July 29: Today in the History of Children’s Books

⚰️ 1974 – Death: Erich Kästner

Ger­man chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer, poet, and play­wright (1899–1974). He was an impor­tant founder of 20th-cen­tu­ry chil­dren’s real­ism lit­er­a­ture, and was skilled at using humor, a sense of jus­tice, and rig­or­ous social obser­va­tion to por­tray chil­dren’s inde­pen­dent think­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tive wis­dom when fac­ing real-world dif­fi­cul­ties.

• Supreme Inter­na­tion­al Hon­ors: At He won the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA) for Best Writer in 1960..
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
• Emil’s Guide to Catch­ing Thieves (Emil und die Detek­tive(1929, also trans­lat­ed as *The Young Detec­tives*) — This sto­ry tells of Emil, a coun­try boy who has his mon­ey stolen while trav­el­ing by train to Berlin. Upon arriv­ing in Berlin, he befriends a group of enthu­si­as­tic friends who work togeth­er to track down and inves­ti­gate the thief, ulti­mate­ly catch­ing him on the streets of Berlin. The work pio­neered the mod­ern urban detec­tive nov­el for chil­dren.
• Two Lit­tle Lottes (Das dop­pelte Lottchen(1949, also trans­lat­ed as “The Per­fect Cou­ple”) — tells the heart­warm­ing sto­ry of twin sis­ters Lott and Louise, who have nev­er met since child­hood due to their par­ents’ divorce. After an unex­pect­ed encounter at sum­mer camp, they decide to switch iden­ti­ties and return to each oth­er’s homes. They not only resolve their respec­tive life prob­lems but also ulti­mate­ly help their par­ents reunite.
• The Fly­ing Class­room (Das fliegende Klassen­z­im­mer(1933) — The sto­ry takes place at Gis­ling Board­ing School and tells the sto­ry of a group of boys with dif­fer­ent per­son­al­i­ties prepar­ing for and rehears­ing a play on the eve of Christ­mas, hav­ing con­flicts with stu­dents from a neigh­bor­ing school, and their dai­ly inter­ac­tions with the lov­ing teacher “Mr. Jus­tice,” show­cas­ing the sin­cere teacher-stu­dent rela­tion­ship and the respon­si­bil­i­ties of grow­ing up.

| Died | Erich Käst­ner | Erich Käst­ner (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 1945 – Born: Sharon Creech

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s author (1945). Her works are known for their extreme­ly del­i­cate psy­cho­log­i­cal por­tray­als, poly­phon­ic nar­ra­tives inter­wo­ven with two sto­ry­lines, and pro­found explo­rations of fam­i­ly and iden­ti­ty.

• Supreme Award Hon­ors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• “Walk­ing Through Two Moons” (Walk Two Moons(1994, also trans­lat­ed as *The Indi­an’s Suede Boots*) — Award­ed 1995 New­bery MedalThe sto­ry fol­lows Sal, a 13-year-old girl of Native Amer­i­can descent, as she dri­ves with her grand­par­ents to Ida­ho to find her run­away moth­er. Along the way, Sal tells her grand­par­ents about her friend Phoe­be’s miss­ing moth­er. These two nar­ra­tive threads inter­twine and advance, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing Sal to under­stand her moth­er’s pain, accept the real­i­ty that her moth­er had died in a car acci­dent, and achieve a sense of self-rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and growth.
• Sophie’s Sail­ing Log (The Wan­der­er(2000) — Award 2001 New­bery Hon­orThe book, writ­ten in diary form, recounts the ardu­ous jour­ney of a young girl named Sophie as she sails across the Atlantic Ocean with her cousins and uncle, explor­ing the courage and resilience she dis­plays when fac­ing storms and per­son­al inse­cu­ri­ties.
• Ruby of the Scream (Ruby Holler(2002) — Award­ed The Carnegie Medal (UK)The sto­ry tells of twin sib­lings who suf­fer abuse in an orphan­age and are then adopt­ed by an eccen­tric elder­ly cou­ple liv­ing in Ruby Val­ley, where they find com­fort and heal­ing in nature and love.
• Oth­er notable works include *Sav­ing Winslow* (Sav­ing Winslow), The Strange Acci­dent (Great Unex­pect­ed(Also trans­lat­ed as “The Amaz­ing Acci­dent”).

| Birth | Sharon Creech | Sharon Creech (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2025 — Passed away: Allan Ahlberg

British chil­dren’s author (1938–2025). He and his wife, renowned illus­tra­tor Janet Ahlberg, co-authored many clas­sic works that pro­found­ly influ­enced the struc­ture and inter­ac­tive forms of mod­ern pic­ture books.

