CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

The Little Big Book Club Incorporated is a not for profit arts organization whose mission is to promote reading, the discussion of books and the promotion of Australian authors.

Reading regularly with young children is probably the single most important activity that you can undertake to develop a child’s ability to read and write. The human brain is most open to environmental influences in the first few years of life with 75% of brain development occurring between birth and the age of three. Parents often don’t know at what age they should start reading to their children. What should they read to them? How often? How long? To answer these questions and to support and encourage parents to read to their young children, The Little Big Book Club offers a range of support materials and guidance. Read Cat by Mike Dumbleton and Craig Smith. Thank goodness for that! Read the CMIS review for Cat

Watch the Little Big Book Club for the next e-book

Boom Bah by Phil Cummings and Nina Rycroft.

Due next week.

Emily Gravett’s whimsical Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears is this year’s winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal, which was announced in London last night.

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears is on this year’s Primary Focus list along with Meerkat Mail and Monkey and Me.

As reported on The Guardian website, Emily’s technique in the making of this book was rather unorthodox. The Guardian website also contains a set of eight of Gravett’s illustrations from all of her books to date.

A detailed background article about Gravett and her winning book is available on the CILIP website. You can also view the press release and the judges’ comments on the 2008 shortlist.

The Reading Bug (Revised Edition) by Paul Jennings is an accessible and humorous book aimed directly at parents wanting to help their children learn to read. It explains the role parents or carers can play in developing a love of reading in their children because according to Jennings, parental involvement is the one single factor that indicates how well a child will do with reading.

In writing this book, Paul Jennings drew extensively on his personal experience as a parent and on his professional experience as a teacher, an academic and a writer. Every bit as readable as his stories, The Reading Bug is full of amusing anecdotes and cartoon illustrations.

Jennings covers a range of issues, such as the importance of choosing the right book for your child, the use of picture clues, phonics, and the value of rhyming stories.The book also includes an insightful chapter on reluctant readers and a new chapter on boys and reading, plus an extended and updated reading list for the different stages of development.

This book contains clear and practical information about the writing process and has some great ideas for writing activities which parents and teachers will find useful for teaching reading.

Books, especially picture books, are meant to be viewed. The following websites offer more than just lists of book titles, blurbs and reviews. They allow pages of entire books to be viewed and most have a facility for illustrations and text to be enlarged for ease of reading and studying. Whether used as a selection aid or with students in the classroom, these sites are worth having a look at.

Lookybook
Authors, illustrators and publishers can post picture books onto this site. Books can be viewed page by page.
CMIS review of Lookybook website

International Children’s Digital Library
This site collects children’s books in different languages for reading and viewing online. A very useful resource for LOTE.
CMIS review of International Children’s Digital Library website

Children’s Books Online: The Rosetta Project
Specialising in antique books, the library on this site provides access to the illustrations and texts of entire books, including a large number of classics, folk and fairy tales myths and legends.
CMIS review of Children’s Books Online: the Rosetta Project website

Children’s Storybooks Online
This site contains stories created for online reading and is a useful example of online story creation and illustration.
CMIS review of Children’s Storybooks Online website

Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop’s delightful Snake and Lizard is this year’s winner of the prestigious New Zealand Post Book of the Year prize and Junior Fiction Award.

Snake and Lizard is highly recommended on this year’s Primary Focus list.

Excellent articles about Cowley and Bishop are available on the New Zealand Book Council website.

The winners for the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards were announced at an awards ceremony on Wednesday 21 May at the Wellington Town Hall.

View the press release, the judges’ report and the 2008 winning titles.

Composing poetry [DET teachers only] can be one of the most exciting and personally rewarding forms of creative writing. By writing poems [DET teachers only], students learn how to tap into their feelings, as well as their five senses. But learning to write poetry can be a daunting task for most children as students often mistakenly equate poetry with rhyme. The studying of poetry should be one of exploration and initial poetry study should focus on meaning and playing with words. Focusing on poetry in this way allow students to express themselves and delve deeply into their own creativity.  

