Please, say thank you!

In the last week between 200-300 have visited  this blog each day, most of them accessing the resources I have shared for Book Week.

None of them have bothered to say thank you.

It’s a bit disheartening.

Winners of the CBCA awards for 2011 announced

The winners of the CBCA Book of the Year have been announced, and worthy as they are, I wouldn’t have picked any of them!

For Picture Book of the Year I prefer My Uncle’s Donkey with Family Forest coming very close behind. I’ve read these to all classes, Prep to Year 6 and had some of the best discussions of my career about these two books and their cunning illustrations.  I loved Bronwyn Bancroft’s Why I Love Australia too, although some of her poetic language was above the heads of the little ones.  Still, they made sunshine wheels about why they loved Australia, producing simple but sweet ideas about love of country, while my older students (many of whom come from refugee families) shared robust discussions about freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and the luxury of living in peace and plenty.

For the Early Childhood Book of the Year I prefer It’s Bedtime, William! Its whimsy works well with all ages too.

It’s a close run between Henry Hoey Hobson and Just a Dog, both of which would make terrific reading with senior classes while IMO the judges’ choice would probably have boys sabotaging the reading with restless squirming.  Boys being difficult when they’re not interested in a book isn’t a criteria that should over-ride merit, but I found the narrative voices in Henry Hoey and in Just a Dog much more compelling – and much more interesting.  I’m not much of  a fan of fantasy, I admit.

Ah well, to each his own, I suppose.

To see the winners, click this link: Winners of the CBCA awards for 2011 announced · Readings.com.au.

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Free Tools for Creating Book Trailer Videos

Thanks to Sue Tapp for sharing this link on Facebook:)

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Free Tools for Creating Book Trailer Videos.

2011 CBCA Shortlist Books – reviews

Lately, I’ve been putting my reviews on GoodReads, because it helps to promote Australian children’s literature to an international audience.

These are my reviews of the 2011 CBCA Shortlisted chapter books.  Click here to see which categories they’re in.

Click the links to see the reviews; click the book cover image or the title to buy the book from Fishpond.

Author: Christine Bongers
Title: Henry Hoey Hobson
Publisher: Woolshed Press, Random House 2010
ISBN: 9781864719956
My review at GoodReads is here.
This is one of my picks for the Book of the Year Award.

Author: Isabelle Carmody
Title: The Red Wind (Kingdom of the Lost)
Publisher: Viking Australia
ISBN: 9780670074037

My review at GoodReads is here.
Author: Michael Gerard Bauer
Title: Just a Dog
Publisher: Omnibus 2010
ISBN: 9781862918870

My review at GoodReads is here
I loved this book and I think it would be a winner (and not just because I’m soppy about dogs).
Author: Anna Branford
Illustrator: Sarah Davis
Title: Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot
Publisher: Walker Books, 2010
ISBN: 9781921529177

My review at GoodReads is here.  I picked this as a winner too.

Author: Sally Murphy
Illustrator: Rian Nest James
Title: Toppling
Publisher: Walker Books 2010
ISBN: 9781921529429
My review at GoodReads is here.

Author: Ursula Dubosarsky
Title: The Deep End (Aussie Nibbles)
Publisher: Puffin 2010
ISBN: 9780143305279

My review at GoodReads is here.

BTW You will notice as you read through the reviews that I’ve tagged more than one of them as ‘my pick for the winner’.  Truth is, I really can’t decide, they’re all so good!