July 26: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 2022 — Passed away: Uri Orlev

Israeli chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author, trans­la­tor, and Holo­caust sur­vivor (1931–2022). Born in War­saw, Poland, he spent his child­hood in the War­saw Ghet­to and con­cen­tra­tion camps. He trans­formed this painful expe­ri­ence of war into real­is­tic chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture that is human­i­tar­i­an, objec­tive, calm, and full of the courage to sur­vive.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At He won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Writer in 1996.He has won the Batchelder Award mul­ti­ple times.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Islands on Bird Street (The Island on Bird Street(Also trans­lat­ed as “The Lone­ly Island on Bird Street”) — tells the sto­ry of 11-year-old Jew­ish boy Alex who, dur­ing a mas­sive man­hunt in the War­saw Ghet­to dur­ing World War II, is sep­a­rat­ed from his father. He hides alone in a ruined build­ing with a white mouse, and sur­vives for months on his own, rely­ing on his wis­dom, rea­son, and hope, while wait­ing for his father’s return.
• Run! Boy! (Run, Boy, Run— Based on a true sto­ry, it tells the leg­endary tale of a Jew­ish boy who lost his right arm while flee­ing dur­ing World War II, who, under the alias Pol­ish Orphan, tra­versed the rur­al wilder­ness, evad­ing cap­ture and strug­gling to sur­vive.
• Lead Sol­diers (The Lead Sol­diers— A nov­el with strong auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal ele­ments, it recounts the expe­ri­ences of two broth­ers who, under the shad­ow of con­cen­tra­tion camps and war, used a set of small toy lead sol­diers to con­struct an imag­i­nary world to com­bat the harsh real­i­ty.
• Pic­ture book “Tues­day Sham­poo Day“Der haarige Dien­stag(Illus­trat­ed by Jacques Gladley): It tells the hilar­i­ous and child­like sto­ry of a lit­tle boy strug­gling with the dai­ly “minor dis­as­ter” of wash­ing his hair once a week.

| Passed Away | Uri Orlev | Uri Orlev (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1925: Ana María Matute

Span­ish nov­el­ist, chil­dren’s book author, and mem­ber of the Roy­al Span­ish Acad­e­my of Lan­guages (1925–2014). She was one of the most impor­tant lit­er­ary voic­es after the Span­ish Civ­il War and an extreme­ly impor­tant chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture cre­ator in the 20th-cen­tu­ry Span­ish-speak­ing world, adept at blend­ing the raw real­ism with the charm of fairy tales.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: Award­ed High­ly Com­mend­ed Award for Authors of the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA)In 2010, he received the high­est hon­or in Span­ish lit­er­a­ture.Cer­vantes Prize.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• The stow­aways of the Ulysses (El polizón del Ulis­es— This sto­ry tells of an orphan boy raised by three aunts with very dif­fer­ent per­son­al­i­ties who hide an escaped pris­on­er in the attic of their fam­i­ly man­sion, and how the two come to under­stand respon­si­bil­i­ty, com­pas­sion, and growth through their inter­ac­tions.
• Fool­ish Child (Los niños ton­tos— Com­posed of 21 extreme­ly short sto­ries, lyri­cal and slight­ly melan­cholic, they reveal the con­flict and alien­ation between the inno­cent nature of chil­dren and the real­i­ties of the adult world.
• The true end­ing of Sleep­ing Beau­ty (El ver­dadero final de la Bel­la Dur­miente— A sub­ver­sive recon­struc­tion of clas­sic Grim­m’s Fairy Tales, explor­ing pow­er, wom­en’s fate, and real-world choic­es from a calm and pro­found lit­er­ary per­spec­tive.

| Birth | Ana María Matute | Ana María Matute (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1923 – Born: Jan Berenstain

