When I thought of children in relation to Charli’s meltdown prompt, my first thought was of ice cream melting. Why not go literal? Children can find joy in an ice cream, especially on a hot day. They can also have a meltdown if it misbehaves and melts too soon or falls from the cone to the ground, irretrievable.
This past eighteen months of social restrictions and lockdowns have provided many opportunities to develop patience and resilience. At the same time, they have caused a multitude of frustrations and meltdowns, especially if toilet roll supplies edged dangerously low. However, it is surprising how the majority pull through the inconveniences and, perhaps less surprising, how quickly a few have gone into meltdown.
Ice Cream Meltdown
“Stop blubbering while I answer this. Hello.”
“Good morning. Sounds like someone’s not happy.”
“The ice cream’s melted.”
“An ice cream meltdown. Kids will be kids.”
“Yeah. Our fifth lockdown this year. We’re homeschooling. Again. My FIFO hub’s trapped in woop-woop. I can’t visit mum in hospital cause she’s interstate even if hub did get home. And no power now for three days. Our freezer food’s spoiled, and he’s whinging about ice cream. When will the lines be fixed?”
“Sorry. You’ve got the wrong number.” I hung up. The boss can fire me. No way she’d buy raffle tickets.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Today I am delighted to reintroduce you to Dimity Powell as she introduces us to Oswald Messweather, the star of her latest picture book. I have previously talked with Dimity about her earlier books At the End of Holyrood Lane and Pippa. She also wrote a wonderful guest post for us about the importance of libraries, Libraries: A Wondrous Universe to Explore.
About Dimity Powell
Award winning children’s author, Dimity Powell writes exclusively for children with over 30 published stories including Oswald Messweather (2021), Pippa (2019), critically acclaimed, The Fix-It Man (2017) and At The End of Holyrood Lane (2018), winner of the 2019 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award.
Dimity believes kids and great stories are life-essentials, like ice-cream. She fills her spare time reviewing the ones she loves (stories that is, not ice-cream flavours) at DIM’S re VIEWS and Kids Book Review for whom she is the Managing Editor. She is also a Books in Homes Australia Role Model, an accredited Write Like an Author facilitator and online and in-school presenter for G.A.T.E.WAYS Education.
Dimity is an experienced presenter at writing festivals, conferences and schools both in Australia and overseas who is represented by Speakers Ink and Creative Kids’ Tales Speakers Agency. She loves eating cake with ice cream, sailing on the beam and writing in her diary although combining all three at once makes her nauseous.
Dimity lives on the Gold Coast, Australia where dreams sparkle and superheros surf. Discover more at http://www.dimitypowell.com.
About Oswald Messweather
Mess and disorder upset Oswald. Even the complexity of his own name is enough to set Oswald’s legs jiggling and his palms itching with anxiety. To combat his unease, Oswald obsessively counts his take-everywhere pocket pals – his crayons. It is a compulsion he finds comforting but also extremely exhausting.
Oswald’s obsessive preoccupations distract him from everything and everyone else around him, until one day Oswald is encouraged to use his penchant for perfection and eye for detail in a class project. With the help of his crayons, Oswald’s classmates create something spectacular, which helps Oswald realise just how valuable he is in spite of his anxieties.
Oswald Messweather is not a picture book that focuses intently on the educational perspectives of children with OCD but rather more on the emotional aspects associated with this debilitating condition.
The Interview
Thank you so much for visiting us at readilearn again, Dimity. It’s a pleasure to have you here to talk about your new book. Please tell us, what gave you the idea for Oswald Messweather?
I don’t know if you ever did this when you were young, but I and my siblings and/or friends used to. We would attach meaning or significance to otherwise insignificant events or occurrences, such as seeing images in the clouds or finding a coin or ‘special’ shell or rock in the sand or on the path. Anything could intrigue and we would create stories to explain why we were the chosen ones for the particular find or revelation. I guess it was a way of giving rein to our imaginations and, perhaps, an attempt to make our ordinary lives seem extraordinary. I guess most children do this in the land of dress-ups and make-believe.
