29th April World Wish Day

World Wish Day occurs on the 29th April each year and originated because of a seven year old child who was sick with leukaemia wishing for something to happen in 1980. His wish was granted and when people heard about it the Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded. It has become a well-known world-wide children's charity but I am writing about this day because of a request I had from a preschool teacher at the end of last term for books about 'wishing'. She had been talking to her class about wishes and realised that the children didn't really know what a wish was when she asked them what they would wish for during an activity.

There are so many books I could have given her. Narrowing it down to a small number was hard. Most of the picture books with 'wish' in the title have a Christmas setting so I avoided them except for Jane Godwin and Anna Walker's beauty, What Do You Wish For? , and gave her that and these:

• Wish by Roseanne Thong and Elisa Kleven
• I Wish... by Nick Ward
• I Wish For More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld
• The Wish Giver by Roseanne Hawke and Lenore Penner
• The Wish Factory by Chris Riddell
• The Fish Who Could Wish by Korky Paul
• The Wish Tree  by Kyo Maclear and Chris Turnham
• The Wishing Boat by Amanda Tarlau and Chris Saunders



We all make wishes and these wishes differ greatly in magnitude but it was interesting to see that a concept we as adults take for granted was something the three and four year olds at an affluent school needed to be introduced to through planned intervention. The classroom now has a wish tree and they talk about wishes and wishing in their regular discourse. If you have none of the books above buy The Wish Tree  or watch it here. Danielle Davis from the blog This Picture Book Life outlines an accompany activity she has planned for the book here and there are other ideas on the web.

29th April Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Thanks to Eric at Happy Birthday Author I now know that today is author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal's birthday. Every time she publishes a new book I am amazed all over again. She is so clever. Where does she get her ideas? Each book is so unique! The children in the my library love Spoon and Chopsticks. What eating implement will be next? Amy obviously likes wordplay. Even her website has interactive features based on words for readers to play with. Do you want it to be windy or rainy? Choose the ambience you would prefer. It is not always easy to find her books in Australia. Her newest I Scream for Icecream is here already, but I still haven't seen Exclamation Mark. This trailer really whet my appetite and I want to see the whole thing. Just as each of her books are unique often the message in her books, whatever the main character may be, is that each of us is special and has much to offer. We shouldn't be discouraged by others or feel that they are better than us. Now that I know I also have to acquaint myself with her books for adults and organise something special display-wise for next year.

14th June Janice May Udry (1928) Bruce Degen (1945) Tom Lichtenheld

Three birthdays that I didn't know about last year, so these need to be added to the list with Judith Kerr and Laurence Yep. I know American author, Janice May Udry only because of A Tree is Nice and I must say I think of Marc Simont before I think of her, but nevertheless she needs to be remembered as this book is definitely a classic. It was her first book and it won the Caldecott Medal in 1957!

Bruce Degen is much more prolific and thus well-known, as he the illustrator of Joanna Cole's Magic School Bus series as well as many other books such as Jamberry. You can watch him on a Reading Rockets video.

And thirdly, another American illustrator, Tom Lichtenheld who has become popular in my library recently because of Duck! Rabbit! (written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal), Shark vs Train (written by Chris Barton) and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (written by Sherri Duskey Rinker).