Competent at peever: Liz Lochhead at Scotland Street

I loved this exhibition at Scotland Street School Museum! Competent at peever is the result of Liz Lochhead's year-long residency at Scotland Street and comprises poems, drawings and collages on the themes of childhood and primary school. This would be a great exhibition to take children to - while I was there, several classes passed through, all very well behaved. Student teachers would also appreciate it - I bought a collection of poetry, but even the booklet which accompanies the exhibition reproduces several of the poems and could be used in the classroom.

The highlight for me was Liz's art school project from 1968 in which she went back to her old school - it brought back so many memories since that was the year I finished primary. Not all pleasant unfortunately - I enjoyed learning "sums" with the cuisenaire rods she illustrated, and there's a real set to look at elsewhere in the museum (and also in Strathclyde University's Education Resource Centre), but my headmaster was not as benevolent as Mr Ritchie of Newarthill, and I still smart with humiliation from an undeserved punishment. You could have an interesting discussion about teaching methods then and now just based on that section.

If you're in Glasgow, hop, skip and jump over to this exhibition as soon as you can! It's on till 7th April. If you're not a Scot and you don't know what peever is, that last sentence should give you a clue - or read Poem for my sister: "I like to watch my little sister playing hopscotch.........She is competent at peever."

For more photographs of the exhibition, see my travel blog.

Julia Donaldson exhibition

An exhibition of contemporary children's book illustration curated by Julia Donaldson opens at the Park Gallery in Falkirk on 12th March. The Illustrators is an exhibition of work by artists who have illustrated Julia's books, such as Axel Scheffler. There is also a programme of events. Get ready for a visit by borrowing some of Julia's books from us.

Brian Wildsmith

I discovered recently that there is a Brian Wildsmith Museum of Art in Japan, founded in  Izukogen in 1994. It is modelled on his atelier/house in Southern France and contains original illustrations for picture books and stage designs, posters, large-scale paintings, drawings produced during his art school years, work by his family, photographs and small artefacts.

For more information about Brian Wildsmith, see his own site, this Booktrust interview and lots more if you Google him. And of course, we have a good collection of his work in this library.

Roald Dahl Museum

Situated in the village where Roald Dahl lived and wrote for 36 years (Great Missenden), the Roald Dahl Museum was created as a home for the author's unique archive and to inspire a love of stories and creative writing in its visitors. Obviously, this is a long way from Glasgow - but there are things on the website to enjoy without visiting, particularly the Discover Dahl section which has fantastic facts, quizzes and, best of all, a virtual tour of Dahl's writng hut. You can even view the contents of his wastepaper basket, his filing cabinet and his desk. These include his false teeth! Great fun.

Eric Carle's blog

Thanks to Tidy Books whose tweet alerted me to Eric Carle's blog and his lovely post about Christmas memories from his childhood in Germany. See also the official Eric Carle website and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. And of course we've got lots of his books in Jordanhill Library - see a few below.

Museum of Story & Storytelling (Oxford)

From Lewis Carroll's Wonderland to JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth, CS Lewis's Narnia and the parallel universes of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Oxford has played host to some of the UK's most enduring literary creations. Now a £2.5m donation from an anonymous private benefactor means the first steps have been taken towards the creation of a museum dedicated to storytelling in the city. Read reports from the Guardian and CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus.