1944: Anne Frank, Holocaust, Smokey Bear, Women Teachers can Marry!

1944

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

 January

• January 5 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• January 11 – US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposes a Second Bill of Rights for social and economic security in his State of the Union address
• January 17 – WWII:
• The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.

March

• March 2
• WWII: A train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy; 521 choke to death.
• March 10 – WWII: In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
• March 18 – The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.

 May

• May 5 – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released in India.

 June

June – German V-2 rockets on test from Peenemünde become the first man-made objects to enter space.

• June 6 – WWII – Battle of Normandy: Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
• June 13 – WWII: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
• June 29 – The Holocaust – The deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps begins.

July

• July 6
• Hartford circus fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.
• WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.

August

• August 7 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
• August 9 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
• August 20 – WWII:
• American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.

 September

• September 2
• The Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, arriving 3 days later.

 October

• October 30
• The Holocaust: Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

 November

• November 7 – U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.

 December

• December 24
• The first complete U.S. production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is presented in San Francisco, choreographed by William Christensen. It will become an annual tradition there, and for the next ten years, the San Francisco Ballet will be the only ballet company in the United States performing the complete work, until George Balanchine premieres his version in New York in 1954.

Date unknown

• Olympic Games are suspended due to WWII.
• Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren publishes her first book, Pippi Longstocking.
• In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
• Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger syndrome.

I HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU!!!!!

1943 Honor: Marshmallow

By Clare Turlay NewberryNOTE:  Ms. Newberry is very well known.  She has earned the Caldecott Honor two times before Marshmallow.  Her first was in 1939 for Barkis, then 1941 for Aprils Kittens.  AMAZING!!!!!

Bio from: http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.com/birthbios/brthpage/04apr/4-10newberry.html

Clare Turlay Newberry was born on April 10, 1903, in Enterprise, Oregon. She studied art at the University of Oregon, the California School of Fine Arts, and at La Grand Chaumiere in Paris, France. She focused on portrait painting but, in 1931, she wrote and illustrated her first book for children, Herbert the Lion. Ms. Newberry died in 1970 in San Diego, California.

Book Summary

A darling white fluffy bunny is introduced to a new home.  A home where there is already a resident cat, Oliver. Oliver has some adjusting to do and then by the end of the delightful story Marshmallow, the bunny, is snuggling close to Oliver!  Just a cute story!

This book I read to my children at bedtime.  Both of my children loved it!  My daughter laughed at it and adored the darling bunny with a funny name.  This book will be residing on her bookshelf, she may share if you ask her nicely! J

Illustrations:

            I love Ms. Newberry’s style!  It is soft, and romantic, simple and easy!  There is a feel of effortlessness in her pictures.  This book easily fits with the previous two she earned awards for. 

CHALLENGE!!!!  Come on be brave accept it!  He he

Okay to put her pictures in a way you can picture them with your mind.  Here I go!  I am going to try and describe it!

Imagine holding a piece of black charcoal over a blank piece of white paper.  (If you don’t have charcoal, I mean who does?, then use a black crayon or pencil.)

Close your eyes and visualize a small, tiny bunny.

When you open your eyes you lightly make a ball with a fluffy squiggly ball on the backside.  Then you do two ears pocking up, switch to a pink pastel chalk to fill them in and then switch back to your piece of charcoal.  Finish up the details of the face and some feet.  It is smooth and effortlessly motions.  When you are done you have a darling bunny!

There.  Did you do it!  Do you have a bunny as cute as Marshmallow?  No?  huh, perhaps Ms. Newberry had a few techniques I don’t.  Anyhow, I would love to see your picture if you did one!

Thanks for playing along!

Art Medium: She primarily worked in watercolor and Conte crayon on velour pastel paper. Her children and pets were her inspiration for her animal books, many of which are in print today. April’s Kittens, Marshmallow, and T-Bone were all Caldecott Honor books. She was praised by critics for "instilling in children a compassion and sense of responsibility for animals."

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? yes
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  yes
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  I did!
4. Where did I get the book? I purchased it!
More Info:

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-2/marshmallow.html

An Amercian ABC!!! BEAUTIFUL!!!!

