Archive | February 2014

Gibblewort the Goblin

Feb28
Gibblewort the Goblin

Gibblewort the Goblin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gibblewort the Goblin

Get Me Outta Here Collection (Goblin in the City; Goblin in the Rainforest) 9780857982643

The Summer Holiday Collection (Goblin in the Bush; Goblin on the Reef) 9780857982636

The Winter Escape Collection (Goblin in the Snow; Goblin at the Zoo) 9780857982650

Victor Kelleher

Stephen Michael King

Random House, 2014

pbk., RRP $A12.95ea

Gibblewort is a nasty goblin who likes to be in his home country of Ireland with its grey clouds, squelchy rain and icy winds, playing mean tricks on his mates.  But instead he finds himself in Australia  – the Snowy Mountains, The Great Barrier Reef, the rainforest, the bush – and in each story he finds the country gets the better of his nasty nature and he longs for Ireland again.  Except he never quite gets there.

These books are a re-release of one of the most popular series for younger readers that I had in my school library’s collection.  They were never on the shelves and the reserve list was long. With two complete stories in each book, they’re an ideal way to support those making the transition from instructional readers to novels.  Each has short chapters with sparse text and many illustrations – all the essential elements which give them the confidence to take their reading journey further – and the humour in both the text and the illustrations as Gibblewort tries to extricate himself from precarious situations of his own making appealed to both boys and girls.  They also found that it was a safe bridge to the world of the fantastic – a nasty Irish goblin was much less scary than some of the creatures and worlds their older siblings were reading about as the fantasy genre began to grip. “Blither and blather!” was commonly heard in the playground and even the most reluctant readers wanted to be part of the in-crowd who had read each story and eagerly awaited the next one.  (We had competitions to see who could have it first!)

Now that my grandchildren are reaching the stage of independent reading, I’ve been searching for some of those titles that were so popular with my students 8-10 years ago and I’m so glad that Gibblewort is available for them to enjoy. Your students will be too.

Meet…The ANZACs

Feb26
Meet...The ANZACs

Meet…The ANZACs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet…The ANZACs
Claire Saxby
Max Berry
Random House, 2014
hbk RRP $A24.99 9780857981943
ebk 9780857981943

Most of our students know the story of what happened at what is now Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915 and the days that followed.  But how did the Australian and New Zealand troops get there?  Surely they didn’t just sign up, get on a ship and arrive in the Dardanelles.  In this new book, Claire Saxby explains what happened between the outbreak of war and that fateful day. In simple, straightforward text accompanied by appealing, muted illustrations which evoke the moods of the time, the reader learns of the growing fervour of patriotism as men rush to sign on for what was seen to be a great adventure, a way to see the world, or simply rescue a family from poverty. But instead of leaving immediately, “training camps for soldiers popped up like mushrooms after rain” and eagerness turned to impatience as time went on and the feeling that the war would be over before they got there grew.  And impatience turned to frustration as instead of going directly to the front line, they went to Egypt for yet more training and waiting. Until the wait was finally over and they embarked for an unknown destination … but “war was like nothing they could have imagined.”  Frustration becomes fear, and on that note, Saxby leaves the story to be told in other books and formats.

This is the 5th book in this series and it’s my favourite, probably because it reminds us of where the NZ in ANZAC comes from.  It tells the story not often told before and shows how the camaraderie between the two nations that continues today began. Rather than a narrow narration of the facts, it provides an insight into these men with a clever juxtaposition of facts and then speech so there is a sense that these are real people, not faceless, anonymous participants.

With the centenary of ANZAC Day just over a year away, it is an ideal starting point for beginning to learn about this key element in our history and the inclusion of a timeline of the war itself puts the events in context.  A must-have for your collection about this topic.

The Giggle Gum Tree

Feb26
The Giggle Gum Tree

The Giggle Gum Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Giggle Gum Tree
Juliet Williams
Elizabeth Botté
IpKidz, 2009
hbk., RRP $A26.00
9781921479182

Lily and Amanda live in a very tall house made of purple bricks – it is so tall that it sways in the wind!  Each day, they walk to school through the park and the path passes beneath a tree with beautiful draping branches that makes them giggle and puts them in a good mood for the day.  They call it the Giggle Gum Tree.  But not everyone likes the Giggle Gum Tree – Mrs Pritchet gets tangled in the branches and Mr Glumper trips over the roots that have broken the path. So they complain to the Tree Police and the girls are dismayed to discover a sign which says that the tree is to be chopped down in five days.  They are no longer giggling.  Quite by accident, they discover a plan that might save the tree and also the problem of their too-tall house – but will they be able to persuade the grown-ups to accept it?

Although the font is quite small, Miss 7 enjoyed reading this one and although she figured out what the girls’ solution might be, how they achieved it brought a smile to her face.

The colourful illustrations are inspired by those in children’s books of the 1950s and Miss 7 commented on the way the expressions of both people and creatures had been so well captured. 

This is a story that really lends itself to a problem-solving exercise if you stop at the page with the sign and ask, “Is chopping the tree down the only way to solve the problem?”  Students will have fun letting their imaginations roam wild to find solutions and then comparing them to the answer that Lily and Amanda propose.

The Poppy

Feb25
The Poppy

The Poppy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Poppy

Andrew Plant

Ford Street, 2014

Hbk., RRP $A26.95 9781925000313

Pbk., RRP $A16.95  9781925000320

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

This poem, by John McRae, has become one of the most enduring written about World War I and has provided the most recognisable symbol of remembrance for Australians and New Zealanders – the poppy. Although Flanders Fields, itself, is in Belgium, the poem and the poppy have become symbolic of the whole of that terrible conflict on the Western Front, and so this new book by illustrator Andrew Plant is aptly named, beautifully told and superbly illustrated.

Starting on the front cover with the brilliant red of the poppy set in front of ghostly images of other poppies entwined in barbed wire and against a background of stormy black skies, this is a beautiful “photo-essay” of the story of Villiers-Bretonnneux, which on ANZAC Day 1918 became the scene of one of Australia’s greatest victories and which forged a bond between two nations that grows stronger each year.  Except the photos are not photos – they are eerily haunting paintings that tell the story of the building of that bond. Bordered in black and accompanied by simple text in white, their bright colours are a stunning contrast which suggests feelings of hope and future and endurance.

The petal of the poppy is whipped off in the winter wind and blows across the village to show  the Villiers-Bretonneux school, known as Victoria School, because it was rebuilt through the contributions of the people of Victoria so that even now the flags of two nations fly above it and carvings of Australian flora and fauna adorn the school hall; it flies through the village past the Musée Franco Australien, and is carried further above the fields and up a broad, low hill to a tall cross and a great tower where thousands of names are carved – those who died but whose bodies were never recovered – and then out over the rows and rows of headstones, some nameless, not even their nationality known. 

But the stories of the soldiers are known and told and not forgotten.  As the winter winds grip the Somme, the Australian and French flags fly side by side and once again, the land turns red. But now it is the petals of the poppies, not the blood of the fallen.

So often our younger students’ knowledge of World War I is limited to the events at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli – here, in this stunning book is the pathway to their understanding of the much more drawn-out battle of the Somme and the Western Front, stories our children should know as well as those students in Victoria School who see “N’Oublions Jamais l’Australie” in every classroom. Stories and a motto which led them to raise nearly $21 000 to donate towards the rebuilding of Strathewan Primary School after it was destroyed in the Victorian bushfires, Black Saturday, 2009.

No doubt as the centenary commemorations of World War I begin, we will see many new titles published but this one that encapsulates all that we associate with the poppy is a must-have. 

