March 16: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ March 16, 1940 — Died: Selma Lagerlöf

Swedish lit­er­ary giant,The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Lit­er­a­ture(1909)Sel­ma Lager­löfHe died in 1858–1940.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• The Won­der­ful Adven­tures of Nils（Nils Hol­gerssons under­bara resa genom Sverige(1906): Orig­i­nal­ly com­mis­sioned by the Swedish Teach­ers’ Asso­ci­a­tion to write a geog­ra­phy read­er, it has become one of the great­est mas­ter­pieces in the his­to­ry of world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.
• sta­tus: Through the fan­tas­ti­cal adven­tures of the mis­chie­vous boy Nils, who shrinks to a tiny size and trav­els around Swe­den on a goose, Lager­löf skill­ful­ly weaves togeth­er nat­ur­al geog­ra­phy, folk­lore, and the growth of a young mind. This work intro­duced Swe­den to chil­dren world­wide through maps and was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.”

| Passed Away | Sel­ma Lager­löf | Sel­ma Lager­löf (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 16, 1920: Sid Fleischman

Famous Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and pro­fes­sion­al magi­cianSid Freish­manBorn (1920–2010).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Medal: With thewhipped boy-The Whip­ping Boy(Pub­lished in 1986) won awards 1987 New­bery Medal.
• Con­tent and Fea­tures: This is a fast-paced, dra­mat­i­cal­ly com­pelling, and uncon­ven­tion­al fairy tale. It tells the sto­ry of a pam­pered prince and a poor boy who takes his place in pun­ish­ment, and how they forge a friend­ship and swap iden­ti­ties dur­ing an unex­pect­ed exile adven­ture. Fre­ich­men skill­ful­ly weaves the humor and rhythm he honed dur­ing his mag­ic career into the text.

| Birth | Sid Fleis­chman | Sid Fleis­chman (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ March 16, 2018 — Passed away Russell Freedman

Amer­i­ca’s top non-fic­tion chil­dren’s book authorRus­sell Fried­manHe died in 1929–2018.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Medal: With theLin­coln: A Pho­to­graph­ic Biog­ra­phy-Lin­coln: A Pho­to­bi­og­ra­phy) won 1988 New­bery MedalThis is extreme­ly rare in the his­to­ry of the New­bery Medal because it is a non-fic­tion biog­ra­phy.
• Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Her­itage Award (CLLA): Win­ner in 1998.
• New­bery Sil­ver Medal: He once won the award for “The Wright Broth­ers” (The Wright Broth­ers: How They Invent­ed the Air­plane), Eleanor Roo­sevelt (Eleanor Roo­sevelt: A Life of Dis­cov­ery) and The Voice of the Chal­lenger (The Voice That Chal­lenged a Nation: Mar­i­an Ander­son and the Strug­gle for Equal Rights He has received the New­bery Medal mul­ti­ple times. Through rig­or­ous research and lit­er­ary nar­ra­tive, he has proven that true his­to­ry can be more com­pelling than fic­tion.

| Deceased | Rus­sell Freed­man | Rus­sell Freed­man (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 16, 1884: Eric P. Kelly

Amer­i­can writer and jour­nal­istEric Kel­lyBorn (1884–1960).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Medal: With theThe Trum­peter’s Promise-The Trum­peter of Krakow(Pub­lished in 1928) won awards New­bery Medal, 1929.
• con­tent: Set in 15th-cen­tu­ry Poland, the sto­ry revolves around a stac­ca­to trum­pet in the St. Mary’s Church in Krakow. It per­fect­ly blends his­tor­i­cal detail, mys­tery, and pro­found patri­o­tism.

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

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	William Mayne (William Mayne)	British writer.1957 Carnegie MedalThe win­ner (from “Straw Rope”)A Grass RopeHis works are known for their extreme­ly keen audi­to­ry descrip­tions and pre­cise grasp of atmos­phere.	William Mayne (Wikipedia)
born	Toni­no Grae (Toni­no Guer­ra)	Ital­ian poet and screen­writer. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work, “A Thou­sand Years of Sto­ries,” is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” due to its rich Ital­ian cul­tur­al fla­vor.	Toni­no Guer­ra (Wikipedia)
born	Pavol Debuszyn­s­ki (Pavol Dobšin­ský)	A Slo­va­kian writer and folk­lorist. His col­lec­tion of Slo­va­kian folk tales is a cor­ner­stone of the coun­try’s lit­er­a­ture and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Pavol Dobšin­ský (Wikipedia)
born	Pavel Pavlak (Paweł Pawlak)	Pol­ish illus­tra­tor.2005 BIB Gold­en Apple AwardThe win­ner, whose rep­re­sen­ta­tive work “I Lost My Teeth” is also very pop­u­lar in Chi­na.	N/A
born	Jochen Stur­man (Jochen Stuhrmann)	Ger­man illus­tra­tor.2011 BIB Badge Awardwin­ner (Nikode­mus und das Mäusewun­der).	N/A
Death	Lau­ra Adams Amherst (Lau­ra Adams Armer)	Amer­i­can author and artist. Known for his nov­el *Moun­tains With­out Water*, which depicts Nava­jo cul­ture.Water­less Moun­tain) won New­bery Medal, 1932.	Lau­ra Adams Armer (Wikipedia)