Ginnette Cameron-Gardner | Primary Teacher/Librarian

There are so few days to go until 29 August 2019 for students to complete this year’s NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. The students in this school are such enthusiastic readers, so many students have only one or two more books to enter and they too will have completed it.

Congratulations to the most recent completers of the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge:

Year 5: Ezra Glover-Sanders, Hannah Greengarten, Noa Rosenzveig and Benjamin Vernik

Year 7: Willow Gelin

One of my favourite authors is Sir Michael Morpurgo. He is the author of many well-known works including War Horse with its sequel Farm Boy, and Kensuke’s Kingdom. Many of the Primary students have read one or both of these. Many of his works are suspenseful and often include tragic elements.

The Butterfly Lion is the winner of the Smarties Prize and Writers Guild award.

As Millie, an elderly widow, retells the story of her husband Bertie’s relationship with a rare white lion, the reader experiences many moods, from the sadness of loss and then through the happiness of triumph and finally there is a bit of a twist at the end. There is a great deal of detail which helps to draw the reader into the story.

A boy called Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub from the African Veldt. They are inseparable until Bertie is sent to boarding school far away in England and the lion is sold to a circus. Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but the butterfly lion never forgets their friendship. They reunite years later in war-torn Europe, as grown man and adult lion. Read the story and find out what happens next.

Sir Michel Morpurgo has written two books that include Whales. We hold both, This morning I met a whale and Why the whales came.

This morning I met a whale This is another lovely story by Michael Morpurgo, beautifully illustrated by Christian Birmingham. This is the story of one boy’s special relationship with the whale that swam up the Thames and provides a powerful plea to save the environment.

A fictional account of the day a whale swam up the Thames, in which the whale makes an environmental plea to young Michael, the boy who first sees him. Living in Battersea, London, Michael often goes early morning bird watching down by the River Thames. At sunrise, Michael spots a whale on the shores of the Thames and thinks he must be dreaming, but the whale is real – and it needs Michael’s help. Boy and whale share a moment of intense communication. The whale shows Michael scenes of the damage that humans are doing to the environment and makes Michael promise to spread the message that the damage has to stop.

At school that day he writes about this meeting …

Why the whales came.  This book is best suited to Upper Primary students. The scary tales told about the Birdman make the two young children, Gracie Jenkins and Daniel Pender nervous of Zachariah Woodcock, also known as the Birdman. But, they make toy sail boats and want to sail them in a cove near the Birdman’s cottage. They learn that he is really just a deaf old man that lives with his dog Prince in a cottage away from all the island people. He is a wonderful wood worker who makes bird sculptures. The whales in the novel are narwhals, a type of whale with a long, spiralling horn on the front of its head. The children have an exciting adventure.

An intriguing tale is An Eagle in the Snow illustrated by Michael Foreman. Winner of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups Children’s Book Award 2017.

A book that is action-packed and filled with tension. Barney is on a train with his mother when a siren sounds and the journey grinds to a halt. Sitting in the darkness, a stranger in their cabin offers to tell the true story of a highly decorated World War I soldier, who had a chance to kill a young Adolf Hitler – but let him go.

Barney is held rapt by the man’s story of his old friend’s life, but how does the stranger know so many personal details? And why does he feel compelled to share this story now?

This short but immersive novel has some classic illustrations from Michael Foreman, which could encourage some reluctant readers to read the story. The text is short and easy to read but no less descriptive or spellbinding for it.  A thought-provoking story that young history enthusiasts especially will welcome.(www.booktrust.org.uk/book/a/an-eagle-in-the-snow/)

The Primary Library holds fifty eight of Sir Michael Morpurgo’s books, such a wealth of exciting well written literature, which is why so many awards have been won by these stories. Please come and browse the collection, there is sure to be something there that will appeal to even the most reluctant reader.