Bridge of Ajia

June 30: Today in Children’s Book History

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🎂 1948 – Born: Wolf Erlbruch

A leg­endary Ger­man graph­ic artist, illus­tra­tor, and mas­ter of pic­ture books (1948–2022). He was a tow­er­ing fig­ure in the his­to­ry of mod­ern Ger­man-speak­ing pic­ture books and a glob­al icon of exis­ten­tial­ist visu­al phi­los­o­phy, renowned for his high­ly sub­ver­sive oil col­lages, the tex­ture of old book pages, and his sober­ly crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion of the ulti­mate ques­tions of life.

  • Supreme hon­or (World Grand Slam): 2006 Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Illus­tra­tionWin­ner;2017 Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award (ALMA) The win­ner; recip­i­ent of the French Witch Award.
  • An immor­tal mas­ter­piece:
  • Who is hmm­ming on my head? (Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wis­sen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat(Writ­ten by Wern­er Holzwart): A glob­al­ly pop­u­lar decon­struc­tion of clas­sic chil­dren’s humor.
  • Canon: The high­est philo­soph­i­cal reflec­tions on life and deathWhen a Duck Meets Death (Ente, Tod und TulpeWith unpar­al­leled lit­er­ary restraint, it reshapes “death” into a gen­tle com­pan­ion, endow­ing chil­dren’s life and death edu­ca­tion with the noblest ratio­nal­i­ty and spir­i­tu­al dig­ni­ty.
  • Key rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:I am an itchy bear (Das Bären­wun­der)。

| Birth | Wolf Erl­bruch | Wolf Erl­bruch (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2003 – Death: Robert McCloskey

An immor­tal Amer­i­can graph­ic artist and a mas­ter of real­ist pic­ture books (1914–2003). He was a tough giant of the gold­en age of Amer­i­can chil­dren’s visu­al lit­er­a­ture, with a strong sense of human­i­ty and com­pas­sion for the land, and the first cre­ator in the his­to­ry of the Calde­cott Medal to win it twice.

  • High­est Hon­or: Two-time Calde­cott Medal win­ner The win­ner.
  • An immor­tal mas­ter­piece:
  • Make Way for Duck­lings (Make Way for Duck­lings(Win­ner of the 1942 Gold Medal): Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. McClossky, with rig­or­ous anatom­i­cal obser­va­tion and noble warm brown lith­o­graphs, record­ed the myth of the dig­ni­ty of life of Boston police offi­cers stop­ping traf­fic to escort ducks across the street.
  • Beau­ti­ful Times (Time of Won­der(1958 Gold Medal): Using the ulti­mate clas­si­cal water­col­or wash­es, it com­pos­es an eco­log­i­cal epic of the Maine island before a storm.
  • Core Ever­green Trees:Lit­tle Serge Pick­ing Blue­ber­ries (Blue­ber­ries for Sal)、Morn­ing by the Sea (One Morn­ing in Maine)。

| Passed Away | Robert McCloskey | Robert McCloskey (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1953 – Death: Elsa Beskow

She is an immor­tal Swedish female graph­ic artist and pic­ture book author (1874–1953). She is uni­ver­sal­ly rec­og­nized as the “Moth­er of Swedish Pic­ture Books” and was an unpar­al­leled pio­neer in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry who stitched togeth­er “nat­ur­al eco­log­i­cal real­ism and the roman­tic spir­it of Art Nou­veau” through­out North­ern Europe.

  • Immor­tal and time­less clas­sics: Clas­sic Real­is­tic Pic­ture Books Lit­tle Peter in the Blue­ber­ry Field (Puttes även­tyr i blåbärssko­gen)、The Lit­tle Baby in the For­est (Tomte­bo­bar­nenBoth “The For­est Man” and “The For­est Man” were includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
  • Visu­al Aes­thet­ics: Besko is excep­tion­al­ly skilled at using incred­i­bly warm water­col­ors, imbued with the breath­tak­ing breath of the Nordic forests and plains, to depict tree root elves wear­ing red hats, mush­room fig­ures, and chil­dren adven­tur­ing in a micro­scop­ic insect world. She com­plete­ly broke free from the rigid didac­ti­cism of the Vic­to­ri­an era, estab­lish­ing the high­est Canon in Swedish chil­dren’s literature—the idea that “human beings gain a sound soul through close­ness to nature”—with her exquis­ite­ly refined pic­to­r­i­al details.

