 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Little Bookish Teacher and today I have a birthday book haul for you. So it has been my birthday this past weekend and my treat for myself was a giant shopping trip through the city. I actually did the city of literature walk here in Melbourne and my original intention was purely to pick up children's titles because I've got a couple of projects that I'm working on. So that's why I have a giant stack of kids books but I also did pick up some adult titles for myself as well but I thought here on Little Bookish Teacher I would share with you the kids books that I found and picked up because I'm really excited to read them over the next couple of months. So we'll start with some picture books. I picked up a copy of Dry to Dry, The Seasons of Kakadu by Pamela Freeman and Liz and Ellie. I have read this before but I didn't own a copy of it so I'm really glad that I have acquired this one because it's a beautiful book and it was a CBCA winner. I also found a copy of Esther's Rainbow by Kim Cain and Sarah Acton. This is actually a second hand book that I found from City Basement Books. Again a book that I have read but haven't had a chance to get my own copy of and it's a hardback, it was only a couple of dollars. When I ducked into the Curry Heritage Center store I found Yuri's Birthday. This is written by Dr. Sue Atkinson. I am excited to have this. I did choose this one. There are a couple of kids books in there but I picked this one because it was a birthday one and I was on my birthday shopping trip. But what I like about this is that these stories are written by Indigenous women from Victoria so I'm really, really excited to get to this one. And then the final picture book is another Indigenous title. It is Bungal Creation Story. This one is by Professor Caroline Briggs and it contains stories from the Boon Marung language which is one of the language groups here in Victoria. Again I'm always on the lookout for dual language First Nations books and then we're going to duck into the middle grade and junior fiction titles. I picked up a copy of My Place by Sally Morgan. Again this is a First Nations book. This is the Younger Readers edition. I'm very excited to read this. I also picked up The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill. Ages ago I read The Girl Who Drank the Moon and I absolutely loved that book and it had been meaning to come back to Kelly Barnhill for ages so I saw this and couldn't resist. Who doesn't love a middle grade fantasy. And then another author that I really love and have enjoyed reading their books is Catherine Applegate and I found Willow Dean and I mean this cover is just so gorgeous and I'm excited to dive into something else by Catherine Applegate. This one is actually a novel as opposed to a verse novel so I'm intrigued to see what I think about it. The rest of these books are much shorter novels and that's because I am investigating books for book clubs for junior primary. There will probably be a video of me talking about these and their suitability and things like that coming in the next couple of months but I got a copy of the 27th annual African Hippopotamus Race by Morris Lurie. This one was recommended to me by one of my literacy trainers who I work with and I'm excited to read it. I also picked up Uncle Xbox by Jared Thomas. This is a First Nations junior fiction book. I've seen this one being promoted for a while. I haven't actually read it and I know that this has to do a little bit with gaming but also with what happens when you can't do that anymore. I'm particularly interested in this one because we have a lot of kids, particularly boys at school who are very into gaming and I'm interested in any book that sort of taps into that as an interest level to engage them in reading. Another First Nations book is Derran by Karl Merison and Hekea Hussler. I have read a couple of things by this duo before. I've really enjoyed their work and I'm excited to see what this one is all about and I just realized that this is a follow-up to Black Cockatoo which is the book of theirs that I really loved so I think we get to see some of the same characters which is exciting. There is Eta and the Octopus by Zana Freylin. I just love Zana Freylin. You guys have heard me talk about her a bit this year and I didn't realize that she also had junior fiction chapter books so I'm excited to see what the quality of this is like and what the story is like so so many good books. I also got Dogstar by Megan Shepard. This one I believe is historical and I think it is about the first dog that is sent up into space so I'm very very excited because as I was growing up I was obsessed with space and I also saw this sci-fi middle grade slash junior fiction title. It's Out of This World by Sonya Sprain at Bates. This is Set in Space and I'm so excited by that because to find actual science fiction set in space in sort of junior fiction middle grade is just so exciting for me. I can't wait to read this one. Then there is a classic that I have not read but Sora that's Ramona the Brave by Beverly Clearly. I am intrigued by these. I want to see if they've held up over time and see if they would be worthwhile books picking up. They do have new covers and have been sort of refreshed I think so I'm intrigued and then this one was a book that I found on Discount. It's actually a graphic novel. It's called The Heart in the Bubble by Trey Speller. You guys have heard me review Trey Speller recently and I know that this story is set during the pandemic so I think it looks at family and how family connect or interact during that time period. Very intrigued. This one is cool. It looks a little bit like a zine in terms of it's very simple. There's no color inside and I can't wait to dive into this one. And the last couple of books I didn't actually pick up while I was out on my shopping trip but they were part of the things that I was purchasing for my birthday of School of Monsters. Frank is a big help by Sally Rippon. Sally Rippon is a very popular junior fiction author here in Australia and I have been meaning to try this series because these might be great for foundation grade one maybe grade two book clubs. I don't know yet. I just want to have a read of some of them. What I do know is that they are high interest which is why I want to explore them. And then I picked up the first four books in the Narwhal and Jelly series. So there is Narwhal, Unicorn of the Sea, Supernarwhal and Jelly Jot, Peanut Butter and Jelly and Narwhal's Otter Friend. These are very simple graphic novels and I think I have read Narwhal, Unicorn of the Sea before but they had them as a set and I thought this would be great because they were pretty cheap for the set of four. And I'm always on the lookout for simple graphic novels particularly for younger readers. So that is my birthday book haul. In the comments I'd love to know if you've read any of these books or if you're planning on picking them up or if you have any other recommendations based on these books. I'm really excited about the sort of my future reading plans with these books because there's quite a few authors in here that are new to me but also some that I have read before and just haven't had a chance to go back and explore their book catalog. So it's a very exciting time. I will leave a list of all the books in this video down below and if you follow my other booktube channel you'll get to see a vlog of the entire shopping trip around the city where these books were purchased. So that's gone up this week as well. I hope that wherever you're on the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.