Picture book author Jim Aylesworth celebrates his birthdate as Feb. 21, 1943, in Jacksonville, Fla.

As a child, he lived in many states, including Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, finally settling in Hinsdale, Ill., when he was 15. He graduated high school there in 1961. Jim and his brother spent many summers on his grandparents’ farm near Hebron, Ind.

Jim received his B.A. in English from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1965, and returned to Hinsdale as a stockbroker. In 1971, he began teaching first grade in Oak Park, Ill. and went back to get his elementary education graduate degree in 1978. In 1984, he was named a “Governor’s Master Teacher,” and in 1998, he was named to the Hinsdale High School Hall of Fame.

Teaching and reading to his students encouraged Jim to follow his dream of being a children’s book author. He tells his stories with many doses of loud sounds, rhythms and rhymes. His first book, “Hush Up!,” was published in 1980. Asto- date, he has published more than 25 picture books.

Jim and his wife Donna raised two sons in Hinsdale, and in 1996, he decided to leave his 25-year teaching career to move to Chicago and write and visit schools full-time.

Jim and his brother now own that same farm that was their grandparents”, and they and their families visit together there often.

We have one of his B-2 books, “Shenandoah Noah.”