The Final Chapter SMH Good Weekend Magazine opinion piece by Greg Callaghan

Sydney Morning Herald 

(Subscriber link)

"By far the most troubling thing I learnt while researching this story is the decline of school libraries in public schools, both in their number and standard of facilities. ... 

The decline of school libraries sends a huge message to kids that reading isn't valued ... Yet time and time again school libraries have been shown to play an important role in notching up literacy. If we care about literacy and student wellbeing, a simple first step is to ensure that every child, no matter their postcode, 

has access to a well-resourced school library."

I sincerely wish I could print this quote as a huge banner and post it to so many school Principals who, in recent times, have completely downgraded their school library, the library budget, staffing and position of the Teacher-Librarian.

My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has made some very thoughtful and important comments after reading this article from our Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper today (5th July 2025) but I felt moved to comment too.

The article was entitled The Final Chapter? and is written by Greg Callaghan a senior writer and the Acting editor with Good Weekend. His heading is 

"Stubbornly low literacy. A steep fall in recreational reading. A rise in numbers of students unable to finish whole texts. ... The decline in reading poses a risk to us all."

Here are some parts of the newspaper article that resonated with me:

I love the use of the term 'longform reading'. This goes back to one of my constant topics - TIME. Kids can only build their reading stamina to tackle longer books when they practice, and practice takes time! Reading for Pleasure is a new buzz term but really that should have always been our goal in schools. We teach children to read but they also need to discover that this activity is wonderful and magical and joyful and insightful and filled with riches. 

Greg also mentions 'the quality of our reading habits' and this echoes another topic I have talked about previously. Hundreds of books are now published every year (for adults and for children). Our children deserve the BEST books we can offer them. The person who can source these books and gather them all together in one place for very easy access by all readers is the Teacher-Librarian. By the best books I once again want to rage against 'celebrity authors'.  As an aside I was utterly dismayed this week to see a ridiculous 'celebrity' title has been short listed for the Speech Pathology awards here in Australia. Take a look at my second post about this. 

I spoke recently at a conference and my topic was 'Building field knowledge'. My aim was to inspire the group of Teacher-Librarians to build and expand their own field knowledge. We are so lucky here in Australia to have access to the best books not just our Australian titles but the best of the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand. The person best placed to put wonderful books into the hands of students and teachers and parents too, is the Teacher-Librarian.

Another quote from Greg Callaghan: "Compounding the malaise has been a decline in recreational reading across all ages. ... This is of special concern because of the example it sets for kids."  Years ago my school library had an event for our Grade 6 boys and their dads. One purpose of this was to encourage the dads to read with their son and also to be seen reading. Role models are powerful. Your child probably follows your football team or enjoys the sports you once played - that is because you are their role model. This also harks back to another 'hobby horse' of mine - READ TO YOUR BABY (sorry to shout).

And this leads me to another quote from this article: 

"Reading early as a child is a key predictor of success as an adult and both teachers and parents play a role in this. ... Parents exert the single most powerful influence on their kids' reading habits ... if children see adults around them reading for their own enjoyment, they'll learn that reading is valued" 

and I would add your child will see reading as a fun activity and  also more importantly just a natural part of life not some extra separate thing that is only for school. I penned a series of posts about this topic here. 

Check out my post about needing a "reading revolution"

Thanks to Greg Callaghan for his interesting opinion piece. I do hope it is read widely and I desperately hope he is wrong to say this is the final chapter - thank goodness for his question mark - so no it is not the final chapter but there is no need for more debating about this topic it is time to act for our children and as Greg suggests also for our world. 

The Great Dawn Choir by Sarah Speedie illustrated by Cindy Lane

"The term dawn chorus refers to the collective calls of birds at the start of a new day. ... It usually begins anywhere from 90 to 30 minutes before the sun rises. ... Birdsong and calls can be used to communicate with other birds or to defend territory. That's why the dawn chorus is a mix of raucous squawking and chatty screeches alongside melodic songs or loud territorial calls."

Can you name all the birds on the cover of this book? I have listed them below if you are unsure.

My favourite from my own morning bird choir/chorus are the pairs of birds who sing call and response to one another. I like to think of it as a safety check or their love language. Listen to this one the Common Koel.

