Author of the Month - Dapo Adeola 

For February, our author of the month board has been taken over by an illustrator! Dapo Adeola is a London based illustrator known for bright, upbeat designs and characters that show diversity in many different ways. Many of the books he’s illustrated have important cultural messages, communicated in ways that children can relate to and engage with. Dapo also runs events to provide opportunities for children to get involved in illustration and graphic design, particularly those for whom those opportunities might not have been easily available. 

Here are just some of the books he’s illustrated: 

Clubs

Story Writing Club has got off to a flying start this term with a real mix of attendees and plenty of creative ideas. We’ve looked at how to condense a plot down to just a few sentences, designed characters both human and otherwise, and made a start on our own stories. We will be starting back to Story Writing a week late after half-term as it will not be on Monday 20th Feb, but I can’t wait to see what ideas they come back with!

 

Library Club for KS1 also continues to be a lovely calm, joyful time - so much so that last week we completely lost track of the time and were almost late to class! For me, it’s just such a delight to see the children comfortable and enjoying the library space - I’m convinced that simply being surrounded by books is a comforting experience, let alone reading them!

 

World Book Day

You will have seen the notice about what’s going on for World Book Day this year, and I am VERY excited to say that as well as dressing up or creating scenes to celebrate favourite books, I will be running an escape room in the library! Over two weeks, every class will have the opportunity to come down and solve bookish puzzles to see if they can crack the code to escape. All the puzzles are related to our specific library and the books within it, and there will be prizes on the cards for the quickest, and most cooperative teams. 

 

On the dressing up front, the World Book Day website has lots of great, simple ideas. You can always go for someone from a non-fiction book too - the Little People Big Dreams series are a great place to start. 

 

https://www.worldbookday.com/

 

Recommended Reads

 

We’ve some lovely new non-fiction going out ready for everyone’s return after half-term, and here are some of my favourites:

Lifesize Dinosaurs by Sophy Henn

 

Dinosaurs are always popular in the library (and at home) and this book features illustrations of specific dinosaur parts (for example a pteranodon beak) in their actual real-life size! What I like about this book is that it doesn’t feel like a huge information dump, largely due to the vibrant illustrations, and of course, the novelty factor of being asked to compare your nose to a pteranodon beak.

 

What Do You See When You Look at a Tree? by Emma Carlisle

 

You won’t know that when I was a little girl, it was my ambition to be a tree when I grew up, so it’s unsurprising that this one has made my recommended reads list! Another one to file under ‘non-fiction that feels like a story’, this book has lovely illustrations and a gentle narrative that explores different kinds of tree, different PARTS of a tree, and how the different things a tree does might be mirrored in our own lives. 

Children who Changed the World by Marcia Williams

 

Marcia Williams has written lots of graphic novel style fact books about all manner of things, and the style is easy to engage with. Each double page spread features a biography of a child activist who has fought for their rights and the rights of others, and is a brilliant way for children to be inspired to change the world themselves!

^{Photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash}