October 11: This Day in Children’s Book History

⚰️ 1999 — Leo Lionni (1910–1999) died

Dutch-Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and author, born in Ams­ter­dam, Nether­lands, and died in Tus­cany, Italy. Lion­ni is con­sid­ered one of the most influ­en­tial pic­ture book artists of the 20th cen­tu­ry, known for his mod­ernist col­lage aes­thet­ic and philo­soph­i­cal, alle­gor­i­cal chil­dren’s pic­ture books.

🎨 The origins of avant-garde art and collage aesthetics

Lion­ni was edu­cat­ed in Italy and received his doc­tor­ate in eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Genoa in 1935. After mov­ing to the Unit­ed States, he worked for For­tune.For­tune) mag­a­zine art direc­tor. Influ­enced by Futur­ism and the Bauhaus move­ment, he intro­duced col­lage art into chil­dren’s pic­ture books.

His first book, Lit­tle Blue and Lit­tle Yel­low (Lit­tle Blue and Lit­tle Yel­low(1959) orig­i­nat­ed from an impromp­tu paper-cut sto­ry he cre­at­ed to enter­tain his grand­chil­dren on a train. This book, which uses col­or and form instead of char­ac­ters, pio­neered the “abstract nar­ra­tive pic­ture book.” Lion­ni advo­cat­ed that chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture should “evoke won­der rather than preach” and opposed the reduc­tion of pic­ture books to edu­ca­tion­al tools.

🐭🐟 A social allegory of tiny lives

• Lit­tle Black FishSwim­my, 1963) — It tells the sto­ry of a brave black fish who unites with his friends to resist nat­ur­al ene­mies. It sym­bol­izes the pow­er of indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences and col­lec­tive action and won the 1964 Calde­cott Medal.
• Alfred the Field MouseFred­er­ick, 1967) — A field mouse that col­lects sun­shine and poet­ry, and uses art to heal the hunger and cold of win­ter, won the 1968 Calde­cott Medal and became a clas­sic fable prais­ing “spir­it and cre­ativ­i­ty”.
• The World’s Largest HouseThe Biggest House in the World, 1968) — Explor­ing the phi­los­o­phy of desire and restraint, con­tin­u­ing his con­sis­tent social reflec­tion.

Lion­ni’s works have won four Calde­cott Medals (1960, 1964, 1968, and 1969) and the Gold­en Apple Award at the Bratisla­va Illus­tra­tion Bien­ni­al (BIB) in 1967. His work blends mod­ern art with social alle­go­ry, inspir­ing read­ers to reflect on the mean­ing of inde­pen­dence, com­mu­ni­ty, and cre­ativ­i­ty.

👉 Leo Lion­ni — Wikipedia

2001 — Beni Montresor (1926–2001) dies

Ital­ian illus­tra­tor and stage design­er, who died in Verona. Known for his intense dra­mat­ic col­or and visu­al com­po­si­tion, he was hailed as “the artist who brought the opera stage to pic­ture books.”

🎭 Picture book language for stage designers

Mon­tre­sor has been engaged in stage and cos­tume design for a long time. He has col­lab­o­rat­ed with direc­tors such as Felli­ni and De Sica, and designed sets for the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera in New York.
His illus­tra­tions use stage-like “block­ing” and light­ing con­trast, with bold col­ors and full of dra­mat­ic ten­sion.

📘 “Can I bring a friend?” (May I Bring a Friend?, 1964)

This nurs­ery rhyme-style sto­ry depicts a boy and his ani­mal friends vis­it­ing the king, pre­sent­ing a humor­ous and sub­ver­sive take on the court order. The book won the 1965 Calde­cott Medal.
Through the con­trast of col­or and com­po­si­tion, Mon­tre­sor allows the “roy­al order” and the “ani­mal car­ni­val” to con­flict and merge on the page, express­ing the lib­er­at­ing pow­er of free­dom and imag­i­na­tion on author­i­ty.

👉 Beni Mon­tre­sor — Wikipedia

🌍 October 11th – International Day of the Girl Child

The Unit­ed Nations offi­cial­ly estab­lished the Inter­na­tion­al Day of the Girl Child (Octo­ber 11th of each year) in 2011 to pro­mote girls’ right to edu­ca­tion, lead­er­ship and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties around the world.

The 2024 theme empha­sizes: “Girls are lead­ers. Girls are change-mak­ers. Girls are dri­ving good and growth around the world. It encour­ages the read­ing of chil­dren’s books on girls, such as the “Girl Pow­er” series, to pro­mote gen­der equal­i­ty edu­ca­tion. It pro­motes female empow­er­ment nar­ra­tives in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture around the world.

Rec­om­mend­ed read­ing:

• I Am MalalaI Am Malala, Young Read­ers Edi­tion)
• Girl Pow­erGood Night Sto­ries for Rebel Girls)

👉 Inter­na­tion­al Day of the Girl Child — UN.org