Can I suggest you open up this web link which contains the top 40 bird songs of the birds found in our Australian backyards and use it when you read this book for the second time.  It will really add another dimension to this experience for your young students. I would begin with the kookaburra. There ae also detailed notes at the back of The Great Dawn Choir with photographs of each of the eight birds. 

Click on the eight birds featured in this book:

• Australian magpie
• Sulphur-crested cockatoo
• Rainbow lorikeet
• Laughing kookaburra
• Fairy wren
• Australian raven
• Crested pigeon

There is nothing to see in this video (10 minutes) so I would just play it for your library group and let them close their eyes and listen. They might recognise some of these dawn chorus sounds from their own neighborhood. Also in my post about This Bird I mention the ABC Radio National weekly bird sound 'competition' called 'tweet of the week' (link below).

You can see more books illustrated by Cindy Lane here and you can discover other books by Sarah Speedie here. I also found an Instagram post where we see Cindy Lane painting her fairy wren. A couple of days I talked about this book which is also from CSIRO Publishing. 

This Bird

Huge thanks to CSIRO Publishing for sending a review copy of The Dawn Chorus. I'm building up a terrific collection of books about our Australian birds. The Great Dawn Choir will be released in August.

Try to find this book too after you look at the end papers of The Great Dawn Choir which are filled with feathers. This one is not Australian but it is a truly special book:

Birds and their feathers

Here are some other books about birds and their songs:

The Forgotten Song

This is perfect because it also contains onomatopoeia

Magpies in Australia

Have you heard the nesting bird

The Song of the Nightingale

These companion books might be in your school library - I have popped all of them on my own list but please note these are not about Australian birds:

Lucky's Star: The story of a meteorite by Mark Greenwood illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

Just what is up there in the sky? The stars and the moon are so far away but they are so fascinating. Think about how you might feel if pieces of space - a meteorite - arrived in neighborhood. How exciting to actually touch a piece of rock from outer space. If you look closely at the end papers in Lucky's Star you can see a falling star - this is the meteorite heading to earth.

Lucky's Star is based on the true story of the Murchison Meteorite. Murchison is a town in Victoria and this meteorite arrived at 10.58 on Sunday 18 September 1969. Mark Greenwood takes this historic event and turns it into the personal story of a young farm girl named Lucky. And how lucky she was to see the meteorite and also to find a small piece.

"It was warm to touch and stinky when Lucky popped it in her pocket."

I really appreciated some of the word choices in this book which is one you could share with children aged 5+ - celestial spectacle; locals gossiped; alien germs; cosmic curiositis; baffled; shallow imprints and dimples; star-white flecks; cloaked in darkness; and contraption. You can find a link to the teachers notes on the publisher web page. With young children in your library you could also talk about the way Mark Greenwood has combined a fictional character such as Lucky (think about her name) with the factual events. There are some excellent information pages at the back of this book. 

Image source: Meteorite Times

Further reading:

• Museums Victoria
• ABC Science When a space visitor came to country Victoria
• The Shepparton Advisor newspaper

Lucky decides her little piece of meteorite might mean there is a gap in the sky so she tries to send it back into space. This reminded me of these terrific star books:

Laura's Star

The Lost Star

Star in the jar

Lucky's Star was published last month by CSIRO Publishing. Huge thanks for my review copy. This book is one children in your library are sure to enjoy and it will spark curiosity plus teachers could easily make use this book as part of a mini theme on stars and space. Older children could also use this book as a jumping off point for further research. 

Here are some other books illustrated by Lucia Masciullo:

Eat my Dust

Go home cat!

The Imagineer

Finally if you wanted a fun comparison book look for this one:

It fell from the sky

The Frog's First Song by Jazz Money illustrated by Jason Phu

First, the world is all dark. A little bit muddled and confused.

The only sound dripping water and small bubbles gurgling.

In that darkness and quiet, everyone is alone.

This is the world in the well.

This book opens with black pages. We can see a solitary frog sitting at the bottom of a well. He makes a little croak and then discovers he can sing. I am thinking the acoustics in the well would be fabulous. His song is heard by others. It is the first song and now it swells into a chorus of voices. 

