Yes, it is my Birthday so let's celebrate with some Happy Birthday picture books!
Friday, November 24, 2023
Thursday, November 23, 2023
The King with Dirty Feet by Sally Pomme Clayton illustrated by Rhiannon Sanderson
Blurb from the illustrator web page: There once was a king who hated bath time so much that he never washed. He was a very smelly king! The king finally consents to bathe in the river but no matter how clean he is, his feet stay dirty. The people sweep away all the dirt in the land - but the air is choked with dust. The dust gets washed away but now the land is flooded with water. An enormous tapestry is sewn to cover the whole kingdom but now nothing will grow on the land... What is to be done?
This book would be a wonderful read aloud for Grade One or Two in your school library and it is available in paperback for a good price. After reading The King with Dirty Feet you could explore folktales from around the world. I found this book yesterday in a display for Diwali - the wonderful Teacher-Librarian displayed a big selection of stories from India.
Here is her list of Indian folktales:
• The Elephant's Friend by Marcia Williams
• The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin by Betsy Bang
• No Dinner! by Jessica Souhami
• Grandma and the Great Gourd by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• Monkey by Gerald McDermott
• The Monkey and the Crocodile by Paul Galdone
• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
• Under the Great Plum Tree by Sufiya Ahmed
• Once a Mouse... by Marcia Brown
• Pattan's Pumpkin by Chitra Soundar
• The Elephant's Garden by Jane Ray
• Jamil's Clever Cat by Fiona French
• Manu and the Talking Fish by Roberta Arenson
• The Tiger Child by Joanna Troughton
My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has a number of useful Pinterest collections:
Image Source: Rhi Sanderson
Here is the webpage for the illustrator Rhiannon Sanderson. The King with Dirty Feet is listed for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge K-2. Here is a teacher activity set from the publisher. IBBY UK have penned a review.
There’s something comforting and timeless about folktales; I love the pure simplicity of the storytelling, while the deeper meanings and lessons within the narrative are always quite profound. Folktales are not only a wonderful way to teach life lessons, but they are fabulously entertaining and a sure-fire way to ignite a love of stories in young children. Reading TimeCompanion book - not a folktale and not about shoes but instead this is about not taking a bath!:
This book might also be in your library:
Post update - this week (June 2026) I listened to the Teacher-Librarian reading The King with Dirty Feet to groups of Grade 2 students. It occurred to me that The King with Dirty Feet is also a book you could use with older students prior to reading Sparrow Girl as a way to initiate a discussion about consequences.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Paper Dragon - The Fight for the Hidden Realm by Siobhan McDermott
"There are twelve skills needed to become a Cyo B'Ahon. Six to protect those you will watch over and six to achieve immortality. Each question you answered on your entrance exam was linked to one of these skills. Having a natural ability for one over the others is not enough. Without the twelve you will never make it as a Cyo B'Ahon."
Students need a natural aptitude in six areas: climate, calligraphy, concealment, flora, fauna and folklore. And they also need to be able to combine the skills essential for ageshifting - perception, prediction, perseverance, recall, reasoning and rapport.
Ageshifting - "This is one part of being a Cyo B'Ahon that we don't tend to broadcast. We're immortal yes, but not because our bodies are frozen in time. Instead we maintain immortality by ageshifting."
Harry Potter fans might have fun making links between this text and their favourite Harry Potter characters and plot twists.
- Harry Potter = Zhi Ging - she has a special magical and powerful gift and she has no idea where this came from. There is also a mystery surrounding the fate of her mother.
- Hogwarts = Hok Woh, the underwater realm of the immortals - a training school run like a boarding school with a cafeteria, classrooms, dorms, eccentric teachers, and range of classmates - some friendly some not. The first-year students are learning to become Silhouettes - many will fail.
- Quidditch = Dragon boat races
- Draco Malfoy = Iridill - we discover she cheated the entrance exam and at every turn she is utterly despicable towards Zhi Ging.
- Voldemort = Fui Gwai - and he/she has an army of thralls.
Readers who have strong reading stamina and who enjoy complex stories with lots of characters and dangerous situations might enjoy this book - I suggest age 11+. This first installment does end on a cliff hanger so readers will need to wait for book 2. You will also need reading stamina because this is a long book with a huge cast of characters and to my eye the print size is a little too small, so I found it hard to read for extended periods. The US cover looks more sophisticated and I think better matches the tone of, and audience for, this book. Huge thanks to Three Sparrows for the advance copy of this book which is due for release in February 2024.
Sadly, I didn't find Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realms entirely captured my attention but I found these media reviews:
- 'A soaring, luminous new world ... An absolute delight!' Jessica Townsend
- 'An absolute feast for the senses!' Nizrana Farook
- 'A thrillingly immersive story of courage, self-discovery, and magic' Sinead O'Hart
The US cover
Publisher blurb: An outsider in her village above the cloud sea, 12-year-old orphan Yeung Zhi Ging’s only hope of escape is to win the single invitation to train as a Silhouette: an apprentice to the immortals. After her ill-fated attempt to impress the Silhouette scout leads to a dragon attack on the jade mountain, Zhi Ging is sure that her chances, and her life, are over. But the scout spots her potential and offers her protection and a second chance. She’s in. In her lessons in Hok Woh, the underwater realm of the immortals, Zhi Ging must face the challenging trials set by her teachers to prove that she’s worthy of being a Silhouette—despite her rivals’ attempts to sabotage her. But as Zhi Ging’s power grows, so do the rumours of the return of the Fui Gwai, an evil spirit that turns people into grey-eyed thralls. When the impossible happens and the Fui Gwai attack the Silhouettes, can Zhi Ging use her newly uncovered talents to save her friends and the world beyond? Or will the grey-eyed spirit consume them all?
About the author: Siobhan McDermott was born in Hong Kong and grew up on a steady stream of stories filled with Chinese legends and Irish folklore from her Chinese mother and Irish father. She now lives in the UK and continues to order dim sum in Cantonese tinged with a distinctly Dublin lilt. She worked in publishing for six years, during which she took part in every event imaginable: from a ‘yoga with your dog’ session in a bookshop to running around Isle of Man in a full unicorn onesie. She is now the PR Lead at BBC Maestro. Paper Dragons is her debut novel and was inspired by moments across her life: from childhood ferry trips between Lantau Island and Hong Kong, to traveling around Taiwan, Italy and Spain.
The publisher suggests Paper Dragon will be enjoyed by fans of Amari and the Night Brothers, Dragon Mountain, Skandar and Eragon.
I didn't finish reading The Lost Ryu by Emi Watanabe Cohen but this could be another book to look for if you enjoy Paper Dragon: The fight for the Hidden realm
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
IBBY Mini Masterpiece art auction - meet Tom Jellett
Try the QR code Or click this link - setting up an account is easy and
you can mark your favourites and watch their progress.
Tom Jellett
Meet the illustrator Tom Jellett - here are his books and his little Space Man original postcard sized art which is on offer at the IBBY auction. Dirt by Sea was a 2023 CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Picture Book Honour Book and I loved to read Hot Stuff to every class in my school library for over twenty years.
You could own this little space man - he looks a bit like Elvis!
Don't miss out - this event ends on 2nd December
The Science of Baking - Ada Twist Scientist - The Why Files - by Andrea Beaty and Dr Theanne Griffin
When I make a cake - something I do every week - I marvel that odd ingredients can meld together into something delicious. I cannot image eating a dish of flour or a raw egg but adding these to a cake recipe, baking it in an oven for less than an hour and voila - a cake emerges. YUM. Actually as I write this post my cake is in the oven - the smell is wafting around my house - banana walnut cake.
Most libraries have good collections of books filled with recipes but this one is very different. Ada Twist, Scientist explains how baking actually works. She spends time explaining this one ingredient at a time - flour, sugar, butter or another fat, eggs, milk, baking powder (this has always been a mystery to me) and if you are making bread you can also read all about yeast. There is also so much science in baking - biology, chemistry, physics, and of course maths. This book also contains a recipe and a science experiment. The first modern pastry chef was Marie-Antoine Careme from France (1784-1833).
Yes this book is nonfiction, yes, it is contains all the relevant facts BUT it is also a joy to read because it is filled with fun illustrations and photos and has a big font and very appealing page layouts.
If you have any of the Ada Twist book series by Andrea Beaty I highly recommend adding the four small non fiction books to your collection.
Check out all the books in the Questioneers Series:
The Questioneers Picture Book Series: Iggy Peck, Architect | Rosie Revere, Engineer | Ada Twist, Scientist | Sofia Valdez, Future Prez | Aaron Slater, Illustrator | Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year
The Questioneers Chapter Book Series: Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters | Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants | Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion | Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote | Ada Twist and the Disappearing Dogs | Aaron Slater and the Sneaky Snake
Questioneers: The Why Files Series: Exploring Flight! | All About Plants! | The Science of Baking | Bug Bonanza! | Rockin’ Robots!
Questioneers: Ada Twist, Scientist Series: Ghost Busted | Show Me the Bunny | Ada Twist, Scientist: Brainstorm Book | 5-Minute Ada Twist, Scientist Stories
The Questioneers Big Project Book Series: Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects | Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers | Ada Twist’s Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists | Sofia Valdez’s Big Project Book for Awesome Activists | Aaron Slater’s Big Project Book for Astonishing Artists
Monday, November 20, 2023
The Treasure Box by Margaret Wild illustrated by Freya Blackwood
"This is a book about our people, about us ...
it is rarer than rubies, more splendid than silver, greater than gold."
Publisher blurb: As war rages, Peter and his father flee their home, taking with them a treasure box that holds something more precious than jewels. They journey through mud and rain and long cold nights, and soon their survival becomes more important than any possessions they carry. But as the years go by, Peter never forgets the treasure box, and one day he returns to find it... From two of our most talented picture-book creators comes this celebration of things that can't be destroyed by bombs or fire. A haunting and beautiful tale of the power of words, the importance of stories and the resilience of the human spirit.
Image Source: Freya Blackwood
Treasure Box was published in 2013, the paperback in 2017 and it is still available. I picked up my copy from a recant charity book sale. Here is a review and some teaching ideas (2013) from Megan Daley. Here is an excellent set of questions to use with students prior to reading this book. There is a comprehensive list of teacher resources on the National Centre for Children's Literature database Picture Books for Older Readers page.
Read more about Margaret Wild - our national children's book treasure.
Companion books:
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