The four seasons of Lucy McKenzie by Kirsty Murray

"I reckon you really could be twins anyway,' said Tom. 'Sometimes one twin is bigger than the other. We should call them Big and Little."

Lucy is the youngest child in a family of five.  Her two older siblings are adults.  "Lucy McKenzie was an afterthought. By the time she had arrived ... Jack and Claire were almost grown-up."

Claire is living in Paris but as the story opens she has been involved in a serious accident and so mum needs to rush to France.  Meanwhile dad has an important contract which involves visiting mines in remote Queensland so Lucy is sent to stay with her elderly aunt - Aunty Big.

The four seasons of the title refers to a special room in the old home of Avendale.  Each wall has a mural with a scene showing the different seasons of the landscape around the house.  "Lucy wanted to like the room, but there was something about it that made her uneasy."

The Four seasons of Lucy McKenzie is a simple timeslip.  Using the murals Lucy visits the family of her relations starting with 1939.  While there she helps with a major bush fire, saves Alice from a flood, finds some special friends and makes discoveries about her own heritage.

Here is a detailed review.  Here is the web site for the illustrator.  You might also enjoy Playing Beatie Bow, Cicada Summer, The Ivory Rose or Tom's midnight garden.  This book is also part of the NSW School Magazine bookshelf for 2014.  I am not a huge fan of timeslip stories but this one had a terrific setting, very like able characters and most important of all - an emotional ending.

Catkin mouse hunter closer than friend, wind dancer at the bough's end by Antonia Barber illustrated by PJ Lynch

I have a small collection of special longer picture books.  They fall into the fantasy genre, which I enjoy sharing with Grade 3 each year. These include The Mirrorstone, The Moon's Revenge, The Quiltmaker's Gift and The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup.  This year I will add Catkin to this selection.

The farmer and his wife have only one child and they have waited many long years for her arrival.  A small cat, the last, is born to an old cat who lives with a Wise Woman.  When Catkin is old enough the Wise Woman gives him to the farmer's wife.  She tells Catkin to watch over the baby girl called Carrie because the old woman had seen danger signs in the sky on the day Carrie was born.  Antonia Barber hints at the source of this danger early in the story when she tells us :

"And deep inside the hill (where the farmer and his wife live) lived the Little People, who are not born, and who do not die, but are there always."

This book uses the motif of three riddles.
"So be it, though I am not high, my magic branches sweep the sky."
"The meadow's wealth I trade for gold, yet wisdom in my fruit I hold."
"Mouse hunter, closer than friend, wind dancer at the bough's end."

This last riddle is a trap but if Catkin does not answer Carrie will not be saved.

If you are new to the work of PJ Lynch make sure you look for other books he has illustrated.

The Lost Children by Carolyn Cohagan

The Lost Children is an oddly haunting book.  Here is a trailer which is worth watching as an introduction to the story but it does make it all slightly more scary than the actual book.

Josephine lives a strange life with her distant father.  All people in their community are forced to wear gloves. "How did this silly law get passed in the first place?  It happened one night many years ago when Mr. Russing was in the middle of a heated game of five card stud with the city mayor. .. when he won, he decided to forgo his monetary winnings and demand that the mayor pass a new law on his behalf.  ... Mr. Russing was the only man who manufactured gloves in the town, so one can imagine how much this law improved his business."

This explains why Josephine owns 387 pairs of gloves but it does not explain why her father ignores her completely.  One day out in the garden she meets a mysterious boy.  Later she follows him to a strange world ruled by a tyrannical master and two vile monsters called The Brothers. These are the most loathsome of creatures. "They had thick coats of what looked like black fur running from their foreheads down their backs and into their tails.  But as the sun hit the creatures, she saw that it wasn't fur at all.  It was more like spikes or quills.  ... Pointed ears stuck out of square heads.  Each creature had beady yellow eyes and a muzzle that ended in a piglike nose. But most horrifying and terrible of all was ... these animals had no mouths."  Fergus has come from an orphanage in another place and time.  Following him Josephine meets Ida, another orphan, and the three children set out to uncover the truth about the Master and the fate of many other children who have also disappeared.

