Bridge of Ajia

August 19: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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Ajia

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⚰️ 1996 – Death: Tatyana Mavrina

Soviet/Russian painter and pic­ture book illus­tra­tor (1900–1996). She was a lead­ing fig­ure in 20th-cen­tu­ry Russ­ian visu­al arts and pic­ture books, adept at com­bin­ing tra­di­tion­al Russ­ian wood carv­ing, folk prints (Lubok), and vibrant water­col­ors to imbue clas­sic fairy tales with immense artis­tic ten­sion.

  • Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At In 1976, he won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Artist.(He was also the only pic­ture book artist in the Sovi­et era to receive this hon­or).
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Fairy Tale Alpha­bet (Сказочная азбука(1969) — A rep­re­sen­ta­tive work that won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award: The book incor­po­rates the myth­i­cal birds, folk heroes, gray wolves and cas­tles from Russ­ian folk tales into the visu­al com­po­si­tion of 33 Russ­ian let­ters. With its rich and vibrant folk col­ors and cal­li­graph­ic lines, it ele­vates ear­ly child­hood alpha­bet lit­er­a­cy books to an extreme­ly high lev­el of nation­al art.

| Passed Away | Tatyana Mav­ri­na | Tatyana Mav­ri­na (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1935 – Born: Victor Ambrus

A Hun­gar­i­an-born British illus­tra­tor and pic­ture book cre­ator (1935–2021), whose real name was Ambrose Vik­tor Mik­lós. He was known for his high­ly dynam­ic and his­tor­i­cal­ly accu­rate fine pen lines, soft water­col­or wash­es, and mas­ter­ful han­dling of hors­es and his­tor­i­cal scenes.

  • Dou­ble Kate Green­away Medal (CIL) recip­i­ent:
  • Three Poor Tai­lors (The Three Poor Tai­lors(1965) — Award­ed Kate Green­away Medal, 1965Based on a tra­di­tion­al Hun­gar­i­an folk­tale, the sto­ry tells of three poor tai­lors who decide to trav­el to a big city on a goat in search of fun, result­ing in a series of hilar­i­ous and chaot­ic folk humor sto­ries at an inn.
  • Mish­ka (Mish­ka(1975) — Award­ed Kate Green­away Medal, 1975It tells the inspir­ing sto­ry of a lit­tle dog named Mish­ka who longs to per­form in a cir­cus but is only assigned to odd jobs. Even­tu­al­ly, he gets a chance to per­form on stage and shines.

| Birth | Vic­tor Ambrus | Vic­tor Ambrus (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1990 – Death: An Rutgers (An Rutgers van der Loeff)

Dutch real­ist nov­el­ist for chil­dren and teenagers (1910–1990). Her works are known for their objec­tive and detached social con­cern, and for their por­tray­al of the exis­ten­tial anx­i­eties and self-redemp­tion of teenagers from dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al back­grounds.

  • Twice award­ed the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP):
  • I Am Fed­er­er (Ich bin Fed­de / Dutch orig­i­nal name Ik ben Fed­de(1977) — Award­ed 1977 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) for Young Peo­ple’s BooksIt tells the sto­ry of Fede, a teenag­er who grew up in a youth shel­ter, and his jour­ney of find­ing his own way out in the face of rigid social man­age­ment, iso­la­tion from his peers, and con­fu­sion about his self-iden­ti­ty.
  • Pio­neers and their grand­chil­dren (Pio­niere und ihre Enkel(1959) — Award­ed 1959 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP)It tells the sto­ry of how the descen­dants of pio­neers adapt and grow in the face of mod­ern social changes.

| Deceased | An Rut­gers | An Rut­gers van der Loeff (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1932: Barbara Wersba

Amer­i­can real­ist nov­el­ist and crit­ic for chil­dren and young adults (1932–2018). Her works are known for their pro­found insights into chil­dren’s psy­chol­o­gy, empa­thy for mar­gin­al­ized groups, and uncon­ven­tion­al humor.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • A Use­ful Mem­ber of Soci­ety (Ein nüt­zlich­es Mit­glied der Gesellschaft / Eng­lish name Run Soft­ly, Go Fast(1970) — Award­ed 1973 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) for Young Peo­ple’s BooksA real­is­tic com­ing-of-age nov­el that tells the sto­ry of David’s strug­gles and trans­for­ma­tion as his father-son rela­tion­ship breaks down and he faces the con­flict between tra­di­tion­al social rules and his own per­son­al­i­ty.
  • The Sto­ry of Wal­ter the Mouse (Wal­ter: The Sto­ry of a Rat(2005) — It tells the sto­ry of a read­ing mouse named Wal­ter and an old woman who devel­op a spe­cial under­stand­ing and friend­ship through words.

| Birth | Bar­bara Wers­ba | Bar­bara Wers­ba (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1941 – Born: Christopher Cerf

Amer­i­can tele­vi­sion pro­duc­er, author, com­pos­er, and pub­lish­er (1941). He was the cre­ator of the nation­al­ly renowned chil­dren’s edu­ca­tion­al tele­vi­sion pro­gram *Sesame Street*.Sesame StreetOne of the core screen­writ­ers and music cre­ators of ).

  • Supreme Hon­ors and Indus­try Con­tri­bu­tions:
  • Award­ed in 2012 The Car­le Bridge Hon­oreeIn recog­ni­tion of his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to con­nect­ing chil­dren’s tele­vi­sion media, music, and ear­ly read­ing pro­mo­tion, he com­posed hun­dreds of pop­u­lar edu­ca­tion­al songs for Sesame Street through­out his life, influ­enc­ing the ear­ly lan­guage and behav­ioral devel­op­ment of gen­er­a­tions of chil­dren.

| Birth | Christo­pher Cerf | Christo­pher Cerf (Wikipedia) |

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