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.

6th January Epiphany Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431) Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Fog

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbour and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer who was best known for his poetry. There would be very few poetry anthologies for children which do not have Fog or some other poem of his. Fog is perfect for learning and reciting. It is also good for teaching children about the power of imagery.

It is Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, the time when the Three Wise Men came to visit baby Jesus in his manger, time to take down the Christmas decorations and time to think about going back to school. I wrote about Epiphany yesterday.

Joan of Arc, known as St Joan because she is a Catholic saint was a French heroine of the Hundred Years' War. Born a peasant, she led the French army to several victories before being captured, tried by the English and left to burn on a stake when she was only nineteen years old. Joan of Arc's story has been told in picture book format several times. See:

• Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett

• Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley

• Joan of Arc: Heroine of France by Ann Tomert and Michael Garland, and

• Joan of Arc by Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman (this has a longer text, but very dynamic illustrations)