This is Banjo Paterson by Tania McCartney and Christina Booth

My kids read mostly chapter books these days but we’re still massive fans of picture books and this week we thought we’d try something a bit different. This is Banjo Paterson written by Tania McCartney and illustrated by Christina Booth is a unique biography of one of Australia’s best known and loved bush poets.

McCartney and Booth have turned a history lesson into a delightful story of a group of children acting out Banjo Paterson’s life in their backyard.

Our little Banjo rides around on his hobby horse, attends school and polo matches, works in an office, publishes poetry and even goes to war, without ever leaving his own backyard. We also learn how Waltzing Matilda came to be and how he earned his moniker.

I was surprised by how much I learned from the book but Tania McCartney never sacrifices the gentle rhythm of the text to share the information.

Christina Booth’s illustrations capture the essence of the Aussie backyard with a Hills Hoist, paddle pool and kids playing a game of totem tennis. She reflects Paterson’s gift for rhyme with speech bubbles of verse coming from the mouths of the children. Booth also does what all the best illustrators do, and gives us a story that goes beyond the text.

The book finishes with excerpts from Paterson’s best known poems and a biography displayed in the style of a newspaper article. The article makes excellent use of photos found in the National Library of Australia’s online catalogue.

Today (17 February) is Banjo Paterson’s birthday and Tania McCartney recorded an interview with The National Library. Watch the interview on the National Library’s Periscope page.

We thoroughly enjoyed This is Banjo Paterson and now will have to seek out McCartney and Booth’s offering from 2015, This is Captain Cook.

Post book activity

I remembered studying Clancy of the Overflow in high school history. I liked to raid my parents’ record collection as a teenager to create mix tapes for my best friend. These were not the look-how-cool-I-am mixtapes, but were cobbled together with songs that I found hilariously daggy or reflected an in-joke we shared or referenced something we had learned at school. When I found Dad’s record of Clancy of the Overflow, as sung by Wallis and Matilda, there was no doubt as to its rightful place on the next tape as it ticked two boxes, a school reference AND I thought it sounded hilariously daggy. I showed the video clip to the kids and, for something a bit different, we watched the mashup a recitation by comedian Adam Hills, as his wife, Ali McGregor, sings The Church’s Under the Milky Way.

After listening to the renditions of Clancy, we talked about the context of the poem: a man sitting in his city office yearning for life in the Australian bush.

We tried some other Paterson poems. The kids found The Man from Snowy River a bit long but were back on board for Mulga Bill’s Bicycle, which they’d read at school. Miss 11 also remembered reading We’re All Australians Now at school last year, so she read that aloud.

Magnifying The Man from Snowy River

Magnifying The Man from Snowy River

Our next activity was to find a $10 note (thanks to Mr 9 for raiding his piggy bank) and a magnifying glass. I told the kids that The Man from Snowy River was in microprint around Banjo Paterson’s face.

The three eager detectives took turns trying to read the words and could make out some of them. This was when I realised I was getting old, because I couldn’t make out a single one. Unfortunately it seems the new $10 notes, (to be released in September 2017) will no longer have this feature.

Now that we’ve learned all about Banjo, which Australian icon would you like to see Tania McCartney and Christina Booth take on next?

This is Banjo Paterson was written by Tania McCartney and illustrated by Christina Booth and published by NLA Publishing.

Countdown to Danger: Deadly Heist by Jack Heath

Countdown to Danger Deadly Heist

What do you do after school on a Friday when the mercury hits 41 degrees and the Canberra Times tells you to go easy on the electricity? You go to a book launch! So this week the kids and I popped into Dymocks Belconnen for the launch of the third book in Jack Heath’s Choose Your Own Ending series, Countdown to Danger: Deadly Heist.

Jack’s enthusiasm was infectious as he introduced the book to the crowd of kids, parents and grandparents. Deadly Heist was a dangerous adventure with disaster at every choice and this group of Canberrans was ready for the challenge.

With the audience keenly clutching their books, Jack sat down at his signing table covered appropriately in play money bookmarks and blocks of gold (edible of course).

I knew we were onto a winner with Deadly Heist when Mr 7 started reading the book in the queue so after we met Jack, who was delightful, and got our books signed we went straight home to sit in air conditioned comfort. The kids happily eschewed their Friday afternoon screen time for a literary adventure so I read the book aloud to Mr 7 and Mr 9.

Jack Heath at his book launch at Dymocks, Belconnen.

Jack Heath at his book launch at Dymocks, Belconnen.

We read the back cover. “30 minutes. 30 endings. You choose if you live or die.” The Countdown to Danger books are set in real time, so we began, there was no time to lose!  

You are waiting at the bank with your friend, Kye, when three people enter. You’re not sure why, but there’s something dodgy about them. Before long the ne’er do wells are robbing the bank and taking hostages and you have to work out what on earth to do about it.

Early on we chose our character, we had the choice of a boy or a girl. We chose our character and were soon crawling through air vents, wresting villains with laser pistols and falling from the top of a building to our doom on the concrete below.

