My mother is a mad cat lady

What would prompt a Year 1 student to say this while listening to Graeme Base’s new picture book, Eye to eye?  We had great fun with this book. Base has excelled once again. On the verso page is the silhouette that contains the clue and the right-hand side has the animal’s eye. When we reached page 33, and the students had to guess which animal or creature might live at the top of the world, little Miss Year 1 exclaimed that she knew it was a snow leopard. When asked how she knew she replied, “My mother is a mad cat lady!”
The students, from Prep to Year 5, enjoyed this book. They looked to find the teddy bear as he recurred throughout the book.

Eye to Eye | Graeme Base. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2015,
from http://graemebase.com/book/eye-to-eye/

Bottersnikes and Gumbles to be reprinted

For many years now I have bemoaned the fact that S. A. Wakefield's book, Bottersnikes and Gumbles was out of print and I didn't see any possibility of it being reprinted.

In May this year, my daughter, also a teacher, and her students wrote persuasively to Collins Australia.

"Dear Ms Barton

We are a Year 3 class at Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary school in Ipswich, near Brisbane. We have just finished reading the S.A Wakefield book Bottersnikes and Gumbles. We really LOVE this book and we know other kids our age would love it too. We know this book was originally published by Collins Australia and is no longer in print. We want this book republished and need your help.

Bottersnikes and Gumbles is a highly entertaining and fun book to read. We are not the only people who believe this. Mighty Nice, a Sydney-based animation studio must agree with us as they turned the first chapter into a short animation. You can view their work here: http://mightynice.com.au/work/client/bottersnikes-and-gumbles/

Wakefield’s characters are fabulously fantastic! Bottersnikes are fat, lazy creatures whose ears glow when they’re angry. We had a great time drawing our own Bottersnikes in class. Gumbles are cute, squidgy and happy little creatures. We had fun creating our own Gumble characters and moulding them out of clay.

Another reason we love this book is it is set in the Australian bush and the language has a real Australian flavour. Wakefield is clever with his language and we used his ideas to help write our own Bottersnikes and Gumbles stories.

If you are not the best person to be asking, could you please forward this email to the person who could get Bottersnikes and Gumbles republished.

Kind regards

Year 3 at Immaculate Heart Catholic School

&

Miriam Reid

Teacher"

Now, although we cannot prove that the students' pleas actually caused a publishing house to reprint the novel, we don't care. The book will hit the shelves this December.

The Year Three Students from Immaculate Heart believe that:

THEY MADE THIS HAPPEN

ON SALE Monday 14th December 2015

Price: $14.99

(a much kinder price tag than the $70 on eBay!)

1000 Books before PREP - Progress report

I wrote a few weeks ago about the introduction of the reading initiative 1000 Books before Prep. I have done a very soft launch of this program; initially just to the staff of our College.
The parents who have commenced the reading have been doing a wonderful job with some having already completed over 400+ books.
Here is an example of three of the recording journals that one parent has brought in and received their child's certificates for each 100 books read.

The Impossible Quest

kateforsyth.com.au

When one of our library assistants finished reading The Impossible Quest and discovered that the second book wasn't due out until February 2015 she went into a decline. She loved this book and so I decided that I had  better get reading.

I have read other books by the Australian author, Kate Forsyth, and I knew she wrote very well, so I was looking forward to reading her latest, and Forsyth didn't disappoint. The book is easy to read and, as the name suggests, the four main characters must quest after four magical beasts to help them repel the invaders out of Wolfhaven Castle.
The four children who escape are Lady Elanor, the daughter of Lord Wolfgang, the Lord of Wolfhaven; Sebastian, a squire in training for a knighthood; Quinn, an abandoned child and a witch's apprentice and Tom, the son of the castle cook.
Each of the children are given a magical object which will help them in their quest to raise the legendary magical beasts of yesteryear and thus overcome the invaders.
The book is suitable for ages 10+
On a brighter note, my library assistant has just discovered that she can get the book in next month's Scholastic Book Club. Crisis averted!

The Wishbird

gabriellewang.com

"The girl's hands came up to the bars and she gripped them tightly.  Her mouth was bound with a cloth, but her eyes pleaded for help. Boy wanted to help her but there was nothing he could do. Then a beautiful sound came from the girl's throat. It was strange , and yet familiar too." The Wishbird p.36

The Wishbird is written by Australian author, Gabrielle Wang. Here she tells the tale of  two children, Boy and Oriole, who come from very  different parts of the country and who will need one another to survive.
Oriole must leave The Forest of the Birds to save her beloved wishbird, Mellow.
She must go to the city of Soulless to seek the king's help, but her way is fraught with danger.
Her greatest hope is the young, light-fingered orphan, Boy.
Boy is from the city of Soulless (formerly Solace) and, as the name suggests, this city is bereft of song, light and joy.  Boy has been raised by a Fagin-like character called Panther who has skilled this orphan to be the best 'light finger' in the city.
Oriole comes from the Forest of the Birds and has been raised by Mellow, a wishbird. Oriole, too, is an orphan and does not know her parents.
Boy and Oriole's paths cross when she comes to the city to find the king because she knows only the king can save her beloved wishbird, Mellow who is dying.  Unfortunately, Oriole is captured by the King's wicked  chancellor and Boy will be her saviour.
I loved Gabrielle Wang's writing. She has crafted a beautiful fable suitable for middle and upper primary school students and, of course, for any adult who enjoys books that require one to suspend belief and wrap themselves in the imagery of Wang's writing.
Gabrielle Wang's illustrations are delicious and certainly add to the feeling and understanding of the story.

1000 Books Before PREP

Last week, at our school staff meeting, I launched our reading initiative called 1000 Books before Prep.  This idea is not new; I read about it from the Licking County Library, Ohio who said it originally came from an idea by the Australian author, Mem Fox. I am keen to see the influence of our school library in our community. I also believe in the power of reading in developing students who are ready for school; children who will arrive at school confident and with a wide vocabulary. I enlisted my daughters to develop the paper work - Kate to produce the art work and Miriam to create the recording sheet.
The idea was to start small, so I have initially offered our little pack of 1000 Books before Prep to our staff. I thought the teachers with pre-schoolers would be the keen ones, but to my surprise not only the parents of young ones signed up for a pack, but also the teachers with nieces, nephews and grandchildren also took packs.
The rules are simple: 1. Read 1000 books before the child begins Prep (Kindergarten)
                                   2. Enter titles onto recording sheet
                                   3. You do NOT have to read 1000 different titles; books can be repeated
                                   4. When 100 books are completed, then bring the  booklet in to the library,                                                receive your certificate  and collect your next 1-100 booklet.
If you read 10 books a week, then it will take two years to complete the challenge.
Just today, only four days after the challenge was launched, I had one teacher text me to report that he  and his girls have already conquered twenty books. Yes, a challenge is useful.
I hope to officially  introduce 1000 Books before Prep  to our parents at the beginning of the  school year and continue advertising it and spreading the word in our school library.

School Holidays

We are about to enjoy two week's school holiday here in Australia. It is time to refresh and read, read, read. Hopefully there will be some good books on which to report.