Click on event name for more information

Entries Accepted for The Growing up Asian in America Contest~ ongoing until Mar 10, San Francisco, CA, USA

2011 PBBY-Alcala Prize~ submissions accepted until Mar 30, Philippines

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-second Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 16, Hayward, CA, USA

15th Annual Writing for Children Competition~ submissions accepted until Apr 24, Canada

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibit: Anita Lobel – All the World’s a Stage~ ongoing until May 28, Abilene, TX, USA

Look! The Art of Australian Picture Books Today~ ongoing until May 29, Melbourne, Australia

The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibit: Real and Imaginary: Three Latin American Artists – Raúl Colón, David Diaz and Yuyi Morales~ ongoing until May 29, Chicago, IL, USA

Animal Fair: Birds, Beasts, and Bugs in Children’s Book Illustrations~ ongoing until Jun 5, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Amherst, MA, USA

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Mirror, an Exhibition by Children’s Author and Artist Jeannie Baker~ Australia

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

New Zealand Book Month

Read Across America Day~ Mar 2, USA

Sutradhar’s Story Revolution~ Mar 2 – 5, Bangalore, India

Primary Source’s Global Read of The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez~ Mar 2 – 9

World Book Day~ Mar 3, United Kingdom and Ireland

Summer Reading Relay~ Mar 3, Melbourne, Australia

The Big Write Festival~ Mar 3 – 13, Stratford, United Kingdom

42nd Annual Georgia Children’s Book Awards and Conference on Children’s Literature~ Mar 4 – 5, Athens, GA, USA

Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 4 – 5, Redlands, CA, USA

Perth Writers Festival~ Mar 4 – 7, Perth, Australia

Penguin Books India Presents Spring Fever~ Mar 4 – 13, New Delhi, India

Your School Library’s Sixth International Professional Development Online Conference: Advocacy, Evidence and Image~ Mar 4 – 18

Shanghai International Literary Festival~ Mar 4 – 19, Shanghai, China

Western Washington University Children’s Literature Conference~ Mar 5, Bellingham, WA, USA

Singapore Young Author Award Ceremony~ Mar 5, Singapore

Singapore Children’s Book Club Discuss S. M. De Silva’s Blood on the Moon~ Mar 5, Singapore

Pratham Books Sabha 2011~ Mar 5, Bangalore, India

Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices Day~ Mar 5, Madison, WI, USA

World Book Night ~ Mar 5

International Research Conference: What Exactly is “Overseas Manga/Comics”? – The Forefront of Comics and Globalization~ Mar 6, Kyoto, Japan

The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets 2011 Competition Launch~ Mar 7, United Kingdom

Engaging Hearts and Minds: Equity, Social Justice and Global Citizenship in Action~ Mar 7 – 8, Toronto, ON, Canada

YALSA’s Teen Tech Week~ Mar 7 – 13, USA

Share a Story – Shape a Future, A Blog Tour for Literacy: Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy~ Mar 7 – 11

New Dog, New Tricks: Insideadog Website Relaunch by the Centre for Youth Literature~ Mar 8, Melbourne, Australia

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature~ Mar 8 – 12, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Hong Kong International Literary Festival~ Mar 8 – 18, Hong Kong

World Read Aloud Day~ Mar 9

Children’s Literature Conference: The Power of Story~ Mar 10, Tucson, AZ, USA

SCBWI Lit Fest Dinner with Aleesah Darlison and Adrian Tilley~ Mar 10, Hong Kong

31st Annual Children’s Literature Conference~ Mar 11, DeKalb, IL, USA

Art Blocks for Ghana Online Auction~ Mar 12

Oxford Children’s Book Group Presents: Author Aidan Chambers in Conversation~ Mar 12, Oxford, United Kingdom

Silverfish Books’ Meet the Author Session: Singaporean Children’s Author Ho Lee-Ling~ Mar 12, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

CLN Presents: Picture Books as Writing Tools with author Lisa Bulllard~ Mar 12, Plymouth, MN, USA

Pratham Books Sabha 2011~ Mar 14, New Delhi, India

Somerset Celebration of Literature~ Mar 14 – 18, Mudgeeraba, Australia

14th Time of the Writer – International Writers Festival~ Mar 14 – 19, Durban, South Africa

