Myra here.
Every Saturday we hope to share with you our thoughts on reading and books. We thought that it would be good practice to reflect on our reading lives and our thoughts about reading in general. While on occasion, we would feature a few books in keeping with this, there would be a few posts where we will just write about our thoughts on read-alouds, libraries, reading journals, upcoming literary conferences, books that we are excited about, and just book love miscellany in general.
A few months ago, I gave a conference presentation during the MBBY (Malaysian Board on Books for Young People) Regional Conference in Putrajaya. There, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Jenni Woodroffe who happens to be the Vice President/ Secretary of IBBY Australia. Jenni generously invited me to give a reprise of my speech during the Annual General Meeting of IBBY in Australia. Needless to say, I will add even more newly-discovered books since my last presentation, and I am very excited to share this with Australian friends, librarians, book lovers.
I will also be conducting a professional development workshop with teachers entitled:
Welcoming “The Others”on the Wings of Peace through Multicultural Picturebooks: Using Children’s Literature to Promote Inclusive Practices in the Classroom
This PD session would look into socially inclusive books which tackle difficult topics, highlighting the presence of ‘the others’ in society: such as those with special needs, giftedness, nontraditional families, migrants, the elderly or the sick, to cite a few. It is hoped that exposure to such picture books will assist in developing prosocial behaviours (compassion, empathy, understanding) among children.
Gathering Books 
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