Book Bento Box

Image source: All Recipes

Let's begin with a real Japanese Bento Box:

A bento box is a Japanese lunch box containing a single portion of a balanced meal. It usually consists of a starch (like rice or noodles), a protein, and assorted vegetable and fruit side dishes. A bento box can be divided into compartments and have one or more layers. A common type of bento box is the makunouchi bento, which has rice on one side and a variety of colorful side dishes on the other. Bento boxes are popular among the working-class and school children in Japan.

I had vaguely heard of this idea - the making of a 'book bento box' as a response to a novel or as a way to promote a book with your students. Recently I saw this post on Facebook from Reading Opens Doors with Elise Ellerman and the image/creativity/choice of book really resonated with me because I loved the Midwatch:

The Midwatch

Here is a list of the contents of the bento box for The Midwatch:

This book bento features:

📖 A drawing (which my daughter did) of the setting featured in the story  

📖 A magnifying glass to represent this story is a mystery - full of adventure

📖 The word friendship to represent one of the themes

📖 An AI image I created to symbolise the three main female characters and the idea of good versus evil 

📖 The cover of the book with a QR code below. The children can scan the code to see a wonderful video Jude Rossell generously created. She shares a little about the book and her inspiration for this outstanding story.

📖 One of the dolls with the gadgets featured in the book. This represents another element of the story and how all is not as it seems in The Midwatch

📖 The Midwatch building (made from cardboard pieces)

📖 The hidden dragonfly brooch which sparks an eventful, thrilling adventure as the girls from The Midwatch work together to solve a mystery.

Lots of the examples I have found online are either from High School students and feature YA titles or they have been made by adults, but I do think this idea could be used very easily with students in Grades 4-6 or even better as a way to introduce a book to a class in your library. Or book bento boxes could be part of a library display. In my former library I had a terrific custom-made library counter with a viewing window on the side. I wish I had known about this idea of the Book Bento Box - it would have been fun to feature this idea and promote some favourite books. Here is my counter:

I found this 2018 blog post from Charles Sturt University lecturer Jennie Bales. Reading her thoughts it seems the box can be created with digital images but I think in the context of a Primary School it would be better to include 'real' objects too. Here are a few of her insights:

An alternative way to express a response to literature that will excite students with its combination of personal expression, visual arts, technology, creativity and hands on compilation of the bento box contents.

It also provides a great starting point for a teacher librarian before reading a book. Preparing a book bento box in advance with significant objects to get students to predict relevance and then at the conclusion of the reading to evaluate their initial thoughts and perhaps suggest alternative objects to include.

I found another blogger - Learning Through the Library and she quotes some other work from Jennie Bales:

The concept underpinning book bento boxes is straightforward. Common household items or images are artistically arranged and used as points of reference for significant themes or events within the text.

BBB can range from simple posters, to interactive digital images with embedded links for videos and external websites (Bales, 2018).  They can be created individually or in collaborative learning groups, for teaching and learning as well as for assessment purposes. 

By using this reader response strategy, students are increasing their visual literacy, critical thinking and consequently multiliteracy capabilities.  It is also a whole lot of fun!!

Take a look here and also I found these elementary or Primary school level examples:

Book Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne

Image source: Instagram Timberpress

Book Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Image source: Instagram Read Love Share it

Book Somewhere Else by Gus Gordon

Image source: Instagram Telarah Public School

Book Out of my Mind by Sharon M Draper

Image source: Instagram 

Book The Tear Thief

Image source: Instagram

The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow by Elaine Dimopoulos illustrated by Doug Salati

Use your milkweed: Read this! Kirkus Star review

Butternut is a young rabbit. She lives with her family in a burrow near a meadow and also near a human home. The family of humans regularly fill a garden bird feeder with delicious seeds for the many birds that live in and around the meadow but each morning one bird named Blue bullies the other birds and squirrels and so none can get close to the delicious treats. 

Meanwhile in the burrow each evening the young rabbits take turns as storytellers. I love the names of Butternut's siblings: Lavender, Clover, Thistle, Goosegrass and Baby Sweetcorn are the girls and Kale, Chicory, Watercress and Mallow are the boys. Mum is Nettle and Butternut's grandmother is aptly named Sage because she is the wise elder of their family.

