February 2nd: Today in the history of children’s books

🎂 February 2, 1931 – Birth: Judith Viorst

A renowned Amer­i­can author, jour­nal­ist, and psy­cho­an­a­lyst.Judith ViostBorn. She excels at cap­tur­ing the anx­i­eties and emo­tions of chil­dren (and adults) with humor and keen insight.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Alexan­der and His Unlucky, Ter­ri­ble, Ter­ri­ble, Very Bad Day（Alexan­der and the Ter­ri­ble, Hor­ri­ble, No Good, Very Bad Day(1972): This is a clas­sic pic­ture book about emo­tion­al man­age­ment.
• con­tent: The sto­ry fol­lows a boy named Alexan­der who wakes up one morn­ing to find chew­ing gum stuck in his hair, and expe­ri­ences a series of unfor­tu­nate events, even con­tem­plat­ing mov­ing to Aus­tralia. It teach­es chil­dren that bad days are part of life, and every­one expe­ri­ences them.
• Miss­ing Bar­ney（The Tenth Good Thing About Bar­ney: A pic­ture book about life edu­ca­tion on how to cope with the death of pets (illus­trat­ed by Eric Bleg­wald).

| born | Judith Viorst | Judith Viorst (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 February 2, 1899 – Birth: Pura Belpré

Puer­to Rican-Amer­i­can author, sto­ry­teller, and pup­peteerPra Bel­preeBorn (1899–1982). She was the first Puer­to Rican librar­i­an in the New York Pub­lic Library sys­tem.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Cul­tur­al Pio­neers: She ded­i­cat­ed her life to col­lect­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing Puer­to Rican folk­lore and pro­mot­ing bilin­gual read­ing in library sto­ry­telling ses­sions. The Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion (ALA) estab­lished the Pura Bel­pré Award in her hon­or, aim­ing to rec­og­nize out­stand­ing Lati­no chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture cre­ators.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Perez and Mar­ti­na（Perez and Mar­ti­na(This is a clas­sic folk­tale about a mouse and a cock­roach get­ting mar­ried.)

| born | Pura Bel­pré | Pura Bel­pré (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born February 2, 1947: Lin Oliver

Amer­i­can author and film pro­duc­erLynn Oliv­erborn.

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• SCBWI Founder: She co-found­ed with Stephen Moos­erChil­dren’s Book Writ­ers and Illus­tra­tors Asso­ci­a­tion(Soci­ety of Chil­dren’s Book Writ­ers and Illus­tra­tors, SCBWI). This is an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion with tens of thou­sands of mem­bers that plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in pro­mot­ing the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment of chil­dren’s book cre­ators world­wide.
• cre­ation: She co-authored the pop­u­lar Hank Zep­pelin series with actor Hen­ry Win­kler.Hank Zipz­er(This is a humor­ous sto­ry about a boy with dyslex­ia and his school life.)

| born | Lin Oliv­er | Lin Oliv­er (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 February 2, 1899 – Birth: Rebecca Caudill

Amer­i­can writ­ersRebec­ca CordierBorn (1899–1985).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• New­bery Hon­or: With theTree of Free­dom-Tree of Free­dom(Pub­lished in 1949) won awards 1950 New­bery Medal.
• con­tent: This is a his­tor­i­cal nov­el set against the back­drop of the lives of Ken­tucky pio­neers dur­ing the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War, a peri­od that has been less depict­ed before. It tells the sto­ry of the Winnaber fam­i­ly’s strug­gle to pro­tect their home and free­dom amidst the flames of war.

| born | Rebec­ca Caudill | Rebec­ca Caudill (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born February 2, 1980: In-Kyung Noh

Famous Kore­an illus­tra­torLu Ren­qingborn.

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
• BIB Gold­en Apple Award: She 2013 With the work “Ele­phant flute and 100 small water droplets-Mr. Tut­ti and 100 water drops) wonGold­en Apple Award at the Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB)Her style is mod­ern and philo­soph­i­cal, and she excels at using mixed media to cre­ate a unique visu­al lan­guage.

| born | In-Kyung Noh | In-Kyung Noh (Offi­cial Site/Search) |

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⚰️ February 2, 1976 – Died: Barbara Euphan Todd

British writerBar­bara Euvan ToddShe died (1890–1976). (Note: She was born on Jan­u­ary 9th).

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
• Wozel Gam­mage（Worzel Gum­midgeShe cre­at­ed this famousscare­crowChar­ac­ter. This scare­crow can not only talk, but also fre­quent­ly gets into trou­ble. The series is extreme­ly pop­u­lar in the UK and has been adapt­ed into tele­vi­sion series mul­ti­ple times. It is also includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| Death Bar­bara Euphan Todd | Bar­bara Euphan Todd (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	Leonid Domnin (Leonid Domnin)	Moldovan illus­tra­tor.1987 BIB Gold­en Apple AwardThe win­ner (from “Moldo­va Folk Tales”).	N/A
born	Mary Casano­va (Mary Casano­va)	Amer­i­can author. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Moose Foot­prints*.Moose TracksHe excels at depict­ing nature and adven­ture.	Link
Death	John Fur­ney (John Ver­ney)	British painter and writer. His most famous work is *Fri­day’s Tun­nel*.Fri­day’s Tun­nel), the first book in the Karend fam­i­ly adven­ture series.	Link
Death	Joyce Back­house (Joyce Bark­house)	Cana­di­an author. His most famous work is *The Coal Mine Horse*.Pit Pony(This is a frag­ment of a longer text, like­ly a title or head­ing.) It tells the sto­ry of a boy and a min­ing horse in the Cape Bre­ton coal mine and has pro­found his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance.	Link