January 15th: Today in the history of children’s books

🎂 Born January 15, 1974: Shaun Tan

Aus­tralian Chi­nese illus­tra­tor and writerChen Zhiy­ongShaun Tan was born. He is known for his sur­re­al­ist style and word­less pic­ture books, which pro­found­ly explore themes of immi­gra­tion, belong­ing, and the rela­tion­ship between human­i­ty and nature.

• High­est Hon­or:
• Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award (ALMA): At 2011 It won an award. This is the world’s largest chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture award.
• Kate Green­away Medal (CIL): With theInner City Sto­ry-Tales from the Inner City)get 2020 Kate Green­away Medal.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• “Arrival”（The Arrival： An epic word­less graph­ic nov­el that uses fan­tas­ti­cal imagery to depict the hard­ships and hopes of immi­grants in the New World, cap­ti­vat­ing read­ers world­wide.
• View­ing Instru­ment（The View­er).

| born | Shaun Tan | Shaun Tan (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ January 15, 2012 — Passed away Ib Spahn Olsen

Den­mark’s nation­al trea­sure illus­tra­tor and writerIb Spahn Olsen(Ib Spang Olsen, 1921–2012) died.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA): At 1972 Award­edHans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award for Illus­tra­tion.
• BIB Awards: He has received the Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB) Hon­orary Award mul­ti­ple times.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Moon­light（Dren­gen i månen / The Boy in the MoonThis book fea­tures a unique rec­tan­gu­lar for­mat and uses ver­ti­cal com­po­si­tion to tell the sto­ry of the Moon­light Boy falling from the sky to the ground, full of per­spec­tive fun and child­like inno­cence.

| Death | Ib Spang Olsen | Ib Spang Olsen (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ January 15, 1943 – Died: Eric Knight

British-Amer­i­can writerEric KnightEric Knight (1897–1943) died.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Lassie the Good Dog（Lassie Come-Home(1940): This sheep­dog named Lacey is not only one of the most famous dogs in lit­er­ary his­to­ry, but has also become syn­ony­mous with loy­al­ty and return­ing home.
• Influ­ence: The sto­ry tells the touch­ing tale of Lassie, who was sold and trav­els across moun­tains and rivers to return to her young mas­ter. The book quick­ly became a clas­sic after its pub­li­ca­tion and spawned numer­ous films and tele­vi­sion series.

| Death Eric Knight | Eric Knight (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ January 15, 2017 — Passed away Babe Cole

British illus­tra­torBabe Cole(Babette Cole, 1950–2017) has passed away. She was known as the “mis­chie­vous child of pic­ture books”.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• She is good at usingHumor­ous and exag­ger­at­edThey even explore seri­ous or “unspeak­able” top­ics in a sub­ver­sive way.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• Mom laid an egg（Mum­my Laid An Egg): A high­ly cre­ative sex edu­ca­tion pic­ture book that explains to chil­dren “where I come from” in a humor­ous way.
• Live a Won­der­ful Life（Drop DeadIt explores the entire process of birth, aging, ill­ness, and death with a relaxed and open-mind­ed atti­tude.
• Bad Habits!（Bad Habits!).

| Death | Babette Cole | Babette Cole (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 January 15, 1944 – Birth: Jenny Nemo

British writerJen­ny Nemo(Jen­ny Nim­mo) was born.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Snow Spi­der（The Snow Spi­der(1986): This is the first book in her famous “Wiz­ards Tril­o­gy,” which blends Welsh mythol­o­gy with a mod­ern com­ing-of-age sto­ry. It won the Smar­ties Prize and was adapt­ed into a tele­vi­sion series.

| born | Jen­ny Nim­mo | Jen­ny Nim­mo (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	For­ti­ni Ste­fani­di (Foti­ni Stephani­di)	Greek illus­tra­tor.2001 BIB Badge AwardThe win­ner (The Wound­ed Nightin­gale).	N/A
Death	Cather­ine Krull (Kath­leen Krull)	An Amer­i­can author spe­cial­iz­ing in non-fic­tion biogra­phies. Notable works include: *The Musi­cian’s Biog­ra­phy* and *The Sto­ry of Gins­burg*.	Link