September 13: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 1916 – Born: Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl (1916–1990), a renowned British chil­dren’s author, short sto­ry mas­ter, and screen­writer, is wide­ly regard­ed as one of the great­est sto­ry­tellers in 20th-cen­tu­ry chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. Sep­tem­ber 13th is cel­e­brat­ed annu­al­ly by pub­lish­ers and read­ers world­wide as “Roald Dahl Day.” His works are renowned glob­al­ly for their uncon­ven­tion­al, fan­tas­ti­cal imag­i­na­tion, relent­less satire of the hypocrisy and tyran­ny of the adult world, mas­ter­ful word­play, and sat­is­fy­ing revenge end­ings.

• An endur­ing lit­er­ary mas­ter­piece (many of which were select­ed for “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”):
• Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry (Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry(1964, Quentin Blake/Illustration) — Char­lie Buck­et, an extreme­ly poor but kind and sen­si­ble boy, unex­pect­ed­ly draws the last gold­en tick­et and joins four oth­er greedy, will­ful, and spoiled chil­dren to vis­it the mys­te­ri­ous Willy Won­ka Choco­late Fac­to­ry, embark­ing on a won­drous tri­al filled with fly­ing ele­va­tors, glow­ing gum­mies, and the songs of the Obero­ni­ans.
• Matil­da (Matil­da(1988) — The child prodi­gy Matil­da loved read­ing from a young age. Faced with vul­gar and snob­bish par­ents and the tyran­ni­cal and cru­el head­mistress Miss Trunchiple, she used her extra­or­di­nary wis­dom and spir­i­tu­al pow­er to pun­ish evil and pro­mote good, and redeemed the gen­tle and kind teacher, Hen­ny.
• The BFG (The BFG(1982) — Sophie, an orphan girl, is tak­en to the land of giants by the BFG, the only giant who does­n’t eat peo­ple and cap­tures dreams and blows them into chil­dren’s bed­rooms. The two team up with the Queen of Eng­land to out­smart the can­ni­bal­is­tic giant.
• His oth­er notable works include *Fan­tas­tic Mr. Fox*.Fan­tas­tic Mr. Fox), The WitchThe Witch­es), Mag­ic Fin­ger (The Mag­ic Fin­ger).

| Birth | Roald Dahl | Roald Dahl (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

---

🎂 1943 – Born: Mildred D. Taylor

A renowned African Amer­i­can author of chil­dren’s and young adult lit­er­a­ture (1943). Her works are root­ed in the oral his­to­ry passed down through gen­er­a­tions of her fam­i­ly, cre­at­ing the “Logan Fam­i­ly Epic,” which chron­i­cles decades of strug­gle by an African Amer­i­can fam­i­ly in the Amer­i­can South. Her writ­ing is solemn and resilient, pos­sess­ing great epic depth and moral impact.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Black Cot­ton Field (Roll of Thun­der, Hear My Cry(1976) — Award­ed 1977 New­bery MedalSet in Mis­sis­sip­pi dur­ing the Great Depres­sion of the 1930s, the sto­ry fol­lows 9‑year-old African Amer­i­can girl Cathy Logan and her fam­i­ly, who live under the shad­ow of racial oppres­sion and pover­ty. The Logan fam­i­ly owns a cot­ton field passed down from their ances­tors. Fac­ing threats of lynch­ing, eco­nom­ic exploita­tion by white landown­ers, and the bru­tal­i­ty of night rid­ers, the fam­i­ly unites and helps each oth­er, their unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to their land and their pride form­ing an indomitable spir­it.
• Award­ed in 2003 NSK Neustadt Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture AwardAward­ed by the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion in 2021 Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Her­itage Award (CLLA) Life­time Achieve­ment Award.

| Birth | Mil­dred D. Tay­lor | Mil­dred D. Tay­lor (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

---

⚰️ 1995 – Death: Claude Boujon

A renowned French chil­dren’s pic­ture book author, illus­tra­tor, and sculp­tor (1930–1995). He served as the edi­tor-in-chief of chil­dren’s mag­a­zines for many years and was known for his use of relaxed and con­cise flat col­or blocks and humor­ous stage-style pan­el com­po­si­tions to trans­form pro­found life philoso­phies, empa­thy, and inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion into inno­cent and live­ly ani­mal sto­ries.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• The Blue Chair (La Chaise bleue(1996) — Award The 1997 French Prix Sor­cièresIn the desert, two lit­tle ani­mals, Black­beak and Spot, dis­cov­er a lone­ly blue wood­en chair. They imag­ine the chair as a toy train, a war­ship, an ambu­lance, and even a fly­ing saucer, hav­ing a won­der­ful time; until an arro­gant and stern camel walks by and cold­ly says, “This is just a chair to sit on.” The art­work, through its won­der­ful con­trast of blank space, cel­e­brates the unbri­dled imag­i­na­tion of child­hood.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the humor­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion clas­sic “The Neigh­bor” (La Brouille), and “The Toad Reads Books,” which explores the charm of read­ing (Le Cra­paud per­ché).

| Deceased | Claude Bou­jon | Claude Bou­jon (Wikipedia) |

---

🎂 Born in 1946: Yvan Pommaux

A renowned French chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and car­toon­ist (1946). He was a key fig­ure in the inno­va­tion of visu­al nar­ra­tive in con­tem­po­rary French pic­ture books, adept at fus­ing clas­sic film noir detec­tive aes­thet­ics, com­ic strip pan­el­ing lan­guage, and grand nar­ra­tives of human his­to­ry and civ­i­liza­tion.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• John Chat­ter­ton, the Black Cat Detec­tive (Detek­tiv John Chat­ter­ton / John Chat­ter­ton détec­tive(1993) — Award 1995 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) Pic­ture Book AwardThe sto­ry decon­structs Grim­m’s fairy tale “Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood” into a hard-boiled detec­tive graph­ic nov­el filled with light and shad­ow pro­jec­tions through blinds and the imagery of trench coats and top hats. The black cat detec­tive tracks down clues to solve the mys­tery of the miss­ing girl in red.
• We, Our His­to­ry (Nous, notre his­toire(2014) — Award­ed 2015 French Prix Sor­cièresIt presents a panoram­ic view of the entire his­to­ry of human soci­ety from pre­his­toric Homo erec­tus to the mod­ern civ­i­liza­tion of the 21st cen­tu­ry.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the chil­dren’s graph­ic nov­el *Greek Mythol­o­gy*.Mythes grecs), The Lit­tle Black Cat Who Ran Away from Home (Fugue), “Ques­tion Mark Mouse Lit­tle Lola” (Lola).

| Birth | Yvan Pom­maux | Yvan Pom­maux (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

---

🎂 Born in 1980: Gi-Hun Lee

A renowned con­tem­po­rary South Kore­an pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1980). His style is char­ac­ter­ized by aston­ish­ing­ly metic­u­lous pen and ink sketch­es, pre­cise sur­re­al mechan­i­cal details, and a sober reflec­tion on mod­ern eco­log­i­cal civ­i­liza­tion.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• With the word­less pic­ture book “Iron Bear“Yangche­ol gom / Orig­i­nal Kore­an name ‘양철곰’ (in 2012) won 2013 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB) Chil­dren’s Jury AwardThe book, filled with intri­cate and pro­found black-and-white pen draw­ings, tells the sto­ry of a giant robot­ic bear assem­bled from scrap met­al machin­ery, pro­tect­ing the last ves­tiges of life in a crum­bling for­est, cre­at­ing a visu­al­ly stun­ning expe­ri­ence.

