April 2nd: Today in Children’s Book History

🌟 International Children’s Book Day (ICBD)

自 1967 Since then, in every year April 2Inter­na­tion­al Chil­dren’s Book Day is cel­e­brat­ed around the time of Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen’s birth.

• Ini­ti­at­ing orga­ni­za­tion: Inter­na­tion­al Board on Books for Young Peo­ple (IBBY).
• Pur­pose of estab­lish­ment: The aim is to raise pub­lic aware­ness of chil­dren’s books and inspire chil­dren’s love of read­ing.
• Activ­i­ty for­mat: Each year, dif­fer­ent IBBY nation­al chap­ters take turns host­ing the event, select­ing a theme and invit­ing a promi­nent writer and illus­tra­tor from that coun­try to cre­ate a slo­gan and a beau­ti­ful poster for chil­dren around the world.
• Theme for 2026 ““Plant sto­ries and the world will bloom,” poster design­er: San­dra Eleft­he­ri­ou; dedication/poem by: Ele­na Perik­leous (Cyprus)

🎂 April 2, 1805 – Birth: Hans Christian Andersen

Dan­ish lit­er­ary giant,““Father of Mod­ern Fairy Tales”” Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­senBorn (1805–1875).

• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: He com­plete­ly rede­fined fairy tales, ele­vat­ing them from mere col­lec­tions of folk sto­ries to the lev­el of seri­ous lit­er­a­ture. His sto­ries were not only writ­ten for chil­dren, but also for adults who “were once chil­dren.”
• Clas­sic works: 《The Emper­or’s New ClothesHis works include “The Lit­tle Mer­maid,” “The Ugly Duck­ling,” and “The Lit­tle Match Girl.” His works have been trans­lat­ed into more than 150 lan­guages.
• Eter­nal Hon­or: The high­est award in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award, estab­lished in 1956, is named after him.

| Birth | Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen | Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born April 2, 1977: Yi Ran

A renowned Chi­nese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer and trans­la­tor“Yi Ran, founder of the “Lit­tle Study Room” pub­lic wel­fare read­ing pro­mo­tion web­siteBorn (1977–2015).

• Key con­tri­bu­tions: Despite being par­a­lyzed from the waist down since child­hood, she has trans­lat­ed hun­dreds of clas­sic chil­dren’s books from around the world with aston­ish­ing per­se­ver­ance and found­ed “Lit­tle Study World Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Net­work,” one of the ear­li­est and most influ­en­tial non-prof­it chil­dren’s read­ing pro­mo­tion orga­ni­za­tions in Chi­na.
• eval­u­ate: She is hailed as “the girl who sowed the seeds of fairy tales in Chi­na,” and her trans­la­tions of works such as *The Taste of the Moon* and *The Dif­fer­ent Carmela* are beloved by chil­dren. Born on the same day as Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen, she seems des­tined for fairy tales. Yi Ran’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive pic­ture book is *The Moon and the Lit­tle Fish*.

| Birth | Yi Ran | Yi Ran (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 April 2, 1948 – Birth: Roald Als

Dan­ish illus­tra­tor and polit­i­cal car­toon­ist Roald Als born.

• High­est Hon­or:
  • BIB Grand Prix: With theChristo­pher’s Jour­ney-Kristof­fers rejse) won Grand Prix at the 1981 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).
• style: His works are full of Dan­ish dry humor and pro­found social obser­va­tion, with diverse styles and great nar­ra­tive ten­sion.

| Birth | Roald Als | Roald Als (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born April 2, 1952: Lidia Postma

Dutch illus­tra­tor and writer Lidia Post­ma born.

• Key Achieve­ments:
  • BIB Gold­en Apple Award: With theThe Witch’s Gar­den-De hek­sen­tu­in) won 1979 BIB Gold­en Apple Award.
• style: Her works often pos­sess a charm­ing nos­tal­gic qual­i­ty and exquis­ite real­ism, and she is par­tic­u­lar­ly adept at han­dling folk tales and super­nat­ur­al themes, cre­at­ing a tran­quil yet slight­ly mys­te­ri­ous atmos­phere.

| Birth | Lidia Post­ma | Lidia Post­ma (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born April 2, 1954: Amy Schwartz

Amer­i­can renowned pic­to­r­i­al book author and illus­tra­tor Amy Schwartz Born (1954–2023).

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • 《Mr. Bi and Mr. Jones-Bea and Mr. JonesThis is a humor­ous sto­ry about a girl who is tired of going to school and her father who is tired of going to work, who switch roles.
• fea­ture: Her works are char­ac­ter­ized by depic­tions of city life, fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, and humor­ous every­day con­flicts, with a fresh style and a strong sense of life.

| Birth | Amy Schwartz | Amy Schwartz (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia link
born	Emi­ly Rod­da (Emi­ly Rho­da)	Aus­tralian author. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: *Rowan in Lynn* (…)Rowan of RinIts grand fan­ta­sy world is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Emi­ly Rod­da
born	Sue Townsend (Hugh Townsend)	British author. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Trou­bles of Young Amor*.The Secret Diary of Adri­an MoleIt is the pin­na­cle of con­tem­po­rary humor­ous diary-style nov­els for teenagers and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Sue Townsend
born	Mark Shul­man (Mark Shul­man)	Amer­i­can author. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Graf­fi­ti*.ScrawlIt uses a high­ly impact­ful style to depict the inner strug­gles of mar­gin­al­ized teenagers.	Mark Shul­man
born	Dave Ross (Dave Ross)	Amer­i­can author and illus­tra­tor. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: *The Embrace Book* (…).A book of hugsIt is warm and heal­ing.	Dave Ross
born	Mau­r­izio Oliv­ot­to	Ital­ian artist. With his work…Bestie rare》 won 1991 BIB Hon­ours Award.	Mau­r­izio Oliv­ot­to
Death	CS Forester (CS For­rest)	British author. Known for his naval adven­ture nov­els, his mas­ter­piece “The Hap­py Return” is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	CS Forester
Death	Charles G. Shaw (Charles G. Shaw)	Amer­i­can artist. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work, “It Looks Like Spilled Milk,” uses min­i­mal­ist sil­hou­ettes to inspire chil­dren’s bound­less imag­i­na­tion.	Charles G. Shaw