Bridge of Ajia

August 16: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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🎂 Born 1934: Diana Wynne Jones

British chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy nov­el­ist (1934–2011). She was one of the lead­ing fig­ures in mod­ern chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture, known for her tight­ly struc­tured and uncon­ven­tion­al mag­i­cal sys­tems, high­ly satir­i­cal and humor­ous nar­ra­tives, and heart­warm­ing human touch. Her works have pro­found­ly influ­enced lat­er fan­ta­sy writ­ers, includ­ing J.K. Rowl­ing and Neil Gaiman.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent passed down through gen­er­a­tions:
  • Howl’s Mov­ing Cas­tle (Howl’s Mov­ing Cas­tle*The Mag­ic Cas­tle* (1986) — list­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*. The sto­ry tells of Sophie, a hat-mak­er who is trans­formed into a nine­ty-year-old woman by the Witch of the Waste. After leav­ing her home, she acci­den­tal­ly enters the mag­i­cal mov­ing cas­tle of Howl, a wiz­ard who trav­els between dif­fer­ent dimen­sions. Through her inter­ac­tions with the eccen­tric Howl, the fire demon Cal­cifer, and his young appren­tice, Sophie grad­u­al­ly over­comes her inner infe­ri­or­i­ty and, with courage, breaks the mag­ic spell. The work was adapt­ed into an ani­mat­ed film of the same name by Hayao Miyaza­ki in 2004.
  • “Mag­ic Life” (Charmed Life(1977, one of the Quaistrom tril­o­gy) — list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and win­ner of the Guardian Chil­dren’s Nov­el Award. It tells the sto­ry of orphaned sib­lings Cow­ley and Gwen­da who, after being adopt­ed by the nine-lived sor­cer­er Cress­man­che, embark on a fan­tas­ti­cal mys­tery adven­ture through nine par­al­lel worlds.

| Birth | Diana Wynne Jones | Diana Wynne Jones (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1963: Jennifer Donnelly

Amer­i­can his­tor­i­cal nov­el­ist for chil­dren and young adults (1963). Her works are known for their rig­or­ous his­tor­i­cal research, vivid lit­er­ary lan­guage, and explo­ration of wom­en’s self-growth and des­tiny choic­es.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • Spot­light (A Gath­er­ing Light2003, US ver­sion name A North­ern Light— Award 2003 Carnegie Medal With the Printz Hon­or: The sto­ry takes place in the Adiron­dack Moun­tains in 1906. Six­teen-year-old Mad­die dreams of attend­ing uni­ver­si­ty in New York and becom­ing a writer, but pover­ty and fam­i­ly bur­dens force her to work at a rur­al hotel. When a young woman stay­ing at the hotel mys­te­ri­ous­ly drowns in a lake, leav­ing Mad­die a stack of per­son­al let­ters, Mad­die, in the process of uncov­er­ing the truth behind the mur­der, sees the harsh real­i­ty and estab­lish­es a firm will to pur­sue free­dom and her dreams.

| Birth | Jen­nifer Don­nel­ly | Jen­nifer Don­nel­ly (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1954: Ronald Curchod

Swiss-born French poster design­er and pic­ture book illus­tra­tor (1954). He has been engaged in the cre­ation of the­ater posters and oil paint­ings for many years. His pic­ture book style has a strong expres­sion­ist fla­vor, mys­te­ri­ous light and shad­ow con­trasts and a qui­et dream­like qual­i­ty.

  • Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • With the pic­ture book “Sleep at Night“La nuit quand je dors…The extreme­ly pro­found and atmos­pher­ic, night-like, col­or­ful com­po­si­tion in the paint­ing (2014) won the award. 2015 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB) Gold­en Apple Award.

| Birth | Ronald Cur­chod | Ronald Cur­chod (BIBIANA) |

🎂 1939 – Born: Daniele Bour

French pic­ture book illus­tra­tor and artist (1939). She is the visu­al cre­ator of the well-known French chil­dren’s char­ac­ter “Lit­tle Brown Bear” and is skilled at using con­cise and sim­ple lines and bright and soft col­ors to depict the dai­ly life of young chil­dren.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • ““Lit­tle Brown Bear” series（Petit Ours Brun The series, start­ing with “The Lit­tle Brown Bear’s Tem­per”.Petit Ours Brun est grognon1975, by Marie Aubi­nais (also trans­lat­ed as *Lit­tle Brown Bear’s Behav­ior and Habits Pic­ture Book*) — list­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*. This ever­green pic­ture book for young chil­dren, which has been pop­u­lar in Europe for decades, gen­tly and accu­rate­ly por­trays the psy­cho­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and behav­ioral habits of 2–4 year olds through every tiny detail of the lit­tle brown bear eat­ing, sleep­ing, dress­ing, throw­ing tantrums, and play­ing.

| Birth | Daniele Bour | Danièle Bour (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1942: Eileen Spinelli

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and poet (1942). She was the wife of the famous chil­dren’s nov­el­ist Jer­ry Spinel­li, and her writ­ing style is full of poet­ry, warmth and gen­tle humor.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • Some­one Loves You, Mr. Hatch (Some­body loves you, Mr. Hatch(1991, illus­trat­ed by Paul Yalowitz) — A heart­warm­ing and ever­green pic­ture book: It tells the sto­ry of Mr. Hatch, a with­drawn and monot­o­nous man liv­ing his mun­dane life day after day. On Valen­tine’s Day, he unex­pect­ed­ly receives a mys­te­ri­ous pack­age with the mes­sage, “Some­one loves you.” This sim­ple sen­tence com­plete­ly changes Mr. Hatch. He begins to smile at his neigh­bors, help them, and share cake, bring­ing warmth to the entire town. Even after dis­cov­er­ing the pack­age was deliv­ered to the wrong address, the touched towns­peo­ple still gath­er to give him gen­uine love and care.

| Birth | Eileen Spinel­li | Eileen Spinel­li (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1908 – Born: William Maxwell

Amer­i­can nov­el­ist and renowned book edi­tor for The New York­er (1908–2000). He was known for his extreme­ly con­cise and real­is­tic writ­ing style and his del­i­cate under­stand­ing of chil­dren’s inner emo­tions.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • The Ten­ant in the Sky (The Heav­en­ly Ten­ants(1946) — Award­ed New­bery Hon­or, 1947The sto­ry revolves around a father who loves astron­o­my and takes his fam­i­ly on vaca­tion, entrust­ing their farm to the care of the twelve zodi­ac con­stel­la­tions in the night sky. What fol­lows is a series of fan­tas­ti­cal and roman­tic events.
  • His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the chil­dren’s com­ing-of-age nov­el “Good­bye, See You Tomor­row” (So long, see you tomor­row), The Year My Moth­er Left (They came like Swal­lows).

| Birth | William Maxwell | William Maxwell (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1917 – Born: Matt Christopher

Matthew Fred­er­ick Christo­pher (1917–1997), an Amer­i­can chil­dren’s sports fic­tion writer, was one of the most pop­u­lar chil­dren’s sports nov­el­ists in the Unit­ed States dur­ing the 20th cen­tu­ry. He wrote more than 100 works on base­ball, bas­ket­ball, foot­ball, and oth­er sports.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Kid Who Only Hits Home Runs (The Kid Who Only Hit Homers(1972) — This film tells the sto­ry of Sylvester, a young boy who loves base­ball but is always bad at it, until he meets a mys­te­ri­ous old man who men­tors him, turn­ing him into a leg­endary base­ball play­er who can hit a home run with a sin­gle swing. The work is not only full of tense and excit­ing game details, but also explores the val­ue of growth through both rely­ing on mys­te­ri­ous forces and prac­tic­ing with one’s own sweat and hard work.

| Birth | Matt Christo­pher | Matt Christo­pher (Wikipedia) |

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