April begins with April Fool’s Day, but there’s no joking when I tell you that we’ve got some great authors to feature this month.
Hans Christian Andersen was born April 2, 1805. He is well-known for writing fairy tales. Amber started the month by reading “The Princess and the Pea,” which is featured in Tales and Stories. La Princesa and the Pea gives us a modern take on the classic story, and it gives young readers a chance to be introduced to Spanish words and phrases. For a more complete look at his work, I recommend The Complete Illustrated Stories of Hans Christian Anderson.
April 5th brought us a double celebration. Anthony Horowitz was born in 1955. Magpie Murders is the only book we have by him, but it has two mysteries wrapped inside one book. Will you be able to solve them? Deborah Harkness was born ten years later in 1965. She is well-known for the All Souls Trilogy which includes A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. Even if you haven’t read these books, you may be familiar with the show starring Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode.
Beverly Cleary, a beloved children’s author, was born on April 12, 1916. I (Rachel) read a portion from The Mouse and the Motorcycle. Some of her other books include Henry Huggins, Ramona the Brave, and Dear Mr. Henshaw.
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. In honor of National Poetry Month, Darius read “Sonnet 73” from The Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare.
Our month will end with another double celebration. Harper Lee (1926) and Terry Pratchett (1948) were both born on April 28. Lee is best known for To Kill a Mockingbird. If you’d like to look at this story in a different light, I recommend To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel. You may not be as familiar with Pratchett, but reading a book like Dodger could make you a fan. Our library catalog describes it like this: “In an alternative version of Victorian London, a seventeen-year-old Dodger, a cunning and cheeky street urchin, unexpectedly rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeney Todd.”
Hope you’ve enjoyed another edition of our Author Birthday Read Alouds series. Come back next month to learn more about authors born in the month of May.
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