This is where Charli’s prompt took me this time. I hope you enjoy it.
The Feather
‘It’s not just a feather. It’s the feather.’
‘Which feather?’
‘The one from the beach that day.’
‘Which day?’
‘Remember when we went to the beach and there was a flock of birds that looked like they were having a conference but when they saw us they flew away and one dropped a feather that landed on top of our castle. We knew it was a sign, they were telling us something.’
‘That’s just silly childish stuff.’
‘It was a sign. The birds need our help. The bulldozers have arrived. They will destroy the habitat. We must stop them!’
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
This week, I am delighted to tell you that I have finished making and have uploaded a lesson for each letter of the alphabet ready to teach on the interactive whiteboard. I had hoped to have them finished by the end of June, but I don’t feel too bad that it took me until 4 July — not too far over my goal.
Each letter is introduced in its own lesson with its most common sound, as is the expectation of most English curricula and phonics programs. This includes 20 consonants and the short sound for each of the 5 vowels (a, e, i, o and u). The letter ‘x’ is the exception. Its most common sound is ‘ks’ as heard in ‘box’, so that is how it is introduced.
The lessons are available individually and can be used in any order.
One of the things I think we need to encourage most in our children is curiosity: I wonder — how, when, where, why, what, who, what if …
Curiosity got me into lots of strife when I was a child. Curiostiy is where Charli’s prompt lead me. I hope the story makes you as curious as are the characters in it.
Photographs tell Stories
Nothing would dampen Megan’s curiosity. The slightest hand or foothold was irresistible. If none existed, she made one.
Mary gasped. Megan was atop bucket, on stool, on chair, on table, stretching for a box on the top shelf. Mary didn’t breathe as, in slow motion, Megan swiped the box and tumbled in a mess of wood and plastic. Mary, in fast-forward, grabbed arms and legs before she hit; but the box bounced, spewing its contents across the floor.
Megan plucked out an old photograph.
“Who’s dat, Mum?”
Mary trembled. Could it be her? The one in his poem? Who?
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to the delightful new picture book Rollo’s Wet Surprise by Penny Macoun as part of a Books on Tour promotion.
About Penny Macoun
Penny Macoun was born in Sydney, Australia. She has been writing since 1993 when her story about a funnel web spider was printed in a school newsletter. Ever since, Penny has loved the ‘other worlds’ that words create, and hopes to continue to create these worlds for many years to come. Rollo’s Wet Surprise is her second book. When she is not writing or editing, Penny dabbles in various forms of visual arts and enjoys being in the garden.
About Rollo’s Wet Surprise
Rollo is a dog who loves to go to work with his owner, Jim. Jim is a builder, and when he is working, Rollo loves to explore all the different homes Jim and his team of builders work at.
One day, the builders are moving lots of big, heavy windows to a safe area. Rollo begins to explore this new part of the garden, and sniffs around.
While Rollo is exploring, he gets a very wet surprise!
I quite liked the idea of a library cat named Rainbow. I believe in the importance of access to libraries for everyone — be it a school, local or national library. A rainbow library cat gives the feeling of a place that is warm, welcoming, comfortable and magical.
I support the organisation Students Need School Libraries and am perplexed and dismayed by the current trend to close school libraries. I don’t understand how we can develop lifelong learners if they don’t have access to the tools to help them research what they want to know as well as books to read for enjoyment. Research tools include books as well as digital resources.
I also support the wonderful organisation Library For All, an Australian not for profit organisation with a mission to “make knowledge accessible to all, equally” through a digital library of books that is available free to anyone anywhere in the world. The focus is on providing high quality, engaging, age appropriate and culturally relevant books to children in developing countries and remote areas. I am delighted to have donated more than ten books to the collection, two of which are already published. While the digital books are available free, print copies can be purchased from Amazon.
