September 15: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 2014 – Passed away: Jürg Schubiger

A renowned Swiss chil­dren’s author and psy­chol­o­gist (1936–2014). He was a lead­ing fig­ure in Ger­man-lan­guage chil­dren’s philo­soph­i­cal fairy tales, adept at using extreme­ly min­i­mal­ist and under­stat­ed lan­guage, Zen-like blank spaces, and child­like, sim­ple, and direct log­i­cal ques­tion­ing to recon­struct the orig­i­nal laws gov­ern­ing the nam­ing of all things, the oper­a­tion of nature, and human emo­tions.

• World’s high­est hon­ors and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• At In 2008, he won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Writer..
• When the World Was Young (Als die Welt noch jung war(1995, illus­trat­ed by Rotraut Susanne Bern­er) — Select­ed for “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and win­ner of the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize. A col­lec­tion of short fairy tales with pro­found philo­soph­i­cal and med­i­ta­tive mean­ing. In the begin­ning of the world, the sun had to learn to shine, the wind had to learn to blow, the water had to learn to flow, and the ani­mals were all search­ing for their names and ways of life. With poet­ic humor, Schu­big allows chil­dren to con­tem­plate the mean­ing of exis­tence through inno­cent rever­ie about the ori­gins of the world.
• Where is the sea? (What is the best way to get around this?) and When You Are Lost (Über­all ist leicht zu ver­passen— Con­tin­u­ing its style of tran­quil and pro­found philo­soph­i­cal strolls, it guides read­ers to observe the small mir­a­cles in every­day life.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the chil­dren’s com­ing-of-age nov­el “Dad, Mom, Me and Her” (Mut­ter, Vater, Ich und sie).

| Deceased | Jürg Schu­biger | Jürg Schu­biger (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

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🎂 1914 – Born: Robert McCloskey

A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1914–2003). He was a recip­i­ent of the Calde­cott Medal in his­to­ry.The first to win the gold medal twiceA mile­stone mas­ter, he is known for his extreme­ly sol­id and pro­found real­is­tic sketch­es, his pho­to­graph­ic mas­ter­pieces of panoram­ic com­po­si­tion, and his affec­tion­ate record of life and nat­ur­al scenery in small towns on the New Eng­land coast of the Unit­ed States.

• Two-time Calde­cott Medal win­ner:
• Make Way for Duck­lings (Make Way for Duck­lings(1941) — Award­ed 1942 Calde­cott MedalList­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books,” the entire book is illus­trat­ed in large-for­mat, warm brown mono­chrome lith­o­graphs. Mr. and Mrs. Marat lead eight new­ly hatched duck­lings across down­town Boston to the Charles Riv­er Pub­lic Gar­den. Boston traf­fic cop Michael and four offi­cers stop all traf­fic at the inter­sec­tion to escort the duck­lings wad­dling across the road, becom­ing a time­less clas­sic in the his­to­ry of pic­ture books world­wide, depict­ing the har­mo­nious coex­is­tence of humans and nature.
• Beau­ti­ful Times (Time of Won­der(1957) — Award­ed 1958 Calde­cott MedalMcClossky’s first use of full-col­or, large-page water­col­ors poet­i­cal­ly cap­tures the mag­nif­i­cent nat­ur­al land­scape of the Maine islands, from the morn­ing mist and chil­dren row­ing boats among the rocks col­lect­ing seashells, to the forests return­ing to tran­quil­i­ty after a late sum­mer hur­ri­cane.
• Three-time Calde­cott Hon­or win­ner:
• Lit­tle Serge Pick­ing Blue­ber­ries (Blue­ber­ries for Sal(1948) — Award­ed 1949 Calde­cott Hon­orThe sto­ry fea­tures a lit­tle girl named Sel and a baby bear who acci­den­tal­ly switch moth­ers on a blue­ber­ry hill­side, cre­at­ing a charm­ing­ly quirky and humor­ous sit­u­a­tion.
• Morn­ing by the Sea (One Morn­ing in Maine(1952, won the Sil­ver Medal in 1953) and “The Cake Ran Away!” (Jour­ney Cake, Ho!Ruth Sawyer­win, 1953, award­ed Sil­ver Medal in 1954.

| Birth | Robert McCloskey | Robert McCloskey (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

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🎂 Born 1934: Tomie dePaola

A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1934–2020). He was of Irish and Ital­ian descent, and his style blend­ed ear­ly medieval Roman fres­coes with the sim­ple lines of folk art. He was adept at using curved frames, warm pas­tels, and flat wash­es to infuse his works with a high degree of spir­i­tu­al appeal into inter­gen­er­a­tional fam­i­ly warmth and folk leg­ends.

