July 10: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 1980 – Death: Joseph Krumgold

An immor­tal Amer­i­can nov­el­ist, screen­writer, and founder of mod­ern chil­dren’s real­ism (1908–1980). He is a tow­er­ing and revered pio­neer in the his­to­ry of world chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.He is the first cre­ator in the his­to­ry of the New­bery Medal to win the Gold Medal twice.He spent his life exam­in­ing the growth of teenagers with real­is­tic, cin­e­mat­ic lan­guage.

• The high­est Grand Slam hon­or and a mas­ter­piece for pos­ter­i­ty:
• “…Now Miguel” (…And now Miguel(1954 Gold Medal win­ner): It tells the epic sto­ry of a 12-year-old boy from a shep­herd fam­i­ly in New Mex­i­co, who grows up in the moun­tains and endures hard­ships in order to gain the approval of adults and his own dig­ni­ty in the fam­i­ly’s labor.
• Onion John (Onion John(1960 Gold Medal win­ner): This work explores the sin­cere bond between a young boy and an uncon­ven­tion­al, mar­gin­al­ized, and home­less old man, and how to break through the rigid, world­ly prej­u­dices and obses­sive dis­ci­plines of adult soci­ety.

| Deceased | Joseph Krum­gold | Joseph Krum­gold (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2017 – Passed away: Peter Härtling

A Ger­man nation­al trea­sure, mas­ter of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, cur­rent affairs com­men­ta­tor, and lead­ing fig­ure of post­war neo-real­ism (1933–2017). He was one of the most out­stand­ing fig­ures in the gold­en age of Euro­pean chil­dren’s real­ism in the late 20th cen­tu­ry, and through­out his life he refused to cre­ate a false and hyp­o­crit­i­cal green­house, advo­cat­ing that lit­er­a­ture must face up to chil­dren’s real fam­i­ly changes, dis­abil­i­ties, and the pain of lone­li­ness.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: Twice short­list­ed for the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) Final­ist Award for Writ­ers(2006, etc.); He has con­sis­tent­ly won the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) Life­time Achieve­ment Award.
• A time­less clas­sic of psy­cho­log­i­cal real­ism:
• Chil­dren’s emo­tions are para­mount (Canon):Ben Loves Anna (Ben lieben den AnnaWith unpar­al­leled lit­er­ary restraint, it depicts the pure and inno­cent bond between a Ger­man boy and a refugee girl from Poland, tran­scend­ing class and cul­tur­al bar­ri­ers.
• Core Psy­chol­o­gy Clas­sics:Theo Who Ran Away (Theo haut ab)、Hel­lo, Grand­pa, Hel­lo, Mia (Hal­lo Opa – liebe Mir­jam), and Aunt Tilly’s Mag­ic Box (Tante Tilli macht The­ater)。

| Passed Away | Peter Härtling | Peter Härtling (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1987: Katherine Rundell

One of the most out­stand­ing con­tem­po­rary female chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writ­ers in Britain, and a tenured fel­low at All Souls Col­lege, Oxford (1987). She is a high­ly respect­ed mas­ter of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture in the glob­al fan­ta­sy and adven­ture lit­er­a­ture world of the 21st cen­tu­ry, and is hailed by the lit­er­ary world as “the nar­ra­tive queen with the most Dick­en­sian and Lewis-like spir­it in the con­tem­po­rary era”.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: He won the top prize with his real­is­tic mas­ter­piece, “Sophie on the Rooftop.” The 2015 Prix Sor­cières, the high­est prize for nov­els in France.Water­stones Book Prize, Bran­ford Boase Award.
• An immor­tal mas­ter­piece: Sophie on the Roof (Rooftop­pers / French ver­sion name Le ciel nous appar­tient), the grand clas­si­cal anthro­po­mor­phic epic “Won­der Islands” (Impos­si­ble Crea­tures), and the clas­sic chil­dren’s detec­tive nov­el “The Right­eous Thief” (Good thieves)。
• Lit­er­ary qual­i­ties: Lan­del’s writ­ing is pow­er­ful, clear, and pos­sess­es a musi­cal rhythm rem­i­nis­cent of sil­very moon­light. In *Sophie on the Roof*, she tells the sto­ry of Sophie, an orphan who sur­vives a ship­wreck, and her mag­nif­i­cent com­ing-of-age rit­u­al as she jour­neys through the Parisian rooftops with a group of home­less chil­dren in search of her moth­er, cling­ing to her dreams and rea­son. She uses the noblest lan­guage to uphold the philo­soph­i­cal dig­ni­ty of con­tem­po­rary chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy.

| Birth | Kather­ine Run­dell | Kather­ine Run­dell (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1929 – Born: Miyako Moriyama

An immor­tal female chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer of mod­ern Japan (1929–2018). She was a mas­ter of the “psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al reflec­tion and gen­tle phe­no­log­i­cal real­ism” school for young chil­dren in East Asia. Her writ­ing style was extreme­ly ele­gant and refined, and she enjoyed a high rep­u­ta­tion as an icon in the Chi­nese-speak­ing and Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture cir­cles.