I thought that, if you haven’t already or may have forgotten, you may like to read my original two stories in response to Charli’s previous prompts. To save you going back to read them, which you are welcome to do of course, I include them here for your convenience. Click on the title to read the post.
Rainbow Cat clawed through the rubble. One by one she pulled out the survivors — Little Red Riding Hood, Little Miss Muffet, The Gingerbread Man; even Wolf who promised to behave.
“Where are we going?” squealed the Three Little Pigs as they piled onto the bus.
“Where children will love us, like before.”
For many, this was their first time beyond the covers of a book. As the bus roared down the open road, they peered through the windscreen and out the windows, dreaming up new adventures yet untold.
Spontaneously, they burst into a chorus of On the Road Again.
…
After writing the first Rainbow Cat episode, I developed it into a picture book manuscript. It has undergone a few revisions and suffered a few assessments, but so far no luck with publication. It needs more work still. One day …
This time, I thought I’d go in a slightly different direction with a new cat named Rainbow and an outdoor adventure unrelated to the others. I hope you like it.
Rainbow Cat’s Outdoor Adventure
Right on cue, the tabby sprang into the yard as the children tumbled out, scattering to various activities. Some stopped for cuddles before choosing. One picked it up, determined it would be his for the day. Preferring to be master of its own decisions, with a wriggle and a scratch, the cat leapt from arms into pots of liquid colour. The fingerpainters squealed as they became the canvas for the unintentional artist. Rainbow hands grabbed the cat scratch-scrambling on masterpieces spread to dry. The cat hissed and bounced away to safety as the children chanted, “Rainbow cat! Rainbow cat!”.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Earlier this month on 8 June, we celebrated World Oceans Day, so I was delighted to be invited to participate in the Books on Tour promotion of the new book Ocean Devotion written by Elizabeth Mary Cummings and illustrated by Melissa Salvarani.
World Oceans Day is a day for celebrating, protecting and conserving the world’s oceans. ‘The purpose of the Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilize and unite the world’s population on a project for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans.’
The theme for 2021 is ‘One Ocean, One Climate, One Future — Together’
The book Ocean Devotion helps to spread that message in an empowering story which urges us to take action to care for the ocean and life in and beneath its waves.
The message begins with the dedications:
“Our oceans are precious. Let us join together to build a cleaner, greener future for all. With love and thanks to you Dad for your example.” E.C.
“In a few years we have created a sixth continent made of plastic, a practically indestructible material. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are the three magic words that can change the world.” M.S.
I am delighted to find that my two little books from the Library For All collection are featured in Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Children’s Reading Room.
Library For All is an Australian not for profit organisation with a mission to “make knowledge accessible to all, equally” through a digital library of books that is available free to anyone anywhere in the world.
Sally is a wonderful supporter of readers and writers everywhere and I am very appreciative of the support she offers me and am grateful to her for sharing news of these books and of Library for All.
Please pop over to Sally’s to read her post. While you are there, if you haven’t already, take some time to explore the richness of what Sally has to offer on her site.
This is a special month for me. It is my birthday month. It is also the birthday month of one of children’s literature’s favourite authors and illustrators, Eric Carle. I had already planned to write a post about Eric Carle’s books during this month of his birth. It seems even more important now since he passed away in May, just a month before his 92nd birthday on 25 June — such a loss to the kidlit community, but what a legacy he has left.
Eric Carle was a prolific author and illustrator of children’s picture books. He wrote and illustrated more than 70 books. I’m sure everyone knows at least one, and probably several, of Carle’s books. There are possibly several of his books on the shelves of every early childhood and lower primary classroom. Everyone will have their favourites, but I think possibly the best known and the one that comes to mind first for many people is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In this post, I list ten of my favourite Eric Carle books and suggest at least one teaching idea for each.
Norah Colvin 