There is a violent scene in the first chapter of this book I would say it is for readers aged 8+. Blue is angry with Mother Firstfledge and so he raids her nest and takes one of her eggs - his actions are truly awful and brutal. After a few more weeks the other eggs - three of them - do hatch and Piper, one of the new young birds, is determined to show forgiveness. Piper loves the way Butternut tells stories and they quickly become firm friends even though this is not usually allowed - friendship between species. 

One evening a young fawn catches her leg in the roof of the burrow. Her name is Winsome and she is badly hurt. Butternut lives her life in fear of 'what if' but Piper convinces her they need to go out late at night and find the hurt fawn and offer their help. Piper is also sure there is a way to help Blue - surely there is a deeper reason why he is such a bully. Oh, and Butternut also has to overcome her fear and take the test that all her siblings have had to do, learning to cross the busy road and avoid being squashed by a car. 

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of the story and storytelling advice:

"Everyone in Milkweed Meadow still talks about the rescue, and if you stop hopping around like a kit that's found a banana slice, I'll tell you the story."

"Mother encourages strong beginnings. 'Snare them!' ... I suppose that's what a good story does. It digs into your skin like a silver wire and holds you in its grasp."

"Stories matter.  Interesting characters. A thorny conflict. A wood-gnawing climax. Details that let you smell and taste and touch."

"I wanted to say that he had me all wrong. That I was the most fearful and timid rabbit in my colony. That with the way my mind worked, every trunk in the forest would become a wolf, every twig a snake. But saying these things our loud would make them come true. There was a part of me that wanted to imagine that I could be brave. That I could tame my mind's brambles to help the fawn."

"If you ignore the creatures that can make a midnight snack out of you, then the forest at night is an enchanted setting for a story."

"Helping a creature is a good reason to take a risk. Isn't that what so many of our stories tell us to do? To help others?"

Blurb from author page: Apprehensive by nature, Butternut the rabbit believes the warnings she’s heard from her mother and grandmother. Egg-laying birds are inferior species. Deer bring ticks. Coyotes are terrifying predators. Only rabbits have the smarts to practice strategies for survival and to tell stories that entertain and inspire. In Milkweed Meadow, all species do best when they remain focused on their own kind. When the bully of the meadow, a jay named Blue, steals a treasure of her burrow and compels her to scale a trellis to retrieve it, Butternut forms an unlikely friendship with an irrepressible robin nestling, Piper, and later with Winsome, a deer fawn whose leg injury is a blow to her vanity. For the first time, the dangerous and fun adventures the friends have make Butternut question her elders’ teachings—and whether holding on to old prejudices truly makes creatures safer and happier. When the trio discovers creatures in crisis, their compassion is tested: Do they forsake the creatures or attempt the most daring rescue ever to take place in Milkweed Meadow, one that will require the help of multiple species, including the young humans that live in the adjacent house?

Here are some detailed teachers notes. Listen to a five-minute audio sample. This book also contains a map of Milkweed Meadow. 

This enchanting animal adventure is made up of a series of interconnected short stories. In a beautiful narrative voice, and brought to life by Salati’s charming black-and-white illustrations, Butternut describes her own storytelling process. School Library Journal

This chapter book has a relatively rare and welcome level of depth, and the strong narrative voice, ecological awareness, and themes around the value of connection and community will call to many readers. Horn Book

Awards for The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow

• A 2024 Massachusetts Book Award Honor Book
• An ALA Notable Book
• A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Book
• A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2023
• A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of 2023 with Outstanding Merit
• A 2023 Booklist Editors’ Choice
• On Vermont’s 2024-5 Golden Dome Book Award List

Here is the sequel which was published in 2024:

Companion books:

Cress Watercress

Heartwood Hotel (there are four books in this series)

Appleblossom the Possum

The Legend of Podkin On-Ear

Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria

Kirkus relate The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow to this book Toaff's Way which I once have on my to-read list. Sadly there is no ebook version but Amazon do have a new copy for - gasp! AUS$140! I do find it odd that this book didn't really reach us here in Australia - Cynthia Voigt is such a famous author. I talked about this previously here. 

