May 25: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 1996 – Died: Svend Otto S.

Sven Otto Sorensen (1916–1996), a Dan­ish nation­al trea­sure illus­tra­tor and pic­ture book author, was a lead­ing fig­ure in the Nordic Real­ist illus­tra­tion move­ment.

• High­est Hon­or: 1978 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Illus­tra­tionWin­ner; recip­i­ent 1979 BIB Plaque.
• Immor­tal Con­tri­bu­tion: He was forAnder­sen’s Fairy Tales(such as “The Fir Tree”) and “Grim­m’s Fairy TalesIt fea­tures the most time­less and icon­ic illus­tra­tions.
• Artis­tic fea­tures: Otto excels at using del­i­cate water­col­ors and light and shad­ow to depict the nat­ur­al scenery of Scan­di­navia. The jury praised his nat­ur­al land­scapes and char­ac­ters for “unpar­al­leled real­is­tic dig­ni­ty and poet­ry.” He did not over­ly sim­pli­fy his fairy tales, but per­fect­ly pre­served the noble, expan­sive, and slight­ly melan­cholic under­tones of clas­si­cal Nordic lit­er­a­ture.

| Died | Sven Otto | Svend Otto S. (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2021 — Passed away: Lois Ehlert

A dis­tin­guished Amer­i­can visu­al artist and illus­tra­tor (1934–2021). She was known for her high­ly sub­ver­sive mate­r­i­al col­lages and avant-garde visu­al designs.

• Key Achieve­ments: With theMag­i­cal Trans­for­ma­tion Zoo-Col­or Zoo(1989) Award Calde­cott Hon­or;2011 Eric Car­le Hon­oree The win­ner.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• Chirp Chirp Bounc­ing (Chic­ka Chic­ka Boom Boom): A mas­ter­piece of alpha­bet rhythms that is almost a must-have for every­one in the mod­ern ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion field.
• Mr. Ye (Leaf ManA nat­ur­al visu­al leg­end entire­ly com­posed of autumn leaves.
• I Want to Become a Col­or­ful Fish (Fish eyes)。
• His­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance: Ellett broke the bound­aries of tra­di­tion­al paper. She was adept at using sol­id col­ors, high­ly sat­u­rat­ed col­or blocks, and “die-cut” designs to per­fect­ly blend math­e­mat­i­cal and geo­met­ric con­cepts with the flo­ra and fau­na of nature. She is the undis­put­ed queen of visu­al enlight­en­ment for young chil­dren.

| Passed Away | Lois Ellert | Lois Ehlert (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born in 1893: Hirosuke Hamada

He was a famous Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer in mod­ern times (1893–1973). He is wide­ly rec­og­nized as the “father of mod­ern Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture” or the “founder of inno­cent fairy tales”.

• A mas­ter­piece for pos­ter­i­ty: The Cry­ing Red Demon (ないた红おにWith its pro­found and restrained depic­tion of friend­ship, mis­un­der­stand­ing, and self-sac­ri­fice, this work has become an immor­tal, uncrowned king in the his­to­ry of Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.
• Oth­er works: The Dream of the Gray Star­ling (ムク鸟のゆめ), Gold­en Rice Ears (Bun­dle of gold), and “The Com­plete Works of Hiro­suke Hamada’s Kamishibai”.
• Lit­er­ary style: Hiro­kichi’s use of lan­guage in his works is extreme­ly beau­ti­ful. His works do not rely on strong con­flicts, but rather reveal a faint sad­ness and self­less warmth through the choic­es made by pure and kind char­ac­ters in every­day or tra­di­tion­al folk back­grounds. This has had a pro­found influ­ence on lat­er writ­ers such as Miki Ogawa and Nan­kichi Nii­mi.

| Birth | Hiro­suke Hama­da | Hiro­suke Hama­da (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1990: Ludwig Volbeda

A bril­liant young Dutch illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist. As a cre­ator born in the 1990s, he has demon­strat­ed aston­ish­ing­ly pre­co­cious artis­tic tal­ent.

• High­est Hon­or: At the age of 27, he won the award for “Birds” (De vogels) Vic­to­ry The Grand Prix, the high­est hon­or at the 2017 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB)..
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• Bat­tle­field Cook and Half-Sol­dier (Hoe Tor­tot zijn Vis­sen Hart ver­loor): A his­tor­i­cal fan­ta­sy epic mas­ter­piece that has won numer­ous awards.
• A Pic­to­r­i­al Guide to Mytho­log­i­cal Crea­tures of the World (Fabeldieren)。
• Artis­tic Style: Wol­bida’s style is char­ac­ter­ized by its extreme­ly dense and detailed tex­ture. He excels at using incred­i­bly fine pen lines to depict grand and des­o­late ruins, bat­tle­fields, cities, or fan­tas­ti­cal crea­tures. His paint­ings are filled with restrained, cool gray tones and a rich sense of intro­spec­tion and philo­soph­i­cal thought, push­ing con­tem­po­rary Euro­pean pic­ture book art to a new and high­ly con­tem­pla­tive lev­el.

| Birth | Lud­wig Wol­bi­da | Lud­wig Volbe­da (Wiki­da­ta) |

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⚰️ 2017 – Died: Willi Fährmann

A dis­tin­guished Ger­man author of his­tor­i­cal chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture (1929–2017). Through­out his life, he used his­tor­i­cal reflec­tion to advo­cate for peace and human­i­tar­i­an­ism.

• Key Achieve­ments: With theLucas’s Long Trip-Der lange Weg des Lukas B.) won 1981 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Ger­many, the Sto­ry of a Group of Mice (Der über­aus starke WillibaldThis is an inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed polit­i­cal alle­go­ry nov­el. Through the sto­ry of a group of mice who blind­ly wor­ship a “pow­er­ful rat” for their own safe­ty and ulti­mate­ly meet with dis­as­ter, it pro­found­ly and sub­tly decon­structs the essence of fas­cism and dic­ta­tor­ship for chil­dren.

| Deceased | Ver­ri Fell­man | Willi Fährmann (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1856 – Born: William Wallace Denslow

A renowned Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and graph­ic design­er (1856–1915). He estab­lished the first visu­al mile­stone in the his­to­ry of Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture with his paint­brush.

• A mas­ter­piece for pos­ter­i­ty: The Wiz­ard of Oz (The Won­der­ful Wiz­ard of Oz(Illus­tra­tion from the 1900 edi­tion).
• His­tor­i­cal impact: He was L. Frank Baum’s orig­i­nal “gold­en part­ner.” Danslow gave Oz its orig­i­nal soul with bold, sol­id-col­or blocks of line and extreme­ly vivid anthro­po­mor­phic designs (such as the Scare­crow’s com­i­cal move­ments and the Tin Man’s metal­lic tex­ture). These first edi­tion illus­tra­tions and the book’s unique col­or-blocked design have been for­ev­er includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.

| Birth | William Wal­lace Danslow | WW Denslow (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Creators Briefings (with Exact Original Names)

event	Peo­ple (includ­ing their orig­i­nal names)	Details/Awards	Wikipedia link
born	Boris Ats­ba­shev (Boris Artzy­bash­eff)	Russ­ian-Amer­i­can graph­ic artist. His work includes “Sev­en Simons” (…).Sev­en Sime­onsShe cre­at­ed illus­tra­tions with a strong geo­met­ric dec­o­ra­tive feel and a wood­cut tex­ture, and won an award. The inau­gur­al Calde­cott Sil­ver Medal in 1938.	Boris Artzy­bash­eff
born	Nata Caputo (Natha Caputo)	A renowned French chil­dren’s book author and anthol­o­gy edi­tor. His rewrit­ten folk­tale, *The Escape of the Pie* (…).Roule GaletteIt is an absolute clas­sic in the his­to­ry of French pic­ture books and is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Natha Caputo
born	Ivy Leck­er­man (Ivy Ruck­man)	Amer­i­can real­ist nov­el­ist. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Night of the Tor­na­do*.Night of the TwistersIt vivid­ly records the mutu­al pro­tec­tion and sup­port among fam­i­ly mem­bers in the face of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters.	Ivy Ruck­man
born	Bar­bara Bot­ner (Bar­bara Bot­tner)	Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist. Her most famous work is *Miss Brooks Loves Books!*Miss Brooks Loves Books!It is a clas­sic book for pro­mot­ing read­ing that is very pop­u­lar among librar­i­ans and chil­dren.	Bar­bara Bot­tner
born	Joyce Car­roll Thomas (Joyce Car­ol Thomas)	An African Amer­i­can female poet and nov­el­ist. She won the Nation­al Book Award, and her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is the poet­ry col­lec­tion *Black­ber­ries*, filled with African Amer­i­can iden­ti­ty and warmth.The Black­er the Berry: Poems)。	Joyce Car­ol Thomas