October 13: This Day in Children’s Book History

1935 – Christine Nöstlinger (1935–2018)

Aus­tri­an author Christi­na Nestlinger was born in Vien­na and is one of the most influ­en­tial writ­ers of Ger­man-lan­guage chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.Humor, anti-author­i­tar­i­an­ism, and crit­i­cism of real­i­tyHe is well-known for his long-term con­cern for the real sit­u­a­tion of chil­dren in social and fam­i­ly struc­tures.

✏️ Creative Features

Nestlinger brave­ly breaks with the tra­di­tion of mor­al­iz­ing, reveal­ing the absur­di­ty of the adult world from a child’s per­spec­tive, depict­ing chil­dren’s rebel­lion, lone­li­ness, and growth. Her straight­for­ward and sin­cere writ­ing allows chil­dren to see them­selves and adults to rein­ter­pret child­hood.

🏆 Important Honors

She is a rare “dou­ble Hall of Fame win­ner” in the his­to­ry of inter­na­tion­al chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture:

• 1984 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Writer Award
• 2003 Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award (ALMA)

📚 Representative Works

Includ­ing “Kids in a Can“Kno­rad oder das kind aus der kon­ser­ven), The Dog is Com­ing (Hund Kommt) and Lit­tle Thinkers in Action (Der denker greift ein), which is wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed in Europe and Asia, and has many fans in Chi­na as well.

👉 Chris­tine Nöstlinger — Wikipedia

1936 — Robert Ingpen (born)

Aus­tralian illus­tra­tor and writer Robert Ing­pen was born in Gee­long and is known for hisReal­is­tic and poet­ic illus­tra­tion styleInter­na­tion­al­ly renowned.

🎨 Visual Poet

Ying Pan has rein­ter­pret­ed many lit­er­ary clas­sics with del­i­cate brush­strokes, such as Alice in Won­der­land, Peter Pan, and A Christ­mas Car­ol. He is good at using light, shad­ow, and tex­ture to cre­ate an atmos­phere of time and mem­o­ry, mak­ing each page like a con­tem­pla­tive paint­ing.

🏅 Honor

In 1986, he won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for illus­tra­tors, becom­ing the first Aus­tralian artist to receive this hon­or.

👉 Robert Ing­pen — Wikipedia

⚰️ 2021 — Gary Paulsen (1939–2021) dies

Gary Berson, one of the most pop­u­lar young adult writ­ers of the 20th cen­tu­ry, has passed away.Sur­vival and adven­ture themesis famous.

🏕️ A fable of growing up in the wilderness

Most of Berson­’s works focus on the lone­li­ness and chal­lenges faced by young peo­ple in nature, such as The Axe Boy (Hatch­et, 1988), the pro­tag­o­nist relies on courage and wis­dom to sur­vive in the wilder­ness.
His lan­guage is con­cise and rhyth­mic, inte­grat­ing nat­ur­al descrip­tion with psy­cho­log­i­cal growth.

🏆 Honors

Three-time New­bery Hon­or win­ner:

• Dog­song(1986)
• Hatch­et(1988)
• The Win­ter Room(1990)

👉 Gary Paulsen — Wikipedia

1902 – Arna Bontemps (1902–1973)

African Amer­i­can poet, writer, and librar­i­an Ana Bon­temps was born in Alexan­dria, Louisiana, and was a promi­nent mem­ber of the Harlem Renais­sance.

✊🏽 The bridge between literature and history

He brought an African Amer­i­can per­spec­tive and voice to chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, telling sto­ries of racial equal­i­ty and free­dom through a blend of his­to­ry and myth.

📘 Representative Works

“Sto­ry of the Negro” (1948), co-authored with Jack Con­roy, won the 1949 New­bery Medal and is regard­ed as a clas­sic chil­dren’s book that sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly describes the his­to­ry of black peo­ple in the ear­ly days.

👉 Arna Bon­temps — Wikipedia

2012: Georges Chaulet (1931–2012) dies

French writer Georges Cho­let has died. He was an icon­ic fig­ure in French young adult lit­er­a­ture.

🕵️‍♀️ The symbol of the era of the teenage detective

He cre­at­ed the “Girl Detec­tive“Fan­tômette) series, pub­lished since 1961, tells the sto­ry of a brave and resource­ful girl named Françoise who trans­forms into a night­time vig­i­lante.
This series cre­at­ed the image of inde­pen­dent and right­eous women in Euro­pean youth lit­er­a­ture and was hailed as the “Nan­cy Drew of the French-speak­ing world.”

👉 Georges Chaulet — French Wikipedia

1931 — Ulf Löfgren (1931–2011)

Swedish illus­tra­tor and writer Ulf Löf­gren was born in Stock­holm and is an impor­tant founder of mod­ern Nordic pic­ture book art.

🎨 Balance between geometry and imagination

He is known for his bright col­ors, geo­met­ric com­po­si­tions and humor­ous details. His works include Lud­de and Albin The series is very pop­u­lar among Euro­pean read­ers.

🏅 Honor

He has won sev­er­al awards at the Bratisla­va Illus­tra­tion Bien­nale:

Elsa Beskow Plaque 1960

BIB Medal Award in 1971, 1973, and 1975

1977 Grand Prix BIB

👉 Ulf Löf­gren — Swedish Wikipedia