Archive | March 2017

Hooray for Birds

Mar12
Hooray for Birds

Hooray for Birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hooray for Birds

Lucy Cousins

Candlewick Press, 2017

40pp., hbk., RRP $a24.99

9780763692650

Can you imagine…just for one day…you’re a busy bird? Yes, a bird! Hooray!

Ask a little child what birds can do and they are bound to tell you that they fly.  But in this exuberant book by Lucy Cousins we learn about all the other things they can do – and that the child can do too.  They can start the day by shouting cock-a-doodle-doo, hop, peck, swim and stretch, stand very tall on just one leg waddle like a penguin and run like an ostrich, puff out their chest and then bid the day farewell with a tuwit tuwoo. 

As well as responding to the vibrant colours and bold illustrations on solid colour backgrounds, young readers will delight in doing the things that birds do, flapping their wings, exercising their lungs and generally just having a lot of fun as they are introduced to a flock of different birds, some familiar, some not-so. It soon becomes clear that birds come in all shapes and sizes and colours and can do all sorts of things and make all sorts of noises. Even though there are not the familiar magpies, kookaburras and emus that might be found in a book of Australian origin, nevertheless roosters, swans, peacocks and flamingos are very recognisable and will help the child learn about the diversity of our feathered friends..    Combined with a simple rhyming pattern the distinctive pictures will help the child become a role-play reader as they engage with the book on their own.  

A peek inside....

A peek inside….

Full of fun and energy, this will ensure a menagerie in the house for sure!

Rock Pool Secrets

Mar10
Rock Pool Secrets

Rock Pool Secrets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock Pool Secrets

Narelle Oliver

Walker Books, 2017

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781922179357

“Down on the rocky shore, waves crash and smash.  Then the tide goes out and the sea is calm. It’s a good time to explore the rock pools.”

For some the magnificence of high tide with the waves pounding the coast is their favourite sea-time – the tranquility of low tide is not dramatic enough for them. But what looks to be a peaceful, not-much-happening environment  is actually one of the greatest activity on the seashore because the myriad of creatures that live there have just a few short hours to feed and do what they do before the inexorable tide encroaches again.  You just have to take the time to look.

In this superbly illustrated new book from Narelle Oliver, she takes us on a journey around the rockpools pointing out things that might stay hidden to the non-looker exposing them underneath flaps that blend into the artwork as well as the creatures blend into their habitats.  The transparent shrimp in its leafy hideaway; the hermit crab in its seashell home; the anemones like seafloor flowers…each brought to life in their subtle colours in extraordinarily detailed linocuts  waiting to be discovered nestling in crevices, hiding in the seaweed or camouflaged on the rocks.. As well as the captions that accompany the text there is also a glossary with further information about the creatures featured that will inspire young beach-goers to spend some time looking and wondering and marvelling at nature’s disguises when they next catch the beach at low tide. 

My seaside home...

My seaside home…

As a child I grew up in the very south of the South Island of New Zealand (next stop was literally Antarctica) and we were allowed to roam the rockpools all day (until the tide came in) so so many of my childhood memories are built around the discoveries we made.  Nowadays, when I get to the coast I head for the rockpools and do what I did way back when and spend many calming, healing hours just looking.  

Armed with the beauty and knowledge from this book, perhaps there will be a new generation of hunters inspired to look a little closer, tread a little more gently and delight in the hidden wonders especially as summer draws to a close and many are making a last trip to the beach until the warm comes again.

Over the years of her too-short life, Narelle Oliver has brought nature to life for young readers in her exquisite works like The Hunt, Leaf Tail, The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay, Fox and Fine Feathers, Sand Swimmers and for her final work to be one that focuses on my favourite environment is just superb.

Vale Narelle.  You gave us so much and we are indebted to you.  Thank you.

Hello Rainbow

Mar8
Hello Rainbow

Hello Rainbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Rainbow

Rhonda Brown

Trevor Salter

Oombee Woombee Books 2016

32pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780646953076

 

Blue yellow

Yellow blue

Mix the two in a blue-yellow brew…

Green!

Green goose

Green mouse

Green juice

Green house

Written for preschoolers, this is a fun book full of bright colours, catchy rhymes and whimsical illustrations that helps to teach our young readers the names of the colours they see in their world and how they are made.  

Children show preferences for particular colours from a very early age.  Since she could say the word, Miss Nearly 6 has had a very strong preference for blue – provided it was blue she would have it, even broccoli if we could work out a way to dye it!  So to have the primary and secondary colours presented in such a bold way is sure to catch the eye and promise fun because who can resist an octopus, a paint brush in each of his eight arms splashing colour everywhere?

