Reading and Music musings 1: a critique of the Early Childhood CBCA short list books
Hello and very best wishes to all you wonderful Early Reading and Music subscribers!
I hope you are well and you are doing amazing things in your work and life! It is freezing where I live (Hunter Valley, NSW Australia). I noticed happily we have some Northern Hemisphere subscribers so I’m pleased you’re in a better place, weather-wise. It’s been a while- as well as casual work at university, marking Preservice teachers’ English essays and supporting students on placement in schools; I have been creating an online course for educators on the early reading and music partnership- out soon. It comprises 3 one- hour sessions and will be accessible from my website.
This blogpost will address new children’s literature I have perused (CBCA Early Childhood Shortlist Books) Following, will be the Picture Book of the Year category. I provide related English and Music activities for classroom use. I hope you enjoy sharing these wonderful texts with your students!
Best wishes
Lorri Bev
Rubric used for assessing children’s picture books
Early Childhood Short-list Books
1. Devezy, Y., Alice, K. & Bennett, Z. (2024). Don’t worry, Felix. New Frontier Publishing.
Don’t Worry Felix , was written by Yohann Devezy and Katherine Alice, and illustrated by Zoe Bennett. The story is about a boy starting school. He is feeling worried and his nervousness manifests into an imaginary big red balloon. The balloon grows as Felix’s insecurities become greater, inviting a conversation about how feeling are very real and can stop us from achieving what we want to do. The balloon becomes so big, it prevents him from doing things like alighting from the car on arrival at school and joining into class discussions. Felix’s clever dad notices and teaches him a strategy (a finger play activity all students can learn) to control his nerves. As Felix learns to be calmer, focusing on the activity his dad taught him and deep breathing; the balloon gets smaller, enabling him to join and with school activities and enjoy school. The story ends with Felix teaching an anxious friend his dad’s special trick and their anxiety balloon also floats slowly away.
This book deals with the important theme of student wellbeing- ensuring students feel happy, safe and accepted at school, and provides a plethora of opportunities to discuss feelings. Activities like How do you feel today? and That’s what I like during morning circle, encourage students to discuss their feelings and concerns, so the teacher is aware and can assist them, along with the rest of the class. In the oral language game, ‘That’s what I like’, students share what they like around the circle and take turns trying to remember what each class member likes. Encourage children to help each other to remember. This is always good fun, great background knowledge for the teacher and useful for oral language/ verbal memory skills development.
Rubric: C=3, T=3, G=2, L=3, P=3, I=3 Total=17
Before reading: Talk about cover. Predict what the book may be about. Discuss with students the audience and purpose of the text. (audience young children, purpose to discuss our feelings with others so we feel better). Play the musical games, ‘How do you feel today?’ and ‘That’s what I like’. Talk about what worries you at school and how we can help each other to feel happier. Take a picture walk through the text together. Complete an artwork titled ‘What makes me happy’ and students orally share with class what they have drawn.
During reading: Read text to students with prosody. Discuss each double- page spread. Encourage students to reflect on illustrations to facilitate discussion through key questioning. E.g. What are lucky socks and why does Felix want to wear them? How does Felix’s body tell him he is feeling weird? Do you ever feel this way? Is the balloon real? What does it mean/ represent? Notice the illustrations throughout and encourage students to comment on them, focusing on making meaning. Try dad’s special trick in the story. Discuss whether students’ think it is useful. How did Felix know his classmate was nervous in the story?
After reading: Visual grammar is a strength in this text. Story paths direct the reader through the text, with text matching illustrations in a creative, yet easy to follow way. Salience is evidenced in the use of red to draw the eye to the balloon as we move through the text. Use story paths to revise narrative structure. Draw circles to show what happens in the beginning, middle and end of story. What was the complication? How was it resolved? Make a list of interesting /unfamiliar vocabulary in the text, to display in the classroom and use as an authoritative source for independent writing. Observe facial expressions throughout. Students play a how do you feel game by pointing to the appropriate feelings word on a chart and make a face to match. Provide many opportunities for students to re-read text in pairs/ small groups- building reading fluency. Discuss characters. Draw a character chart of dad and Felix. Surround each character with words that describe them e.g. Felix- scared, nervous, unsure, shy, quiet. Dad- kind, intuitive, helpful, caring. Identify punctuation used in text, e.g. speech marks, commas, capital letters and full stops to show sentence boundaries. Complete modelled, guided and independent writing activities from text. Learn the punctuation rap.
