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ALIA Children's and Youth Services (NSW)

Pre-Bookweek Extravaganza 2005

Reading rocks!
20-26 August

The 2005 Pre-Bookweek Extravaganza drew together a diverse group of people with lots of great ideas for using the books that have been shortlisted for this year's Children's Book of the Year awards. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of everyone who attended on the night and particularly the wonderful Hornsby Shire Library & Information Service storytellers who inspired us all.
Enjoy Book Week 2005!
The CYS(NSW) committee

Early childhood

Dougal the garbage dump bear Matt Dray (Viking)

Themes: discarded toys, garbage collectors, value, recycling

Activities:

create a scrap book page about the class
perform as a readers theatre

Displays: preloved toys

Mr Noah and the cats Vashti Farrer and Neil Curtis (Lothian Books)

Themes: cats, middle eastern food, Noah, flood

Activities: make paper plate Noah's ark models

Displays:

rainbows and cats
model of the ark

Where is the green sheep? Mem Fox (Viking)

Themes: sheep

Activities:

treasure hunt through library for green sheep
sing 'baa baa green sheep'
tell the story as a feltboard
encourage the children to participate by asking 'where is the green sheep?'

Displays:

make models of sheep (paper plates and cotton wool) and colour one green
hide sheep all around the library and have a treasure hunt for the green one

Tales from the waterhole Bob Graham (Walker Books)

Themes: differences, friendship, habitats

Activities:

make bookmarks (eg. shaped like a skateboard)
design a fruit salad swimsuit, plan a long rains party

Displays: props from the story

Mutt dog! Stephen Michael King (Scholastic Press)

Themes: being lost, homelessness, acceptance, adoption

Activities:

dog paper bag puppets
dog headbands
read with Lets get a pup by Bob Graham

Displays: stuffed toy dogs

Seven more sleeps Margaret Wild and Donna Rawlins (Working Title Press)

Themes: birthday parties, presents

Activities:

make party decorations (eg. paper chains)
tell as a felt board story with a doll and a stuffed toy dog
sing 'happy birthday to you'

Displays: party decorations

Picturebook of the Year

NB: some of these books may be for mature readers.

Belonging Jeannie Baker (Walker Books)

Themes: urban renewal, telling a story without text, shall changes as time passes

Activities:

make collage pictures
link to Window also by Jeannie Baker
tree planting ceremony

Displays: photos of familiar localities (eg. the library) from the local history collection

At the beach: postcards from Crabby Spit Roland Harvey (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: postcards, maps, beach, sunscreen

Activities:

make a map of a local area
write postcards
perform the story as readers theatre

Displays: postcards, beach gear

Mutt dog! Stephen Michael King (Scholastic)

Themes: being lost, homelessness, acceptance, adoption

Activities:

dog paper bag puppets
dog headbands
read with Lets get a pup by Bob Graham

Displays: stuffed toy dogs

Are we there yet? A journey around Australia Alison Lester (Penguin / Viking)

Themes: around Australia trip, writing a diary, maps

Activities: match the pictures of famous places with the names of the places

Displays: display a large map of Australia and ask classes to put pins in the places they have visited

Refugees David Miller (Lothian)

Themes: paper collage, acceptance, ducks, environment

Activities: make paper sculpture pictures

Displays: information on preserving the environment

Lizzie Nonsense Jan Ormerod (Little Hare)

Themes: pioneer life in WA, timber cutters, slab huts, loneliness, imagination, families

Activities:

mime some of the games Lizzie plays
make paper hats
compare the snake incident with The drover's wife by Henry Lawson
play charades

Displays:

models of slab huts
Tom Roberts pictures

Book of the year: younger readers

The Silver Donkey Sonya Hartnett (Viking)

Themes: war, trenches, hiding in the forest, psychological blindness, talismans

Activities:

tell the donkey story
research talismans (eg. rabbits foot)
teachers notes [96kb pdf]

Displays:

silver donkey (horse) charm
newspaper headlines from war

Soraya the storyteller Rosanne Hawke (Lothian Books)

Themes: Middle East, flying horse, acceptance, humanitarianism, refugees, Afghanistan, temporary protection visas