| Passed Away | Elsa Beskow | Elsa Beskow (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1980 – Death: Roger Duvoisin

Swiss-Amer­i­can graph­ic artist, illus­tra­tor, and pic­ture book author (1900–1980). He was one of the most visu­al­ly pio­neer­ing giants of the mid-to-late 20th cen­tu­ry in the Unit­ed States, known for his cap­ti­vat­ing graph­ic com­po­si­tion and vibrant mod­ernist col­ors.

  • High­est Hon­or: Win­ner of the award for her famous nov­el “Snow White” The 1948 Calde­cott MedalThe work “Hide and Seek in the Fog” won an award. 1966 Calde­cott Hon­or.
  • Mas­ter­pieces that have stood the test of time: Snow White (White Snow, Bright Snow(by Alvin Tres­selt)Hide and Seek in the Fog (Hide and Seek Fog), and the clas­sic “Sil­ly Goose Petu­nia” series, which he wrote and illus­trat­ed him­self, is anti-util­i­tar­i­an and advo­cates for the free expres­sion of indi­vid­u­al­i­ty.Petu­nia)。
  • Visu­al con­tri­bu­tion: Duvassen per­fect­ly com­bines sophis­ti­cat­ed Euro­pean graph­ic com­po­si­tion, stag­gered col­or block col­lage, and high­ly dynam­ic sin­gle-line hatch­ing. His depic­tions of the four sea­sons are full of dra­mat­ic ten­sion, prov­ing that chil­dren’s pic­ture books can retain hilar­i­ous fun while pos­sess­ing a high lev­el of artis­tic intel­lect.

| Passed Away | Roger Duvoisin | Roger Duvoisin (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1994 – Death: Taro Yashima

Jun Iwa­mat­su (1908–1994), an immor­tal Japan­ese-Amer­i­can real­ist illus­tra­tor, chil­dren’s author, and anti-fas­cist mar­tyr. (Note: Accord­ing to author­i­ta­tive his­tor­i­cal records, this artis­tic giant died in 1994, not 1808 as some sys­tems mis­tak­en­ly claim). He was the first artist to win three con­sec­u­tive nation­al chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture awards in the Unit­ed States for his use of East­ern-style impres­sion­is­tic oil paint­ing and pro­found decon­struc­tion of school stereo­types. Calde­cott Hon­or The Asian spir­i­tu­al totem.

  • Immor­tal Award-win­ning mas­ter­pieces: Taro the Crow (Crow BoySil­ver Medal (1956)“Umbrel­la” (Umbrel­laSil­ver Medal (1959)Sea­side Sto­ry (Seashore Sto­rySil­ver Medal (1968)
  • Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Taro Yashima was impris­oned in Japan before the war for his anti-war stance and lat­er went into exile in the Unit­ed States. His acclaimed work, *Taro the Crow*, tells the epic sto­ry of a mar­gin­al­ized boy, iso­lat­ed and dis­crim­i­nat­ed against by his peers in a rur­al school, who, with the help of a kind teacher, proud­ly dis­plays his self-taught bird songs on stage, thus win­ning the respect of the entire school. He ded­i­cat­ed his life to cre­at­ing art, embody­ing the high­est ratio­nal belief in pro­tect­ing chil­dren from blind prej­u­dice.

| Passed Away | Taro Yashima | Taro Yashima (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1939 – Born: Barry Hines

A promi­nent British real­ist nov­el­ist and play­wright (1939–2016).

