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.

Speed Dating Picturebooks From Around The World

Last Saturday, I did a keynote for the EAST Librarians Knowledge Sharing Workshop 2017 (LKSW2017). I brought three huge suitcases filled with multicultural picturebooks, which I promptly arranged across the five social and emotional learning domains (Self Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Management, Responsible Decision Making).

It was preparation-heavy and quite labour-intensive, but I just so love curating picturebooks – especially to my favourite people in the world: librarians!! The idea is for them to vote for their top three favourite titles across the subdomains. This is the original post with the poll results, and a sample of how it appears when you click View Results – I love PollDaddy!

Here are the results.

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Self-Awareness

Identification of Emotions

(1) Happy by Mies Van Hout (15 Votes)

(2) Feeling Sad by Sarah Verroken (13 Votes)

(3) Tough Guys Have Feelings Too by Keith Negley (9 Votes)

Self and Family

(1) My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins (10 Votes)

(2) Three Books Tied For Second Place (8 Votes): For You Are A Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane and Ana Juan, In A Village By The Sea by Muon Van and April Chu, Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie and Yuyi Morales.

Self and Identity, Self-efficacy, recognizing one’s worth, self-transformation

(1) Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall (17 Votes)

(2) The Day I Became A Bird by Ingrid Chabbert and Guridi (13 Votes)

(3) The Bear And The Piano by David Litchfield (9 votes)

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 Self-Management

Stress Management, Dealing with Death and Depression

(1) Small Things by Mel Tregonning (24 Votes)

(2) Two Books Tied For Second Place (8 Votes): Cry Heart but Never Break by Glenn Ringtved and Charlotte Pardi (Illustrations) and Robert Moulthrop (Translation), Harry and Hopper by Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood.

Pursuit of Dreams, Creativity, Play, Imagination, Vagaries of Memory

(1) Two Books Tied for First Place (10 Votes): The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, Imagine by Robert Messenger

(2) Two Books Tied For Second Place (8 votes): Ideas Are All Around, I Moved My Hand by Jorge Luján and Mandana Sadat (Illustrations) and Elisa Amado (Translation).

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(3) Social Awareness

Global Citizenship, Appreciating Diversity, Respect For Others

(1) Mirror by Jeannie Baker (17 Votes)

(2) What Is A Child? by Beatrice Alemagna (10 Votes)

(3) Two Books Tied For Third Place (7 Votes): One And All by Elisa Gehin, One Gorilla by Anthony Browne.

Portrayal of Special Needs, Different Abilities

(1) What Color Is The Wind? by Anne Herbauts (11 Votes)

(2) Luke’s Way Of Looking by Nadia Wheatley and Matt Ottley (10 Votes)

(3) Two Books Tied For Third Place (6 Votes): The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré (Illustrator), Helen’s Big World: The Life Of Helen Keller by Doreen Rappaport and Matt Tavares.

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(4) Relationship Management

Children in Transition, Moving, Making Friends, Resolving Conflicts

(1) Friends by Mies Van Hout (11 Votes)

(2) I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien (8 Votes)

(3) The Forgiveness Garden by Lauren Thompson and Christy Hale (6 Votes)

Relationship With Books

(1) If I Were A Book by José Jorge Letria and André Letria (Illustrations)

(2) A Child Of Books by Oliver Jeffers

(3) I Am A Story by Dan Yaccarino

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(5) Responsible Decision Making

Providing service to the community: Bringing Story, Magic, and Joy

(1) All The Lost Things by Kelly Canby (19 Votes)

(2) Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith (Illustrator) (9 Votes)

(3) The Word Collector by Sonja Wimmer (7 Votes)

Human Rights Advocacy, Social Justice, Personal Moral and Ethical Responsibility

(1) Three Books Tied For First Place (9 Votes): A Is For Activist by Innosanto Nagara, I Dissent by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley (Illustrator), Razia’s Ray Of Hope by Elizabeth Suneby and Suana Verelst (Illustrations).

(2) The Book Itch by by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie (Illustrations) (7 Votes)

(3) Eleanor Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport and Gary Kelley (Illustrations)

That’s it! I therefore conclude that the best dates in the world are international picturebooks.