Fizzlebert Stump the boy who ran away from the circus (and joined the library) by AF Harrold illustrated by Sarah Horne

Fizzlebert Stump the boy who ran away from the circus (and joined the library) is a huge romp from page one through to page 251!  I almost read the whole book in one sitting but such awful things happen to our hero Fizzlebert Stump known as Fizz that at several points I just had to stop reading.  In fact the author advised this himself - he talks to the reader right through this story in a similar way to Lemony Snickett in A series of Unfortunate Events.

Fizz has lived his whole life with a travelling circus.  His mum is a clown and his dad is the strong man and they enjoy their life and simple small caravan.  Sadly for Fizz there are no other children in this circus so his main friends are a sea lion called Fish and an old toothless lion.  Fizz does have to attend school but this is provided by the assorted adults from the circus and so while Fizz knows quite a lot about clowns, acrobats and circus tents he is extremely ignorant about things from daily life including the workings of public libraries.  One night some boys hang around after the circus talking with Fizz.  He is delighted to meet some children his own age but sadly the conversation turns to taunting when Fizz tells them his name.  As the boys run off one drops his library book and so the next day, under instruction from Dr Surprise the circus's "Mysterious Magical Mind Reader, Horrendous Horripilating Hypnotist and Incredible Invisible Illusionist", Fizz visits the town library to return the book.

"The room was full of more books than he'd ever seen in his life.  Brilliant! Amazing! Just looking at one shelf at random and reading the titles, it seemed that every single book was different."

Fizz finds a special book and he goes to the counter to buy it because the lending process is new to him.  The Librarian Miss Toad explains Fizz can join the library.  No need for money.  There is one catch. Fizz will need an adult to sign his membership form.  As he sadly leaves the library two people walk up with the seemingly innocent offer of help.  They pretend to be his grandparents and Fizz can join the library and borrow the book "The Great Zargo of Ixl-Bolth and the Flying death Robots of Mars." Clearly another thing missing from Fizz's upbringing was "he'd never learnt that, as a general rule, it's not a good idea to talk to strangers in the street."

If you are already a fan of Roald Dahl especially The Twits or the Mr Gum series then rush (and I do mean rush) into your library and ask for Fizzlebert Stump.  There are three books in this series and yes we do have all of them.  If your library does not have this series make sure you ask the lovely Teacher-Librarian to buy it.  Other children will thank you and so will teachers who pick up this book as a read-a-loud for their class.

I have to thank a Grade five student (and his mum) from my school who alerted me to this terrific book.  I am off to borrow the second one today. You can read reviews by other students here.

I will finish with a little quote which may give you an idea of the tone of this wacky book.  For reasons I won't explain this is from the scene where Mr Stump (he is a weightlifter remember) picks up the town librarian Miss Toad.

"he grabbed her (gently) by the collar and lifted her up.  Her fat ankles paddled the air, as if they were still walking.  He lifted her higher, with one arm, which was a remarkable feat since she was not the slimmest or slightest of creatures, and turned her so they faced each other.  She was, as you can imagine, a little startled by this, but as a trained librarian she did not let it show."

Our Village in the Sky by Janeen Brian illustrated by Anne Spudvilas

Picture book readers will know the best examples of this genre often feel like poems. Our Village in the sky really is a set of poems which together share the daily life of a small group of children who live in a remote village in the Himalayan mountains.

I am so tempted to quote extensively from this text - every page contains tiny writing jewels.  Here are a few lines to tempt you :

"I am a drummer.
My hands make noise
that echoes through the village.

Sometimes my fingers flutter
like small, brown butterflies
and the sound is their heartbeat."

"Hands can 
pitch stones
grab cows' tails
wave to friends
tie scarves
shake mats
and tickle!

Feet can
chase goats
jump puddles
kick dust
dance anyhow
and run away!"


You can listen to a very special reading of the whole book here.  Children from Immanuel College in South Australia bring these touching poems to life. Here is a very comprehensive set of teaching notes including ideas you can use for Visual Literacy.

I will make an early prediction that Village in the Sky will be short listed for the CBCA prize in 2015 it certainly deserves this honour.  This book would be an excellent way show how children from other lands follow their daily routines, routines which are very different to those of children from suburban Australia.  We see the children at work washing and drying clothes, preparing dung for burning, breaking rocks, caring for animals and most of all having fun with games, dance and music.
The illustrations are especially beautiful showing the landscape and warm smiles of the children. This is a book to treasure and it is a book that will enrich the lives of all readers.

