ALIA Children's and Youth Services (NSW)

Pre Book Week Extravaganza 2006

Book now!
19-26 August
The 2006 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 2006!
The CYS(NSW) committee

Early childhood | Picture book of the year | Younger readers | Older readers | Eve Pownall Award for non-fiction | Competition ideas | Song | Theme ideas | Copyright permission | Links and other resources

What the Sky Knows by Nike Bourke with Stella Danalis (University of Queensland Press)
Themes: Imagination, sky, heavens, question, curiosity, But why?

Activities and Displays:

• Why is the sky blue? And other children's questions
• Base a creative writing exercise on one of these questions
• Ask your patrons why do they think the sky is blue?
• Information display on why things are the way they are.
  • Why is the sky blue?
  • Why do birds fly?
  • Why are elephants wrinkly?

Artworks

• Create murals in the same style
• Use recycled materials
• Nature and weather art works
• Children interacting with nature
• Hold an art competition or a photographic competition

Rex by Ursula Dubosarsky and David Mackintosh illus. (Viking / Penguin Group)
Themes: Days of the week, lizards, dinosaurs, perspective, imagination

Activities:

• What would you do if Rex came to visit you?
  • Discuss the activities that the kids would like to do
  • Would they be different if Rex was a dinosaur and not a lizard?
  • Can the kids draw the activities?
• Have classes design their own class pet
  • What would they like
  • What would they do with it
  • Would they take it home?

Displays

• Make small (or large) chameleons and hide them in the library (display or a competition)
• A little lizard Rex on the counter with a big dinosaur shadow on the wall or in a door way
  Talk with the kids about perspective
• Create a dinosaur display and maybe hide a small Rex in there somewhere

Emily's Rapunzel Hair by Cecily Matthews and Freya Blackwood illus. (ABC Books)
Themes: Imagination, family, new babies, patience, jealousy, wanting, imaginative play

Activities and Displays

• Present one chapter as a reader's theatre
• Get the kids to dress up (costume box) with Rapunzel hair
  • Talk about the ideas of costume and drama
• Discuss imagination
  • Which parts of the book are imaginative and which parts are real
  • Read the original fairytale of Rapunzel. Discuss it and reflect on what Emily may have liked this story
• Talk about the animals in the story
  • Discuss the lifecycle of the frog
  • Do the kids know what pobblebonks are?
  • What pets do the kids have? (Talk about chooks and pets)
  • Do they know the lifecycle of their pet or Emily's chook?
• Discuss babies
  • Do any of the kids have little brothers or sisters? How annoying they can be to their siblings?
  • Talk about growing up

Annie's Chair by Niland, Deborah (Viking / Penguin Group)
Themes: Sharing, family, pets, tantrums, emotions

Activities and Displays:

• Talk about special things
  • Did they have a favourite blanket when they were little?
• Curling up on the couch with a book
  • A great image for a display
  • Perhaps a mother and child reading together
• Make a diorama
  • Create a scene of love
  • Annie and the dog reading together
• Talk about sharing with the kids
  • How was Annie sharing or being selfish?
  • Annie's relationships with her family
  • Why did she share with Benny?
• Imagination and the chair
  • What type of chairs are there?
  • Do they have purpose?
• A chair in the library
  • make it look special
  • use it as the storytelling chair for a special event
  • Play pretend with a chair during a story [an astronaut's chair, a pilots chair, a train drivers chair, a taxi chair, a throne]

Daddy's Having a Horse by Lisa Shanahan and Emma Quay illus. (Hodder Headline Australia / Hachette Livre Australia)
Themes: new baby, families, pregnancy, horses

Activities and Displays:

• a display of knitted booties and bonnets with photographs of different kinds of babies (Joeys, foals, kittens, etc)
• link animals and their babies in a big picture game or wall display competition.
• relate all the books about new babies and hold a special storytime or a baby shower, celebrating new brothers and sisters.
• discuss sibling rivalry and sharing with your family, and other such issues with the kids.

Kisses for Daddy by Frances Watts and David Legge illus. (Little Hare Books)
Themes: Fathers, family relationships, love, bear hugs, animals, parents, bedtime, and bears

Activities and Displays:

• Animals and their babies
  • Discuss growing up for different animals and relate it to children
  • Play games where the kids have to guess who is the parent of child of a particular animal
• Speculate on animal kisses
  • What do the kid's think an elephant kiss would be like, or a fish kiss?
• Tie in with other bear books and focus on the bears

Visual representations of the animals

• Make animal shapes with inanimate objects
• Bats and the face washer on page 14

Some of these picture books may be for mature readers. (Arranged by illustrator)

The Sound of the Sea by Warren Crossett and Jacqueline Harvey text (Lothian Books)
Themes: Death; Parents; Grandparents; Memories; Sea life; Families; Emotions

Activities:

• Make a coloured sand jar

Displays:

• Reflective or restful beach picture
• Items from a beach scene: shells, crabs, bucket and spade
• Family pictures
• Sand picture

What the Sky Knows by Stella Danalis and Nike Bourke text (University of Queensland Press)
Themes: Imagination; Fantasy; Magic; Colour; Weather; Astronomy; Universe; Travel; Angels

Activities:

• Use a class group where each child adds an item(s) to a collage of the sky
• Visit from an astronomy group, with a portable planetarium

Displays:

• Use dry ice to create clouds
• Magic carpet for travel
• Telescope and stars
• Create a collage of dreams, where any image or anything can happen
• Fantasy creatures and items from recycled materials

The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley by Amy Lissiat and Colin Thompson text (Lothian Books)
Themes: Greed; Mouse vs. Man; Animals; Modern or city living; Simple pleasures

Activities:

• Pet show
• Badge making 'Release your inner Riley'
• Bookmarks
• Make a Riley doorstop

Display:

• Platter of cheeses with mouse
• Mouse in a sneaker filled with straw
• Red hearts
• Unwanted computer and technology items with a mouse

Irving the Magician by Tohby Riddle (Viking / Penguin Group)
Themes: Magic; Friends; Sharing; Learning

Activities:

• Book a magician for a performance
• Teach the children simple tricks
• Make juggling balls with balloons and sand
• Staff and /or children dress in magic clothes eg capes

Displays:

• Magician's equipment eg top hat with/out rabbit, silk scarf, cape, wand
• Stars and wand

The Island by Peter Sheehan and John Heffernan text (Scholastic Press / Scholastic Australia)
Themes: Sea creatures; Beach; Appreciation of nature; Loneliness; Modern /city living; Simple pleasures

Activities:

• Make a piñata monster
• Pin the eye on the monster
• Musical islands ( play as per musical chairs)
• Create a giant monster picture for display as a group activity

Display:

• Fish tank
• Under the sea scene
• Monsters of the deep
• Travel scenes with beaches
• Paper mache island and monster

Run, Hare, Run! By John Winch (Little Hare Books)
Themes: Art; galleries; artists; rabbits / hares; painting; pets; animals; appreciation of nature; Albrecht Durer; renaissance

Activities:

• Artist teaches children to draw
• Cartoonist teaches children to draw Bugs Bunny
• Create an art gallery with children's art
• Create a game matching the artist and the famous picture
• Speaker from the art gallery
• Hold an art competition, announce winning entries and award prizes or certificates

Displays:

• Classic paintings, incl. Albrecht Durer's work
• Castles
• Artists equipment eg palette, easel, drawing materials
• Renaissance

Millie and the Night Heron by Catherine Bateson (University of Queensland Press)
Journal of 12 year old girl who lives in a single parent home. Life changes when they moves to a smaller town to start a new life when Millie's artist mum gets a job. With help of mum's boyfriend, she photographs wetlands for her school project when mum is away.