"Their song is friendship and family, and with it the frogs feel brave."

Singing together makes the frogs feel so brave that they are able to venture out into the world where they are greeted by the night sky and the moon - "a perfect circle moon". (A great opportunity to talk to a young library group about the significance of the full moon and also the phases of the moon).

Do you love the sound of frogs - especially at night? I do. I sometimes hear them near my house. This book explores a reason why frogs love to sing in the night. You can hear 15 Australian frogs here - this is well worth a listen. 

Here is another text quote:

"That even in dark times, when we come together with song or dance or story, suddenly the world is brighter and no one needs to be alone."

You can see Jazz Money a Wiradjuri poet and her friend artist Jason Phu talking about their book here. This is their debut picture book. And here are some teachers notes from the publisher and a set from Lamont.

Read more about Jason Phu here. He has been a finalist in the Sulman Prize (2023, 2022, 2019, 2018), The Archibald Prize (2023, 2015, 2014), The Wynne Prize (2023), the Ramsay Art Prize and Australia’s premier prize for emerging artists (2017), the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship (2017), and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship (2016). He is clearly a very successful artist.

Jazz Money talks about her story:

A few years ago, Jason asked me to write about an artwork he was making, which was all about singing frogs. We spoke about ancestral frog stories, and at that time I was really obsessed with choirs and the joyful act of singing in groups – I still am obsessed with how special it is to sing with other people! Instead of writing an art essay I decided to write a short story about singing frogs. I wrote the first draft of the story very quickly. I was having so much fun writing. After finishing the story, I thought it would make a good children’s book and asked Jason if he would like to illustrate. In the story the frogs find one another first through song, then by dancing, hopping and moving out of the well into the light of the moon. I think being a part of communities is so important to help us feel safe, nurtured, joyous and supported and I am glad that the frogs reminded me of the power of gathering together.

Thank you to University of Queensland Press for sending me a review copy of The Frog's First Song. On Saturday 12th July you can meet the creators of this book at our city bookstore Kinokinuya and also on 5th July at Gleebooks Kids. 

The supplied notes say this book was inspired by a Chinese parable 'The frog in the well' and First Nations Creation stories. I would like to find a list of First Nations Stories featuring frogs - I can only think of the famous one about Tiddalick but I am sure there are others. If I was sharing The Frog's Song with a group of students I think I would read the text without the illustrations as a first experience and then allow some time for the group to talk about the art used in this book. 

I found this information about the Chinese proverb:

The idiom the frog at the bottom of the well (or “look at the sky from the bottom of a well) is from “Zhuang Zi”, a famous Taoism Book. It means to have a narrow view of the world, to have only superficial knowledge of something, or to be short-sighted.

My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything remembered The Peasant Prince - the story of the dancer Li Cunxin - also referred to this Chinese story:

"The story of Li Cunxin’s remarkable life has already reached thousands of readers throughout the world, a story that was first published in 2003 as Mao’s Last Dancer.  But it has always been a story about childhood, and now, with the publication of this picture book version, Li’s story will be enjoyed by very young children as well. Our picture book story begins with Li and his beloved father flying a kite together on the bleak, wind-swept fields around Li’s childhood village.  It is here that Li’s father tells him an old Chinese fable - a  story about a frog who was determined to escape from a deep, dark well. This story of the little frog’s determination touched Li so much that it became a constant reminder to him of his own life and of how, if he was just as determined, he might be able to escape from his life of poverty". Scholastic.  Read more on the NCACL (National Centre for Australian Children's Literature) Picture Books for Older Readers database. You can see a video of The Peasant Prince here.

Here are a couple of other splendid Chinese stories, I have previously discussed, by the Hans Christian Andersen award winner Cao Wenxuan (I am keen to see his new book Flying High):

Lemon Butterfly

The Wooden Fish

Smoke

With older students you could compare The First Frog's song with this famous story from Iran:

The Little Black Fish

The Deadly Diamond by Mark Greenwood

"To this day the deadly diamond retains a spooky reputation as a stone with an ominous sparkle and the power to bring tragedy to anyone who touches it. But does its ownership bring death, dishonour, disgrace or financial ruin? Can the curse of the most famous jewel in the world be reconciled with reality when many of its owners have lived long and generally prosperous lives?"