| Birth | Gi-Hun Lee | Gi-Hun Lee (BIBIANA) |

---

🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Daniel Defoe	Robin­son Cru­soe (1660–1731), a renowned Eng­lish nov­el­ist and jour­nal­ist of the Enlight­en­ment era. His most famous adven­ture nov­el is *Robin­son Cru­soe*.Robin­son Cru­soe(1719) tells the sto­ry of a sailor named Robin­son Cru­soe who is ship­wrecked and strand­ed on a desert island for 28 years. He sur­vives by using his hands, rea­son, and per­se­ver­ance to devel­op the island, tame ani­mals, and save “Fri­day”. It is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and is hailed as the pio­neer of mod­ern desert island sur­vival adven­ture nov­els.	Daniel Defoe / Douban Peo­ple
born	Car­ol Kendall	A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy nov­el­ist and com­pil­er of folk tales (1917–2012). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work of micro­cos­mic fan­ta­sy is *The Mys­te­ri­ous Sun­set Moun­tain*.The Gam­mage Cup(1959) tells the epic adven­ture of a group of eccen­tric and unso­cia­ble dwarves who brave­ly resist inva­sion and defend their free­dom and indi­vid­u­al­i­ty in a rigid and con­ser­v­a­tive minia­ture val­ley. It won numer­ous awards. New­bery Hon­or, 1960.	Car­ol Kendall
born	Flo­rence Atwa­ter	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1896–1979). After her hus­band, Richard Atwa­ter, sud­den­ly fell seri­ous­ly ill and became par­a­lyzed, she took over the writ­ing and com­plet­ed her humor­ous and absurd mas­ter­piece, *Mr. Pop­per’s Pen­guins*.Mr. Pop­per’s Pen­guins(1938, illus­trat­ed by Robert Law­son), the book tells the hilar­i­ous sto­ry of an ordi­nary house painter who keeps 12 pen­guins and forms a cir­cus to per­form. It won numer­ous awards. New­bery Hon­or, 1939.	Richard and Flo­rence Atwa­ter
Death	Brin­ton Turkle	A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1915–2003). He was known for depict­ing the life and atmos­phere of Quak­er com­mu­ni­ties on Nan­tuck­et Island in 19th-cen­tu­ry Amer­i­ca. His most famous work is *Oba­dia, Your Friend*.Thy Friend, Oba­di­ah(1969) is a heart­warm­ing pic­ture book that tells the sto­ry of a young boy named Oba­di­ah and the lov­able seag­ull who always fol­lows him, and it won an award. 1970 Calde­cott Hon­or.	Brin­ton Turkle
born	Kyle Zim­mer	Amer­i­can social entre­pre­neur and co-founder and CEO of First Book, the largest non­prof­it chil­dren’s book dis­tri­b­u­tion orga­ni­za­tion in the Unit­ed States (1960). She is ded­i­cat­ed to elim­i­nat­ing the “book desert” for chil­dren from impov­er­ished fam­i­lies, dis­trib­ut­ing hun­dreds of mil­lions of free chil­dren’s books to impov­er­ished com­mu­ni­ties. In 2009, she received The Car­le Angel Award..	Kyle Zim­mer
born	Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­to­ry and real­is­tic pic­ture book author (1952). Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Under the Blan­ket in the Dark* (…).Under the Quilt of Night(2002) Using patch­work quilts as clues, it vivid­ly recre­ates the his­tor­i­cal adven­ture of a run­away slave girl from the Under­ground Rail­way run­ning for free­dom under the star­ry night.	Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son
born	Jochen Bartsch	A Ger­man book illus­tra­tor (1903–1965). He is best known for his work on James Krüss’s clas­sic nov­el, *Me and My Great-Grand­fa­ther and the Heroes*.Mein Urgroß­vater und ichShe drew the humor­ous and sim­ple illus­tra­tions for the first edi­tion, which were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	J. Joachim Bartsch / Douban Peo­ple
Death	William Heath Robin­son	A renowned British car­toon­ist and illus­tra­tor (1872–1944). He was famous for con­ceiv­ing all sorts of absurd and com­plex “com­plex and ridicu­lous mechan­i­cal devices” dri­ven by ropes and pul­leys but with neg­li­gi­ble func­tion­al­i­ty, most notably for Nor­man Hunt’s clas­sic comedic nov­el *Pro­fes­sor Brenis­terme*.Pro­fes­sor Branestawm(1933) drew the illus­tra­tions that have been passed down through the ages and were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	W. Heath Robin­son
Death	Fritz Müh­len­weg	Ger­man painter and chil­dren’s adven­ture nov­el­ist (1898–1961). He par­tic­i­pat­ed in Sven Hed­in’s sci­en­tif­ic expe­di­tions to the Gobi Desert in Cen­tral Asia three times. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Secret Cross­ing of the Gobi Desert*.In geheimer Mis­sion durch die Wüste Gobi(1950) It records the epic adven­ture of two boys cross­ing the desert with detailed and rig­or­ous geo­graph­i­cal and folk cus­toms, and was select­ed as one of the “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Fritz Müh­len­weg
Death	Eric Palmquist	A renowned Swedish book illus­tra­tor (1908–1999). She was a recip­i­ent of the Elsa Besko Award for Illus­tra­tion, specif­i­cal­ly for her illus­tra­tions of Gun­nell Lin­de’s famous nov­el, *A White Peb­ble*.Den vita ste­nen(1964) drew illus­tra­tions full of child­like inno­cence and poet­ry, which were select­ed for “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Eric Palmquist (Com­mons)