How to write poems by Wes Magee is a useful resource for teachers for teaching young writers to express themselves creatively and explore poetry craft elements. Designed to assist children write poems, this book contains basic tips on getting started and gives examples of types of poems and their special features. 

One common approach when challenging young people to write poetry is to focus on themes such as colours, seasons, the weather or the natural elements and introduce poetry forms as students write on these themes. The Elements in poetry series of four books comprising of Air, Earth, Fire and Water brings together a mix of poetical works related to each of the elements. The poems in these books are short and contain a variety of different forms, styles and structures.

By reading a variety of poems by a range of writers including their peers in read alouds, independent reading and group sharing, students will begin to play with poetic ideas and forms.

Students also enjoy seeing their by-line, and publishing their work brings out their best efforts. Teachers can create a class anthology that includes at least one poem by each student and is available for borrowing at the school library. Other teachers may publish poems in less traditional ways, such as on classroom bulletin boards or in common spaces around the school. There are also web sites that provide opportunities for electronic forms of publishing young poets’ works.

  Whilst recognising the value of Drama as an art form, Drama Learning Connections in Primary Schools takes an indepth look at the range of approaches to the study of Drama.

It is divided into two major sections:

• Section 1: Drama in Learning Contexts explores how Drama can be integrated in the overall curriculum and individual classroom learning programs.
• Section 2: Drama Building Blocks for Learning focuses on the creative processes of drama - key elements and drama forms.

The text is supported by: Activity boxes which provide descriptions of drama activities with notes; Concept boxes which include guidelines, procedures, diagrams or images to reinforce points in the text; From the classroom boxes which provide brief accounts of  drama use with primary school students; and Story and Script Boxes which contain summaries or partial/full text of a story or script.

The late Colin Thiele, award winning author of a number of well-known Australian classics including Sun on the Stubble and Storm Boy passed away in September 2006 at the age of 85.  Before he died he wrote Miss Bilby, which was published in December last year. 

The major theme of this new picture book is the conservation of endangered animals like the bilby. Written in rhyming verse, it tells of gentle, shy Miss Bilby facing attacks from feral animals like foxes. The descriptive langauge, beautiful full-page illustrations and strong environmental message will appeal to primary aged students.

The next Colin Thiele book, Billy Bilby’s barbecue will be released in May 2008.

For more resources on Threatened Species, visit the CMIS Threatened Species Theme page and find resource lists, local projects and websites on this topic.

A prestigious prize for illustrators, The Kate Greenaway Medal is an annual award for outstanding illustration of a book for children. 

Books are judged for their artistic style, visual experience and synergy of illustration and text.   

The medal is named after Kate Greenaway, a popular nineteenth century artist renowned for her distinctive illustrations and designs for children.

The Carnegie Medal shortlisted titles have also been announced.

2008 Kate Greenaway Medal shortlisted books 

• Anthony Browne - Silly Billy
• Polly Dunbar - Penguin
• Emily Gravett - Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears
• Emily Gravett - Monkey and Me
• Jane Ray - The Lost Happy Endings
• Chris Riddell - Ottoline and the Yellow Cat 
• Ed Vere - Banana!     

The CBCA has announced the Shortlist for the Book of the Year Awards along with the Notable Australian Children’s Books. The Winner and Honour books will be announced on Friday 15 August 2008.

Friday 15 August marks the beginning of Children’s Book Week which runs from the 15 - 22 August.

This year’s theme:  Fuel your mind

The Book Week merchandise features the imaginative artwork of Shaun Tan and one of his captivating creatures, sure to be popular with students.

For teachers, it is worth noting that some of the Picture Book of the Year titles including The Island and Requiem for a Beast are suited to older readers.

In the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books, Girl Stuff: Your Full-on guide to the Teen years and Kokoda Track: 101 days are also for secondary students.