Bridge of Ajia

February 17: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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🎂 February 17, 1912 – Birth: Virginia Sorensen

Amer­i­can writ­ersVir­ginia SorensenBorn (1912–1991).

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • New­bery Medal: With theThe Mir­a­cle of Maple Tree Moun­tain-Mir­a­cles on Maple Hill(Pub­lished in 1956) won awards New­bery Medal, 1957.
  • con­tent: This is a touch­ing sto­ry about heal­ing and rebirth. To help a father recov­er from the trau­ma of return­ing from a World War II pris­on­er-of-war camp, the fam­i­ly moves to Maple Moun­tain, Penn­syl­va­nia. Through the chang­ing sea­sons and the mak­ing of maple syrup, the fam­i­ly’s wounds grad­u­al­ly heal.

| born | Vir­ginia Sorensen | Vir­ginia Sorensen (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 17, 1879 – Birth: Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Amer­i­can author, edu­ca­tion­al reformer, and social activistDorothy Can­field Fish­erBorn (1879–1958).

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • The Secrets of Bessie’s Growth（Under­stood Bet­sy(1917): This is a clas­sic that is not only loved by chil­dren but also high­ly regard­ed by the edu­ca­tion com­mu­ni­ty.
  • con­tent: It tells the sto­ry of Eliz­a­beth, an over­pro­tect­ed and neu­rot­ic city girl, who is sent to live on a farm in Ver­mont. Through tak­ing on house­hold chores and solv­ing prob­lems inde­pen­dent­ly, she grows into a con­fi­dent and healthy girl (Bessie). Fish­er also…Montes­sori Edu­ca­tion MethodA key dri­ving force behind its intro­duc­tion to the Unit­ed States.

| born Dorothy Can­field Fish­er | Dorothy Can­field Fish­er (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 17, 1928 – Birth: Robert Newton Peck

Amer­i­can young adult lit­er­a­ture writerRobert New­ton PeckBorn (1928–2020).

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • “The Day Pigs Nev­er Die”（A Day No Pigs Would Die(1972): This is a semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal nov­el that tells the com­ing-of-age sto­ry of a Shak­er boy from Ver­mont.
  • sta­tus: The book’s descrip­tions of life, death, pover­ty, and the father-son rela­tion­ship are extreme­ly sim­ple and mov­ing, and the end­ing is shock­ing. It is a reg­u­lar read­ing mate­r­i­al in Amer­i­can mid­dle school lan­guage arts class­es, but it is also con­tro­ver­sial because of its descrip­tions of slaugh­ter.

| born Robert New­ton Peck | Robert New­ton Peck (Wikipedia) |

Ver­sion 1.0.0

🎂 Born February 17, 1948: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Amer­i­can sci­ence fic­tion writerSusan Beth Fef­ferborn.

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • Life as We Know It（Life As We Knew It(2006): This is a famous post-apoc­a­lyp­tic sci­ence fic­tion nov­el (the first book in the “The Last Sur­vivor” series).
  • con­tent: The sto­ry, told in diary form, recounts how an aster­oid impact on the moon altered its orbit, lead­ing to dra­mat­ic cli­mate change, tsunamis, and famine on Earth, and how a fam­i­ly strug­gled to sur­vive dur­ing the harsh win­ter.

| born | Susan Beth Pfef­fer | Susan Beth Pfef­fer (Wikipedia) |

🎂 February 17, 1924 – Birth: Lasse Sandberg

Swedish illus­tra­tor and writerRus­sell Sand­bergBorn in 1924–2008. He and his wife, Inger Sand­berg, were a famous Swedish hus­band-and-wife cre­ative duo.

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • BIB Award: He 1967 With the work “The boy who owns a hun­dred cars-Guten med dei hun­dre bilane / Pojken med de hun­dra bilar­na)getSil­ver Badge Award at the Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB).
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Their most famous series is…Lit­tle Ghost Laban-Lil­la spöket Laban(This is a sto­ry about a lit­tle ghost who is afraid of the dark.)

| born Lasse Sand­berg | Lasse Sand­berg (Wikipedia) |

🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

eventfig­ureDetails/AwardsMain Ref­er­ence
DeathNiki­ta Charushin (Niki­ta Čarušin)A famous Russ­ian nature illus­tra­tor.1973 BIB Badge AwardAward win­ner (“The Pel­i­can’s Jour­ney”). He inher­it­ed his father Yevge­ny Charush­in’s tra­di­tion of depict­ing ani­mals, with a vivid and real­is­tic style.N/A

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