August 17: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 1930 – Born: Ted Hughes

A renowned British poet and chil­dren’s author (1930–1998), he served as the Poet Lau­re­ate of the Unit­ed King­dom. His chil­dren’s works are known for their pow­er­ful and majes­tic poet­ic lan­guage, their rev­er­ence for the pri­mal forces of nature, and their alle­gor­i­cal con­struc­tions rich in mod­ern sci­ence fic­tion ele­ments.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent passed down through gen­er­a­tions:
• The Iron Giant (The Iron Man: A Chil­dren’s Sto­ry in Five Nights(1968) — A clas­sic mod­ern sci­ence fic­tion nov­el for chil­dren: It tells the sto­ry of a mas­sive, cas­tle-like iron giant who sud­den­ly arrives in a coastal vil­lage, feed­ing on dis­card­ed machin­ery and ini­tial­ly caus­ing pan­ic and a man­hunt. A young boy named Hog­a­rth builds trust with the Iron Giant; when a drag­on-like mon­ster from deep space, large enough to devour the Earth, descends, the Iron Giant steps for­ward, sav­ing the plan­et in a bat­tle of fire and wits. It was lat­er adapt­ed by Warn­er Bros. into the clas­sic ani­mat­ed film *The Iron Giant*.The Iron Giant).
• Once Upon a Time (How the Whale Became and Oth­er Sto­ries(1963) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. A col­lec­tion of imag­i­na­tive cre­ation fables, telling myths and fables in a beau­ti­ful and clear tone about how ani­mals such as whales, hares, and polar bears acquired their unique appear­ances and habits at the begin­ning of time.

| Birth | Ted Hugh­es | Ted Hugh­es (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1932 – Born: Jean-Jacques Sempé

French illus­tra­tor, pic­ture book cre­ator, and renowned car­toon­ist (1932–2022). He was known for his quill pen lines with a strong French roman­ti­cism and gen­tle humor, large areas of white space, and ele­gant water­col­or wash­es, and was a world-renowned mas­ter of visu­al arts.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Lit­tle Nicholas series (Le Petit Nico­las(Text by René Goscin­ny) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. Sem­pé uses high­ly expres­sive and dynam­ic lines to vivid­ly depict the antics of pri­ma­ry school stu­dent Nico­las and his friends in school and on the streets, per­fect­ly cap­tur­ing the con­trast between the inno­cence of chil­dren and the seri­ous­ness of the adult world.

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

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⚰️ 1987 – Death: Seiichi Horiuchi

Japan­ese pic­ture book author, renowned graph­ic design­er, and art direc­tor (1932–1987). He was one of the key fig­ures in the visu­al trans­for­ma­tion of Japan­ese pic­ture books after the war, and was adept at com­bin­ing the com­po­si­tion­al feel of mod­ern graph­ic design, vibrant blocks of col­or, with extreme­ly vivid chil­dren’s sto­ries.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Gulun­ba Kinder­garten (ぐるんぱのようちえん(1965, Mina­mi Nishi­uchi) — A time­less clas­sic in the his­to­ry of Japan­ese chil­dren’s pic­ture books: It tells the sto­ry of “Grum­ba,” an enor­mous ele­phant who is always bad at ordi­nary jobs. He goes from job to job, mak­ing giant plates, giant shoes, and a giant piano, but is always fired because they are too big. Final­ly, Grum­ba uses these enor­mous items to cre­ate a park full of laugh­ter, which becomes “Grum­ba Kinder­garten” for chil­dren. The work gen­tly con­veys the idea that “every­one has their own unique val­ue.”
• Who lost a lit­tle red umbrel­la? (あかいかさがおちていた— A pic­ture book with strong visu­al appeal and anthro­po­mor­phic humor for young chil­dren.
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the chil­dren’s fairy tale “The Cry­ing Robot” (ロボット・カミイ, Furu­ta Azu­mi in Japan­ese).

| Passed away | Sei­ichi Hori­uchi | Sei­ichi Hori­uchi (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1986 – Born: Daniela Olejníková

Slo­va­kian illus­tra­tor, pic­ture book cre­ator, and print­mak­er (1986). Her works are char­ac­ter­ized by the use of vin­tage wood­block print­ing, dig­i­tal halftone col­lage, and extreme­ly bright and vivid con­trast­ing col­ors, mak­ing her visu­al style unique in the inter­na­tion­al pic­ture book world.

