January 3rd: Today in Children’s Book History

🎂 January 3, 1892 – Birth: JRR Tolkien

British writer, lin­guist, and pro­fes­sor at Oxford Uni­ver­si­tyJRR TolkienBorn (1892–1973). He is wide­ly rec­og­nized as…Father of mod­ern fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• The Hob­bit（The Hob­bit(1937): This adven­ture sto­ry, orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten for his own chil­dren, intro­duced the con­cepts of hob­bits, dwarves, Gan­dalf, and the Lord of the Rings, and is one of the great­est works in the his­to­ry of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.
• The Lord of the Rings（The Lord of the RingsAlthough it is more geared towards adults or all ages, the Mid­dle-earth it cre­at­ed laid the foun­da­tion for all sub­se­quent fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture.
• Influ­ence: Tolkien’s works were not only includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up”, but also fun­da­men­tal­ly changed the land­scape of fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture.

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⚰️ January 3, 1960 – Died: Eric P. Kelly

Amer­i­can jour­nal­ist and writerEric Kel­lyHe died in 1884–1960.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Medal: His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work isThe Trum­peter of Krakow-The Trum­peter of Krakow(Pub­lished in 1928) won awards New­bery Medal, 1929.
• con­tent: This is a his­tor­i­cal adven­ture nov­el set in 15th-cen­tu­ry Poland. Kel­ly worked in Poland after World War I and was deeply influ­enced by the local cul­ture. The sto­ry revolves around the famous leg­end of the trum­peter at St. Mary’s Cathe­dral, filled with his­tor­i­cal detail and sus­pense.

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🎂 January 3, 1924 – Birth: André Franquin

Famous Bel­gian car­toon­istAndré FrançoisBorn in 1924–1997. He was one of the key pil­lars of the gold­en age of Fran­co-Bel­gian comics.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Jus­ton（Gas­ton(Also trans­lat­ed as Gas­ton Ragaff): He cre­at­ed the famous “anti-hero” char­ac­ter in com­ic book history—Gaston, who always mess­es things up in the office. This work was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” for its exquis­ite art­work and non­sen­si­cal humor.
• He also improved the “Spiru and Fontap-Spirou et Fan­ta­sioThe series, and cre­at­ed the long-tailed leop­ard Mar­supil­a­mi.

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⚰️ January 3, 2005 — Passed away Will Eisner

Amer­i­can car­toon­ist and writerWill Eis­nerHe died in 1917–2005. He is known as the “Father of Graph­ic Nov­el” and the Eis­ner Award, the high­est hon­or in the com­ic book indus­try, is named after him.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Although his “The Spir­it” (The Spir­itHis works, such as *The Covenant with God* and *The Covenant with God*, are geared towards mature read­ers, but he…Visu­al nar­ra­tiveThe con­tri­bu­tions of the (Visu­al Nar­ra­tive) the­o­ry great­ly ele­vat­ed the sta­tus of comics as a lit­er­ary form, pro­found­ly influ­enc­ing the cre­ation of lat­er chil­dren’s pic­ture books and graph­ic nov­els for young adults. His text­book, *[Title of Text]*, [is rel­e­vant to this top­ic].Will Eis­ner Com­ic Book Tuto­r­i­al“The Bible” is the bible for count­less com­ic book cre­ators.

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⚰️ January 3, 1989 – Died: Errol Le Cain

Sin­ga­pore-born British illus­tra­torErrol Le KaneHe died in 1941–1989.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• He is known for his extreme­ly intri­cate, high­ly dec­o­ra­tive illus­tra­tion style with an ori­en­tal mys­ti­cal flair.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: 《Aladdin and the Mag­ic Lamp-Aladdin and the Won­der­ful Lamp)and“Twelve Danc­ing Princess­es-The Twelve Danc­ing Princess­esHe was a recip­i­ent of the Kate Green­away Medal. Even before his death, he was still giv­ing many clas­sic fairy tales a mag­nif­i­cent visu­al life.

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🎂 January 3, 1898 – Birth: Carolyn Haywood

Amer­i­can writer and illus­tra­torCar­olyn Hey­woodBorn (1898–1990).

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• She was an impor­tant fig­ure in the ear­ly days of Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, pio­neer­ing the con­cept of **“chap­ter books”** for chil­dren who were just begin­ning to read inde­pen­dent­ly.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: 《B rep­re­sents Bet­sy-B Is for Bet­sy(1939). This series depicts the dai­ly lives of ordi­nary ele­men­tary school stu­dents in a heart­warm­ing and real­is­tic way, and has been loved by gen­er­a­tions of Amer­i­can chil­dren.

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🎂 January 3, 1960 – Birth: J. Otto Seibold

Amer­i­can illus­tra­torJ. Otto Sei­boldBirth. He isDig­i­tal illus­tra­tionOne of the pio­neers in its appli­ca­tion in the field of chil­dren’s books.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Col­lab­o­rat­ed with Vivian Walsh on “Oliv­er, anoth­er cari­bou-Olive, the Oth­er Rein­deerThis unique­ly styled pic­ture book tells the sto­ry of Oliv­er, a lit­tle dog who mis­tak­en­ly believes he is a rein­deer, who goes to the North Pole to save Christ­mas. With its mod­ern style and bold col­ors, it was lat­er adapt­ed into an ani­mat­ed film.

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🎂 January 3, 1970 – Born: Chris K. Soentpiet

Kore­an-Amer­i­can illus­tra­torChris K. Thorn­piborn.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• He used extreme­ly real­is­ticReal­is­tic water­col­or styleKnown for its ded­i­ca­tion to show­cas­ing diverse cul­tures and his­tor­i­cal themes in chil­dren’s books.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: 《broth­er-Broth­ers(in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Liu Yan­shan) tells the his­tor­i­cal sto­ry of Chi­nese labor­ers in New York; (The Coolie)Coolies(This describes the ardu­ous his­to­ry of Chi­nese labor­ers build­ing Amer­i­can rail­roads.)

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🔗 Key reference links

| born | JRR Tolkien | JRR Tolkien (Wikipedia) |

| Death Eric P. Kel­ly | Eric P. Kel­ly (Wikipedia) |

| born André Fran­quin | André Fran­quin (Wikipedia) |

| Death Will Eis­ner | Will Eis­ner (Wikipedia) |

| Death Errol Le Cain | Errol Le Cain (Wikipedia) |