 

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

My Two Blankets

Feb19
My Two Blankets

My Two Blankets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Two Blankets

Irena Kobald

Freya Blackwood

Little Hare, 2014

hbk., 32pp., RRP $A24.95

978921714764

In the beginning she was a very happy little girl in her home village – so happy, her aunty called her Cartwheel. But then came the war and she finds herself in a new country where everything, even the wind, feels strange.  But strangest of all was the language.  Nobody spoke like she did –“it was like standing under a waterfall of strange sounds.  The waterfall was cold. It made me feel alone. I felt like I wasn’t me any more.”

So, at home, she wrapped herself in a blanket of familiar words and sounds and memories – a blanket that was warm and soft and covered her all over, letting her feel safe.  Until one day she goes to a park and a girl smiles at her and waves… and a new blanket is woven, one that is different but which becomes just as familiar and comfortable so she has the luxury of choosing the one she wants at the time.

This is a poignant story deliberately set in Any Place, Anywhere because its message is not confined by boundaries or borders.  It’s a universal story of anyone who has experienced change, even those for whom the change is to a different circumstance not setting and while the language may be familiar, it is different.  We don’t need to know the girl’s name, where she came from or went to – this is a story to fit the globe.

Illustrated by the amazing Freya Blackwood, you can read about how she interpreted the concepts into what are the perfect accompaniments to this story on her blog

If you are looking for titles which fit such themes as Belonging, Identity, Refugees and particularly the Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priority Intercultural Understanding, this would be a perfect addition.

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

Hold on Tight

Feb18
Hold on Tight

Hold on Tight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold on Tight

Sara Acton

Scholastic Press, 2013

hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781742833491

What would happen if you were light as a leaf and the wind swept you up and blew you through the sky?  In this delightful book, Sara Acton explores that idea. “Hold on tight to my hand today. You wouldn’t want to blow away. Would you?’ says mother to daughter as they are out for a walk on a windy autumn day. “Would I?” thinks the little girl and her imagination starts to envisage just what might happen. For if you were light as a leaf, you could share cherry buns and a cup of tea with a bird in a tree, or chase a fairy floating along all light and airy…the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.  But what if it started to rain?

Written in rhyming couplets, and accompanied by whimsical watercolours this is a delightful story from Sara Acton 2012 winner of Children’s Book Council of Australia Crichton Award for new illustrators for “Ben and Duck”.

With the seasons turning soon and all the perennial studies of the changes of autumn showing up in teachers’ planning, this would be a great book to add to the collection.  It offers so much scope.  I can envisage a mural where each child has drawn themselves astride a leaf they have created with a couplet of their adventure written on it.  This is a book that may well be on the CBCA Notables list being announced on April 8.

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

The Sky Dreamer

Feb12
Sky Dreamer

Sky Dreamer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sky Dreamer

Anne Morgan

Céline Eimann

IP Kidz, 2011

Hbk., RRP $A19 9781921479977

Ebk RRP $A 8.00 9781921479984

Since his sister died, Liam has been living in a grey world, sitting watching the wintry sky for hours wondering if Cassie was out there, somewhere.  Even the prospect of his birthday the next day does not enthuse him.  But that night, Liam hears a voice calling and there, outside his window is a sailing boat tethered to an old silver ghost gum.  Aboard is Cassie, warm and happy, and inviting him to join her. “Climb aboard the Sky Dreamer”, she calls.

When he does, she picks up needle and thread and begins to sew Liam’s birthday present, but before she reveals what it is Liam must learn to sail the Sky Dreamer. Liam encounters some difficulties doing this, each time begging his sister for help, but she keeps sewing,  Liam has to learn to do it for himself sailing on and on and on until, at last, a comet with a tail as long as a year, lights his way home.  Just as the sun rises, the Sky Dreamer vanishes and Liam tumbles out clutching his present from Cassie…

This is a most sensitive, alluring book about a child dealing with death.  Written following the death of the author’s daughter, it acknowledges that grief is a long journey which may be shared but which is travelled alone.  It can be stormy and seemingly endless but there is eventually acceptance and comfort and a way forward.

