Bridge of Ajia

August 1st: Today in the history of children’s books

author:

Ajia

exist

⚰️ 1985 – Death: Alois Carigiet

Swiss painter, graph­ic artist, and chil­dren’s book cre­ator (1902–1985). He was an impor­tant pio­neer in the his­to­ry of 20th-cen­tu­ry Euro­pean chil­dren’s pic­ture books, known for his extreme­ly refined water­col­ors and lines, and his illus­tra­tions rich in the atmos­phere of the Alps and lyri­cal col­ors.

  • Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At In 1966, he won the inau­gur­al Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Artist..
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • Snow Fes­ti­val Bells (SCHELLEN-URSLI(1945, text by Zalia Kölin/Selina Chönz, also trans­lat­ed as *Usley’s Big Bell*) — This sto­ry tells of Usley, a boy liv­ing in a small Alpine vil­lage, who, to avoid being ridiculed by his peers for not tak­ing the small­est cow­bell in the tra­di­tion­al “Snow Fes­ti­val” parade, braves heavy snow to climb alone to a sum­mer pas­ture hut on a cliff, finds the large cow­bell hid­den there, and ulti­mate­ly wins every­one’s admi­ra­tion. The illus­tra­tions del­i­cate­ly depict the snowy land­scape of the Swiss moun­tains and the courage of child­hood.
  • “Heavy Snow” (DER GROSSE SCHNEE(1953) — tells the sto­ry of Usley and his sis­ter Flo­ri­na feed­ing birds in the snowy moun­tains and sur­viv­ing an avalanche.
  • Mau­rice and His Sheep (Zot­tel, Zick und Zwerg / Eng­lish name Anton the Goatherd— It depicts the dai­ly life of a shep­herd boy in the Alps and the nat­ur­al scenery.

| Deceased | Alois Carigi­et | Alois Carigi­et (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2008 – Passed away: Pauline Baynes

British illus­tra­tor (1922–2008). She illus­trat­ed near­ly a thou­sand books through­out her life, and is best known for her clas­sic first edi­tion illus­tra­tions for C.S. Lewis’s Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • The Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(1950) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. Baines brought to life the mag­i­cal king­dom of Nar­nia, the faun Tum­nus, the White Witch, and the great lion Aslan with exquis­ite clas­si­cal pen lines.
  • The Dic­tio­nary of Chival­ry (A Dic­tio­nary of Chival­ry(Grant Uden, 1968) — Award­ed 1968 Kate Green­away Medal (CIL)A com­pre­hen­sive ency­clo­pe­dia of medieval chival­ry, her­aldry, and weapons, Baines show­cas­es excep­tion­al artis­tic skill with its illus­tra­tions, bor­ders, and del­i­cate details rem­i­nis­cent of medieval minia­ture paint­ings.

| Passed Away | Pauline Baynes | Pauline Baynes (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1942: Guus Kuijer

Dutch chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author (1942). His works are known for their extreme humor, frank­ness, philo­soph­i­cal depth, and per­spec­tive on chil­dren’s psy­chol­o­gy. He excels at explor­ing faith, fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, and child­hood self-explo­ration.

  • Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At She received the Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award (ALMA) in 2012.He was also a final­ist for the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA).
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Book of All Things (Het boek van alle din­gen / Eng­lish name The Book of Every­thing(2004) — The sto­ry takes place in Ams­ter­dam in the 1950s. Nine-year-old Thomas lives in a fam­i­ly ruled by a harsh, reli­gious­ly author­i­tar­i­an father. Thomas records his life and imag­i­na­tion in his secret note­book, “The Book of Every­thing.” With the love and encour­age­ment of his elder­ly neigh­bor, his sis­ter, and his friends, he even­tu­al­ly learns to over­come his fear, stand up against domes­tic vio­lence, and under­stand that “hap­pi­ness begins with no longer being afraid.”
  • Pol­lack series (Polleke (series) — It tells the sto­ry of a young girl named Pol­lyk as she nav­i­gates her par­ents’ divorce, com­plex inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships at school, and the onset of puber­ty with humor and matu­ri­ty.

| Birth | Guus Kui­jer | Guus Kui­jer (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1890: Berta Hader

