March 31: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born March 31, 1844: Andrew Lang

British poet, writer, and folk­loristAndrew LangHe was born in 1844–1912. He is a mon­u­ment in the his­to­ry of fairy tales.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • ““Col­or­ful Fairy Tale Col­lec­tion” series: Begin­ning in 1889,Blue Fairy Tale-The Blue Fairy BookThis series con­sists of 12 books.
  • His­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance: In the late 19th cen­tu­ry, influ­enced by sci­en­tif­ic ratio­nal­ism, British fairy tales were neglect­ed. Langer sin­gle-hand­ed­ly col­lect­ed and rewrote these sto­ries from around the world. These books are not only renowned for their exquis­ite illus­tra­tions, but more impor­tant­ly, they brought oral lit­er­a­ture from dif­fer­ent cul­tures, includ­ing Per­sia, France, and the Broth­ers Grimm, into the Eng­lish-speak­ing world, pre­serv­ing count­less folk mem­o­ries on the verge of dis­ap­pear­ing. This series is includ­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*.

| Birth | Andrew Lang | Andrew Lang (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ March 31, 2022 — Passed away: Patricia MacLachlan

Out­stand­ing Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture authorPatri­cia MacLach­lanShe passed away in 1938–2022. She was known for her refined, beau­ti­ful, and poet­ic writ­ing style.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • New­bery Medal: With theUgly and tall Sarah-Sarah, Plain and Tall(Pub­lished in 1985) won awards 1986 New­bery Medal.
  • Lit­er­ary style: This is a mov­ing sto­ry about a fam­i­ly wel­com­ing a “bride-by-law” against the back­drop of the Amer­i­can West in the 19th cen­tu­ry. MacLach­lan once said that she tried to cut out unnec­es­sary words when writ­ing, and this “min­i­mal­ism” iron­i­cal­ly gave the work immense ten­sion. She excelled at depict­ing homes, land, and those silent yet pro­found emo­tions; this book is often regard­ed as a mod­el of lit­er­ary read­ing.

| Passed Away | Patri­cia MacLach­lan | Patri­cia MacLach­lan (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 31, 1952: Steve Jenkins

A renowned Amer­i­can non-fic­tion chil­dren’s book author and illus­tra­torSteve Jenk­insBorn in 1952–2021. He brought “sci­ence pop­u­lar­iza­tion” into the realm of art.

• Impor­tant works and artis­tic fea­tures:
  • Calde­cott Sil­ver Medal: With theWhat can you do with a tail like that?-What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?) won 2004 Calde­cott Hon­or.
  • Mir­a­cles on Paper: Jenk­ins is known for his stun­ning paper col­lage art. He uses a vari­ety of paper tex­tures to per­fect­ly repro­duce the tex­tures of ani­mal fur, feath­ers, or scales.
  • Pop­u­lar Sci­ence Inno­va­tion: His works, such asAni­mal Big Data-Ani­mals by the Num­bersHe trans­formed dry data into visu­al­ly appeal­ing info­graph­ics. His life was ded­i­cat­ed to teach­ing chil­dren how to observe nature with a sci­en­tif­ic eye and under­stand life with an artis­tic eye.

| Birth | Steve Jenk­ins | Steve Jenk­ins (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 31, 1926: Beni Montresor

Ital­ian renowned stage design­er and illus­tra­torBen­ny Mon­trichardBorn (1926–2001).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • Calde­cott Medal: With his illus­tra­tionsCan I bring a friend?-May I Bring a Friend?In 1964, Beat­rice Schenk de Rainiersven won the award. 1965 Calde­cott Medal.
  • The­atri­cal art style: Mon­tesquieu’s back­ground as an opera set design­er imbues his pic­ture books with dra­mat­ic light and shad­ow. In “May I Bring a Friend?”, the vibrant etched style and rhyth­mic illus­tra­tions are like a stage cur­tain slow­ly being drawn back, reveal­ing a whim­si­cal roy­al par­ty.

| Birth | Beni Mon­tre­sor | Beni Mon­tre­sor (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	Detroit Ritchie (Diet­lof Reiche)	Ger­man writer.1978 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) The win­ner. His “Gold­en Rat Series” is wide­ly pop­u­lar in the Ger­man-speak­ing world for its humor­ous and human­is­tic nar­ra­tives.	Diet­lof Reiche (Wiki­da­ta)
Death	Eleanor Kramer (Eleanor Cly­mer)	Amer­i­can author. His most famous work is *Luke Is There*.Luke Was There(This is a pro­found and real­is­tic work that focus­es on the men­tal health of chil­dren under the social wel­fare sys­tem.)	Eleanor Cly­mer (Wikipedia)