April 18: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 April 18, 1953 – Born: Leigh Hobbs

Aus­tralian chil­dren’s book author and illus­tra­tor Leigh Hobbes Born in 1953. He is prob­a­bly one of the most “unruly” illus­tra­tors in the con­tem­po­rary chil­dren’s pic­ture book world—his lines are crooked, his col­ors are intense but unadorned, and his char­ac­ters are often dis­pro­por­tion­ate, even some­what “ugly” at first glance. But it is pre­cise­ly this “imper­fec­tion” that gives his books a strange sense of inti­ma­cy, as if these char­ac­ters real­ly exist on some street cor­ner, rather than being care­ful­ly designed.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • Talk­ing Tom (Old TomOld Tom is fea­tured in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.” He’s a mis­chie­vous yet endear­ing cat—he always sneaks out at night to cause trou­ble, then acts like noth­ing hap­pened the next day. Old Tom’s sto­ries have become a shared mem­o­ry for a gen­er­a­tion of chil­dren in Aus­tralia; they tell a sto­ry of hon­est “badness”—children can see their own unac­knowl­edged lit­tle thoughts reflect­ed in Old Tom with­out fear of judg­ment.
  • Hobbes was also an author and broad­cast­er, and his works were adapt­ed into ani­mat­ed tele­vi­sion series in Aus­tralia, influ­enc­ing an entire gen­er­a­tion of young read­ers.
• Artis­tic fea­tures: Hobbes once said that he nev­er delib­er­ate­ly drew “cute” things because he believed that what chil­dren real­ly need­ed was not a roman­ti­cized world, but “some­one to real­is­ti­cal­ly depict their feel­ings.” This cre­ative atti­tude has earned his pic­ture books a unique and fer­vent fol­low­ing among chil­dren’s book lovers world­wide.

| Birth | Leigh Hobbes | Leigh Hobbs (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 April 18, 1982 – Born: Ivan Aleksandrov

Russ­ian illus­tra­tor Ivan Alexan­drov Born in 1982. As one of the most promi­nent young faces in con­tem­po­rary Russ­ian illus­tra­tion, his style com­bines the pro­found nar­ra­tive of the Russ­ian art tra­di­tion with the geo­met­ric feel of con­tem­po­rary East­ern Euro­pean design. His works often move between fig­u­ra­tive and abstract, yet always main­tain a deep con­nec­tion with chil­dren’s imag­i­na­tion.

• Impor­tant Hon­ors:
  • BIB Gold­en Apple Award (2007)Based on the works My tak pochoži This award is a pres­ti­gious hon­or bestowed upon out­stand­ing works of pub­lished books by the BIB Awards.

| Birth | Ivan Alexan­drov | Ivan Alek­san­drov (Bib­iana) |