1942 Honor: An American ABC

By Maud and Miska Petersham
Maud (1890–1971) and Miska (1888–1960) Petersham were an illustrating husband-and-wife team who are most famous for writing and illustrating The Rooster Crows, a book of American songs, rhymes, and games in the tradition of Mother Goose, which won the 1946 Caldecott Medal. Their first book was called Miki (published 1929) about their son.
Maud was born Maud Fuller in Kingston, New York on August 5, 1890. Her family traveled extensively, from Kingston to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Newburg, New York, and finally to Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was graduated from Vassar College in 1912, later studying at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. She worked at the International Art Service, where she met her future husband, Miska Petersham. When Miska died in 1960, Maud sold the Woodstock, New York, house in which they had lived.
Miska was born Petrezselyem Mikaly in Torokszentmiklos, Hungary, on September 20, 1888, the son of a carpenter and blacksmith. He moved to London in 1911 looking for a job. When he didn't find one, he moved to America in 1912 — anglicizing his name to "Petersham" — and obtained a job at the International Art Service, where he met his wife, Maud.
Bios from Wikipedia

Book Summary

                 This is a classic ABC book.  I enjoyed it.  It does have the words that were common and acceptable during the time the book was published which is why this book is difficult to find today.  I did learn a lot about American History from this book. Each page would have a letter and then a page full of history facts to inform the reader about why that word picked was important to American History.

Here are the Letters and words as they are in the book.

A is for America

B is for Bell

C is for Columbus

D is for Daniel Boone

E is for Emigrants

F is for Freedom

G is for George Washington

H is for Henry Hudson

I is for Independence

J is for Jamestown

K is for Knickerbocker

L is for Lincoln

M is for Mayflower

N is for National Anthem

O is for Old Glory

P is for Pledge of Allegiance

Q is for Quakers

R is for Redskins

S is for South America

T is for Thanksgiving

U is for the United States (only 48 at this time)

V is for Valley Forge

W is for White House

X is for Xmas

Y is for Yankee Doodle

Z is for Zeal

Illustrations:

            These illustrations are delightful to look at!  They are soft on the eyes and full of details.  They range from full color to white and one other color.  My favorites were W is for White House and P is for Pledge of Allegiance.

White House: This picture is done in full color.  We see the White House, grande and beautiful in the background.  A clear blue sky, a tall American Flag on top.  Green grass is plentiful in front of the White House to the Reflection Pond. In the Reflection Pond we see a reflection of the White House.  Then we see the pointed iron fence that surrounds the grounds.  On the outside looing in are two adorable young children.  The girl is holding a straw Sunday bonnet looking thru the bars on the fence, while the young boy wearing a crisp white sailor hat is kneeling down feeding two squirrels.  The picture is just breathtaking!  I want to frame it and have it on my wall!  The colors look as if they are just lightly touching the page.  So effortless.

Pledge of Allegiance: Red, White and Blue!  These are the colors used on this page.  This page has three young boys holding three different flag poles with flags on them.  Each young boy is wearing clothing that would be appropriate to the flag design they are holding.  We start with the 13 colony flag, then middle boy is holding a flag ( I can’t tell how many stars), finally we get to the modern day boy (modern for 1941) He is standing tall holding a flag with 48 stars, an eagle on top of the pole and a tassel hanging down.  The why the illustrators showed progression alongside unity here is beautiful.  All three are equals, they are all the same height.  Just beautiful!

Art Medium: Could not find an answer!

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? yes
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  Yes, the history content is interesting and enjoyable.
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  A good chance I will
4. Where did I get the book? When I asked the Pierce County Library to get a copy of this book, I was told they could only find on copy so this book came from Western Oregon University.  Thanks to Pierce County for tracking the book down for me.  I did find some on Amazon, so I may purchase it myself.  The price was under $20.00.
More info: 
http://www.childscapes.com/bookpages/petersham.html
http://www.thechristchildbook.com/illustrators/illustrators.html
Another artist collection in Oregon!  Here is the link to the info!
http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv54056

Two Deers Learn how to live life!

1943 Honor: Dash and Dart

By Mary & Conrad Buff
American husband and wife writing team who collaborated (both writing and illustrating) on a number of children's books.

