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1 PICTURE BOOKS NO PRIMARY STANDING ORDER What a fabulous mix of picture books we have for you this month! Our featured book is the extraordinary The Duck and the Darklings by the award-winning team of Glenda Millard and Stephen Michael King. I can t even begin to say how much I admire this book (although that won t stop me from trying ). Essentially, this is a story about hope and how there is always light after the dark. Glenda s text, combined with Stephen s illustrations, has created a magical, moving and truly beautiful tale with many layers to explore. Suitable for Mid to Upper Primary. In A Feast for Wombat, poor old Wombat feels downhearted when he thinks he can t do any of the clever things his friends can do. He can t sing like Magpie, he can t dance like Dingo he might as well hide in his burrow. But, as good friends do, Magpie, Dingo and Goanna show Wombat just how special he is. Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. Max is a lovely, simple tale about friendship (and hot chips ). It s written and illustrated by Marc Martin, whose first picture book, A Forest, was the 2013 winner of the CBCA Crichton Award. Max is suitable for Lower to Mid Primary readers. The Hole is a brilliantly conceived book and students are going to love it. The main character in the book is trying to find an explanation for the hole in his apartment. But not everything can be explained! Absurd, madcap and very clever - and with a real hole throughout the book too! Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. Jam for Nana by Deborah Kelly and illustrated by Lisa Stewart is based on the author s memories of making apricot jam with her Polish grandmother. It s a sweet and gentle story with dreamlike collage illustrations, and an ideal springboard for discussions about family and traditions. Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. FEATURED BOOK: THE DUCK AND THE DARKLINGS For information about our featured book, please visit our website: COMING NEXT ISSUE In our May standing order, you will find a spectacularly beautiful picture book called The Stone Lion by Margaret Wild and Ritva Voutila (I challenge you not to cry!), an exciting new picture book First Flight is a delightful new picture book from David Miller. David usually uses 3-D paper sculpture to illustrate his books, but this time he has used a more traditional illustration style to accompany this simple and charming text. It s the story of a little yellow-bellied glider out in the world and learning to fly. Suitable for Lower Primary. There are three wonderful international picture books this month. Mrs Mo s Monster hails from New Zealand and is exuberant and so much fun. Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. The Way to the Zoo is the new picture book from clever John Burningham and I laugh every time I read it. It s about a little girl who finds a door in her wall and a passageway that leads to the zoo. Every night she brings home a different animal. Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. Mr Miniscule and the Whale is the translation of a famous Polish children s classic from This is the first time the book has been translated into English. It s the very funny and absurd tale of Mr Miniscule who goes off in search of a whale. Suitable for Lower to Mid Primary. Happy reading. from Alison Lester and Elizabeth Honey, and you ll also discover an amazing A-Z thing, crocodiles and snails and turtles SCIS Don t forget that all ASO selections have been allocated SCIS numbers. These can be found on our website:

2 THE DUCK AND THE DARKLINGS GLENDA MILLARD STEPHEN MICHAEL KING (Illustrator) A light shines in Grandpapa s eyes when he remembers how beautiful the world used to be. In the sorry land of Dark, Peterboy searches for something wonderful to keep that light in his grandfather s eyes. Instead, he finds a wounded duck. Grandpapa mends Idaduck from top to tail, and in return she keeps him company. But Idaduck knows the call of the seasons and, come winter, she must fly away. All Grandpapa s stories of the beautiful lost world do not warm her enough to make her stay. So Peterboy and all the children give her a fine farewell. In their candle-hats they sing and dance till the moon goes down. When the sun comes up, they see their once-ruined land transformed by trees and flowers. The Duck and the Darklings is a triumphant story, for children and adults, about the coming of hope in dark days, the warmth of friendship and the splendour of a new dawn. Glenda Millard says, To me the focus of the story was always on the light; the search for light, the quest for light, the understanding that light exists even if we can t always see it. Perhaps light in this story could be interchangeable with goodness or love. To learn more about Glenda s motivation behind the story, please visit our featured books section on our website: ISBN: RRP: $24.99 Writing and Illustration Style Glenda Millard s writing is poetic and beautiful. She writes with a tenderness towards her characters that allows readers into their emotional world. At the same time, she brings together a rollicking, alliterative text, with language that is energetic and innovative, featuring invented words disremembered and surprising phrases his spidering fingers crept into cracks and crevices. Stephen Michael King is equally at home with words and illustrations. The pictorial style in The Duck and the Darklings is a perfect match for a text that alternates between light and dark. King mixes simple line