Meet Toaff: a lovable squirrel, and new standout character, searching for a place to call home in this gem of a story by a Newbery Medal-winning author. Toaff is a small squirrel full of big questions. Why must I stay away from the human's house? Why shouldn't I go beyond the pine trees? Why do we fight with the red squirrels across the drive? His sister shrugs--that's just the way things are. His brother bullies--because I said so. And the older squirrels scold--too many questions! Can Toaff really be the only one to wonder why?When a winter storm separates him from his family, Toaff must make his own way in the world. It's a world filled with danger--from foxes and hawks and cats to cars and chainsaws. But also filled with delight--the dizzying scent of apple blossoms, the silvery sound of singing, the joy of leaping so far you're practically flying. Over the course of a year, Toaff will move into (and out of) many different dreys and dens, make some very surprising friends (and a few enemies), and begin to answer his biggest questions--what do I believe and where do I belong?

You can see other books illustrated by Doug Salati here. 

Sustainable Development Goals and IBBY Australia

 

You might like to begin here with my previous post where I shared the amazing and comprehensive work by my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything. She did a blog post about each SDG goal and also set up a series of Pinterest Collections. Her collections were aimed at children aged 5-8 and included titles published from USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

IBBY Australia have also been working, for over two years, on this very important project. Our committee members searched for books for children in Grade 3 up to Grade 12 with a focus exclusively on Australia titles including indigenous works. Links and images at the end of this post. 

You can read about the original IBBY.org project here. When you click on each goal you will be taken to a set of suggested books which were intended to be used in a book club setting. You can also access this here. 

These three sets of book suggestions (IBBY Australia; IBBY/UN; and Kinderbookswitheverything) should really help you explore the 17 goals with students at any level of school and with so many possible titles you are sure to have several in your school or public library. 

Here is the IBBY/UN selection for Goal One - No Poverty:

Here is Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Here is the page from the United Nations with links to the details of each goal. 

You can access our suggested texts via our IBBY Australia web page and through Pinterest. (Images below).

The Librarian's Stories by Lucy Falcone illustrated by Anna Wilson

Take your time with this book - you might notice the spots of colour on the cover. The boy is looking at a lady sitting on a park bench. It is clearly cold because they are both wearing scarves. Then look a little closer. Right in front of the boy is a fence of barbed wire and worse in the background you can see soldiers and a tank. But the boy is smiling and so is the lady on the seat. Is she the librarian?

Now turn inside and compare the front and back end papers. This will give you a strong sense that this story is sure to have a happy ending and that things do change for the people in this community. Now turn to the next page - it is filled with alphabet letters all floating into a dark sky. This image continues over to the title page where we see the young boy from the cover reading a book and significantly walking away from a pile of barbed wire towards some yellow flowers and a small bird. 

The story then opens with a wordless spread. The boy can be seen celebrating his seventh birthday near the city library. Then the scene switches and men arrive with cannons and the library is destroyed. All of those alphabet letters from the previous pages are exploding out of the library which is also on fire. 

"The town I live in is filled with people who are scared - like me. Our lights are out. Our water has stopped running."

In the street the boy sees a lady, the librarian, sitting on a seat reading aloud. 

"Her words carry me back ... to my birthday. Before everything changed."

The beautiful ink and watercolour illustrations are dominantly in grey scale to show the doom and gloom of the town during wartime, but the pops of colour help create a glimmer of joy as readers are taken through the hardships of day-to-day life. The librarian on the bench is seen wearing a bright pink scarf so she is easily visible. Anna Wilson cleverly makes the librarian’s words swirl and flow across the pages as if reaching for anyone who will listen. Readers can see words such as ‘remember’, ‘music’, and ‘stars’, indicating that the stories that are being told are happy and encouraging. Canadian Review of Materials

How lucky was I to find The Librarian's Stories. I was looking for a magazine in a newsagent and I spied a box of picture books almost hidden on a low shelf! I saw The Librarian's Stories - I think I have either seen this in library or read about it somewhere - then came the bonus - it was only AUS$5. I guess it is officially a remaindered book since it was published in 2020.

