May 29: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 1958 – Death: Juan Ramón Jiménez

The immor­tal mas­ter of prose poet­ry and poet of Spain (1881–1958). He was award­ed the title in 1956.Nobel Prize in Lit­er­a­tureHis mas­ter­pieces, which have been left in the his­to­ry of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, have long since become a totem of pure lan­guage for all mankind.

• The Bible of Time: “The Lit­tle Don­key and Me”(Or trans­lat­ed as “The Song of the Lit­tle Don­key”)Plateroy yo).
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Jiménez, in his excep­tion­al­ly pure, melan­cholic, and lov­ing poet­ic prose, recounts his dai­ly life with a lit­tle don­key named “Platero” (mean­ing sil­ver-grey) in a small town in south­ern Spain. Although the book car­ries pro­found philo­soph­i­cal insights into life and a con­tem­pla­tion of death, its pure emo­tion has made it a must-read clas­sic for West­ern chil­dren enter­ing the world of fine lit­er­a­ture, and it has been includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.”

| Deceased | Juan Ramón Jiménez | Juan Ramón Jiménez (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1906 – Born: TH White

Ter­rence Hum­bert White (1906–1964), a renowned British fan­ta­sy author, was one of the founders of mod­ern seri­ous fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture.

• A mas­ter­piece of the ages:
• The Eter­nal Kings Quar­tet (The Once and Future King): The pin­na­cle of mod­ern Arthuri­an myth recon­struc­tion, its first vol­ume being “Sword in the Stone-The Sword in the StoneIt is a time­less clas­sic in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture about growth and wis­dom (lat­er adapt­ed into a clas­sic ani­mat­ed film of the same name by Dis­ney).
• The Land of Minia­tures on the Isle of Anxi (Mis­tress Masham’s ReposeA fan­ta­sy mas­ter­piece that pays homage to Swift’s Gul­liv­er’s Trav­els, it is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• Lit­er­ary influ­ence: With his pro­found his­tor­i­cal knowl­edge and humor­ous yet sub­tly trag­ic writ­ing style, E.B. White com­plete­ly rewrote the land­scape of British fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture, pro­found­ly influ­enc­ing lat­er gen­er­a­tions, includ­ing J.K. Rowl­ing.JK Rowl­ingCount­less fan­ta­sy writ­ers, includ­ing .

| Birth | TH White | TH White (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1949: Andrew Clements

One of the most out­stand­ing con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can cam­pus real­ist nov­el­ists (1949–2019). He is wide­ly regard­ed as the king of best-sell­ing books who “under­stands the psy­chol­o­gy of mod­ern school chil­dren best”.

• Mile­stone works:
• We call it Pink Spir­it Bean (Frindle(This is his most famous and mag­num opus. It tells the sto­ry of a boy who invents a new word to replace “pen,” thus spark­ing a lit­er­ary and intel­lec­tu­al rev­o­lu­tion that sweeps across Amer­i­ca.)
• Oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:Five Bell Chimes (Fear Itself)、The Last Ally (We Hold These Truths)。
• Lit­er­ary fea­tures: Clydes, a for­mer high school teacher, writes fast-paced books that skill­ful­ly decon­struct school rules, explore free­dom of speech, and depict the fas­ci­nat­ing intel­lec­tu­al bat­tles and under­stand­ings between teach­ers and stu­dents, start­ing from what chil­dren might per­ceive as mis­chie­vous pranks. His works con­sis­tent­ly rank high on glob­al school rec­om­men­da­tion lists.

| Birth | Andrew Clements | Andrew Clements (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1925 – Born: Maj Miturič

Mai Petro­vich Miturich-Khleb­nikov (1925–2008), a nation­al trea­sure-lev­el graph­ic artist and illus­tra­tor of the Sovi­et Union/Russia, was one of the lead­ing visu­al fig­ures of the gold­en age of Sovi­et pic­ture books after World War II.

