August 11: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 1908 – Born: Don Freeman

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author, illus­tra­tor, and the­ater painter (1908–1978). He was skilled at using vivid water­col­or and lith­o­graph lines to depict the life of city street cor­ners, the­atri­cal atmos­phere, and extreme­ly ten­der ani­mal sto­ries.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent passed down through gen­er­a­tions:
• Coco the Bear (Cor­duroy(1968, also trans­lat­ed as *Koko the Bear*) — Select­ed for *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*, a rec­om­mend­ed clas­sic by the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion. The sto­ry tells of Coco, a lit­tle toy bear wear­ing green cor­duroy over­alls, who finds a but­ton miss­ing on his clothes and wan­ders alone through the huge depart­ment store late at night to search for it. Even­tu­al­ly, a lit­tle girl named Lisa buys Coco with her pock­et mon­ey and sews the but­ton back on, allow­ing Coco to find a warm home.
• Home in the Let­ter B (Fly High, Fly Low(1957) — Award­ed 1958 Calde­cott Hon­orThe paint­ing tells a heart­warm­ing sto­ry of two pigeons nest­ing inside a giant, glow­ing bill­board labeled “B” in San Fran­cis­co. The water­col­or illus­tra­tions per­fect­ly cap­ture the cityscape and hilly ter­rain of San Fran­cis­co.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include The Lion Dade (Dan­de­lionGood­bye Pel­i­cansCome Again, Pel­i­can).

| Birth | Don Free­man | Don Free­man (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1944: Joanna Cole

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s sci­ence author and edi­tor (1944–2020). She was a mas­ter of pop­u­lar sci­ence pic­ture books, per­fect­ly blend­ing rig­or­ous cut­ting-edge nat­ur­al sci­ence knowl­edge with humor­ous and fan­tas­ti­cal imag­i­na­tion.

• Time­less clas­sics of pop­u­lar sci­ence:
• The Mag­ic School Bus series (The Mag­ic School Bus (Series, illus­trat­ed by Bruce Degen) — Award­ed The French Sor­cières AwardThe sto­ry revolves around Ms. Friz­zle, an eccen­tric yet intel­li­gent teacher, who leads her stu­dents on an immer­sive sci­en­tif­ic expe­di­tion aboard a mag­i­cal yel­low school bus that can freely change size and fly. The jour­ney takes them deep into the human diges­tive sys­tem, through the age of dinosaurs, to the ocean depths, and even to the heart of the solar sys­tem’s plan­ets. The book weaves togeth­er com­ic dia­logues, class­room notes, and the main plot, com­plete­ly rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing the read­ing expe­ri­ence of chil­dren’s sci­ence books.

| Birth | Joan­na Cole | Joan­na Cole (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2022 – Passed away: Jean-Jacques Sempé

A renowned French illus­tra­tor, car­toon­ist, and artist (1932–2022). He was known for his dis­tinc­tive­ly French and poet­ic quill pen lines, exten­sive use of neg­a­tive space, and gen­tle, ele­gant water­col­or wash­es. He was a long­time cov­er artist for The New York­er.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Lit­tle Nicholas series (Le Petit Nico­las(Text by René Goscin­ny) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. Told from the first-per­son per­spec­tive of a school­boy named Nico­las, the sto­ry hilar­i­ous­ly and real­is­ti­cal­ly depicts the dai­ly school life of French pri­ma­ry school stu­dents in the 1950s, their squab­bles among best friends, and fam­i­ly dra­mas. Sem­pé uses remark­ably con­cise and live­ly lines to vivid­ly por­tray the inno­cent and mis­chie­vous moments of chil­dren, mak­ing it a clas­sic of French humor in world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

| Deceased | Jean-Jacques Sem­pé | Jean-Jacques Sem­pé (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2004 – Death: Bill Martin Jr.

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author, edu­ca­tor, and ear­ly read­ing expert (1916–2004). He ded­i­cat­ed his life to help­ing young chil­dren devel­op read­ing inter­est and lan­guage aware­ness through rhyth­mic, melo­di­ous, and repet­i­tive sen­tence struc­tures.

• Clas­sic ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion works passed down through gen­er­a­tions:
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Are You Look­ing At? (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?(1967, Illus­trat­ed by Eric Car­le) — A mile­stone in ear­ly child­hood rhyth­mic read­ing: guid­ing young chil­dren to rec­og­nize col­ors and ani­mals through the repet­i­tive ques­tion-and-answer for­mat of “What do you see? I see so-and-so look­ing at me.” Car­le’s vibrant col­lages blend seam­less­ly with Mar­t­in’s rhyth­mic lan­guage.
• Chirp Chirp Bounc­ing (Chic­ka Chic­ka Boom Boom(1989, co-authored by John Acham­bott, illus­trat­ed by Lois Ellert) — a hilar­i­ous pic­ture book for begin­ners about the alpha­bet, where the 26 let­ters of the alpha­bet race up a coconut tree, only to fall down because they are too heavy.
• Oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive works in the series include “Giant Pan­da, Giant Pan­da, What Are You Look­ing At?” and “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Did You Hear?”

| Deceased | Bill Mar­tin Jr. | Bill Mar­tin Jr. (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1897 – Born: Enid Blyton

