Books 1 & 2 Kate, the Cat and the Moon and Sidney the Little Blue Elephant

Kate, the Cat and the Moon
is a picture book written by David Almond and is illustrated by Stephen Lambert.  This tells the story of a girl named Kate and her adventures as she turns into a cat. The picture book allows the reader to experience and explore Kate's imagination as she changes into a cat and roams the countryside, free to do whatever she wishes and to go wherever she wishes.  Kate firstly explores her own home and visits all her family members as they sleep, she then proceeds to explore the vast countryside where she meets a fellow cat and explores the surrounding hills.  Kate later returns home and transforms back into her orginal self and goes to sleep.  In the morning Kate is excited to share her adventures with all her family.  This is a very unique and magical picture book.



Sidney the Little Blue Elephant is written and illustrated by Sharon Rentta. 
This picture book introduces the reader to Sidney, a shy elephant and his friends Betty the mouse, Rufus the dog, Neville the frog, Gloria the cockatoo and Oscar the sausage dog.  All of Sidney's friends are significantly smaller than him, this is never an issue until one day Sidney and his friends go to the park as they all want to ride bikes, but Sidney is not too sure.  Sidney insists that all his friends start riding and he will catch up because Sidney has a secret, he cant ride.  As Sidney's friend's ride off to race as Sidney starts to practice how to ride his bike.
   
As Sidney's friends reach their destination they realise Sidney is no where in sight so they decide to look everywhere for him.  They eventually find Sidney has crashed into a small pond.  Sidney has to suck up his pride and explain to his friends that he in fact does not know how to ride a bike.  Sidney's friends help him out of the pond and help Sidney learn how to ride his bike and all race to the the ice-cream van together.  I was attracted to this book as it was a very well illustrated and appealing picture book. 
   

Petrina's Personal Reading Program Week 2

This week I have continued the theme of exposing children to complex themes on the journey towards understanding ‘big ideas and complex thoughts’ (Text, pp. 489 & 494). 

David Miller’s book, Refugees, may be viewed on multiple levels.  The first is concerning the destruction of habitat and the consequences for the animals therein.  The second views the story as a metaphor for refugees, and the dangers faced in their attempts to seek safety in a new land. I particularly like the paper-sculpture that is used to illustrate the story, in addition to the way the images pre-empt the text (e.g. surveyor’s equipment in the image when the idyllic environment is being described in the exposition, and the numberplate ‘RESCUE 1’ on the truck that carried them away in the climax to the story).

John Heffernan and Andrew McLean’s My Dog uses first-person narrative to emotively tell Alija’s story:  That of a young displaced boy in Eastern Europe, with powerful themes of ‘home’, ‘belonging’, ‘injustice’, ‘war’ and ‘hope’.  The watercolour illustrations add richness to the storyline, especially through the depiction of pain and suffering … hopelessness and hope.

Post Script:

Other life-enriching picture-books I’ve read connected to this theme include:

Liz Lofthouse, Ziba Came on a Boat

Mary Hoffman, The Colour of Home

John Marsden and Matt Ottley, Home and Away

Aliki Brandenberg, Painted Words and Spoken Memories

'The Rabbits' & 'One Grain of Rice'

'The Rabbits' by John Marsden (illustrated by Shaun Tan)


I found this book to be very confrontational both within the text and the images, but it has really stuck with me. There were some big themes such as invasion, war, industrialisation, exhaustion of natural resources and even the stolen generation, which made me enjoy the book more than I thought I would. Definately one of the best picture books I have ever read.




'One Grain of Rice' by Demi

I actually chose this book because I am using it as a teaching resource for a maths lesson on growing patterns. Not only is it a beautiful story about a poor village girl and an Indian raja, it also introduces the reader to a very simple, yet affective mathematical growing pattern. The ultimate message is really about greed and sharing and the pictures are beautiful and bright. Overall, a lovely book, with a great message and a maths lesson thrown in for good measure!

About Me (Alicia)

My name is Alicia Bennett (this is also a first time to blog).  I was born and raised in the USA.  I lived in upstate NY approx 1.5 hours from NYC in a small town that is now referred to as the northern suburbs as the city continues to sprawl outwards. 

I have a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a focus on 'Time Based Media'.  I have a solid background in graphic design and worked in that field on and off for 10 years as it's hard to find work in that field.  I had to find other ways to supplement my income so I worked as a substitute teacher in my home school district for a couple years during the day and in an acquired brain injury facility for almost 4 years at night.  Needless to say I was exhausted and decided to travel....hence, bringing me to Australia over 9 years ago the first time.  I met and married my Australian husband and have since started a family last year.  I enrolled in the LMPM course as I was bored in my current career and wanted to get a 'real' job.  I have always loved school and learning...I really don't know any different and can't imagine not being at a school. 