School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books~ Mar 14 – Apr 4, USA

Supporting UAE Children’s Book Authors: The ‘Emirati Authors Write for Emirati Children’ Initiative at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair~ Mar 15 – 20, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Illustrated Talk with Author Shaun Tan: Untold Stories~ Mar 17, Melbourne, Australia

Children’s Book Illustration: The Picture Book World of Polly Dunbar~ Mar 17 – 24, London, United Kingdom

Singapore Book Club Discusses the Graphic Novel Gone Case~ Mar 18, Singapore

Celebration of Teaching and Learning~ Mar 18 – 19, New York, NY, USA

Salon du livre de Paris, Guest of Honour: Nordic Countries~ Mar 18 – 21, Porte de Versailles, France

Children’s Books Week~ Mar 19 – Apr 3, Flanders, Belgium

World Storytelling Day~ Mar 20

43rd Annual Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 20 – 22, Warrensburg, MO, USA

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination~ Mar 21

World Poetry Day (UNESCO)~ Mar 21

Harmony Day~ Mar 21, Australia

Seminar: Children’s Literature in Nordic Countries~ Mar 22, Paris, France

Reading the World: Exciting Literature for the Global Classroom~ Mar 22, Watertown, MA, USA

36th Annual CABE Conference: Language, Culture & Leadership – Co-creating Community~ Mar 23 – 26, Long Beach, CA, USA

A Different Trend: Canadian Children’s Literature in Sweden and Finland with Author Roy MacGregor~ Mar 24, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Myths and Fairy Tales in Film and Literature post-1900~ Mar 25 – 26, York, United Kingdom

Bangkok International Book Fair~ Mar 25 – Apr 6, Bangkok, Thailand

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Winners Announced~ Mar 29, Vimmerby, Sweden

Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Guest of Honour: Lithuania~ Mar 29 – 31, Bologna, Italy

World Book Summit~ Mar 31 – Apr 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The 2011 Bologna Children’s Book Fair takes place March 28 – 31 in Bologna, Italy.  The IBBY stand will include the following presentations:

• IBBY Honour List 2010
• Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2011
• International Children’s Book Day 2011
• IBBY Congress 2012 London
• Bookbird

On March 28th  IBBY will hold a press conference at 14:30 (Sala Concerto room) featuring:

• International Children’s Book Day: 2011 Sponsor IBBY Estonia
• IBBY Projects and activities
• Bookbird: introduction of new president
• IBBY Congress 2012 London, United Kingdom

This will be followed by a reception at the IBBY stand: 15:30, Hall 29, stand A 51.

The poster and message to celebrate the 2011 International Children’s Book Day (April 2nd) is now available here. Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD and for 2011 the sponsor is IBBY Estonia. This year’s theme is “The Book Remembers”, the poster was designed by Jüri Mildeberg (aka Jüri Mildebergius) and the message written by Aino Pervik.

Registration has opened for the 9th IBBY Regional Conference: Peace the World Together With Children’s Books, to be held October 21 – 23 at the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature in Fresno, CA, USA. Click here for flyer and go to www.usbby.org for more information and conference updates.

First call for IBBY Cuba’s Congreso Internacional Lectura 2011: Para Leer el XXI Se ha de conocer las fuerzas del mundo para ponerlas a trabajar has gone out. The event will be held October 25 – 29 in Havana, Cuba.

The 33rd International IBBY Congress will be held August 23 – 26, 2012 in London, UK. The theme is Crossing Boundaries: Translations and Migrations. Delegates will explore how books and stories for children and young people can cross boundaries and migrate across different countries and cultures. The congress will look at issues such as globalisation, dual-language texts, cultural exchange and the art of translation.

You can now register your interest in the Congress. Visit the website and sign up to get all the latest information and news directly to your email.

Recently posted on the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) bulletin board:

Best of Bologna: Edgiest Artists of the 2008 International Children’s Book Fair

For a fascinating <on-line> exhibition of young artists selected for the Bologna Illustrators’ Exhibition in 2008 go to: exhibits.library.northwestern.edu/bestofbologna/

Included within the site is an interview with Wolf Erlbruch, winner of the 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Award, given at the 2007 book fair.

This exhibit was originally presented in 2009 at the Northwestern University Library, Evanston, IL, USA. In October 2010 it became a permanent exhibit and is located on  the 4th Floor of the Main Library (in the corridor between the two towers)  at Northwestern University. The exhibit  is free and open to the public during the Library’s regular public hours. To learn more, click here.

P.S. Don’t forget to take a look at our 1,000th post, with the chance of winning a Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 book set…

Following on from Monday’s post, here are some of our highlights from Day 2 of the Bologna Book Fair.

We started out with a children’s theatre production inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and performed by students from Bratislava’s Academy of Fine Arts – great fun!

The JES: Join – Enjoy – Share session for the International Meeting of Children’s Librarians. They had two very interesting speakers lined up: Ruba Totah from the Tamer Institute in Ramallah, Palestine, which won the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, talking about their many projects, linking to community and school libraries;

and famous Brazilian author Ana Maria Machado, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2000, who gave a very thought-provoking paper about the lamentably small number of foreign-language books translated into English…

“African Books for Children”, a roundtable session chaired by Viviana Quiñones of the French Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse – La Joie par les livres with Phocas Ekouedjin of Afrilivres (Association of African Francophone Publishers) and Tainie Mundondo of Apnet (African Publishers Network), as well as publishers from Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mauritius and Rwanda. They discussed the publishing and distribution of African children’s books and profiled recent children’s books published in Africa.

A presentation of the 20-year-old journal Takam Tikou in its new online format. Takam Tikou, published by the Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse – La Joie par les livres, focuses on children’s books and reading in Africa, the Arab world, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. If you read French, there is a fabulous wealth of material and resources available – definitely well worth exploring.

The announcement of the Astrid Lingren Award – see Corinne’s post. It was very exciting and we really felt we had a stake in it this year, with PaperTigers being a nominating body. The visual presentation of winner Kitty Crowther’s books made me want to read all of them – and also ask myself why I’d never come across her work – well, it turns out only one of her books has been translated into English. What was it that Ana Maria Machado was saying earlier that morning?

Seeing a proof of Allen Say’s new book, The Boy in the Garden - it’s going to be another gorgeous book. Thank you for showing it to us, Christine!

And you can see more photos from Day 2 here…

As we countdown the final days to the 2010 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, be sure to read Diane Roback’s recent article entitled “On to Bologna! Cautious optimism on the eve of the annual children’s book fair.” Diane, a reporter at Publishers Weekly, writes:

As children’s publishers from the world over convene in Italy later this month (March 23–26), a number of issues hang in the balance. How will the economy shape this year’s fair? Is the age of the big YA fantasy trilogy finally over? Will picture books make a resurgence? What of the co-edition market? The digital revolution? We asked a sampling of Bologna veterans for their take on what to expect at this year’s fair, and what they’re looking for.

Click here to read the entire article.

The Bologna Children’s Book fair is set to begin Tuesday, March 23rd in Bologna, Italy.  As all of us children and young adult lit fans know, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the most important international event dedicated to children’s publishing.  2010 will be the 47^th edition of the fair and is expected to be a great one: over 20,000 square meters of exhibition space have been booked,  over 1,200 exhibitors from over 60 countries are confirmed, and  a jam-packed programme of events has been released. A small sampling of the highlights:

The 2010 Guest of Honor at the Illustrators Exhibition will be Slovakia, presenting a selected exhibition of it’s best illustrators. A cultural programme featuring Slovakia will be taking place at various locations throughout Bologna during the fair.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair – SM Foundation International Award for Illustration. This winner of this  new award, reserved to young illustrators (under 35) selected for the 2010 Illustrators Exhibition, will be announced on March 25.

Illustrators Exhibition. Once again, a wealth of works by illustrators (well-known professionals and emerging talents) will  be on display. The 2010 international jury has selected 87 artists for the 2010 Exhibition from 2,456 candidates from 58 countries.

BolognaRagazzi Awards 2010. Check out Marj’s recent post on these awards.

Authors Cafe. A new feature for 2010, the Authors Cafe is the place to be to meet authors and talk books. Discussions will include: prospects for the literary scene, reading experiences in troubled areas, and debuting authors in Bologna.  To meet illustrators and get involved in their discussions, head on over to the Illustrators Cafe.

