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

🎂 1938 — Born: Yōko Sano

Japan’s immor­tal mod­ern female pic­ture book author and essay­ist (1938–2010). She is an uncrowned queen of the “philo­soph­i­cal and emo­tion­al break­through school” in the his­to­ry of Asian and even world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, and is renowned world­wide for her extreme­ly rough, proud, frank and unashamed core texts that do not shy away from human self­ish­ness and death.

• A mas­ter­piece that will last for­ev­er: The Cat Who Lived a Mil­lion Times (1 mil­lion rebirth(Pub­lished in 1977).
• Key rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: The Lion That Flew into the Sky (emp­ty とぶライオン), and the high­ly humor­ous and decon­struc­tive “The Gen­tle­man’s Umbrel­la” (おじさんのかさ)。
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Her book, *The Cat Who Lived a Mil­lion Times*, is wide­ly rec­og­nized as a mas­ter­piece in pic­ture book his­to­ry that tran­scends age and death. Yoko Sano uses bold, expres­sive water­col­ors and pen lines, brim­ming with vital­i­ty, to tell the epic sto­ry of a stray cat who has nev­er loved any­one, died a mil­lion times, and lived a mil­lion times, until it meets a white cat and tru­ly learns to love and be loved, ulti­mate­ly dying peace­ful­ly beside her and nev­er being res­ur­rect­ed. With her steely, unyield­ing prose, she decon­structs dog­mat­ic acts of devo­tion, dig­ni­fied­ly defend­ing the inde­pen­dence of life and the sub­jec­tive right to love.

| Birth | Yōko Sano | Yōko Sano (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2018 – Passed away: Christine Nöstlinger

Aus­tri­a’s immor­tal nation­al trea­sure, a mas­ter of wom­en’s chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture (1936–2018). She was the pio­neer­ing female pope who stood tall in the post-World War II “anti-tra­di­tion­al, anti-author­i­tar­i­an, new crit­i­cal real­ism chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture” move­ment through­out the Ger­man-speak­ing world and even Europe, and a staunch defend­er of chil­dren’s rights for all mankind.

• Supreme hon­or (World Grand Slam): 1984 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best WriterWin­ner;The inau­gur­al Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award (ALMA) was award­ed in 2003. The win­ner.
• Time­less mas­ter­pieces:
• The Cucum­ber King (Wir pfeifen auf den Gurkenkönig(Win­ner of the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize): A clas­sic satir­i­cal cri­tique of fam­i­ly fas­cism and absolute patri­archy.
• The Child in the Can (Kon­rad oder Das Kind aus der Kon­ser­ven­büchse): A fan­ta­sy mas­ter­piece that decon­structs rigid, assem­bly-line-style dis­ci­pline and adult hypocrisy to the extreme.
• Core Psy­cho­log­i­cal Real­i­ty Clas­sics:The Dog Came (Der Hund kommt!)。
• Lit­er­ary qual­i­ties: Nestoringer’s writ­ing is char­ac­ter­ized by steely calm­ness, lit­er­ary restraint, and the raw, ver­nac­u­lar spir­it of Vien­nese folk. She nev­er offers chil­dren false, sac­cha­rine plat­i­tudes, but instead leads them to brave­ly mock rigid author­i­ty, con­front bro­ken fos­ter fam­i­lies and the grow­ing pains of child­hood, earn­ing her the title of an insur­mount­able Canon in mod­ern chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

| Deceased | Chris­tine Nöstlinger | Chris­tine Nöstlinger (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1958 – Born: Hervé Tullet

A French con­tem­po­rary graph­ic artist, cre­ative mas­ter, and pic­ture book author (1958). He is the revered pope of the 21st cen­tu­ry’s glob­al young chil­dren’s “paper visu­al inter­ac­tion and sen­so­ry car­ni­val aes­thet­ics,” and is hailed by West­ern media as “the mon­ster par­ent and magi­cian of the pic­ture book field.”

• Supreme inter­na­tion­al hon­or and immor­tal mas­ter­piece: He rose to the top and won the award with his mas­ter­piece “Dots”. 2011 Prix Sor­cières, the high­est prize for illus­trat­ed books in FranceHis works have sold tens of mil­lions of copies world­wide.
• Key rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: Dots (Un livre)、The Talk­ing Dots (Oh!), and the rev­o­lu­tion­ary con­cept of hand­i­crafts, “The Dance of Hands” (La danse des mains) and the lat­est avant-garde work “The Hand That Can Draw“La main qui des­sine)。
• Con­tri­bu­tions to visu­al arts: Tul­let com­plete­ly shat­tered the rigid par­a­digm of tra­di­tion­al ear­ly child­hood pic­ture books, which relied on “metic­u­lous depic­tion and sto­ry­telling.” He used only the purest pri­ma­ry col­ors (red, yel­low, and blue) – dots and ran­dom lines – and guid­ed chil­dren to press, shake, and rub the pages through instruc­tion­al text, thus ignit­ing a visu­al and intel­lec­tu­al feast between the left and right hemi­spheres, almost like dig­i­tal screen inter­ac­tion. With his extreme­ly high lev­el of artis­tic seri­ous­ness and play­ful spir­it, he estab­lished a new era for ear­ly child­hood cog­ni­tive read­ing mate­ri­als in the world.

| Birth | Hervé Tul­let | Hervé Tul­let (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 1985 – Death: Lynd Ward

An immor­tal Amer­i­can graph­ic artist, mas­ter of print­mak­ing, and pio­neer­ing father of mod­ern graph­ic nov­els (1905–1985). He was the most promi­nent visu­al icon of the 20th-cen­tu­ry Amer­i­can gold­en age of pic­ture books. (Note: June 26th is also record­ed as his birth­day; today is the anniver­sary of the death of this giant of lines.)

• High­est Hon­or: Win­ning the award for the famous nov­el “That Big Bear” 1953 Calde­cott MedalThe work “Ethan Allen of Amer­i­ca” won an award. 1950 Calde­cott Hon­or.
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: That Big Bear (The Biggest Bear), a famous his­tor­i­cal non-fic­tion workEthan Allen of Amer­i­ca》 (Amer­i­ca’s Ethan Allen)。

| Passed Away | Lynd Ward | Lynd Ward (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2010 – Passed away: Annette Tison

A renowned French female archi­tect, illus­tra­tor, and cross-dis­ci­pli­nary graph­ic artist (1942–2010). Togeth­er with her hus­band, Talus Tay­lor, she cre­at­ed one of the most inclu­sive and eco-friend­ly visu­al myths in 20th-cen­tu­ry Chi­nese-speak­ing and glob­al pop­u­lar cul­ture.

• Time­less clas­sics: Bar­ba­pa­pa series (Bar­ba­pa­pa)。
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Bar­ba­pa­pa, the sem­i­nal work cre­at­ed in 1970, is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books.” Tison trans­formed the flow­ing, round­ed lines char­ac­ter­is­tic of Bauhaus archi­tec­tur­al aes­thet­ics into a group of won­drous, shape-shift­ing, and col­or­ful earth­en crea­tures. Faced with heavy indus­tri­al pol­lu­tion and the encroach­ment of machines on nature, the Bar­ba­pa­pa fam­i­ly, with their ever-chang­ing wis­dom, resilience, and unbi­ased pro­tec­tion, gen­tly shel­ters injured birds and beasts. The series has not only been adapt­ed into a wide­ly pop­u­lar ani­mat­ed series but has also become a pin­na­cle of envi­ron­men­tal and human­is­tic chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture world­wide.

| Deceased | Annette Tison | Annette Tison (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Other Important Creator Briefings

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia link
born	Esther Forbes	An immor­tal Amer­i­can female his­to­ri­an, nov­el­ist, and Pulitzer Prize-win­ning his­to­ri­an of the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry (1891–1967). Her ground­break­ing his­tor­i­cal nov­el, a crossover work with chil­dren, specif­i­cal­ly designed to instill a sense of inde­pen­dence and dig­ni­ty in young arti­sans amidst the smoke of the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War, is a time­less clas­sic.John­ny Ter­ry-John­ny Tremain), and won the cham­pi­onship. New­bery Medal, 1944.	Esther Forbes
born	Bette Greene	A renowned Amer­i­can female writer of chil­dren’s and ado­les­cent social/historical real­ist nov­els (1934–2020). She was excep­tion­al­ly skilled at using extreme­ly raw, authen­tic South­ern small-town dialect to por­tray the resilience of Black chil­dren and mar­gin­al­ized groups amidst prej­u­dice. Her rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *I Think Philip Hall Might Like Me*.Philip Hall Likes Me…) won 1975 New­bery Sil­ver Medal.	Bette Greene
born	Paul-Émile Vic­tor	French polar explor­er, nat­ur­al sci­en­tist, and eth­nol­o­gist (1907–1995). His endur­ing mas­ter­piece, *Apusak the Lit­tle Snowflake*, a chron­i­cle of Arc­tic child­hood, is a tes­ta­ment to his rig­or­ous eco­log­i­cal and cul­tur­al research, ren­dered with a high­ly styl­ized, ink-wash wood­cut qual­i­ty.Apout­si­ak…It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Paul-Émile Vic­tor
Death	Hol­ly Meade	A promi­nent Amer­i­can female wood­cut illus­tra­tor and mas­ter of fine art (1956–2013) of the mid-to-late 20th cen­tu­ry. She is best known for her time­less lul­la­by mas­ter­piece, *Hush! Thai Lul­la­bies*, which beau­ti­ful­ly cap­tures the tex­tures of tra­di­tion­al Thai wood­cut prints and per­fect­ly presents the tran­quil eco­log­i­cal aes­thet­ics of Thai folk art.Hush!: A Thai Lul­la­by), won 1997 Calde­cott Hon­or.	Hol­ly Meade
Death	Antho­ny Buck­eridge	A lead­ing fig­ure and mas­ter of the immor­tal British school humor nov­el genre (1912–2004). (Note: June 20th is also record­ed as his birth­day; today is the anniver­sary of the birth of this board­ing school nar­ra­tive myth, the “Gin­nings” series.) Jen­nings and Dar­bishire (The author’s death anniver­sary.) With his bril­liant British dry humor, he defend­ed the pow­er of child­hood games to resist rigid author­i­ty, and his work was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Antho­ny Buck­eridge
Death	Joan Low­ery Nixon	A renowned Amer­i­can female author of YA Mys­tery nov­els (1927–2003), a best­selling lead­ing lady in the genre. She is the only author in the Unit­ed States to have won the Edgar Allan Poe Award four times for her work on chil­dren’s real­ism. Her endur­ing clas­sic, *Night­mare*, explores a young per­son­’s strug­gle with deep-seat­ed guilt and their path to self-redemp­tion through chill­ing mys­tery-solv­ing.Night­mareIt ranks high­ly on the rec­om­men­da­tion lists of major libraries.	Joan Low­ery Nixon