Bridge of Ajia

January 29: Today in the History of Children’s Books

author:

Ajia

exist

🎂 January 29, 1915 – Birth: Bill Peet

A renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s book author, illus­tra­tor, and screen­writer.Bill PittBorn in 1915–2002. Before devot­ing him­self to pic­ture book cre­ation, he was the core sto­ry­man at Dis­ney Stu­dios.

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • Calde­cott Hon­or: With theBill Pit­t’s auto­bi­og­ra­phy-Bill Peet: An Auto­bi­og­ra­phy(Pub­lished in 1989) won awards 1990 Calde­cott Hon­orThis is not only an auto­bi­og­ra­phy, but also a rich­ly illus­trat­ed his­to­ry of Dis­ney ani­ma­tion pro­duc­tion (he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pro­duc­tion of clas­sics such as “101 Dal­ma­tians” and “The Sword in the Stone”).
  • Pic­ture book cre­ation: After leav­ing Dis­ney, he cre­at­ed more than 30 beloved pic­ture books (such as “Kep­pa’s Shell” and “The Mis­chie­vous Sheep”), with a dis­tinc­tive charcoal/crayon style, humor­ous sto­ries, and often con­tain­ing envi­ron­men­tal or moral mes­sages.

| born | Bill Peet | Bill Peet (Wikipedia) |

🎂 January 29, 1943 – Born: Rosemary Wells

Amer­i­can pro­lif­ic chil­dren’s book author and illus­tra­torRose Mary Wellsborn.

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • ““Ruby and Max” series（Max & RubyShe cre­at­ed the famous rab­bit sib­lings. The sto­ry vivid­ly cap­tures the real and humor­ous inter­ac­tions between tod­dlers (the mis­chie­vous younger broth­er Max) and school-aged chil­dren (the med­dle­some old­er sis­ter Ruby), and has been adapt­ed into a glob­al­ly pop­u­lar ani­mat­ed series.
  • hon­or: she is 2006 Car­le Hon­ors Award win­ner for Artist of the Year. Oth­er notable works include the “Fili and Fina Are Not Afraid to Grow Up” series.

| born Rose­mary Wells | Rose­mary Wells (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ January 29, 1888 – Death: Edward Lear

British artist, illus­tra­tor, and poetEdward LearHe died in 1812–1888. He is wide­ly regard­ed as the father of non­sense lit­er­a­ture.

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • The Book of Absur­di­ty（A Book of Non­sense(1846): He pop­u­lar­ized the form of **Lim­er­ick**.
  • Influ­ence: His poet­ry and illus­tra­tions, filled with fan­tas­ti­cal imag­i­na­tion and non­sen­si­cal humor (such as “The Owl and the Kit­ty”), had a pro­found influ­ence on lat­er authors like Lewis Car­roll (author of “Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land”) and Dr. Seuss. The book is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| Death | Edward Lear | Edward Lear (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ January 29, 1916 – Died: Sibylle von Olfers

Ger­man art teacher, nun, and pic­ture book authorSzym­bors von OrpheusHe died in 1881–1916.

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • Root Doll（Etwas von den Wurzelkindern / The Sto­ry of the Root Chil­dren(1906): This is a clas­sic pic­ture book with a strong Art Nou­veau style.
  • con­tent: The sto­ry per­son­i­fies the chang­ing sea­sons of nature, depict­ing the root dolls spend­ing the win­ter under­ground, wak­ing up in spring to sew new clothes, play­ing on the grass in sum­mer, and return­ing to the earth to sleep in autumn. With its beau­ti­ful and nat­ur­al illus­tra­tions, it remains a clas­sic in Wal­dorf edu­ca­tion and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| Death | Sibylle von Olfers | Sibylle von Olfers (Wikipedia) |

🎂 January 29, 1930 – Birth: Christopher Collier

Amer­i­can his­to­ri­an and writerChristo­pher Col­lierBorn (1930–2020). He often col­lab­o­rat­ed with his broth­er, James Lin­coln Col­lier.

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • New­bery Hon­or: The broth­ers col­lab­o­rat­ed on “Dear broth­er Sam-My Broth­er Sam Is Dead(Pub­lished in 1974) won awards 1975 New­bery Sil­ver Medal.
  • con­tent: This is a his­tor­i­cal nov­el that explores the bru­tal­i­ty and com­plex­i­ty of war from a per­spec­tive rarely seen before—the divi­sion with­in an ordi­nary fam­i­ly dur­ing the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War (the broth­er joins the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Army, while the father pledges alle­giance to the King).

| born Christo­pher Col­lier | Christo­pher Col­lier (Wikipedia) |

🎂 January 29, 1835 – Birth: Susan Coolidge

Amer­i­can writ­ersSusan CoolidgeSarah Chauncey Woolsey (born 1835–1905) was born.

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • What Katie Did（What Katy Did(1872): This is a clas­sic com­ing-of-age nov­el for young girls.
  • con­tent: The pro­tag­o­nist, Kit­ty, is a live­ly and ener­getic tomboy who often gets into trou­ble. After an acci­den­tal injury leaves her bedrid­den for a long time, she must learn patience and respon­si­bil­i­ty, even­tu­al­ly grow­ing into the pil­lar of her fam­i­ly. This book has pro­found­ly influ­enced many peo­ple, includ­ing Anne Frank, the author of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.”

| born | Susan Coolidge | Susan Coolidge (Wikipedia) |

🎂 January 29, 1914 – Birth: Susi Weigel

Aus­tri­an famous illus­tra­torSusie WeigelBorn (1914–1990).

  • Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • I Want to Know Who I Am（Das kleine Ich bin IchShe col­lab­o­rat­ed with author Mira Lobe on many clas­sic works, of which this one is the most famous.
  • con­tent: This book tells the sto­ry of an unnamed lit­tle ani­mal search­ing for its iden­ti­ty. Although it dis­cov­ers it is unlike any oth­er ani­mal, it ulti­mate­ly con­fi­dent­ly affirms, “I am who I am.” It is includ­ed in the book series “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.”

| born Susi Weigel | Susi Weigel (Wikipedia) |

🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

eventfig­ureDetails/AwardsMain Ref­er­ence
bornSylvia Cas­sidy (Sylvia Cassedy)Amer­i­can author. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Behind the Attic Wall*.Behind the Attic Wall), a psy­cho­log­i­cal fan­ta­sy nov­el about orphans, ghost dolls, and lone­li­ness.Link
DeathJane Wall (Jan Wahl)A pro­lif­ic Amer­i­can chil­dren’s book author. Her most famous work is *The Hap­py Field Mouse*.Pleas­ant Field­mouseThe illus­tra­tions were often drawn by Mau­rice Sendak.Link

More Articles