Birthday of:
Busytown creator Richard Scarry (b.1919). Richard Scarry’s books featuring Lowly Worm, Huckle Cat, and Mr. Frumble are quite popular around here, a little too busy for me, but the urchins don’t seem to mind at all.
British children’s author Allan Ahlberg (b.1938). Author with his wife Jan of The Jolly Postman, The Jolly Pocket Postman, and The Jolly Christmas Postman. Ahlberg on children’s books from this feature article: ” . . . just because a book is tiny and its readers are little doesn’t mean it can’t be perfect. On its own scale, it can be as good as Tolstoy or Jane Austen.”
Spanish playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca (b.1898).
Novelist Margaret Drabble (b.1939).
Richard Scary is beloved in this house, although more by myself and my husband than by our 14 month old. We’ll have to celebrate by reading the Busytown collection to each other!