September 30: This Day in Children’s Book History

Select­ed his­tor­i­cal events

• Sep­tem­ber 30, 1898 — Born: Ger­man-Amer­i­can chil­dren’s book author and illus­tra­tor Edgar Parin d’Aulaire was born in Munich, Switzer­land. He and his wife, Ingrid, co-authored numer­ous illus­trat­ed chil­dren’s biogra­phies, includ­ing “Abra­ham Lin­coln,” which won the 1940 Calde­cott Medal. The d’Aulaire cou­ple’s works, such as “Norse Mythol­o­gy” and “Trolls,” are also pop­u­lar in Chi­na.

• Sep­tem­ber 30, 1953 – Born: Czech illus­tra­tor Jin­dra Čapek was born in České Budějovice. Renowned for his pic­ture book illus­tra­tions, he has cre­at­ed numer­ous chil­dren’s books, often blend­ing fan­ta­sy and real­i­ty. He was award­ed the BIB Plaque at the Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Illus­tra­tion Bien­nale in 1985 and 1991, and has par­tic­i­pat­ed in numer­ous inter­na­tion­al exhi­bi­tions, pro­mot­ing visu­al inno­va­tion in Cen­tral Euro­pean chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. He also illus­trat­ed Ende’s nov­el “The Secret of Lit­tle Helen.”

Sep­tem­ber 30, 1929 – Born: Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author Car­ol Fen­ner was born in New York. She is the author of chil­dren’s nov­els such as Yolon­da’s Genius, which won the 1996 New­bery Hon­or, and The Skates of Uncle Richard, which received the Coret­ta Scott King Hon­or. Her works explore child devel­op­ment and empa­thy, and have won the Christo­pher Award. They have pro­mot­ed the nar­ra­tive depth of diverse Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

• Sep­tem­ber 30, 1958 — Death: Amer­i­can children’s author Elsie Singmas­ter died in Penn­syl­va­nia. She wrote his­tor­i­cal nov­els for chil­dren, such as Swords of Steel, which won a New­bery Hon­or in 1934. Her works, which focused on the Amer­i­can Civ­il War and moral themes, influ­enced 20th-cen­tu­ry children’s lit­er­a­ture. She also pub­lished sev­er­al short sto­ry col­lec­tions.

• From 2021 — Event: Canada’s Nation­al Day for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is estab­lished on Sep­tem­ber 30. The day encour­ages read­ing chil­dren’s books such as sto­ries relat­ed to “Orange Shirt Day”, com­mem­o­rates res­i­den­tial school sur­vivors, and pro­motes edu­ca­tion and reflec­tion on Indige­nous cul­tur­al chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

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[10] Car­ol Fen­ner – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Fenner

[12] Jin­dra Čapek (1953) – Mem­o­ry of Nations

https://www.memoryofnations.eu/en/capek-jindrich-1953

[20] Authors Born Sep­tem­ber 29 | Famous Birth­days

https://www.famousbirthdays.com/date/september29-author.html

[21] Elsie Singmas­ter – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Singmaster

[25] Sep­tem­ber 30 Writer Birth­days – The Petri­ni Page

Sep­tem­ber 30 Writer Birth­days

[32] Illus­trat­ed books – Jin­dra Čapek

http://jindracapek.cz/cv_en.html

[45] 18 books to read on Orange Shirt Day – CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/books/18-books-to-read-on-orange-shirt-day‑1.5744295

[46] Nation­al Day for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion – Canada.ca

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html

[50] What is the Nation­al Day for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion?

https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/what-is-the-national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation