11th January Ann Tompert

I just read some sad news. Dick King Smith died on the 4th January. I know 88 is a good innings, but news like this is always hard to take knowing that there will be no new wonderful Dick King Smith stories. I love his humour and word magic. See 27th March entry for more about his books. Today I walked with my daughter and the dog she has been minding for the last three weeks. The dog is big and boisterous, but doesn't always seem in control of his feet and I couldn't help but think of one of the dogs in Dick King Smith's Puppy Love.

In the paper I also read about No Pants Subway Ride and had a giggle at the photos of people standing at stations in fully-clothed upper bodies but only their undies

and footwear on the bottom, all right in Sydney's hot weather, not so much fun in the winter weather of New York and Boston. Then I thought I bet it was a male who came up with this idea, one who spent all of his Year 1 at school reading about underwear. Six year old boys seem to be besotted with underwear books and luckily there is now so many of them, besides Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants, Michael Wagner's Undys series and Claire Freedman's Aliens in Underpants series that they have no trouble finding more. I can do an underwear display without even trying hard!

P.S. It is author Ann Tompert's birthday. I wrote about her book Joan of Arc just the other day, but another book of hers that is always worth digging out especially when talking about tangrams is Grandfather Tang's Story: A Tale Told With Tangrams.