Mary was born in 1890 in Cincinnati. She had an early interest in art and poetry and later studied art. She married Conrad Buff in 1922 and worked as a teacher and museum curator before beginning her writing career.

Conrad Buff was born in Switzerland and grew up on a farm. He emigrated to America in 1904 where he worked in various jobs and pursued his hobby of painting, until becoming recognised as a talented artist. He settled in the West, after falling in love with its landscape.

Mary and Conrad published a total of 14 books together, with Mary mainly writing the story and her husband illustrating. These stories reflect their backgrounds, featuring both the American West and Swtizerland. The theme of nature is also recurrent in their works. Some of their books were nominated for the Newbery Medal. As far as I know just one of their books featured horses and is a typical boy's ranching story, although set against a Mormon backdrop. It has very nice illustrations but the story may not appeal to horse-lovers because of the old-fashioned, cruel way the wild horse is caught and broken.

Mary died in 1970 and Conrad in 1975.


Source: http://maryandconradbuff.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/

Book Summary

                This sweet story follows two deer’s as they grow up!  Dash and Dart, brother and sister, must learn to live on their own in the wilderness.  They will encounter danger, hunger, and joy. 

This book is written in stances.  They are rhythmic and easy to read.

Illustrations:

            Shading, attention to detail and nature!  What a beautiful combination.  Lithograph images printed in brown.  They are soft and natural.  There are pictures all over the book.  Some of them are on a single page others take two while others are full page spreads!  They are all detailed and show what the text is about.  They are soft and warm.  The big bushy tail of the squirrel is fluffy and curvy!  It is almost as if you can touch the pages of the book and feel the animal fur.  Very fun!

Art Medium: The Buffs worked with oils and lithographs. I could not find what medium they used for these illustrations.

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? yes
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at?  If you like nature they yes this would be a book you would enjoy!
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  Maybe
4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County Library got this book from PLU for me to look at!!!
More info: 
http://www.sullivangoss.com/conrad_Buff/
http://www.bbhgallery.com/Buff_Conrad_.htm

Walt Disney - The Little House - 1952

One of my FAVS!!! It's a Disney Short as well!!!

1943 Winner: The Little House

By Virginia Lee Burton

Virginia Lee Burton (August 30, 1909, in Newton Centre, Massachusetts – October 15, 1968) was an American illustrator and children's book author. Burton wrote and illustrated seven self-illustrated children's books, including the Caldecott Medal winning The Little House. Also known by her married name Virginia Demetrios. She died in 1968 of lung cancer.   Virginia Lee Burton's books are notable for their swirling, stylized illustrations and her stories concerning technological change. Characters are apt to be buildings or machines. Bio from Wikipedia

Book Summary

                This story is so classic.  I have memories of this book and was eager to pick it up again.  The Little House begins with the setting in the beautiful country side.  From a far distance there are city lights and the Little House begins to ponder what it may be like to be part of the city.  Over time The Little House begins to see the city move closer and closer until finally it has arrived.  Then the Little House longs to be back to the country.  The story ends in a very happy way where you feel good and complete.  The text compliments the illustrations.  You can see the seasons change as well as the date and time of technology change.  Ms. Burton specialized in this.  She often made her characters inatment objects that she gave faces and personalities.  One of her most famous books is Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.

Illustrations:

“My subject matter, with a few exceptions such as Calico, I draw directly from life, and I literally draw my books first and write down the text after. . . . I pin the sketched pages in sequences on the walls of my studio so I can see the book as a whole. Then I make a rough dummy and then final drawings, and at last when I can put it off no longer, I type out the text and paste it in the dummy.”

http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Burton.html

These illustrations are darling and sweet.  Often the text is formatted to work around, in and with the illustrations.  The soft effect of watercolors make me feel warm and sweet about the content.  To show time moving it seems to me that Virgina always had things swaying or moving.  The tops of the trees are round and leaning, the roads are curvy.  The concept that things are always changing come across not only the words but also in the illustrations.  An example of this is found on the book cover insert.

From this image along we can see how technology changes.  Brilliant!  Small changes over time lead to bigger ones!  Yet The Little House remains the same!

The Walt Disney Company made a short film based off of The Little House.  It is very different from the book but portrays the same concept.

