It is Library & Information Week in Australia and a highlight of
celebrations is the National Simultaneous Storytime event – get involved by
visiting your local library on Wednesday or initiating a shared reading in your
home, classroom or LIBRARY!
This Wednesday the 24th of May marks the 17th
National Simultaneous Storytime Event,
(NSS) run by ALIA (the Australian Library and Information Association).
It is such a difficult task to choose a book that has appeal
to a wide enough range of children to fit the bill for NSS, and we have seen
some excellent choices in the past with Pete the Sheep, The Wrong Book, The
Very Cranky Bear, The Brothers Quibble, Too Many Elephants in This House and I
Got This Hat, all created by talented Aussies who are well known to the CBCA.
What a great moment it must be to find out your book has
been chosen for this wonderful event!
This year that honour goes to Tony
Wilson and Laura Wood for
their witty picture book The Cow Tripped Over the Moon; a wonderful take on the
back-story of the classic nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle.
This story was of course an honour book in last year’s CBCA
Early Childhood Book of the Year Awards, and is a true celebration of
resilience and the importance of having great supporters around you to achieve
a dream.
The clever rhyming text makes Wilson’s book a fantastic
choice for a read aloud as it flows so well, builds to an exciting climax and
provides a satisfying conclusion despite the inevitability of the outcome! Wood’s illustrations are just
delightful in their comic additions to the story, providing much for the reader
to enjoy. The Illustrator, Laura Wood, has shared some double page spreads on
her website.
ALIA have put together a wonderful range of support materials to help
engage children beyond the storytelling of the book, and again the fantastic
team at Story Box Library have a
brilliant rendition read by Eddie
Perfect (Play School, Offspring).
Even if you can’t get to an NSS event
on Wednesday, I encourage you to find some time this week to read this engaging
tale aloud – even if it’s to the cat and the dog! I’m sure they will think it such sport!
Jessica Marston
(Teacher Librarian - Hagley Farm School (K-6), mum, advocate
of the power of reading aloud).
Twitter: @marston_jessica
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