Autumn - 2020 Welcome
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All About Books S KID Autumn - 2020 Welcome Hi everyone, We are well into 2020 now and hasn’t it just flown by? We hope you are all keeping safe and well. We are busily working on new projects for the second half of the year and updating our collection with fresh books and resources for you. As always, please don’t hesitate to request an item if there’s something you think we’re missing. Also, if you’re not familiar with how to reserve items that might not be on the shelf, we can assist with that as well. March-May is chock-full of exciting events and activities. Our regular craft club continues on the first Wednesday of each month, we have Story Room happening at our Epping and Parramatta branches, and if you know some 12-25 year olds, we are holding one of our biggest competitions of the year – the YouthWrite competition! If you know someone who fits into that age group, pick up an entry form from any of our branches and introduce them to opinion writing. Not sure where to start? We are running some workshops here at Parramatta to help. In May we are celebrating mums! You are all out there, doing your best and we see it every day. We see you bringing your little ones into story time, rain or shine. We see you on your weekly visits to the library in the evening, waiting while they select their handfuls of books for the week. We see you reading the same book out-loud, over and over with patience and enthusiasm. We see you, and we’re so impressed by your dedication and love for your children. Earlier this year we were thrilled when Ursula Dubosarsky was chosen as the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020-2021. Ursula has always been a fantastic supporter of City of Parramatta Libraries and libraries in general! Turn to page 4 to read Ursula’s interview and find out her tips for encouraging kids to read more. As always, we are looking ahead and planning for activities and programs in the cooler months. We cannot wait to share our Book Week competition with you next quarter, it’s going to be fantastic! June-August is one of our busiest periods so we’re already planning celebrations for NAIDOC Week, Book Week and Science Week. Just keep dropping by regularly and you’re sure to stay in the loop. Next quarter, look out for our interview with award winning author and illustrator Anna Walker. We can’t wait! From, The Kids Team. n. oks is fu ding bo Rea ead , read, r So read ne! everyo 2 2 Welcome 4-5 Chatting With Ursula Dubosarsky 6-7 Ursula Dubosarsky, Our Favourites 8-45 BOOKS, BOOKS & MORE BOOKS 9 Mother's Day Colouring 10-13 All About Mums 14-17 Easter 18-21 Harmony Week 22-24 Stories to Share 25 Read and Colour Activity S 26-27 Little People, Big Dreams 28-29 What We're Reading T 30-43 COMING SOON 30-32 Picture & Board Books N 33 Person, Place or Thing E 34-40 Easy Junior & Junior Fiction 40 Just For Fun T 42-43 Junior Non-Fiction 44-46 Premier's Reading Challenge N 47 1000s Books Before School O C Chatting with Ursula Dubosarsky Ten Quirky Questions with Ursula Dubosarsky Congratulations on your appointment as the latest Australian Children's Laureate! How can we encourage children to read more books? I think every child in the family should go to the library and get their own library card with their name on it. And then they can go to the shelves and look for books, whatever books they like, to take home and read. If you do that often enough, you will start to find books you REALLY love, and want to read more and more and more. Your story 'Midnight at the Library' looks at a book through time. Have you seen any precious books or old libraries during your travels? The oldest book I have ever seen close up is the Book of Kells in a library in Dublin, Ireland. This book is more than 1000 years old! It’s very beautiful. All the words and colourful pictures were done by hand. You have to stand in a very long line outside the library to see it. Inside, the library is very dark and there is a light above the open book. You can only see one page at a time – every day they turn to a new page. It would take a long time to read it! If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be? I think I would like to be Thing One or Thing Two from 'The Cat in the Hat'. I would love to be able to run that fast and bounce that high. And they never seem to get into trouble! What are some of your favourite words in 'The Word Spy'? Why? I love the word UNEARTHLY. I love the way it sounds and also what it means – something so strange it feels like it doesn’t belong on earth! I also love the word PALINDROME, which is a word that is written the same backwards and forwards, like TOOT or EYE. And I love the word SNURTLE. Do you know what that is? A very unusual animal – a mixture of a SNAIL and a TURTLE. Mmm, sounds rather UNEARTHLY, doesn’t it? 4 "Rea You have written many books over your career ding m is so far! Do you have some advice for any of our y fav ourite aspiring young writers? act ivity." Try your hardest to finish what you are working on. It might be a story or a poem or a song or a play. Whatever it is, make yourself finish it. It can be hard sometimes, and you might think it’s not very good. But it’s amazing how much you learn about writing, just from finishing something. And then next time, your writing will be even better. How many elephants is too many in your house? If you had elephants in your house, Do you have a special place at home what games would you play with them? where you keep all your awards? Even one elephant might be one too many in Hahaha! Yes I do. I keep them in a my house! I have a lot of stairs – I don’t know cupboard in my study. I would find it a how they would get up and down. But if they bit embarrassing if they were on the were in my house, I would like to play hide shelf and I had to look at them all the and seek with them, like Eric does in my book. time. But I like knowing where they are, safe in the cupboard…. What is the best advice you You are already an awarded author and have ever received? now the Australian Children's Laureate! “The first pancake is always If you could have a super power, what a failure” That’s an old would it be and why? proverb actually but I think Definitely flying. I would love to be able it’s true. And it certainly to fly up in the sky and look at all the applies to writing – the first city from way up high and then further draft is always a bit lumpy or out to the ocean and all the world burnt! beyond. I often dream I can fly and I’m always disappointed when I wake up and it’s not true. Do you prefer writing picture books or books for older readers? Why? Well, I feel happier when I write picture books. It uses a different place in my brain. Perhaps it makes me a bit more playful, like Thing One and Thing Two. I’m less bouncy when I’m writing for older readers. But they are both different parts of me, so I think I need them both. 5 Ursula Dubosarsky - A Few of Our Favourites The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Andrew Joyner An irresistible picture book about a little rabbit who learns that some things in life aren't as scary as they seem. Based on a Tibetan myth, a sound in the forest sets all the animals running for their lives from the Terrible Plop. Children will be charmed by the wonderful zany energy of the illustrations and the rollicking rhyming story. The Spy Word by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Tohby Riddle The Honey and Bear Stories Join the WORD by Ursula Dubosarsky, SPY on an entertaining illustrated by Ron Brooks journey through the English language. In Honey and Bear - the Learn more about the silver-eyed bird and the alphabet came from, cuddly, rotund bear - Ursula find out what ATM Dubosarsky has created stands for, make up characters that children will your own palindromes love, in the tradition of (it's easy!) and impress Winnie the Pooh, and Frog your friends by and Toad. The tales are the speaking Pig Latin. perfect length for beginner readers to attempt themselves, or to read aloud to younger children. Rex: The Adventures of Our Class Pet by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by David Mackintosh This is an utterly original picture book about a familiar classroom practice, which highlights the fantastic imaginations of young children. Rex is a chameleon and a popular class pet. Every day someone gets to take Rex home, along with a book in which to write all the things Rex did on his visit.