• Key Achieve­ments: Based on the famous work of Kornei Chukovsky, a lead­ing fig­ure in Sovi­et chil­dren’s poet­ry…The Stolen Sun-Krade­no­je sol­nceThe vivid illus­tra­tions drawn by [author’s name] won [award/title]. Sil­ver Plaque, First Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB), Bratisla­va, 1967.
• Artis­tic fea­tures: Miturich’s style inher­its the charm of Russ­ian avant-garde and tra­di­tion­al ink paint­ing. He is adept at using rich lith­o­graph blocks of col­or and high­ly dynam­ic, bold lines. The ani­mals he paints have both an absurd humor and are full of pri­mal vital­i­ty, which has earned him a high rep­u­ta­tion inter­na­tion­al­ly.

| Birth | Maj Miturič | Maj Miturič (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1938: Brock Cole

He is a renowned Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author and illus­tra­tor. He pos­sess­es a unique­ly detached and pro­found per­spec­tive on con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can chil­dren’s real­ism and fable lit­er­a­ture.

• Mile­stone works: “goat” (The Goats)。
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: His rep­re­sen­ta­tive nov­el, *The Goat*, tells the sto­ry of two teenagers who are bul­lied and pranked at sum­mer camp, stripped naked, and aban­doned on a desert­ed island. They sup­port each oth­er in their escape and trans­for­ma­tion. With extreme­ly restrained, even some­what cold, real­ism, Cole pro­found­ly explores the cru­el social envi­ron­ment of child­hood and the awak­en­ing of human­i­ty, becom­ing a clas­sic in Amer­i­can young adult lit­er­a­ture that is both con­tro­ver­sial and acclaimed. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive pic­ture book is *Very Deli­cious*.Good Enough to Eat)。

| Birth | Brock Cole | Brock Cole (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Creator Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia link
born	Mary Louisa Molesworth	A renowned and pro­lif­ic female chil­dren’s author of Vic­to­ri­an-era British lit­er­a­ture (1839–1921). Wide­ly regard­ed as the “Queen of Vic­to­ri­an Fam­i­ly Sto­ries,” she excelled at weav­ing gen­tle mag­ic into every­day fam­i­ly life, her most famous work being *The Cuck­oo Clock*.The Cuck­oo Clock(1877) and “Tell Me a Sto­ry” (Tell Me a Sto­ryNes­bit­t’s work pro­found­ly influ­enced lat­er gen­er­a­tions.	Mary Louisa Molesworth
born	Eleanor Coerr	A renowned Cana­di­an-Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1922–2010). Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Sasa­ki Sadako and the Thou­sand Cranes*.Sadako and the Thou­sand Paper CranesBased on the true sto­ry of a girl who sur­vived the Hiroshi­ma atom­ic bomb, the book uses inno­cent yet pow­er­ful lan­guage to con­vey a desire for anti-war and peace to chil­dren around the world.	Eleanor Coerr
born	Lars Bo	A renowned Dan­ish painter and print­mak­er (1924–1999). He lived in Paris for many years and is best known for his prints of Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” (…).Sne­dron­nin­genThe illus­tra­tions, drawn by [author’s name], pos­sess a high­ly sur­re­al­ist and dream­like etched tex­ture, and won [award/title]. 1969 BIB Plaque.	Lars Bo
born	Dag­mar Chi­dolue	A renowned con­tem­po­rary Ger­man nov­el­ist. His most famous real­ist work, *Punk Girl*, sharply focus­es on the grow­ing pains and rebel­lious spir­it of con­tem­po­rary teenage girls.Lady Punk) won 1986 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP).	Dag­mar Chi­dolue
born	Lau­ra Rosano	Ital­ian con­tem­po­rary illus­tra­tor. Known for his work “The Sto­ry of Joseph and His Broth­ers” (L’his­toire de Joseph et ses freresThe design, char­ac­ter­ized by its geo­met­ric com­po­si­tion and mod­ern graph­ic art aes­thet­ic, won an award. 1989 BIB Hon­orary Men­tion.	Lau­ra Rosano