The Astrid Lindgren Award announcement will be broadcast live to Bologna from Sweden on March 24th. This is especially exciting for us as  PaperTigers was invited to submit nominations for the award!

Also exciting for us is that three members from our team will be in attendance at this year’s Fair: Aline, Marj and myself.  If you are going to be there too let us know as we would love to meet up with you. If you can’t be there, keep an eye here on our PaperTigers’ blog as we will be posting regularly to share some of our highlights with you! We’ll also be uploading  our photos to this Flikr account.

Nicholas Clee of Publishers Weekly reports:

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair has yielded to protests and reinstated the fourth day of the event. The 2010 fair will now take place from Tuesday to Friday, March 23–26.

Click here to read the article.

Following on from Corinne’s post about the Bologna Book Fair, I recently asked poet Jorge Luján if he would share some of his impressions with us, since I knew that his most recent book, Barca de papel, illustrated by Julia Fries was to be featured in one of the exhibitions – I should have guessed that he would have a charming adventure to tell us about, that makes me wish I’d been there!

I found the Fair very rich as always – maybe a bit calmer than other years because of the economic crisis, but anyhow with interesting new books like the award-winning Robinson Crusoe, published by Media Vaca [BolognaRagazzi Fiction Award] and El contador de cuentos, published by Ekaré [BolognaRagazzi New Horizons Award]. The strong, colorful presence of Korea was also notable as the invited country. I very much enjoyed Yanni Kim’s images for The Donkey Girl (a winner of the CJ Award for Illustration).

Talking about my personal experience, I had an unexpected and magical encounter at one art gallery down town Bologna. I was at the inauguration of an illustration exhibition when a sparkling five-year-old girl appeared out of nothing and asked me: “Tu sei… il poeta?” (Are you… the poet?) I said “Hum… yes” with a smile and began to walk out with a young couple who had just invited me to have an ice-cream with them. Immediately, the little girl (who I was soon to discover was the daughter of the young couple) started to run through the crowded rooms of the exhibition shouting over and over again: “Il poeta viene a mangiare gelati con noi!!” (The poet is coming to have an ice cream with us!!)

Later on, she confessed to me: “Io sono la Principessa dei Gelati,” (I’m the Princess of Ice Cream…). That night I composed a poem for her, and the next evening I was invited to write it in big letters next to the illustrations of Barco de papel, my last album with images by the young artist Julia Friese, which were being shown at the beautiful Sala Borsa, next to the Piazza Maggiore.

If you click on the thumbnails, you’ll be able to read the writing, including both poems on the much larger images…

Thank you so much, Jorge, both for sharing your experiences with us – especially this delightful story of La Principessa – and for the wonderful photos. For those of us who couldn’t be there, they certainly are the next best thing. Imagine being at that exhibition and walking by as the author of the books you are looking at happens to be writing out a poem he has just spontaneously composed!

Barco de papel (Paper Boat) was published last December by FCE and is due to come out soon in German as Papierschiff ahoi! We’ll certainly let you know of any English translations.

I must just also add that not one but two of Jorge’s recent books were shortlisted for a CJ Award for New Publications: Colors! ¡Colores! (also selected for the White Ravens 2009 Catalogue) and Winter Afternoon (and if you haven’t watched the animated version of this gorgeous book, watch it NOW!).

This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day (and she’s highlighting a gorgeous-looking book I heard about recently and haven’t got my hands on yet…)

The 2009 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which had Korea as its Guest of Honor, is over, but a couple of virtual stops can give you a feel for what happened there.

Start by visiting Craig Virden’s Bologna 2009: A Photo Essay. A Publishers Weekly writer, Craig is a veteran attendee of the Bologna Fair and has teamed up with photographer Mario Ventimiglia on this essay, which was posted to PW’s Bologna by Day and Night blog.

