Every time I visit this library (where I have been working as a volunteer) I waiver between enormous happiness and then a kind of despair as I realise there are SO MANY books I still need to read and SO MANY authors and illustrators I need to discover. Tonight I decided to start re-reading my friend's blog - Kinderbookswitheverything working backwards from her very first post. In 2010 she celebrated an author or illustrator each day - this could be a wonderful way for you to build you own 'field knowledge' if you are new to the library role or are unfamiliar with some of the best authors and illustrators from around the world.
My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has worked in her school library for over thirty years. Today was the last day of the term. There was so much to do. First off she had to take all her timetabled classes - a very full day. Meanwhile her wonderful library assistant and I were shelving the hundreds of books that had been returned by the teachers who used them in Term one and reshelving returns from the children and reshelving the last bundles of displayed books. And then we set up four new book displays - ANZAC Day, Mother's Day, Koala Day (May 3rd); and a fantastic display of books about building and construction - I should have taken a photo. Oh, and my friend was also busy pulling down her Easter decorations, updating children who have completed the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge, and loaning books to parents (in this school parents can borrow up to ten books). It was a busy day which is not unusual.
Strangely, I have never thought to ask why she gave her blog this name back when she started it in 2009. We both started our blogs around the same time because we signed up for a course and this one was one of the 'assignments' and now here we are in 2025 and our blogs are still 'alive'. She also has an extensive Pinterest collection of picture books and other books on a huge range of topics. I did a search for the covers of a few of her favourite books (and yes all of them are quite old but that surely does not matter at all because they can be found in a library).
When you begin to explore her blog I suggest you click on January 2022 where you will find links to a series of splendid posts about books to support The Sustainable Development Goals.
Here is a small sample of her post content just to inspire you. Perhaps you could begin by clicking on your own birthday - I did that and made a couple of surprise discoveries:
- June 21st (2016) World Giraffe Day
- July 14th (2017) Pandemonium Day
- March 16th (2017) National Hiccup Day
- April 29 (2018) World Wish Day
- June 23rd (2020) Typewriter Day
- September 1st (2022) World Letter Writing Day
- May 3rd (2022) Wild Koala Day
- August 5th 2023 International Traffic Light Day
- August 3rd 2024 Sandcastle Day
While browsing her past posts I came across this poem:
Twenty Minutes A Day by Richard Peck
Read to your children, twenty minutes a day;
You have the time, And so do they.
Read while the laundry is in the machine;
Read while the dinner cooks;
Tuck a child in the crook of your arm
And reach for the library books.
Hide the remote,
Let the computer games cool,
For one day your children will be off to school.
"Remedial?" "Gifted?" You have the choice; Let them hear their first tales
In the sound of your voice.
Read in the morning;
Read over noon;
Read by the light of Goodnight Moon.
Turn the pages together,
Sitting close as you'll fit,
Till a small voice beside you
says, "Hey, don't quit."
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