I thoroughly enjoy my daily subscription to The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor from Public Radio International, which many of you probably hear during your daily commute. Did you know you can receive the text of the program via e-mail? In your inbox each day will arrive a poem + interesting historical events and author birthdays that correspond to each day. 

I was both happy and impressed to see Kate DiCamillo's birthday featured in yesterday's issue, as The Writer's Almanac generally includes relatively few contemporary authors and illustrators of children's and young adult literature. Seeing Kate's name alongside those of Flannery O'Connor and Gloria Steinem suggests to me that Kate has truly reached the status of "household name," at least in those households that include young readers, or have in recent years. Or maybe it just suggests that Garrison Keillor is a Despereaux fan? Either way I say hooray for The Writer's Almanac for thinking Kate's birthday deserves as much mention as those of  Joseph Campbell, Tennessee Williams, and Robert Frost (today's celebrants).

Want to find reasons to celebrate your favorite children's and young adult books EVERY day? I recommend purchasing a copy of the Celebrating Children's Books calendar put together every year by Peaceable Kingdom Press. Each month features an illustration by a different children's book illustrator, and scattered throughout are birthdays of well-known (or at least moderately well-known) children's book authors and illustrators. Looking ahead at my own copy of the calendar I can tell you who you should be celebrating and/or sending cards to in April: Trina Schart Hyman (4/8), Hardie Gramatky (4/12), Frank Remkiewicz (4/14), Garth Williams (4/14), Melissa Sweet (4/19), David Kirk (4/25), and Ludwig Bemelmans (4/28).