For details about the role Korea played as Guest of Honor and the wide range of cultural events showcasing its art and culture, take a look at the special website put together by the Korean Publishers Association website. The Illustrators Exhibition section showcases the artwork of the 31 Korean illustrators whose work were selected, from thousands of entries, to be displayed at the fair. The image featured here is one of the select works: the book cover of My Cat Copies Me, by artist and author Yoon-duck Kwan (the lovely image reminds me of our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project!). The website also includes information and statistics on the current state of the Korean publishing market, in general, and the children’s publishing sector in particular. It’s interesting to note, for instance, that children’s books accounted for 20% of all new books published in 2008 in Korea, and that over the past 10 years there has been a huge increase in the popularity of educational books, specifically the educational comic book genre, over picture books and story books.

Now that you’ve had a taste of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and its guest of honor, be sure to read PaperTigers current issue, where we pay tribute to the narratives for children, available in English, from/about Korea and the Korean diaspora.

(Click on event name for more information)

National Poetry Month~ Canada and USA

Growing Up Asian in America Art and Essay Contest Winners Announced~ San Francisco, CA, USA

Exclusive Books Children’s Book Festival~ ongoing until Apr 4, South Africa

Toronto Festival of Storytelling~ongoing until Apr 5, Toronto, ON, Canada

7th Bangkok International Book Fair & 37th National Book Fair~ ongoing until Apr 6, Bangkok, Thailand

20th Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 18, Hayward, CA, USA

Bologna Children’s Book Fair Events in the City~ ongoing until April 30, Bologna, Italy

Discovering Ethnic Minorities – Storytelling Workshops for Children~ ongoing until May 31, Hong Kong

Exhibition of Prize Winning Works of 16th Noma Concours (2008) “Palette of Dream Colours IV”~ ongoing until Jul 5, Tokyo, Japan

Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival~ Apr 1 – 3, Hattiesburg, MS, USA

Ethiopian Children’s Book Week~ Apr 1 – 7, Ethiopia

International Children’s Book Day~ Apr 2

Desi Teens and Muslim Migration: Personal Journeys from the Asian Diaspora~ Apr 2, New York, NY, USA

25th Annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults~ Apr 2 – 3, Kent, OH, USA

Conference: What’s New in Children’s Books~ Apr 4, Boston, MA, USA

Young Poets Week~ Apr 6 – 12, Canada

Children’s and Young Adult Literature Festival: Read Green~ Apr 15 – 16, Salisbury, MD, USA

National Library Week: Worlds connect @ Your Library~ Apr 12 – 18, USA

15th Annual Border Book Festival~ Apr 17 – 19, Mesilla, NM, USA

Beatrix Potter Conference~ Apr 17 – 19, Fresno, CA, USA

15th Celebration of Children’s Literature~ Apr 18, Berkeley, CA, USA

Congreso Iberoamericano de Libreros~ Apr 18 – 20, Buenos Aires, Argentina

BC Book and Magazine Week~ Apr 18 – 25, Province of British Columbia, Canada

London Book Fair~ Apr 20 – 22, London, United Kingdom

Global Action Week: Open Books, Open Doors~ Apr 20 – 26

Camara Chilena del Libro Book Fair~ Apr 21 – 28, Santiago, Chile

Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival and Children’s Festival~ Apr 22 – 26, Montreal, QC, Canada

World Book and Copyright Day~ Apr 23

Cambridge WordFest~ Apr 23 – 26, Cambridge, United Kingdom

35th Buenos Aires International Book Fair~ Apr 23 – May 11, Buenos Aires, Argentina

27th Annual Spring Festival of Children’s Literature~ Apr 24 – 25, Frostburg, MD, USA

Celebration of Latino Children’s Literature~ Apr 24 – 25, Columbia, SC, USA

SCBWI New England’s Annual Conference: Many Voices~ Apr 24 – 26, Nashua, NH, USA

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books~ Apr 25 – 26, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Lecture: The Reconfiguration of Children and Children’s Literature in a Globalized World~ Apr 27, Drumcondra, Ireland

5th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature~ Apr 27 – May 3, New York, NY, USA

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winners Announced~ Apr 28, New York, NY, USA

The Voyage of the Reader: Using Children’s Books to Create a Love of Reading~ Apr 29, New York, NY, USA

El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros~ Apr 30, USA

Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award Winner Announced~ Apr 30, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Ezra Jack Keats Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature Ceremony~ Apr 30, New York, NY, USA