Early Childhood
A House of Her Own by Jenny Hughes Ill. Bentley, Jonathan
Synopsis Audrey is bigger than she was yesterday. Now she needs a bigger house. So she tells her dad to build her one. At the top of a tree. It is and ideal house. It has a bathtub for snorkelling, a place to drink tea and somewhere to hide the dirty cups. The house is perfect in every way. Except for one thing... Thursday Talk & Tea With Jonathan Bentley written interview with the author. Discussion points and activities by Lamont Books Colour a house online |
Go to Sleep, Jessie! by Libby Gleeson Ill. Blackwood, Freya
Blurb If only Jessie would LIE DOWN. Winner If only she would go to SLEEP. But NOTHING will settle her... EXCEPT maybe a little SISTERLY know-how. Teacher’s Notes are available on the Hardie Grant website. reviewed by Romi Sharp Libby Gleeson website Baby Jake's games and activities Freya Blackwood website Online bedtime stories Teaching Notes Colour online a bedtime picture Daddy with baby dot to dot |
Noni the Pony goes to the Beach by Alison Lester
Honour Book Blurb Would you like to meet Noni? She's the friendliest pony. Alison Lester Scholastic Teaching notes Lamont Teaching Notes Colour a beach scene online Mrs' B's beach vocabulary Swim and survive water safety games Watch Noni the Pony's first story before she went to the beach with Dave the dog. |
Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey
Synopsis Pig is a Pug, which you might’ve picked up from the title, who will not play with the other dog in the household. Trevor is an earnest and friendly dachshund who wants to spend time with Pig and play with his toys together. Pig is not having any of it though and makes his thoughts on sharing very clear, very quickly. All does not end well for Pig though, but I’m not certain he has learnt his lesson. review by David Murphy, Reading Time. Aaron Blabey's Website Download and make a pug dog Scholastic Teaching Notes Print and colour a Pug or a dachshund Lamont Teaching Notes Print then connect the dots to create a pug Looking after your dog Sharing (division using objects) Sharing (Tes iBoard) Aaron Blabey introduces Pig the Pug in this video |
Scary Night by Lesley Gibbes Ill. King, Stephen Michael Honour Book
Blurb Once upon a scary night, three friends set out on a journey. But where were they going in the dead of night, tip-toe creeping in the pale moonlight? reviewed by Kevin Brophy Reading Time. |
Snail and Turtle are Friends by Stephen Michael King
Synopsis It is a day in the life of the two friends where we can see that although they are friends, they like different things and they do the same thing differently. reviewed by Julie Long Reading Time Stephen Michael King website Scholastic Teaching notes Turtle online colouring page Snail online colouring page Turtle facts Snail facts |
Picture Book of the Year
Fire by Bruce Whatley Text Jackie French
Blurb One small spark brought fire awake Winding like a small black snake. Fire flickered, fire crept Flames snickered, bushfire lept. Jackie French Fire environment (flash) game Bruce Whatley Save the building (flash) game Teaching Notes Dressed for safety (flash) game Lamont Teaching Notes |
My two Blankets by Freya Blackwood Text Irena Kobald Winner
Blurb Cartwheel has moved to a place that is so strange to her, she no longer feels like herself. This is a story about new ways of speaking, new ways of living, new ways of being. Freya Blackwood website Teaching Notes Lamont Teaching Notes Try matching some foreign words to English Digital Dialect learning foreign languages |
One Minute's Silence by Michael Camilleri Text. David Metzenthen
Honour Book In one minute of silence you can imagine sprinting up the beach in Gallipoli in 1915 with the fierce fighting Diggers, but can you imagine standing beside the brave battling Turks as they defended their homeland from the cliffs above... In the silence that follows a war long gone, you can see what the soldiers saw, you can feel what the soldiers felt. And if you try, you might be able to imagine the enemy, and see that he is not so different from you...In One Minute's Silence, you are the story, and the story is yours - to imagine, remember and honour the brothers in arms on both sides of the conflict, heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives. A moving and powerful reflection on the meaning of Remembrance Day. 12 Curly Questions with author David Metzenthen Michael Camilleri illustrator Teaching Notes Interview - author Interview - illustrator Lamont Teaching Notes Learn about army gear Discover six significant Australian WWI soldiers Find military words |
Rivertime by Trace Balla
Blurb A tender tale of a boy and his bird-watching uncle, on a paddling trip on Australia's Glenelg River. A story about slowing down, growing up, and connecting with the land and its creatures. Trace Balla Allen & Unwin Teaching Notes Scholastic Teaching Notes Learn about cleaning up rivers with this game Download a free pocket-sized bird-watching guide |
The Duck and the Darklings by Stephen Michael King Text Glenda Millard
The Darklings live in a spoiled world. Only Grandpapa remembers when the world was full of light and hope. Peterboy glimpses the power of memory and goes out in search of something to recover that light for Grandpapa. Instead he finds a wounded duck, which potentially represents a drain on the family’s already stretched resources, but instead what she does is bring more love and hope into their home. Glenda Millard website Learn about colours Stephen Michael King website Teaching Notes Lamont Teaching Notes |
The Stone Lion by Ritva Voutila Text Margaret Wild Honour Book
Blurb Sometimes statues are granted a chance to become warm, breathing creatures. The stone lion has only one dream - to run, pounce and leap in the park across from where he sits. But one snowy night, when a baby is abandoned at his paws, he compelled to think differently. Margaret Wild Cloze passage Margaret Wild - Author Interview Check out the most famous Interview: Margaret Wild statues in the world Rita Voutila and then test your knowledge with Mrs B's quiz Teaching Notes Lamont Teaching Notes |
Younger Readers
Bleakboy and Hunter Stand out in the Rain by Steven Herrick