Here is a good review if you need more details of the plot.  You can read an extract from the book here.  I was wondering how I came to buy this book but now I see it was reviewed by my friend Mr K and once again I totally agree with his comments.  If I had to label this book I would say it is a combination of Peter Pan, Great Expectations, Jumanji and The Pied Piper of Hamlin.

Sophie Scott goes South by Alison Lester

This book is the perfect to introduce the topic of Antarctica to children.  It is personal - as we read of Sophie's experiences, it is factual with details of the climate, landscape, history and daily life of the expeditioners and it has the most fabulous illustrations because Alison Lester has incorporated her own art work with photos and captions and even stamps.

In 2005 Alison Lester travelled to Antarctica.  It was a six week journey and during this time she used email to share her experiences with children around the world.  The children in turn sent Alison their own stories and drawings.  Many of these appear in this book.

Sophie is lucky.  She travels to Antarctica with her dad - Captain Scott.  He is the Captain of the Aurora Australis - an icebreaker ship which is travelling to Antarctica to deliver people and supplies to Mawson station.  "As we head towards Antarctica it feels as though we are entering an icy kingdom and the icebergs are guarding it."

We will use this book in our library this term with Grade 6 as we begin to talk about this fascinating and important continent.  Here is a little video to view before you read Sophie Scott goes South.  This book also has an excellent glossary and the end papers present maps annotated with facts about Antarctica.

The Usborne book of Poetry collected by Sam Taplin illustrated by Kristina Swarner

Each year we complete a stocktake (or inventory) of our library collection. We complete the whole collection every two years which means every second year I focus on our Non Fiction.  This is a large section of our library and it can feel quite overwhelming as I begin so I like to start with my favourite shelves POETRY!

This year, as I do every year, I bought a few poetry anthologies home to read over the Summer.  One that caught my eye was The Usborne book of Poetry.  This book contains 75 poems. Some are very famous while others may be new to you.  I especially appreciate the inclusion of poem titles in the contents, an index of first lines and index of poets.  Here you will see famous names such as William Blake, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash and Edgar Allan Poe.

This book has the most scrumptious illustrations and these along with the large font and bright colours make this anthology perfect for young children right through the Primary years and beyond.  Take time to look a some other work by this illustrator.

My two favourite poems in this collection appear side by side - Words I like by Steve Turner and The Word Party by Richard Edwards.

The Word Party by Richard Edwards

Loving words clutch crimson roses,
Rude words sniff and pick their noses, 
Sly words come dressed up as foxes,
Short words stand on cardboard boxes,
Common words tell jokes and gabble,
Complicated words play Scrabble,
Swear words stamp around and shout,
Hard words stare each other out,
Foreign words look lost and shrug,
Careless words trip on the rug,
Long words slouch with stooping shoulders,
Code words carry secret folders,
Silly words flick rubber bands,
Hyphenated words hold hands,
Strong words show off, bending metal,
Sweet words call each other 'petal',
Small words yawn and suck their thumbs
Till at last the morning comes.
Kind words give out farewell posies...

Snap! The dictionary closes.

The compiler sums up the power of poetry "Be careful when you open this book - it's stuffed with poems waiting to ambush you.  Some of the poems are funny, and some are sad, and some will make you feel exactly how the poet felt at a particular moment long, long ago."

Timmy Failure mistakes were made by Stephan Pastis

"My family name was once Fayleure. But somebody changed it.  Now it is spelled as you see.  I'd ask that you get your 'failure' jokes out of the way now.  I am anything but."

This little quote from the first page should help you hear the 'tone' of this funny book which has the following chapter headings :

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah

The Candy man can't cos he's missing all his chocolate -(I wonder if you can hear the Candy man song here)

The Timmy empire strikes back

The answer, my friend, is blowing on my ear

Happiness is not a dumb blanket

Dial M for Magellan

I get no kick from kickball

No teacher left behind  (This refers to the US campaign No child left behind.)

For whom the Timmyline tolls

Elementary my dear Gunnar

As you can see this book is filled with references to music and popular culture though oddly, for me, it was not a book that made me laugh out loud. I did smile at times but mostly I found Timmy to be a fairly annoying and self absorbed little boy.  That said this is a fun book to read and it will be featured on the NSW School Magazine bookshelf this year.

Following the style of Detective Donut and the wild goose chase, Inspector Gadget and Victor's Quest, Timmy is a bumbling detective who works with a special sidekick but this is where Mistakes were made moves away from the predicable.  His sidekick is a Polar Bear and he is not the voice of wisdom - he much prefers Rice Krispie treats and raiding garbage bins along with his passion for seals.  Timmy knows one day he will be a famous detective but for now he is on the trail of a candy thief and worse, he needs to find out who stole his mothers Segway which Timmy has named his Failuremobile.  This is particularly urgent because his mother does not know Timmy has been using the segway.  In fact she has expressly forbidden this.  I did enjoy the way Timmy schedules regular teleconferences with is mother.

For fans of Diary of a Wimpy kid and Tom Gates and especially boys will enjoy Timmy Failure mistakes were made with its short chapters, perfect little cartoon style drawings and cast of crazy characters.  Timmy has a web site which contains story extracts and activities and you will see there is a sequel. The Kirkus review below is well worth reading too.

Timmy may not be one of the great children’s-book characters, but he has greatness in him. Just like all of us.

Humpty Dumpty

My fascination with Humpty Dumpty goes back a long way. As a very young child I was given a toy Humpty Dumpty and when I was in Kindergarten my mum covered me with a huge cardboard box which had brick pattered wall paper attached and on top sat my toy.

This term I hope to explore some of the spin off stories from this famous nursery rhyme. You can see some in my Pinterest.

I think my favourite book for this topic is Dimity Dumpty by Bob Graham.  Dimity is Humpty's little sister. She is shy and "timid as a field mouse" and not at all like her tearaway brother or circus performing parents.  When Humpty does fall off the wall, though, it is Dimity who raises the alarm in time to save his life.  "She felt a tremor deep down in her little shell". Here is a video - it is almost as enchanting as the book.

Another simple story is Humpty Dumpty by Sarah Hayes illustrated by Charlotte Voake.  In this version Humpty sits on the wall and he dares others to try various maneuvers - inevitably each one falls off.  A horse tries to sit on the wall, another tries to stand, a man tries on leg, while another attempts juggling.  Dumpty takes great delight as each one fails then the King demands Humpty climb down and as he is showing off all his own tricks he falls too but this time all the kings horses and all the kings men do put Humpty together again.

As Humpty Dumpty climbs again begins Humpty has had his fall and the doctor declares :
"Mister Dumpty,' said the Doctor, 'you really must be more careful. I mean - for Pete's sake - you're an egg!."   Humpty goes into a decline.  He sits in his lounge room watching television surrounded by pictures of past heroic climbs while eating chips and looking miserable.  The Dish comes to visit but he can't rouse Humpty.  Along comes a spider and frightens him out of his house.  He reaches a mountain and finds the King's men have a dilemma - their horse is stuck on a high ledge. Humpty picks up their safety equipment and he climbs the wall and saves the horse.  "And from that day on, Humpty Dumpty never climbed again without the proper safety equipment.  Or pants."

Who pushed Humpty Dumpty and other notorious Nursery tale mysteries by David Levinthal and John Nickle.  This book covers Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Goldilocks and Hansel and Gretel.  In this version Humpty is a drummer in the All the Kings horses and All the Kings men band.  Did he fall or was he pushed?  "It was hard to tell but one thing I noticed was that there was almost no yolk on the ground." Our intrepid Officer Binky does solve the mystery but sadly it is all over for Humpty.

What really Happened to Humpty by Joe Dumpty as told to Jeanie Franz Random illustrated by Stephen Axelsen centers around a conspiracy involving the Big Bad Wolf, Miss Muffet, some binoculars and the promise of fresh muffins.  Luckily Joe (Humpty's younger brother) is on the case.

Before we begin this mini theme we will read the original nursery or actually I might ask the students to dictate it to me as I scribe just to see how many children actually remember all the words.  I do think we will have fun with Humpty in a few weeks time in our school library.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses
and all the King's men
couldn't put Humpty together again!