On November 13, 1982, near the end of a week-long national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict. The long-awaited memorial was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in other memorials. Find the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the library.

On this day in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is born in Scotland. Stevenson published a collection of essays in 1881, and Treasure Island, one of his most popular books, in 1883. In 1885, he published the first version of the popular nursery-rhyme book A Child’s Garden of Verse. In 1846, he published Kidnapped, and in 1886 he published Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Find  Robert Louis Stevenson at the library, on hoopla, and in OverDrive.

Jez Alborough, English writer and illustrator of over 45 children’s picture books, was born in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London.  His Eddy and the Bear trilogy (which began with the much-loved Where’s My Teddy in 1992) has sold nearly four and a half million copies and was made into an award-winning animated television series. Duck in the Truck (published in 1999) heralded the start of another bestselling series, this time featuring the irrepressible Duck and his three friends – Frog, Goat and Sheep. In 2000 Jez created Hug – a powerful and touching book of only three words about a baby chimpanzee called Bobo who loses his Mom. Jez’s latest publication is Nat the Cat’s Sunny Smile, the first book in a new rhyming series featuring Billy the Goat and Hugo the Hare. Find Jez at the library.