This story was inspired by Vedran Smailovic known as the cellist of Sarajevo who played his music for 22 days to mark the deaths of 22 innocent people killed after the bombing of a bakery during the Bosnian war. A second theme, as explained by Lucy Falcone, is to honour the thousands of libraries that have been destroyed over the centuries. Watch the trailer. And you can see inside this book here. 

"Millions of books have been burned in the senseless violence of war. Many rulers in the past, and the present, feel threatened by stories, ideas and knowledge. They know that books can change people. They know that books can change the world. To them, this is dangerous. They don't want people to learn, to understand, to think for themselves. They don't want people to remember their history."

Companion titles:

The Lady with the Books

Nour's Secret Library

Vanishing Colours

Tomorrow

I previously talked about this book illustrated by Anna Wilson:

Love Birds

The Station Cat by Stephen Hogtun

 

The Station Cat: A story of kindness and hope

"This train is not for you, and you have no ticket, you will have to save to come aboard."

A small skinny cat arrives at the old train station. People waiting for trains do not notice her.

"The colour drained from this place a long time ago."

You will have to save lives and save she does. This young half-starved cat connects with various people at the train station as each face a life crisis. 

"Crowds of people went about their sorrow without noticing her at all."

"If they had only looked closer they would have seen ... Eyes of radiant, jade green staring back."

There are wonderful words used in this book. Here are the colours: ginger, cinnamon, lilac, fawn, amber, carmine and violet. Other rich words: sombre, vapour, spectrum of colours, wistful, and vivid.

Share sentences like this with your older students:

"She paced softly upon graceful, pink paw pads ... "

"Waxed wooden herringbone floors reflecting the light blue sky which chorused the light footsteps that now skipped along it."

Publisher blurb: A lonely little kitten wanders into a dull, gray station, full of dull, gray people. Her colorful fur and bright green eyes bring warmth and life to this weary place, and soon people begin to notice the kitten. As she learns about the different travelers and their struggles from loss and loneliness, the little kitten wants to help fill their world with hope and color, too.

Adult readers will probably see deeper themes in this book (you can see these in the labels I assigned this post) as we watch each person engulfed by the despair of their life circumstances but I think readers aged 8+ will simply appreciate that a small act of kindness can mean so much to each of us.

The narrative itself is grave, detailed and evocative, matching the mood created by the colours and is set out as unrhyming verse so that the line breaks emphasise particular words and images. The movements and expressions of the cat are beautifully observed and the depiction of different passengers invites readers to imagine the stories of their lives and what has brought them to the colourless state at the start of the book. Just Imagine

This is a sophisticated presentation of an important message of the value of community and reaching out to others. ... The story stays with you long after you close the pages. More About Books

Every now and then when I go into the city, I decide I just HAVE to buy myself a treat - which for me is a Picture Book. It can take me a long time to decide what to buy because I am fussy, I want to spend my money wisely and I have three main criteria:

• The book has to touch my soul.
• The illustrations have to be exceptional
• If possible the book should be fairly new (this is not essential)

The Station Cat meet two of my three criteria. And I should add I prefer to buy picture books that cost less than AUS$30 although this criteria now needs revising because so many absolutely beautiful and truly special picture books are now closer to AUS45. The Station Cat was published by DK in London and it only cost AU$19.98.

Stephen Hogtun is an author/illustrator who lives on the west coast of sunny Norway in an old house overlooking a lovely fjord. His picture books cover serious topics in a very gentle, child-friendly way and feature visually stunning illustrations.

Here are some other books by Stephen Hogtun - I am curious about his work and how it came to be published in the UK and in English.