Art Medium: Watercolor

Final Thoughts:
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Yes
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? Yes
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book?  Yes
4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County Library
More info: 
http://www.virginialeeburtonthefilm.com/

The Image on Hundreds of Childrens Books

The Diverting History of John Gilpin

Written in 1782

Republished in 1878

Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott

Personal Notes:

Why am I featuring this book?  I thought we should learn about the man behind the name.  So I got the book that the Medal is from.  That’s right!  The Caldecott Medal is based on a picture from this book.  I still don’t know why this image was selected but I have now learned a bit more about it.  Like the two jugs tied to the belt are full of liquor!  Ha ha ha.  Yup this made me laugh that a common symbol that all American Children see multiple times in their childhood includes liquor!  What a funny bit of trivia!  So read and learn!  I sure did!

The following is from Wikipedia.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin is a comic ballad by William Cowper, written in 1782. The ballad concerns a draper called John Gilpin who rides a runaway horse. Cowper heard the story from Lady Anna Austen at a time of severe depression, and it cheered him up so much that he put it into verse.^[1] The poem was published anonymously in the Public Advertiser in 1782, and then published with The Task in 1785.^[2] It was very popular, to the extent that "pirate copies were being sold all across the country, together with Gilpin books and toys."^[1]
The poem was republished in 1878, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott and printed by Edmund Evans.

Bio Info:

Randolph Caldecott (22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognized by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced illustration of children's books during the nineteenth century. Two books illustrated by him, priced at a shilling each, were published every Christmas for eight years.
Caldecott's output, however, ranged wider than this: he illustrated novels and accounts of foreign travel, made humorous drawings depicting hunting and fashionable life, drew cartoons and he made sketches of the Houses of Parliament inside and out, and exhibited sculptures and paintings in oil and watercolor in the Royal Academy and galleries.
Death
However, his health was generally very poor and he suffered much from gastritis and a heart condition going back to an illness in his childhood. It was his health among other things which prompted his many winter trips to the Mediterranean and other warm climates. It was on such a tour in the United States of America in 1886 that he was taken ill again and succumbed. He and Marian had sailed to New York and travelled down the East Coast; they reached Florida in an unusually cold February; Randolph was taken ill and died at St. Augustine. He was not quite 40 years old. A headstone still marks his grave in the cemetery there.

Soon after his early death, his many friends contributed to a memorial to him which was designed by Sir Alfred Gilbert. It was placed in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London.  There is also a memorial to him in Chester Cathedral.
1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Yup!
2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? For historical purposes yes!
3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? YUP!
4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County Library

Facts from 1943

1943

January

• January 13 – Helmut Schenk is the first person to use an ejection seat from an aircraft.
• January 14 – The Casablanca Conference, where Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss WWII).
• January 15 The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
• January 27 – WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven is the target).

 February

• February 7 – WWII: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in 2 days.
• February 10 – March 3 – Mohandas Gandhi keeps a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.
• February 20 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.

 March

• March 3 – 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London.
• March 23 – The drugs Vicodin and Lortab are first produced in Germany.
• March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time (1948).

April

• April 19 – Albert Hofmann self administers the drug LSD for the first time in history, and records the details of his trip.
• April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (last time 1886; next time 2038) in the Western Christian Church.

May

• May 19 – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
• May 29 – Norman Rockwell's illustration of Rosie the Riveter first appears on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

July

• July 5 – WWII: Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins.
• July 28 – WWII: Operation Gomorrah – The British bomb Hamburg, causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.

August

• August 2 – WWII: John F. Kennedy's PT-109 is rammed by a destroyer.
• August 29 – WWII: Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities (see Occupation of Denmark).

September

• September 12 – WWII: German paratroopers rescue Mussolini from imprisonment, in "Operation Oak".

 October

October 30 – The Merrie Melodies animated short Falling Hare, one of the only shorts with Bugs getting out-smarted, is released in the United States.

November

• November 15 – Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
• November 16
• WWII: After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
• November 18 – WWII: The Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin, with 440 planes causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.

 December

• December 4 The Great Depression officially ends in the United States: With unemployment figures falling fast due to WWII-related employment, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration.