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Singing for Mrs.Pettigrew - A Gem of a Read
A review of a gem of a book. Read if you want to write, read if you are a teller of stories, read just because.
JoAnne Saldanha
Aug 18, 20242 min read
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Pairing Polacco Favourites
Both of these books were part of our selection for the ‘thIS ABILITY’ theme that we focussed on in the library last term. Both of these book
JoAnne Saldanha
May 28, 20243 min read
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Zen : A Multigenerational Tale
A must read young adult book that seamlessly weaves political, religious and social commentary with love stories and a wee little murder!
JoAnne Saldanha
May 22, 20242 min read
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Love in the Library
February 14th…Valentine’s Day and Library Lovers day!!! As I browsed my book shelf I found the perfect picture book…a love story that...
JoAnne Saldanha
Feb 14, 20242 min read
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Song for a Whale
My pick to add to our library shelves for our 'thIS ABILITY' theme. Twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius, in particular she loves...
JoAnne Saldanha
Feb 12, 20243 min read
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A Time to Dance...Book Review
Every once in a while I come across a book that leaves me awestruck. Achingly beautiful, this is one such book that will stay with me a...
JoAnne Saldanha
Feb 1, 20242 min read
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The Preamble to the Constitution in the Library
My work requires me to often travel and interact with children, teachers and parents. I often see schools and school libraries tick all...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jan 30, 20243 min read
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The Nameless God
As I began reading Savie Karnel‘s The Nameless God, published by Red Panda, I was sucked into the book. Right from the names of the two...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jan 22, 20242 min read
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OUR LIBRARY...thIS ABILITY
During the first few months of the year, we planned to focus on books about characters with disabilities…seen and unseen, with a focus on...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jan 22, 20244 min read
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My Grandmother Can't Cook...fun books and meaningful discussions
We’ve been working our way through the three Jarul Book Awards books and MY GRANDMOTHER CAN’T COOK by Indu Balachandran, illustrated by...
JoAnne Saldanha
Nov 18, 20232 min read
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Uncontrollable...Fantasy Fiction in Verse
I’ve just put my bookmark away and shut Uncontrollable by Varsha Seshan, a middle grade fantasy fiction book in verse and I must say that...
JoAnne Saldanha
Nov 15, 20232 min read
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my story,my voice - Sita and Helen
"The face that launched a 1000 ships" is metaphoric enough to get my 6th and 7th graders all excited as we go across the stories from the...
JoAnne Saldanha
Oct 29, 20232 min read
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The Kites are Flying...Hope in Palestine
The news of the horrors going on in Gaza at the moment had got me down. In the library I noticed that children were all picking up...
JoAnne Saldanha
Oct 24, 20232 min read
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The Paper Plane Flew
For the last library period of term, I was looking for a story that was fun, that would take the children on a flight of imagination and...
JoAnne Saldanha
Oct 16, 20232 min read
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Of Travel and Library of Celsus...Ephesus
When we began planning a trip to Turkey, little did I realise just how often I would find connections to my interests and more so to my...
JoAnne Saldanha
Oct 1, 20232 min read
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Oppenheimer and the Butter Battle Book
Tuesday's are 'twosdays' over on my @mythaunty Instagram account, when I share two books that I've shared for a particular reason. This...
JoAnne Saldanha
Aug 1, 20232 min read
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Learning and tearing up with Patricia Polacco's 'Pink and Say'
When N, a History teacher reached out to me for resources that could support her unit on the American Civil War, I remembered that I had...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jul 29, 20233 min read
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RED - A Crayon's Story
Almost a year ago, my ‘BFF’, also a Jo-Ann….with no ‘e’ at the end, a ‘Child Life Specialist’ in the US, sent me this book...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jun 26, 20232 min read
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Think FOOD, think ACCEPTANCE and TOLERANCE...an exploration through Picture Books
This post was written for the Bookwallis Facebook page on 16 September, 2020 I’ve been a Story educator and Library educator for many...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jun 8, 20237 min read
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Picture Books that 'Stretch the Table'...Stories about Soups and Stews
When I think of FOOD, I think of ‘stretching the table’... always a place and a bowl for one more. When I think about stretching the...
JoAnne Saldanha
Jun 5, 20237 min read
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