  • Time­less mas­ter­pieces: The Child and the Eagle (A Kestrel for a Knave(Pub­lished in 1968) It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
  • Lit­er­ary con­no­ta­tion: The book was adapt­ed into the British Film Insti­tute film clas­sic *Kaiser Kaiser*. Haynes was excep­tion­al­ly adept at using the raw, authen­tic lan­guage of the work­ing class in the north­ern Eng­lish mines to decon­struct the cold, ruth­less dis­ci­pline of human soci­ety. The sto­ry tells of Bil­ly, a young boy strug­gling in pover­ty and a bro­ken home, who finds his only free­dom and pride in the wilder­ness by per­son­al­ly train­ing a kestrel (eagle). His writ­ing is cold and restrained, unvar­nish­ing the soci­o­log­i­cal per­spec­tive on the pain of exis­tence, pos­sess­ing a high lev­el of pure­ly lit­er­ary reflec­tion.

| Birth | Bar­ry Hines | Bar­ry Hines (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1940 – Born: David McPhail

A renowned Amer­i­can mod­ern real­ist chil­dren’s pic­ture book author and illus­tra­tor (1940).

  • Key rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: The Mole’s Music (Mole Music)、Miss Pot­ter and Peter Rab­bit (Beat­rix Pot­ter and Her Paint Box), and *The Liar Mon­ster*, which explores chil­dren’s emo­tions and their right to hon­esty.A Big Fat Enor­mous Lie)。
  • Artis­tic fea­tures: McPheel’s work places great empha­sis on the breatha­bil­i­ty of pen and ink lines and wet water­col­ors. In “The Music of the Mole,” he stun­ning­ly uses a mole silent­ly play­ing the vio­lin in the dark­ness under­ground, whose notes qui­et­ly pen­e­trate the soil and change the grand metaphor of human war and con­flict on the sur­face, show­cas­ing the qui­et pow­er of art to change the world, and is high­ly praised by libraries around the world.

| Birth | David McPhail | David McPhail (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1922 – Born: Mollie Hunter

Mau­reen Mol­ly Hunter McVeigh, a renowned British female writer of his­tor­i­cal, mys­tery, and fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture (1922–2006).

  • High­est Hon­or: Win­ner of the award for the clas­sic nov­el “The Fortress” 1974 Carnegie Medal.
  • Mas­ter­pieces that have stood the test of time: “fortress” (The Strong­hold), and the super­nat­ur­al sus­pense clas­sic “The Vis­i­tor from the Deep Sea,” which incor­po­rates ancient Scot­tish Celtic folk­lore about sea mon­sters.A Stranger Came Ashore)。
  • Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Hunt is wide­ly regard­ed as the uncrowned queen of Scot­tish chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. With her extreme­ly rig­or­ous, his­tor­i­cal­ly detailed archae­o­log­i­cal writ­ing and prose-poem-like prose, she leads young read­ers into the core of com­plex human strug­gles and ancient myths, endow­ing them with the indomitable spir­it to resist for­eign aggres­sion and uphold fam­i­ly order.

| Birth | Mol­lie Hunter | Mol­lie Hunter (Wikipedia) |

🎂 Born 1933: Ray Cruz

An out­stand­ing Amer­i­can graph­ic illus­tra­tor and book design­er (1933).

  • A visu­al mon­u­ment for pos­ter­i­ty: Clas­sic, relat­able, and real­is­tic pic­ture books about psy­chol­o­gy The first edi­tion of the com­plete illus­trat­ed book, “Alexan­der and His Unlucky, Annoy­ing, Ter­ri­ble, and Ter­ri­ble Day”.（Alexan­der and the Ter­ri­ble, Hor­ri­ble, No Good, Very Bad Day(by Judith Viorst).
  • His­tor­i­cal impact: His col­lab­o­ra­tive mas­ter­piece is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. Cruz com­plete­ly aban­doned the kitsch of col­or col­lage and pio­neered the use of the clean­est and dens­est black and white cross-hatch­ing lines through­out the book, bring­ing to life the boy Alexan­der, who wakes up with chew­ing gum stuck to his face, falls into the uri­nal, and faces a bar­rage of com­plaints about life, yet is extreme­ly real­is­tic in his anger. This estab­lished a very high lev­el of visu­al ratio­nal­i­ty for the emo­tion­al vent­ing and release of young chil­dren around the world.

| Birth | Ray Cruz | Ray Cruz (Wiki­da­ta) |

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