Our story of this famous diamond - variously named the Blue Diamond, the French Blue, and the Hope Diamond - begins in India at a diamond mine in 1642. We are not told in detail, but it is very clear that conditions at this mine must have been utterly terrible. Mark Greenwood does mention snakes and overseers and the use of children in the mine. No one is exactly sure, but this diamond was part of a temple idol before it was stolen and then passed through the hands of thieves, con men, nobility, an extremely rich socialite, a famous jeweler and finally presented to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History which is where you can see it today and from that link you can see many of the aspects and short videos of this story that are mentioned by The Deadly Diamond including the regular postal envelope that was used to send it to the museum - an amazing story. Take a look at these images. 

This is a slim book but such a page turner and readers are also supplied with a timeline, glossary and extra reading list so curious minds can explore this topic further. If I was sharing this book with a group of students (Grade 5 or 6) I think I would begin by showing the tiny diamond in a ring I wear every day using this as a way to talk about diamonds and their value and origins. You could share this ABC television series "Stuff the British stole" with a High school group. There is an episode about a diamond from South Africa and also one about the Koh I Noor diamond. Both are rated PG. I highly recommend The Deadly Diamond as a perfect addition to your school library or pop this title on your Christmas present list - it would be an especially great gift for a boy aged 10+. This book has big print and white pages and a few actual photographs/portraits of the famous people who were involved or who owned this diamond. 

Further reading:

• Diamond facts for kids
• Science Kids
• Science for kids club
• Only Natural Diamonds

Many of my reviewing colleagues receive advance copies of new Australian titles but up until this week I only received books from one Australian publisher. Now I can add two more to that list including the publisher of this book - Fremantle Press. I recently talked about their new verse novel Trapped by Julia Lawrinson.

Mark Greenwood has done an enormous amount of research for this book The Deadly Diamond. I simply gobbled up the whole book in one sitting - readers aged 10+ are going to love this book and I am sure the rest of the series are fabulous too. I have another one - The Wooden Horse - ready to read next. Here is the full series called History Hunter:

On the publisher page you can read an extract from The Deadly Diamond and find very detailed and useful teachers notes. There is one word missing from the glossary which your students may need to check - loupe.

I was so interested to read all the ways this stone was cut and changed and reduced in size. I also had no idea about the colours of diamonds - white, yellow, red, dark grey, orange, red, apple green, pink and most desirable of all, the blue.

"The diamonds that came from the fabled mines of Golconda were highly valued. Local rulers jealously guarded the source and kept the largest diamonds for themselves. The radiance of these diamonds was legendary. Many believed they contained a supernatural force. Prized for colour, clarity, size and beauty some were as pure as a drop of dew."

Try to find these two books as companion reads:

The Blood Stone

The Mona Lisa Vanishes

This is not about diamonds, but it has the same narrative nonfiction style 

and the same assortment of 'shady' characters.  Highly recommended. 

This form of narrative non fiction is not new but I have not seen any other books in this form for many years. In my previous school library I had other books like this on a range of topics but they are all now long out of print. One series were called True stories published by Allen and Unwin: Stoked! Real Life, Real Surf; Bog Bodies: Mummies and Curious Corpses; Wrecked: Mysteries and Disasters at Sea; Kimberley Warrior: The Story Of Jandamarra; and Soccer: Great Moments, Great Players in World Football. And we also had the It's True series.

Your students who enjoy books that use this form of narrative to tell a true story might find the "I Survived" series in a school or local library. I also had a series called Mega Bites published by Dorling Kindersley in my previous school. 

Rakali of the Riverbank by Stephanie Owen Reeder illustrated by Rachel Gregg

Just when you thought you had heard of every possible animal in Australia another one pops up. Of course we all know our platypus, another amphibious mammal, but what about the rakali? He is our largest native rodent. A rodent is an animal with strong incisor teeth for gnawing food. 

Bookseller blurb: Explore the night with Rakali as he hunts for food, patrols the riverbank and dodges threats. As the sun sets, Rakali prepares to patrol the riverbank. He is on a mission to fill his belly, protect his pups and keep his home safe. But he must face feral foxes, disease-carrying black rats and toxic cane toads. Will he make it safely back to his burrow before the sun rises? Rakali of the Riverbank is an engaging look at a night in the life of an Australian native water rat, and the challenges that these unique and charming creatures face.

This is another triumph for Stephanie Owen Reeder and, of course, CSIRO Publishing. Just so Stories

Things I learned from reading this book:

• The rakali is one of Australia’s only mammals to safely enjoy a meal of the highly toxic cane toad. Intelligent and resourceful, the water rat flips the toad over to avoid the poisonous glands found on the back of the toad’s neck and uses surgical-like precision to neatly remove the heart, liver, and toxic gall bladder before eating the rest.
• The rakali is one of only two amphibious mammals in Australia. The other is the platypus.
• They are also known as a golden-bellied water mouse or native water rat.
• Rakalis grow up to 60 cm long. Being the largest rat in Australia, they are useful to have around as they actually fight off introduced rats. You can tell them apart from introduced rats by their pale belly, mass of whiskers and the white tip on the end of their tail.
• The name rakali comes from the Ngarrindjeri people of the Murray River in South Australia. 
• They live beside estuaries, creeks, rivers, lakes and wetlands.
• The female cares for two to four young while the male patrols his territory. He sleeps in a separate burrow. 
• The scientific name is Hydromys chrysogaster
• Waterproof fur that dries quickly once on land.
• Elongated body shape which is perfectly adapted to glide through the water.
• Small ears that can be folded against its head and whiskers that surround the face, which are highly sensitive and help it to forage underwater at night.
• Partially webbed hind feet.
• Can grow up to 70 cm in length from nose to tip of the tail and weigh a little over a kilogram (about the size of an adult platypus).

Further reading:

• Backyard Buddies
• Australian Geographic
• inaturalist (great photos)

Image source: Ballarat Times

The format of this book is similar to the splendid Nature Storybooks (formerly called Read and Wonder). The main pages contain a narrative where we meet Rakali and see him hunting and protecting his territory and then on the final four pages you can read all about this curious animal and use the glossary to explore unfamiliar words. You can download the teachers notes here. 

The text in this book does give you all the facts about this little creature but it is expressed with very lyrical language:

Rakail's golden belly gleams as rays of light kiss the river goodnight.
A cape of ripples flows out behind him.

He charges at the toxic toad, sending the started creature sprawling on its back.

Moon shadows dance and a cool breeze ruffles his soggy fur.

And there are some fabulous words to explore with your reading companion such as hunkering, lurks, consume, humungous, abandoned, and gravelly sand.

Let's think for a moment about rodents - this could be a fabulous mini topic in your library. Some of my own favourite animals are rodents - the beaver; the capybara; the guinea pig; hamster; vole; squirrel; and porcupine. I also discovered there is a rodent called a kangaroo rat but this creature is not even Australian! It lives in North America. In Australia we have or have had at one time 57 different Australian rodents - I was utterly amazed to discover this.

Huge thanks to CSIRO Publishing for sending me a copy of this book. It was published just yesterday so it will be easy to find in your local bookstore. If your school buys a standing order of new titles this book will be included. You are sure to enjoy sharing this book with your youngest readers in your school library. I would begin my reading by talking about animal heroes - the rakali is a hero in my view because he is helping, in his own small way, with the elimination of those dreadful cane toads. 

Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder is the author of over 20 historical and environmental books for children, including Swifty and Sensational Australian Animals. She has won both the CBCA Book of the Year Award and the NSW Premier’s History Award.

This Bird: Noticing our urban birds by Astred Hicks and Dr Holly Parsons

"This book is for curious people who like to look around them and find out more. Bird noticing is a lovely way to connect with nature and the world around us."

In the introduction to this book you might recognise the names three birds you have seen in other books - the bar-tailed godwit (Jeannie Baker Circle); the satin bowerbird (Bowerbird Blues and sequels by Aura Parker) and the powerful owl (Apollo the Powerful Owl by Gordon Winch).

Almost one hundred Australian birds are explored in this book with twenty-six explored in detail. Here are some of the page headings which are sure to make you curious:

• This bird looks different from its partner
• This bird plays hide and seek
• This bird flies marathons
• This bird is a moonlight wailer
• This bird walks on water
• This bird is cheeky
• This bird is a swimmer
• This bird is a hoverer
• This bird is 'shellfish'
• This bird is gregarious
• This bird has a red butt
• This bird eats with a spoon
• This bird is more than an angler
• This bird is an artist
• This bird is a liar
• This bird is a master of disguise
• This bird has a sweet tooth
• This bird is a cruncher

On the back end paper you could play a game with your young reading companion of name that bird. I also like the way there are small symbols on each page that you use to identify the type of bird such as grassland bird, seabird, wader or raptor. Did you know the name for a bird who eats fish is a piscivore and one that eats seeds is a granivore? As with all good nonfiction this book also has a detailed index and glossary. In a classroom it would be interesting to focus on one double page each week and use the information as a jumping off point to discover even more about each urban bird and you could do a search for an audio file to hear the call of your focus bird. Perhaps your students could also do some birdwatching in their local area and you could make a class book of your discoveries. Have you discovered the ABC Radio National Tweet of the Week where listeners identify birds from their calls - it is such a fun little treat each week. 

There are teachers notes available on the publisher webpage. If you purchase a library standing order this book is sure to be included. I also expect to see this book listed as a 2026 CBCA Eve Pownall notable title. 

Our Australian birds do have very special features but I also love some of their names: bellbird, gang-gang cookatoo, noisy friarbird, grey goshawke, mistletoebird, pied oystercatcher, royal spoonbill, and of course the willie wagtail. Another bird that I find so curious is the Tawny Frogmouth. Take a look at this photo of a spotted pardalote - then you could compare the photo with the excellent illustration by Astred Hicks and with this one from Bridget Farmer:

The Bush Birds - Spotted Pardalote

After reading this book I hope one day to see a comb-crested jacana; a purple swamphen; and a red-rumped parrot!

Huge thanks to CSIRO Publishing for my advance copy of This Bird. It will be published on 1st August 2025 but I suggest you pop this on your shopping list or library wish list now. 

Gleebooks Kids

There are some fantastic books available for our children about birds but they are not always about our unique Australian birds. I lived in Canada (my favourite bird there was the loon) some years ago and one of the things that surprised me was the way I missed the familiar sounds of our birds. Where I live now there is a colony of kookaburras and their laugh makes me smile every time I hear them nearby or have the thrill of seeing one on my balcony. When I walk in a bush area close by, I often hear the eastern whip bird calling to their partner. Out of interest I 'Googled' birds around the lagoon near my home and I found this astonishing list. Here is one of my own local favourites:

Masked Lapwing Image source: Birds of Australia

I like this photo because it shows two of these birds 

and when I see them near the lagoon they are always together as a pair. 

And I read that when you see two like this it is usually a male and a female.

They are sometimes called a Spur-wing Plover

You can hear their distinct call here.

Companion books to read alongside This Bird:

The Bush Birds and look for the second in this series The Beach Birds

The art in these two books is truly special.

Australian Backyard Birdies is so funny and yet it also contains scientific information

Your art lesson could involve painting or creating pictures of our Australian native birds. If you have any of the books I have mentioned in this post you could compare the illustration styles. 

In 2015 I joined a bird watching tour of Shetland and Fair Isle. I am not a bird watcher but the enthusiasm and deep knowledge of our two guides was inspirational and that shines through with the author of this book Dr Holly Parsons. Watch this 2015 video from Gardening Australia where Holly talks about birds in our gardens. You can find Astred Hicks on Instagram.

We are so lucky to have a publisher like CSIRO Publishing. They source experts in their field and pair them with hugely talented authors and illustrators. Every school and public library should have a collection of their titles. Take a look at this post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything. Here are a few I have read in recent years:

On the trail of the Plains Wanderer

The Forgotten Song

Our World full of Wonder

Where are all the Christmas Beetles?

Secrets of the Saltmarsh