Peyton (4) making a worried face during the read-aloud, Don’t Worry Felix.
2. Stewart, B. (2024). Everything you ever wanted to know about the Tooth Fairy (and some things you didn’t). Scholastic Australia.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Tooth Fairy (and some things you didn’t) by Briony Stewart. This literary text sparked and held my interest, not only because of the bright, bold colours and enchanting content- but it brought to mind the delicious anticipation of losing teeth as a child, when a loose tooth wibbled and wobbled in my mouth and my tongue pushed and prodded until the tooth finally fell out. As well, related precious memories, like when my 7-year-old, Millie reminded me that the Tooth Fairy forgot to come the previous TWO nights … !!!
A strength of this text is oral language- orally sharing experiences about losing teeth- something we can all relate to. Each page begins with a focus question. This made me think about presenting this text to the class as a serial reading. There are 18 ‘chapters’. Read one or two (or three) ‘chapters’ daily for the class read-aloud for a week. Then talk about what each section is about and revise the previous day’s content before moving further into the text. In this way you are focusing on meaning- making (comprehension); theoretically building from the known to the unknown, the way our brain processes new information, linking neurones and growing dendrites. The text is a mix of fascinating facts and fantasy- which begs the question to ponder with your class… what is true and what is not and how do we know? You could compare this text with a Kid Science video (link below) about why we lose teeth. Which text is true? How do you know? What gives a text authority?
Follow-up activities for each page could be suggested by the children. For example, creating soundscapes with Orff instruments (whatever is available) add creative interest to the read- aloud and encourage students to follow along. Each page invites a different creative response! Make a class collage of children’s toothy (or toothless) grins just like on the back of the title page of text!! What sounds do we make when we eat? How could we re-create these sounds to accompany the read-aloud? On the page titled, What’s a tooth fairy- children draw (their perception of) one and label their pictures using vocabulary from the text. Display them in the classroom and use the drawings as an authoritative source for modelled, guided and independent writing activities. These are some ideas but I know your students will come up with many more fun activities to explore and consolidate knowledge as you traverse through this wonderful, oh so special and magical text!
Rubric: C=3, T=3, G=3, L=3, P=3, I=3 Total=18
Before reading: Talk about your own experiences losing teeth. This could be done in a yarning circle where you pass around a talking stick to ensure everyone gets a turn. Ask students why they think we lose teeth. Model how to use GenAI on class IWB. Class devise a key question/ series of questions and then use Copilot or Google to find out why together e.g. ‘Why do children lose teeth? Discuss. Use visuals/ videos to consolidate learning -Why do we lose baby teeth- Science for kids. and Songs to celebrate losing baby teeth. Do a picture walk through the book, noticing the key questions/ headings on each page. Discuss what the illustrations tell us about the story- focusing on meaning/ comprehension. Encourage students to comment throughout. On completion, decide which chapter the class wishes to begin and start a serial reading of the text with prosody.
During reading: Teacher reads through each section/s of text using pointer/ actions. Quick discussion of section, then re-read for fluency. Students re-read text to a peer, providing feedback. Think-pair-share. Discuss with peer what the section of text is about.
After reading: Activities that focus on the Big 6 pillars of effective reading instruction. E.g. on the page, Where do tooth fairies live?; the vocabulary ‘hypnagogeeah’ is introduced, meaning the state between wakefulness and sleep. Unpacking this term, we find the Greek word hypnos- meaning sleep, and agogos- meaning leading to. The state leading into sleep. Interesting vocabulary which the children may be unfamiliar include dust bunnies, substance, ingredient, embiggening (is it a real word? It really is- meaning to make bigger- first used on the television program “The Simpsons’ in 1996- then added to US dictionary. Look for context cues). On the page, ‘How do they take your teeth’ you could look at the sentence structure of the first sentence together. It contains a dependent clause in the first position e.g. After completing training in advanced sneaking… The teacher could model write sentences with independent clauses in the first position, then students could write their own independently. Visual grammar activities are well suited to this text e.g. follow a story path in the section, How tooth fairies take your teeth. Children draw a story path to retell another favourite section of text. Discuss what is a magic portal and what it does. Create a fairy village or house like in the text. Students may choose to do this as a project with peers. Consider what materials you will use to create your village or home (e.g. Lego). Share your models with each other, focusing on oral language development.