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1890–1976). She and her hus­band, Elmer Had­er, were a famous pic­ture book cre­ation cou­ple in the Unit­ed States in the mid-20th cen­tu­ry. Their works were wide­ly pop­u­lar for their gen­tle and real­is­tic style and their love for nature and ani­mals.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • “Snowflakes Are So Heavy” (The Big Snow(1948) — Award­ed 1949 Calde­cott MedalThe sto­ry depicts the approach­ing autumn, when the wild rab­bits, squir­rels, wood mice, and deer in the for­est sense the signs of win­ter and pre­pare their win­ter sup­plies. Then, a heavy snow falls and cov­ers the earth. An elder­ly cou­ple spreads food for the ani­mals in their court­yard, show­cas­ing a heart­warm­ing pic­ture of the chang­ing sea­sons and the har­mo­nious coex­is­tence of humans and ani­mals.
  • “The Roost­er Crows” (Cock-a-Doo­dle Doo(1939) — Award­ed 1940 Calde­cott Hon­orThe sto­ry tells of a lit­tle yel­low chick that hatch­es among a flock of ducks and embarks on an adven­ture across farms and hills in search of its kind.
  • The Great Hunter (The Mighty Hunter(1943) — Award­ed 1944 Calde­cott Hon­or.

| Birth | Berta Had­er | Berta Had­er (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1964: Edward van de Vendel

Dutch chil­dren’s and young adult lit­er­a­ture writer and poet (1964). His works encom­pass pic­ture books, poet­ry, and young adult nov­els, and his writ­ing is char­ac­ter­ized by its rhyth­mic lan­guage and skill­ful depic­tion of del­i­cate emo­tions and psy­chol­o­gy.

  • High­est inter­na­tion­al hon­ors and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • The Dog Nino Did­n’t Have (Der Hund, den Nino nicht hat­te(Illus­tra­tion by Anton Van Hert­bruggen, 2013) — Award­ed 2015 French Prix Sor­cières and 2016 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP)The sto­ry tells of a young boy named Nino who has a “vir­tu­al” invis­i­ble dog that is always there to give him com­pan­ion­ship and courage. One day, Nino receives a real pup­py and dis­cov­ers that his imag­i­nary dog has not dis­ap­peared but has gone to accom­pa­ny oth­er chil­dren who need courage.
  • Sam the Loy­al Dog (Toen kwam Sam— It tells the sto­ry of the joy and warmth that a hound named Sam brings into a fam­i­ly.
  • The Lit­tle Fox’s Dream (Vos­je— It depicts a lit­tle fox’s poet­ic explo­ration in dreams and the wild nature; the author was short­list­ed for the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) in 2024.

| Birth | Edward van de Vendel | Edward van de Vendel (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1942 – Born: Michael Martchenko

French-Cana­di­an illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist (1942). He is known for his exag­ger­at­ed and humor­ous dynam­ic lines and water­col­or col­ors, and was a long-time col­lab­o­ra­tor with the famous chil­dren’s book author Robert Mun­sch.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Paper Bag Princess (The Paper Bag Princess(Robert Mushvin, 1980) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. This uncon­ven­tion­al and sub­ver­sive fairy tale tells the sto­ry of the beau­ti­ful Princess Eliz­a­beth, who was orig­i­nal­ly going to mar­ry Prince Renoir, but the cas­tle was burned down by a drag­on, and the prince was cap­tured by the drag­on. The princess dressed in a paper bag as a coat, and with her excep­tion­al wis­dom, she fought the drag­on and res­cued the prince, only to be reject­ed by the prince for her disheveled appear­ance. The princess deci­sive­ly saw through the prince’s hypocrisy and left grace­ful­ly. The work is hailed as a clas­sic read­er for chil­dren’s equal­i­ty and inde­pen­dent female con­scious­ness.

| Birth | Michael Martchenko | Michael Martchenko (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1799 – Born: Countess de Ségur

Sofia Feodor­ov­na Ros­topchi­na (1799–1874), a French-Russ­ian chil­dren’s author, was a pio­neer of 19th-cen­tu­ry French chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. In her lat­er years, she began writ­ing sto­ries for her grand­chil­dren, her works bear­ing a dis­tinct­ly real­is­tic style char­ac­ter­is­tic of the era.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Kind Lit­tle Dev­il (Un Bon petit dia­ble(1865) — includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. The sto­ry tells of an orphan named Charles who is fos­tered by the greedy and mean old Mrs. MacMc. Although Charles is mis­chie­vous and loves to play pranks, he shows wit and kind­ness when faced with oppres­sion, and even­tu­al­ly regains his dig­ni­ty and hap­pi­ness with the help of kind peo­ple.

| Birth | Count­ess of Ségur | Count­ess of Segur (Wikipedia) |

More Articles