The beautiful, delicate pictures mirror the mood of the story perfectly – monochrome in Liam’s dark days and the introduction of colour when Cassie appears in the Sky Dreamer hints at a glimmer of hope and happiness.  The chaos and colour of the storms reflect Liam’s thinking and feelings, but as they merge into gentler colours and less frenetic images the reader gets a sense of growing peace and calm.

Too often our students travel their own version of Luke’s journey – this is a book that might help them navigate it more easily, showing them that whatever feelings they have are OK and that they are not alone.  That, in itself, might offer comfort.

Mr Wuffles!

Feb11
Mr. Wuffles!

Mr. Wuffles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Wuffles!

David Wiesner

Random House Australia, 2014

hbk., RRP $A29.95

9781849397803

“Look, Mr Wuffles, a new toy!” But with that look of disdain that cats have, Mr Wuffles stalks past the new toy and all his old toys – his mind is focused on playing with a tiny spaceship he has spotted! Turning it this way and that determined to find out what’s inside, he doesn’t realise that it is inhabited by teeny-tiny aliens and he is causing them a great deal of distress and damaging their precious machine, not to mention scaring the daylights out of them as his eyes peer in the slit.  The aliens eventually escape and, taking parts with them, seek refuge under the radiator where Mr Wuffles can’t reach to try to regain their equilibrium and repair their craft.  But there are other inhabitants behind the walls of the house – a menagerie of bugs who, thankfully, are friendly and who, having had their own ‘adventures’ with the cat which are cleverly depicted as ‘cave paintings’, understand the aliens’ plight and help repair the spaceship in ingenious ways. Sneaking hurriedly back to the craft, narrowly avoiding those nasty claws, the aliens escape, leaving Wiesner to create the most delightful ending imaginable.  You don’t need words to know what Mr Wuffles is thinking. He is a cat with attitude which is why the title is followed by an exclamation mark.

This is another remarkable masterpiece by triple Caldecott Medal winner (awarded for the most distinguished children’s picture book), David Wiesner who it was widely tipped to be this year’s winner too. (The actual winner must be magnificent!)

Creator of such wonderful stories as  “Tuesday”, “The Three Pigs” and “Flotsam” (his three Caldecott winners), the story behind the creation of Mr Wuffles is a story in itself beginning 20 years ago when he created a cover for Cricket magazine. In that, he depicted the landing of aliens in a sandbox, and he “liked the idea of the relationship between the child who found these little guys in his sandbox, and how they could get along even though they spoke different languages.”  The concept stayed with him and had various incarnations over the years but nothing worked to his satisfaction until one day while waiting for his daughter at music class…

While it is almost wordless if you are looking for words in English, there is a great deal of conversation between the aliens and then between the aliens and the bugs, all meticulously crafted on a formula based on fractions and devised in collaboration with a linguist. “The words Wiesner’s little green men speak resemble what might be inadvertently produced by someone typing rows of numbers with the shift key left on”. The bugs have their own language too – testament to the attention to detail that has gone into this book.  Wiesner even followed his own cat (ironically named Cricket which is where the story started) around his home with a camera on a long pole so he could get a cat’s eye-view of things.

There is nothing that I can say about this book that hasn’t been said already by reviewers of much greater standing than I, and an Internet search will bring up many, as well as YouTube clips, activities and a host of other references including the story behind the story  here or here or just watch it here 

This book is one for preschool to secondary – it is so full of riches.  Beyond the story itself, there is the story of unusual friendships; the debate about being on the cat’s side or the aliens’ side; the opportunity to develop secret language codes; the examination of perspective to create and influence meaning… it is a treasury of visual literacy opportunities.

Not being a “cat person” I thought this review copy would be one I would pass on to a more welcoming home, but no.  It will become an essential tool in my teaching kit.

 mr_wuffles3

A peek inside...