As well as the nonsense rhymes appealing to the ear in a familiar rhythm and the splashes of colour, the illustrations themselves invite exploration and interpretation encouraging the child to engage with the text.  Can you find the purple socks? What do you think the blue bee is saying? Will that relaxed green mouse be safe from the large red cat looming over the house? And why is the red cow looking so angry? Children can then be encouraged to seek similar colours in their own environment, look at shades and tones, perhaps even build their own colour book called As red /yellow/green as...using pictures and captions.

There is also scope for practical experimenting using food colouring, dyes or paint so the child can discover for themselves what happens if we mix this with that, laying the foundations for some early science and building the concepts about things changing. Even though its primary audience is the very young, it also has scope for Kindy kids formally investigating colour and change as well as those a little older who are discovering the properties of light and rainbows.  Why are the colours of the rainbow always the same and in the same order?

There is a myriad of ideas that this book could be the springboard for; ideas, investigations and experiments as rich as the colours themselves helping our young readers understand that not only do we get information from books but books can lead us on new adventures.

You Choose …flip me

Mar7
You Choose - Flip Me

You Choose – Flip Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Choose…Flip Me

Alien Invaders from Beyond the Stars/Night of the Creepy Carnival

9780143784029

Super Sports Spectacular/Trapped in the Games Grid

9780143784036

George Ivanoff

Random House, 2017

pbk., RRP $A19.99

Remember the frustration of finishing a book in a series that you have really enjoyed but you need to go to the library or the bookstore to track down the next one?  Or worse, still, wait for it to be written and published?  The solution seems to be having two books in one as with the new packaging of George Ivanoff’s very popular You Choose series.  Now our students can have all the fun of following pathways through one book and when they are done with that, slip them over to read through another immediately.  No waiting,  No cooling of enthusiasm. Just more reading.

For a couple of decades at least, the choose-your-own-adventure stories have been popular, particularly with boys, as they like the interactivity and the gaming nature of them.  So to be able to serve them up two at a time to aficionados not only encourages them to keep reading but also shows them that the library DOES have stuff that meets their interests and needs.  That has to be good.

 

Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Science

Mar6
Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Science

Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Science

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Science

Katie Daynes

Marie-Eve Tremblay

Usborne, 2017

16pp., board book, RRP $A19.99

9781409598985

 

From the time they are born children are innately curious  and as soon as they are able to articulate the words, they ask questions so they can make the connections they need as they try to make sense of their world.  As the nearest adult we try to help them with the answers.  Some of the answers are at our fingertips but some need a little more digging.

Often those answers lie in science and this book is a great introduction for the budding young scientist who has the questions and wants a basic explanation that can be followed further if they wish.  Just 16 pages long, it is divided into double page spreads with the headings what, why, when, where, which, who,  how and yes or no.  Each page has several questions, the answers for which are hidden under the flaps.  Starting with the basic “What is science?” and “What do scientists do?” it goes on to explore other questions about science itself as well as others such as “Is the sky really blue?”  Simple explanations and quirky pictures under the flaps provide a straight-forward answer as well as the starting point for further investigations.  Having the answers under the flap gives the child an opportunity to consider the question and then suggest their own explanation before checking to see if they are on the right track.  

Aimed at the young reader with an interest in science, nevertheless it is a book to be shared with a grownup who can help with some of the words, interpret the answers more fully and suggest other sources for finding out more including the publishers’ webpage for the book which has more questions, links to websites and other books in the series that delve deeper.

Books like this start the young child on their way to being information literate – able to locate, evaluate, analyse, interpret information so they can then use it to satisfy their curiosity, discover the world around them and ask new questions.  With the current emphasis on STEM (science technology, engineering and maths) in the school curriculum not only does this book provide answers , it demonstrates that those answers can be found in print as well as modelling how to ask questions that require more than a one-word answer to take an investigation further.

It could even be the springboard for an ongoing class activity with a question posed each week so students can share their answers which are then compared to the explanation provided, discussed and investigated sparking an interest in science that endures.

This is a dip-and-delve book – one the reader will come back to time and time again.  

Baby Dance

Mar5
Baby Dance

Baby Dance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Dance

Katrina Germein

Doris Chang

Raising Literacy Australia, 2016

12pp., board book, RRP $A9.90

9780994385321

 

Four delightful Australian animal babies are doing what all babies do when they hear a piece of music – they move to it.  So in this charming story Wombat, Sugar Glider, Echidna and Cockatoo show off their individual and unique moves until in the end they all have to sleep, the one thing they and all little ones have in common.