• Top prize and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• The Hap­py Post­man (The Jol­ly Post­man or Oth­er Peo­ple’s Let­ters(1986) — A mas­ter­piece of struc­tur­al inno­va­tion in the his­to­ry of pic­ture booksThe book is com­posed of real paper envelopes, from which read­ers can pull out let­ters, post­cards, and book­lets. The sto­ry recounts the hilar­i­ous and clever dai­ly life of a post­man who deliv­ers let­ters to clas­sic fairy­tale char­ac­ters like Goldilocks, the Big Bad Wolf, and Cin­derel­la in the same small town on his bicy­cle.
• Peach, pear, and plum trees (Each Peach Pear Plum(1978) — Award­ed 1978 Kate Green­away MedalA pic­ture book for young chil­dren that weaves tra­di­tion­al British nurs­ery rhyme char­ac­ters (such as Puss in Boots, Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood, Robin Hood, etc.) into the “I Spy” visu­al trea­sure hunt game.
• The Mer­ry Christ­mas Post­man (The Jol­ly Christ­mas Post­man(1991) — Award­ed 1991 Kate Green­away MedalThis extends the inter­ac­tive game where post­men deliv­er hol­i­day cards to fairy tale char­ac­ters and San­ta Claus on Christ­mas Eve.
• Oth­er notable works include the poet­ry col­lec­tion *Please, Mrs. But­ler*.Please Mrs. But­ler), the fairy tale “The Snail House“The Snail House).

| Passed Away | Allan Ahlberg | Janet and Allan Ahlberg (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1978: Renée Watson

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s and young adult lit­er­a­ture author, poet, and edu­ca­tor (1978). Her work focus­es on the growth and reflec­tions of African Amer­i­can youth in the con­text of iden­ti­ty, class dif­fer­ences, and artis­tic expres­sion.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• “The Com­plete Me” (Piec­ing Me Togeth­er(2017) — Award­ed 2018 New­bery Hon­or Award­ed the Cori­ta Scott King Book Prize: The sto­ry fol­lows Jed, an artis­ti­cal­ly gift­ed African Amer­i­can high school girl from a poor com­mu­ni­ty, who receives the oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend a wealthy pri­vate school. Faced with implic­it prej­u­dice based on race and class, she refus­es to pas­sive­ly accept char­i­ty and hand­outs, instead piec­ing togeth­er her own dig­ni­ty and strength through col­lage art and giv­ing her voice.
• Love is a rev­o­lu­tion (Love Is a Rev­o­lu­tion(2021) — It tells the sto­ry of Nara, a plus-size girl, as she learns to accept and love her true self when fac­ing teenage romance and body image anx­i­ety.

| Birth | Renée Wat­son | Renée Wat­son (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
born	Eunice Tiet­jens	Amer­i­can poet and nov­el­ist (1884–1944). His work includes *The Boy from the South Sea*.Boy of the South Seas(1931) tells the real­is­tic sto­ry of a boy named Tevey grow­ing up in French Poly­ne­sia amidst Poly­ne­sian tra­di­tions and marine life, and won the Best Dra­mat­ic Award. New­bery Hon­or, 1932.	Eunice Tiet­jens
born	Kath­leen Krull	Amer­i­can non­fic­tion biog­ra­ph­er for chil­dren (1952–2021). She excelled at writ­ing his­tor­i­cal biogra­phies for young read­ers with a humor­ous, vivid, and relat­able per­spec­tive, best known for her series *The Life of an Author*.Lives of the Writ­ers), The Life of a Musi­cian (Lives of the Musi­cians(and oth­ers) are very pop­u­lar.	Kath­leen Krull
born	Ole Lund Kirkegaard	Dan­ish chil­dren’s author and teacher (1940–1979). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Oli’s Lit­tle Mag­ic Car­pet*.Hod­ja fra Pjort(1970) tells the humor­ous sto­ry of a lit­tle boy named Ollie who obtains a mag­i­cal fly­ing car­pet, leaves his small vil­lage for an adven­ture in a big city, and uses his wis­dom to defeat a greedy rich man. It is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Ole Lund Kirkegaard
Death	Bar­bara Smuck­er	A Cana­di­an-Amer­i­can his­tor­i­cal fic­tion writer of young adult fic­tion (1915–2003). His most famous work is *The Under­ground Pas­sage to Cana­da*.Under­ground to Cana­da(1977, also trans­lat­ed as “The Under­ground Rail­road”) is adapt­ed from true his­tor­i­cal mate­ri­als and tells the sto­ry of two enslaved girls from plan­ta­tions in the Amer­i­can South in the 19th cen­tu­ry who escaped to Cana­da in search of free­dom through the secret orga­ni­za­tion of the “Under­ground Rail­road”. It is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”.	Bar­bara Smuck­er
Death	Eliz­a­beth Yates	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal biog­ra­ph­er (1905–2001). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Free Man*.Amos For­tune, Free Man(1950) Based on the true sto­ry of Amos Fort­ner, it tells the real­is­tic sto­ry of an African prince who, after decades of unpaid labor, even­tu­al­ly redeems his free­dom through hard work and per­se­ver­ance, and helps oth­er enslaved peo­ple gain dig­ni­ty. It won the Best Actress award. The 1951 New­bery Medal.	Eliz­a­beth Yates