27th May Lynn Sweat (1934)

Lynn Sweat is an artist and writer who is best known to young readers as the man who creates the illustrations to the "Amelia Bedelia" books. These were started by Peggy Parish, but she ended the series after a decade. Amelia's adventures were then restarted by Parish's nephew, Herman Parish, for a new generation of readers. Sweat has illustrated the entire series, much to the approval of both critics and readers. The children who use the library still enjoy Amelia Bedelia even though I think of them as old-fashioned. Lynn Sweat feels that these days his illustration work is secondary to his work as an artist from which he makes his living.

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.