drawings with atmospheric silhouettes and rich, glossy swathes of black with simple, stark areas of white. Bright reds, yellows and oranges (representing the sun) make small but dramatic appearances in the early part of the story and increase in prominence as the story develops and as the kindness shown to Idaduck brings hope and light to the world. Before reading The Duck and the Darklings, ask students to consider the title and cover design. What sort of story do they expect this to be? Do they think it will be happy or sad? Who will it be about and what might they do in the story? What things on the cover make them think this? (Encourage students to look at the colours that appear on the cover, the type used for the title, including the little daisy over the letter i, and the illustration of Peterboy and Idaduck.) Look at the first double-page spread where the author writes that Peterboy s home is built with care, lit with love. What images show us care and love here? What images in your home would you draw to show care and love? Turn to the second double-page spread. How has the illustrator shown the idea of DARK? In your answer consider his use of colour (or lack of it), the size of the words, the fact that they are reversed out of black. Now look at the righthand side of the page and consider the way the illustrator shows the finding fields. How do colour, silhouettes and perspective work to show a ruined world here? Turn to the page beginning with the words, So Idaduck stayed. What in the pictures shows that Idaduck flourishes with Grandpapa s tenderness? Explain in your own words what Idaduck gives back to Grandpapa in return for his kindness. Some words in the story are made up by the author, such as disremembered and yellowly. Why do you think she has done this? Find as many made-up words as you can and describe what you think they mean. Create some of your own words. At the end of the book, the Darklings see a world that is dressed anew in flowers and forests. Look at the way the illustrator has drawn this idea and the colours used and then try your hand at imagining what the Darklings would see and draw it yourself. Remember! Think about the things they would see and the colours that might appear. What do you think happened to the world that made the Darklings have to live underground? Continue the story where it left off in the book. You might like to think about what will happen next to Idaduck or to Grandpapa and Peterboy. 2 AUSTRALIAN STANDING ORDERS PRIMARY STANDING ORDER NO

3 A FEAST FOR WOMBAT SALLY MORGAN TANIA ERZINGER (Illustrator) Wombat has been digging and hanging around in his burrow all day, but he starts to feel lonely and leaves his safe warm space to see what his friends are doing. Happy to see him, his friends try to include him in their play. Wombat admires all the clever things his friends can do. But when he realises that he will never sing like Magpie, dance like Dingo, or run like Goanna, he is sad and tries to return to his burrow. His friends, however, have a different plan. After all, they think that Wombat is special too! ISBN: RRP: $24.99 In A Feast for Wombat, all the animals are good at different things. When Wombat compliments them on how good they are at their special thing, he says they do one thing like something else, eg You run like the wind. As a class, brainstorm similes, comparing an action to something else, and make sentences such as He hops like a frog, or She climbs like a monkey. Individually, or in pairs, choose your favourite simile from the class list and draw or paint a picture to illustrate it. As a class, collect the pictures into a book, or use as a wall display. If someone was going to have a feast for you, what foods would you like to have served? Use playdough, clay or plasticine to make models of these foods. Assemble everyone s models into a Feast Sculpture display. Fingerpaint a bushland scene with Wombat in it. Use open handprints to make the leaves on the trees, and prints from the sides of your hands curled up to make Wombat s body. Experiment with fingerprints as rocks and the different textures you can get in the sky when you trail your fingers across the page through the paint. Use cotton balls as clouds and add grass clippings and leaves for bushland texture. In A Feast for Wombat, Wombat s friends make him a feast of delicious food. Look at the picture of the feast. What foods can you see there? What other foods do wombats like to eat? Wombat lives in an underground burrow. Where would the other characters in the book live? Draw a picture of Dingo, Magpie, Goanna and Wombat, showing each one in their home. In the book, Wombat keeps comparing himself to the others. He thinks that he is not as good as them, because each of them has a talent or skill that he doesn t have. As a class, discuss the fact that everyone is good at different things. Brainstorm a caption for every child, which describes one thing that they are good at. Children, classmates and teachers can all contribute suggestions. Talents can be things like sharing, trying hard, running fast or having good ideas. Individually, children illustrate their own captions. Use the illustrated captions to make a Class Book. Read the book as a class. MAX MARC MARTIN Max and Bob are old friends. Max helps out in Bob s shop, and in the evenings they go fishing together. Until one summer, when everything changes From the winner of the 2013 Crichton Award for Australia s best new illustrator comes this heart-warming story of enduring friendship. And chips. ISBN: RRP: $24.99 Have you seen seagulls at the beach? How do they behave? Could you tell Max apart from all the other seagulls? What sorts of cheeky or mischievous things do seagulls do at the beach? What is funny about the seagull sitting on top of the sign? What are Max s favourite things? Were you surprised by this? Have you ever had a seagull steal your chips? Why does Max like Bob? What might be surprising or unusual about their friendship? If Max and Bob are old friends, what does this tell you about how long Bob has had his fish and chip shop? How would you react if you saw a pet seagull in a fish and chip shop? What do Max and Bob like to do together? What do they each get from this friendship? What sort of life do you think they have? Turn to pp Why are there no people at the shops? What is happening in the background of this picture? How will this change the environment? If Bob has had his shop for a long time, how do you think he will feel about this change? Do you think it is fair that this has happened? Why is Bob so sad? What do you think might happen next? Why has Bob left? How would he feel about this? How would Max feel about this? What do you think Bob will do now? Compare the picture on pp with the one on p 1. What are the differences? How does this page make you feel? Why does Max wait so long for Bob? How do the pictures tell you that Max waits for a very long time? How do the pictures make you feel? What challenges does Max have trying to find Bob? Why would Max be prepared to fly so far? Do you think he will be able to find him? Why? What does the story suggest about big developments and shopping centres? What happens to people when new buildings are built? What does this story tell us about friendship? 3 AUSTRALIAN STANDING ORDERS PRIMARY STANDING ORDER NO

4 THE HOLE OYVIND TORSETER The protagonist of The Hole has discovered a hole in his apartment and tries to find an explanation for it. He seeks expert advice. But not everything can be explained. Perhaps he ll just have to accept that the hole is there? The Hole has simple, expressive drawings created by pen and computer. There s also a hole punched right through the book, so it really exists, even if it can t be explained. Comic yet philosophical, simple yet deeply expressive, The Hole is quite simply brilliant! ISBN: RRP: $29.95 Look at the words on the boxes. What are they and what is the context of the way they are used? One of the boxes has bananas written on it. Did he really pack a box of bananas for moving? Why is the word bananas on the box? Which illustrations are the most important in helping us understand the nature of the problem the character has with the hole? Describe the nature of the pictures and how they convey the message. Have you ever looked in a hole and wondered, how did that get there? Where does it go? What made it? Can you name some of the things that make holes? Which holes are used daily? What if there were no holes? Why do we need holes? What do you know about holes? How many different holes can you see in the classroom? Can you think of holes that are useful? (Plughole, hole in a drinking straw etc.) Holes that are not meant to be there? (Mouse hole, torn clothing etc.) Fold an A4 piece of paper into eight sections. Ask students to draw and label eight pictures that they feel sum up the story. Students can then cut out their squares and swap them to see if someone else can sequence the story correctly. Point out that the clearer the information and the more key facts and details students include, the easier it is to sequence. Imagine you are a journalist reporting on the mystery of the moving hole discovered in an inner-city apartment. Draw a table with one column labelled cause and the other effect. Fill in a few incidents from the book and ask students to fill in the blanks. For example: CAUSE EFFECT The hole was in the doorway So The character fell over He tried to catch the hole So The hole ran away and hid Testing is So The hole is filed away He was tired after a long day So He fell JAM FOR NANA DEBORAH KELLY LISA STEWART (Illustrator) When Nana makes pancakes, I spread the jam. I smooth it right to the edges with the back of my spoon, until it looks like a giant orange sun. Then we roll them up tightly, dust them with sugar and lick our fingers. In this beautifully written picture book, a little girl goes to the ends of the earth to find real apricot jam for her beloved grandmother. ISBN: RRP: $19.99 Ask students to interview one of their grandparents, an older friend or another special member of their family about their favourite things. Have students write an acrostic poem about their favourite things. For an acrostic poem lesson plan go to: acrostic-poems-about-favorite-309.html Ask students to think about one of their favourite memories of a special time they have shared with a grandparent or relative. Ask students to write a short one-page story of this time, incorporating dialogue. It is clear from the story that the little girl s grandmother grew up in another country. What are the words and the clues in the text and illustrations that tell us this? In the story, Nana refers to real jam. What does she mean by this? And how does the little girl use her imagination to give her Nana real jam? How does this story connect to your own life? What could you do for an older person in your life to bring to life one of their favourite memories from childhood? Discuss antonyms and synonyms. Ask students to write antonyms for the following words from the story: girl, real, old, far, big, little, more. How is the use of dialogue