July 27: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born 1938: Christina Björk

Swedish chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and edi­tor (1938). She excels at com­bin­ing every­day sci­ence, art his­to­ry, and chil­dren’s sto­ries, lead­ing chil­dren to explore the world of nature and art through light­heart­ed and live­ly nar­ra­tives.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Lit­tle Lotus Vis­its Mon­et’s Gar­den (Lin­nea i målarens trädgård(1985, illus­trat­ed by Lena Ander­son) — 1988 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP)This book tells the sto­ry of Lin­nea, a lit­tle girl who loves flow­ers and plants, who trav­els to Giverny, France with her neigh­bor, Grand­pa Bloom, to vis­it the gar­den and stu­dio of Impres­sion­ist painter Claude Mon­et. The book clev­er­ly blends Mon­et’s famous paint­ings, his life his­to­ry, botan­i­cal knowl­edge, and nar­ra­tive, mak­ing it a pop­u­lar read­er for chil­dren’s art edu­ca­tion.

| Birth | Christi­na Björk | Christi­na Björk (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1940: Yoshio Nakae

Japan­ese chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and pic­ture book plan­ner (1940). He col­lab­o­rat­ed with his wife, the famous illus­tra­tor Noriko Ueno, for a long time, cre­at­ing ever­green pic­ture books that are loved by young chil­dren.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• The Lit­tle Mouse series(The orig­i­nal Japan­ese name is “ねずみくん”, the first work “Rat Broth­er’s Lit­tle Vest“ねずみくんのチョッキ(1974) — This sto­ry tells of a moth­er knit­ting a red vest for her lit­tle mouse. His ani­mal friends, includ­ing a duck, a mon­key, and a sea lion, see it and think it’s cute, so they all bor­row it to try it on. As a result, the vest gets longer and longer as the large ani­mals pull on it. Through ample white space, a repet­i­tive and pro­gres­sive rhythm, and a humor­ous end­ing, the work show­cas­es the shar­ing and every­day fun in a child’s world.

| Birth | Yoshio Nakae | Yoshio Naka­ji­ma (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1979: Martijn van der Linden

Dutch illus­tra­tor and pic­ture book cre­ator (1979). His works are char­ac­ter­ized by their strong sense of form and vibrant col­ors, and he often col­lab­o­rates with his wife, writer Maranke Rinck.

• Awards and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• With the work “Jonas and Kei­th Poon’s Lit­tle Fish“Jonas en de vis­jes van Kees Poon) won 2015 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB) Chil­dren’s Jury Prize.
• Tan­gram Cat (Tan­gram katThe sto­ry tells of a boy who uses tan­grams to cre­ate a kit­ten, and then, to keep the kit­ten from being lone­ly, he cre­ates a visu­al sto­ry of birds, dogs, croc­o­diles, and oth­er ani­mals.
• The Chim­panzee in the Toi­let (Aap op de WC): In col­lab­o­ra­tion with author Juke Akvid, this book is based on the true his­to­ry of the Rot­ter­dam Zoo dur­ing World War II, show­cas­ing the unique inter­ac­tions between peo­ple and ani­mals amidst the chaos of war.

| Birth | Mar­ti­jn van der Lin­den | Mar­ti­jn van der Lin­den (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1945: Paul B. Janeczko

Amer­i­can poet­ry edi­tor, poet, and teacher (1945–2019). He ded­i­cat­ed his life to intro­duc­ing mod­ern poet­ry and for­mal poet­ry (such as fig­u­ra­tive poet­ry and met­ri­cal poet­ry) into chil­dren’s read­ing, and edit­ed many col­lec­tions of poems that were cre­ative and visu­al­ly appeal­ing.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Poet­ry Through My Eyes (A Poke in the I: A Col­lec­tion of Con­crete Poems(Illus­tra­tions by Chris Rasch­ka): A pic­ture book that explores “Con­crete Poet­ry,” where the lay­out and arrange­ment of the poems them­selves form graph­ics, and the vibrant col­lage illus­tra­tions allow chil­dren to intu­itive­ly expe­ri­ence the com­bi­na­tion of tex­tu­al form and mean­ing.
• Tap Dance in My Mind (A Kick in the Head: An Every­day Guide to Poet­ic FormsThis book is an intro­duc­to­ry guide to 29 poet­ic forms, includ­ing son­nets, haiku, and apho­risms.

| Birth | Paul B. Janeczko | Paul B. Janeczko (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1931 – Born: Elżbieta Murawska

Pol­ish illus­tra­tor and artist (1931). She was adept at using expres­sion­ist oil paint tex­tures, deep light and shad­ow, and dra­mat­ic com­po­si­tions to inter­pret clas­sic fairy tales.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• By con­tribut­ing to Grim­m’s Fairy Tales (Baśnie braci GrimmThe illus­tra­tions drawn by [author’s name] won [award/title]. Plaque Award, 1983 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tions (BIB).

| Birth | Elż­bi­eta Murawska | Elż­bi­eta Murawska (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 1985 – Died: Elizabeth Cleaver

Cana­di­an print­mak­er and col­lage illus­tra­tor (1939–1985). She was a lead­ing fig­ure in the ear­ly Cana­di­an pic­ture book field, skilled at using torn paper col­lage, hand-print­ed images, and fab­ric tex­tures to depict the myths and nat­ur­al leg­ends of North Amer­i­can Indige­nous peo­ples.

• High­est inter­na­tion­al hon­ors and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• Award­ed High­ly Com­mend­ed Artist Award (HCAA).
• The Loon’s Neck­lace (The Loon’s Neck­lace(Writ­ten by William Toye): Adapt­ed from a tra­di­tion­al Native Amer­i­can leg­end, it tells the sto­ry of an elder­ly blind man who regains his sight with the help of a loon and, in grat­i­tude, places a neck­lace of seashells around the loon’s neck.
• How Sum­mer Arrives in Cana­da (How Sum­mer Came To Cana­da): This sec­tion show­cas­es Cana­di­an folk myths about the chang­ing sea­sons and the arrival of sum­mer.

| Died | Eliz­a­beth Cleaver | Eliz­a­beth Cleaver (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2013 – Death: Theodor Dolezol

Ger­man sci­ence writer and edi­tor (1929–2013).

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Based on the chil­dren’s geog­ra­phy and Earth ecol­o­gy pop­u­lar sci­ence book “Human­i­ty’s Plan­et” (Plan­et des Men­schen) won 1976 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP) Non­fic­tion Book AwardIt explores the rela­tion­ship between the Earth­’s envi­ron­ment and human sur­vival from an objec­tive and rig­or­ous per­spec­tive.

| Deceased | Theodor Dole­zol | Theodor Dole­zol (Wikipedia) |