Jan­ice Grant (1923–2012), an Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor, co-cre­at­ed chil­dren’s books on life skills and emo­tion­al intel­li­gence that have been pop­u­lar world­wide for decades with her hus­band, Stan Beren­stain.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• The Beren­stain Bears series (The Beren­stain Bears series(Also trans­lat­ed as the “Lit­tle Bear Broth­er and Lit­tle Bear Sis­ter” series) — The sto­ries revolve around Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Lit­tle Bear Broth­er, and Lit­tle Bear Sis­ter, cov­er­ing var­i­ous every­day top­ics chil­dren encounter as they grow up, such as picky eat­ing, tidy­ing up, lying, deal­ing with strangers, and exces­sive tele­vi­sion view­ing. The series uses humor­ous and gen­tle every­day sto­ry­lines to help young chil­dren estab­lish good behav­ioral norms and fam­i­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion order.

| Birth | Jan Beren­stain | Jan Beren­stain (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1971 – R. Gregory Christie

Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and graph­ic artist (1971). He has long been ded­i­cat­ed to cre­at­ing pic­ture books on African Amer­i­can his­to­ry, jazz cul­ture, and minor­i­ty his­to­ry, with a style char­ac­ter­ized by strong expres­sion­ism and large-scale com­po­si­tion­al ten­sion.

• Supreme Award Hon­ors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• The Free­dom Ral­ly at Con­go Square (Free­dom in Con­go Square(By Car­ole Boston Weath­er­ford) — Award-win­ning 2017 Calde­cott Hon­or Award­ed the Cori­ta Scott King Book Prize: The work chron­i­cles the his­tor­i­cal scene of enslaved peo­ple in 19th-cen­tu­ry New Orleans who, after a week of extreme­ly ardu­ous unpaid labor, could only gath­er on Sun­day after­noons in “Con­go Square” to drum, dance, sing, and enjoy a brief peri­od of free­dom. Christie, with her slant­ed angles, extreme­ly strong lines, and sat­u­rat­ed col­ors, vivid­ly por­trays the spir­i­tu­al dig­ni­ty and vital­i­ty that peo­ple stub­born­ly clung to under oppres­sion.

| Birth | R. Gre­go­ry Christie | R. Gre­go­ry Christie (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1946: Wenche Øyen

Nor­we­gian pic­ture book author and water­col­or painter (1946). Her pic­ture book style is extreme­ly ethe­re­al and nat­ur­al, and she is good at using water­col­or wash­es like fres­coes to express Scan­di­na­vian light and shad­ow and the sub­tle inner feel­ings of chil­dren.

• Supreme Award Hon­ors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Based on pic­ture books Ein god dag(A Beau­ti­ful Day) won the award Gold­en Apple Award at the 1981 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing with Nor­we­gian author Einar Økland and oth­ers, her paint­ings have won the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP). Her works are adept at cap­tur­ing the qui­et tex­ture of Scan­di­na­vian nature and the every­day inter­ac­tions of chil­dren.

| Birth | Wenche Øyen | Wenche Øyen (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Mar­i­an Hurd McNeely	Amer­i­can young adult nov­el­ist (1877–1930). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Land of Springs*.The Jump­ing-Off Place(This is a true sto­ry about four orphaned sib­lings who ven­tured to the bar­ren plains of South Dako­ta to set­tle and over­come extreme cold and pover­ty.) New­bery Hon­or, 1930.	Mar­i­an Hurd McNeely
Death	Louise Fatio	Swiss-Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author (1904–1993). She col­lab­o­rat­ed with her hus­band, renowned illus­tra­tor Roger Duvoisin, on the famous “The Mer­ry Lion” (The Mer­ry Lion).The Hap­py Lion(1954), tells the hilar­i­ous sto­ry of a lion who was orig­i­nal­ly a favorite in the zoo of a small French town. One day, he sneaks out of his cage to take a walk in town, only to find that the usu­al­ly kind towns­peo­ple are all run­ning away in fright. It won the first Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Award.	Louise Fatio
Death	Rose­marie Wil­der­muth	Ger­man chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture edi­tor and trans­la­tor (1925–1995). He received numer­ous awards for his long-term ded­i­ca­tion to trans­lat­ing and intro­duc­ing excel­lent Russ­ian and East­ern Euro­pean chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture to the Ger­man-speak­ing world. Spe­cial Prize of the 1979 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Rose­marie Wil­der­muth