A peek inside…

Bailey Beats the Blah

Feb5
Bailey Beats the Blah

Bailey Beats the Blah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bailey Beats the Blah

Karen Tyrrell

Aaron Pocock

Digital Future Press, 2013

pbk., RRP $16.95

9780987274045

ebk 978-0-9872740-5-2

Bailey has moved to a new school and he HATES it. He drags himself around the house getting ready feeling worse and worse as the time to leave gets closer. He has a real dose of the blahs. Even his dog can’t cheer him up. But this isn’t just a case of Monday-it is – Bailey is lonely and isolated and he thinks all the other kids are laughing at him and whispering about him. How can Bailey change his blah to ha-ha-ha? It seems impossible until Miss Darling introduces another new boy to the class…

Author Karen Tyrrell has taken a very common situation and turned it into a story that will resonate with Baileys (and Barbaras) across the nation at this time, as school starts to get into full swing.  There will be many children in new schools who are trying to find their feet in a new environment and create new friendship groups amongst kids who seem to have too much in common to share that they don’t notice the outsider.  For many, there is no hope that they will ever break the code of friendship and even though they are not bullied, they beat themselves up and drive themselves down into what can develop into childhood depression. 

There is a strong message in this book, not the least of which is hope, and scope for discussion about how we can make newcomers welcome particularly in situations like school where there is no choice about attending. It’s a wonderful opportunity to start helping students develop empathy and compassion and the skills to reach out warmly to newcomers, embracing them rather than isolating them. There is also the opportunity to help students start to look within themselves for their own strengths and how they might use these to build their self-worth and help others.  Tom teaches Bailey how to dribble a soccer ball, Bailey helps Tom build a rocket – it shows you don’t have to rely on common experiences to have friendships; you can build new ones on new experiences.

A visit to her website shows that Karen is a strong advocate for kids’ mental health and in Bailey Beats the Blah she shows how a sensitive and astute teacher can subtly intervene before a small thing becomes a huge thing.  Having travelled her own personal path of a psychiatric illness after being so harassed by parents she could take it no longer, she is now making mental health a focus through her writing.  A percentage of the profits of the book are going to Kids Helpline

Aaron Pocock’s cartoon-like illustrations are very appealing and the perfect complement to the text. He makes Bailey’s anxiety palpable, bringing it to life in a way that text, no matter how well written, can. There’s a real sense that this character could be Any Child at Any School.

This would be a very timely purchase for a school collection to be drawn to teachers’ attention so they can touch base with all their new students and see how they’re settling in, and, like Miss Darling, intervene if necessary.  It is aligned to the Kids Matter program, a national mental health and wellbeing framework for primary schools and early childhood education and care services.

Uno’s Garden

Feb4
Uno's Garden

Uno’s Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uno’s Garden

Graeme Base

Viking Penguin, 2006

9780670041916

Uno arrives in the forest on a beautiful day at the very beginning of spring and is greeted by a myriad of beautiful, lush plants and the most fantastic creatures he has ever seen. He likes it so much that he decides to stay there.But Uno’s decision spells doom for the plants and the creatures of the forest, including the only completely ordinary Snortlepig.

The animals go one by one

A hundred plants, then there were none

And all the while the buildings double…

This numbers game adds up to trouble.

But Uno is wise and sees the future of his children and their children if someone does not act to stem the consequences of civilisation. So he starts a special garden that does not have the vegetables and flowers of other gardens, but allows his children and grandchildren to have hope for their future.

But if you count with utmost care

(And trust me that they are all there)

You’ll go from ten to nothing, then

The whole way back to ten again!

Uno’s Garden is a rich story that delivers a powerful message through both its words and pictures. On a simple level, it is a counting book that shows how when one thing increases another decreases. However, the diversity and detail of the illustrations tells a more complex story that provides an excellent starting point for children to start considering their impact on their environment and how this can be positive.

There is a full unit of work  with a sustainablity focus (written by me) available from Reading Enriches Learning  and Graeme Base’s imagination and work is so rich that he deserves to be the focus of an auhtor/illustrator study.

A peek inside...

A peek inside…