At the present time we are planning to live here for the short term...but are flexible as to where we actually put down roots.  I would love to move back 'home' within 5-10 years but really have to go where the jobs are. 

You can also find out more about me and see what I do at www.aliciabennett.com .

So that's me in a nutshell!

A bit about me ( Maddy)

I am also new to the blogging experience, I am a novice in the computer age that seems to encapsulate my generation but I sometimes like to think that I am more capable than what I am. 

My name is Madelyn Deegan, but prefer to be called Maddy. I am currently enrolled in LBPM, Bachelor of Education Primary and Middle Teaching and have currently completed two and a half years of my course. My uni life has been filled with ups and downs enrolments and deferrals which in hindsight is frustrating but at the time seemed like the right option. I have delved into Human Movement, Psychology, Tourism and Event Management and have appeared to finally have found my niche' in LBPM.. 

I have a major interest in Aboriginal Culture and would love to teach on the lands once I have completed my degree. Every year i participate in a Trek run by Mercedes College which takes year 10 students from four schools up to Mimili Community at the top of South Australia where we have the opportunity to learn and interact with the Mimili students and teachers to bridge the gap and create life long connections. 

I love playing netball, tuesday night movies and have a mild addiction to cheese and thats a bit about me.

All about me (Alex)

To start, I just wanted to mention that this is my first blog experience (as I am pretty sure is the case with my other 3 reading group/blog members). My name is Alexandra (Alex) Lawless and I am 25 years old. I am currently studying a Masters of Primary and Middle School teaching, with my two main learning areas being Outdoor Education and SOSE (now known as History and Geography thanks to ACARA). Previous to this, I studied a bachelor of Sport and Recreation Management straight after high school, which I completed in 2007, and then decided to head into the 'real world' to work full time. After 4 years of experiencing what 'real life' had to offer, I decided that teaching is what I really wanted to do, so here I am!

English, to me, is not just an independant subject at school where students learn about grammer, study books and authors and write essays. Literacy is a life skill useful in most, if not all aspects of daily life and reading can be used to relax, to go on an adventure, to get away without actually going anywhere...I'm not saying that correct grammer or author, book and film studies aren't important, they are. But children and adoescents need to get excited about what literature has to offer and hopefully, as an up and coming teacher, I can make this happen!

Personal Reading Program 1

The two books I have focussed on this week are:

Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas, Jenny Angel , and

Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake,  Michael Rosen’s Sad Book.

This week’s textbook reading discussed the need to expose children to complex themes on the journey towards understanding ‘big ideas and complex thoughts’ in an ‘intellectually honest form’ (pp. 489 & 494).  Both of these picture books deal with the death of a family member (drawing on each author’s own experiences) and the emotions and behaviours that may accompany such life experiences.  These are sensitive accounts that I found evoked powerful emotions and could justifiably be described as enriching the life of the reader.

In Jenny Angel Wild conveys hope, courage, denial and ultimate acceptance as a young girl seeks to protect her brother during the course of his terminal illness.  Mention of every-day activities such as doing the dishes, an English test, playing netball and swapping sandwiches at lunchtime would help children identify with Jenny and empathise with her experiences. The story-line is reinforced by the gentle watercolour illustrations by Spudvilas.  I especially appreciate the way she has tenderly portrayed the relationship between the children as well as that of Jenny and her mother in the final image (the shooting star adds to the poignancy of the captured moment). It is neither a simplistic nor superficial treatment of the subject. Two of Wild’s other picture books, Old Pig and The Very Best of Friends are also powerful representations of similar themes.

Rosen’s account is an honest and at times humorous account of his grief at the loss of his son, Eddie.  He makes strong links between emotions and behaviour and the complexities therein.  This is exemplified by the juxtaposition between an illustration of the author grinning and the opening line:  ‘This is me being sad’.  He writes in a matter-of-fact way about the ways that he tries to mask his sadness to make it more ‘acceptable’ to others, and reflects on some of the ways he tries to cope with his deep sadness.  It offers children (and adults) a rare and insightful window into grief – a subject that is so often treated as taboo in our society.  The illustrations by Blake could almost be a stand-alone telling of Rosen’s story:  The blank space after a series of illustrations portraying Eddie’s growing-up; the series of images in which the sunlight disappears to shadow; greys in the darkest times and colour for the happy memories … and the single candle in the concluding image.