July 21: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 2002 – Passed away: Esphyr Slobodkina

A Russ­ian-Amer­i­can pio­neer­ing graph­ic artist, abstract sculp­tor, and trail­blaz­er of mod­ern pic­ture books (1908–2002). She was a found­ing core mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Abstract Artists (AAA) in the 20th cen­tu­ry and a visu­al pope who per­fect­ly blend­ed Bauhaus geo­met­ric com­po­si­tion with mod­ern chil­dren’s graph­ic lan­guage.

• An endur­ing and supreme mon­u­ment: Mod­ern Pic­ture Book Visu­als Canon Sell­ing Hats (Caps for Sale(Pub­lished in 1940) It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed by the Library of Con­gress.
• Con­tri­bu­tions to visu­al arts: Slo­bod­ki­na com­plete­ly over­turned the rigid per­spec­tive and com­plex depic­tions of ear­ly chil­dren’s books. In “The Hat Sell­er,” she inno­v­a­tive­ly used extreme­ly refined, high­ly sat­u­rat­ed cut-outs and opaque water­col­or blocks to vivid­ly depict the hat sell­er doz­ing under a tree with col­or­ful hats on his head, and the poly­phon­ic cycle of move­ment between him and a group of mon­keys in the tree who imi­tate his move­ments and snatch the hats. With the clean­est col­or com­po­si­tion and spa­tial white space, she trans­formed chil­dren’s read­ing into a visu­al and intel­lec­tu­al feast about rhythm and order.

| Passed Away | Esphyr Slo­bod­ki­na | Esphyr Slo­bod­ki­na (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1913 – Born: Catherine Storr

Cather­ine Cole (1913–2001), an immor­tal British female chil­dren’s author and child psy­chi­a­trist, was an extreme­ly strong female mas­ter of the mid-20th cen­tu­ry’s Amer­i­can and British chil­dren’s psy­cho­log­i­cal real­ism and anti-tra­di­tion­al didac­tic fairy tale school.

• Time­less Decon­struc­tion of Mas­ter­pieces: The Clever Pol­ly and the Sil­ly Wolf (or The Clever Pol­ly and the Sil­ly Wolf) (Clever Pol­ly and the Stu­pid WolfIt was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• Lit­er­ary sta­tus: With her pro­found back­ground in child psy­chi­a­try, Stu­art com­plete­ly shat­tered the rigid and fear-induc­ing teach­ings of the “big bad wolf eats chil­dren” in tra­di­tion­al West­ern fairy tales. Her lit­tle girl Pol­ly, when faced with a fool­ish wolf who con­stant­ly threat­ens to eat her, nei­ther cries nor relies on adults. Instead, with excep­tion­al com­po­sure, log­i­cal deduc­tion, and psy­cho­log­i­cal manip­u­la­tion, she repeat­ed­ly out­wits the wolf through bak­ing cakes, sto­ry­telling, and puns. With the utmost restraint in her pure lit­er­a­ture, she estab­lished the pin­na­cle of chil­dren’s anti-bul­ly­ing and self-defense lit­er­a­ture with remark­able dig­ni­ty.

| Birth | Cather­ine Storr | Cather­ine Storr (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1938 – Born: Hermann Schulz

A renowned Ger­man writer, senior book pub­lish­er, and inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an and rights activist (1938). He was a mas­ter of real­ism in 21st-cen­tu­ry Ger­man-lan­guage chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, known for his robust approach and ded­i­ca­tion to com­bin­ing African geopo­lit­i­cal his­to­ry with the empow­er­ment of minor­i­ty chil­dren.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: With the chil­dren’s real­is­tic clas­sic “Man­dela and Nel­son”, he won the top prize in one fell swoop. The 2012 Prix Sor­cières, the high­est prize for nov­els in France..
• Mas­ter­pieces that have stood the test of time: Man­dela and Nel­son (Man­dela et Nel­son), and the his­tor­i­cal non­fic­tion mas­ter­piece *The Sil­ver Jaguar*, which is includ­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*.Der sil­berne Jaguar)。
• Lit­er­ary qual­i­ties: Schultz has spent many years con­duct­ing in-depth research in Africa. His award-win­ning work, set against the back­drop of con­tem­po­rary rur­al Ugan­da, tells the sto­ry of twin boys named Man­dela and Nel­son prepar­ing for a foot­ball match. With an extreme­ly noble sense of the tex­ture of the land, it vivid­ly por­trays the amaz­ing resilience and dig­ni­ty of African chil­dren in the face of pover­ty and racial his­tor­i­cal trau­ma, thus rais­ing a high bar for ratio­nal social real­ism in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.

