Ginnette Cameron-Gardner – Primary Teacher/Librarian

The Primary Library has acquired many new books. 

Hero by Jennifer Li Shotz, a New York Times bestselling author, is on the shelf at JF SHO, barcode 102275.  This was recommended by another Teacher Librarian, Barbara Braxton, and is a fine addition to our collection of wonderful stories about the relationship between pets and their owners

Hero, a retired search-and-rescue dog, and twelve-year-old Ben find a stray puppy, injured and afraid. This is a compelling story about the bond between a boy and his dogs and the lessons Ben has to learn about sorting out priorities as he promises that he will keep up his schoolwork and grades if he is allowed to keep the puppy, Scout. It’s hard when you have friends and baseball also vying for your time.

When Scout goes missing, it’s up to Hero to use his search-and-rescue skills to find Scout and bring him home. The new addition, Scout, leads them into an unexpected and dangerous situation.

Ideal for the independent reader, it is not a short read as it is 224 pages but nevertheless, it would make a great read-aloud to a class or to a younger person who loves dogs as it has just the right amount of tension and a happy ending.  

Socks, Sandbags and Leeches: Letters to my Anzac Dad by Pauline Deeves is completely different. In 20 letters written to her father between 1914 and 1918, Ivy describes what life was like for people on the home-front and the attitudes of people towards Australia having become involved in the War. It is unusual in its format of a child’s chatty letters to her father serving overseas in the army, also in the perspective it shows of wartime life in Australia at that time. Usually war experiences are told from a soldier’s point of view but this format and style makes it an appealing way of describing to a child what life was like 100 years ago in wartime. This book is well referenced and also contains a glossary and many copies of posters and photographs of that time from the National Library of Australia Archives. It is located at JNF 940.3 DEE in the Primary Library.