Bridge of Ajia

August 7th: Today in the History of Children’s Books

author:

Ajia

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🎂 Born 1928: Betsy Byars

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1928–2020). Her works are known for their extreme­ly keen psy­cho­log­i­cal insight, gen­tle and humor­ous touch, and pro­found con­cern for the dai­ly strug­gles, fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, and self-iden­ti­ty of chil­dren and teenagers.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • Sum­mer Swan (The Sum­mer of the Swans(1970) — Award­ed 1971 New­bery MedalThe sto­ry fol­lows 14-year-old Sarah, a sen­si­tive and anx­ious teenag­er filled with wor­ry about her appear­ance and life. One day, her younger broth­er Char­lie, who suf­fers from intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and apha­sia, goes miss­ing late at night while try­ing to see the swans. Dur­ing the town’s search for her broth­er, Sarah over­comes her inner tur­moil and prej­u­dice, gain­ing a deep­er under­stand­ing of her love for her broth­er and her own per­son­al growth.

| Birth | Bet­sy Byars | Bet­sy Byars (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1936 – Born: Joy Cowley

A New Zealand chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author (1936). She is an impor­tant fig­ure in New Zealand’s chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture scene, whose works cov­er grad­ed read­ers for tod­dlers, fairy tales and real­is­tic nov­els for young read­ers, and her works are pop­u­lar in the South­ern Hemi­sphere and the glob­al chil­dren’s read­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

  • Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • At In 2018, he was short­list­ed for the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Writer..
  • Mrs. Wash­ing Loves Clean­ing (Mrs. Wishy-Washy— A clas­sic grad­ed read­ing book for young chil­dren, telling the sto­ry of Mrs. Wash­ing who always likes to bathe the cows, pigs and ducks on the farm, and the cheer­ful dai­ly life of the ani­mals hap­pi­ly rolling in the mud after their bath.
  • Snake and Lizard (Snake and Lizard(2007) — The sto­ry tells of a heart­warm­ing tale of two cold-blood­ed ani­mals with con­trast­ing per­son­al­i­ties, a snake (calm and ratio­nal) and a lizard (impul­sive and rest­less), who become neigh­bors and build a deep friend­ship through dai­ly inter­ac­tions and argu­ments; the sequel, *Snake and Lizard: Super Friend* (2007), is a sequel to the first.Helper and HelperThis con­tin­ues the humor­ous phi­los­o­phy of this group.
  • His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works of juve­nile fic­tion also include *The Old Car and the Rock­ing Hol­i­day*.Dunger), The Silent Boy (The Silent One).

| Birth | Joy Cow­ley | Joy Cow­ley (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1944 – Born: Toshitaka Sekiya

Japan­ese pic­ture book author, wood­block print­mak­er, and tra­di­tion­al Kata­zome artist (1944). He excels at incor­po­rat­ing tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese folk dye­ing and print­mak­ing tech­niques into his pic­ture book cre­ations, result­ing in art­works with a strong his­tor­i­cal feel and folk cus­toms.

  • Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • Based on the work “Old Yan on the Wilder­ness of Okhot­sk” (Old Hikoichi in wilder­ness of Okhot­sk / Orig­i­nal Japan­ese name オホーツクの彦一) won Gold­en Apple Award at the 1999 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB)With sim­ple yet exquis­ite folk tech­niques, they vivid­ly depict­ed the vicis­si­tudes and per­se­ver­ance of pio­neer­ing the wilder­ness.

| Birth | Toshi­ta­ka Sekiya |

⚰️ 1958 – Death: Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal nov­el­ist and edu­ca­tor (1892–1958). She taught in Fuzhou and Chongqing, Chi­na in the 1920s and was deeply influ­enced by tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese cul­ture and the resilience of the peo­ple. In her lat­er years, she incor­po­rat­ed her obser­va­tions into her chil­dren’s nov­els.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • “Lit­tle Fu from the Upper Yangtze Riv­er” (Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze(Illus­tra­tion by Edward Kurt Wiese, 1932) — Award­ed The 1933 New­bery MedalThe sto­ry takes place in Chongqing in the 1920s. After his father’s death, Xiao Fu, a coun­try boy, comes to the city with his moth­er and becomes an appren­tice in a cop­per­smith’s shop. The work objec­tive­ly por­trays Xiao Fu’s growth process as he over­comes dif­fi­cul­ties, learns a skill, and estab­lish­es him­self in soci­ety amidst war­lord con­flicts, social unrest, and tra­di­tion­al guild rules, all through dili­gence, hon­esty, and resource­ful­ness.

| Died | Eliz­a­beth Fore­man Lewis | Eliz­a­beth Fore­man Lewis (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2001 – Death: Robert Kraus

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author, illus­tra­tor, and pub­lish­er (1925–2001). He illus­trat­ed comics and cov­ers for The New York­er for many years, and lat­er found­ed the famous chil­dren’s pub­lish­ing brand Wind­mill Books, cre­at­ing many clas­sic pic­ture books that soothe chil­dren’s anx­i­eties.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • Ah Hu final­ly fig­ured it out! (Leo the Late Bloomer(Illus­trat­ed by Jose Aruego, 1971) — A time­less and heart­warm­ing clas­sic for young chil­dren: Lit­tle Tiger can’t do anything—he can’t write, draw, or talk, and he even drools while eat­ing. His father is very wor­ried, but his moth­er always gen­tly says, “Tiger is just a lit­tle late in devel­op­ing.” With trust and patience, Tiger final­ly “devel­ops” nat­u­ral­ly at the right time. The work gen­tly alle­vi­ates par­ent­ing anx­i­eties for both par­ents and chil­dren.
  • Whose Mouse Are You? (Whose Mouse Are You?(1970) — Through min­i­mal­ist ques­tion-and-answer for­mat and visu­als, it depicts the love with­in a fam­i­ly as a lit­tle mouse res­cues its fam­i­ly and wel­comes its lit­tle broth­er.
  • His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include “The Lit­tle Eagle” (Owliv­er).

| Died | Robert Kraus | Robert Kraus (Wikipedia) |

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