February 4th: Today in the history of children’s books

⚰️ February 4, 2022 — Passed away: Ashley Bryan

Amer­i­can author, illus­tra­tor, and pup­peteerAsh­ley Bri­anHe died in 1923–2022. He was hailed as a “nation­al trea­sure” of Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture and ded­i­cat­ed his life to spread­ing African and African Amer­i­can folk­lore and spir­i­tu­als through art.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Hon­or: With theFree­dom belongs to me-Free­dom Over Me(Pub­lished in 2016) won the award 2017 New­bery Sil­ver MedalThis is a pow­er­ful book that uses real slave auc­tion doc­u­ments, along with col­lages and poet­ry, to give faces and voic­es to those who were sold as com­modi­ties.
• Life­time Achieve­ment: He obtained 2009 Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Her­itage Award (CLLA)(Orig­i­nal Lau­ra Ingalls Wilder Award), and was award­ed the title of Hon­orary Artist by the Eric Car­le Muse­um. His works include “Beau­ti­ful Black­bird” (Beau­ti­ful Black­birdIt is known for its vibrant paper-cut­ting and col­lage style.

| Death Ashley Bryan | Ashley Bryan (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born February 4, 1960: Siobhan Dowd

British writerSiob­han DoddBorn (1960–2007). She was a tal­ent­ed writer who died young, and many hon­ors came posthu­mous­ly.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• Carnegie Medal: Her posthu­mous workSwamp Girl-Bog Child(Pub­lished in 2008) won awards 2009 Carnegie Medal.
• con­tent: Set in tur­bu­lent North­ern Ire­land in the 1980s, the sto­ry fol­lows a boy who dis­cov­ers the body of an ancient girl in a peat bog, uncov­er­ing a series of secrets about his­to­ry and the present.
• her­itage: Her last book, *A Mon­ster Calls*, was writ­ten before her death.A Mon­ster CallsThe con­cept was con­ceived and lat­er com­plet­ed by Patrick Ness, and it became a clas­sic.

| born | Siobhan Dowd | Siobhan Dowd (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 4, 1925 – Birth: Russell Hoban

British-Amer­i­can writerRus­sell HerbanBorn (1925–2011). His works spanned chil­dren’s pic­ture books, young adult nov­els, and adult sci­ence fic­tion.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Frances series（Frances the Bad­gerHe cre­at­ed the famous “Frances the Bad­ger Girl” series of pic­ture books (such as…).Good­night, Frances》Bed­time for FrancesIt warm­ly depicts the dai­ly life and psy­chol­o­gy of chil­dren.
• Clas­sic nov­els: His long fairy tale “A Father and Son Mouse: An Incred­i­ble Jour­ney-The Mouse and His ChildIt is a philo­soph­i­cal mas­ter­piece that tells the sto­ry of a pair of wind-up mice on their jour­ney to find them­selves.
• rec­om­mend: His many works, such as “Chil­dren of the Ocean” (The Sea-Thing Child(These books) were spe­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed by “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| born Russell Hoban | Russell Hoban (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ February 4, 2002 — Passed away Eve Titus

Amer­i­can writ­ersEve TitusShe died in 1922–2002. She was best known for her anthro­po­mor­phic sto­ries about mice.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• The Mouse Detec­tive Agency（Basil of Bak­er StreetShe cre­at­ed Basil, the mouse detec­tive who lived in the base­ment of Sher­lock Holmes’ house. The books were lat­er adapt­ed by Dis­ney into the clas­sic ani­mat­ed film The Great Mouse Detec­tive.
• Ana­tole series（Ana­tole(This refers to a sto­ry about a French mouse who works as a taster in a Parisian cheese fac­to­ry.)The world’s smartest mouse-Ana­tole)and“The bravest mouse in the world-Ana­tole and the CatThey won the Calde­cott Hon­or (illus­trat­ed by Paul Gar­don).

| Death | Eve Titus | Eve Titus (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 4, 1906 – Birth: Agnija Barto

Famous Soviet/Russian chil­dren’s poets and writ­ersAgnia Bar­toBorn (1906–1981).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• Inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion: She 1976 getHans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Writer AwardHigh­ly Com­mend­ed.
• sta­tus: Her poems are brisk and easy to recite, serv­ing as intro­duc­to­ry read­ing mate­r­i­al for gen­er­a­tions of Russ­ian chil­dren. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works include…Toy-Igrush­ki), 《For chil­dren-Detyam)and“Rude lit­tle bear-Med­vezhonok-nevezha).

| born Agnija Barto | Agniya Barto (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 4, 1911 – Birth: Geoffrey Willans

British writer and jour­nal­istJef­frey WilliamsBorn (1911–1958).

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Down with Skoll（Down with Skool!He col­lab­o­rat­ed with illus­tra­tor Ronald Sear­le to cre­ate the famous char­ac­ter Nigel Molesworth.
• style: Writ­ten from the per­spec­tive of a cyn­i­cal male stu­dent with delib­er­ate­ly mis­spelled words, this book offers a scathing and humor­ous satire of life in British board­ing schools and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| born | Geoffrey Willans | Geoffrey Willans (Wikipedia) |

🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	Bar­bara Shuk Hes­sin (Bar­bara Shook Hazen)	Amer­i­can author. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: *Even When I Did Some­thing Wrong*Even if I did some­thing amaz­ing(This paper explores uncon­di­tion­al love and par­ent-child rela­tion­ships.)	Link