• Time­less clas­sics for chil­dren: The Lit­tle Yel­low Buck­et (きいろいばけつIt has been includ­ed in the Canon anthol­o­gy that is required read­ing for chil­dren through­out Japan.
• Core Real­ist Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works: The Hap­py Table (おおきなテーブル)、While wait­ing for the bus (バスがくるまで), and “Let’s Play the Flute Togeth­er” (ドレミファ・ドーナツふきならせ)。
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: Her sto­ry, “The Lit­tle Yel­low Buck­et,” vivid­ly por­trays the hid­den psy­cho­log­i­cal pow­ers of young chil­dren fac­ing pos­ses­sion, loss, attach­ment, and self-con­trol through the long antic­i­pa­tion of a fox find­ing an aban­doned yel­low buck­et by a stream, the fox’s expec­ta­tion of “bor­row­ing” it for a week, and the buck­et’s even­tu­al dis­ap­pear­ance. Using a warm yet ratio­nal­ly mea­sured col­lo­qui­al lan­guage, she imbues ear­ly child­hood lit­er­a­ture with a noble philo­soph­i­cal dig­ni­ty.

| Birth | Miyako Moriya­ma | Kyo Moriya­ma (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2018 — Passed away: Clive King

A promi­nent British real­ist and fan­ta­sy writer and war intel­li­gence offi­cer of the 20th cen­tu­ry (1924–2018).

• An epic mas­ter­piece that has stood the test of time: Stig in the Junk­yard (Stig of the Dump(Pub­lished in 1963) It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• Lit­er­ary con­no­ta­tion: His nov­el *Stig in the Junk­yard* is con­sid­ered a pio­neer­ing work in West­ern chil­dren’s adven­ture and mod­ern reflec­tion on envi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion lit­er­a­ture. The sto­ry tells of a boy who unex­pect­ed­ly meets Stig, a Stone Age sav­age left behind in mod­ern soci­ety, in a chalk mine’s junk­yard. The two, emp­ty-hand­ed, embark on a jour­ney to build a wood­en hut in the wilder­ness by scav­eng­ing dis­card­ed indus­tri­al waste from the adult world and employ­ing prim­i­tive hand­i­crafts. He uses metic­u­lous his­tor­i­cal and archae­o­log­i­cal details to dig­ni­fy the intel­lec­tu­al heights of inde­pen­dent explo­ration in young read­ers. His oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tive works include *That Night, the Water Came*, which reflects on eco­log­i­cal dis­as­ters.The Night the Water Came) and “Twen­ty-Two Let­ters“The Twen­ty-Two Let­ters)。

| Passed away | Clive King | Clive King (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1937 – Born: Nikolai Ustinov

Niko­lai Alexan­drovich Usti­nov (1937), a nation­al trea­sure of Soviet/Russian graph­ic artist, mas­ter of fine art illus­tra­tion, and book design­er.

• Inter­na­tion­al high­est hon­or: With its visu­al­ly strik­ing com­bi­na­tion of the vast­ness and breath of the Russ­ian land­scape, the dynam­ic yet metic­u­lous­ly craft­ed com­po­si­tion, and the seam­less inte­gra­tion of clas­si­cal real­ism and abstract imagery, it quick­ly rose to the top and won the award. 1997 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB) Chil­dren’s Jury Award.
• Award-win­ning rep­re­sen­ta­tive works: A mas­ter­piece of Slav­ic art The Frog Princess (Carevna – laguš­kaFirst edi­tion of the com­plete set of illus­tra­tions.
• Visu­al Aes­thet­ics: Usti­nov ded­i­cat­ed his life to adher­ing to the tra­di­tion­al East­ern Euro­pean tech­niques of thin oil paint appli­ca­tion and del­i­cate pen and ink draw­ing. He brought to life the spir­it and vital­i­ty of all things in the for­est, com­plete­ly aban­don­ing the syco­phan­tic and child­ish car­toons, and using the ulti­mate in pure artis­tic visu­als to sup­port the intel­lec­tu­al heights of non-fic­tion and his­tor­i­cal folk lit­er­a­ture.

| Birth | Niko­laj Usti­nov | Николай Устинов (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Parallel briefings from other award-winning creators

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Mar­tin Provensen	A leg­endary Amer­i­can graph­ic artist of the 20th cen­tu­ry and Calde­cott Medal win­ner (1916–1987). He and his wife, Alice Provensen, were one of the most pres­ti­gious illus­tra­tion duos in the Unit­ed States. Their first com­plete set of illus­tra­tions for Nan­cy Willard’s lit­er­ary mas­ter­piece, *A Night in William Black­’s Inn*, per­fect­ly blend­ed medieval poly­phon­ic pen and ink hatch­ing with Bauhaus geo­met­ric col­lage, won numer­ous awards. 1982 Calde­cott Hon­orHis mas­ter­piece, “A Year at Maple Hill Farm,” is con­sid­ered an ever­green non­fic­tion work by Canon.	Mar­tin Provensen (Wikipedia)
born	Mil­dred Ben­son	A renowned Amer­i­can female jour­nal­ist and leg­endary hard-boiled mys­tery nov­el­ist (1905–2002). She was the most influ­en­tial and prin­ci­pal writer of the first half of the Nan­cy Drew series (the core pen name: Car­olyn Keene), a super pop­u­lar chil­dren’s cul­tur­al icon in the Unit­ed States. Her sem­i­nal work, *The Secret of the Old Clock*, is a tes­ta­ment to her tal­ent.The Secret of the Old ClockIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and it was deter­mined to pro­tect the ratio­nal­i­ty and inde­pen­dence of young girls.	Mil­dred Ben­son (Wikipedia)
born	John Wyn­d­ham	The immor­tal British mas­ter of hard sci­ence fic­tion and a giant of real­ist thriller (1903–1969). His time­less post-apoc­a­lyp­tic sci­ence fic­tion clas­sic, *Cho­kichi*, which crossed over into the children’s/YA genre, is a tes­ta­ment to this.ChockyWith its extreme­ly cold and rig­or­ous lan­guage full of math­e­mat­i­cal and log­i­cal research, it tells the sto­ry of a boy’s spir­i­tu­al adven­ture with an inde­pen­dent alien con­scious­ness of a high­er dimen­sion. The work is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	John Wyn­d­ham (Wikipedia)
born	Cap­tain Fred­er­ick Mar­ry­at	A leg­endary British naval cap­tain of the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry, and a pio­neer of non-fic­tion­al real­ism about the sea (1792–1848). His time­less mas­ter­piece of wilder­ness sur­vival, *Chil­dren of the New For­est*, was writ­ten specif­i­cal­ly to instill in young men under Puri­tan con­straints the spir­it of inde­pen­dent crafts­man­ship.The Chil­dren of the New For­estIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Fred­er­ick Mar­ry­at (Wikipedia)
born	Nicolás Guil­lén	Cuba’s nation­al trea­sure, an immor­tal poet, essay­ist, and thinker on racial equal­i­ty (1902–1989). He was a pio­neer­ing fig­ure in inte­grat­ing Latin Amer­i­can Afro­cul­tur­al ele­ments into chil­dren’s met­ri­cal poet­ry. His mas­ter­piece, “Paper Boats on the Andes,” a time­less chil­dren’s song filled with noble island musi­cal­i­ty and syn­co­pa­tion, was intro­duced to the Chi­nese-speak­ing world by mas­ters such as Ren Ron­grong.Por el mar de las Antil­las…It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Nicolás Guil­lén (Wikipedia)
Death	Clement Clarke Moore	A renowned Amer­i­can pro­fes­sor of Ori­en­tal lan­guages and bib­li­cal lit­er­a­ture, and a clas­si­cal poet (1779–1863) of the ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry. He broke free from the strict Puri­tan con­straints on child­hood thought in ear­ly Amer­i­ca, writ­ing the eter­nal­ly sacred poly­phon­ic chil­dren’s poem “The Eve of Christ­mas” in 1823.’‘Twas the Night Before Christ­masIt has com­plete­ly defined the mod­ern San­ta Claus as an endur­ing cul­tur­al sym­bol, and the work has been includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Clement Clarke Moore (Wikipedia)