The London International Animation Festival Sydney Opera House 2025

 

Image from Gunpowder (France)

The full title of this event is 

The London International Animation Festival - 
celebrating a world of animation for kids

Blurb from the Sydney Opera House: In need of an escape from the Summer sun? Join us for the return of the London International Animation Festival for kids. Our Playhouse has been transformed into a cinema for you and the family to enjoy the best independent animation from across the globe. From stop-motion, claymation, 2D and 3D CGI and everything in between, get comfy in your seats and ready to travel to faraway lands and mysterious planets. Grab some popcorn and get involved in the fun free foyer animation play activations before or after your movie session as we roll out the red carpet for this big screen celebration. This carefully curated programme for our littlest film critics contains the most wonderful animated short films from all around the world. There will be talking animals, heartwarming friendships, fun adventures and wondrous tales to spark everyone's imagination.

Let's unpack this - International - yes - there are films from France, Hungary, UK, Japan, Slovenia/Croatia, Belgium, Germany, USA, Russia, New Zealand, and Lithuania. Celebrating the world - no - Who is missing? There were no films from Australia this year but we do have talented animators as evidenced by the new film release of Magic Beach. There was only one film from South America, and only one from Japan with none from other parts of from Asia. Also nothing from Middle Eastern Countries. I mention them because in past years the Opera House hosted a brilliant film festival for kids called "Little Big Shots" and some of the best short films (live action and animation) at that event were from Iran and Afghanistan. Sadly, I think "Little Big Shots" has now closed but it did run for more than ten years especially in Melbourne.

I was also surprised most of the films were made before 2020. I wonder if this an older selection on loan by the Opera House from the UK Festival. I did read that in the UK The London International Animation Festival screens around 300 independent animated films of every technique, style and genre across London venues for 10 days from late November to early December every year for all ages including a children's selection. 

Anyway, putting all of that aside I did thoroughly enjoy the nine films in the section designed for children aged 6-10. Many also have fabulous music to accompany these mostly 'silent' stories. 

Tickets and session times here (17-19 January 2025). Over the three days, four sessions are available per day 

• 10am & 12pm: Recommended for ages 2 - 6
• 2.30pm & 4.30pm: Recommended for ages 6 - 10
• 7pm: Recommended for ages 10 - 14

Here are the films I saw for ages 6-10 from the 2025 event:

• Spring Jam is based on birds and music and especially Brandenburg' Concerto no. 4 in G major.
• Hedgehog (this is the whole film on YouTube) is a very poignant film featuring a young boy who loved hedgehogs but who had a very dysfunctional and even violent home situation. 
• Gunpowder (trailer) (whole film here) is actually about tea - Phileas travels to China to find some tea and while he is there he encounters a very dangerous dragon.

• Good Heart features a cave family where mum seems to do all the tasks. Finally, everyone has to move into the cave to escape the rain. 
• In Cat Lake City (trailer) a mother duck and her two ducklings keep taking over her towel when all she wants to do is to lie beside the swimming pool. 
• Senses sets up two scenes side by side - one full of colour and the other black and white. Everything is okay until a brightly coloured and slightly crazy frog arrives.

• How much does the cloud Weight was an interesting silent film with a terrific twist in the final scene. 
• Mr Night has a Day off is a clever exploration of night and day. When Night touches things they turn black. We all laughed when he touched a small blue car and it turned into a very large black car!

There was also a bonus film about a fish that needs to find a container of water called Water Path for a Fish or Camino de Agua Para un Pez (El Salvador).

You can see the 2024 selection here. If this topic interests you here is the 2023 kids event held in London.

Be More Pippi and Celebrate 80 years of Pippi Longstocking

 

Our anniversary campaign encourages everyone to be more like Pippi! 

Use your own Pippi power and make the world a little better.

 Follow Pippi on Instagram. Here are some resources for your Pippi party. 

Pippi Longstocking is turning 80 this year! If you know my name, you know I have a small connection with Astrid Lindgren. Of course, Lindgren was her married name. Her husband was Sture Lindgren. Her full name was Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren (Ericsson). In 1958, Astrid Lindgren received the second Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Rasmus på luffen (Rasmus and the Vagabond).

Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) was published in November 1945 with illustrations by Ingrid Vang Nyman.

Image Source: The Japan Times

Pippi books illustrated by Ingrid Vang Nyman

Bookseller blurb: Pippi Longstocking is nine years old. She has just moved into Villa Villekulla where she lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey, and a big suitcase full of gold coins. The grown-ups in the village try to make Pippi behave in ways that they think a little girl should, but Pippi has other ideas. She would much rather spend her days arranging wild, exciting adventures to enjoy with her neighbours, Tommy and Annika, or entertaining everyone she meets with her outrageous stories. Pippi thinks nothing of wrestling a circus strongman, dancing a polka with burglars, or tugging a bull's tail.

Did you know Pippi's full name is: Pippilotta Victoriaria Tea-cosy Appleminta Ephraim’s-daughter Longstocking.

“Her dress was curious indeed. Pippi had made it herself. It was supposed to have been blue, but as there hadn’t been quite enough blue cloth, Pippi had decided to add little red patches here and there. On her long thin legs she wore long stockings, one brown and the other black.”

“Her hair was the same colour as a carrot, and was braided in two stiff pigtails that stood straight out from her head. Her nose was the shape of a very small potato, and was dotted with freckles.”

There are three Pippi books. The series has been translated into more than 70 different languages. 

• Pippi Longstocking (1945)
• Pippi Goes On Board (1946)
• Pippi In The South Seas (1948)

Astrid Lindgren also created three picture books: Pippi’s After Christmas Party (1950), Pippi on the Run (1971) and Pippi Longstocking in the Park (2001).

In March, 2025 Penguin Random House will release a new audio version of Pippi Longstocking. 

You can read the story of how Astrid Lindgren came to write Pippi Longstocking for her daughter Karin. I have a connection with this famous story. My father's sister (maiden name Lindgren) named her daughter Karin!

In 100 Best Books for Children, Anita Silvey praised the character as "the perfect fantasy heroine — one who lives without supervision but with endless money to execute her schemes." It is not a surprise to learn that other lists of the top 100 children's book also often include Pippi Longstocking. 

Champion of fun, freedom and fantasy and long happy thoughts, Pippi is an inspired creation knit from daydreams. Kirkus Star Review

Quotes from Pippi Longstocking:

“Don't you worry about me. I'll always come out on top.”

“She always slept with her feet on the pillow and her head far down under the covers. ‘That’s the way they sleep in Guatemala,’ she explained. ‘And it’s the only right way to do it. This way, I can wiggle my toes while I’m sleeping, too.‘”

“In the orchard was a cottage, and in this cottage lived Pippi Longstocking. She was nine years old, and she lived all alone. She had neither mother nor father, which was really rather nice, for in this way there was no one to tell her to go to bed just when she was having the most fun, and no one to make her take cod-liver-oil when she felt like eating peppermints.”

“Pippi was a very remarkable child, and the most remarkable thing about her was her strength. She was so strong that in all the world there was no policeman as strong as she. She could have lifted a whole horse if she had wanted to.”

Astrid Lindgren died in 2002 aged 94 but you can find out so much from the comprehensive website and of course if you visit Sweden there are places that link with the book and with other books by this famous author and a museum too. 

Astrid Lindgren is also connected with IBBY:

In 1952 Jella Lepman, a courageous and visionary woman, organized a meeting in Munich, Germany, called International Understanding through Children’s Books. Many important authors, publishers, teachers and philosophers of the time attended the meeting and as a result a committee was appointed to create the International Board on Books for Young People – IBBY. A year later in 1953, IBBY was registered as a non-profit organization in Zurich, Switzerland. The founding members included: Erich Kästner, Lisa Tetzner, Astrid Lindgren, Jo Tenfjord, Fritz Brunner, Bettina Hürlimann and Richard Bamberger.

And a major award for Children's Literature is named after Astrid Lindgren. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the largest award of its kind. The global award is given annually to a person or organisation for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature. Our Australian Indigenous Literacy Foundation (2024) were recent winners and in the past we celebrated Australian authors - Shaun Tan (2011) and Sonya Hartnett (2008).

If you enjoy meeting Pippi Longstocking, other books with similar themes or a similarly wonderful heroine are:

Gooney Bird Greene

The Girl who Brought Mischief

Waffle Hearts