Activities: teachers notes [118kb pdf]

Displays: newspaper headlines about refugees in Australia

A horse called Elvis John Heffernan (Scholastic Press)

Themes: horse, cattle, sheet, families, caring for animals

Activities: teachers notes [331kb pdf]

Displays: a stable door like a dressing room door with a star on it (and some straw around the edges)

Tiff and the trout David Metzenthen (Puffin)

Themes: separated families, highlands of Victoria, fishing, choices

Activities:

fishing game
make lists of the choices that have to made (beach vs bush, mum vs dad)
teachers notes [52kb pdf]

The boy, the bear, the baron, the bard Gregory Rogers (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: telling a story without text, Globe theatre, visual literacy, appropriation, Will Shakespeare, Tudor London, bear baiting, royalty and dungeons

Activities:

research the Globe Theatre
perform some of Shakespeare's work
teachers notes [258kb pdf]

Displays:

pictures of the Globe Theatre
Shakespeare and other resources from the Tudor era

Billy Mack's war James Roy (UQP)

Themes: heroes, war, Tasmania, land army, traumatic stress syndrome, Alzheimer's, survival and guilt, masculinity, prejudice and dislocation

Activities:

listen to music from the war era (eg. Vera Lynn)
look at war memorial website to find local heroes
ask local RSL to bring some war medals in for a 'show and tell' explaining why they were awarded etc

Displays: map of Tasmania, newspaper headlines

NB: Sequel to Captain Mack.

Book of the year: older readers

NB: These books are for mature readers.

The running man Michael Gerard Bauer (Omnibus Books)

Themes: Vietnam veterans, neighbours, separated families

Activities:

display silkworms
draw a portrait of someone who has had a lot of experiences
play music from the Vietnam war era
teacher notes [976kb pdf]

Displays: newspaper clippings from Vietnam war contrasted with stories about Vietnam vets from more recent times

Fireshadow Anthony Eaton (UQP)

Themes: Western Australia, WW2 prisoner of war camp, forestry work, guilt, bush

Activities:

pinpoint on map location of the prisoner of war camp
research information about the prisoner of war camp
teacher's notes

Displays: map of WA showing location of the camp

NB: Western Australian Premier's Book Awards - 2004 Winners - Young Adults Award

By the river Steven Herrick (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: childhood, country towns, poetry, verse novel

Activities:

write poetry about something from your childhood
illustrate one of the poems
chose music / songs that match the mood of the poems
teacher's notes [74kb pdf]

Displays: pictures of river banks and country towns

NB: winner of NSW Premier's Award 2005

Secret scribbled notebooks Joanne Horniman (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: coming of age, families, mothering, pregnancy, HSC

Activities:

write a page in a diary
write three different perspectives on an event (eg. exams, working at a fast food store, breaking up)
choose three songs, each representing a different perspective / mood / attitude

Displays: map of Lismore and scraps of handwritten 'diary' pages

The whole business with Kiffo & the pitbull Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: class, relief teachers, humour, bullying

Activities:

role play dealing with bullying
debate topic: that we should be able to vote disruptive students out of the class

Displays: poster of class rules

Black juice Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)

Themes: short stories, darker side of personalities and events

Activities:

write a dark short story
write a dark ending to a familiar fairytale
research some of the dark stories behind children's fairytales (eg. Pied Piper of Hamelin)
debate topic: that children's books should all end happily ever after

Displays:

create a display of found objects painted black and add faces cut from magazines
display other dark novels (eg. Lord of the flies, Heart of darkness, Go ask Alice, All my dangerous friends)

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

Heritage and Places Helen Chapman (Heinemann Library)

Themes: Australian icons, famous buildings

Activities:

research the history of one of the icons
find lots of pictures
develop a profile name of building (eg. date of construction, location, facts and figures)
play celebrity heads with names of famous Aussie iconic buildings
make a version of the 'Amazing Aussie Race' with a couple of students chosen to wear backpacks and bandanas and tackle several tasks (eg. build an Aussie icon from lego, guess the Aussie icon charades, use the names of three Aussie icons in an improvised story, mime climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge or being a tourist at Luna Park)
Use one of the heritage ideas to produce a doorway into your children's section (eg. the Luna Park mouth)
compile an author study using Helen Chapman's website to answer questions

Displays: mark the places on a map of Australia

Gogo fish! The story of the Western Australian State Fossil Emblem John Long and Jill Ruse (Western Australian Museum)

Themes: fossils, Australian history, emblems

Activities:

make fossils from shells or bones set in plaster of paris or grout
play guess that emblem
ask students to match up pictures of emblems (flora/fauna and fossil) with states of Australia

Displays:

display books on Australian dinosaurs
locate on a map of WA where the fossil was found

Life in a rockpool Greg Pyers (Echidna Books)

Themes: sea life, microcosms

Activities:

make a model of a rockpool (eg paperplate with plastic cover and loose glitter for waves)
borrow an aquarium for Book Week
make a rockpool diarama
make an edible rock pool with lolly or chocolate stars and fish in a clear plastic cup set in blue / green jelly

Displays: ornaments of sea life

Amazing Australian Mammals Barry Silkstone (Heinemann Library)

Themes: Australian animals

Activities:

make a matching game
animal and baby animal names

Displays:

toy Australian mammals
tree branches suspended from the roof with toy animals or logs made from papier mache

To the moon and back Bryan Sullivan and Jackie French (Angus & Robertson)

Themes: space exploration, Honeysuckle Creek, Apollo 11

Activities:

research Apollo 11
find Honeysuckle Creek on a map
make models of the Apollo 11 craft
View The Dish movie
Parkes Observatory support to the Apollo 11 mission
Trivia game
- Who was the first man in space?
- What did he say as he lifted off - in Russian?
- Why does the moon look the same size as the sun?
- Why did the astronauts leave a bag of rubbish on the moon?
Decorate two motor cycle helmets - one as an alien and one as an astronaut and have a challenge (eg. planting their flag first, answering trivia questions about space / earth, moon walking)
teacher's notes [2.4mb pdf]

Displays:

models of space craft
list of supplies astronauts could take on board

The grief book: strategies for young people Elizabeth Vercoe with Kerry Abramaowski (Black Dog Books)

Themes: grief, despair, strategies for dealing with feelings

Activities:

role play situations
what would you say? (friend loses a family pet / relative; friend is permanently injured, friend has been bashed)
be aware that young people may have personal issues which could surface during this discussion

Displays:

static display of pamphlets and information on kids help lines
youth suicide prevention
books on stress management
positive thinking
relaxation CDs

Competition ideas

K-2

Draw yourself reading somewhere outside (eg. up a tree, on top of a big rock, hanging upside down on a swing).
Place musical notes around the library (on the roof, in doorways) and have a treasure hunt. Notes could be colour co-ordinated and the kids have to find every colour listed on the entry form, try clipart online for music notes to enlarge.
Decorate boulders/rocks with images/characters and have the kids guess which books they are from.

3-4

Make a magazine advertisement for some kind of amazing rock (eg. a rock that can read, a magic rock, a rock that will bring you good luck, a rock that can turn into ice-cream).
Design your own musical instrument.
Have guessing competitions of pebbles or musical notes in a jar.

5-6

Take a photograph of something that matches the theme of Reading rocks.
Write raps, poems or song lyrics about Reading rocks.
Photography competition:
- How reading rocks your world.
- Encourage local artists to presents images that display how they perceive reading affects the local community.
Develop an advertising campaign to promote a library or imaginary band.
Design a cover for a CD or design a poster advertising a library bands.

Shortlist quiz

Song

Shane Veitch and the Tuckshop Singers have produced a theme song Reading rocks $13.64 + GST = $15 (including postage) to order contact ph fx 02 4261 8683. Shane has granted public performance rights for children's book week activities.

