August 2nd: Today in the history of children’s books

⚰️ 1997 – Death: James Krüss

Ger­man chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer, poet, and radio dra­ma play­wright (1926–1997). He was an impor­tant rep­re­sen­ta­tive of 20th-cen­tu­ry Ger­man chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, skilled at explor­ing human nature, inde­pen­dent think­ing, and val­ue choic­es through extreme­ly rig­or­ous dia­logue and rea­son­ing, rhyth­mic lan­guage, and pro­found obser­va­tions on social issues.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At He won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Writer in 1968..
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• The Child Who Sold His Laugh­ter (Timm Thaler oder Das verkaufte Lachen(1962) — World-class chil­dren’s philo­soph­i­cal and real­ist clas­sicsThe sto­ry revolves around Tim, an orphan with an infec­tious, inno­cent laugh. A mys­te­ri­ous, wealthy man named “Leetch­er” trades Tim’s laugh­ter for the abil­i­ty to win every bet. While Tim gains wealth, he dis­cov­ers that with­out his laugh­ter, he los­es hap­pi­ness, dig­ni­ty, and even his soul. Ulti­mate­ly, with the help of his friends, he uses his wit and exploits loop­holes in the con­tract to reclaim his laugh­ter. The work pro­found­ly explores the nature of cap­i­tal, desire, and human­i­ty.
• Me and My Great-Grand­fa­ther and the Heroes (Mein Urgroß­vater, die Helden und ich(1959) — Award­ed 1960 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP)The sto­ry, through a dia­logue between a boy and his great-grand­fa­ther over a week of cre­at­ing poems and telling sto­ries, uses vivid exam­ples to decon­struct var­i­ous “heroes” in his­to­ry, guid­ing chil­dren to think about what true courage and dig­ni­ty are.
• Oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive works include “The Light­house of Lob­ster Reef” (In de vuur­toren op de Kreeften­rots).

| Deceased | James Krüss | James Krüss (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1986: Christian Robinson

Amer­i­can pic­ture book illus­tra­tor and ani­ma­tor (1986). His works are char­ac­ter­ized by min­i­mal­ist acrylic paint, geo­met­ric col­lage, and bright block com­po­si­tion, show­cas­ing a diverse and inclu­sive urban atmos­phere and social con­cern in approach­able forms.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• The Last Stop on Mar­ket Street (Last Stop on Mar­ket Street(2015, by Matt de la Peña) — Award­ed 2016 Calde­cott Hon­orAward­ed the New­bery Medal and Cori­ta Scott Gold Medal: This book tells the sto­ry of a young boy named Jay and his grand­moth­er who take a bus to a shel­ter at the last stop on Mar­ket Street to do vol­un­teer work after Sun­day ser­vice. Faced with Jay’s con­fu­sion about his pover­ty, his grand­moth­er guides him with a poet­ic per­spec­tive to see the beau­ty and warmth in the every­day life of the city.
• Leo: The Invis­i­ble True Friend (Leo: A Ghost Sto­ry(By Mac Bar­nett) — A heart­warm­ing sto­ry about Leo, a kind-heart­ed lit­tle ghost who leaves his old house when he is mis­un­der­stood by humans, befriends an imag­i­na­tive lit­tle girl, and becomes her true friend.
• Milos’s Imag­i­nary World (Milo Imag­ines the World— This sto­ry tells of a young boy named Milo who, dur­ing a sub­way jour­ney, observes the pas­sen­gers around him and draws their imag­ined lives, ulti­mate­ly break­ing down prej­u­dices and gain­ing an under­stand­ing of oth­ers as he grows up.
• Oth­er notable works include illus­tra­tions for Mar­garet Wise Brown’s posthu­mous work, *The Funer­al of the Lit­tle Bird*.The Dead Bird).

| Birth | Chris­t­ian Robin­son | Chris­t­ian Robin­son (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1942: Isabel Allende

Chilean-Amer­i­can writer (1942). She is an impor­tant voice in con­tem­po­rary Latin Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture, adept at fus­ing mag­i­cal real­ism, his­tor­i­cal change, and wom­en’s inde­pen­dence con­scious­ness into her works.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Mon­ster City (La Ciu­dad de las Bes­tias / Eng­lish name City of the Beasts(2002) — List­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. It tells the sto­ry of 15-year-old Amer­i­can boy Alexan­der, who, due to his moth­er’s seri­ous ill­ness, is sent to live with his eccen­tric geo­g­ra­ph­er grand­moth­er and joins an expe­di­tion deep into the Ama­zon rain­for­est in search of a mys­te­ri­ous “mon­ster”. In the jun­gle, Alexan­der meets an Indige­nous girl, expe­ri­ences the beliefs of ani­mism in an ancient tribe, and learns courage and inde­pen­dence.
• Clas­sic works of adult lit­er­a­ture also include *The House of the Ghosts* (La casa de los espíri­tus), non-fic­tion “The Woman in My Soul“Mujeres del Alma Mía).

| Birth | Isabel Allende | Isabel Allende (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1900 – Born: Holling C. Holling

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author, illus­tra­tor, and nat­u­ral­ist (1900–1973). He ded­i­cat­ed his life to com­bin­ing his­tor­i­cal geog­ra­phy, nat­ur­al sci­en­tif­ic inves­ti­ga­tion, and sto­ry­telling, and his works are known for their extreme­ly detailed bor­der illus­tra­tions, maps, and sci­en­tif­ic depic­tions.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Row­ing into the Sea (Pad­dle to the Sea(1941) — Award­ed 1942 Calde­cott Hon­orThe sto­ry tells of an Indige­nous boy who carved a small wood­en fig­ure, “The Pad­dler,” car­ry­ing a canoe, and placed it upstream of Lake Supe­ri­or in Cana­da. The lit­tle wood­en fig­ure trav­els with the cur­rent through the Great Lakes and Nia­gara Falls, even­tu­al­ly flow­ing into the Atlantic Ocean, show­cas­ing the vast water sys­tem and nat­ur­al land­scape of North Amer­i­ca.
• Sail­ing with Seabirds (Seabird(1948) — Award­ed New­bery Hon­or, 1949Through the per­spec­tive of a “seabird” carved from ivory by a whal­ing ship sailor, it wit­ness­es a cen­tu­ry of mar­itime his­to­ry in the Unit­ed States, from the era of sail­ing ships to the era of steamships.
• The Unusu­al Riv­er Trav­el­er (Minn of the Mis­sis­sip­pi(1951) — Award­ed New­bery Hon­or, 1952The jour­ney of an alli­ga­tor snap­ping tur­tle named “Min” as it drifts down the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er from its source to the Gulf of Mex­i­co show­cas­es the his­tor­i­cal geog­ra­phy and bio­log­i­cal evo­lu­tion of this vast water sys­tem.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works of pop­u­lar sci­ence pic­ture books also include “The Mys­tery of Her­mit Crab Growth” (Pagoo).

| Birth | Holling C. Holling | Holling C. Holling (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1984: Vera Brosgol

Russ­ian-Amer­i­can car­toon­ist, ani­ma­tion char­ac­ter design­er, and pic­ture book cre­ator (1984). She worked for a long time on stop-motion ani­ma­tion pro­duc­tion at Lai­ka Stu­dios, and her works are known for their clean lines, hilar­i­ous humor, and extreme­ly pre­cise motion.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Don’t both­er me! (Leave me alone!(2016) — Award­ed 2017 Calde­cott Hon­orThe sto­ry tells of an elder­ly woman who is dri­ven crazy by the noise of her large, ener­getic grand­chil­dren. In order to find a qui­et place to knit, she takes her yarn and hides in the deep moun­tains, high moun­tains and even flies into space. In the end, she fin­ish­es knit­ting in absolute tran­quil­i­ty and returns home with love.
• Pic­ture book “Mem­o­ry Jar“Mem­o­ry Jars) and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works of graph­ic nov­els Be Pre­pared(Based on his real-life expe­ri­ence at sum­mer camp dur­ing his child­hood).

| Birth | Vera Bros­gol | Vera Bros­gol (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	James Howe	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s humor nov­el­ist (1946). His famous “Vam­pire Rab­bit” series (Bun­nic­u­la series(1979) told from the per­spec­tive of the fam­i­ly dog “Harold,” recount­ing the hilar­i­ous dai­ly life of a new­ly adopt­ed rab­bit, sus­pect­ed of being a vam­pire, who sucks veg­eta­bles white; oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive pic­ture books include “Bal­let Drag­on” (Bron­to­ri­na).	James Howe
born	KM Pey­ton	British chil­dren’s nov­el­ist (1929–2023), born Cather­ine Wendy Fen­ner. Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Edge of the Clouds*.The Edge of the Cloud(1969, Flam­bards Tril­o­gy Part II) tells the sto­ry of young peo­ple explor­ing ear­ly avi­a­tion and flight on the eve of World War I in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. 1969 Carnegie MedalHis rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include *Rowan the God­fa­ther*.Steal­away).	KM Pey­ton
born	Michel del Castil­lo	A French writer of Span­ish descent (1933). His auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal chil­dren’s nov­el, *Ele­gy for the Night* (1933).Elegie der Nacht (Ger­man title, 1957) tells the sto­ry of the painful sur­vival of a boy under the shad­ow of World War II and con­cen­tra­tion camps, and won an award. Spe­cial Prize of the 1960 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Michel del Castil­lo
born	Tibor Gerge­ly	A Hun­gar­i­an-Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor (1900–1978). He illus­trat­ed numer­ous works for the renowned Lit­tle Gold­en Books (such as “The Sto­ry of the Fire Truck”).The Fire Engine Book); “Wheel on the Chim­ney” (a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mar­garet Wise Brown)Wheel on the Chim­ney(1954) show­cased the migra­tion of storks and won an award. 1955 Calde­cott Hon­or.	Tibor Gerge­ly
Death	Dai­hachi Ōta	A pio­neer and illus­tra­tor of Japan­ese pic­ture books (1918–2016). He ded­i­cat­ed his life to explor­ing the diverse visu­al pos­si­bil­i­ties of pic­ture books, with his rep­re­sen­ta­tive work being the word­less pic­ture book *The Umbrel­la*.かさ / Umbrel­la(1975) The entire book uses only black and white mono­chrome and a bright red umbrel­la to fol­low the lit­tle girl’s steps as she picks up her father in the rain, show­cas­ing an extreme­ly pure visu­al artis­tic ten­sion.	Ohta Dai­hachi
Death	Jean Mer­rill	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1923–2012). Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Great Push­cart Bat­tle*.The Push­cart War(1964) is a satir­i­cal fable that tells the sto­ry of how street ven­dors in New York City “resist­ed” the oppres­sion of a large truck­ing com­pa­ny by using blow­guns and soy­beans as weapons. It is a must-read in libraries across the Unit­ed States.	Jean Mer­rill