A renowned British chil­dren’s author (1897–1968). She was one of the most pro­lif­ic and influ­en­tial young adult adven­ture and board­ing school nov­el­ists of the 20th cen­tu­ry, with her works trans­lat­ed into more than 90 lan­guages.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• The Gang of Five series (The Famous Five The series, begin­ning with the debut work, “My Great-Great-Great-Grand­fa­ther’s Trea­sure Map on a Desert­ed Island”.Five on a Trea­sure Island(1942) — List­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. It tells the sto­ry of five friends, Julian, Dick, Anne, George (a girl) and their loy­al dog Tim­my, who embark on a series of sus­pense­ful adven­tures dur­ing their hol­i­days, ven­tur­ing into desert­ed islands, cas­tles and aban­doned mines, search­ing for trea­sure maps and out­smart­ing smug­glers.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive series also include “Sev­en Secrets” (The Secret Sev­en), The Fly­ing Mag­ic Chair Adven­ture (The Adven­tures of the Wish­ing Chair) and “The Tree in the Dis­tance“The Far­away Tree).

| Birth | Enid Bly­ton | Enid Bly­ton (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1955: Yasunari Murakami

Japan­ese pic­ture book author and nat­u­ral­ist artist (1955). He is hailed as “the fore­most mas­ter of nature pic­ture books” and is skilled at using extreme­ly refined lines, high­ly sat­u­rat­ed col­or blocks and white space to express rivers, wild fish and the rhythm of nature.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• With the work “Pink and Pearl“Pink! Pearl! / The orig­i­nal Japan­ese name is “ピンク!” パール! 』) won Plaque Award, 1991 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).
• The Pink Moun­tain(『Pink no Iruya­ma』): This sto­ry tells the nat­ur­al life sto­ry of a small red-spot­ted salmon named “Pink” swim­ming and grow­ing in a clear stream.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include “On This Plan­et” (『この星の上で』) and “Fly­ing Sky” (『フィフィのそら』).

| Birth | Yasunari Muraka­mi | Muraka­mi Yasunari (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born in 1970: Peter Uchnár

Slo­va­kian illus­tra­tor, painter, and print­mak­er (1970). His works are char­ac­ter­ized by rich and vibrant col­ors and strong visu­al impact. He is adept at using clas­si­cal oil paint­ing tex­tures and light and shad­ow com­po­si­tions to inter­pret world-renowned chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture clas­sics.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Based on Gul­liv­er’s Trav­els (Gul­liv­erove ces­ty IThe illus­tra­tions drawn by him won an award. Gold­en Apple Award at the 1999 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB)And it will receive the Plaque award again at the 2025 BIB.
• He won the BIB Chil­dren’s Jury Prize twice, in 2009 and 2017 (for his work “Peter Pan”).Peter Pan wait).

| Birth | Peter Uch­nár | Peter Uch­nár (BIBIANA) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Geof­frey Trease	British his­tor­i­cal nov­el­ist for chil­dren (1909–1998). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Trai­tor­’s Clues* (…).Cue for Trea­sonSet in Eliz­a­bethan Eng­land in 1940, the sto­ry tells of two run­away boys who meet Shake­speare in a Lon­don the­ater and unex­pect­ed­ly dis­cov­er and thwart an assas­si­na­tion plot against the Queen. It is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Geof­frey Trease
born	Joseph Low	Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and print­mak­er (1911–2007). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work, which he both wrote and illus­trat­ed, is “One More Mouse” (…).Mice Twice(1980) tells the sto­ry of a cat invit­ing a mouse to its house for din­ner. The mouse brings a dog for pro­tec­tion, and the cat then invites a wolf. The sto­ry unfolds with hilar­i­ous twists and turns, a tale of ani­mal polite­ness and wit, and won an award. 1981 Calde­cott Hon­or.	Joseph Low
born	Peter Knorr	A Ger­man pic­ture book illus­tra­tor and renowned author of sit­u­a­tion­al cog­ni­tive pic­ture books (1939). He col­lab­o­rat­ed with his wife, Dolotes Knoll, to cre­ate numer­ous clas­sic large-for­mat word­less “find and dis­cov­er” sit­u­a­tion­al pic­ture books; among them was his illus­tra­tion for Peter Härtling’s famous nov­el, *Grand­ma*.OmaThe illus­tra­tions drawn by him were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Peter Knorr
born	Steven Kroll	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s hol­i­day pic­ture book author (1941–2011). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Biggest Pump­kin in His­to­ry* (…).The Biggest Pump­kin EverIt tells the heart­warm­ing sto­ry of two unsus­pect­ing lit­tle mice who are tak­ing care of the same pump­kin and even­tu­al­ly decide to work togeth­er to grow it into a super giant pump­kin and win a big prize.	Steven Kroll
born	Renate Habinger	Aus­tri­an pic­ture book artist and paper artist (1957). Known for her work *Here Comes the Lion* (…).Hier gibt es LöwenUnique mixed-mate­r­i­al illus­tra­tions, won awards Plaque Award, 2013 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB).	Renate Habinger
Death	George A. Woods	A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s book edi­tor for The New York Times and a chil­dren’s nov­el­ist (1926–1988). He long served as the edi­tor-in-chief of The New York Times’ annu­al selec­tion of best illus­trat­ed books and chil­dren’s books, and was the author of the chil­dren’s sus­pense­ful real­is­tic nov­el *The Hunt for the Killer*.Catch a Killer).	George A. Woods
Death	Natha Caputo	French chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and trans­la­tor (1904–1967). His clas­sic French pic­ture book, *The Escape from the Pie*, adapt­ed from a folk­tale, is a house­hold name in France.Roule Galette…(Illus­trat­ed by Pierre Belves, 1950) was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Natha Caputo
Death	Vera Cleaver	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s real­ist nov­el­ist (1919–1992). Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work, co-authored with her hus­band Bill Cliff, is *Where the Lilies Bloom*.Where the Lilies Bloom(1969) tells the sto­ry of sev­er­al orphans in the Great Smoky Moun­tains who, after their father’s death, con­ceal the news and sur­vive inde­pen­dent­ly by gath­er­ing wild yams and plants, while main­tain­ing their fam­i­ly’s dig­ni­ty.	Vera Cleaver