Author Spotlight: Adla Shaker Hannon

My life-time career has been in the medical field as a registered nurse with a degree in Public Health and Education. Having served as an army nurse during World War II, I decided to record my experiences in a novel called, "Adventures of a World War II Army Nurse." This was not my first experience in the creative field since I have been composing songs and stories since my early childhood.

During my academic years, I served as Editor of the School and Public Relations Newspapers, had a number of my short stories and feature articles published, wrote and directed short plays and musicals for a receptive audience. It wasn't until I had my own children that I realized that mother love enriched my creativity. My two sons and daughter were a very receptive audience as I composed songs and stories for each child to celebrate holidays, their birthdays and special events.

"Christmas in Kangaroo Land" was born in response to my youngest son's pleas to "Mommy, sing me another Santa Claus song." Of course the story followed so I could answer their question, "How did Santa come down with a broken sleigh?" When the original demo was made using a local country band, I tested it in the children's ward of Stamford Hospital where I worked. The children were moving and trying to dance in their beds. I had to play it over five or six times. We saw the same kind of joy and participation when song and story was performed in the library and may schools in the area. Watching the children's joyful response, and noting that teachers used Australia and its animals as a teaching tool, has me looking forward to sharing my song and story with children all over the world.