Eleven year old Jesse James Jones negotiates family and school life within the overtly ‘inclusive’ environment of Kawawill school. The voices of each chapter alternate between Jesse and his nemesis Hunter, the ‘class anarchist, law breaker and boy most likely to set the record for continuous detentions’. We shiver with recognition at the anxiety of turning up to school anticipating Hunter’s unwanted attention, and note the irony of the exasperating but well meaning teacher message of the day ‘kind words are easy to speak’. Jesse is easy to love. So too his family. However our growing warmth for school bully Hunter catches us more unawares. It is a tribute to Herrick’s skill that we begin to understand Hunter’s motives and develop empathy for him as well. Jesse has deep and meaningful conversations with ‘Trevor’ the Christ figure in the poster on his bedroom wall but in the end saviour comes in the form of friendship and a growing relationship with the smart and perceptive Kate. Together they make a fair fist of solving the problems of the world or at least make a start with garnering support to protest against whaling. At the same time we have a sense that there is potential for all to end well with Hunter too. reviewed by Christine Oughtred Reading Time Steven Herrick Teaching Notes Interview Mrs B's crossword Mrs B's cloze passage About saving whales |
Figgy in the World by Tamsin Janu
Blurb Figgy has two problems. One is her name. Nobody in the whole country as that name. the other is that her Grandma Ama is ill and needs special medicine. Figgy can'y do much about her name, but she can do something for Gramdma Ama. She will go to America and bring back the medicine, and Kwame, her special goat, will go with her. Tamsin Janu Teaching Notes |
The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present by Libby Gleeson Ill. Freya Blackwood Winner
Blurb Cleo desperately wants a necklace. Her parents say special presents are only for birthdays...but Cleo doesn't want to wait. In the second story, it's her mum's birthday and Cleo doesn't know what to give her - until she has the best idea of all. Libby Gleeson website Freya Blackwood website |
The Simple Things by Bill Condon Ill. Beth Norling
Blurb Stephen has never met his great aunt Lola, and he doesn't want to. She sends him money twice a year and he always writes back, but Lola is almost eighty - what will they have to talk about. When Stephen's family arrives at her house, he discovers she's not only really, really old but also grumpy and scary. He wants to turn around and go home, but his mum says they have to stay until Lola's birthday - three weeks away. With help from Lola's neighbour, Norm, and his granddaughter, Allie, Stephen learns about the simple things in like - like fishing and cricket and climbing trees. But then there is an emergency and a secret is revealed, and Stephen begins to wonder whether Lola has become more than just his aunt - could she be a friend? ReadingTime Bill Condon Teaching Notes Interview with Bill Condon |
Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks Honour Book
Ben is moved out of his comfortable life playing computer games in his room into an adventure not of his own making. His parents, Mum, who appears as if she cares about her kids, and Dad, who doesn’t, urge the kids into the car for a spontaneous holiday. Never having experienced a holiday before, Ben isn’t sure what to expect but the events that unroll around him seem stranger than anything he could have imagined. When they finally make their destination, the old cabin full of cobwebs in the wilderness is far from a holiday house. Ben discovers the horde of money that his father has hidden and faces the awful truth that his parents have committed a terrible crime. When the police come, Ben and Olivia escape into the wilderness, surviving with what little skills they have gleaned from reading books. They make it to their grandmother’s but the real battle for Ben is not over. He has to show his father that he isn’t scared of him anymore and that, with courage, he is able to choose what sort of life he wants to lead. reviewed by Pam Harvey Reading Time Tristan Bancks Teaching Notes Complete a cloze passage Solve some detective mysteries online Learn about policing |
Withering-by-Sea: a Stella Montgomery Intrigue by Judith Rossell Honour Book
High on a cliff above the gloomy coastal town of Withering-by-Sea stands the Hotel Majestic. Inside the walls of the damp, dull hotel, eleven-year-old orphan Stella Montgomery leads a miserable life with her three dreadful Aunts. But one night, Stella sees something she shouldn’t have… something that will set in motion an adventure more terrifying and more wonderful than she could ever have hoped for. From hugely talented Australian writer-illustrator Judith Rossell comes a thrilling and gripping Victorian fantasy adventure, the first in an extraordinarily exciting new series. “The little bottle was corked and sealed with red wax. It was heavier than it looked and as smooth as glass. … (Stella) shook it and heard a whispering noise, as if something were slithering over shingle. … A sinuous shape seemed to move inside the bottle … It was beautiful but it made her skin prickle.” Judith Rossell Harper Collins Teaching Notes A chat with illustrator, writer and presenter Judith Rossell |
Information Books
A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land by Simon Barnard
Simon Barnard Winner Teaching Notes Info/ABC Interview Tasmanian Convict list Search for a Convict |
Audacity: Stories of Heroic Australians in Wartime by Carlie Walker
Ill. Brett Hatherly Honour Book Audacity pdf book |
Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia; Demet Divaroren and Amra Pajalic, (editors)
Demet Divaroren Amra Pajalic Teaching Notes |
Tea and Sugar Christmas by Jane Jolly Ill. Robert Ingpen
Jane Jolly Honour Book Teaching Notes Video History Teaching Notes Video On the Rails website NLA Blog Activity TimeAuthors and illustrators make websites to connect to their audience - you. They want to tell you about the books they have written or illustrated and about themselves. Some of them make and look after their websites while others have their business managers or publishers make their presence on the internet.
You are to investigate three websites about the author(s) or illustrators on the Bookweek 2015 website ( this page). Download the worksheet to gather information because you will decide which website you prefer and write why it is your preference (briefly). Year Two
Stage Two
Stage Three
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