March 23: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born March 23, 1941: Jim Trelease

A renowned Amer­i­can edu­ca­tion expert and read­ing pro­mot­erJim Tre­leaseBorn (1941–2022).

• Impor­tant works and achieve­ments:
  • The Read-Aloud Hand­book（The Read-Aloud Hand­book(First pub­lished in 1979, the cur­rent edi­tion is the eighth edi­tion): This work is hailed as the “bible” of read­ing pro­mo­tion.
  • Core con­cept: Tre­lease demon­strates through numer­ous case stud­ies and research that:Read­ing aloud is the only and most effec­tive way to improve chil­dren’s read­ing abil­i­ty.He not only changed the read­ing habits of count­less fam­i­lies, but also pro­found­ly influ­enced school edu­ca­tion around the world.
  • High­est Hon­or: In 2008, he received The Carle’s Bridge Hon­oree in recog­ni­tion of his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to con­nect­ing books with read­ers.

| Birth | Jim Tre­lease | Jim Tre­lease (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 23, 1887: Josef Čapek

Czech painter, writer, and pho­tog­ra­ph­erJoseph ČapekBorn (1887–1945).

• Impor­tant works and sta­tus:
  • The Sto­ry of the Cat and the Dog（Povídání o pejskovi a kočičce(1929): This work, illus­trat­ed by Čapek him­self, has become an immor­tal clas­sic of Czech chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture with its naive and inno­cent style and humor­ous sto­ry, and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
  • Lit­er­ary foot­note: He was the broth­er of the great writer Karel Čapek. It’s worth not­ing that while the word “robot” is famous in Karel’s plays, Karel him­self said that the word was actu­al­ly coined by Joseph.

| Birth | Joseph Čapek | Josef Čapek (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born March 23, 1912: Eleanor Cameron

Cana­di­an-Amer­i­can chil­dren’s book author and crit­icEleanor CameronBorn (1912–1996).

• Impor­tant works and con­tri­bu­tions:
  • The Amaz­ing Flight of Mush­room Plan­et（The Won­der­ful Flight to the Mush­room Plan­et(1954): This is a pio­neer­ing work of ear­ly young adult sci­ence fic­tion lit­er­a­ture.
  • con­tent: It tells the sto­ry of two boys who build a space­ship based on a news­pa­per adver­tise­ment and trav­el to a minia­ture plan­et on a secret mis­sion. This work, com­bin­ing sci­en­tif­ic explo­ration with adven­ture and fan­ta­sy, influ­enced an entire gen­er­a­tion of sci­ence-lov­ing chil­dren. She lat­er gained fur­ther recog­ni­tion with *The Court in the Inner Court* (…).The Court of the Stone Chil­drenHe has won the Nation­al Book Award.

| Birth | Eleanor Cameron | Eleanor Cameron (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ March 23, 2024 — Passed away: Mike Thaler

Famous Amer­i­can humor­ous chil­dren’s book authorMike Seil­erHe died in 1936–2024.

• Impor­tant works and sta­tus:
  • “Black Lake Ele­men­tary School Adven­ture Series”（The Black LagoonThis is one of the most wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed bridge book series in Amer­i­can ele­men­tary schools.
  • fea­ture: Thaler was excep­tion­al­ly adept at cap­tur­ing chil­dren’s fears of the unknown (espe­cial­ly teach­ers, den­tists, and coach­es in school) and exag­ger­at­ing them into absurd­ly humor­ous sto­ries. Known as the “King of Rid­dles,” he ded­i­cat­ed his life to mak­ing read­ing easy and fun, help­ing chil­dren over­come anx­i­ety through laugh­ter.

| Passed Away | Mike Thaler | Mike Thaler (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Person Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Main Ref­er­ence
born	Lynn Bal­aschi (Lynne Barasch)	Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: *Guang­mei’s Hands* (Hiromi’s Hands(This is a bio­graph­i­cal pic­ture book about a Japan­ese-Amer­i­can girl who breaks with tra­di­tion and learns to make sushi, prais­ing the pow­er and lega­cy of women.)	Lynne Barasch (Wikipedia)