These picture book authors and illustrators were born on this date:
Laurent de Brunhoff: He is the son of Jean de Brunhoff, creator of the books about Babar the elephant. Actually, though, it was Laurent’s mother who first created the story of the little elephant who leaves home to visit the city. Laurent’s father, Jean, died in 1937 when Laurent, the oldest of his three sons, was only twelve years old. Laurent grew up to become an artist and to continue the Babar saga in over thirty more books.
Virginia Lee Burton: (b.1909, d.1968) Virginia Burton is the author of Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel and The Little House, both classic picture books. I read about her at Houghton Mifflin’s website about her work and found this autobiographical note about how she created her books.

I literally draw my books first and write the texts after – sort of “cart before the horse.” I pin the sketched pages in sequence on the walls of my studio so I can see the book as a whole. Then I make a rough dummy and then the final drawings and, when I can put it off no longer, I type out the text and paste it in the dummy. Whenever I can, I substitute picture for word.

My first thought is: how could one have a decent plot doing a book this way? However, her books definitely tell a good story. Burton won the Caldecott Award in 1954 for her book The Little House.
Donald Crews: My favorite books by this author/illustrator are Harbor, Parade, and Truck. His illustrations are bright, simple and visually appealing. Not much subtlety here, not a whole lot of story, but there’s lots of fun for the two and three year old crowd. Go here for a short article by Crews about the Ticonderoga #2 pencil, “brand new (they don’t last long) and freshly sharpened. Golden yellow (Cadmium yellow), six-sided, with yellow and green ferrule, and at one end a pink eraser.” I also like my pencils yellow and freshly sharpened.