15th April Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1459 ) Pamela Freeman (1960)

It is Leonardo da Vinci's birthday! Year 2 where I teach undertake an extensive enquiry of his life, inventions and artwork. They thoroughly enjoy it and make some wonderful discoveries. The library has a very large collection of books to support this unit, but the newest book is the one I want to highlight here - Leonardo Da Vinci by Steve Augarde and Leo Brown. It has a subtitle on its front cover - Discover the world of Leonardo through his apprentice's diary - and that is exactly how its starts, as a diary written by ten year old Paola who tells about his life between 1490 and 1498. When the diary finishes with the painting of the Last Supper, then there are some other sections about what happened next, a timeline of Leonardo's life, information about the Renaissance and Italy at the time, information about his inventions and paintings. It is comprehensive but not overpowering for young readers. It is a highly visual book, albeit without great illustrations, it includes reproductions of Leonardo's drawings and paintings and its presentation is done in a fun way.

Now to the birthday of someone who is very much alive, Pamela Freeman, an Australian author who is writing books for young people many of which draw them into the fantasy genre and make them make connections with other things that they have read. Most popular of her books are Victor's Quest and its sequel Victor's Challenge. Dr Freeman teaches writing courses and visits schools enthusing children about writing. Learn more about her at her website.

14th April Titanic Hits Iceberg 1912

I find it hard to believe how interested children are in the Titanic. They don't seem that keen about other aspects of history. Is it because it was a disaster? Whatever the reason, there was a time when books about the Titanic were the most borrowed books in the library. Year 2 boys would be squabbling over who was having which book next. They are not the most borrowed at the moment, but some of them are still very popular and we have at least ten different titles. Among the more popular books are:

• Story of the Titanic by Steve Noon

• The Story of the Titanic by Deborah Heiligman

• Titanic by Anna Claybourne & Katie Daynes

• Survivors; The Night the Titanic Sank by Caryn Jenner

• Polar the Titanic Bear by Daisy Corning Stone Spedden, and

• Tonight on the Titanic Mary Pope Osborne

13th April Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell is a British illustrator/author whose books often seem to turn reality on its head. He has a zany sense of humour and immense creativity in his books. He works closely with Paul Stewart on several series of novels for primary-school-aged children, but he has done picture books and the Ottoline books by himself. The third Ottoline will come this year.

Two of his picture books that are fail-proof with children are The Emperor of Absurdia and Mr Underbed. Both of these are full of amazing imaginary creatures that appear to be so friendly that no child would ever be scared.

There is minimal text, but detailed illustrations with plenty to look at and wonder about... such as umbrella trees, sky fish and dinner coming before lunch.

If you want to walk around smiling all day go to Chris' website and read the section about him and then go into fun stuff and watch him draw while he chats.

12th April Hardie Gramatky (1907 - 1979) Beverly Cleary (1916) Sally Hunter (1965)

'There is no one quite like Ramona Geraldine Quimby', so says Beverly Cleary's website, and she is right. The very first book I ever serialised for a class was Ramona the Pest. The class constantly sniggered about references to Ramona and had in class jokes about 'present' for the rest of the year. I think it is lovely that America has National Drop Everything and Read Day on Beverly Cleary's birthday because of a reference to Ramona taking part in Drop Everything and Read in her school. At the school I teach at we have silent sustained reading or Drop Everything and Read first thing after lunch. Beverly certainly is well-known because of her Ramona, Beezus, Henry and Ribsy characters but look at her website and explore other books with characters you may not have met.

Hardie Gramatky was not as prolific a writer as Beverly Cleary, but he had the added gift of being an artist as well. He worked for Walt Disney and is remembered by children because of his classic book, Little Toot. To commemorate what would have been his hundredth birthday in 2007, his book was reissued with enhanced colour illustrations. To learn more about this listen here.

