July 31: Today in the History of Children’s Books

🎂 Born 1965 – J.K. Rowling

British chil­dren’s author and screen­writer (1965), full name Joanne Rowl­ing. Her “Har­ry Pot­ter” series has become a glob­al phe­nom­e­non, trans­lat­ed into more than 80 lan­guages, and has had a pro­found impact on mod­ern chil­dren’s fan­ta­sy lit­er­a­ture and glob­al mass pub­lish­ing.

• Awards and rep­re­sen­ta­tive works:
• “Har­ry Pot­ter series（Har­ry Pot­ter The series, start­ing with “Har­ry Pot­ter and the Sor­cer­er’s Stone”.Har­ry Pot­ter and the Philoso­pher’s Stone(1997) — Award The 1999 French Prix Sor­cièresSub­se­quent works, such as *Har­ry Pot­ter and the Gob­let of Fire*, were includ­ed in *1001 Chil­dren’s Books*. The sto­ry tells of an orphan boy, Har­ry Pot­ter, who learns on his eleventh birth­day that he is a wiz­ard. He then attends Hog­warts School of Witch­craft and Wiz­ardry, forg­ing deep friend­ships with Ron and Hermione, and over the years, grad­u­al­ly matures and togeth­er they fight against the Dark Lord Voldemort—an epic tale of growth. The work skill­ful­ly weaves togeth­er the life of an Eng­lish board­ing school, the strict rules of the mag­i­cal world, and philo­soph­i­cal reflec­tions on love, courage, and sac­ri­fice.
• “Peace­ful Lit­tle Pig” (The Christ­mas Pig(2021) — This film tells the heart­warm­ing sto­ry of a young boy named Jack who los­es his beloved old toy pig “Sep­po” on Christ­mas Eve. To find it, Jack and his new toy “Peace Pig” embark on an adven­ture and farewell jour­ney to the mag­i­cal “Land of Lost Things”.

| Birth | JK Rowl­ing | JK Rowl­ing (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 1944 – Death: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French pilot and writer (1900–1944). He incor­po­rat­ed his pro­found reflec­tions on the sky, the earth, lone­li­ness, and the fate of human­i­ty from his fly­ing career into his works, cre­at­ing world-renowned philo­soph­i­cal and lyri­cal mas­ter­pieces.

• Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and high­lights:
• The Lit­tle Prince (Le Petit Prince(1943) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. The sto­ry tells of a pilot who is forced to land in the Sahara Desert due to a plane mal­func­tion and meets the Lit­tle Prince from aster­oid B‑612. Through the Lit­tle Prince’s account of leav­ing his rose, trav­el­ing to var­i­ous plan­ets, and meet­ing the fox on Earth, the work explores the phi­los­o­phy of love, tam­ing, respon­si­bil­i­ty, and “it is only with the heart that one can see things clear­ly” in clear and pro­found lan­guage.
  • Oth­er endur­ing clas­sic essays include *The Land of Man* (…Terre des hommes); Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award win­ner Peter Sís cre­at­ed a trib­ute bio­graph­i­cal pic­ture book for it, “The Pilot and the Lit­tle Prince” ( );The Pilot and the Lit­tle Prince).

| Died | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1956: Lynne Rae Perkins

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture author and pic­ture book illus­tra­tor (1956). Her works are char­ac­ter­ized by their gen­tle and del­i­cate style, and she excels at cap­tur­ing the sub­tle psy­chol­o­gy and frag­ments of growth in the dai­ly lives of teenagers.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• Cross­roads of Life (Criss Cross(2005) — Award­ed 2006 New­bery MedalSet in a small town in the 1970s, the sto­ry uses a series of inter­sect­ing per­spec­tives and an essay­is­tic style to tell the dai­ly psy­cho­log­i­cal explo­rations of 14-year-old Der­by and her friends dur­ing a long sum­mer, explor­ing top­ics such as life, music, first love, and “who I am.”
• Pic­ture book “The Muse­um That Has Every­thing“Muse­um of Every­thing): With refresh­ing illus­tra­tions, it shows how chil­dren can build their own imag­i­nary muse­ums in every­day nature and life.

| Birth | Lynne Rae Perkins | Lynne Rae Perkins (Wikipedia) |

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🎂 Born 1962: Hanne Bartholin

A Dan­ish pic­ture book illus­tra­tor and artist (1962). Her style is full of rus­tic child­like charm, vibrant blocks of col­or, and a gen­tle sense of humor.

• Inter­na­tion­al Awards and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• With the work “You/Philosophy Tril­o­gy” (His­to­rien om digOscar K/Oscar K (text) won Plaque Award, 2017 Bratisla­va Inter­na­tion­al Bien­ni­al of Illus­tra­tion (BIB)It explores the ori­gin of life and self-iden­ti­ty through images rich in abstract philo­soph­i­cal thought and pure artis­tic qual­i­ty.
• Oth­er notable works include Bet­ty and the Moun­tain: The Mys­te­ri­ous Gift (Bette og Bjerg Rumtæn­nis­tenAnd the clas­sic “Lit­tle Ele­phant Carl” series.

| Birth | Hanne Bartholin | Hanne Bartholin (Wikipedia) |

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⚰️ 2000 – Death: William Maxwell

Amer­i­can nov­el­ist and renowned book edi­tor for The New York­er (1908–2000). He served as edi­tor for many years for promi­nent authors such as JD Salinger and John Updike, and his writ­ing style was gen­tle and refined.

• Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
• The Ten­ant in the Sky (The Heav­en­ly Ten­ants(1946) — Award­ed New­bery Hon­or, 1947The sto­ry revolves around a father who loves astron­o­my and takes his fam­i­ly on a trip, entrust­ing their farm to the care of the twelve zodi­ac con­stel­la­tions in the star­ry sky, which leads to a series of poet­ic and fan­tas­ti­cal events.
• Clas­sic adult lit­er­a­ture and com­ing-of-age nov­els also include “The Year My Moth­er Left” (The Year My Moth­er Left)They came like Swal­lowsGood­bye, See You Tomor­row (So long, see you tomor­row).

| Deceased | William Maxwell | William Maxwell (Wikipedia) |

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🍃 [other]

event	fig­ure	Details/Awards	Wikipedia/Data Links
Death	Mol­lie Hunter	British/Scottish his­tor­i­cal and fan­ta­sy nov­el­ist for chil­dren (1922–2012). His work includes *The Fortress* (…).The Strong­hold(1974) tells the sto­ry of a dis­abled Scot­tish boy in the Iron Age who uses his wis­dom to design a defen­sive fortress to resist pirate inva­sions. It won the Best Pic­ture Award. 1974 Carnegie MedalHis rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include the sus­pense clas­sic *The Vis­i­tor from the Deep Sea*, which blends Celtic folk­lore and sea mon­ster leg­ends.A Stranger Came Ashore).	Mol­lie Hunter
Death	Walde­mar Bon­sels	Ger­man writer (1880–1952). His clas­sic chil­dren’s sto­ry, *The Mayan Bee Adven­ture* (also known as *The Mayan Bee Adven­ture*), is a tes­ta­ment to this.Die Biene Maja und ihre Aben­teuer(1912) tells the adven­ture sto­ry of a lit­tle bee leav­ing the hive to explore nature, meet var­i­ous insects, and ulti­mate­ly resolve a cri­sis for the bee colony. It was includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and was lat­er adapt­ed into a glob­al­ly pop­u­lar ani­mat­ed film.	Walde­mar Bon­sels
born	Ahmad Akbar­pour	Iran­ian chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer (1970). He excels at depict­ing the life expe­ri­ences of Mid­dle East­ern chil­dren with an objec­tive, warm, and reflec­tive style. His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *Good­night, Com­man­der*.Good Night, Com­man­derIt depicts the process of a boy who has expe­ri­enced the trau­ma of war rec­on­cil­ing with war in his imag­i­na­tion; his rep­re­sen­ta­tive works also include “The Scare­crow Is Scared” (I’m a scare­crow, but I’m scared).	Ahmad Akbar­pour
Death	Ann Weil	Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal nov­el­ist (1908–1969). His rep­re­sen­ta­tive work is *The Red Sails of Capri*.Red Sails to Capri(1952) tells the real­is­tic adven­ture sto­ry of three strangers who arrive on the Ital­ian island of Capri and, guid­ed by a local boy, acci­den­tal­ly dis­cov­er the mys­te­ri­ous Blue Grot­to. It won numer­ous awards. New­bery Hon­or, 1953.	Ann Weil
Death	Jerome Beat­ty Jr.	Amer­i­can sci­ence fic­tion writer and edi­tor for chil­dren (1916–2002). His “Matthew Rooney” series (…Matthew Looney seriesIt tells the hilar­i­ous sci­ence fic­tion adven­ture of Matthew Rooney, a lit­tle boy liv­ing on the moon, who trav­els to Earth to explore the plan­et. It was a com­mon chil­dren’s sci­ence fic­tion book in the mid-20th cen­tu­ry.	Jerome Beat­ty Jr.