Themes: Change - new school, friends, town; Photography; Wildlife and the environment; School projects and how to tackle them; Blended families and absent dads; Finding own identity; Being an individualist; Poetry and fantasy books

Activities:

• Great character talk fest - Book it! (Literature Base, May 2006)
• Schools: Take some bird photos in a wetlands e.g. Homebush Bay and have kids identify the birds at the library using reference books
• Public Library: Competitions - Wildlife Photography or identifying bird photos from reference books
• Arrange a Marshmallows and Pillows night - mothers and daughters to read the book and share discussing key issues and themes

Displays:

• Kids poetry - use magnetic poetry - use a frig if practicable
• Photography from competition
• Display of fantasy books mentioned by Millie - put signs on the books to indicate they are Millie's favourites

Helicopter Man by Elizabeth Fensham (Bloomsbury)
Summary: For years 10-14, diary of a 12 year old Pete whose dad is suffering from schizophrenia and who believes they are in danger, especially from helicopters.

Themes: Mental illness - schizophrenia; Fostered children; Family bonds; Single parent families; Diaries; Keeping mice as pets

Activities:

• Students write stories in diary form about 3 months in their own lives
• Research schizophrenia on the internet and in the library
• Character interview - students read parts of the book then one to interview another who takes the part of Pete. Questions should cover being fostered, schizophrenia and being homeless.
• Arrange for a talk to school classes by the Mental illness / Schizophrenia Fellowship in your state.

Displays:

• Display of books on schizophrenia, including books and videos on famous people who suffered from schizophrenia
• Displays of information sourced from Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW
• Streetwize comics: Something on my mind! ($15 for 30) 02 9319 0220
• Young carers support wallet card and poster
• Display of books on being homeless

To the Light by Pat Flynn and Chantal Stewart illus. (University of Queensland Press)
Thirteen year old Jamie loves to surf above all else. Sister Sky is only interested in being cool and popular and she is. An old mali surfer shows Jamie how to face the big surf. For primary aged children.

Themes: Surfing; Popularity versus being an individual; Siblings; School; Identity; School projects; Gender

Activities:

• Readers Theatre e.g. chapter 2 or 3 - includes lots of dialogue and as it is written in the first person would work well
• Recycling science project competition - Does the project in the book work?
• Research history of surfing

Displays:

• Borrow an old surf board and glue pictures from the book to it
• Display surfing books and posters

Once by Morris Gleitzman (Puffin / Penguin Group)
Story of Felix a Polish Jewish boy at the beginning of World War II who has been left in a Catholic orphanage by his parents. He believes that they are alive and sets out to find them. For 11 years and up.

Themes: Book burning; World War II and the Holocaust; Difference; Heroism; Friendship - specially between people of different faiths

Activities:

• Research the holocaust
• Research other children's novels on WWII

Displays:

• Make a display of books which tell a story of people being brave enough to help others in difficult times
• Put up the slogan ' People who dared to be different and dared to take a stand for what they knew was right' eg. Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara

The True Story of Mary: Who wanted to stand on her head by Jane Godwin and Drahos Zak illus. (Allen & Unwin)
Story in rhyme in the manner of Hilaire Belloc's nonsense rhymes telling about Mary who is a social embarrassment to her parents and how they try to cure her problem and then educate it out of her.

Themes: Being yourself; Finding happiness; Satirises medical and educational solutions to unacceptable differences in children; Opposite to Hilaire Belloc's salutary tales for children - salutary tales for parents.

How Hedley Hopkins Did a Dare by Paul Jennings (Puffin / Penguin Group)
Historical novel - 'faction'; Semi-autobiographical set in 1956 Australian beachside town with an old grave which Hedley is dared to steal some old bones from by school gang he wants to join.

Themes: Being scared; Bullies; Friends and lack of; Being an outsider; Sexual awakening in boys; Social attitudes in 1956 Australia to: Aboriginals, English people, intellectual disability, sexuality.

