8th April Trina Schart Hyman (1939 - 2004)

Trina Schart Hyman is written about at length and at this website is a very comprehensive biography with examples of her illustrations. She won the Caldecott Medal in 1985 for St George and the Dragon which was written by Margaret Hodges and she has had three Caldecott Honour books. I especially like her retelling of Little Red Riding Hood so when I read that it was her favourite story and that she spent a year of her life wearing a red cape I wasn't surprised. There seems to be so much love/warmth in her Red Riding Hood. She beams with enthusiasm, she is pretty and you cannot help but like her and read the story from her point of view. I haven't seen her book called Self-Portrait; Trina Schart Hyman but the pictures I have seen from it make me want to go in search of it.

7th April World Health Day

World Health Day is celebrated on the 7th April each year. It has a myriad of aims but as part of its 1000 cities campaign this year, two of the focusses are to

• design cities to promote physical activity, and

• promote active city life and sports for all.

With this in mind, while accessioning books for the library today I read Goal! by Mina Javaherbin and A.G.Ford and thought how appropriate, a story about a group of boys who play soccer in the street in a town in South Africa. They play with a real federation-size football, that was won by Adjani, one of the boys, 'for being the best reader in class'! But, 'the streets are not always safe', and one of the boys has to be on watch. While they are playing another group of boys comes to steal the ball. Despite the hardship, the football-playing group of boys outwit the bullies and continue playing.

This scenario is very foreign to the children I teach, but they like soccer (football) so this book will be read, just like Tim Vyner's World Team is, and with each reading and each discussion their awareness of how some other children live will be heightened and they will appreciate the freedoms and facilities that they can access .

Javaherbin includes an author's note at the end of her book where she says, among other things, 'to this day, in the face of poverty, bully rulers, and unsafe alleys, people play soccer.' What a great discussion starter and a means of debating how sport unifies people. Good time to revisit Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard too, all in time for the World Cup.

6th April Graeme Base (1958)

Graeme Base was born in the UK, but Australia claims him as an Australian author/illustrator. His work is outstanding and very different from other picture book illustrators. He is probably best known for his second book Animalia which is an 'alphabet book', but it is not simple or for very young children. The pictures are very detailed and 'chock a block' full of things to find. The pictures are humorous and full of whimsy. Check out the lazy lions in the local library for L.

While I like all of his books, my favourite is The Waterhole. Some parent-borrowers mistake it for a 'counting' book, and therefore won't borrow it, but it is far more than that. It has a brief text, which like the text in Animalia is rhythmic and alliterative, but it also has amazing paper engineering, beautifully detailed illustrations of African animals and an important ecological message about the importance of water in the world. Graeme Base's more recent books offer children so much more than an enriching reading/viewing experience. There is so much to learn!

5th April

The Easter break is just about over, but as there are no birthdays today, I thought I would write about picture books for Easter. My favourite Easter picture book is Muddy Footprints by Mary Small and Pat Reynolds. It is old and out of print, but I share it with Kindergarten every year in the week before Easter. It is ideal because being Australian, it depicts an Easter where

it is raining, it is Autumn and the outdoor egghunt is thwarted. The children relate instantly to Sam and Lucy because they have lived this experience!

Egghunts are the focus of two other picture books suitable for sharing with Kindergarten or preschool children. Firstly, Max's Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells. Here Max sabotages bossy Ruby's carefully planned egghunt in his usual mischievous way. Children love watching the pictures tell another story from the one that Ruby and the text are telling. A similar idea is used in Olivier Dunrea's newest Gossie and Friends book, Ollie's Easter Eggs. Gossie, Gertie, BooBoo and Peedie are working hard while Ollie plays. Each of them collects, dyes and hides an egg, but Ollie moves them to other hiding places. As usual the crisp white pages have perfect ink and watercolour illustrations.

4th April Maya Angelou (1928) Phoebe Gilman (1940 - 2002) Helme Heine (1941)

Maya Angelou is a revered American author, but she has not written many children's books. The one that is in our library though is not to be missed. It is My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me. It is the story of Thandi, a South African girl, her mischievous brother and her pet chicken. The pictures are beautiful and they highlight the amazing mural art that is produced by the women of Thandi's tribe. Of course, it is borrowed more often than not by parents rather than children, but it allows for much discussion with children about how their lives differ from Thandi's.

Phoebe Gilman, is also American but she lived most of her adult life in Canada before her early death in 2002. She is best known by children because of her series of books about Jillian Jiggs. As the author/illustrator of these books they are extremely consistent. They can be relied upon to have great rhythm and rhyme, mischief and fun.

And thirdly, Helme Heine is a German author/illustrator. He would be best known to English reading children for Friends, a story about a rooster, a mouse and a pig who are best friends, but given that it is Easter and we are thinking eggs, I want to mention my favourite of his books, The Most Wonderful Egg in the World. It is probably out of print so you will need to find it in a library. Our copy is old and tattered, but the story is very fitting for the competitive children that I teach who are always into comparison. Three hens argue about who is the most beautiful and they are given the task of laying the best egg. This story is silly and message-laden all at once!

3rd April Pamela Allen (1934) Debra Frasier (1953)

Pamela Allen is a New Zealander, but Australian children think she is Australian because her books are published here. She did live here for quite a time , but has settled back in

Auckland. She is prolific, and as the author and illustrator she makes a great choice for teachers who want to do an author and/or illustrator study. Her books are always out of the library and they are so well used they often need replacing. My favourite is Alexander's Outing and the children's favourite is Mr McGee and the Biting Flea. They love the fact that Mr McGee is hopping all over the place with his clothes off!

The second author celebrating a birthday today is American, Debra Frasier. Like Pamela Allen she too is an author/illustrator, but she has many fewer books to study. I first got to know her work when I purchased Out of the Ocean. A Year 1 teacher borrowed it and used the

wonderful collages in it as an art focus and her class then produced an amazing mural for an art show. Since then the book has been popular. In the library we also have Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster. This hilarious story lends itself to dressing up, and having a parade of 'vocabulary'. On Debra's website their are examples of

schools who have done just that!

2nd April Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875) International Children's Book Day Ruth Heller (1923 - 2004) Emily Rodda (1948)

Today is Hans Christian Andersen's birthday and it is the day that the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) chose to celebrate annually as the day to inspire young children to read and to promote quality children's books the world over, that is it is International Children's Book Day. Each year IBBY produces a poster, such as the one above which is the 2010 one. Every two years they also announce the winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. This prestigious award is given to an author, this year to David Almond from the United Kingdom and an illustrator, this year to Jutta Bauer from Germany.

Hans Christian Andersen needs no introduction. His stories continue to be read by children, especially as many accomplished illustrators continue to illustrate versions of his stories as single picture books. The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Princess and the Pea are popular with the children in my library.

Ruth Heller's book, Chickens Aren't the Only Ones is always popular, especially when it is Easter or school has eggs incubating. It does not matter that it is old or that other authors have written about the same thing. The combination of Ruth's bright colours and just the right amount of information makes it work beautifully. It also goes beyond birds and reptiles when looking

at who lays eggs.

Lastly, it is Australian author Emily Rodda's birthday. Really it must be Jennifer Rowe's birthday because Emily Rodda is a pen name used by adult book author Jennifer Rowe when she is writing books for children. She is well known in the library because of the Deltora Quest; Fairy Realm and Squeak Street series.