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

🎂 Born 1939: Gary Paulsen

A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1939–2021). He is the undis­put­ed king of mod­ern wilder­ness sur­vival and adven­ture lit­er­a­ture.

• Key Achieve­ments: Three times won New­bery Hon­or.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• “Axe Boy” (Hatch­et): A glob­al­ly pop­u­lar sur­vival clas­sic, telling the sto­ry of young Bri­an who sur­vives alone in the jun­gle for 54 days with only a hatch­et.
• The Sled Dog Song (Dog­song)、The Lit­tle Wood­en House in Win­ter (The Win­ter Room)。
• Auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal works:That Boy (Gone to the Woods)。
• Lit­er­ary style: Berson­’s life was an adven­ture in itself (he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Idi­tar­od dog sled race twice). His writ­ing is rugged, authen­tic, and has a strong sen­so­ry impact, pro­found­ly explor­ing human intro­spec­tion, trans­for­ma­tion, and growth in the face of nature.

| Birth | Gary Boson | Gary Paulsen (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born in 1974: Grace Lin

A promi­nent con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and nov­el­ist of Chi­nese descent. She is ded­i­cat­ed to reshap­ing the charm of tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese cul­ture with­in the West­ern chil­dren’s book world using mod­ern artis­tic tech­niques.

• Key Achieve­ments: Award­ed New­bery Medal(Fic­tion) and Calde­cott Hon­orA renowned author in both the pic­ture book and oth­er cat­e­gories.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• Fairy Tale of the Moon­lit Night (Where the Moun­tain Meets the Moon(This is a New­bery Sil­ver Medal win­ner, which clev­er­ly blends Chi­nese folk mythol­o­gy into a clas­sic West­ern trea­sure hunt adven­ture nar­ra­tive.)
• “Lit­tle Star’s Big Moon­cake” (A Big Moon­cake for Lit­tle Star(This is a Calde­cott Hon­or Book, which uses a child­like imag­i­na­tion to explain the nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non of the wax­ing and wan­ing of the moon.)

| Birth | Lin Pei-Si | Grace Lin (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2007 – Death: Lloyd Alexander

A lead­ing Amer­i­can chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture mas­ter and trans­la­tor (1924–2007). He, along with C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and oth­ers, laid the foun­da­tion for high fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture in the mid-to-late 20th cen­tu­ry.

• High­est Hon­or: 1969 New­bery Medal The win­ner.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• The Chron­i­cles of Pri­dan series (The Chron­i­cles of Pry­dain): A grand epic con­sist­ing of five nov­els, the last of which is “Supreme King-The High KingWin­ner of the New­bery Medal, Vol­ume 2The Leg­end of the Black God Pot-The Black Caul­dronIt won the New­bery Hon­or and was adapt­ed by Dis­ney.
• The Cat Who Want­ed to Be Human (The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man): A fairy tale full of humor and phi­los­o­phy.
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Alexan­der was deeply inspired by Welsh mythol­o­gy (such as Mabino­gion), and his works not only fea­ture grand bat­tles between good and evil, but also focus on the pro­tag­o­nist’s men­tal growth and the explo­ration of “true hero­ism”.

| Deceased | Lloyd Alexan­der | Lloyd Alexan­der (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1929 – Eloise Greenfield

A renowned African Amer­i­can female poet and biog­ra­ph­er (1929–2021).

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: My dear, I love you (Hon­ey, I Love and Oth­er Love Poems)。
• His­tor­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions: She was a key fig­ure in the his­to­ry of African Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, ded­i­cat­ing her life to cre­at­ing poems and sto­ries that reflect­ed the warmth of African Amer­i­can fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ty cohe­sion, and pos­i­tive child­hood images. Her writ­ing was full of musi­cal rhythm.

| Birth | Eloise Green­field | Eloise Green­field (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born in 1930: Nancy Polette

A renowned Amer­i­can read­ing pro­mot­er, edu­ca­tor, and pro­lif­ic author.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Eight Cin­derel­las (Eight Cin­derel­las)。
• Indus­try con­tri­bu­tions: She has authored hun­dreds of teach­ing ref­er­ence books to help chil­dren devel­op crit­i­cal think­ing and to com­pare and con­trast fairy tales. Her “Eight Cin­derel­las” show­cas­es dif­fer­ent inter­pre­ta­tions of clas­sic folk tales across var­i­ous cul­tur­al back­grounds and is a mod­el for the appli­ca­tion of com­par­a­tive chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture in edu­ca­tion.

| Birth | Nan­cy Paulette | Nan­cy Polette (Wikipedia) |