Bridge of Ajia

May 16: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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Ajia

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⚰️ 1703 – Death: Charles Perrault

A French poet and writer, wide­ly rec­og­nized as the “father of mod­ern fairy tales”.

  • Immor­tal Con­tri­bu­tion: He processed and com­piled the oral sto­ries cir­cu­lat­ing among the peo­ple and pub­lished them as “Per­rault’s Fairy Tales” (also known as “Moth­er Goose Tales”).
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Cin­derel­la、“lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood”、“sleep­ing Beau­ty”、Puss in Boots、Blue­beard.
  • sta­tus: Per­rault imbued these sto­ries with vivid moral lessons and ele­gant details of the French court. Many of the fairy tale pro­to­types we know today were estab­lished by him. He for­mal­ly brought fairy tales into the lit­er­ary canon.

| Deceased | Charles Per­rault | Charles Per­rault (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2009 – Passed away: Jirō Takidaira

A renowned Japan­ese print­mak­er and mas­ter of Kiri‑e paper cut­ting (1921–2009).

  • Artis­tic fea­tures: His works pos­sess a strong visu­al impact and a rich sense of tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese folk­lore. His “Folk Tales” pic­ture book, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with author Ryusuke Saito, is a mir­a­cle in Japan­ese pub­lish­ing his­to­ry.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • The Mag­ic Tree (Mochi-mochi no Ki(This is a nation­al-lev­el pic­ture book in Japan, show­cas­ing the ten­sion between courage and fam­i­ly affec­tion.)
  • Flow­ers Bloom on the Moun­tain (Hanasa­ki Yama): Explor­ing self-sac­ri­fice and beau­ty.
  • Someko and the Scar­let Dev­il.
  • sta­tus: He used bold, pow­er­ful black lines and vibrant col­ors to depict the resilience of life in the harsh nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment of the Tohoku region of Japan, and his paper-cut­ting style remains unmatched to this day.

| Passed Away | Jiro Tak­i­hi­ra | Jirō Takidaira (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1968: Germano Zullo

A renowned con­tem­po­rary Swiss author. He and illus­tra­tor Alber­tine (win­ner of the 2020 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award) are an excep­tion­al­ly daz­zling “gold­en duo” in the inter­na­tion­al pic­ture book world.

  • Key Achieve­ments: With Lit­tle Bird (Les OiseauxAward­ed 2011 French Prix Sor­cières And the Bologna Lagarz Prize.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Mata the Cow Charges For­ward (Mar­ta)、Cheese Boy For­got His Lines、The Fairy in the Can.
  • Artis­tic Style: Zulo’s writ­ing is con­cise, humor­ous, and philo­soph­i­cal. He excels at uncov­er­ing the absurd from every­day details, explor­ing those small yet pro­found moments in life with a poet­ic rhythm.

| Birth | Ger­mano Zul­lo | Ger­mano Zul­lo (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1988 – Death: Charles Keeping

One of the most orig­i­nal and expres­sive artists in British illus­tra­tion (1924–1988).

  • High­est Hon­or: Two-time Kate Green­away Medal (CIL) recip­i­ent The win­ner (1967/1981);1975 BIB Gold­en Apple Award.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
  • High­way Rob­bers (The High­way­manThrough extreme­ly bold use of light and shad­ow, it show­cas­es an epic trag­ic beau­ty.
  • Char­lie, Char­lotte and the CanaryThis was the first work to win the Green­away Medal.
  • Artis­tic Style: Kaip­ing was not con­tent with mere­ly serv­ing as a foot­note to texts; his lith­o­graphs are char­ac­ter­ized by a somber, pro­found, and emo­tion­al­ly explo­sive style, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his depic­tions of hors­es, cityscapes, and com­plex human emo­tions, which demon­strate a pow­er­ful and mov­ing qual­i­ty.

| Deceased | Charles Kep­pin | Charles Keep­ing (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born in 1906: Margret Rey

Ger­man-Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and writer (1906–1996).

  • Immor­tal Con­tri­bu­tion: She cre­at­ed works with her hus­band, Hans Rey. Curi­ous George (Curi­ous George)。
  • Divi­sion of labor and sta­tus: Although her ear­ly works were often signed only by her hus­band, Mar­garet was the cen­tral fig­ure in the series’ writ­ing. This mis­chie­vous yet curi­ous lit­tle mon­key from Africa has long been a sym­bol of glob­al pop­u­lar cul­ture and is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| Birth | Mar­garet Ray | Mar­gret Rey (Wikipedia) |

🗓️ More important creator briefings

eventfig­ureDetails/AwardsWikipedia link
bornBruce Cow­ellAmer­i­can author. Known for his extreme­ly pop­u­lar chil­dren’s book…My teacher is an alien.The series sparked a sci­ence fic­tion craze among teenagers.Bruce Cov­ille
bornNiko­lai Kalash­nikovRuss­ian-Amer­i­can writer. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is…Defend­er》 (The Defend­erAward­ed 1952 New­bery Sil­ver Medal.N. Kalash­nikoff
DeathJan Ter­rau (Jan Ter­louw)Dutch writer and politi­cian. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is…Wartime win­terIt is hailed as one of the most out­stand­ing Dutch chil­dren’s lit­er­a­tures set against the back­drop of World War II.Jan Ter­louw
bornBet­ty MilesAmer­i­can author. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive work: [Title of work not pro­vid­ed]The Trou­ble at Thir­teenIt keen­ly cap­tures the del­i­cate psy­chol­o­gy of a girl’s growth.Bet­ty Miles
bornPat Mar­riottBritish illus­tra­tor. For the famous work…Figie HobinThe illus­tra­tions are very charm­ing.Pat Mar­riott
DeathRein­hard KaiserGer­man writer and trans­la­tor. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is…The King’s Chil­dren》 won 1997 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).Rein­hard Kaiser

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