Over the past year we have blogged about children reading aloud to dogs and about Ethiopia Reads’ donkey-drawn libraries but here is a first: children reading with donkeys. To celebrate National Storytelling Week in the United Kingdom, The Donkey Sanctuary, will be opening its doors to local groups and schools for storytelling sessions in the company of the donkeys! Emma Foster reports:
The sanctuary’s education and activities team will be bringing donkey-related children’s stories to life with the assistance of puppets and props. During each session the children will have a refreshment break and then take part in donkey walking and grooming around the barns.
Janice Aherne, education and activities manager, said: “We are thrilled to be taking part in National Storytelling Week. It will give our staff the chance to put into practice their recently acquired skills following training from a professional storyteller.
“Our donkeys always enjoy playing to an audience and we can’t wait to share stories and puppet shows with the children.”
Places are limited so booking is essential, the charity said. There is no charge for groups attending, however donations to the sanctuary are welcome.
For more information click here.
The Donkey Sanctuary aims to protect donkeys and mules and promote their welfare worldwide. Every year on March 20th, The Donkey Sanctuary celebrates World Storytelling Day by working with children throughout the world, using stories and discussions, to encourage better attitudes to donkey welfare.
Photo credit: Ethiopa Reads’ Donkey Drawn Library
A recent addition to our blog is Around the World in 100 Bookshelves, where parents are encouraged to send photos of their children’s bookshelves, along with the name and age of their child. It is already becoming wildly popular, with snapshots coming in from all corners of the world, and I am always eager to see the latest bookshelf, or variant thereof–parents are quite creative in ways to store their offspring’s book collections! (My oldest son’s first books were kept in his little red wagon, which he was too small to use for conventional purposes.)
My reaction is curious as well as delighted, and comments from other viewers convey the same yearning to know what are the titles of some of the books in these pictures. And beyond that question is which of these titles are most requested as bedtime stories or daytime readalouds?
Which of these books does the owner spend time poring over, perhaps knowing them by heart? If they are owned by someone who can read the words, which of them is most read aloud to her parents or his younger siblings–or to a pet dog or cat for that matter!
Please tell us which books are most popular in your household? Which one can you recite from menory as you read it aloud to your child? And, while you’re at it, if you haven’t sent us a picture of your child’s library, we are eager to see it–and so are other parents around the world.
Let’s find out if a child in Bangalore loves the same book as a child in Brooklyn–and what books a mother in the Philippines most enjoys reading aloud to her children. The world is full of wonderful books and the children who love them–which are your child’s favorites?
Last week I was lucky enough to spend some time in San Francisco where one of the highlights of the trip was a day spent sightseeing with PaperTigers’ managing editor and producer Aline Pereira. Our first stop was the 
outstanding Asian Art Museum, one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian Art. We wandered though the three floors of amazing exhibits and got to watch master Japanese bamboo artist Tanaka Kyokusho demonstrate his bamboo art. Tanaka mixes traditional bamboo techniques with a contemporary sensibility to create a unique style of his own. His bamboo baskets are amazing works of art. While the adults watched Tanaka’s demonstration, kids got to try weaving a pattern with various materials such as paper and raffia.
Our next stop was the San Francisco library to see an exhibit of artwork by author/illustrator Elisa Kleven. Elisa, currently featured in our PaperTigers’ illustrator gallery, is appropriately described by Aline as being a master of imaginary worlds. Her artwork is simply stunning with bright colors and so much detail that the illustrations feel as if they are moving and jumping off the pages at you.
Aline (l) and myself (r).
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Click to enlarge the photos and you can see the original illustrator manuscript for Abuela plus a puzzle!
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I purchased a copy of The City by the Bay: A Magical Journey Around San Francisco (written by Tricia Brown, illustrated by Elisa) to bring home to my children. Here’s my daughter Emma reading it to our dog Riley and a close up of her favorite page - fireworks and the Golden Gate Bridge. Emma took this book to school for Show and Tell where it was quite the hit! The kids loved the illustrations and the challenge of finding the dog, cat and baby on each page. Check out our PaperTigers’ gallery to see more of Elisa’s work.
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