – a small hero doing quiet deeds – the world needs more of those.

We read all of those Bob Graham titles this week along with Oscar’s half birthday, Crusher is coming, Buffy and Greetings from Sandy Beach. Given more time we should also have looked at The Wild, Pearl's place, First there was Frances and Queenie the Bantam.

If you have not explored the wonderful books of Bob Graham take a look in your library soon. These are books that can be read over and over again and they are books that are best shared sitting side by side with a friend or an adult as together you explore all the tiny little details Bob Graham lovingly includes in each illustration.

Teaching notes for A bus called Heaven and for Max.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

2011-10-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

Everything about this book is wonderful! All the way through I kept thinking of one of my favourite childhood books – From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler (Newberry winner 1968) and now, when I have finished Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, I was delighted to read in the acknowledgements that he also loved this book and has actually put in many references to this story by EL Konigsburg so now I need to re read From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler and then re read Wonderstruck to find the connections.

A few years ago I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Caldecott winner 2008) and was swept along by both the written story and the amazing visual images. In Wonderstruck we now have a second outstanding story in words and pictures by the gifted creator Brian Selznick.

Wonderstruck is an innovative dual narrative. There is Ben, a boy living in 1977 in Minnesota. His world has been turned upside down with the death of his mother and the discovery of mysterious details about his unknown father. Along side this we see the story of Rose who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey fifty years earlier. The story of Rose’s childhood is told through illustrations that move swiftly like a silent film. The idea of silent motion pictures as a way to tell stories is important to the author especially as a way deaf and hearing people in the past were able to enjoy this shared experience.

This is a massive book with over 630 pages but just like The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the two alternating stories speed along. I found myself wanting to slow down my reading so I could make the experience of reading this inspiring book last longer. I also kept hoping there would be a link between Rose and Ben but I am not going to tell you about this beautiful and emotional part of the book.

Working as a Teacher-Librarian I love references to libraries. Here is one I will now treasure : “The next morning, Ben headed to the wolf diorama. He read the sign on the wall over and over again … he wished that he were with his mom in her library, where everything was safe and numbered and organized by the Dewey decimal system,. Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey decimal system. That way you’d be able to find whatever you were looking for, like the meaning of your dream, or our dad.”

This is one of those very, very special books that I can't wait to put into the hands of my students. At times like this I feel very privileged to collect, read and share the reading treasures that abound in our world.

If I ever get to New York I would love to visit all the special places that are included in this story. Here is another detailed review. Here is a very detailed interview.

Finally I gasped out loud when I read the dedication on the last page – "To Maurice Sendak" a perfect way to link these two outstanding talents!

Garry Keeble's Kitchen by Errol Broome illustrated by Maya

2011-10-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another one of those older books in my library that I have just re-read prior to culling our collection. This is a book I have been recommending to students for years and years and once again I must say it has stood the test of time (first published in 1992) but alas it is also out of print.

Garry Keeble’s Kitchen is the story of Garry who becomes so fed up with the situation at home particularly in relation to his mum’s new boyfriend that he decides to leave home in the hope that he can find some peace and better food.

Garry is a fabulous cook and so with suitcase in hand he heads for the park. Once there he meets Karen who hates cooking. Karen has a spare shed out the back of her home where her granddad once lived. Karen needs help as she is expected to cook for her family each night so she makes a deal with Garry. In exchange for cooking dinner he can stay, rent free, in her shed. The arrangement seems ideal especially since Karen even provides money to go shopping.

There are 28 real recipes in this book including main courses, snacks and yummy desserts. Garry has no paper and so the illustrator, Maya, cleverly presents each recipe on an interesting scrap of recycled paper. She uses everything from packaging labels to bus and tram tickets.

We have two copies of this book in our library but the one I have been reading is in very poor shape. It will need to be culled. I hope our other copy is able to be saved. If you love to eat and you have a spare hour or so look for this funny and poignant story of “how one boy left home and survived with 28 recipes that anyone can cook and everyone will eat.” This book was originally published by Random House and selected by Mark Macleod – he no longer has this role but Mark always managed to select terrific books. One last caution do not read this book if you are feeling hungry!

One Hundred books continued

2011-10-16T14:23:00.001-07:00

Over the next seven weeks I plan to read one hundred books to one hundred classes. So far it has been very exciting to see the reaction of different groups of children to some of my cherished favourites.

In addition to the titles mentioned in the last post about this project by the end of last week we had read Where's the Baby by Pat Hutchins - there are four books in this series, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, The Mouse with the too long tail by Banni McSpedden and Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole. The search of identity within a family seems to be a link.

Pat Hutchins has created a delightful cast of characters in her monster series staring the wonderful Hazel and her little monster brother Billy. In the first book little Billy is lost. Hazel can see all the mischief he has been up too but the true delight comes from the reactions of the grownups - Grandma and Ma who, blinded by love perhaps, think all these horrible things show how marvelous Billy truly is. He paints the walls, spreads the chimney soot all over the white carpet, floods the bathroom and even cuts up a new dress Ma has been making. For Hazel the worst is yet to come when Billy attacks her room but the final scene is the one all children love. Where did those eggs come from?

Chrysanthemum is loved by her mother and father and life is happy and filled with warmth until the day she goes to school. Her beautiful name becomes a torture and each day is harder than the one before until the wonderful Mrs Twinkle turns things around in an unexpected way. We also have the Weston Woods video of this story and it was very special to see how the children were caught up in the plight of Chrysanthemum and how the actions of the bullies enraged them.

Years ago I read The mouse with the too long tail to a group and one little boy who had a fairly severe physical disability declared at the end that it was the best book he had ever heard. I could see him cheering for "Mouse with the too long tail" - the fifteenth child of Mr and Mrs Mouse. Our little hero has to discover that sometimes differences can be an advantage. At first he hates his tail but after a special dream everything is turned around. "The only difference was how happy he was - now that his tail was some thing everyone looked up to." Once again this is a very old book long out of print but well worth looking for in your library.

Finally we read Princess Smartypants to a group of Grade One children. I think parts of it may have been a little too difficult for this group although one child loved listening to this story as it was clearly a personal favourite. Babette Cole does not water down the vocabulary so the teacher needed to do quite a lot of talking all the way through. I have always loved defiant princesses and Smartypants is a wonderful example. There are two sequels to this book in our library.

Where to next? I think we should continue this theme by reading The very worst Monster by Pat Hutchins, Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes, Trixie the witch's cat by Nick Butterworth and The paperbag princess by Robert Munch.

Next post I will talk about some longer picture books we are sharing with Grade 3 and the next in my series of holocaust picture books for Grade 6.

Junonia by Kevin Henkes

2011-10-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

We read to know we are not alone (CS Lewis). I wish I had read Junonia when I was a Primary school child, Alice Rice and I have so much in common. Alice is a quiet, compliant and well mannered child. As an only child with older parents she spends a lot of time in the company of adults. She travels to the same special holiday house in Florida year after year and Alice especially loves celebrating her birthday with the most special food, presents and happenings that she can imagine. Finally Alice has a little mole on her face which she has very mixed feelings about.

Each year as this group of three, mother, father and Alice, arrive at their holiday destination they have a little competition. Who will spot the first pelican, dolphin, heron, ibis and seagull? But as they approach the familiar holiday house Alice is overcome by a feeling of dread. It seems things are destined to be different this year.

One thing that that has not changed though is her room :

“The sun-bleached bedspread was printed with a pattern of a seaside Chinese village. Alice ran her fingers over rooftops and archways, over billowy swarms of butterflies and blossom-covered tress…. Here and there the bedspread was threadbare but Alice hoped it would never be replaced. She often fell asleep imagining that she was part of the village, wandering the twisted streets among the butterflies, collecting armfuls of fallen blossoms.”

Alice loves to collect shells and Henkes has thoughtfully included an illustration of all the shells that are found in this part of Florida. One shell that has alluded Alice is a junonia. She hopes that this year, the year she will turn ten, she will find this special shell washed up on the beach. Living near the beach I also find shells absolutely fascinating. Here is a video of the author talking about his book.

One of the biggest differences for Alice this year is the composition of the fellow holiday makers. Her holiday friends Colin, Chad and Heather are not coming and her beloved Aunty Kate is bringing a new friend called Ted and his young six year old daughter, Mallory.

Alice has to adapt to all this change but at least, it seems, her birthday celebration will be perfect :

“The hot dogs were perfect. The potato chips were perfect. Even the carrot sticks were perfect; they were sweeter than ever, and crunchy, and the most pure orange colour imaginable. Can food somehow know it’s your birthday and change to become more delicious? Underneath it all lay the faded red-and-white-checked tablecloth that Alice’s mother had found in the back of the cupboard. It was perfect too.”

You will hold your breath I am sure as the magic of this celebration crumbles around Alice.

My list of favourite books constantly changes and expands and now I am happy to add the gentle and emotional book Junonia. By coincidence we read Chrysanthemum to our Grade One classes this week and now that I think about it I can see lots of links between this very special picture which is essentially about identity and this novel by the same author, Junonia.

One Hundred Books and One Hundred classes

2011-10-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

My one hundred books in one hundred lessons project has just begun. When I look at all the wonderful books in my library I have very mixed feelings. There are so many wonderful books that I love to read to classes and so many other wonderful books that I just don’t have time to read to classes so I have invented the one hundred book project. This term I will read a different book to nearly every class of the 33 I see each week. My usual pattern is to read the same book 4 or 5 fives times to each class in a grade. In this way no child misses out on my carefully chosen books but this also means I can only cover a limited selection of titles each term. For a change this term I will read different books to as many classes as I can. I have only seven weeks to complete this challenge which means I need to share fifteen different books with the children each week.

Our first week began with Kindergarten. I am not able to resist themes so this week I have selected my favourite Teddy Bear and other toy stories. First off I choose Corduroy by Don Freeman and the sequel A Pocket for Corduroy. This is such an old series. The first title was written in 1968 and the sequel ten years later but both continue to have a strong appeal to young children. Corduroy is special but he has lost his button. The Department Store where Corduroy lives is filled with wonder for the young bear. When he goes exploring he discovers the furniture department and luckily he finds beds with mattresses and these are sewn down with buttons. Corduroy has found his button but wrestling it off the mattress will alert the night watchman on duty that night in the store. You can sometimes hear young children gasp when they realize this guard might discover Corduroy and he might be in real trouble. The other exciting way to enjoy this story is by viewing the Weston Woods video.

In A Pocket for Corduroy our Teddy Bear is taken to the local Laundromat and accidentally left behind. During the night his adventures continue all because he now needs a pocket!

Continuing our theme of toys and Teddy Bears we also read Arnold the Prickly Teddy by Kym Lardner, Felix and Alexander by Terry Denton, Dougal the garbage dump bear by Matt Dray (this has a terrific combination of art work and photographs and lots of extra marks on the pages made by coffee cups, flies and dog paw prints) and finally today I read Boris and Borsch by Robin Klein. This last one is a long book, almost a junior novel, so it was exciting to see how the young children were engrossed and able to make lots of predictions.

Other books in my One Hundred Project this week have been Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport (here is a video of the whole book), Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti, Herbert Binns and his flying tricycle by Caroline Castle and Little Bo Peep’s Library book by Cressida Cowell. I looked at Little Bo Peep with Grade Four students as a way to begin our exploration of the Dewey Decimal system.

It is only Wednesday and we have read ten of my top books. Keep your eye on this blog as my students and I explore more wonderful picture books over the coming weeks. Next week Grade Five will continue the topic of African American rights and Grade six will discuss a range of picture books about the Holocaust. I will explore these in detail in my next blog entry.

Seekers Book One The quest begins by Erin Hunter

2011-10-02T02:10:00.000-07:00

This book is a little frustrating because you know from the outset that the lives of these four bears will need to collide but by the end of this book one only two have met.

A student in my school asked me to buy the books in this series by Erin Hunter. She is a new author to me but I see she is actually quite famous and prolific. Her series called Warriors consists of eighteen titles plus two specials!

In this series, Seekers, the characters are four bears. Two are brown, one white and one black. Each have different life circumstances and hardships to endure and all are equally confused about humans or flat faces and their firebeasts.

Kallik is a polar bear growing up with her brother Taqqiq and their mother Nisa. As the weather is warming the group attempt to reach land moving from one iceberg to another but when Nisa is taken by a killer whale Kallik must continue the journey alone ever hopeful that one day she will be reunited with her brother.

Lusa is a zoo bred black bear who longs for the forests and freedoms she hears about from other bears. After months of careful observation an opportunity arises and Lusa escapes from the zoo to begin the long journey to find Toklo. Lusa has met Toklo's mother. She has been captured and placed in the zoo in the next enclosure. Oka is a mother in mourning. Her son Tobi has recently died as have many other cubs before him. This last death is too much for Oka and so she has abandoned Toklo.

Toklo is a brown bear. He is wild born but he has been left on his own before his mother has taught how to hunt and fish and survive.

We meet the fourth bear in this saga right at the end. He is called Ujurak and he is a shape shifter.

If you enjoy books about animals and survival this might be a series to look for. Each chapter has an alternating focus between the first three bears and in this way Erin Hunter firmly establishes the personality and strengths of each bear.

The Glass Tower by Margaret Beames

2011-10-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

I recently visited a school library where the new Teacher-Librarian had thoroughly culled the collection and this made the library so appealing with plenty of space on the shelves. This year we are due to stock take (inventory) our fiction including novels and picture books and as always I do need to do some culling. While it is easy to cull some older worn out books and popular books that were never great stories and that are no longer popular, I always struggle with one group of books when I cull. I find it hard to toss out books that I have loved. I guess if the copy is worn out or the cover is uninviting or the print is too small then the book needs to go.

This leaves me with obscure little books like The Glass Tower. Here we have an older book (published in 1991). It is in very good condition and I think the cover is still quite appealing. The print size could be bigger but it is not too small. I loved this book when I first read it ten years ago so today I re-read it and it has stood the test of time. There is only one outdated reference to video cassettes but it is so incidental I don't think a modern child would even notice it.

The setting for this story is a post apocalyptic Earth in the year 2300. Humans have fled our planet and set up space colonies but now the time has come when Earth is seen as safe and so small groups of space dwellers have returned. Meanwhile on Earth the survivors (ancestors of those left behind) have carved out their own simple society based on trade, crafts and a simple leadership hierarchy. As is often the way in books of this kind, over time the leadership has become corrupt – I am thinking of Toby Alone for example.

Rowan, a boy from Earth, meets up with two of the space dweller children and embarks on a race across the land. Rowan needs help for his mother who is gravely ill, and Astra and Drew need to find their family. The journey is filled with hazards, natural and man made, but the children never loose sight of their goal, the Glass Tower. This is a mysterious building that somehow survived the cataclysm that befell Earth. The glass tower is the scene of the Summer solstice and hence a gathering place for many of the Earth dwellers. It is the perfect place for the people of the two worlds to meet and hopefully move forward in friendship.

The Glass Tower by Margaret Beames is an action packed adventure of friendship and survival. This book would be an excellent way to introduce a young reader to Science Fiction. Of course this is another title that is out of print as are so many of the books in my blog but take a look in your library – you might be lucky! Finally I like to think the glass tower itself might have originally been a lighthouse and lighthouses are among my favourite things. The idea of a lighthouse as a place to show the way to safety is an appropriate metaphor for this book.

No passengers beyond this point by Gennifer Choldenko

2011-09-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

One of the highest accolades a student can bestow on a book is to ask his or her teacher to read it to the class. When I overheard a student at my school telling her teacher that she must read No Passengers beyond this point to her Grade 5 class I just knew I had to grab this book for myself.

The first thing I enjoyed about this book is the way each chapter is presented as from the point of view of each of the three children. You might remember I talked about this in I put a spell on you. Another series that does this is the Blossom books by Besty Byars. In No Passengers beyond this point Gennifer Choldenko gives each child an authentic voice which helps the reader to quickly identify their individual strengths and weaknesses. There is India the selfish teenager, Finn the family worrier and the delightful six year old Mouse.

I have had a strange reaction to this book. I found the ending a little disappointing but at the same time I need to say I was thoroughly engrossed in the first 22 chapters. I also had some problems with the way the author seemed to want her characters to grown and change and learn about themselves or even learn some big life lessons but in the end I think this only really happened for the older girl India. On the upside I loved little Mouse. She is quirky and highly intelligent and all the way through I wanted only the best for Mouse. The scene when Mouse arrives at the airport and sets off the security system with her exploding volcano is one of my favourite parts of this book.

Finn, India and Mouse are forced out of their home when their mother defaults on the mortgage. Mrs Tompkins or Mom cannot go with the children. She is sending them across the country to their Uncle Red with the plan that she will join them when the school term ends. Mom is a teacher and she must complete her contract and then she will need to obtain accreditation to teach Colorado.

The plane hits terrible turbulence and on landing the children find themselves in a disconnected place filled with children masquerading as adults, loudspeakers and strange warnings about time.

All three children are taken into the town of Falling bird. They are welcomed like returning heroes and on arrival they are each taken to the house of their dreams. India's for example is filled with all those wonderful clothes teenagers love. Finn finds a dad who loves to shoot hoops and for Mouse "my home is yellow with white trim, a porch swing, pots with flowers, and clouds of butterflies and hummingbirds and fireflies everywhere... in the doorway is a lady with red curly hair like mine. She has a science book in one hand, a plate of peanut-butter-chocolate chip cookies in the other. I can smell them."

I have just read the comments of one reviewer who, like me thought the cover was a jar. A closer look reveals it is an aeroplane window. I will be very interested to hear what the Grade 5 class think about this surreal, fantasy adventure. You can hear the author here. You might also want to read a good review which gives a little more of the plot. Finally here is a splendid review by my 'friend' Mr K. I have only just discovered that he totally enjoyed this intriguing book.

The truth about Verity Sparks by Susan Green

2011-09-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

There is a fascination with orphans. I am not an orphan and I don’t really know any but I do enjoy books that feature intrepid orphans who set out to discover their true destiny often using one or two little treasures left with them as infants.

Verity Sparks lives in the London of 1878 and yes of course she is an orphan. As the story opens Verity is working as an apprentice milliner. Verity is sent to deliver a hat to a wealthy client but on her return later that same day she is accused of stealing a valuable jewel. Verity has been framed and is quickly cleared of the crime but the vindictive and aptly named Lady Throttle enacts her revenge by ordering that Verity be dismissed from her employer, Madame Louisette.

Luckily for Verity, Lady Throttle has employed a private detective by the name of Saddington Plush. Verity herself has a special gift for finding lost things. Her itchy fingers tell her the jewel is hidden in Lady Throttles own purse. Young Mr Plush or SP and his father the Professor are really interested in matters of the mind and so they are immediately drawn to Verity and her amazing teleagtivism. When she is thrown out of her home at the millinery shop Mr Plush, the Professor and their sister Judith take her under their wing offering a home, education, clothes and an immediate elevation in society. While all this is happening, though, there is the ongoing mystery of Verity’s own identity. All she has is a medallion with strange engraving, a ring and a small patch work quilt.

I started The Truth about Verity Sparks last night and finished it this morning. Susan Green has written a really good romp of a mystery story. There are heaps of characters – good and bad, lovely food, snakes and wonderful descriptions of the streets of London. The cover is perfect and this is one book I am looking forward to recommending to my middle primary students. You can read some thoughts by the author here.

Drawn from the heart a memoir by Ron Brooks

2011-09-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

There are so many reasons why I wanted to read this book. I have always loved John Brown Rose and the midnight cat and reading The Bunyip of Berkeley's creek is such a moving experience I try to include in our library sessions every year. I do like to attend children's book conferences because this is the way I can hear and sometimes meet my favourite authors and illustrators. One CBCA conference in Hobart had Ron Brooks as a presenter (along with the wonderful Bob Graham) so naturally I had to attend. The session with Ron in a little room on a lower level of the Hobart casino is a memory I treasure. Then this book, Drawn from the Heart, received a fabulous review in Magpies by Robin Morrow (a reviewer I really admire) and finally Drawn from the Heart was short listed for the CBCA awards and it was an honour book in the Eve Pownall category. It is easy to see I had to read this book!

In fact I have read it through twice so that should show you that I was totally engrossed in exploring the creative processes of the very talented Ron Brooks. Today I bought a copy of The Macquarie Bedtime story book from my local second hand book seller. It felt quite serendipitous to find it on the shelves of this large well stocked shop. There is a whole chapter devoted to the creation of this book (in New York) along with chapters about John Brown, the bunyip, Fox, Motor Bill and the lovely Caroline, Old Pig, and the little books about his son Henry.

I recommend Drawn from the Heart for all picture book lovers. If you can I suggest you might try to have a complete collection of Ron's books in easy reach so you can look closely at each illustration as it is mentioned and explained. I love the passion of this illustrator and the insights in to every decision from font, cover, end papers, text placement and more.

As Ron says this is a "story about books, about bookmaking, about my life - a series of illustrations ..... it has been an interesting process for me."

Claude on holiday by Alex T Smith

2011-09-17T23:21:00.001-07:00

We have a little boy called Claude, with a lovely smile, in Kindergarten this year so when I saw Claude on Holiday I knew firstly that I wanted to read this book and secondly that it would be fun to put this into Claude's hands and see his reaction.

Claude is a crazy, but well organised dog who longs for a holiday. His owners Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes leave for work every day on the dot of 8am. While they are gone Claude and his best friend Sir Bobblysock embark on wild adventures.

On the day of this story Claude packs his suitcase with underpants, a tambourine, suncream, squirty cream in a can, a lampshade, sticky tape and slightly squashed sandwiches. He is heading to the beach for a holiday.

Every one of the things in his suitcase will be put to good use at the beach even the squirty cream!

This book is a winner. It has joyous illustrations, crazy characters and is certain to put a smile on your face. Claude even has his own blog. There are two books about this quirky little dog and his special side kick Sir Bobblysock with one more to come next year. Claude in the city is the first in the series and Claude at the circus will hit our shelves soon.

Yin's magic dragon by Lau Siew Mei

2011-09-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a terrific junior novel. It will take you only minutes to read this slim book but I am sure all Dragon lovers will enjoy this lively little story.

I think it was the gold cover that first caught my interest and then I saw the endorsement from Carole Wilkinson - she has written a fabulous series of books about dragons - I knew this would be a little gem.

Yin has a pet dragon and she calls him Dragon. He looks fierce and he does try to breathe flames but really he is just a very special friend to Yin who has busy parents and no siblings. Yin also has a wonderful grandmother called Po Po. She cooks the most delicious treats to Yin. Trouble comes when Yin's mother becomes jealous of the special relationship that has formed between Yin and Po Po. Mother send Po Po away and on that day Dragon also disappears. Yin has now started school which should be exciting but Yin is just miserable. There are plenty of tears each evening. Mother has some lessons to learn about love and sharing and even communication and of course there is a very happy ending all round.

I do find it exciting when I find a satisfying story like Yin's Magic Dragon that is also just perfect for beginning readers.

An elephant in the garden by Michael Morpurgo

2011-09-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a parent walking past me mentioned she was trying to buy a book for her son called An elephant in the garden. I had not heard of it so I was very curious. When I looked up this book I discovered it was by the famous author Michael Morpurgo. I clearly remember the very first Michael Morpurgo title I read called Why the whales came. It had a big impact on me so I was keen to buy An elephant in the garden for our school library.

This is a terrific story set in Dresden during World War Two. Lizzie, now nearly 90 and living in a Nursing Home in Canada, recalls the events of her early life when her mother worked at the Dresden Zoo. Bombs had been dropping all over Germany and the zoo authorities had taken the heart wrenching decision to shoot all the dangerous animals in the zoo so the people of Dresden, and perhaps the animals themselves, would not be put in any danger in the event of an attack.

Lizzie’s mum or Mutti convinces the zoo authorities that she can take care of one young elephant, Marlene. Mutti has cared for Marlene since her birth, indeed it was Mutti who named her Marlene after Marlene Dietrich. The family bring the four year old elephant home and all goes well until the fateful day the bombs begin to fall. Lizzie, her young brother Karli and Mutti all need to flea the city with Marlene in tow. Along the way they meet a Canadian airman whose plane has been shot down and they also acquire a whole choir of children as they travel across the country looking for refuge and help from the Americans.

Just as they reach this help Marlene runs off. I held my breath. It seemed they might never find her again.

I keep hoping to read that this was all based on a true story – it all seemed so plausible and real. Alas I have not found anything to prove or disprove this. This is a terrific adventure story and one that will be enjoyed by middle primary students. It was good to read a story about this period in history from the point of view of ordinary German citizens. A good alternative to the many holocaust novels for younger readers.

As with nearly all Michael Morpurgo books, this one has perfect and evocative illustrations by wonderful Michael Foreman.

Lost and Found by Andrew Clements

2011-08-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

Following our very busy Book Week celebrations (we had daily thinking challenges, songs, lunch time craft days and more) I was very happy to just sit and read for an hour or so this morning and what better book to relax with than another title from master storyteller Andrew Clements.

I noticed a great quote on the front cover of this book - "'That could totally happen at my school' Fiction".... I think this will become a new subject heading or tag perhaps for my reading.

Twins have always fascinated me. I am not a twin but I was good friends with two sets of twins as a young child. One set of twins were totally different in every way - looks, interests, physical size and temperament. The other set of twins were so alike - two girls who did look almost the same and who had the same interests etc. although I could always tell them apart.

As a teacher I often find identical twins can be a challenge. Since I usually only see these students for a short time once a week it can take me years to confidently separate them. Teachers and other adults who constantly say - "which twin are you" must drive these kids crazy and that in fact is the premise of this little book by Andrew Clements and I was also interested to read Andrew Clements has twin sons. This might be why his insights into the issues of being a twin seem so authentic.

I will not say this is the best Clements book I have read - that would be Frindle followed by The Janitors Boy and Extra Credit - but Lost and Found is easy to read and as usual Clements seems to get right inside the head of Grade 5 and 6 students.

Jay and Ray discover the school has muddled up their records from the previous school and that only one student is enrolled. This opens the way for the boys to experience school as an individual and not as a twin. They take alternate days off but of course this must end in disaster!

You can read a little more of the plot here or just grab this book for a quick and enjoyable read!

Another set of Aussie Nibbles to nibble

2011-08-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

As promised earlier in my blog, I am reading my way through our collection of Aussie Nibbles and I continue to be surprised and excited by so many of these simple titles.

Pop-up Fox has been in my collection for a long time (published in 2004) and I am now puzzled why I did not pick it up much earlier. David does not have many friends and so a party invitation is a very special event. The party has a dress up theme - come as something starting with the same letter as the name of the Birthday boy. This is easy for David as he loves dressing up and he especially enjoys making masks. He decides to go as a fox but on arrival at the party he discovers something terrible. The boy hosting the party is called Phillip and the other children have come dressed as a pirate, pizza and a plane.

How will David survive this situation? Do you know why he went to the party as a fox? Can the author Janeen Brian give us a plausible happy ending – yes she can. Read Pop-up Fox to find out how.

I have always enjoyed the idea of using food colouring. I once had a magazine that featured a pie where the top was decorated like a patchwork quilt using food colouring. I also love those little food colouring bottles from the supermarket. Margo and her sister Sonya need to decide on the colour for the icing on their cake. Their grandmother suggests blue. While she does enjoy the cake their grandmother complains she does not like her grey hair. Can you guess how food colouring, blue icing and hair might make for a hilarious outcome? This book Blue Hair day is made all the more special by the addition of zany illustrations by Leigh Hobbs.

Sonya Hartnett has just won our Children’s Book of the Year award for her novel The midnight Zoo so I was very keen to see what she might do within the constraints of a Nibble. When the youngest children in my school preview our special donate a book display I always tell them to tuck their hands behind their backs. Fingers can sometimes get a little out of control and this is the exact premise of Sadie and Ratz. Sadie and Ratz are in fact the left and right hands of Hannah and try as she might they sometimes lead her into mischief. Hannah has a little baby brother called Baby Boy. “Baby Boy is four years old. Four years is a long time. … everyone says Baby Boy is a good boy. But …”

Baby Boy has found his voice and his power. When something goes wrong he accused Saddie and Ratz. Hannah is fed up but what can she do? Then something really surprising happens to Baby Boy and Baby Boy needs to name is own right and left hands because it seems they are causing their own mayhem. I must again make special mention of the illustrations. Ann James perfectly captures the expressions and emotions of each family member.

Bungawitta by Emily Rodda

2011-08-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Bungawitta by Emily Rodda - will it be the first title I mention to be part of the 2012 CBCA short list? This is the quintessential Australian yarn. The town of Bungawitta has been ravaged by drought. There are young children who think rain is a myth because they have never seen it in their lifetime. The few remaining inhabitants now gather at the general store each morning to listen to the unchanging weather prediction – fine and sunny. On the day of this story Jay makes a suggestion that will change the course of all their lives, put Bungawitta on the map and give this community the happy ending they deserve.

Each of the twelve people has a skill or a gift. Jay suggests they hold a festival – The Bungawitta Earth Festival, where city folk are invited to come and sculpt the clay that can be made from the dirt around the town when it is mixed with brown water from the post office water tank. Auntie Flo organizes refreshments, souvenirs, chutney and jam, Cookie makes fruit cakes, Socko’s mum organizes a sausage sizzle and pony rides for the kids and so on.

On the day of the festival everyone holds their breath waiting to see if anyone will turn up. “Then the first car came over the hill. It was a bright yellow VW Beetle with four people inside.” It is the promise of the ABC television reporters and camera crew that has bought the city people in their droves but will the television people really come and what is Glory-Alice, the youngest child in town, excited about?

Drought is a harsh reality in Australia. City children can gain an insight into life in a small country community through this easy to read novel Bungawitta but they will also enjoy the humour, friendships and sheer determination of these special people.

Emily Rodda has taken a new direction in her storytelling and with the lively illustrations of Craig Smith I hope you agree this book is a beaut!! You can read very extensive teachers notes here.

Children's Book of the Year Awards for 2011

2011-08-21T03:39:00.001-07:00

Once again there are surprises, nods of the head and smiles all around as the CBCA book awards have now been announced for 2011.

Smiles? Well I loved and reviewed The Midnight Zoo, Mirror and The Red Wind and all three were winners in their sections which means I agree with the judges!

Surprises? I am not sure about Maudie and Bear. I love bear but I just want to take Maudie to one side and explain a few things to her like good manners and patience and taking turns and being fair but perhaps all these things are beyond the comprehension of a three year old. I do like the message on the back cover however, that love is inexhaustible.

I am also not so sure about Just a dog but I guess that is the main point of awards - it would be a boring old world if we all agreed on the same titles.

Nods of the head? The judges had to give an award to Why I love Australia, Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot and The Tall man and the twelve babies.

Excited? Yes I am excited to see the Sydney Morning Herald reviewer mentioned a couple of great titles that did not reach the short list including The Three loves of Persimmon.

We will celebrate Book Week using lots of copies of the wonderful book Mirror. I am looking forward to hearing the children talk about this innovative and important book. It will be a huge week of reading, songs, dance, competitions, knitting and lunch craft. To me Book Week should feel like Christmas with lovely surprises, smiles and happiness all around.

Who's in charge

2011-08-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

Here is my first review of a non fiction book. Everything about this book is yelling out the word quality. The title Who’s in charge? The cover layout. The foreword – something I don’t always read. The table of contents and finally the fabulous easy to read and engaging text on a complex and difficult subject – politics, leadership, governments, voting, democracy and so much more.

Using bright relevant graphics, different sized fonts, cartoons and catchy headings, Who’s in charge is a book that you will want to read from cover to cover in one go. Later you might return and dip into the sections that are of interest and there are so many all easy to find using the extensive index.

If you are trying to explain any aspect of government or politics to a young student then this is the perfect book. I especially enjoyed the pages that explain left or right, socialism versus conservatism. This is a book from the UK but it is full of international examples and since it was published in 2010 it is very up to date.

In conclusion I will quote from the foreword :

“Half the people in the world live in a democracy… but even in a democracy, millions of people have no effective voice at all. Perhaps they don’t vote, … or don’t follow the news so simply don’t know what’s going on. The truth is, politics only works when people put in the (small) amount of thinking needed to take part. It is messy, but often exciting … do you want to get involved, or just made to follow someone else’s rules?”

One dog and his boy by Eva Ibbotson

2011-08-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

I adore the writing of Eva Ibbotson so it was with great joy I bought home One Dog and his Boy to read over the weekend. I loved this book so much I simply did not want it to end. It has so many things I love in a book – dogs, friendship, heroism, an action packed plot and a most satisfying ending.

This is the last book Eva Ibbotson wrote before she died in 2010 and that news has made me sad. Her books are all so varied. The horror scenes in Which Witch will stay with me forever and I constantly recommend Journey to the River sea to my senior Primary library students.

In One Dog and his Boy our hero is Hal. Hal is like the boy in the last Morris Gleitzman book I reviewed Too small to fail – he has rich rich rich parents who have no understanding of their son and who forbid him to have the one thing he really wants in life – a dog.

Near Hal’s home the Easy Pets Dog Agency has been set up by two unscrupulous people who are out to get money by providing dogs to fit the whims of fickle people. “They had realized that nowadays most people didn’t want anything to last for a long time. People changed their houses and their cars again and again; they changed their children’s schools… so why would they want to hang onto their dogs?” Myron and Mavis Carker have set up a dog rental agency using only the best pure bred dogs which are pampered and fully trained.

Hal has asked and asked for a dog as his next Birthday present. His mother disappoints him once again but later that night his father agrees Hal can have a dog. Quite wrongly these parents expect Hal will tire of his new pet and so hiring a dog from the Easy Pets dog agency seems the perfect solution. The complication comes when Hal finds Fleck at the agency and it is love at first sight for both of them. Fleck is not a pure bred dog, he is a stray but he is also a dog with a huge heart.

This book reminded me of What do you think Feezel by Elizabeth Honey, and of other books where the love between a boy or a girl and his or her dog lies at the heart of the plot. Books like Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds, Where the red fern grows by Wilson Rawls and Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo so if you are a dog lover you might look for all of these in your school library. You can read more of the plot here if you need to be convinced to read One dog and his boy.

Edsel Grizzler Book One Voyage to Verdada by James Roy

2011-08-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like to recall is exactly how I find great books. More on that in a minute. I also often marvel that there are so many fabulous books out there just waiting to be read and enjoyed. How do authors come up with such wonderul plot ideas? James Roy is a very talented Australian writer. I knew this already from reading Problem Child and I am so happy I have now read his terrific fantasy/science fiction book Edsel Grizzler Book One Voyage to Verdada.

Edsel lives a safe, predictable and boring life and this is reflected in his address Number 58, Bland Street, West Malaise.

The only light in his dull life is his regular trip to the local junk or second hand shop where he has found a friend and more importantly found he has the talent to take junk, repair it and make money. On one such trip to Nicks ‘n’ Nacks Edsel is given something very strange. “This something was roughly the size of a large wheelbarrow, and shaped like half an egg. Standing high on three spindly, chrome legs, it appeared to be made of the same kind of material as bathtubs and vanity basins … embossed into the surface was a small, simple logo: a curly V with a slightly distorted oval around it.”

Have you made a connection between this symbol and the title Voyage to Verdada. This thing looks like a space ship. Perhaps it is a space ship.

Back to my original question how did I find this book? Once again a young boy came to my library counter and enquired about the sequel. I knew this meant he had enjoyed the first book so I grabbed it for a quick read. Several hours later I lifted my head. There is no way you will predict the journey of this book. Edsel does travel to Verdada but why he is there, what happens to him and what the future holds are all things you will only know when you READ THIS BOOK.

This book will make you think about your life choices, your destiny and perhaps even your parents!

I am now ready to grab the sequel called Rescue Mission and this week I also need to purchase the final installment for our library.

This book reminded me a little of The Girl who could fly where you have a team of children doing work for adults and the children need to draw on their special talents to support and ultimately rescue each other. If you have read The Girl who could Fly or even if you haven't go into your library and look for Edsel Grizzler Voyage to Verdada. There are teacher notes here. The author site is also worth a look.

The Calder Game by Blue Balliet

2011-07-27T04:11:00.000-07:00

I remember the first Blue Balliet book I ever found was Chasing Vemeer. This is a book I read years and years ago but a memory of a fast paced adventure and fabulous problem solving lingers with me. These same feelings are true for this third title by Blue Balliet where we once again meet Calder, Petra and Tommy.

One exciting thing I must say before going any further with this review something wonderful occasionally happens when I read is a book when real life and the story overlap or make a connection. As I was reading The Calder Game last week Google celebrated 113th birthday of Alexander Calder.

Before reading this book I had not even heard of Alexander Calder. His work is so fabulous.

In this latest adventure our three friends have moved up a grade. The new teacher seems most uninspiring especially since these are all very gifted students. She has organised for the whole class to view the latest exhibition of works by Alexander Calder but there are some many restrictions placed on the kids they all feel as though the joy of this day has been drained out of them.

Several days later Calder Pillay and his father head off to England. Walter Pillay is attending a conference and Calder is left to explore the area around Woodstock. In the main square he sees a sculpture by Alexander Calder. Since they share the same name, Calder is fascinated by the work of this artist but as the days unfold this young boy will disappear, a major crime will be attempted and Petra and Tommy will fly to England to help solve this dangerous and intriguing mystery.

If you enjoyed Chasing Vemeer or The Wright 3 then you will want to grab The Calder Game. I am sure you will not be disappointed. You might also like to dust off your set of pentominoes because they play a vital role in this story too and Brett Helquist the illustrator has hidden them all through the illustrations which adds another puzzle for you to solve. Read more about this book, the illustrations and an extract here. Finally you must take a dip into the author web site it is full of information including details of her newest book which we will now need to hunt out for our library!

Oracle by Jackie French

2011-07-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

“The wind smelled of rock and ice the night their father took Nikko’s sister out to die.” This is a wonderful opening sentence and if you have been reading for a long time you will know for certain this baby is not going to die and that Nikko will be our hero and he will rescue her. Jackie French is such a master storyteller. I simply devoured this wonderful book about life in Ancient Greece.

“Things done in darkness could be ignored. But it was daylight now. … His sister was safe.” I just had to tell you this part so you can breathe again knowing everything will be fine.

Nikko rescues Thetis and so changes the destiny of their lives. They live in a poor mountain village in a rocky environment where food is scarce and goats are the main source of income. Each year the High King sends his tribute gatherers to gather a tenth of the year’s produce. The people of Nikko’s village try to hide their best goats and their grain stores but Orkestres comes upon the children and their goats as they head up the mountain and so the village plans are thwarted.

Orkestres is not a solider or gatherer, he is an entertainer who performs for the High King and is also sent to distract the people in each village as their hard fought resources are taken away. Orkestres is a wonder to behold. “He was bare-chested…. His skin shone like a pot rubbed with oil. Stones shone from his earlobes and wrists and ankles … his hands were empty; he had not even a hunting spear of knife.”

It is Orkestres who will change the lives of Nikkos and Thetis forever. He sees in the siblings a special talent which he thinks might amuse the High King. He offers to swap the children for the village tribute. It is quite a chilling scene when their father simply states “You can take them.”

The new life is both wonderful and terrifying. These two children do indeed perform for the High King and their dance is breathtaking but there is also the constant threat of what might happen if they fail to please the High King.

When you read Oracle you will feel as though you are really in the castle eating the food, smelling the perfumes and soaking up the scenery. There are so many twists and turns in this plot I am not going to tell you everything it would be better to just read this book but if you are curious you could read this blog review.

This book is perfect for a mature Primary student and when you finish reading it you will most definitely want to seek out other books by this very talented writer. Look for Tajore Arkle as your next book it is a personal favourite of mine.

A Whole Nother Story by Dr Cutherbert Soup

2011-07-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a funny book but “funniness” is very subjective. I enjoyed Lemony Snicket for example but only up until about book 6 when I finally succumbed to the pleas of the author to put the book down.

A Whole Nother Story is a whole nother story. I just loved this laugh out loud book all the way through and am very keen to get into the sequel entitled A Nother whole Nother story.

We do seem to have met these characters in other books such as The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Seven Professors of the far north and likewise the plot is not all that original but the writing, witty asides and fun plays on words make this book a winner. You should also watch out for the names of the villains!

Mr Cheeseman is an inventor. He and his beloved wife Olivia have designed a time travel machine but news of this has reached a number of villains and government agencies. These groups try to get their grubby hands on the invention but their motives are for evil and not the good of mankind so Ethan Cheeseman refuses to comply with their demands. The evil of these people unfortunately knows no limits and the lovely Olivia is murdered. Mr Cheeseman and his three ‘attractive, polite, relatively odor free children’ are now on the run.

I know all of this sounds far from funny but you just have to trust me this book is very, very funny. Here is a tiny sample which I hope will convince you.

“If I could give you just one word of advice, it would be … well an incomplete sentence. Besides being grammatically iffy, I’m sure you’d agree that a single word of advice is rarely of much use. Even the phrase ‘Look out!’ (which would prove to be live-saving advice – especially where large falling object or missing manhole covers are concerned) is two words. To simply shout ‘look!’ to a friend as a tuba falls from a ninth-story window … will at best only serve to make sure he gets a good look at the tuba before it parades him, unceremoniously, into the sidewalk.”

Who are the children in this book I hear you ask? Well that is an excellent question. There are two boys and a girl but the names of these three requires a more complex answer. You see every time the family is forced to flea the aforementioned villains the children select for themselves new names. The first is fourteen year old Barton who later becomes Joe Smith – too ordinary I agree but wait till you see the spelling – Jough Psmythe. Then there is eight year old Crandall who chooses the new name of Gerard LeFontaine and lastly twelve year old Saffron who will now be known as Maggie or more formally Magenta-Jean Jurgenson . I should also mention Steve but you will need to read the book for yourself to discover how he fits into this special family. There is also a wonderful and very helpful family dog called Pinky.

If you are a fan of Lemony Snicket and you like a fast paced, action packed and wildly funny book then look for A whole Nother Story in our library soon. The author has a delicious name and the web site is WILD!! It includes an audio sample which is well worth listening two plus a written extract and an interview with the author.

1 is for One by Nadia Wheatley

2011-07-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite things is when a young child says "read it again". Here is a mischievous little counting book which fulfills the plea of read it again.

I discovered this book many years ago after Nadia Wheatley visited my school in a NSW country town when her wonderful book My Place (1988) had just been published. I remember Nadia talked about how she wrote this little book for her daughter who often said "read it again".

How does this book work? Well you read all the way through to ten and then it says "Ten is for ten who starts counting again!". Inside the back cover is the same book only smaller. Have you guessed the ending of the second book which also concludes with the words "start counting again."? YES there is yet another teeny tiny book inside the back cover of this one.

Why am I blogging this book? My precious copy is lost. I love to read this little gem to Kindergarten but I cannot find it. I suspect someone else may have loved it and picked it up from my story table at school so I decided to do a little internet snooping. Yippee I found 1 is for One but this is the US edition and while it is fun it is also amazing to see how the words (and illustrations) have been changed. I will quote both here although I am doing the original Australian one from my memory so I apologise if any parts are incorrectly quoted.

1 is for one who starts counting for fun
2 is for two who keeps rats in her shoe
2 is for two who keep mice in a shoe
3 is for three skating fast by the sea
4 is for four for whom life is a bore
4 is for four who find life such a bore
5 is for five who is learning to dive
6 is for six who gets into a fix
7 is for seven cutting stars out for heaven
8 is for eight who leaves peas on her plate
8 is for eight who leaves peas on the plate
9 is for nine drinking blackberry win
9 is for nine hanging clothes on the line
BUT 10 is for ten who starts counting again.

One of the other fun things about this book is watching the illustrations change through each of the three retellings.

I will leave you to ponder the change from 'blackberry wine' over to hanging clothes on the line. I hope one day I find my original copy of this treasure. It came in a little slip sleeve with a different illustrator Helen Leitch.

The girl who could fly by Victoria Forester

2011-07-07T03:29:00.000-07:00

This book is so good I feel like I hardly drew in a breath for 327 pages. When I read a book like this I wonder several things – Do others know about this amazing book? How did I find this amazing book? (I think it was Mr K again!) What have others said about this book?

I want to stand on top of the highest book mountain and shout out to all students in Years 4-6 go out and grab this book it is utterly fabulous.

If you loved The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, Fearless by Tim Lott and Tensy Farlow by Jen Storer this is the book for you. This book also reminded me of the evil woman in Northern Lights.

Piper is a very special girl who is a born into a simple farming family. Piper has a gift – the gift of flying. Her older parents love their only child so much but they are simple folk who find change and difference of any kind very difficult to cope with. They keep Piper and her gift secret from the rest of the community and while Piper longs for freedom and friends, life is going on quite comfortably until the family attend the annual Fourth of July Picnic. By some coincidence I read this book on the fourth of July!

All goes well at the picnic although Piper discovers the awful prejudices of the townsfolk who are also suspicious of difference and who unfortunately listen to the local gossip Millie Mae Miller. During the baseball game Piper decides it is time to show these people who she really is and so she flies high to catch a ball and performs a series of aerial maneuvers. Piper has revealed her difference and this unleashes a dreadful chain of events.

Within days she finds herself whisked off an institute that specializes in assisting “special needs children… in learning skills so they can fulfill their dreams.” This is how it is explained by Dr Letitia Hellion but on her arrival at the school it seems things are not quite right. The other students do all have special and varied gifts but they are also very hostile to the newcomer. None more so than Conrad who takes particular pleasure in making Piper’s life a trial as he inflicts more and more diabolical punishments upon her.

The biggest thing to know about this book is to expect the unexpected. No one will conform to your opinion of them. I especially loved they way all the kids had gifts which, when combined, allowed everyone to fulfill their destiny. Little Jasper has perhaps the most important gift of all but be warned this is not revealed until right at the end.

I cannot recommend The Girl who could fly highly enough although I think the title could be more inviting and the cover design is not really inspiring (the US hardcover one is better) and I wish they had left off the Stephenie Meyer endorsement on the cover (Meyer does not match the audience for this book) but putting all this aside you must go out and grab this book. You might discover some things about intelligence too – brains are important but so is the emotional intelligence displayed by my hero Piper.

I would like to conclude with some wise words from Piper :

“Think you’re the only fool who ever made a mistake?” Piper looked at Conrad as if he was crazy. “Phhhhh! Talk about delusions of grandeur. One mistake isn’t nothing. Heck I’ve made more than that before I even get up in the morning. Can’t learn nothing worth knowing with out makin' a few mistakes first!” If you read this book with a class here are some questions.

Nibble a Nibble

2011-07-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

I started these holidays with a dip into four terrific little Aussie Nibbles. As promised earlier I am continuing to read my way through this series. These four were all a treat to read but I especially enjoyed Sami’s Genies.

Sami comes from a poor family and like our old friend Jack of Jack and the beanstalk Sami is sent to the market to sell something, in this case eggs, to raise some money. On the way he meets a man who has a box filled with lamps. Sami swaps the eggs for the four lamps and when he gets home he begins to polish them.

As you would expect the lamps contain genies who grant wishes but these wishes are most surprising and Sami now has a pile of camel dung, a pair of false teeth, a floor rug and a baby hippopotamus. The real power of this story comes as we discover the ingenious way Sami makes use of each of these ‘treasures’ and how he and the genii are able to restore the family fortunes, assist Sami’s grandfather Ali and allow Sami himself to follow his dream of learning to read and attending school.

Katherine England has succeeded in writing an engrossing and funny junior chapter book and this is one title I will certainly recommend to my youngest students.

In Blast Off we meet Adam who wants to be an astronaut. He puts together a terrific outfit using his brother’s old parka, bike helmet and snorkel and heads off with his family to visit his aunt. While playing with his cousins he throws an empty drink bottle into the neighbor’s yard. The cousins retreat in horror but Adam bravely heads through the fence. He discovers the neighbor has a space ship in his shed and Adam is invited to go for a test flight. The real identity of the neighbor, the fun of the ‘journey’ and the twist at the end all make for a very satisfying read. Margaret Clark really knows her audience. In space Adam needs to eat so Marvin supplies special space shuttle food in a tube like toothpaste so it won’t float away. Then there is the problem of going to the toilet. “You want to go the the toilet? Proper astronauts just do it! …. Like a baby. You did wear the proper padded pants didn’t you?”

Books fall open and we fall in. I have always loved this little expression and it is the perfect way to describe The Girl who fell into a book by Julia Lawrinson. Annie loves to read although the power of a great book to transport and delight you seems to be missing from her parents experience and I found this very sad. Luckily Annie does not give up her passion and despite their pleading, Annie continues to read book after book. One day a little fairy, a boy fairy appears on her shoulder. He needs Annie to help him get rid of a wild cat that has been terrorizing all the fairies.

The illustrations in this one are just perfect by Anne Spudvilias. This is one of the things I really like about Aussie Nibbles, the publishers employ some of our most talented Australian illustrators such as Craig Smith, Stephen Michael King, Tom Jellett, Ann James and Mitch Vane.

Speaking of illustrations they are magical in The Magic Violin. Jimbo is learning to play the violin but all he can make are excruciating sounds that drive everyone, including the violin itself, crazy. The violin takes matters into its own hands and produces beautiful music. Jimbo becomes famous and rich but Jimbo feels there is something important missing in his life.

If you are looking for a satisfying read at a simple level you will not be disappointed by these four gems.

The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

2011-06-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

I am a fairy tale fan. I simply love a good fairy tale and Princess Academy is exactly that - a fabulous fairy tale. It has all the elements – love, friendship, magic, the search for identity, the promise of wealth, heroes, evil villains, justice and injustice.

Miri is named after a beautiful flower and like the flower up until now she has lived a very protected life. While the other people of the village go out each day to work in the quarry chiseling out the linder stone that they use to trade, Miri must tend the house and the goats. Miri lives with her father and sister. Her mother died when she was a tiny newborn. “Though Miri had no memory of her save what she created in her own imagination, she thought of that week when she was held by her mother as the most precious thing she owned, and kept the idea of it tight to her heart.” Miri also has one special friend in the village a boy called Peder.

As the story opens a messenger arrives from the lowlands and he declares the Prince will come to select his new Princess and that she will be chosen from among the village girls living on remote Mount Eskel. In preparation all girls aged between twelve and seventeen must attend a training school for one year to prepare. Miri does not want to leave her home, her father. her sister or Peder but the village girls are given no choice. Life at the school is harsh but also it allows the girls to learn reading and politics, history, dancing and most importantly commerce. Miri is an eager pupil and dream of the Prince and life in a beautiful new home spurs her to work hard and strive to win the coveted award of Academy Princess. Of course nothing will turn out the way she expects.

If you loved Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Tajore Arkle by Jackie French or The Stonekeeper's Daughter by Linda McNabb then look for The Princess Academy you are sure to enjoy it too and the final chapters will leave you breathless as bandits attack the school.

Back to those fairy tales I mentioned. Do you have a favourite fairy tale? Mine is The Wild Swans. As I was looking for information about the author of this book I discovered Shannon Hale also wrote Rapunzel's Revenge which is a fabulous graphic novel and of course based on the famous fairy tale!

Thanks again to Mr K for sharing another fabulous book with me.

Eager and the Mermaid by Helen Fox

2011-06-19T01:57:00.000-07:00

This is the third book in a simply splendid series about the future and about robots! I read the first book Eager many years ago and just loved the whole idea of robots with emotions and a world of the future where things were good not the usual dystopian society. The second book Eager's Nephew did not disappoint and then a couple weeks ago I discovered book three Eager and the Mermaid!

Eager, Jonquil and Allegra have been in hiding since the uprising by the BDC4s but as the story opens the ban on self aware robots has been lifted and Eager is ready to be reunited with his family, The Bells. The authorities are keen to recruit intelligent robots to join a think tank to try to solve the water crisis on Earth. Selection is via a television game show and Eager wants to participate. He selects philosophy as his special subject and although he does not win he and the other contestants are invited to LifeCorp to join the think tank.

Eager has made a new friend Cedric and this group of very different robots are taken to a building containing a swimming pool. Inside the pool they discover an animate, a mermaid named Dulcie and Eager finds his life changing in most unexpected ways. Dulcie is part robot and part dolphin and she has been used a spy. She is suspicious of everyone especially humans her real friends live in the sea - the dolphins, whales and porpoises.

The humans in this book are important but it is the robot characters who really shine. You will adore Eager and cheer for him right to the end as he struggles to mend our broken world.

You can read more about the first book Eager here. One final thing I have just made an amazing discovery - Helen Fox is from England. I have no idea why but these books feel so American. I feel quite happy to discover Helen Fox lives in London.

Against the odds by Marjolijn Hof

2011-06-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of books in translation. We are so lucky in Australia to be able to read books from so many other English speaking countries - UK, USA, South Africa, New Zealand etc but what about all the other books written in other languages.

I used to love getting books from Turton and Chambers who sourced European titles for our Australian market. So it was with some special anticipation that I sat down to read Against the odds an award winning book from The Netherlands.

This book has quite a harsh cover and I am happy about this because although this is a very slim little volume this is not a book for a sensitive reader. I am very glad I read this book but even now days later I am left with a strong feeling of disquiet. There are some disturbing scenes in this book but they are important as we explore the emotional journey of the main character Kiki.

Kiki's father is a doctor who has gone to assist in a war ravaged but unidentified country - in my mind's eye it felt like The Congo. He is reported missing and Kiki and her mum spend many weeks in a state of uncertainty which is made even harder by constant enquiries by friends and other family members.

The title comes from an innocent conversation between Kiki and her mum where her mum explains "the odds that you'll become a millionaire are very very small. The odds that you'll find a coin the street are a lot bigger. You might not know the exact odds of something happening but you just know there is only a very small chance that you'll become a millionaire. How many millionaires do you know?"

From this Kiki decides if she takes certain actions she can 'change the odds' but this could have disastrous consequences.

Please be warned this book does not have a fairytale ending. You can read a good review here. I will quote from this review - sorry I do not know the reviewer's name :
"The details are bare - we don't know how old our character is, what she looks like, what her interests even are. These are the things that just don't matter when there is so much at stake, when we're dealing with life and death. But what she does share with us, she shares in depth. So much is explored in this book: life, destiny, grief, the horror of disappearance, family dynamics, whether someone should be considered a selfless hero for going to war or a selfish person for leaving their family. Thought provoking, beautiful, raw."

The secret of the Black Moon moth by John Fardell

2011-06-16T04:02:00.000-07:00

When we read we often need to suspend disbelief. I am usually very happy to do this but I think John Fardell may have taken things a little too far with his long lost civilization of people from a different species especially when he gave them clothes, a better set of morals than humans and skills to make very sophisticated technology.

This is the third adventure for this group of Scottish children and their Professor friends. This time they meet a man with a strange skull which appears to be from an early human species. This book is quite up to date because they mention Homo Floresiensis or the Hobbit person who was found in Indonesia only in the last decade. (My cousin was one of the team involved with this project)

The children and adults make the long journey across the world using their flying boats to reach the island of Pulau Gigi Naga. It is in a cave on this island that the skull and carving were found. I think by far the best part of this book is the Prologue where we read about a mysterious crime involving a book which is ripped in half as it is being stolen. If you have read the first two books in this series – The Seven Professors of the far North and The Flight of the Silver Turtle you will be keen to read this third book but for me it was not quite as exciting as the first two. Once again, though, these resourceful kids have to work together and outwit a dangerous enemy all without the help of the adults.

Look here if you want to read a little more about the plot of The Secret of the Black Moon Moth.

Kumiko and the shadow catchers by Briony Stewart

2011-06-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the third book in the series about Kumiko and her special relationship with dragons. I was not disappointed. Kumiko is a brave and resourceful little girl who in this adventure needs to take the power away from the shadow catchers by destroying the book where they keep the shadows.

These little books by Briony Stewart are a terrific way to introduce younger readers to fantasy. Even though these books are very short they do contain the perfect amount of “edge of your seat” tension and the illustrations are fabulous. If you love dragons you and you have read the first two books in this series you will be happy to discover a new title about Kumiko.

2011-06-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

Two new Aussie Nibbles are about dogs. In Where’s Sunday we meet Sunday and his family. Sal is responsible for Sunday but as they return from a day at the beach her little brother Toby needs to throw up on the side of the road after drinking a very large blue milkshake with sprinkles on top.

Everyone climbs back into the car and Sal becomes absorbed in the book she is reading what no one realises Sunday has been left behind. This then becomes the longest night of Sal’s life as she frets for her dog. Luckily Sunday as a collar and tag with his name and phone number and so you can be sure there is a happy reunion on the horizon.

Crusher Kevin is an even better story for dog lovers. Charlie is getting a new house. Each day he walks past the construction site. When valuable materials are delivered the foreman puts a fence around the yard and installs Crusher as a guard dog. Charlie has a dream that when he moves into his new house he will get a puppy of his very own. Crusher does not match this image at all. “He liked dogs, but not this one. A dog like that could rip your arms off.” In fact Charlie is so scared of Crusher he won't go near him then one day Crusher climbs under the fence and Charlie and his mum find him down the road. This is the beginning of a change in their relationship.

Names can reveal your true character. Charlie calls this dog Crusher but his real name is Kevin and as Charlie learns Kevin was rescued from the pound and he sees Kevin wagging his tail and suffering in a rain storm Charlie gradually comes to love this large back dog. This is an Aussie Nibble with a lot of heart. The ending is very special. If you are a dog lover look out for these two easy stories with their terrific dog characters.

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor

2011-06-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

I wonder why I am drawn to books like Waiting for Normal. Addie is living such a dysfunctional life and while there are adults on her side much of what she has to endure is done alone and without support. I remember reading a powerful book about life in mid west America when I was a young teenager called Addie Pray by Joe David Brown (the movie was called Paper Moon) and I think ever since I have enjoyed books in this genre.

Addie reminded me of Opal in Because of Winn Dixie, Mibs in Savvy and Anna in Sarah Plain and Tall.

What is normal? I guess it is something different for all of us but certainly the life Addie is living is far from normal. Her dad left when she was a baby and Mummers latest relationship has ended in heartbreak. The two small girls (half sisters to Addie) have been left with their father and Addie and Mummers move into a run down trailer right under a railway line with only a gas station/general store for company. Dwight, Addie’s step dad, does try to keep an eye on Addie and he makes regular maintenance payments but he has issues of his own and new relationships to nurture.

Addie does have some special strengths. She is a musician and finds solace in her flute, she is careful with money and can cook enough food from cheap ingredients to survive and Addie is a faithful friend. Soula and Elliot who run the gas station become true friends offering a safe haven to Addie when her Mummers once again takes off for days at a time but Soula and Elliot have their own sadness to contend with.

This is a book filled with heartache. I think it is true we read to know we are not alone and also we read to understand the lives of others. I absolutely loved Waiting for Normal but I know it is not a book everyone will enjoy. I will recommend this book to sensitive senior Primary girls. The story is incredibly sad and the life Addie is experiencing is harrowing although there is real hope at the end. I totally agree with the School Library Journal reviewer who said this is “a story centered around loss, heartbreak, abandonment, and new beginnings.”

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

2011-06-05T00:44:00.000-07:00

Humans spend a lot of time thinking about the past and the future so perhaps that is why fantasy writers often allow their characters to travel across time. The Emerald Atlas is a book that allows three very special children travel to the past and then armed with knowledge of the awful events that will occur these same children travel further back and successfully alter the course of history – thank goodness.

If you loved Northern Lights, The Wind Singer, Narnia and as a younger reader you also enjoyed The Magic Tree House series then The Emerald Atlas is a book you will devour.

In a scene reminiscent of the opening of The Graveyard book danger arrives in the middle of the night and we learn the lives of these three very young children are in danger. A mysterious stranger arrives to take them away and although she is only four years old Kate understands and will always remember her mother’s final words that she must take care of Michael and Emma her two younger siblings until they are all reunited as a family.

Horrible creatures chase after then as they flea the house and then magically they arrive at an orphanage where they can safely hide.

Our story then does a jump in time and we learn that the lives of these three children have seriously deteriorated with stays in a succession of orphanages each one more harsh and austere than the last. They are now to be sent to yet another orphanage at a remote place called Cambridge Falls. I held my breath as they were taken across the lake as dusk fell and arrived at this huge and empty mansion. The only glimmer of hope comes from the crazy housekeeper who, in spite of her grumbling and ugly surroundings, feeds the children the most scrumptious food they have ever eaten.

All of this is, however, only the beginning. Kate will find the book which we later learn is called The Emerald Atlas, the three children will time travel, they will encounter an evil witch, the Screechers, make some true friends and begin a journey to discover their true destiny. His is the first book of a Trilogy and while it did leave me wanting more there is at least a resolution of sorts at the end of this first installment.

This is a book that all fantasy fans will lovebut it is not for the faint hearted. The Screechers are monstrous and the battle scenes are blood thirsty. You must take a look at the web site which has a wonderful trailer and you can read the first chapter which is a great way to see if this is a book for you! One more thing you might like to know. This book looks huge – but when you open it you will see lovely large printing, white space and generous page borders – all things that I appreciate as a reader.

Henry Hoey Hobson by Christine Bongers

2011-05-29T01:10:00.000-07:00

With some books you just have to stay there for the long haul and this is certainly true for Henry Hoey Hobson by Christine Bongers. Up until Chapter 19 this book was easy to read but not exactly compulsive then I reached Chapter 19 and suddenly things got very interesting and I just needed to read and read as I raced to the end.

Henry Hoey Hobson has a complicated life. He only has his mum and they move around so often Henry is wary of making friends. This situation is exacerbated with his latest move when he finds he is the only boy in Year 7. To make matters worse his new neighbours seem to be a bunch of vampires complete with a coffin and the school “A” girl Angelica is a witness to all the strange comings and goings and she is not shy about advertising this to the other girls in Year 7 and boys in Year 6.

The swimming carnival is on soon. Swimming is the one skill Henry excels in. His swimmers are very old : “my old speedos were on their last legs; saggy, baggy and tissue-thin daggy.” I was so worried for Henry that on the day of the big carnival he would have a disaster with these swimmers, however, luck is on his side and Henry does score fabulous new swimmers in a most unexpected way. He also scores a better sense of his own identity and the promise of a better future!

There are some lovely parts in this story such as the description of the School Principal, the school secretary hiding behind her modesty panel possibly watching day time television and Hero a true friend to Henry. But more importantly the desperate characters make this story shine. People who do not, according to the author, fit into the jigsaw of their own families so they have had to make a jigsaw of their own. As Henry thinks just before his big race : “Something powered through me like a current. Charging every nerve in my body. The missing pieces of my jigsaw puzzle finally coming together to form a complete picture. Not like the one on every one else’s box. But one that suited me.”

This book will be enjoyed by middle primary students and it is short listed for the CBCA Award where I do think it will receive an honor award. I still want The Red Wind to be the winner but Henry Hoey Hobson is a worthy rival. There are teaching notes too.

The Starkin Crown by Kate Forsyth

2011-05-23T03:42:00.000-07:00

My blog is becoming famous. For the first time ever an author has approached me to read her latest book and then do an interview and she even sent me a copy of her book!! (Well actually this is the second time - Belinda Murrell who is Kate's sister actually asked me first you can see my Q&A for The Ivory Rose).

I absolutely loved The Starkin Crown and if you are an avid fantasy reader you will love it too. Boys this is a book for you too - I did not like the cover - but don't let that stop you grabbing hold of this powerful story of ... as it says on the cover it is a book of ambush, betrayal and murder!

Here is my interview with Kate Forsyth :

1. Do you like the cover? I am guessing that you do but I think it is so limiting. For me the audience for this book is upper Primary boys. This cover probably will not appeal to them. Was it hard to decide to put such a gender specific cover or do you think boys will pick your book up just as readily as girls?

I do indeed love the cover! However, I agree that girls may be more likely to pick it up than boys. It's difficult to design a cover that appeals to both genders, and we wanted something very eye-catching and dramatic. I certainly think the cover is both. And I have already had some fan mail from boy readers which seems to indicate they're reading the book and loving it. I have always had both male and female readers, and I think that readers of fantasy are more open to reading across gender barriers.

2. I confess I have not read the earlier two books. This made no difference to my enjoyment. Was this a deliberate plan? I must say the market does seem to be flooded with trilogies and quartets at the moment so it was refreshing to read a book with the complete story.

Thank you! Yes, this was absolutely a deliberate decision. I wanted each book to be able to be read and enjoyed on its own merits; to have a complete narrative arc. I have written books in series before, but I confess I love to read a book that you finish with a deep sigh of satisfaction, a sense of fulfilment. My aim in 'The Starkin Crown' was to write the sort of book that I had loved so much when I was a child myself, a story filled with adventure, suspense, and magic, that lingered in your mind for a long time afterwards. To achieve that, I really needed a story that could stand alone.

3. Do you see your scenes in your head as you write? I loved the feast for midwinter I could smell and see and taste it.

Yes, indeed. I have a strong visual imagination. I cannot write a scene till I can 'see' it in my mind's eye. Sometimes it's as if I have a movie running in my brain, with surround sound and Panavision, and I'm simply doing my best to capture what I see and hear with words.

4. Was it hard to write about Grizelda just giving us little hints about her evil intentions? I love the idea of the reader knowing or guessing more than the characters themselves. When her dog urinated on the wall as Peregrine and Jack and all their escort left via the secret exit I just knew something was wrong. This meant I paid special attention to everything Grizelda said - every nuance of her voice and each of her reactions to danger. The things she packed in her luggage were also a powerful hint.

I have to admit this was the most difficult part of the whole novel. How many clues should I drop? Was I being too subtle, or too obvious? I wanted the reader to suspect her, but not to be sure. The response I've had from my child readers has been fantastic - some were absolutely sure she was 'the baddy', others said they didn't guess to the end.

5. There is an endorsement on the back cover. Do you think endorsements play an important part in book selection for children or for Teachers or for Teacher Librarians? Who is Juliet Marillier?

I certainly think endorsements can help anyone choosing which book to buy out of all the thousands of books on offer. I know I read them! And often I will buy a book on the strength of that endorsement. It's like receiving a book recommendation from a friend that you know likes the same sort of bookst hat you do. I'm very proud of my endorsements from Garth Nix and Juliet Marillier - they are both internationally bestselling fantasy authors whose books I love and so I am so glad that they like my books too. If you haven't yet read Juliet Marillier, you absolutely must! She's one of my all-time favourite writers.

6. Your evil queen Vernisha reminded me of the Queen of Narnia and The Snow Queen do you see any similarities?

No! Really? That's fascinating. I love both those evil queens, but I did not have them in my mind at all when I was creating Vernisha. In fact, I can't think of any other villain that she resembles. My evil fairy queen in 'The Puzzle Ring' has more in common with the White Witch of Narnia, I think.

7. There are so many truly gruesome descriptions of death and torture in this book. Do they shock you? The part where the rats eat a person was almost too awful to read. Also all those arrows through the heart and throat and eyes!

No-one actually gets tortured in the book! It's only talked about. I hope that makes it easier. And it seemed important both to establish the importance of overthrowing such a vile queen, and also the fact that Grizelda was quite unmoved by describing such terrible punishments. I don't think I could have actually written a scene where that happened to anyone. Similarly, the battle scene is crucial in the story. Peregrine and his friends must be in mortal danger for the reader to feel that suspenseful thrill. It's only one swift scene, and it removes Peregrine from the normal world of safety and sets him off on his perilous adventure.

8. Did it give you great joy to write the healing scene for Molly? I loved this part so much I read it and then immediately re-read it. In fact I could hardly wait for Jack and Peregrine to drink the healing liquid so Molly could be healed.

It did indeed give me great joy. My daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia when she was six months old. It was one of the most wonderful moments of my life when the orthopaedic surgeon finally told me that all our hard work had paid off, and that she would be able to run and skip and dance just like any other child. Recalling that moment brings the sting of tears to my eyes. In fact, I think I may have had a mist before my eyes when I wrote that scene.

9. Do you see links to your earlier series Chain of Charms - once again we have an evil society where singing and fun are banned.

I had not actually consciously realised that there were thematic links between the books, but now that you point it out I can see that this is indeed true. I suppose this is because I feel so strongly myself that we should live joyously and so my own life philosophy makes its way into my work. There are differences between them as well. The Starkin lords live in great luxury and bedeck themselves in silks and jewels and have incredibly elaborate feasts, while the Puritans of Cromwell's time believed in living simply and plainly, and disapproved of any kind of frivolity or luxury.

10. Is it difficult to write your prophesy rhymes? Do you plan these first or do they just evolve as you are writing?

Sometimes the prophecies can be difficult to write, and sometimes they come to me virtually fully formed, with a clear vision of the story embedded within them. The first book in the Estelliana Chronicles was 'The Starthorn Tree' and I wrote it when my youngest son was only a newborn baby. I had intended the Starthorn Tree to be a stand-alone book, complete in itself, but one night I was working on the novel in the still, quiet darkness of the early hours of the morning and one of my characters opened his mouth and began to utter a prophecy - the one that appears in the front of 'The Starkin Crown'. I saw very clearly that there would be another two books to follow on from 'The Starthorn Tree' - the two story lines came to me like a dream or a vision, unrolling in my mind' eye. One image was an impossibly tall crystal tower, and I knew a princess was imprisoned in that tower and the quest would be to free her. That became the central image of 'TheWildkin's Curse'. The key image for the second story was a vision of Peregrine, blind and in despair, struggling through the marsh looking for... something. I did not know what. But the lines:

'Though he must be lost before he can find,

Though, before he sees, he must be blind,

if he can find and if he can see,

the true king of all he shall be'

wrote themselves on the page. From those lines, and from that vivid image, the whole story evolved.

11. Is the lightning storm experience by Robin a form of epilepsy?

Yes, it is. In medieval times, epilepsy was known as 'falling sickness' or as 'lightning in the brain'.

12. Do you have a favourite scene in the book? For me it is when Robin summons all the animals and they give him food on page 106. I also love the fact that Molly is not a beauty in contrast with the icy beauty of Grizelda.

I have a number of favourite scenes. Lame Molly leading blind Peregrine through the marshes and the discovery of the spear is a key scene for me,the first one I got for this book and the one I held in my mind's eye the longest. The raising of Lord Grim and the healing of Molly are also favourites, plus the feast scene at the end when Peregrine and Molly dance and kiss.

Jerry by Ursula Dubosarsky

2011-05-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

It is wonderful to have junior novels that can tell a good story and also have some emotional depth and this is certainly true for Jerry by Ursula Dubosarsky.

Jerry is an old horse. He is loved by all the neighborhood children. His final paddock is in an urban environment and each day children and adults visit Jerry and give him carrots and other treats but perhaps no one loves Jerry as much as Martha.

Ursula Dubosarsky has based Jerry on a real horse that was living near a Sydney Primary School and I think this real life incident is what gives this book its strength and honesty. Jerry is old and neglected and no longer interested in being patted but we are not left to ponder this for long. Martha’s love of Jerry and her magical dreams for him to fly make a perfect balance as Jerry’s life inevitably comes to an end.

I must make special mention of the illustrations by Patricia Mullins. She explains on the last page how as a child she drew lots and lots of horses and you can certainly see her skill in every illustration. The picture on page 39 where we can only see the eye of Jerry is just beautiful. It is clear why one of my most treasured picture books by Patricia Mullins One Horse waiting for me is all about horses. Look for this in our school library and you will see the illustrations are amazing tissue paper collage. I have now realised I read Sea Breeze Hotel to a class just this week and Ice Flowers is a special favourite of mine both also illustrated by Patricia Mullins.

Jerry is certainly one to add to my list of excellent Aussie Nibbles. One more thing I need to say. I did not read horse books as a child. I am a dog person so I really want to say Jerry is a book for everyone not just the horse lovers.

A strange little monster by Sue Whiting illustrated by Stephen Michael King

2011-05-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

Sasha is a monster living in Grotty Hollow but she is not like any of her companions or family members. Sasha likes a quiet life and she loves to play her flute with her grandfather. One night, after an awful meal of slug stew which has left her with a tummy ache, Sasha overhears her parents talking about her failure to behave as a monster. Worse her mother is actually crying. “She had never heard her mother or father cry before. Grotty Hollow monsters were too tough for crying.”

Sasha is so worried she decides to conform. She becomes a model monster but deep in her heart she knows this is not her true nature. On the day of the Hide and Go Scare games Sasha runs away only to be confronted by a Mountain Troll and he likes to eat little monsters! Her only weapon is her flute. Will Sasha save the day? Of course she will? Will her family accept her differences and love this strange little monster? Yes yes yes!!

This is another fairly new Aussie Nibble and for me it is another winner.

Violet Mackerel’s remarkable recovery by Anna Branford illustrated by Sarah Davis

2011-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

I just grabbed this book, the sequel to Violet Mackerel, with both hands as soon as it arrived in our school library. I was not disappointed. In fact I will say this one is even better than the first. Anna Branford has that lovely knack of introducing a whole set of seemingly unrelated story threads which she then skillfully draws together in a really satisfying way.

Violet has tonsillitis and will need an operation but the good news, explained by the doctor, is that her voice might change. Violet imagines this means she will now have the voice of an opera singer. In the hospital waiting room Violet meets an old lady. She “has a green cardigan and a necklace of bright red beads and she is doing a funny thing with her hands. Her fingers, which have lots of rings on them, are all laced together and she is making her thumbs go round and round.”

Violet lives by the theory of giving small things. The doctor gives Violet a small purple lozenge which she in turn gives to the old lady to help with her anxiety as she prepares to have an operation on her arm. The two new friends make a promise to share afternoon tea following their remarkable recoveries but Violet forgets to tell Iris where she lives.

As we read in the first book, Violet must now think outside the square in order to find Iris and keep her promise. How did Violet get her name? What sort of plants does Iris love to grow? How can a radio gardening program bring the two new friends back together?

The most joyous part is right at the end when we hear Violet sing on radio :
“Red beads and cardigans
Made of green knitting
Round and round thumbs
While you’re quietly sitting.
Robins, eggs, flowers
And fingers with rings
These are a few of Iris MacDonald’s
Favourite things.”

Can you guess the tune? After reading Violet Mackerel you must get your hands on this sequel it is a delight!

Joe’s Boat by Raewyn Caisley illustrated by Anne Spidvilas

2011-05-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

If you love boats and fishing and have ever enjoyed a special afternoon with your dad then this is the book for you. Great Uncle Alan has died but he has left behind a wonderful yellow boat in his shed. At first Joe’s dad is too busy to go fishing but early one morning Alan’s old friend Bob arrives. He won’t take no for answer and so three generations set out on an early dawn fishing expedition which ends in a delicious beach feast of freshly smoked fish.

Simple phrases make this sensitive and joyous story a real pleasure to read. “The boat pulled and tugged, hungry for the sea as Dad steered it down the ramp.” After the day Joe sits on the beach looking at the boat. “He loved it more than any game or toy anyone had ever bought him.”

Here is another Aussie Nibble which will be enjoyed by our youngest students.

A home for gnomes by Margaret Clark illustrated by Gus Gordon

2011-05-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

Margaret Clark is a master story teller and there can be no better evidence than her writing within the constraints of a little Aussie Nibble. Even with only 64 pages and a very small word limit Margaret Clark is able to write an enchanting story for our youngest readers.

Five gnomes live a secret life with Miss Mackie, helping in her garden and providing companionship for this isolated elderly lady. In her turn Miss Mackie teaches the gnomes how to read by reading them Fairy Tales and she makes all their clothes and shoes.

One day Miss Mackie leaves and while the gnomes valiantly try to keep things going it is obvious Miss Mackie is not going to return. This is especially clear when the bulldozers arrive one day and start to demolish their beloved garden. It is time for action. The gnomes pack their treasured possessions – the book of Fairy Tales for Quince and for Lilly all seven pairs of undies, one for each day of the week, that Miss Mackie has made for her.

First stop is the supermarket called Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Alas Miss Mackie is not to be found among all the intriguing groceries. After crossing the road (a feat in itself) they see the Royal Hospital for Women but since Miss Mackie is not a Royal Queen or a Princess they continue on their journey. Next stop The Sleeping Beauty Rest Home. Here they find their beloved Miss Mackie and a wonderful new home.

I am reading all of our Aussie Nibbles over the next few weeks. This new title is a winner.

Norman does Nothing by Jen Storer illustrated by Andrew Joyner

2011-05-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

I have set myself a challenge to read all of the Aussie Bites and Aussie Nibbles in our school library over the next month. This is partly because so many new titles from these two terrific series have arrived, partly because one Nibble - The Deep End, has been short listed for the CBCA awards and partly because I want to expand my repertoire (meaning the titles I read to classes and the ones I regularly recommend to readers) past Poor Fish, Hot Stuff, Green Fingers, The Horrible Holiday, One Night at Lottie's House, The Bugalugs bum thief, Moving House, The Princess who hated it and the Too tight Tutu.

Tonight I read Norman Does Nothing and even now, hours later, I am still smiling. This book is just charming. Norman is a gnome who lives patiently in the garden of Mr Goodfellow. Everything Norman knows about the world comes from Mr Goodfellow, listening to his radio, his television, talking books and his lovely piano playing. Then one day Mr Goodfellow is driven away in a fancy car with not one but two suitcases! "The driver swung the suitcases into the boot and slammed it shut... Norman waited for Mr Goodfellow to wave goodbye. But he didn't. He waited for Mr Goodfellow to look back. But he didn't".

Norman's life is about to descend into chaos. A young girl - Norman calls her Darling - and her mother arrive at the house. His lovely regulated environment is totally disrupted. Darling rides her roller skates down the front path, she plays with a hoop and worst of all she uses a skipping rope like a lasso. "He feared for his life ... was this to be his fate? Lassoed and strangled by a rope wielding squatter cowgirl?"

Then comes the biggest shock of all. Darling picks Norman up and she takes him for a ride in her doll pram. Their first adventure is 'out the back' where he endures a humiliating tea party with the dolls. Next stop is the kitchen where Darling gives him a range of accessories including a Rasta hat and finally Norman is put into a bike basket and he rides to the park with Darling at 500km per hour. This is party exhilarating and partly terrifying. Disaster strikes, though, when Darling has a bad fall from her bike and Norman himself sails through the air landing far away.

As with all the Aussie Bites there are only 85 pages in this little chapter book and yet Jen Storer manages to give her readers a taut and hilarious story. It is also exciting to have a book in which the briefest reference is all that is needed to piece together so many aspects of the story for example the relationship between Darling, her mother and Mr Goodfellow. The illustrations deserve a special mention. They are by Andrew Joyner - my students loved The Terrible Plop from the CBCA awards in 2010.

I now also see that Jen Storer is the author of Tensy Farlow which I also reviewed on this blog and by coincidence a student in Year 4 was just talking to me about Tensy Farlow yesterday and explaining why this is the first book that has totally hooked her in as a reader - she loved the cliff hanger chapters and the sinister elements. Tensy Farlow is a far more sophisticated novel and it is impressive to see that Jen Storer is such a versatile writer.

Mr Putter and Tabby fly the plane by Cynthia Rylant

2011-05-10T22:27:00.001-07:00

I am so excited when I find a very simple junior book for beginning readers with a marvelous story. It does not happen very often but here is one I read about in Horn Book. There are about 18 different books about Mr Putter and we have just begun to collect them for our library.

In this one Mr Putter and Tabby fly the plane we learn that Mr Putter loves toys (so do I) and he especially loves to visit toy shops (so do I) and when he was a boy he was fascinated by toy planes especially remote control ones (me too!).

Mr Putter finds the exact plane of his childhood dreams, he buys it, flys it and along the way acquires a heap of new young friends. The most special part of this book comes right at the end.

One little shy outsider child loves this plane. Mr Putter recognises something of himself in this little boy. Look for Mr Putter in our school library. These books are perfect for our youngest students who are just beginning to gain confidence with reading.

The Ivory Rose by Belinda Murrell

2011-05-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

What a huge honour - Belinda Murrell, author of this new Australian History timeslip fantasy, has asked me to do an interview with her and publish the answers here on my blog. This was quite a different experience for me. I read this book nearly all in one go and kept a set of post it notes beside me so I could jot down my questions as I thought of them.... Belinda has been very generous with her answers and I think they will give you a revealing insight into her skill as a writer and some of the themes and ideas behind this book. I know quite a few of my senior girls are huge fans of Belinda Murrell and her sister Kate Forsyth.

I asked 13 questions because the first 50 or so pages of this book are slightly spooky! I could have kept on asking more and more questions but I did not want to spoil the story too much....

1. Do you think your own childhood reading has influenced your style, themes, plots etc. Are all the books/any of the books you refer to eg Lion the Witch and wardrobe childhood favourites....

As a child I was an avid reader, often getting into trouble at school for having a book hidden in my lap during maths classes. The sorts of books I loved were exciting adventure stories, pony books, mysteries, fantasy, historical novels but most importantly books where children were empowered to act to change their lives. I loved the joy of escaping into another world that was completely different to the world I lived in. As I writer, I try to write books that children love – that make them laugh and cry, that make their pulses race and their hearts sing, and hopefully to make them think as well!!

Yes – the books I referred to in The Ivory Rose I loved when I was young, but they are also favourites of my own three children, so I felt that they could realistically be read by Jemma as well.

2. Do you see similarities between your last three books - time slip fantasies - will this be your trade mark story or do you plan to explore other narratives - your earlier books The Sunsword trilogy was not a time slip I know.

My last three books have been time slip adventures because I was intrigued by the idea of taking a modern day girl, and whisking her back to the past, where life was so different and seeing how that modern child would cope and react. While the books have a similar concept – all three are quite different, as my heroines all have different personalities and challenges to tackle. The feedback I’ve had from kids has been fantastic – they seem to love the time-slip concept. However the book I am working on now is not a time slip book at all. This will be a straight historical adventure, called Poppy, set in Australia during the 1940’s.

3. Do you think we need to visit the past to heal the present? Is this a deliberate theme? Jemma's mum was so awful (almost a caricature) and then she is transformed I think I wanted to know a little more about this - she was obviously shaken by the coma - also I was sad the dad was missing from the final scenes. Alternatively do we need to visit the past to discover ourselves?

I have always loved reading (writing and learning) about the past. My favourite subjects at school and university were English and history. However while I have always found history fascinating, one of the most important concepts of the books is taking a child away from everything familiar, so that she must dig deep within herself to find unknown strength to solve the problems she faces. The past appeals to me as an opportunity to do this because life seemed to be so much tougher in the past, and it is a way of removing Jemma from her parents’ protection.

While I do think we can learn a lot from the past, there are also many other ways to discover ourselves, to learn and to heal and most do involve exploring a different perspective of life, gaining empathy for other people, and experiencing diverse ways to live.

With Jemma’s mother Elizabeth, I have quite a bit of sympathy for her, because I felt she was working hard, trying to do her best for Jemma, but too busy and too caught up in her career to see what Jemma really needed. I have met mothers like this, and I feel this is one of the greatest challenges of being a busy, working mother. The accident does give Elizabeth a nasty shock, and makes her evaluate what is important to her. To me, at a very simple level, the book is about Jemma finding her voice, and about Jemma’s mother learning to listen. I did love Jemma’s dad, but it is the mother-daughter relationship I really wanted to focus on.

4. Do you have any concerns about overseas sales? - I love the way this book is firmly set in Sydney and in Annandale and in 1890 Australian history.

Yes – I do have concerns about overseas sales. I feel that writing about Australian history and themes is unlikely to win me a huge overseas publishing deal!!! However I am also driven to write about Australia – its landscape, culture, people and history so that contemporary Australian kids can read and enjoy stories firmly rooted in their own country. I feel I must be striking a strong chord, because out of my six children’s novels, I have definitely had the greatest feedback from the two which are primarily set in both contemporary and historic Australia – The Locket of Dreams and The Ivory Rose. One of the things I love about my work is all the lovely emails I get from kids telling me how much they love my books, or my characters.

5. How much research did you do? At times there seemed to be so much history in this book - were you setting out to teach a history lesson? 1890 certainly had some issues... Federation, Parkes, Suffrage, baby farms, medicine, child workers, depression, strikes and even Banjo Patterson!!.

I always do lots of research for my books, and this process is one of my favourite parts. It takes months – whether it is reading books and anecdotes set in the period, visiting historic homes (and kitchens and gardens!), reading and creating Mrs Beeton’s recipes, wandering around Annandale, reading reports of ghost encounters, researching poisons and how they were used, or visiting museums. However the history, while fascinating to me, was secondary. I didn’t set out to teach a ‘history lesson’. I set out to write a ghost story adventure and chose the Witches Houses as an evocative, spooky setting. The history was discovered as I researched first the houses, then the suburb of Annandale, then the era. I discovered so many interesting things that then became threads in my story.

6. I love the way you do not talk down to kids. Do publishers ever question your word choices?.... accoutrement's, damask, chastened, rebuke, brogue, crenellations, assiduously and many more I am sure the average 2011 senior Primary child would not know these words - congratulations on having the courage to include such a rich vocabulary....

When I was growing up, my mother always encouraged us to have a rich vocabulary. She challenged us to find words in books we didn’t understand and write the words and their meanings up on a noticeboard in the kitchen. I remember English teachers commenting on our strong vocabulary at school. When my children first started reading, it irked me that many of the books for their age group had such a simple and even boring vocabulary, which I felt was aimed at reluctant readers. I felt that over the years there had been a ‘dumbing down’ of language for kids. As a journalist, the first lesson I was taught was to write very simply – most newspaper stories are targeted at the reading level of an average 10 year old, but I can’t say I enjoy writing like that! So when I first started writing for my own children I was determined to include lots of beautiful words. My Australian publishers are usually happy with my choice of words but I did have my Sun Sword Trilogy rejected by an American publisher because it had too many complex words!!!

7. You are very good at giving us a sense of place - have you ever considered writing for television?

Setting is very important to me. At university I majored in television, as part of my communication degree, and as a twenty-one year old had originally planned to write for television, as one of my many dreams. I then spent two years travelling around Europe, and started travel writing, which I absolutely loved. I think it is my years of writing travel articles, which influences how I try to evoke a strong sense of place and landscape. I want my readers to feel like they are really there.

8. Is your song on page 116 Lost in the moment a real song?

Yes. It was written by my nephew Daniel Lee Kendall, who is an up-and-coming musician who is one of Triple J’s ‘discovered hot new talents’. My daughter and her friends love this song so it seemed a fun detail to include.

9. I did have a little trouble with those scones - not something I have mastered did you consider giving Jemma an easier cooking task? I do like the references to the ice man, milk pail, and Mrs Beaton. Were egg beaters invented by 1890?

I chose scones because when my son and daughter were in years 4 and 3 respectively I went with them on a school excursion to Elizabeth Farm, where the kids had to make scones to a nineteenth century recipe and cook them in a wood-fired stove. I couldn’t believe how easy they were and how delicious! So the kids and I went through a real scone baking phase at home for while – we even had a go making them in a coal fired Aga, when I was researching this book. My kids are also keen fans of Masterchef, so they all love cooking!

Yes – eggbeaters were invented about 1870 but that is the sort of detail I have to be really careful about checking. That kind of research can take ages!!

10. Did you consider calling your heroine Jemima when she was in 1890 I felt the adults especially might not use the 21st century 'nick name' Jemma.

Aunt Harriet and Agnes always called her Jemima if they used her name at all, never Jemma. Although Agnes usually called her derogatory names! The only adult who really uses her nick-name in 1895 was Doctor Anderson as I felt he was one of the few adults who really showed her any sympathy or respect. Nicknames were commonly used in the nineteenth century, especially for servants so I felt that the other children would have happily have used her preferred name.

11. Did you choose the cover? Did you have input into the blurb?

The cover was designed by Nanette Backhouse, who designed all the covers for my timeslip books, and this one is my favourite! With the covers, I usually suggest ideas, together with my publisher, and I have the chance to comment at the approval stage, but the decision is ultimately made by the marketing team, considering its sales appeal, other covers around at the time, and fashions in design. Likewise, the blurb is written by my publisher from a marketing perspective and I leave that to her!

12. Is it difficult to cover all bases in a timeslip - anomalies of clothing, language, manners etc. I did like your resolution of her worn out hands.

It can be difficult to cover everything, and I do try very hard to handle the historical details as lightly and naturally as I can. I don’t want the book to sound didactic or to bog the story down so much in historical accuracy that kids are bored rigid!! However it is important to paint a strong sense of life in that time.

The other difficulty is language. People spoke much more formally in the nineteenth century in a way that would sound very stilted to modern day readers, so I try to evoke a sense of that rather than being strictly accurate. So Jemma uses contractions much more than the other characters in 1895 and speaks less formally, Ned has an Irish brogue and Agnes frequently uses insults.

With Jemma’s hands I wanted her to have a physical reminder of her adventures, so she knew it was not a coma-induced hallucination.

13. You clearly love gardens and flowers. I seem to remember the garden was mentioned in Locket of dreams. Do you have a lovely garden yourself?

Yes – I do have a beautiful, old fashioned garden, full of herbs and vegetables and flowers – although nowhere near enough time to look after it properly!!

There are teaching notes for this book too.

A long walk to water by Linda Sue Park

2011-04-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

In their final term of Year 6 our students study a topic called "Global Connections" and one part of this is our global responsibility as a nation and as individuals to assist others in the developing world.

For this topic I like use the story of Ryan's well, Craig the boy who helps fight against the use of child workers and now I also have this important book A long walk to water.

This is such a slim book with such an important and powerful message of hope, perseverance, dreams and survival. It is vital to read every page of this book including the message from Salva and the author notes at the back.

There is a huge amount of material available to support the reading of this book including chapter questions and audio, the author web site, interviews with Salva and of course a web site about his project to dig wells in the Sudan.

I also found a 60 second book video review which conveys just how powerful this story is. When you talk about this book you might also mention The Hippo Roller project. The dual narrative in A long walk to water tells about the life of Nya and her arduous journey each day to find water for her family.

Salva's story tells us about the war in Sudan and about his journey to Ethiopia and then to Kenya to find refugee camps. Along the way Salva endures unbearable hardship and suffering and yet The long walk to water has a powerful message of hope.

The three loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds

2011-04-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

“She had only read a page, but she knew already that it was her favourite book in the world. … this sublimely beautiful book gave voice to everything that was most precious to her … She stayed up til midnight reading it, and at times she was so moved she could not read the words through the tears. It was like reading her own soul.”
Persimmon is a lonely young girl. Her family is a divided one. There are those who value fruit and vegetables and those who love flowers. Persimmon’s mother from the fruit and vegetable side had eloped with a flower man and then sadly both parents died when Persimmon was a baby leaving her to be raised by her grandfather, Professor Polidori the acknowledged leader of the fruit and vegetable camp. Despite his best efforts Persimmon is drawn to flowers and on her eighteen birthday she received a mysterious inheritance from her Great Aunt Lily (formerly known as Turnip). Persimmon uses this money to open a small florist shop at the Botanical Gardens Railway Station. This means she is now estranged from her family forever.

Meanwhile down below on Platform One a small mouse called Epiphany is struggling to make sense of her noisy and closed world. She stumbles upon a beautiful butterfly who introduces her to the world of flowers and now Epiphany knows she has to follow her heart’s desire.

This exquisite book is told as a dual narrative and the lives of our two heroes only intersect in the very last scenes. Great Aunt Lily sends a series of letters to Persimmon telling her to go on a quest to find love. The title The Three Loves of Persimmon tells you that Persimmon will fall in love three times but only one of these young men will in fact be her true love.

Be warned there are some heart breaking scenes in this book and some moments of terrible tension, there are little moments of magic and truly beautiful descriptions which transport the reader to life in a busy station. There are also some wonderful words of wisdom :

“we are all bound – prevented in one way or another from doing the good we ought to do, living the lives we are called to live. Being who we ought to be.”

If you love Odo Hirsch you will want to read The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds. This book also reminded me of A rats tale and A Cricket in Times Square. I also enjoyed an earlier book by this author - Clair-de-Lune which interestingly also features a very special mouse.

I discovered this book at the CBCA short list announcement. The Young Adult reviewer included this book in her set of six short list predictions.

Mirror by Jeannie Baker

2011-04-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

On so many levels I simply do not feel qualified to talk about this breathtaking book Mirror by Jeannie Baker. Firstly, every time I dip into the pages of this textless book I find new wonders to explore so whatever I say now will change as I discover more little details over the next weeks and months. Secondly, I am in awe of Jeannie Baker’s talent, vision and passion. I listened to Jeannie Baker at a recent IBBY conference where she explained her trip to Morocco, meeting the people, exploring the landscape and traditions all done as a lone woman traveler in a very foreign environment. It was clear Jeannie Baker had already started on her vision for this book and so her experiences and the photographic images she captured were not just incidental but all part of a carefully planned experience which would be shared with her readers through this wondrous book.

One thing that fascinated me when Jeannie Baker spoke was when she explained she had a totally different book construction in her mind and the design we see now was the result of collaboration with her publisher and the book designer. To the reader this innovative book design, where the two sides of the narrative are viewed simultaneously seems so perfect and natural. I would love to know what Jeannie Baker first envisaged.

This book took over five years to produce and of that two years were spent making all the amazing collage pictures. Every detail has been so carefully thought of from the fun number plates for the Sydney scenes and the stork on its nest on the top of the building in Morocco.

Nothing in Window is there by chance. The weaving patterns are authentic, the family scenes are based on a real family that Jeannie Baker stayed with and the Sydney street scenes are in Balmain (look for all the Tigers colours). Take a look at the page where the Moroccan family are sitting down for breakfast. You will see a recessed shelf with their prized personal possessions – a wedding shawl and some special pots. Later when the family have been to market to sell their carpet they sit down for dinner – new technology now has pride of place in their home and the wedding shawl has been hung on a window frame. When you look at the Sydney family you will notice their table is a door complete with handle and on each page the fireplace moves closer to completion.

I am lucky enough to have two sets of the large pictures with teaching notes to share with my students and I plan to purchase several copies of Mirror for our school library so all the children can handle and delve into this book themselves.

There is so much to explore in this book. I make a prediction that it will win many awards in the future including Picture Book of the Year for the CBCA awards and like all Jeannie Baker books Mirror is destined to become a classic.

Here are some quotes from Jeannie Baker (they may not be exact I tried to write these down as she was speaking)

"There is a spectrum of interpretations for this book"

"Curiosity about cultural difference"

"Richness of cultures"

"Our global world"

"We are the mirror of each other".