Bridge of Ajia

May 21: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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🎂 1911 – Born: Virginia Haviland

She was a renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture crit­ic, librar­i­an, and author (1911–1988). She was a land­mark fig­ure in the his­to­ry of mod­ern chil­dren’s book research and pro­mo­tion.

  • His­toric con­tri­bu­tion: He served as the first direc­tor of the Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Cen­ter at the Library of Con­gress. He has a ded­i­cat­ed chap­ter about him­self in his book, *The Pow­er of Child­hood*.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: He com­piled the famous “My Favorite Fairy Tales” series (Favorite Fairy Tales Told in…(Vol­umes on Poland, France, etc.). She reimag­ines folk tales from around the world in extreme­ly pure and refined mod­ern lan­guage, mak­ing them per­fect­ly suit­ed to the read­ing pace of young read­ers.

| Birth | Vir­ginia Hav­i­land | Vir­ginia Hav­i­land (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2006 – Passed away: Teruo Teramura

A renowned con­tem­po­rary Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author (1928–2006). With his unpar­al­leled absurd humor and pre­cise cap­ture of chil­dren’s psy­chol­o­gy, he became a lead­ing fig­ure in post­war Japan­ese “chil­dren’s fairy tales”.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • I Am the King series (The King in the For­est): It cre­at­ed a non­sen­si­cal king who loves to eat fried eggs, is arro­gant, and is extreme­ly cute.
  • Come on! Let’s fry a pot of ele­phant eggs.、The Egg Book Series.
  • Lit­er­ary style: Ter­a­mu­ra Teruo’s works break free from tra­di­tion­al didac­ti­cism, start­ing pure­ly from chil­dren’s log­ic and play­ful spir­it. His dense use of ono­matopoeia and uncon­ven­tion­al plot devel­op­ments make chil­dren learn­ing to read fall in love with books while laugh­ing hearti­ly.

| Passed Away | Teruo Ter­a­mu­ra | Teruo Ter­a­mu­ra (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1995 – Died: Annie MG Schmidt

A lead­ing fig­ure in Dutch chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture and win­ner of the 1988 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award for Best Author.

  • Final respects: We just cel­e­brat­ed her birth­day on May 20th, and May 21st marks the anniver­sary of the pass­ing of this mas­ter, known as the “Queen of Fairy Tales” of the Nether­lands, in 1995.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Yi Yi and Ya Ya (Jip en Jan­neke)、“Cat­woman Min­nie” (Minoes)、The Crane Boy in the Hat Apart­ment (Tow-Truck PluckHer lit­er­ary lega­cy remains a trea­sure of the entire Euro­pean chil­dren’s book world.

| Deceased | Anne MG Schmidt | Annie MG Schmidt (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1943: Beverley Naidoo

A renowned British female writer of South African descent. With immense moral courage, she ded­i­cat­ed her­self to expos­ing the cru­el­ty of apartheid and the dig­ni­ty of human­i­ty in young adult lit­er­a­ture.

  • High­est Hon­or: 2000 Carnegie Medal (CMW) The win­ner.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • The Oth­er Side of Truth (The Oth­er Side of Truth(This is a Carnegie Medal win­ner’s work, telling the sto­ry of a Niger­ian broth­er and sis­ter who were forced into exile in Britain because their father insist­ed on jour­nal­is­tic truth.)
  • Johan­nes­burg No Longer Grieve (Jour­ney to Jo’burg): Explor­ing the suf­fer­ing and hope of chil­dren of col­or in the con­text of racial seg­re­ga­tion.

| Birth | Bev­er­ly Nai­do | Bev­er­ley Naidoo (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born in 1920: László Réber

A famous Hun­gar­i­an illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist (1920–2001).

  • Key Achieve­ments: With the work “The Adven­tures of Babu Belch-Bab Berci kaland­jai) won Plaque Award, 1989 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).
  • Artis­tic Style: Reiber is known for his extreme­ly refined “sin­gle-line draw­ing” style. He is adept at using pen to out­line large areas of blank space, with lines that are humor­ous, iron­ic, and pos­sess a strong sense of com­po­si­tion in mod­ern graph­ic art, earn­ing him high praise inter­na­tion­al­ly.

| Birth | Lás­zló Rebe | Lás­zló Réber (Wikipedia) |

🗓️ Other Important Creator Briefings

eventfig­ureDetails/AwardsWikipedia link
DeathEleanor H. PorterAmer­i­can author. Mas­ter­piecePollyan­na》 (Pollyan­naShe was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and cre­at­ed the cul­tur­al sym­bol of “opti­mistic girl”.EH Porter
bornEri­ca Sil­ver­manAmer­i­can bridge book author. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: [Title of work is miss­ing].Cow­girl Kate and CocoIt has been a rec­om­mend­ed book for chil­dren’s inde­pen­dent read­ing for many years.Eri­ca Sil­ver­man

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