3. Simpson, K. & Swan, O. (2024). How to move a zoo: the incredible true story. Allen & Unwin.
How to move a zoo: the incredible true story is written by Kate Simpson and Owen Swan. This delightful text is an unusual genre for young children- an historical narrative. It is based on a true story- it may not be exactly accurate- but it is loosely based on facts. It tells the story of how Jessie the elephant was moved to her new home at Taronga Zoo.
Activate background knowledge about Taronga Zoo… Begin with a class discussion…Who has been to Taronga Zoo in Sydney? What do you remember? ‘Well, Taronga Zoo was not always located on this lovely spot on Sydney Harbour. Before 1916- a long time before your grandparents and great grandparents were born - Taronga Zoo was located at a place called Billy Goat Swamp at Moore Park- along with the racecourse and cricket grounds. But it outgrew this location and the government decided to build a new, more spacious zoo at Mossman, on Sydney Harbour- where it is today. This story is about how the elephants relocated to their new home at Taronga Zoo… The animals were moved across the harbour, some even by barge, including the elephants! Before we begin, let’s learn a favourite counting song and make up some actions together Play School - Noni - Five Grey Elephants’ (often, children keep the beat by walking their fingers up one arm but any actions they come up with will do). One clever school made up an action song, with children pretending to be elephants as they acted out the song. This lends itself well to use masks for assembly items or a school concert One elephant went balancing - St Philips Marsh Nursery School.
Rubric: C=3, T=3, G=3, L=3, P=3, I=3 Total=18
Before reading: Look at the cover together. Key discussion questions: What do you see on the harbour? Would you see these today? Look at the back cover. Describe the cars and trucks in the pictures. Look at the mens’ clothing. What does this tell us? Read the back blurb to the class. Locate Mr Miller and Jessie the elephant. Discuss the main characters of the text. Orally build noun groups together to describe them. Record on IWB and print as a beginning character map of Mr Miller and Jessie, to complete as an after reading activity. Read the author’s note (at the back of the book) to the class prior to read-aloud. This sets the scene, activates background knowledge and ensures all students know the facts prior to delving in the text together. look at photographs of the opening of Taronga Zoo together on this page. Key question: Is this true? How do you know? What gives a text authority? Discuss.
During reading: Read the story aloud to class with prosody. Encourage children to ask questions/ comment throughout. Point out direct speech. Use background knowledge and use context clues to make predictions about what might happen next. Confirm, reject and amend predictions during reading as you move through the story. When you get to the milkman, the lady out the window, and the ferryman; select children to read the dialogue with prosody. Have a child be Mr Miller in the story, speaking to Jessie in a soft and caring voice. This will lead to a reader’s theatre, building reading fluency in subsequent re-reads of text.
After reading: Discuss the difference between African and Asian elephants. Watch the video (news report) about the Asian elephants moving out of Taronga Zoo. Time to Pack Those Trunks: Why Taronga's Asian Elephants Are Moving Out - Mosman Living and/ or Kids News: Taronga Zoo Sydney’s last elephants leave for SA Kids News: Taronga Zoo Sydney’s last elephants leave for SA | KidsNews. just like in the story, the Taronga elephants are on the move again. Draw a picture of the elephants moving out and share your picture with the class. Kookaburra sits… learn to sing the canon in rounds as a lesson break. Kookaburra | Sing-Along Video with Lyrics for Kids [SONG]. Add percussion instruments to keep the beat. Phonics family- words containing ph says f e.g. elephant, pheasant, Joseph, Sophie etc. Make more word families from text using a range of manipulatives e.g. aw as in dawn; ar as in dark; . Write some dialogue for Jesse in speech bubbles throughout the text. What is she thinking? How is Jessie feeling? Study the map of Sydney to see the route that Jessie and Mr Miller took to reach their new home. What did they see on the way?
Williams, R., Potter, H. and Jackson, M. (2024). One Little Dung Beetle. Wild Dog Publishers.
One Little Dung Beetle was written by Rhian Williams, and illustrated by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson. It is an informative counting book… and so much more. For those children who love exploring nature (especially bugs) up-close; this text is a treasure trove of intricately drawn, labelled and water-coloured beetles of every size, shape and description.
I would start with the name and ask, What is a dung beetle? A great discussion starter can be found in the song- Dung beetle, dung beetle, rolling, rolling… Children could make up a dance to match the catchy tune and lyrics. The Beetle battle song- words aligned to the piggyback tune, The Ants go Marching, matches illustration 2 in the text beautifully. In contrast, ask a child to bring in a bug (in a bug-catcher so it is not harmed) for the class to peruse up-close. Alternately, perusing a Christmas Beetle in detail cab be found here. Much of the information in the text can be gleaned from the illustrations. Think-pair-share discussions about the masterfully intricate beetle diagrams facilitates oral language development and meaning making (comprehension). Conversely, the text consists of rhyming couplets which facilitate learning phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary and fluency- affirming a place for this text in the early reading classroom, catering for a range of reading skills and interests.
Rubric: C=2, T=3, G=2, L=2, P=1, I=3 Total=13 (this criteria is not really relevant to this text as it has no narrative structure)
Before reading: Sing songs (above), talk about bugs students are familiar with (where they live, what they do, why they like them). Peruse a range of bugs to activate background knowledge (pictures, videos, playground walk). Peruse cover, discuss illustration; read back cover blurb to class. Look closely at endpapers. Do students identify any of the beetles contained there? Key discussion questions: Can you identify any of the beetles on the endpapers? Some have funny names. Why do think this is? Who names them? (Use GenAI to answer any questions you/ children are unsure of). Discuss the meaning of new vocabulary e.g. ‘diligent environmental engineers’, ‘entomologist’. Take a picture walk through the book, discussing illustrations. Invite students to comment, learning what they know about beetles at the get go.
During reading: Read the text in the book aloud to class with prosody. Encourage children to ask questions/ comment throughout. Point out rhyming words, punctuation. As children become familiar with the text on subsequent reads, encourage them to read with you, with expression. Provide many opportunities for re-reading/ peer reading to build fluency.
After reading: Draw your favourite bug in the text. Label it. Make a display in the classroom. Write about it. Begin by modelled writing, guided writing then independent writing activities. Students share their writing with the class. List rhyming words (rhyming word hunt with a partner). Make it a competitive game. Identify interesting/ unfamiliar verbs in text e.g. nudges, push. Syllabify multi syllable words e.g. in/ sis/ tent/ ly. Talk about the job of words ending in ly in a sentence- adds meaning to the verb. Making and writing word families using manipulatives e.g. oo- zoom, broom, loom, boom; fly, my, try. Learn to perform a poem about a special bug, with prosody and actions. Forgiven by A.A. Milne for a special school occasion. Talk about animals that live underground (p4). Why? People live underground too in hot places. What other insects do you know that come out of cocoons? (p6). Spelling: (p7) adding ing to words e.g. flipping, stopping, hitting. Use the tune of the song, Talk to the Animals, to sing the entire text together building fluency using a musical scaffold, as the teacher points to the words.
McGregor, A. (2024). Spiro. Scribble Books.
The picture book, Spiro, was written and illustrated by Anna McGregor. It tells the story of a hungry spider, trying to catch his dinner. Spiro is determined and focused. Unfortunately he is thwarted many times as unexpected events prevent him from achieving his goal. The theme of the text is one of resilience- try, try again and you will succeed!
Begin by talking about spiders in general. Share spidery tales to activate background knowledge. E.g. Tell a story about how a spider in your garden kept building a web, which you swept away with the broom as it was right where you walked to put the clothes on the line. It built many more webs in exactly the same spot, until finally- you gave up and left it there. (you will have a better story than mine!). That spider was persistent! Talk about how spiders make their webs- spinning round and round from one surface to the next. Provide the game Spirograph or plastic circle shapes for students to trace around to make patterns- like a spider’s web. Display them in the classroom. Make spiders from egg cartons and pipe cleaners. Make thumb prints (like in the text) and add appendages to turn them into spiders! In contrast, an informative text to build knowledge about spiders can be found here (4 minute video).
The finger rhyme/ action song, Incy, wincy spider describes the determination of a spider to achieve his goals after many failed attempts- similar to Spiro in the text. Michael Rosen shares his holiday adventure in Australia and the red back on the toilet seat is a deliciously scary, hilarious, aural text you may wish to listen to with your class. The illustrations in the text are drawn digitally. Experiment with an on-line drawing tool like Sketchpad to produce a digital picture, related to the text, Spiro.