And, the third birthday of note is that of Sally Hunter, the author/illustrator of the Humphrey books. These stories and the Humphrey's Corner website are for preschoolers and their parents who cherish stories that accompany toys. It is twelve years since the first Humphrey book and children in my library are still keen to borrow Humphrey and Lottie toys to take home with books.

11th April Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

Yom HaShoah is a Jewish holiday, the Jewish day of remembering that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, a third of the Jewish population. Something as 'shocking' as the Holocaust is not always easy to share with young children and some would go as far as to say that it is an inappropriate topic for children's books. As a high school student who read The Diary of Anne Frank, I was both appalled and fascinated. I had to read everything. I then read The Upstairs Room and anything else I could find. I read my way through Judith Kerr's series that began with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I read Esther Hautzig's The Endless Steppe. I am still drawn to books on this topic, having recently read Diane Armstrong's Winter Journey and Nocturne, David Benioff's City of Thieves and John Boyne's The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

I would use picture books about war with young children, especially in the context of a larger area of enquiry, but I do not expect them to glean everything there is in a book from one reading. Books such as those I will list need to be read, reread, reflected upon and revisited after time. The wonderful thing about 'deep' books is that they can be revisited at different times, at different ages and for different purposes.

Two picture books which deal with the Holocaust by being stories based on real events are A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler and The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse. The first is biographical narrative that puts Anne's life in a historical context and the second tells of how the people of Warsaw collected cats to put the dogs off the smell of people moving around underground.

Two books that are not biographical, but which deal with issues of life in concentration camps are Don't Forget by Patricia Lakin, where Sarah comes to terms with the numbers tattooed on wrists of older people she interacts with while planning to make a cake for her grandmother, and Let the Celebrations Begin by Margaret Wild where twelve year old Miriam plans to make toys for a special party for the children in the camp as the war is about to end.

To follow up on David A. Adler from yesterday, he has in fact written many books for children on the Holocaust and on his website has a separate section on them. I also found the introduction of Claire Rudin's article and bibliography particularly interesting reading.

10th April Martin Waddell (1941) David A. Adler (1947)

Isn't it amazing that Martin Waddell was born one day after Nigel Gray, in Ireland too? I wonder if they know each other. Martin Wardell needs no introduction. Every child knows him because of his Little Bear books, Owl Babies and Farmer Duck.They are 'classics' already and I am sure they will still be read long after Martin and I have given up reading to children.

Martin said in an interview cited by Walker Books, "I was read to a lot as a child by people who knew how to read stories. These stories came alive for me, and the love of story has stayed with me ever since." It is because of this, I feel that he is the consummate story teller. His books come alive when they are read, even by a poor reader so if they are read by a good reader they become memorable and beg then to be reread often. I have had the pleasure of hearing Martin read aloud twice, once to children at my school and despite the Irish accent the children were riveted. There was was over 100 children in the room and they were all mesmerised.

There is so much about Martin and his books on the Internet, that I don't feel the need to write more, but if you only know the books listed above, seek out others such as Little Mo, Snow Bears, It's Quacking Time, The Pig in the Pond and The Tough Princess.

David A. Adler first came to my notice with the Cam Jansen series of short novels for newly fluent readers. I hadn't noticed his name before this, but now I know he has written many picture books as well, one of which is very appropriate for tomorrow. More then.

9th April Nigel Gray (1941)

Nigel Gray is an Irish born author who lives in Western Australia. He has a long list of published picture books, most of which are illustrated by extremely successful illustrators, such as Bob Graham, Gregory Rogers, Jane Ray and Philippe Dupasquier. For this reason it is hard to know which books to write about. The two that are easy to incorporate into classroom lessons are probably A Country Far Away and A Balloon For Grandad because these two are sensitively written, are joyful celebrations, have themes that show the world as a small place where people have similar experiences regardless of where they are or what race they are from and they do this without getting didactic. However, for its rich language and vocabulary and for having a plot that every child can relate to, you can't go past Running Away From Home.