mysql select教程_mysql Select from Select

I have this query: SELECT DATE( a.created_at ) AS order_date, count( * ) as cnt_order FROM `sales_order_item` AS a WHERE MONTH( a.created_at ) = MONTH( now())-1 GROUP BY order_date

which will return result something like this (snapshot only otherwise will return per 31 days): order_date cnt_order 2012-08-29 580 2012-08-30 839 2012-08-31 1075

and my full query is selecting based on above selection: SELECT order_date , MAX(cnt_order) AS highest_order FROM ( SELECT DATE (a.created_at) AS order_date , count(*) AS cnt_order FROM `sales_order_item` AS a WHERE MONTH(a.created_at) = MONTH(now()) - 1 GROUP BY order_date ) AS tmax

But it result : order_date highest_order 2012-08-01 1075

Which has the date wrong and always pick the first row of date where it suppose 2012-08-31. Maybe this is a simple error that I dont know. So how to get the date right point to 2012-08-31? Any help would be great.