Class visit activities:

• Draw a cartoon whilst listening to a passage being read out
• Remember a time when you did something you were scared of - write how it felt in poem or draw it
• Tell a story about a dare you did
• Challenge someone in the class to accept a dare to do something in front of group

Public Library ideas:

• Photography competition: photograph an historically interesting tombstone from local church yard or cemetery
• Character interview

Displays:

• Memorabilia from 1956 Could include old Archie comics, children's books e.g. Biggles
• Posters or books showing posters of movies from the fifties
• Photos of old tombstones from early 19 century

Older Readers [44kb pdf]

(NB: These books are for mature readers)

Story of Tom Brennan by J.C. Burke (Random House Australia)
There's been an accident, an awful accident. Two friends are dead and Fin, the cousin will never walk again. But in a small town, the number of victims increased as the family feels the animosity of the township, and so they leave, suddenly! Tom tells the story of the accident, of how Daniel, his older brother was the drunk driver in the fatal accident. The story plots the journey of the family shattered, of Daniel's prison time, and of how time can heal, but nothing remains the same.

Themes: Alcohol: Rugby Union: Family: School: Prison: Depression: Boys: Disability: Catholicism

Ideas:

• Diarise the accident from differing perspectives: Tom, Daniel, Fin, a family member of one of the dead friends.

Displays:

• Rugby Union (Or all football codes) and other fiction books and movies with football
• Drink and Driving / underage drinking using newspapers of car accidents

Double Exposure by Brian Caswell (University of Queensland Press)
The story is of twins, Cain and Chris, living in South West Sydney; one is an artist and the other a movie attendant. This story is about how their lives are progressing smoothly. The boys fall in love and Chris is on the road to success putting together his work for an exhibition.

However things are not what they appear to be, slowly the artificial appearances start cracking, and both the reader and the people around the twins are surprised by the reality.

Themes: Twins: Art: Photography: Prostitutes: Mental Health: Genius: Movies.

Ideas

• Talk about the art in the book
• Reader's theatre with the 4 main characters Chris TJ Cain and Abby
• Booktalk

Displays

• Art and photography books
• Brian Caswell's extensive collection of books
• Famous twins - eg Waugh brothers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

No Worries by Bill Condon (University of Queensland Press)
The story is about 17 year old Brian, known as Bri to his friends, who is living with his mum and dad. However dad lives in the shed out the back since the divorce. Bri started working at the local milk factory, on the graveyard shift. The story takes us through Brian coping with the tension of learning the job, finding a girlfriend, getting a drivers license, the tensions on the home front and the tension of dealing with Mum's depression.

Themes: New job; Friendship: Death: Driving: First jobs: Depression: Family

Ideas:

• Teaching notes [15/06/06]
• Interview with Bill Condon (Author) Script available in teaching notes
• Booktalk

Displays:

• Getting a job
• Depression and/or mental illness; educational and help line handouts such as
• Beyond blue
• YBBlue
• Kids help line
• Bill Condon and Diane Bates books

Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley (Pan Macmillan Australia)
This story is told through the eyes of Charlie and Rose. A summer holiday in a small country town - Charlie has come to visit, like she has every summer, and Rose wants to leave with her by the end of the summer. There is a slight problem. They are not friends.

Themes: Friendship: Death: Music: Individuality.
Ideas:

• Teaching notes (15/06/06)
• Interview between Charlie and Rose.
• Booktalk of Charlie talking about the camping trip

Displays:

• Artists and songs that have spoken to different generations eg Bob Dylan - Blowing in the Wind
• Guitar as symbol, guitar playing and song writing
• Fiction in small country towns (Oxford Literary Guide to Australia: lists towns in Australia and the books based in those towns)

It's Not All About You, Calma! By Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin)
While this book is a sequel to 'The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull', there is no requirement to read them in order as the character development in this book is very good.

Calma is in Year 11, and wile she loves her English teacher, the rest of school is hoo hum. Calma is convinced that she knows everything and acts accordingly; rushing in with judgements and plans of action without listening to anything else that might make her question her judgements. It's great to follow Calma as she bumbles through her self centred adventures, seeing her miss vital clues, as the reader is almost fully informed.