Bag in the wind by Ted Kooser illustrated by Barry Root

"One cold, windy morning early in spring, a bulldozer was pushing a big pile of garbage around a landfill when it uncovered an empty plastic bag."

Thus begins the journey of a plastic bag over the fence where it is eventually found by a girl collecting cans.  She leaves the bag with the lady at the gas station who has paid for her recycling but the bag blows away again and is found by a homeless man.

"A tall man with long hair and a beard came limping along the side of the road, using a metal crutch. The bag came rolling along the shoulder toward him and he caught it with the tip of his crutch.  He leaned down and picked it up and wadded it into his pocket"

The bag 'escapes' again and is found by several more people until finally it returns to the little girl who had been collecting cans.  She has saved her money and has come into a second hand store to buy a baseball glove and ball.  Bag in the Wind is a lyrical exploration of an important environmental topic.  Here is some background reading about the problems with plastic bags.  The setting for Bag in the Wind is American but there is an Australian campaign to reduce or eliminate the use of bags which is also worth exploring with your students.  Bag in the Wind is in our Picture book collection but it could also be placed in Non Fiction because it does have excellent pages of factual information at the back.  Here is an excellent Q&A with Ted Kooser and a poster you could use to promote this special book.

You might like to also read my review of House Held up by trees also by Ted Kooser.

The exquisitely observed narrative renders the American landscape’s dubious symbiosis—nominally natural, persistently industrial—worthy of a child’s attention: “There were lots of young trees along the ditch, their twigs covered with hard little buds that would soon open, and the bag got caught on a branch and hung there the rest of the night, flapping and slapping in the wind.” 

Missy's Super Duper Royal Deluxe Picture Day by Susan Nees

In spite of the very long title - Missy's Super Duper Royal Deluxe Picture Day is a simple junior book. It will only appeal to girls in Grades 1 and 2 and the plot is quite predictable but it did make me smile.

Missy has big plans for class picture day.  She will wear wonderful clothes.  "Missy could not wait until Friday.  Friday was picture day at school.  And Missy was going to dress up Super Duper Royal Deluxe.  She was going to razzle and dazzle! She was going to shimmer and shine!"

Missy is really called Melisa Abigail Rose but everyone calls her Missy.  She has a cat called Pink and everyone calls him "Pink."  On school picture day Missy tries twelve different crazy outfits until she finally settles on the perfect combination which includes all her favourite things - sparkly bag, plaid skirt, dynamite boots and her super duper fuzzy hat.   Missy's mother takes one look at her daughter and their battle begins.  Mum has organised a far more conservative and sensible Picture Day outfit. Mum wins the battle and a very angry Missy heads off to school.  In class Missy sits beside Oscar. Missy is so busy feeling furious and comparing her plain clothes with the sparkles of her class mates she does not really look at Oscar.  He is wearing a plaid vest and a huge green bow tie.  As the two of them wait for their turn Oscar explains his brilliant plan to Missy.  The ending will make you smile.

Here is the web site for the author where you can peek inside other books from this series.  We have all of them in our school library. You might also enjoy the Fancy Nancy series and Eloise.

Children's Book Council of Australia Winners for 2014

Friday 12 noon we all held our breath and crossed our fingers across my school as we waited to hear the 2014 CBCA winners.  It was exciting to hear the cheers as one of our favourites The Swap won the Picture book Early Childhood award.

In the days preceding the big announcement our classes had voted and The Swap was a resounding winner for our Grade One and Two students.  We were also pleased about Banjo and Ruby Red, an honour book in this same section.

Only a small handful of students have read the Younger Readers category winner A Very Unusual Pursuit. It can be difficult to tackle a long novel in our short library sessions but I enjoyed this one so much - it clearly stood out as a winner from the other short listed titles in this section. Our classes will enjoy extracts this week and we will purchase a small set for use with reading circles.

I told the whole school to listen for my screams if Silver Buttons didn't win! It didn't! But I held in my screams because this magical book did receive an honour in the Picture Book of the Year category.  The winner for this important section was Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan.  This is a book that needs to be read and then re-read.  You might like to compare Rules of Summer with the short stories in Tales from Outer Suburbia and the illustrations in What Miscellaneous abnormality is that? : a field guide. In fact looking at the whole body of work from Shaun Tan should allow you to make connections within and between his intriguing books.

Here is an excellent review of The Rules of Summer.  This one from Kirkus is also fabulous. Shaun Tan himself has several very informative and generous videos on his web site.  Shaun says :

... there are about 25 of these paintings,…together they form almost like a map of a particular kind of childhood experience which centres around the activities of these two boys, it’s a relationship that is both very friendly and caring but also antagonistic and towards the end of the book begins to disintegrate before finding some kind of redemption and coming together again. 

Here are some excellent teaching notes.

The slogan for Children's Book Week in Australia this year is 'Connect to Reading'.  We have a huge week of happenings planned including special lunch activities every day and creative thinking challenges for our Grade 3-6 students based around this slogan.   You can review all the winners and honour books here.

Herman's letter by Tom Percival

One of my favourite ways to discover new books is when they are recommended by the readers in my school library.  A few weeks ago we held our annual library Donate-a-book.  A big thank you to the generous parents who supported our library in this way. We have been able to add over 800 new books into our collection.

Among these books was Herman's letter and when it was returned earlier this week I asked the little girl and her mum if they had enjoyed it.  Their answer was a resounding YES!.  The mum then turned the pages and shared her favourite parts - both especially liked the 'real' letters that form part of this story.

This book shows the way illustrations beyond the text in the best picture books.  Think about these words - "They had great fun inventing their own games and they even had a secret club with a secret code and a TOP SECRET handshake."  Now I will tell you Herman is a large brown bear and Henry is a small, red raccoon.  I adore their handshake.

Life for these special friends is good until one day Henry moves away. Henry misses his friend and so he writes letters but sadly the letters only serve to make Herman feel jealous.  Herman does not write back to Henry until this important letter arrives :

"Dear Herman
I hope you are well.  I haven't received ANY of your letters.  There must be a problem with the post or something.
I miss you so much!
You're my best friend in the whole wide world.
Please say you'll come and visit me soon.
Love Henry"

Herman does write back but then he has a terrific idea - he will deliver the letter himself.  He embarks on a long and dangerous journey made even harder by the fact that it is now time for this bear to hibernate.  The twist at the end will make you smile.  Take time to watch the trailer made by the publisher.  Here is a set of teaching ideas.

If you enjoy Herman's letter then you should also look for Toot and Puddle Wish you were here by Holly Hobbie and Christmas Bear by Sal Murdocca.

Tua and the elephant by RP Harris illustrated by Taeeun Yoo

If you need to explain determination to a young child look no further than Tua and the elephant.  This is very special little novel which will introduce younger readers to Tua who is determined to protect her new friend - a baby elephant.  This book will also give you a very authentic insight into the culture of Thailand - the sights, sounds and smells.

Tua means peanut but Tua is not a peanut she is a brave little girl who shows enormous courage when she sees a small elephant is being very badly mistreated by some  opportunistic thieves. "These two ... were scruffy as sewer rats, beady eyed and sharp of tooth. Whiskers grew in sparse patches on their cheeks and chins like mildew. They were both shifty, but one was long and lean, and the other was squat and pudgy."

Woven into this story are many Thai words but these are not hard to work out from the context.  There is a glossary but I rarely referred to it.

Tua rescues the elephant whom she names Pohn Pohn which means double happiness. The difficulty is how do you hide an elephant especially when the aforementioned bad guys what this prize possession back.  Tua must use all her courage, commonsense and initiative to take Pohn Pohn on the long journey to an elephant refuge where she knows she will be safe.

Tua and the elephant is a fairly short novel at just 200 pages but there are moments when I simply gasped out loud hoping Tua could escape the two crazy elephant thieves.  In one scene near the end of the book Tua herself is tied up in the hammock where she is sleeping and kidnapped.  This time it is Pohn Pohn who comes to her rescue.

I will admit I might have walked past this little book in the shop if my friend and fellow Teacher-Librarian had not recommended it. Another reason why it is fun to shop for books with a friend. Here is a set of very comprehensive  teaching notes and here is a set of web links to extend your study of the setting and culture of Thailand.  Take a minute to watch this video trailer where you can see some of the illustrations from this book.

If you enjoy Tua and the Elephants I recommend you also look for Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden.

The plot unfolds quickly and involves a kitchen sink of obstacles and allies: a Chevy Chase-style scene in a vegetable market, a treacherous river crossing, delightful teenage monks, an elephant-­kidnapping, ransom negotiations, and high- (and low-) speed chases as the devious mahouts search for Tua and the elephant. 

New York Times