| Birth | Her­mann Schulz | Her­mann Schulz (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2014 – Passed away: Marlene Reidel

An immor­tal Ger­man female graph­ic artist, mas­ter of print­mak­ing, and pio­neer of chil­dren’s pic­ture books (1923–2014). She was a land­mark fig­ure in the tran­si­tion of post­war Ger­man pic­ture book aes­thet­ics to the mod­ern fine art stage.

• Supreme his­tor­i­cal hon­or: With her mas­ter­piece debut nov­el, “The Trav­els of Casi­mi Around the World,” she rose to the top and won the award. The first DJLP (Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize) Best Pic­ture Book Award in 1958.
• Award­ed an immor­tal mon­u­ment: Kasim­i’s Glob­al Trav­el­ogue (Kasimirs Wel­treise)。
• Visu­al Aes­thet­ics: Rid­dle was extreme­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the ancient wood­cut and hand-print­ing tech­niques. In “Cas­sim­i’s Jour­ney Around the World,” she com­bined extreme­ly rough, indus­tri­al-style black wood­cut lines with extreme­ly full and bright sol­id col­or blocks to vivid­ly depict a mag­nif­i­cent scene of a lit­tle boy trav­el­ing around the world on the moon­lit night. With her ulti­mate fine art visu­als, she estab­lished a new style for mod­ern Euro­pean pic­ture books in the post­war peri­od.

| Passed Away | Mar­lene Rei­del | Mar­lene Rei­del (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1970: Élodie Nouhen

A promi­nent con­tem­po­rary French female graph­ic artist and a mas­ter of cross-dis­ci­pli­nary pic­ture book illus­tra­tion, blend­ing real­ism and free­hand style (1970).

• A time­less visu­al mas­ter­piece: A French nation­al-lev­el inter­ac­tive pic­ture book for young chil­dren with a beau­ti­ful sense of rhythm and sound. What are you eat­ing? (La grenouille à grande bouche(By Françoise Bobe) is includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.
• Visu­al Art Fea­tures: In this mas­ter­piece, Noon pio­neered a tech­nique that blends the rough tex­ture of vin­tage hand­made paper, del­i­cate water­col­or wash­es, and col­lage through­out the book. She vivid­ly por­trays the hilar­i­ous dai­ly life of the big-mouthed frog as it inquires about food from oth­er ani­mals in the jun­gle, and her ele­gant, fine-art com­po­si­tions lend the pic­ture book for ear­ly lan­guage devel­op­ment the high­est lev­el of visu­al seri­ous­ness.

| Birth | Élodie Nouhen | Élodie Nouhen (Wikipedia) |

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🗓️ Parallel briefings from other award-winning creators

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
Death	Peter Carter	A leg­endary 20th-cen­tu­ry British his­tor­i­cal real­ist nov­el­ist for chil­dren (1929–1999). Through­out his life, he approached his writ­ing with an almost obses­sive ded­i­ca­tion to his­tor­i­cal research and a rig­or­ous soci­o­log­i­cal per­spec­tive. His epic mas­ter­piece, *The Sen­tinel*, which recounts the 19th-cen­tu­ry British Navy’s cap­ture of ille­gal slave ships in West African waters and vivid­ly por­trays the strug­gle between minor­i­ty and white chil­dren in uphold­ing human­i­tar­i­an dig­ni­ty amidst the smoke of war, is a tes­ta­ment to this.The Sen­tinelsIt won the Guardian Chil­dren’s Fic­tion Award and was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Peter Carter (Wikipedia)
born	Valérie Losa	A promi­nent con­tem­po­rary Swiss female graph­ic artist and mas­ter of fine print­mak­ing (1980). She uti­lizes extreme­ly robust hand-lith­o­graph­ic tex­tures, cool, opaque col­ors, and Möbius stripes to cre­ate her mon­u­men­tal real­is­tic work, *Ital­ian Fla­vor*.Sapore Ital­ianoThe redesigned visu­al graph­ics reached the top and won [awards/recognition]. Plaque Award, 2011 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).	Valérie Losa (BIBIANA)