March 21: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born March 21, 1936: Margaret Mahy

New Zealand’s nation­al trea­sure writerMar­garet MayeBorn in 1936–2012. She was the most daz­zling star of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture in the South­ern Hemi­sphere.

  • High­est Hon­or:
    • Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA): At 2006 Award­edWrit­ers’ AwardThe jury praised his work for cross­ing the bound­aries between real­i­ty and fan­ta­sy.
    • Carnegie Medal (CMW): He won the British Carnegie Medal twice, for his book “The Great Detec­tive Con­test in Lon­don”.The suc­ces­sor of the magi­cian》 or trans­la­tion 《Mag­ic Fam­i­ly-The Haunt­ing)and“Trans­for­ma­tion》 or trans­la­tion 《Guardian in the Dark-The Changeover).
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and style:
    • Her works range from poet­ic pic­ture books for young chil­dren (such as “The Lion on the Grass,” which I was for­tu­nate enough to trans­late) to fan­ta­sy nov­els that pro­found­ly explore ado­les­cent self-awak­en­ing (such as “The Meta­mor­pho­sis”). She once said, “I write fan­ta­sy sto­ries because fan­ta­sy can express our inner selves more truth­ful­ly than real­i­ty.”“

| Birth | Mar­garet May­hem | Mar­garet Mahy (Wikipedia) |


🎂 Born March 21, 1953: David Wisniewski

Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and authorDavid Wis­nis­kiBorn (1953–2002).

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
    • Calde­cott Medal: With theMud­man-Golem(Pub­lished in 1996) won awards 1997 Calde­cott Medal.
  • Artis­tic fea­tures:
    • Wis­nis­ki with extreme­ly exquis­ite and metic­u­lousCut-paper artHe is world-renowned for his use of mul­ti­ple lay­ers of paper to cre­ate stun­ning three-dimen­sion­al­i­ty and light and shad­ow effects. In “The Mud Man,” he uses these hard and sharp lines to per­fect­ly present the solem­ni­ty and tragedy of the giant mon­ster in the Prague Jew­ish leg­end.

| Birth | David Wies­nis­ki | David Wis­niews­ki (Wikipedia) |


🎂 Born March 21, 1938: Michael Foreman

A high­ly influ­en­tial British illus­tra­tor and writerMichael For­manborn.

  • Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
    • Kate Green­away Medal: She has won the UK’s top illus­tra­tion award twice (in 1982 and 1989).
    • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: 《Dinosaurs and all the trash-Dinosaurs and All That Rub­bish(This is a clas­sic envi­ron­men­tal fable, list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”). His auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal work, [The rest of the text is miss­ing].War Boy-War BoyIt del­i­cate­ly records a child­hood under the shad­ow of World War II.
  • style: His paint­ings are renowned for their pure and trans­par­ent water­col­or style, filled with human­is­tic con­cern and a yearn­ing for peace. (I am very for­tu­nate to have trans­lat­ed his self-writ­ten and illus­trat­ed pic­ture books.) I love you, too! I real­ly love you)

| Birth | Michael For­man | Michael Fore­man (Wikipedia) |


🎂 Born March 21, 1941: Hannu Taina

Famous Finnish illus­tra­torHan­nu Tainaborn.

  • High­est Hon­or:
    • BIB Grand Prix: With theMr. King-Her­ra Kuningas) won Grand Prix at the 1987 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).
  • fea­ture: His works are char­ac­ter­ized by a sim­ple style with a Nordic sense of humor, and he is able to con­vey pro­found philo­soph­i­cal ideas through sub­tle visu­al details.

| Birth | Han­nu Teina | Han­nu Taina (Wikipedia) |


🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

eventfig­ureDetails/AwardsMain Ref­er­ence
bornPeter Hax (Peter Hacks)A Ger­man play­wright and author. His most famous work is “Jules the Mouse.” He was one of the most impor­tant lit­er­ary fig­ures in East Ger­many, and his works are includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.”Peter Hacks (Wikipedia)
bornAnnette MacArthur-Oslow (Annette Macarthur-Onslow)Aus­tralian illus­tra­tor.1971 BIB Hon­orary AwardAward win­ner. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: *The Owl* (Uhu(This) show­cas­es the emo­tion­al bond between humans and ani­mals in nature.Annette Macarthur-Onslow (Wikipedia)
DeathToni­no Grae (Toni­no Guer­ra)Ital­ian poet and screen­writer. I men­tioned his birth­day just a few days ago; he passed away the day after his 92nd birth­day.Toni­no Guer­ra (Wikipedia)
DeathGlo­ria Hous­ton (Glo­ria Hous­ton)Amer­i­can author. His mas­ter­piece is “My Great-Aunt Ari­zona,” a clas­sic work prais­ing the spir­it of rur­al teach­ers.Glo­ria Hous­ton (Offi­cial)