In soft, earthy pastel colours and the simplest of rhymes this is a story that will engage the youngest readers as they move along with the babies or let its rhythm lull them to sleep.  Given that our native creatures feature in so many story for the very young, they will delight in  recognising perhaps familiar friends like the wombat or meeting new ones like the echidna and even learning a little more about them.  Why does the echidna spin when the others do not?  Why do the others cover their ears when Cockatoo sings?  

Its sturdy board book format and small size make it perfect for toddlers to handle for themselves so they can be role-play readers while parents will enjoy sharing with their child because of the fun that can be had.

Another one on its way to Miss 21 months as her delight in stories grows.

Lift-the_Flap Friends

Mar4
Lift-the Flap Friends

Lift-the Flap Friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lift-the-Flap Friends Pirates 

9781408864050

 

Lift-the Flap Friends Princess

9781408864142

Bloomsbury, 2017

14pp., board book., RRP $A12.99

 

Lift-the-flap books have been a very popular format for books for the very littlies for decades simple because they work so well at engaging them through their physical interactivity.  These two new publications in this series featuring topics that young children love  (others are Dinosaurs and Fairy)  continue this tradition of building anticipation by having to find what’s hidden.  With each page containing a number of flaps to lift and the text posed as a question they can also start the child on the road to making predictions about what will be discovered and thus encouraging them to take risks in a safe environment.  Using the clues in the bright illustrations and asking them what they think might be under the flap, they discover the fun of being right but also learn to cope if their prediction is not spot on.  All are big-picture concepts that will help develop an understanding of and a delight in print and story.  

Perfect for starting our earliest readers on their new adventures, perhaps even for those a little older who are learning English as another language and needing to build schemata about topics popular with their classmates.

Shearing Time

Mar3
Shearing Time

Shearing Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shearing Time

Allison Paterson

Shane McGrath

Big Sky Publishing, 2017

32pp., pbk.,

9781925520095

 

Since its early days as a fledgling settlement, Australia has had a great reliance on sheep, particularly the income from the wool they produce.  For a century our economy “rode on the sheep’s back” as it depended on primary industry for the nation’s living standards.  However, in recent decades this dependency has decreased somewhat and there is a greater distance between city and country than ever before.

Nevertheless, farming is still a critical industry for our nation and there are going to be thousands of country kids who will see themselves in this story of their lives in 2017.  As shearing time comes around again in many rural areas, they will be the child in the story up at the crack of dawn and ready for a day’s hard work in the shearing shed.  And apart from the mechanisation of the shed, it is still the same back-breaking process of years and generations gone by with the same satisfaction of having done a good days’ work at the end of it.

This is a refreshing story that not only puts our country students in the frame but also allows their city cousins to have a glimpse of a different kind of life and help them understand the vital role that our rural communities have in our welfare and well-being and that other kids spend their time doing very different things.  “From paddock to plate” has become a familiar phrase of recent cooking shows and Shearing Time is an illustration of a similar sort of theme that opens lots of possibilities for investigations for all ages as we select our clothes from local chain stores and few have a Made In Australia label.  So once it is shorn, skirted, graded and baled what does happen to the wool?   

Based on her own childhood memories, Allison Paterson and illustrator Shane McGrath have created an insight that entertains as well as educates.  Click go the Shears – that iconic song of any Australian singalong – has come to life.

Just Like Molly

Mar1
Just Like Molly

Just Like Molly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Like Molly

Pippa Dowling

Sunshine 

Empowering Resources, 2016

32pp., pbk., RRP $A17.00

9780994501073

At some stage in their young lives, children have an imaginary friend – one who likes to do the things that you like, eat the things you eat, be scared of the things you are scared of and share good times with you.  And so it is with the little girl in this story.  Her friend Molly loves playing games, going to the park and going on the slides, eating fish and chips and gelati.  She doesn’t mind the other kids who are noisy but the barking dogs are a bit frightening.

But one day Molly disappears and no amount of searching finds her.  Things are bleak and lonely especially as school has just started and everyone seems to have a friend already.  And then one day a little girl called Zoe offers to share her crayons…

This is not an uncommon theme in children’s storybooks but the remarkable thing about this one is that the author wrote it when she was just 10.  She is now just 13. Whimsical characters in colours that echo the mood of the story bring the little girl and her friend to life and reassures those who are about to begin a new phase of their life that there will be someone ready to support them. It opens up opportunities to talk about what friends are and how to initiate friendships through kindness and that through our lives we will have many different friends. 

You can read more about this young author here and perhaps her story will inspire the writers in your class to keep at it.