Mr 9 started cheering when he was convinced we were safe only to perish at the end of the page. We tried again, this time choosing different options, crying out in disappointment when we died again and again, some deaths more gory than others. When we finally saved the day, the boys cheered before saying, “Now go back to the bit with the cable! See if we can survive another way!”

We survived twice in the end but the boys will be back another day, maybe in another guise, to enter the Deadly Heist and risk their lives in the face of a scarred redhead with a laser pistol.

It’s great to see so many authors nowadays writing for reluctant readers. Not every child is a bookworm, but every child deserves the chance to find a book that speaks to them. The Countdown to Danger books with their ‘real time’ pacing and action movie atmosphere have enough twists and turns to hook in even the most reluctant reader.

Jack Heath is a prolific writer with books aimed at children, teenagers and adults coming out in the next two years. The kids and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

A post-book activity

With the heist still fresh in our minds, we decided to have a game of modified Rob the Nest, renamed Rob the Bank. To play all you need are beanbags (moneybags) and a timer. If you don’t have those, appropriate substitutes would do like cups, pieces of Lego or even balled up socks (clean ones!).

·        Take a pile of beanbags each to a corner of the room.

·        Set a timer. We set ours for 2 minutes as we didn’t have the stamina to match the 30 Minutes of Deadly Heist.

·        Run back and forth stealing moneybags from each other until the timer runs out.

·        You may only steal one moneybag at a time, carrying more than one will see you sent to prison.

·        When the timer runs out, the robber with the most moneybags wins and the other players are arrested by the police and hauled off to jail until the next round.

·        If you’re playing with an even number of people, you can form two teams. The first team can be the robbers while the other team play police, grabbing the moneybags and returning them to the bank.

Beanbags

Rob the Bank was a fun game that had us shrieking and laughing. We managed to avoid long prison sentences and inadvertent head clashes. Wins all round!

Countdown to Danger: Deadly Heist was written by Jack Heath and published by Scholastic Australia.

The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee by Deborah Abela

I buy lot of books for my kids at Christmas time, books making up the bulk of their treats under the tree on Christmas morning. They’re bookworms and the January holidays is a great time to read.

The three of them usually have a few books on the go at a time, some they read to themselves and some that either my husband or I will read to them. Reading aloud is a lovely way to spend time together and I don’t want to miss out on some of the wonderful books they’re reading. I’ll be honest, sometimes I have more kids books on my ‘to read’ pile than I do books for adults.

This Christmas one of the books under our tree was The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee by Deborah Abela.

 
The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee book
 

I couldn’t decide who to give this one too as it seemed like something all three of them would enjoy. So it went into Mr 9’s pile and was promptly scooped up by Ms 11 and devoured immediately. I later read it aloud to Mr 9.

The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee is the tale of India Wimple, a girl from the town of Yungabilla with a gift for spelling and a case of stage fright. India’s family encourages her to compete in The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee, a national television show, and they’re determined to be there for her every step of the way.

Deborah Abela creates a beautiful cast of characters full of refreshing warmth and humour. India lives with her Mum and Dad, her little brother, Boo, who suffers from chronic asthma, and her  Nanna Flo. Nanna Flo has an unlikely sidekick and dispenses wisdom and wisecracks in equal measure. Ms 11 said, “I love how much India’s family really love each other. So many books have characters who hate their parents or brothers and sisters.”

Each chapter starts a tricky word, such as ‘tremulous’. The words are followed by definitions and the word put into a sentence. These words set the tone of the chapter and give the reader a hint as to what will lie ahead. They are a great way to keep the spelling bee theme fresh with the added benefit of teaching young readers new vocabulary.

India eventually reaches the finals of the competition meets other finalists including Summer Millicent Ernestine Beauregard-Champion a demanding rich girl, and Rajish, a boy whose dictionary-clutching father is never far away.

There were plenty of laugh out loud moments throughout the book and I was sad to say goodbye to the characters when we finished. We would certainly be very happy readers if Deborah were to write a sequel.

 A post book activity

Miss 11 tracing a word onto her hand, like India does in the book.

Miss 11 tracing a word onto her hand, like India does in the book.

After reading the book we had our very own spelling bee using words from the book.

The kids stood up and I gave them words to spell, some chosen randomly and some were India’s spelling words from the story. I tailored the choices to their ages and ability. If they spelled their word correctly, they kept standing. If they misspelled the word, they sat down.

Tremulous

They became very excited when they managed to spell a tricky word and literally rolled around on the floor laughing when one of them was distracted and spelled “gooble” rather than “gobble”. There was just the right amount of healthy competition and a lot more laughter.

When the kids were put on the spot they realised how tricky the words were that India spelled throughout the story.

 “Wow, India Wimple must be super smart because some of those words are pretty impressive,” said Miss 11. I agree, there were a few in there that would have stumped me too.

The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee was written by Deborah Abela and published by Random House Australia.