Rubric: C=3, T=3, G=2, L=2, P=3, I=3 Total=16
Before reading: Activate background knowledge about spiders. Share spidery stories. Sing spider song/ action rhyme. Learn about Australian spiders using a range of informative texts from library, knowledge-building. Talk about cover. Predict what the book may be about. The title page is allegorical. Spiro looks confused. He is studying web design. This could mean making spider webs (what the text is about- the literal meaning) or designing webpages- the symbolic meaning, as the illustration suggests. Take a picture walk through the text together. Discuss the illustrations, how they are made (drawn digitally on a computer). Key discussion questions: What’s happening on these pages? (double page spread). What do you think will happen next? Why?
During reading: Read text to students with prosody. Discuss each double- page spread. Encourage students to provide feedback and comment during the read-aloud to maximise engagement. Students join in with the reading during subsequent reads. Provide lots of opportunities for students to practise re-reading the text with peers and independently to build fluency.
After reading: Discuss the narrative structure of the text, identifying the beginning, middle and end of the story. What was the complication? How was it resolved? Story- map the text, by drawing 5 circles and filling in the main events, in order, inside each circle. E.g. 1-Lucy on her bike, 2-dog chases cat, 3- bird swoops worm, 4- Gary mows lawn, 5- Bugs attracted to light. Talk about how Spiro is feeling in various parts of the texts. Ask, How is he feeling now? Why? How do you know? Do you ever feel this way? Annotate story maps to reinforce the drawing, writing, reading link. Complete creative arts activities about spiders. e.g. turning thumb prints into spiders and writing a story about the characters created.
McCallum, D. & Smith, C. (2024). The Wobbly Bike. Walker Books.
The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum (his first book), illustrated by Craig Smith (Walker Books) The endpapers cleverly reveal the setting of the text, an urban landscape in the tropics of Australia. The topic is one of a universal childhood experience- learning to ride a bike. The protagonist is learning to ride a bike and she is wobbly. All her friends can ride. She shows grit and perseverance and finally succeeds with some backward steps along the way, which happens when learning new things. This text reminded me of a favourite big-book in my Kinder class comprising rhyme, rhythm and alliterative language). It was a poem, Jelly on a Plate, a fun, repetitive poem suitable for choral reading. Jelly on a plate led to text innovations (modelled guided and independent reading and writing) and lots of great action songs devised by the class. I liked how the Scottish Book Trust did similar, to generate ideas for teachers Jelly on a Plate Lyrics & Actions - Scottish Book Trust. Of course, songs about bikes are entirely appropriate here, as well as discussing the sounds bikes make… onomatopoeic language like whizz, whirr, rumble- rumble, ringggg!. The wheels on the bus, 10 Little Bicycles - Super Simple Songs – many of these songs are piggyback tunes (words superimposed onto well-known tunes), and some are counting songs, linked to early numeracy concepts.
Rubric: C=3, T=3, G=2, L=2, P=3, I=3 Total=16
Before reading: Talk about cover. Predict what the book may be about. Where it is located (setting) ‘Australia’s urban top end’. Identify the illustrator and other texts he has illustrated. Think-pair-share how you learned to ride a bike/ or are currently trying to. Talk about punctuation students will learn about in the text e.g. question marks, exclamation marks, ellipses. Pre-teach vocabulary (front-ending): unpack the meaning of wibble and wobble, practise, unsteadily. Introduce alliteration.
During Reading: Read the story aloud to class with prosody. Encourage children to ask questions/ comment throughout. Point out direct speech. As children become familiar with the text on subsequent reads, encourage them to read with gusto phrases like, ‘Watch out!’ and ‘I’m sorry Popcorn!’ during the read-aloud. Invite children to join into repetitive words/ phrases like wibbles and wobbles, and wibbly and wobbly. Discuss characters’ actions and dialogue throughout the text. Think aloud as you read the text to students e.g. ‘I wonder why …’ and encourage students to orally respond.
After reading: Responding phase. Can be oral like class discussions, reading logs, journalling and through the arts. This book would be a magical readers theatre/ adapted for a play for school concerts, as there is lots of direct speech from characters in the text!
