19th August Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971)

Ogden Nash is the American poet responsible for two of my favourite poems, The Adventures of Isabel and The Tale of Custard the Dragon. Read with vigour and plenty of animation these two poems are failproof. Both poems exist as stand alone picture books, but they are also in many anthologies. Isabel, the unflappable heroine of the first poem is good value as a character..."Isabel, Isabel didn't worry, Isabel didn't scream or scurry"..."she quietly ate the bear up." The Bridget Taylor illustrated version of the poem comes with a CD read by Ogden Nash, but I wouldn't recommend the reading. It is flat and undramatic. You can do a better job of reciting the poem, and exciting your audience to get involved. The second poem about Custard the "realio, trulio, little pet dragon" and Belinda who lived in a little white house is illustrated by Lynn Munsinger in her two picture books.

Ogden Nash is witty and irreverent. He is the master of brevity...see his poem Fleas!

Adam

Had-em.

The master of observation, humorously stated...

Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore,

and that's what parents were created for.

14th July Peggy Parish (1927 - 1988) Laura Numeroff (1953)

Peggy Parish is well known because of her Amelia Bedelia series of books. She had done 12 titles when she died suddenly. The publishers felt that the series could continue and Peggy's nephew Hermann decided to keep the series going. If you look at the Amelia Bedelia website you can see which are the twelve original titles and which are the newer ones.

Laura Numeroff is also well-known because of a series of books, her If You ... series. They were slow to come to Australia but now that they are here and have accompanying toys they are well-borrowed. The library has a large mouse toy to accompany If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and he makes the book even more appealing. As well as this series illustrated by Felicia Bond Laura has other books such as Beatrice Doesn't Want To and the popular new The Jellybeans and the Big Dance which are illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.