Themes: Friendship: Families (Single parent families): Poetry: First job: First loves: Dad: Leukaemia; self abuse: Being wrong.
Ideas

• Teaching notes (15/06/06)
• Poetry writing- on the different methods, including Calma's way of writing poetry
• Using the 'Unreliable narrator' concept get the group to tell a story from different participants.
• Readers theatre, utilising the 'unreliable narrator' and tell the incident from Calma - confident, Vanessa - unsure and Jason - the boy.
• Booktalk: hairdo from Hell Chapter 10

Lost Property by James Moloney (Viking / Penguin Group)
Josh has a summer job in the 'Lost Property' department of CityRail at Central. He discovers that many items have stories, and that sometimes people come searching after many years for a lost part of their life.

Josh's family has lost something, well someone; his brother Michael left one day and never came back. There have been phone calls from Michael, but no one knows where he is. Until Josh found a hint in the Lost Property office, and went up to Queensland to get Michael back. But he found that life is not that simple.

Themes: Runaways; Family: First Jobs: Catholicism: Football- Rugby: Music: Brothers

Ideas

• Teachers notes [15/06/06]
• Interview about the Lost Property Office, between Clive and David Koch

Displays

• Missing people
• Scrapbooking; keeping precious things
• Map of trip that Josh took

Hoosh! Camels in Australia by Janeen Brian (ABC Books)
Themes: Camels, Australian outback

Summary: This is a very interesting book about camels including odd facts like how to make camel stew and other things you can make with camels, as well what they eat, camel racing and stories about camels.

Activities/Displays: Ask children to research all the strange facts about camels. Use the facts the children discover to make a display about camels. Make a life sized camel cut-out to go on the wall with eyelashes and a tail to make it a bit 3D.

Creatures of the Rainforest by Warren Brim & Anna Eglitis (Magabala Books)
Themes: Rainforests, animals, Aboriginal art

Summary: This books looks at the different rainforest animals that live in far North Queensland and is beautifully illustrated by the two authors. A description of each animal includes medicinal and traditional uses if appropriate as well information on food, habitat etc.

Activities/Displays: Have a picture of each animal and ask children to match the facts to the right animal. These could either be on a wall as a display or as cards to play a version of memory.

Scarecrow Army by Leon Davidson (Black Dog Books)
Themes: First World War, Gallipoli, ANZACS

Summary: The book is an easy to read narrative which intersperses the first person stories of Gerald Sievers (a New Zealander) and the composite Australian soldier Pete Walden with accounts of Gallipoli.

Activities/Displays: Make a map that shows the places mentioned in the book. For example, training camps in Australia and New Zealand and the sea route to Gallipoli.

The Glory Garage by Nadia Jamal & Taghred Chandab (Allen & Unwin)
Themes: young Muslim women, Lebanese culture

Summary: The book is a compilation of stories of young Muslim women and how they reconcile their culture, religion and ethnicity. Some of the girls are strict Muslims, others are not, some wear the Hijab, some don't. The title comes from the one of the author's overgrown glory box - it is a whole garage - of items she is collecting to set up her home when she marries. One of the interesting things about this book is the similarities there are across cultures and religions where strong family and community are emphasised.

Activities/Displays: set up a 'Glory Garage' that is a place where people can donate good quality items, non perishable food etc for charities working with refugees.

The Big Picture Book by John Long & Brian Choo illus. (Allen & Unwin)
Themes: Evolution, Nature, Timelines

Summary: This book shows the span of the history of the earth from 12 billion years ago through to present time. It also takes a leap to what the world might be like 50 million years from now.

Activities: Use a long roll of paper tablecloth around the walls of the library to display a timeline of natural history of the world with pictures of appropriate animals, plants etc. Ask the children to make a timeline of the significant events in their own lives and show them where their life span fits on the big timeline. Ask children to write a story or draw a picture of what life might be like in 50 million years time.

Charles Darwin's Big Idea by Robin Stewart (Hyland House Publishing)
Themes: Evolution, Charles Darwin, nature

Summary: This book looks at the life and work of English scientist Charles Darwin from his childhood to his controversial theory of evolution. The book also includes many lesser known things about Darwin including his interest in pigeons, barnacles and orchids.

