Happy birthday to J. K. Rowling, born this day 1965. Rowling gave us the Harry Potter series, which I and many others will be forever grateful. Play a game of Quidditch with your Potterhead friends and finish with a butter beer in honour of this children’s literature titan.
What’s your favorite Harry Potter book?
Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter, born on this day in 1866. Potter gave us The Tale of Peter Rabbit and the many spin-off tales, which greatly shaped picture books how picture books are packaged and published even today!
Naughty Peter!
What’s your favorite book by Beatrix Potter?
Happy birthday to Hans Christian Andersen, born April 2nd, 1805
Andersen wrote over 160 fairytales (!), many of which are now houseold classics such as The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Snow Queen (hello inspiration for Frozen), and The Princess and the Pea. My favorite? It has to be The Little Mermaid!
“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”
Kay Nielson illustration
What’s your favorite Andersen fairy tale?
Happy Birthday to Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, born March 2nd 1904.
Interesting fact: Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet that he couldn’t write a story using fifty words or less. He won the bet 🙂
My favorite Dr. Seuss is How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I know, really orginal choice, but I love it)
What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?
Happy Birthday to Wilhem Grimm, born on this day in 1786
Wilhem and his brother collected and shaped the fairy tales that we know and love today: Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, the Juniper Tree to name only a few. If you’re interest, fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes recently published the first ever english translation of the Brother Grimms’ first edition of collected fairy tales. The version of tales we are most familiar with are from an eighth edition, and were heavily edited by the brothers to be more appropriate for children. So yes, the tales we think are gruesome are the HIGHLY EDITED ONES. Zipes’s translation features stories that the brothers removed from later editions, as well as show the tales in their most “raw” form.
What’s your favorite Grimm fairy tale?
Happy Birthday to Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of The Little House on the Prairie series
Laura was born in 1867, making this her 148th birthday!
What’s your favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book?
Happy Birthday to Ezra Jack Keats, born March 11th, 1916.
Keats was an illustrator and writer of children’s books, and is credited with being a major force behind introducing multiculturalism into children’s literature. Argubly his most well known picture book is The Snowy Day (1962), which won the Caldecott Medal, and has been named one of the most influential books of the 20th Century. If you’ve never read it, I would highly recommend reading it to your little ones.
Reading With Wallace 