• Top inter­na­tion­al awards and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• With two works, “The Pest Hand­book” (Háved­ník) and The Escape (ÚtekIt won an amaz­ing award in the same year’s selec­tion. 2017 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB) Dou­ble Gold­en Apple AwardAnd once won the award for “In Water­mel­on Can­dy” (V melónovom cukre) and “Thir­teen“TrinásťIt won the 2013 BIB Plaque Award.
• A rep­re­sen­ta­tive work of pop­u­lar sci­ence, “The Sto­ry of Num­bers“In Great Num­bers(Isabel Thomas et al.) Pic­ture book “The Lit­tle Blue Horse’s Jour­ney” (Der aller­größte Wun­sch).

| Birth | Daniela Ole­jníková | Daniela Ole­jníková (BIBIANA) |

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🎂 Born 1937: Ariane Dewey

Amer­i­can pic­ture book illus­tra­tor and artist (1937). She often part­nered with the famous pic­ture book cre­ator José Aruego, pro­vid­ing col­or­ing and water­col­or fin­ish­ing for his line draw­ings. Her works are char­ac­ter­ized by sat­u­rat­ed and bright col­ors and a child­like charm.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• His rep­re­sen­ta­tive works in illus­tra­tion and col­or­ing include Robert Carus’s clas­sic heart­warm­ing pic­ture book, *The Lit­tle Eagle*.Owliv­er), Where Does the Sun Go at Night?Where does the sun go at night?), Mar­co who loves music (Musi­cal Max) and the folk tale pic­ture book “The Last Laugh­ter” (The Last Laugh).

| Birth | Ari­ane Dewey | Ari­ane Dewey (Wiki­da­ta) |

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🎂 1926 – Born: Myra Cohn Livingston

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s poet, chil­dren’s poet­ry researcher, and edu­ca­tor (1926–1996). Through­out her life, she wrote and edit­ed dozens of chil­dren’s poet­ry col­lec­tions and devot­ed her­self to the aes­thet­ic edu­ca­tion of chil­dren’s poet­ry and the pop­u­lar­iza­tion of tra­di­tion­al poet­ic forms (such as lim­er­icks, haiku, and tan­ka) in chil­dren’s read­ing.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive poet­ry col­lec­tions include *The Dog­ger­el*, illus­trat­ed by Rebec­ca Per­ry.Lots of Lim­er­icks) and a col­lec­tion of refresh­ing haiku and tan­ka poems titled “The Crick­et Nev­er Does This“Crick­et Nev­er Does: A Col­lec­tion of Haiku and Tan­ka).

| Birth | Myra Cohn Liv­ingston | Myra Cohn Liv­ingston (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Gene Strat­ton-Porter	Amer­i­can nat­u­ral­ist writer and wildlife bird pho­tog­ra­ph­er (1863–1924). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Girl in the Wet­lands*.A Girl of the Lim­ber­lost(1909) tells the touch­ing and inspir­ing sto­ry of Eleanor, a poor girl who col­lects rare moth spec­i­mens in the Lim­bor­ough Swamps of Indi­ana to earn tuition fees and tena­cious­ly pur­sues inde­pen­dence and love. It is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Gene Strat­ton-Porter
born	Mireille Vau­ti­er	French illus­tra­tor and tex­tile artist (1962). Her most famous work is *Pepi­ta: A Fairy Tale of Yes­ter­day and Today*.Pepi­ta: con­tes d’hi­er et d’au­jour­d’huiThe col­ors and tex­tures of the fab­rics are full of expres­sion­ism, and it has won two awards. Plaque Award, Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB), 1993/1995.	Mireille Vau­ti­er
Death	Grace Hal­lock	Amer­i­can his­tor­i­cal nov­el­ist for chil­dren (1893–1967). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Boy Who Once Was*.The Boy Who Was(1928) Set against the back­drop of the Amal­fi Coast in Italy, the film weaves togeth­er cen­turies of history—from ancient Pom­peii and medieval knights to mod­ern times—through the per­spec­tive of an immor­tal coun­try boy. It won numer­ous awards. New­bery Hon­or, 1929.	Grace Hal­lock
Death	Nicholas Kalash­nikov	A Russ­ian-Amer­i­can real­ist nov­el­ist for chil­dren (1888–1961). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Defend­er*.The Defend­er(1951, Felix Schapin/Illustrated by Nico­las Mord­vi­noff) tells the touch­ing sto­ry of a soli­tary old hunter who lives in seclu­sion in the des­o­late snow-capped moun­tains of Siberia and silent­ly pro­tects a rare flock of wild Turk­ish sheep from being hunt­ed. It won numer­ous awards. New­bery Hon­or, 1952 And won the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Nicholas Kalash­nikoff
Death	Víc­tor Mora	Span­ish com­ic book artist and chil­dren’s nov­el­ist (1931–2016). His clas­sic medieval knight com­ic series, *Cap­tain Thun­der*, is renowned for…El Capitán Trueno(1956) tells the sto­ry of Cap­tain Thun­der, the right­eous knight, dur­ing the Cru­sades, his adven­tures and acts of fight­ing evil. It is a nation­al clas­sic in the his­to­ry of Span­ish comics and is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Víc­tor Mora
Death	Wal­ter R. Brooks	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s humor nov­el­ist (1886–1958). His clas­sic “Fred­dy the Pig” series (…Fred­dy the Pig series(1927) Fea­tur­ing Fred­die Mer­cury, a talk­ing, detec­tive-mind­ed, and empa­thet­ic pig on a farm, the series tells the humor­ous adven­tures of Fred­die and the farm ani­mals out­smart­ing bad guys, and has been a hit across the Unit­ed States for dozens of books.	Wal­ter R. Brooks