indicated throughout the text? Discuss how dialogue is used to give the story a personal and intimate tone. Ask students to think about and record a conversation they have had today. Ask students to work with a grandparent or older person in their community to create a scrapbook of their family/ community history. Have a class discussion about the value of learning from the past and particularly from older living relatives. What lessons have the children learned from their own parents and grandparents? On spreads 6-9, the little girl imagines herself travelling across the world to get to her grandmother s old country, where she will find real jam for her. What are the clues in the illustrations that tell us this journey is imagined? (Paper aeroplane, toy boat etc.) The illustrations are very sparse, with minimal details. Ask the students to list the things that are missing from the illustrations which give them a whimsical, dreamlike feel. For example, the rooms don t have walls, many illustrations are vignettes, without background details. 4 AUSTRALIAN STANDING ORDERS PRIMARY STANDING ORDER NO

5 FIRST FLIGHT DAVID MILLER Early one morning, laughing kookaburras call Joey, a little yellow-bellied glider, out from his nest. He has no idea what adventures lie ahead. He learns to fly. He meets many different bushland creatures. He protects himself and stays safe until his parents find him at the end of the day. The next day, when the kookaburras call, he sleeps soundly in his nest. ISBN: RRP: $24.99 First Flight DAVID MILLER Invite the children to read along with you, particularly with sounds that naturally invite participation: Bok-bok, bok-bok, bok-bok. Flick-flick, flick-flick. Talk with the children about the describing words that David Miller uses throughout the book, and how these extend our understanding of what the different creatures look like, how they move, or how they sound. Talk about the palette of colours that David Miller uses to make pictures of the setting sky, land, trees, fallen logs, time of day, leaves and grass. Collect natural materials in this colour palette that can be added to the pictures bark, grass, leaves, sticks, sand, stones etc. Put the drawings together as posters or friezes. Look closely at and discuss the pictures of Joey as he is falling and flying. Talk about the shape of his body in the different drawings, the curve of his back and tail, the position of his feet, the expressions on his face. Draw your own pictures of Joey falling and flying. Ask the children to tell their own stories about what is happening. Record these to go with their pictures. Have a movement group where the children can flitter, flutter, bask, fly, flick-flick, bok-bok, and scuffle-scuffle and sleep like the animals in the story. Look at the pictures of Joey hiding under the log. Talk about how the illustrations show how he feels. Create your own hiding away pictures. In small groups, dramatise the story of Joey in a play. Find out more about all of the animals in First Flight. Where do they live? What do they eat? Are they daytime or nocturnal animals? ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Miller studied art and design in Melbourne and worked as an art director before starting his own graphic design and illustration studio in a mud-brick building in the Yarra valley. He has illustrated many works, including the CBC shortlisted Snap! Went Chester by Tania Cox, Boo to a Goose by Mem Fox and Where There s Smoke by Robin Lovell. His own titles include Refugees, Big and Me and Rufus the Numbat. INTERNATIONAL TITLES If you would like to subscribe to receive the international titles we are offering each month, please contact our Customer Service team on MRS. MO S MONSTER PAUL BEAVIS One day there is a knock at the front door. Mr. Mo is gardening, so Mrs. Mo goes to see who it might be. A monster with a one-track mind is at the door. On entering the house, he meets his match in the elderly Mrs. Mo. With her help, the monster is surprised to discover he can do more than he ever thought possible but that s not the only surprise Mrs. Mo has in store! ISBN: RRP: $29.99 Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech for a word which imitates a noise or action. What are some examples of onomatopoeia from the book? Think of some more examples that could have been used to describe some other actions in the book. The book s title, Mrs. Mo s Monster, is an example of alliteration. What is the definition of alliteration? Think of ten more examples of this figure of speech, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. Throughout the book the author has used different font sizes and font types for different words. Why has he done this? What do they help tell the reader about the speech or action? Have they been used effectively? Find some examples from the book. Choose your favourite character from the book. Write a personal description about what is happening around them. Think about how they would describe the physical scene and the other characters, as well as their feelings about what is happening around them. Write a physical description of Mrs. Mo s monster as well as a list of the monster s character traits. Then imagine a monster comes to your house. Write a physical description and a list of the character traits of your monster. In pairs, read your descriptions to one another and draw each other s monsters. In pairs, make puppets of Mr. and Mrs. Mo and the monster. Act out the book for your class using your puppets. If you have access to video equipment, record your performance. In pairs, spend a minute looking at the pile of Mr. and Mrs. Mo s belongings that are found in their attic. Then close the book and recall and list as many belongings as you can. Next, pick the first object you listed as inspiration to write a poem or descriptive paragraph telling the story behind why and how the object came to be in Mr. and Mrs. Mo s attic. Without speaking, act out a character doing something from the book. See how quickly the class can guess who you are and what you are doing. For further information, and to download wallpapers, visit 5 AUSTRALIAN STANDING ORDERS PRIMARY STANDING ORDER NO

