May 28: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born in 1908: Ian Fleming

A renowned British nov­el­ist, jour­nal­ist, and for­mer naval intel­li­gence offi­cer (1908–1964). He is famous world­wide for cre­at­ing the most famous spy in film and lit­er­ary his­to­ry, “James Bond (007),” but his only chil­dren’s book was equal­ly remark­able.

• Mas­ter­pieces of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture: Fly­ing All-Pur­pose Vehi­cle (Chit­ty Chit­ty Bang Bang: The Mag­i­cal Car)。
• Back­ground of cre­ation: This book was writ­ten by Flem­ing dur­ing his recov­ery from a heart attack, specif­i­cal­ly for his son Cas­par. The sto­ry tells of a mag­i­cal rac­ing car with its own con­scious­ness, capa­ble of fly­ing and lev­i­ta­tion, tak­ing the fam­i­ly on a thrilling adven­ture. Show­cas­ing Flem­ing’s excep­tion­al tal­ent for adven­ture sto­ry­telling, the book was lat­er adapt­ed into a clas­sic musi­cal film and per­ma­nent­ly includ­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*. Of par­tic­u­lar note is the book’s icon­ic illus­tra­tions by John Burn­ing­ham!

| Birth | Ian Flem­ing | Ian Flem­ing (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2016—Died: Akiko Sueyoshi

A renowned con­tem­po­rary Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and win­ner of the Noma Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Prize (1942–2016), she excelled at blend­ing del­i­cate por­tray­als of ado­les­cent psy­chol­o­gy with heart­warm­ing fan­ta­sy ele­ments, and was one of the lead­ing fig­ures in post­war Japan­ese wom­en’s chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• The King of Hide and Seek in the For­est (もりのかくれんぼう): A clas­sic pic­ture book cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Akiko Hayashi, depict­ing a child’s won­drous encoun­ters after step­ping into the mys­te­ri­ous bar­ri­er of the for­est.
• The Sev­en Mag­ics of the Black Rose (Black mag­ic)、The Girl Who Returned to the Stars (Star girl)。

| Death | Akiko Sueyoshi | Akiko Sueyoshi (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2002 – Died: Marija Lucija Stupica

A Sloven­ian nation­al trea­sure-lev­el female illus­tra­tor (1950–2002). She was one of the most regret­table and tal­ent­ed illus­tra­tors of con­tem­po­rary Europe, whose short but bril­liant life left behind the most pro­found visu­al inter­pre­ta­tion of clas­sic fairy tales.

• High­est Hon­or: Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Illus­tra­tor Final­ist.
• Award-win­ning rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: With his work on Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen’s fairy talesShep­herdess and Chim­ney Sweep­er-Pastir­i­ca in dimnikarThe exquis­ite illus­tra­tions drawn by [artist name] won [awards/recognition]. Gold­en Apple Award at the 1985 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB).
• Artis­tic Style: Stupitza­’s style blends the clas­si­cal solem­ni­ty of the North­ern Renais­sance with the detached melan­choly of mod­ernism. The char­ac­ters she paints have a sculp­tur­al qual­i­ty, and the com­po­si­tions are extreme­ly tran­quil, even car­ry­ing a cer­tain sacred sense of tragedy, per­fect­ly reflect­ing the pro­found and restrained spir­i­tu­al core of clas­si­cal lit­er­a­ture.

| Deceased | Mar­i­ja Luci­ja Stupi­ca | Mar­i­ja Luci­ja Stupi­ca (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1954: Sylvia Weve

One of the Nether­lands’ top con­tem­po­rary female illus­tra­tors and car­toon­ists. She is a pio­neer of visu­al inno­va­tion in the Dutch mod­ern pic­ture book indus­try.

• High­est Hon­or: 2020 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Illus­tra­tor Final­ist.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• I Miss You (Doo­dge­woon): A phe­nom­e­nal visu­al mas­ter­piece that explores the heavy top­ic of “death” with an extreme­ly open-mind­ed, avant-garde and warm vision, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with writer Bette West­era.
• “sep­a­rate” (Uit elka­ar): Explor­ing fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion and the recon­struc­tion of love.
• The Mole Meets Love (Over de liefde)、Chick­en and Egg (Kip en ei)。
• Artis­tic fea­tures: Wei­wei’s lines are full of expres­sion­is­tic dynamism and unre­strained vital­i­ty. She dares to break with tra­di­tion­al com­po­si­tion and col­or schemes, using exag­ger­at­ed shapes with a touch of irony and play­ful­ness to car­ry seri­ous and pro­found life and social issues, mak­ing her an out­stand­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the visu­al Canon of the Low Coun­tries.

| Birth | Sylvia Weve | Sylvia Weve (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1953: Silvana de Mari

A renowned Ital­ian fan­ta­sy writer and physi­cian, she trans­formed her pro­found human­i­tar­i­an con­cern for human suf­fer­ing into mag­nif­i­cent epic fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture.

• High­est Hon­or: He won the award for his work “The Last Orc”. 2009 French Prix Sor­cières.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: The Last Spir­it (L’ul­ti­mo elfo)、The Last Orc (L’ul­ti­mo orco)。
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Her fan­ta­sy works are wide­ly rec­og­nized in Europe for their Tolkien-esque lit­er­ary depth. Damary is not mere­ly writ­ing mag­i­cal adven­tures; through the inter­twined fates of elves, humans, and orcs, she pro­found­ly explores themes of war, trau­ma, racial prej­u­dice, his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry, and the redemp­tion of human­i­ty, pos­sess­ing immense lit­er­ary and philo­soph­i­cal ten­sion.

| Birth | Sil­vana de Mari | Sil­vana de Mari (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Creator Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia link
born	Lau­ra Amy Schlitz	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author and librar­i­an. His mas­ter­piece, *The Great Gats­by*, is a unique­ly con­ceived col­lec­tion of mono­logues and dia­logues fea­tur­ing medieval char­ac­ters.What a good mas­ter! What a sweet lady!-Good Mas­ters! Sweet Ladies!) won 2008 New­bery Medal.	Lau­ra Amy Schlitz
born	Nan Chauncy	A pio­neer­ing Aus­tralian female chil­dren’s author (1900–1970). Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Tan­gara*.Tan­garaWith great empa­thy, it reveals the trag­ic his­to­ry of Tas­man­ian indige­nous peo­ple and the cross-cul­tur­al friend­ship of chil­dren, and has been includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Nan Chauncy
born	Raoul Ver­di­ni	Gian­ni Rodari was a renowned Ital­ian illus­tra­tor and car­toon­ist (1899–1981). He was the illus­tra­tor for Gian­ni Rodar­i’s immor­tal mas­ter­piece, *[Title of the illus­tra­tor]*.The Adven­tures of Pinoc­chio-Le avven­ture di Cipolli­noShe cre­at­ed the most mem­o­rable first edi­tion illus­tra­tions, which were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Raoul Ver­di­ni
Death	Car­olyn Keene	A col­lec­tive pseu­do­nym used by Amer­i­can authors. They are actu­al­ly nov­el­ists.Mil­dred Ben­sonMil­dred Ben­son (1905–2002), etc. She was the lead cre­ator of the glob­al­ly pop­u­lar “Nan­cy Drew” series of teenage detec­tive sto­ries, which has been pop­u­lar for near­ly a cen­tu­ry. Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Secret of the Old Clock*.The Secret of the Old ClockIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Mil­dred Ben­son