12th May International Nurses Day Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)

International Nurses Day is the perfect time to celebrate the contribution these health-workers make to the community. It is celebrated on this day to commemorate the birth of English nurse, Florence Nightingale in 1820. Florence, so named because she was born in Florence, was famous for her work during the Crimean War and the tuition of her fellow nurses. She epitomised commitment and devotion to her patients and quality care, something nurses still aspire to today. She became known as 'the lady with the lamp' because she even tended to her patients at night by lamp light.

Florence was an educated woman and she disliked the lack of opportunity for females in her social circle. She began to visit the poor and look after those who were ill and although this was not seen as a noble act she persevered and came to raise the reputation of nursing as a role for women. There are many non-fiction children's books about nurses and Florence Nightingale in particular. Two that fit the bill are Florence Nightingale by Lucy Lethbridge, one of the titles in the Usborne series 'Famous Lives' and We Need Nurses one of the numerous books in a series about community workers.

10th May Linda Glaser

Linda Glaser is an American author who understands how difficult it is for some children to learn to read. She says on her website that 'when I was a kid, I used to say I hated reading. That's because it was so hard for me. I struggled and struggled and sometimes feared I’d never get the hang of it. However, I loved books! Some of my fondest memories are of being read to by my mother. I still love being read to. But I did finally learn to read on my own - in third grade.' Linda has a keen interest in the environment and immigration and the themes of her books reflect this. Her books are not so easy to find in Australia, but my library has her long poem Our Big Home; An Earth Poem which is illustrated by Elisa Kleven and it is a gem. I hope Emma's Poem comes here too.

9th May Eleanor Estes (1906 - 1988) William Pene Du Bois (1916 - 1993) Richard Adams (1920) Roger Hargreaves (1935 - 1988)

So many birthdays today. Last year I wrote about J.M.Barrie, the author of Peter Pan and Harry Horse the author/illustrator of a delightful series of books about Little Rabbit. This year I want to mention all the others who have a birthday today.

Eleanor Estes is the American author of the classic book The Hundred Dresses. This story first published in 1944 is one of the first children's books that deals overtly with bullying, especially the exclusion kind that girls are so good at. She wrote other books for young readers, some of which were illustrated by the great English illustrator, Edward Ardizzone and are still in print.

William Pene Du Bois was born to French artists and he migrated to America, where he became both an author and illustrator. He won the Newbery Medal for his novel Twenty-one Balloons but in my early childhood library he is better known for his illustrations in the classic picture book William's Doll which was written by Charlotte Zolotow.

Richard Adams is the English author of the classic Watership Down, a story that very few of my clientele could read independently, but many know because of parents and movies. This story like so many of the best tales began as something Adams told to his daughters.

And last, but of course not least, it is Roger Hargreaves' birthday. He is the author/illustrator of those infamous Mr Men and Little Miss books that have spurned all sorts of marketing ventures. I am nort sure that we could call Mr Tickle a classic, but this first Mr Men book, created in answer to something Hargreaves' son Adam asked him as a child, has probably sold just as many copies as something such as Watership Down which has been labelled a classic.

7th May Nonny Hogrogian (1932) Peter Carey (1943)

Nonny Hogrogian is an American author/illustrator who has won the Caldecott Award twice, once for her very first book, Always Room For One More and secondly for One Fine Day, a retelling of an Armenian tale.

Peter Carey is an Australian novelist, best known for his adult novels which have won many awards. He has won the Booker Prize twice and the Miles Franklin Award three times, but he has written a children's novel, The Big Bazoohley, a story about nine year old pyjama-clad Sam who is locked out of the hotel room he is staying in with his parents. This story is such a success with children that it is a shame Carey hasn't written more for children in the way Tim Winton has.

Interestingly, Carey lives in New York and teaches at Hunter College and Nonny Hogrogian, who was born in New York is a graduate of Hunter College!

4th May Don Wood (1945) Rod Campbell (1945) Doug Cushman (1953)

Don Wood is an American author illustrator best known for the many books he has collaborated on with his wife Audrey Wood. Everyone knows and loves the cumulative tale, The Napping House.

Doug Cushman is also American. He is an illustrator, best known in Australia probably for his Aunt Eater series of I Can Read books and his illustrations in Douglas Wood's 'The Can't Do' series, but I like to display the book of poems he illustrated for Jack Prelutsky What a Day it was at School!

And the third birthday belongs to the preschool book expert Rod Campbell. Every baby, toddler and school child has loved playing the guess-what-is-under-the-flap games that his books invite. Books such as Dear Zoo quietly teach children to look for patterns, to expect repetition, to enjoy rhythm and to know that books can be fun. And with this comes a need to repeat the experience. Rod campbell pioneered the interactive book and now children have so many interactive books, some very sophisticated, like the -ology books (eg. Egyptology, Oceanology), but Rod Campbell's still draw in the readers of the future.

3rd May Suekichi Akaba (1910 - 1990) Ian Whybrow (1961)

Suekichi Akaba is a Hans Christian Andersen award winning, Japanese -born illustrator who had the centenary of his birth last year. He said, A picture book is not a picture gallery. Displaying good pictures one by one will not make a good picture book. What is important is the flow and the drama created by turning the pages. How true this is! He was 50 when he had his first picture book published. This was based on an old folktale and his subsequent books continued to be based on folktales. I have read that his illustrations use many different kinds of Japanese paper, each fulfilling a specific function or communicating specific moods and that he liked bright colours, but I have only seen Suho's White Horse so I cannot say this for myself.

In contrast Ian Whybrow is a very contemporary children's author from Britain who has written many books and has other people illustrate them. He used to be an English teacher and he certainly seems to know what children enjoy to read. He is best known in my library because of Harry and the Dinosaurs but there are other books just as worthy of mention. I particularly like Little Wolf from Little Wolf's Book of Badness fame and his series of beginning novels known as Books for Boys. He has just released a new junior novel called Meerkat Madness which I am sure will be a hit with my readers because they all seem to be besotted with meerkats. The real ones at Taronga Zoo are pretty special and very funny!

1st May Mother Goose Day! Daniel Kirk (1952)

Mother Goose Day is a day that I always try to plan something for because children do not know their nursery rhymes like they did when I first started teaching and because there are so many great language activities that you can do using nursery rhymes. I wrote about them on this day last year so I don't want to dwell on them here. I have bikes and New York on my mind because my daughter is riding in the Five Buro Bike Ride today and I am envious.

So today I want to highlight five books, with very tenuous links...they are about New York or bikes and one, The Magic Bicycle by Brian Patten and Arthur Robins even manages to include both! The others are:

• This is New York by Miroslav Sasek

• A Walk in New York by Salvatore Rubbino

• Larry Gets Lost in New York City by Michael Mullin and John Skewes. Here a dog named Larry manages to visit all five buroughs of New York! and

• The Magical Bicycle by Berlie Doherty and Christian Birmingham

P.S I have just learned that it is Daniel Kirk's birthday and as he is the author/illustrator of Library Mouse he should rate a mention. His website has good activities for this book so check it out.