• Supreme Hon­ors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Award­ed by the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion in 2011 Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Her­itage Award (CLLA) Life­time Achieve­ment Award.
• Grand­ma Witch (Stre­ga Nona(1975) — Award­ed 1976 Calde­cott Hon­orList­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”: Cal­abri­an Folk Tales from Italy. A kind witch grand­moth­er pos­sess­es a mag­i­cal pot that auto­mat­i­cal­ly cooks deli­cious pas­ta when­ev­er she sings a mag­ic song. While his grand­moth­er is out, the lazy and glut­to­nous lit­tle helper, Anto­nio, secret­ly recites the spell to cook pas­ta for the whole town, unaware that blow­ing three kiss­es is need­ed to stop the cook­ing. As a result, the thick pas­ta floods the entire vil­lage. Ulti­mate­ly, the witch grand­moth­er clev­er­ly resolves the cri­sis by mak­ing him eat all the pas­ta that flows down the street.
• No. 26, Fan­meng Street (26 Fair­mount Avenue(1999) — Award­ed 2000 New­bery Hon­orAn auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal child­hood nov­el that recounts the heart­warm­ing mem­o­ries of a fam­i­ly build­ing a new house togeth­er amidst the Great Depres­sion and hur­ri­canes of the 1930s in the Unit­ed States.
• Left foot first, then right foot. (Now One Foot, Now the Oth­er(1981) — A time­less clas­sic about the bond between grand­par­ents and grand­chil­dren: The grand­fa­ther teach­es young Bob to walk; lat­er, the grand­fa­ther suf­fers a stroke and becomes par­a­lyzed and mute, and Bob, in turn, uses love, patience and build­ing blocks to help his grand­fa­ther learn to take his first steps again.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include “Grand­ma Upstairs and Grand­ma Down­stairs,” which explores loss and mem­o­ry.Nana Upstairs & Nana Down­stairs), the arti­san’s pop­u­lar sci­ence fairy tale “Ali’s Red Cloak” (Char­lie Needs a Cloak).

| Birth | Tomie dePao­la | Tomie dePao­la (Wikipedia) / Douban Peo­ple |

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🎂 Born 1960: Harmen van Straaten

A renowned Dutch chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1960). His style is known for its relaxed and live­ly pen and ink wash­es, humor­ous and expres­sive move­ments and expres­sions, and pre­cise cap­ture of chil­dren’s dai­ly phys­i­o­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al states.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• With the pic­ture book “Grand­pa Who Will Nev­er Be For­got“Een opa om nooit te ver­geten(By Bette West­era, 2000) Award Gold­en Apple Award at the 2001 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB).
• I can’t hold it in any longer! (Moet je zien wat ik kan! / Jeet­je, wat een beesten­bende!— A humor­ous pic­ture book about toi­let­ing and behav­ior that has become pop­u­lar in many coun­tries.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the “Wright the Ele­phant Series” (such as “Wright Gets First”), which show­cas­es mutu­al assis­tance in fire­fight­ing.Spuit elf is num­mer 1).

| Birth | Har­men van Straat­en | Har­men van Straat­en (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Fritz Weg­n­er	A renowned Aus­tri­an-born British book illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist (1924–2015). He illus­trat­ed mag­a­zines such as *Punch* for many years and was known for his vivid and humor­ous sketch­es of Eng­lish school life. His work is fea­tured in Allan Ahlberg’s clas­sic humor­ous col­lec­tion of school poems, *Please, Mrs. But­ler*.Please Mrs. But­lerThe illus­tra­tions drawn by him (in 1983) were select­ed for “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Fritz Weg­n­er
born	Liselotte Wel­skopf-Hen­rich	A renowned East Ger­man his­to­ri­an of ancient times and author of Native Amer­i­can his­tor­i­cal nov­els (1901–1979). She spent decades explor­ing the Dako­ta Sioux Indige­nous reserve, and her mag­num opus is the six-part “Son of the Bear” series (includ­ing “Iron Bones and Sand”).Die Söhne der großen Bärin(1951) It depicts the his­to­ry of Native Amer­i­cans resist­ing colo­nial plun­der in a grand and rig­or­ous epic style and was select­ed as one of the “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Liselotte Wel­skopf-Hen­rich / Douban Peo­ple
Death	Niko­laus Piper	A renowned Ger­man eco­nom­ics jour­nal­ist and chil­dren’s sci­ence author (1952–2024). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work on gen­er­al knowl­edge for chil­dren is *The Sto­ry of Eco­nom­ics*.Geschichte der Wirtschaft(2002) Trans­forms com­plex con­cepts from barter and the Indus­tri­al Rev­o­lu­tion to mod­ern glob­al­ized finance into engag­ing sto­ries for young read­ers, win­ning awards. 2003 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) Non­fic­tion Book Award.	Niko­laus Piper