Display ideas

ALA 'Celebrity READ' posters featuring musicians and singers.
Rock climbing / abseiling display

Rocks as rocks

Create a rock landscape (Ayers rock, a moonscape maybe) within the library, place characters from the books throughout.
Create boulders and collage them with the covers of the shortlist titles.
Rock pets using pebbles from the nursery create pets as a craft.
Decorate pebbles or large rocks with images / characters to place around the library.
Create a cave or cliff face display to encompass your copies of the Book Week titles.
Make papier-mache stalactites and stalagmites to decorate the library or display

Rock as music

A display with musical instruments, incorporate the book characters into the scene.
Make characters singing dancing and playing music to decorate a wall.
Create musical notes with the covers illustration in them to hang from the roof.
Create large papier-mache instruments and collage them with the book covers.
Paint or decoupage old instruments with images of characters/covers.
A classical conductor scene or rock band with characters or covers as the orchestra/band.

King of rock

It couldn't be rock n roll without the king, any Elvis fanatic / librarian could try including some blue suede shoes or what ever takes your fancy.
Try a sequin guessing competition.

Cave man rock band

Create a cave man scene with dinosaurs or a caveman rock band, Flintstones rock band.
Read stories like Bumpus jumpus dinosaurumpus and Dinosaur brigade.
Non fiction materials on fossils, minerals and crystals could be highlighted and promoted.

Theme ideas - storytime

Rhythm and rhyme

Dramatise favorite rhymes and books such as Rumble in the jungle, Giraffes can't dance, and Kangaroo played his didgeridoo.
Present We're going on a bear hunt or another musical rhythm story as reader's theatre.
Identify the rhythms in a text and create music to accompany a shared reading (use percussion instruments, or clapping, stamping, tapping).
Get physical by stomping, clapping and reciting nursery rhymes. Ask parents, grandparents and older siblings about skipping and clapping chants they remember and share them with the group.
Use a nursery rhyme or the picture book Where is the green sheep? as the basis of text innovation.
List 'ee' words after reading Where is the green sheep?.
Brainstorm nursery rhymes that feature music or dance (for example Hey Diddle Diddle, Sing a Song of Sixpence, Ride a Cock-Horse, Old King Cole, Little Boy Blue, Little Tommy Tucker).
Produce a group mural using collage to depict nursery rhymes.

Copyright permission

Each year the ALIA Children's and Youth Services (NSW) Group seeks copyright permission from each publisher:

The Editor
<<Company>>
<<Address1>>
<<Address2>>
<<City>> <<State>> <<Postcode>>

Dear Sir/Madam,

Each year, in anticipation of Children's Book Week, the Children's and Youth Services (NSW) Group of the Australian Library and Information Association presents a 'Pre-Book Week extravaganza.' This event attracts children's librarians and teacher-librarians for a brainstorming session on ways to promote and enjoy the CBC short-listed titles with children in libraries and schools.

This year the Children's and Youth Services (NSW) Group is hosting the Pre-Book Week Extravaganza on Thursday 30 June at 4:30pm at Strathfield Library (Homebush).

These events includes ideas for:

Displays in the library
Readers theatre - simple dramatised reading of a scene from a book
Storytelling
Cross words and find-a-words
Competitions (colouring in etc)

We are seeking your permission to use the short listed titles published by your company in these ways during the Extravaganza and Children's Book Week, crediting the author and publisher. A representative from your company would be welcome to attend the Extravaganza.

Yours sincerely,

Please ensure credit is given to the authors, illustrators and publisher as shown below;
From Mutt dog! by Stephen Michael King
Text and illustrations copyright Stephen Michael King 2004
Published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited 2004
Reproduced by permission of Scholastic Australia Pty Limited

Links and other resources

Children's Book Council of Australia Includes the shortlist, merchandise, the free book week banner, links to the notables list.

The Literature Base, Volume 16, Issue 2, May 2005. Includes working with books that celebrate reading, rock painting, writing and performing raps, dramatising poems and stories, display ideas, booklists, templates.

Reading Rocks! Children's Book Week 2005
Ipswich District Teacher-Librarian Network presents ideas and activities based on Reading Rocks! and the CBCA shortlisted titles.

Children's Book Week CBCA (WA Branch) 2005 Handbook includes activities linked to curriculum, resources, puzzles, proformas, Deltora Quest Rock Challenge.

ASLA(NSW) handy hints for dazzling displays

Children's Book Week activity pack State Library of QLD

NSW Dept of Education Reviews

WA Dept of Education and Training Reading rocks!

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