Activities/Displays: Make a display of some of the things Darwin was interested in with a heading 'What do these have in common?' Answer: They were all collected and studied by Charles Darwin.

Create a picture book NOW!
Create a comic book / graphic novel NOW!
Write a book NOW!
Colour / illustrate a book NOW!

Song [56kb pdf]

Shane Veitch has produced a theme song Book Now! $13.64 + GST = $15 (including postage) to order contact ph/fax 02 4261 8683. Shane has granted public performance rights for children's book week activities.

Contemporary issues in books
The emphasis could be placed on the NOW by looking at books that examine contemporary issues such as:

• Refugees in stories:
  • Boy overboard / Morris Gleitzman,
  • Chickpea / Marguerite Hann Syme,
  • Parvana / Deborah Ellis,
  • Refugees / David Miller.
• Growing up Muslim in Australia:
  • Does my head look big in this? / Randa Abdel-Fattah,
    The glory garage: growing up Lebanese Muslim in Australia / Nadia Jamal & Taghred Chandab.
• Genetic engineering:
  • Sharp north / Patrick Cave, Dusk / Susan Gates,
  • The future trap / Catherine Jinks, Oryx and Crake / Margaret Atwood.

The evolution of the book and its format
Look at books that incorporate email or the Internet as plot devices,

• Hot mail / Tessa Duder & William Taylor
• Remote man / Elizabeth Honey

Explore the development of the eBook

Display a timeline of books from their past to the present

• A time line could be drawn with images and information
• Use a large book as the centrepiece and have information spiralling up and out of the book. Use wire to form the base of the spiral and attach it to the roof of the building. Hide the wire with a sash of material forming the magical spiral. Have the images and information on parchment hanging from wires or twine.
• Examples of the alternatives to books, eg. a talking book display.

Blogs and Fan Fiction
Choose a book with a range of interesting characters and establish a group blog with individual accounts in the character's name, eg Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan, White Witch, Mr Tumnus etc

• Students take on the role of one of the characters and contribute to the book blog staying in character, i.e. writing and responding to other characters from their character's point of view.
• Students could either develop an existing part of the story, or follow the characters beyond the book.
• http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/wiki/view.php?id=17673

Booking tickets: Cinema tickets
Small bookmark style movie tickets could be handed out with issued books.

• Have quotes on them from the book week books or other famous lines
• Have a competition to see if any students can link their lines with a title
• Tickets may be redeemable for prizes

Make promotional posters in cinema fashion promoting the book week books or activities.

Travel tickets: book now for adventure!
Maybe a plane theme or a boat or bus, maybe the great road trip: Are we there yet?

Travel competition

• Put a simplified world map on the wall and the kids have to collect a ticket to each continent.
• They could write a short story about their best ever holiday or design a postcard competition.

Postcards from your Library Competition

• give out postcard sized card with the library's address on the front and the kids can mail or drop it back.

Book now! Hollywood style..
Book now! Scrawled across the Hollywood hills, or your front desk.

Make links with famous books and their screen adaptations.

• Have discussions with the kids about the differences between watching a movie and reading a book.
• Have a debate: The book is always better than the film.

Host a red carpet party ... Logies style!

• Students dress as their favourite book characters.
• Present your competition winners on a red carpet ceremony
• Students vote for their favourite shortlisted book and announce the winning title at the ceremony.

Book now! Tantrum
Have you ever wanted to have a tantrum in the library? Here is your chance!

• Make a display with characters throwing a tantrum
• You could have a protest! Placards raised and grumpy teachers marching.

Book now! Circus
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry Book now for the greatest show on earth, display featuring a big top and lots of animals

Each year the ALIA Children's and Youth Services (NSW) Group seeks copyright permission from each publisher to use the short listed titles in these ways

• 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)

during the Extravaganza and Children's Book Week, crediting the author and publisher.

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

WA Department of Education and Training
Children's Book Council of Australia [WA Branch] Book Week book
Ipswich Teacher Librarian's Network Book Week Publication:
EdNa Groups: Books and Reading www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=616
The Children's Book Council have merchandise available for children's book week: