For background reading you might begin with my previous post about the Panda Awards.
Here are the 2026-27 Nominees (English language texts);
"Who has woken the air? Was it the tree? Was it the rabbit?
Was it the dog? Was it the cat? Was it you?"
Decades ago Mark McLeod talked about the need for quiet books and inspired by this idea I created a Pinterest collection. Now I have discovered On a Summer Night and it needs to go to the top of this list.
This picture book comes from the US but the setting is universal. It is a very hot summer night.
"the world is still. Even the crickets think it is too hot to sing."
A little girl wakes up and hears a noise. This page turn will jolt you. It has no illustration - it is all dark brown with a tiny section of cream in the corner. Watch this corner because over the coming pages this slither of light will grow.
She investigates the noise and she finds her cat stretched out on the cool surface of the kitchen table. The cat wakes up with a start having also heard a noise from outside.
"Then you step out to the yard, where the dew tips blades of grass and silvers your toes."
Just pause for a moment and think about this sentence.
And so, the nighttime exploration continues.
Publisher blurb: On a summer night, the world is still. Even the crickets think it’s too hot to sing. But all at once, a girl wakes. In the kitchen, the cat rolls onto its soft paws. A neighbor’s small white dog yaps, a brown rabbit peeks from a hedge, and the leaves of a cherry tree begin to stir in the breeze. Readers witness and wonder: Who has woken them all? In this soothing bedtime story, the quiet of a warm summer night is brought to vivid, magical life with the soft steps of bare feet, the padding of paws, and the bright, golden light of the moon. One by one, each creature is roused and then gently returned to sleep in a lovely and lyrical exploration of wakefulness, restfulness, and the mysterious calm of the night.
Now for the bad news. I have seen this book listed between AUS$35 to AUS$50! So sadly this might be a book you look for in your local public library. You can see inside this book here.
I have been a fan of Kenard Pak for many years - ever since my friend who is a Teacher-Librarian introduced me to his work. The art in this book is very different from his usual style - it has been created digitally and usually that form does not appeal to me but for this book it really works to create the night time atmosphere. Here is his web page.
US author Deborah Hopkinson is the award-winning author of seventy books for young readers including picture books, middle grade historical fiction, Little Golden Book biographies, and long form nonfiction. Her titles have won the Oregon Book Award, the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Green Earth Environmental Award. You can see other picture books by Deborah Hopkinson here. I previously talked about these two:
The title of this book did mislead me but in a good way. I immediately thought of the famous music Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns and so I thought this book could be linked to the 2026 CBCA slogan A Symphony of Stories. I do have a small collection of picture books that feature this famous piece of music in a Pinterest collection.
I picked up this book by Marianne Dubuc at a recent charity book sale. It was published in 2012 and so is long out of print. This book is fun, but it does not readily relate to the famous music or the book week slogan.
The parrot dresses up as a tortoise
Here is the full headline from the Sydney Morning Herald 6th May 2026:
I worked in NSW Department of Education primary schools in their school libraries from 1985-2017 in various libraries from small rural schools, a larger country town and a huge metropolitan campus. I have visited school libraries in NSW and in Canada and I currently volunteer in two libraries for children. The topic of this piece in the newspaper today is a very important one and a personal one too.
It is very easy to spot a great school library - the ingredients are not mysterious - a current, well-organised and attractively displayed book collection in a warm welcoming space AND a Teacher-Librarian - not just someone with specialised qualifications (I have these) but also a Teacher-Librarian who is passionate about reading and about providing children (and their teachers) with the best books and other resources available.
The barriers are not mysterious either - disinterested or ignorant school executives, limited budgets, inappropriate staffing, inadequate spaces, and of course the saddest situation of all when a school has no library or a library but no appropriate library staff.
Some points that resonated with me in this article:
[I have worked with every 'type' of Principal from the deeply committed to the apathetic and the openly hostile. At times, justifying my role and the importance of the school library felt like a daily battle]
[This was one of the huge joys of my role - finding resources for teachers and encouraging new staff to read books and extend/develop their teaching repertoire]
Tonight on the news the reporter named the "best" performing schools in Sydney as measured by a test called NAPLAN - I totally disagree with this testing of very young children BUT I would love to know about the library provisions in each of these 'top' schools - the news item named Beecroft PS; Lindfield East PS; and St Ives North PS among the 'top' three.
Cathie Warburton reinforces this measure when she says "Research by the ACER shows that students in schools with qualified teacher librarians achieve higher NAPLAN literacy outcomes and well-resourced, staff libraries are linked to higher student achievement overall."
If you are reading this AND you are a parent in Australia with a school aged child, make sure you check out the situation in YOUR school. Ask to see the library if you are touring a school, find out the name of the Teacher-Librarian, talk to your child - do they visit the school library every week? what happens when they visit? who works there? are books coming home? If you don't get 'great' answers to these questions ASK why.
I have talked about aspects of this issue previously:
Library Snapshot Day 1st April
The Final Chapter SMH Good Weekend Magazine
Reading is in the news they say we need a revolution - lets revolt!
"Children are forgetting the joy of reading books"
Libraries, books, time for reading, and more
Seppy is the seventh son of a seventh son. His father is a coach-maker and he expects Seppy will follow this trade but Seppy's first love is music - playing his small, hand made violin. One night Seppy decides to visit an old ruined house in his small seaport town. He has the idea to ask the voices people say can be heard from inside:
"How can I learn to be the best fiddler in the country?"
The reply is strange:
"Throw your shoe at the moon. ... Each night for seven nights, throw your shoe at the moon."
Seppy's family are poor but he does have six elder brothers and his mother has kept all their shoes. They are inside the grandfather clock.
I love the shoes that Seppy takes down to the beach each night: "a pair of tiny, soft, kid-skin shoes that he had worn when he was one-year old"; a "small rabbit-skin boot"; "a red crocodile-skin slipper that a lord's wife had given his mother"; "a doe-skin boot that a travelling musician had gien his mother in exchange for a plate of stew"; "a shiny calf-skin shoe with a pewter buckle"; "a sheep-skin slipper"; and on the seventh night he threw up one of his hog-skin clogs.
Each time he leaves the remaining shoe on the sea wall. And when he looks up on the final night he sees that the moon is now dirtied all over. Seppy has angered the moon.
"Yes! I have to give you a wish, you impertinent boy! But you have marked my face for ever, with your dirt shoes, and for that I shall punish you. You must go barefoot for seven years. And until the day when you put those shoes back in the clock, your sister will not speak. And you and all your family will be in great danger, but I shan't tell you what it's going to be. You can just wait and see."
But Seppy does have a sister - or does he?
Things to think about - what does it mean to be the seventh son of a seventh son, and what about the word revenge, and the power of that curse, how the shoes might be linked to this, how Seppy (he is a hero of the story after all) might save the day or save his family and help his beloved sister to speak. And in the end will he gain his heart's desire and become a famous musician?
Here are some illustrations from this book:
I stumbled on an Instagrammer who is posting her favourite picture books from the past. She shared The Mirrorstone by Michael Palin illustrated by Alan Lee a couple of weeks ago. This book was one of two from a series - the other being The Moon's Revenge. I checked my blog and was slightly shocked to discover I had never shared this book here. I have read this book to hundreds of Grade 2 and 3 children in my school library. It is a winner as a read aloud and a terrific way to talk about fantasy stories. I also discovered I did not own this book and so I ordered a copy from Better World Books in the US and one week later my copy arrived. The Moon's Revenge was published in 1987 and so is long out of print.
Stories in this book are: The Water Buffalo; Eric; Broken Toys; Distant Rain; Undertow; Grandpa's Story; No other country; The Nameless Holiday; The Amnesia Machine; Stick figures; Alert but Not Alarmed; Wake; Make your own pet; Our expedition; Night of the Turtle Rescue.
I was already familiar with many of the stories in this collection especially Eric which I love (and I gifted to a young friend named Eric).
On a recent visit to Gleebooks a customer called in to ask about Shaun Tan and Rachel Robson mentioned Tales from Outer Suburbia to the customer. She talked about binging the whole television series over one weekend and how she really thought this production deserved a lot more attention. Now jump forward a few weeks. I was visiting our local charity book sale and spied a copy of Tales from Outer Suburbia for just AUS$2 - a mint condition paperback copy.
If you are a casual or substitute teachers try to find a copy of this book - these short stories will create magic with any class.
"Today I have a secret, and all day long my secret will be like a friend to me. Tonight I will tell it to my family, but now I have work to do in the city."
Ahmed rides on his small cart pulled by his donkey. The city of Cairo is noisy and filled with people trading and shopping. Ahmed notices the sounds and the colours. He enjoys a quick meal of beans and noodles, but he cannot pause for long because he has deliveries to make - heavy bottles of fuel.
With older students I would like this book with the UNICEF Rights of the Child:
28. Education: Every child has the right to an education. Primary education should be free. Secondary and higher education should be available to every child. Children should be encouraged to go to school to the highest level possible.
32. Protection from harmful work: Children have the right to be protected from doing work that is dangerous or bad for their education, health or development. If children work, they have the right to be safe and paid fairly.
When I spied this book at a recent charity book sale I knew it would be a terrific choice. As is often the way with books I pick up at the fair, I do wonder how this book came to be here in Australia. Someone has inscribed it "to Leo happy reading love Grandma Bea". I wonder if Leo read his gift. I wonder if Bea knew the author or illustrator or if she realised this book (published in 1990) contains an important story about the power of education and literacy?
Publisher blurb (spoiler included): Ahmed drives his donkey cart through the streets of Cairo, delivering butane gas cylinders to his father's customers. He knows everyone and has a part to play in the life of the city. He is proud to be strong enough to help his family, but most of all he is proud of his precious secret, a secret that he keeps until the end of the day. The book reveals a lot about Ahmed's life, and finally his secret - that he can write his name.
Florence Parry Heide died in 2011. She wrote over 100 books including the famous series about Treehorn. The co-author of this book Judith Heide Gilland is her daughter. Ted Lewin died in 2021. He illustrated over 200 books. (Kirkus have talked about lots of them). I have already talked about his book about puffins! Here are two others:
