July 11: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born 1899 – EB. White

Erwin Brooks White (1899–1985), an immor­tal Amer­i­can essay­ist, writer, and titan of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. He is an indis­putable and revered icon in the his­to­ry of world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, who through­out his life estab­lished the high­est philo­soph­i­cal par­a­digm for human child­hood with his extreme­ly refined, ratio­nal, and restrained lit­er­ary lan­guage.

• The high­est Grand Slam hon­or: 1970 Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Her­itage Award (CLLA) Life­time Achieve­ment Award Recip­i­ent;High­ly Com­mend­ed Award for Authors of the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA)His mas­ter­piece, *Char­lot­te’s Web*, won the award. New­bery Hon­or, 1953.
• The Tril­o­gy of Time­less Immor­tal­i­ty and Ever­last­ing Beau­ty:
• Canon, the pin­na­cle of world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture:Char­lot­te’s Web (Char­lot­te’s WebThrough the sto­ry of Char­lotte, a gray spi­der who saves Wilbur the pig from death by weav­ing a web in a barn, the film pro­found­ly and calm­ly explores the ulti­mate philo­soph­i­cal ques­tions of friend­ship, the order of life, and death.
• Glob­al Ever­last­ing Clas­sics:Stu­art Lit­tle (Stu­art Lit­tle)、The Trum­pet-Play­ing Swan (The Trum­pet of the Swan)。

| Birth | EB White | EB White (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 1975 – Death: Crockett Johnson

David John­son Rees (1906–1975), an immor­tal Amer­i­can graph­ic artist, car­toon­ist, and pio­neer of book struc­ture, was a land­mark fig­ure in the his­to­ry of mod­ern pic­ture book devel­op­ment world­wide. His life and that of his wife, the renowned author Ruth Krause, are doc­u­ment­ed in the biog­ra­phy “Krogert John­son & Ruth Krause: How an Incred­i­ble Cou­ple Found Love, Evad­ed the FBI, and Changed Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture.”

• An endur­ing and supreme mon­u­ment: A mas­ter­piece of visu­al decon­struc­tion The Harold’s Col­ored Pen­cil Series (Harold and the Pur­ple Cray­on), Col­lab­o­ra­tive Real­is­tic Clas­sics Car­rot Seeds (The Car­rot SeedBoth were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• His­tor­i­cal Visu­al Achieve­ments: John­son com­plete­ly shat­tered the rigid per­spec­tive and com­plex depic­tions of pre­vi­ous chil­dren’s books. In *Arrow*, he inno­v­a­tive­ly used the clean­est sin­gle-line hatch­ing tech­nique in the entire book, drawn with only a pur­ple cray­on, allow­ing the lit­tle boy Arrow to cre­ate his own world, moon, ocean, and way home by con­stant­ly draw­ing lines in a pure white space. With supreme ratio­nal beau­ty, he dig­ni­fied­ly defend­ed the high­est spir­i­tu­al author­i­ty of chil­dren’s sub­jec­tive imag­i­na­tion and inde­pen­dent rea­son.

| Passed Away | Crock­ett John­son | Crock­ett John­son (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1944: Patricia Polacco

An immor­tal Amer­i­can female real­ist chil­dren’s book author, illus­tra­tor, and anthro­pol­o­gist (1944). She was a high­ly pres­ti­gious queen of psy­cho­log­i­cal real­ist nar­ra­tives in the world of chil­dren’s visu­al lit­er­a­ture, per­fect­ly blend­ing mul­ti-eth­nic immi­grant her­itage (Russ­ian, Jew­ish, Irish) with the order of fam­i­ly life.

• A time­less clas­sic of real­ism: Auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal Fam­i­ly Epic Fam­i­ly Heir­loom Quilt (The Keep­ing QuiltIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• Key rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Pink Floyd, a film that direct­ly con­fronts the strug­gles between peo­ple of col­or dur­ing World War II.Pink and SayThank you, Pro­fes­sor Fou­cault, is an ever­green book that heals the trau­ma of chil­dren’s dyslex­ia.Thank you, Mr. Falk­er)。
• Visu­al and lit­er­ary fea­tures: Polak’s writ­ing is imbued with the del­i­cate, gran­u­lar qual­i­ty of every­day life. She inno­v­a­tive­ly uses warm brown pen­cil lines with a dynam­ic, free­hand style, con­trast­ing them with high­ly sat­u­rat­ed blocks of oil paint. Through­out her life, she reject­ed false sweet­ness, using the most authen­tic, ver­nac­u­lar lan­guage of the land to record the joys and sor­rows of life and the bridg­ing of gen­er­a­tional gaps, earn­ing her a place on the endur­ing rec­om­men­da­tion lists of major libraries.

| Birth | Patri­cia Polac­co | Patri­cia Polac­co (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1972: Einar Turkowski

A con­tem­po­rary Ger­man graph­ic artist and a mas­ter of sur­re­al­ist fine art illus­tra­tion (1972). He is an aca­d­e­m­ic giant of black and white line draw­ing, revered by the entire world of pic­ture books in the 21st cen­tu­ry.

• Inter­na­tion­al high­est hon­or (high­est lau­rel wreath): With its word­less epic poem on paper that defies the lim­its of human vision, it reached the top and won… Grand Prix at the 2007 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB).
• Award-win­ning immor­tal mas­ter­piece: That was a dark and won­drous silence. (Es war fin­ster und merk­würdig still)。
• Visu­al Arts: Turkovsky com­plete­ly aban­doned mod­ern dig­i­tal col­or­ing. Through­out his life, he used only extreme­ly hard­core and intri­cate hand-drawn pen­cil lines and cross-etch­ing tech­niques to weave large areas of black-and-white Möbius dream­scapes on the pages, filled with sub­con­scious decon­struc­tion and blank space. Every­thing in his paint­ings is filled with a mys­te­ri­ous ratio­nal order and spir­i­tu­al dig­ni­ty, ele­vat­ing ear­ly art pic­ture books to the lev­el of fine art col­lec­tions.

| Birth | Einar Turkows­ki | Einar Turkows­ki (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2023 – Passed away: Ahmadreza Ahmadi

Iran’s immor­tal nation­al treasure—a mod­ern poet, play­wright, and avant-garde chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer (1940–2023). He was a tow­er­ing fig­ure in the inter­na­tion­al stage of mod­ern chil­dren’s poet­ics and crit­i­cal nar­ra­tive in the mid-to-late 20th cen­tu­ry.

• Inter­na­tion­al high­est hon­or: Suc­cess­ful­ly short­list­ed 2010 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Final­ist.
• A time­less mas­ter­piece of lyric poet­ry: When I Paint the World (When I Col­ored in the World)、Come Back to Life (Alive Again)。
• Lit­er­ary qual­i­ties: Ahmadi’s writ­ing is pow­er­ful, ethe­re­al, and pos­sess­es the aus­tere restraint of a poly­phon­ic epic poem. He is excep­tion­al­ly adept at using the inno­cent eyes of a child to decon­struct polit­i­cal prej­u­dice and the nihilis­tic greed of the adult world, endow­ing minor­i­ty youths liv­ing under the shad­ow of lone­li­ness and war with the most resilient psy­cho­log­i­cal pow­er and dig­ni­ty through the ulti­mate seri­ous­ness of his lit­er­ary art.

| Passed Away | Ahmadreza Ahma­di | Ahmadreza Ahma­di (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2021 — Passed away: Barbara Bader

An immor­tal Amer­i­can female art his­to­ri­an, top pic­ture book crit­ic, and schol­ar of lit­er­a­ture (1927–2021). She is a tow­er­ing fig­ure in the his­to­ry of pic­ture book crit­i­cism and research, a skele­tal giant who has built a high wall of ratio­nal­i­ty in the indus­try.

• Supreme Indus­try Mon­u­ment Hon­ors: Amaz­ing­ly won 2013 The Car­le Hon­ors Bridge Hon­oree.
• A time­less and immor­tal aca­d­e­m­ic mas­ter­piece: From Noah’s Ark to the Inner Beast: A His­to­ry of Amer­i­can Pic­ture Books (Amer­i­can Pic­ture­books from Noah’s Ark to the Beast With­in)。
• His­tor­i­cal achieve­ments: Bede served as edi­tor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews for many years. Her near­ly 1,000-page his­tor­i­cal schol­ar­ly work is the undis­put­ed pin­na­cle of pic­ture book stud­ies world­wide. With a cool, rig­or­ous, and soci­o­log­i­cal­ly crit­i­cal aca­d­e­m­ic pen, she metic­u­lous­ly elu­ci­dates the evo­lu­tion of mod­ern pic­ture books in terms of fine art, typog­ra­phy, and chil­dren’s psy­cho­log­i­cal cog­ni­tion, intro­duc­ing the art of pic­ture books with great dig­ni­ty into the high­est halls of seri­ous acad­e­mia.

| Passed Away | Bar­bara Bad­er | Bar­bara Bad­er |

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🗓️ Parallel briefings from other award-winning authors

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Joan Bauer	A renowned Amer­i­can female real­ist nov­el­ist for chil­dren and young adults (1951). She excels at using authen­tic, con­tem­po­rary, and satir­i­cal lan­guage, writ­ten in the lan­guage of young girls, to por­tray the resilience and self-reliance of mar­gin­al­ized youths fac­ing social strat­i­fi­ca­tion. Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive nov­el is *Hope Is Here* (1951).Hope Was Here) won 2001 New­bery Hon­or.	Joan Bauer
born	Helen Cress­well	A pro­lif­ic British female writer of his­tor­i­cal and humor­ous nov­els about chil­dren from the mid-to-late 20th cen­tu­ry (1934–2005). She was a renowned author who per­fect­ly blend­ed British dry humor, a sharply crit­i­cal soci­o­log­i­cal reflec­tion on class, and the inner empow­er­ment of chil­dren. Her ever­green mas­ter­piece, *Ordi­nary Jack*, explor­ing the dai­ly life of an eccen­tric fam­i­ly, is a tes­ta­ment to this.Ordi­nary JackIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Helen Cress­well
born	Jane Gar­dam	An immor­tal British female nov­el­ist and Fel­low of the Roy­al Soci­ety of Lit­er­a­ture (1928). She is a high­ly acclaimed nar­ra­tive mas­ter in the con­tem­po­rary Eng­lish lit­er­ary world, and a two-time Whit­bread Prize win­ner. Her immor­tal mas­ter­piece, *Verona Far Away*, which cross­es over into the children’s/YA (adult fic­tion) genre, vivid­ly por­trays the his­tor­i­cal trau­ma of World War I, the gen­er­a­tional gap, and the dig­ni­ty of young wom­en’s sub­jec­tiv­i­ty.A Long Way from VeronaIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Jane Gar­dam
born	James Steven­son	A renowned Amer­i­can graph­ic artist and top polit­i­cal satir­i­cal car­toon­ist (1929–2017). He served for many years as a promi­nent colum­nist for *The New York­er*, and his for­ay into chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, using the clean­est and most refined pen-and-ink wash­es through­out the time­less chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal poet­ry col­lec­tion *The New Boy in the Neigh­bor­hood*, is a tes­ta­ment to his tal­ent.The New Kid on the BlockThe first edi­tion illus­tra­tions drawn by him were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	James Steven­son
born	Pinin Carpi	A promi­nent and immor­tal Ital­ian chil­dren’s nov­el­ist, poet, and crit­ic of the 20th cen­tu­ry (1920–2004). He ded­i­cat­ed his life to cre­at­ing works using the most tra­di­tion­al South­ern Euro­pean folk oral rhythms and texts imbued with roman­ti­cism and anti-author­i­tar­i­an decon­struc­tion. His mas­ter­piece is *Blue Wheat*.Cion Cion BluIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” due to its extreme­ly high aes­thet­ic charm.	Pinin Carpi
Death	Ana­toli Pristawkin	A renowned Russian/Soviet real­ist writer and mar­tyr of the inter­na­tion­al human rights move­ment (1931–2008). His time­less epic mas­ter­piece, *We, the Cuck­oo Chil­dren*, con­fronts the blood and tears of World War II his­to­ry in the Cau­ca­sus, vivid­ly depict­ing the strug­gles of orphaned chil­dren from the low­er class­es in an orphan­age as they des­per­ate­ly uphold moral order amidst class seg­re­ga­tion and extreme sur­vival pains.Wir Kuck­uck­skinder), and won the cham­pi­onship. The high­est prize of the 1991 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Ana­toli Pristawkin (Wiki­da­ta)
Death	Klára Jarunk­ová	A leg­endary fig­ure in Slo­va­kian social real­ism lit­er­a­ture for young adults (1922–2005). Through­out her life, she penned *The Silent Wolf’s Broth­ers*, a land­mark mas­ter­piece doc­u­ment­ing the unwa­ver­ing spir­it of minor­i­ty youth amidst inter­gen­er­a­tional con­flict in Europe, writ­ten with a detached and unvar­nished soci­o­log­i­cal per­spec­tive.Der Brud­er des schweigen­den WolfesAmaz­ing achieve­ments The high­est prize of the 1970 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Klára Jarunk­ová (Wiki­da­ta)