6 INTERNATIONAL TITLES If you would like to subscribe to receive the international titles we are offering each month, please contact our Customer Service team on THE WAY TO THE ZOO JOHN BURNINGHAM In her bedroom wall, Sylvie spots a door... and beyond that door she finds a passage and beyond the passage she discovers... the ZOO! Sylvie finds LOTS of animals, all looking at her! So she decides to bring a few small ones like a little bear into her bedroom at night time, just for a cuddle. And then she takes the penguins back for a splashy bath. She even brings back the monkeys but really, they are too messy. No matter what Sylvie does though, she always makes sure to close the door in her bedroom wall. Until one day, she forgets... ISBN: RRP: $24.95 What animals would you take home if you found a door to the zoo in your bedroom? Write and illustrate a short story about finding the animal and taking it back to your room. Does Sylvie s mother really think she s had the whole zoo in the sitting room? Have you ever been to the zoo? Tell the class about what you saw there. What was your favourite animal? Make a list of rules Sylvie could tell the animals before inviting them to sleep in her bedroom. Design a poster with the rules on it for Sylvie to display in her bedroom. Write and illustrate a short story about Sylvie bringing home animals that aren t featured in the book. What animals does she pick? Do they behave themselves? Sylvie needs to look after the animals while they are staying in her room. What needs do the animals have that Sylvie should be taking into account? What should she be providing for the animals to keep them healthy and happy? The animals that Sylvie brings into her bedroom all have different external features which give clues about how they move around. Draw a picture of each of the animals in the list opposite and label their external features and how they move around. For example, ducks have two legs with webbed feet for walking and swimming and two wings for flying. o Tigers o Giraffes o Penguins o Elephants o Monkeys Make a list of all the different creatures you can find in the book. Arrange the animals into groups that you think belong together (some examples of the groups could include birds, animals with four legs, dangerous animals). Compare your arrangements with the person next to you. Have they used the same categories as you? What differences are there? Together, try to work out the most logical way of grouping the animals and present this information on a poster. Choose one animal from the book and research it on the internet or in the library. Deliver a talk to the class on your chosen animal. Include information on habitat (where it is found), life cycle, behaviours, diet and threats/dangers (eg hunting, disease, destruction of habitat). MR MINISCULE AND THE WHALE JULIAN TUWIM BOHDAN BUTENKO (Illustrator) Mr Miniscule builds himself a wee boat, packs it full of all sorts of miniature treasures and sets off on the vast ocean in search of a big blue whale. Weeks and months go by. Mr Miniscule does not find a whale, but he does find a big blue island. You can imagine how terrified Mr Miniscule is when the island begins to sneeze, roar and call him all sorts of names. The little man packs his tiny boat and floats home as fast as he can. And now when people ask if he s seen a whale, Mr Miniscule is a little vague about the details. ISBN: RRP: $25.00 Illustrated by BOHDAN BUTENKO MR MINISCULE AND THE WHALE When he gets home and people ask him about his experience with the whale, all Mr Miniscule will say is that he has seen More than just its tail. Why do you think Mr Miniscule doesn t say more about what happened? How would you answer this question if you were Mr Miniscule? Situations often look different depending on who is looking at them. Imagine you are the whale in this story how would you describe what happened? This story is full of words and phrases that describe how big or how small something is. See how many size words and phrases you can find. Try to put them in order, from the ones that seem the smallest up to the ones that seem the biggest. Rhyming verses usually follow a regular pattern or rhythm, like the drum beat in a song. Can you work out the rhythm of the verses in this story? As your teacher or partner reads, mark the beat by clapping your hands or stamping your feet. Which words are emphasised (or stressed) in each verse? Mark these words and try reading a few verses out loud, stressing the marked words. See what happens if you change the rhythm of a line or a verse. The blue whale is the largest mammal in the world. See what else you can find out about blue whales. Choose another type of whale to research. Imagine you could go on a journey to see something that you have always wanted to see. Where would you go? What would you take with you? Who would you ask for advice about the journey? 6 AUSTRALIAN STANDING ORDERS PRIMARY STANDING ORDER NO