School librarian, teacher and incoming PBBY chairman Zarah Gagatiga has passed along the following information on two exciting events taking place in July in the Philippines:

The 2nd National Conference on Children’s Literature – July 16 & 17

The Pilandokan (National Research Society for Children’s Literature) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts will be sponsoring the Second National Conference on Children’s Literature with the theme “Panitikang Pambata sa Edukasyon” (Children’s Literature in Education) on July 16-17 at the University of the Philippines – Diliman.

This national conference will feature paper presentations and workshops by scholars, creative writers, artists, and children’s right advocates. Topics include the Filipino concept of child and childhood; the state of children’s literature in the Philippines; book piracy; literacy programs for urban poor children and the deaf; and the formation of Filipino childhood identity. The Keynote Speaker will be the Pilandokan Founding President Dr. Rosario Torres-Yu.

For further information, please contact Dr. Eugene Y. Evasco and/or Prof. Will P. Ortiz (pagongatmatsing (at) yahoo(dot)com).

26th National Children’s Book Day – 3rd week of July

For the first time ever, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) will hold the celebration of NCBD (National Children’s Book Day) outside Manila in Marikina City. This year’s themes focus on leadership and readership with the slogan Readers Make Good Leaders!

The whole month of July promises to be a fun-filled month of reading, writing and interactive activities for children and literacy advocates. The Salanga and Alcala Prizes will be awarded during the opening ceremonies on July 21, 2009 at the Marikina Convention Center.

You can read about the preparations in Zarah’s post here and I’ll post more information on the Children’s Book Day festivities in the coming weeks.

(Click on event name for more information)

Asia-Pacific Conference on Children’s Book Publishing~ Jul 1 – 3, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Storytellers of Canada 16th Annual Conference~ Jul 2 – 6, Saskatoon, SA, Canada

4th Iberian Congress on Literature for Children~ Jul 3 – 5, San Sebastian, Spain

18th International Poetry Festival of Medellin~ Jul 5 – 12, Medellin, Columbia

NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week~ Jul 6 – 13, Australia

Multicultural Children’s Literature Conference~ Jul 7 – 8, Boston, MA, USA

15th Tokyo International Book Fair~ Jul 10 – 13, Tokyo, Japan

SCBWI Tokyo Authors & Illustrators Networking Night~ Jul 10, Tokyo, Japan

9th Annual Pacific Northwest Children’s Book Conference~ Jul 14 – 18, Portland, OR, USA

25th National Children’s Book Day~ Jul 15, Philippines

10th Harlem Book Fair~ Jul 17 – 20, Harlem, NY, USA

Montana Poetry Day~ Jul 18, New Zealand

17th Storytelling Festival at the Edge~ Jul 18 – 20, Stokes Barn, United Kingdom

Children’s Books Ireland ‘Summer Stories’ Family Event~ Jul 20, Dublin, Ireland

19th Annual Children’s Book Fair~ Jul 21 – Aug 8, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Maori Language Week~ Jul 21 – 27, New Zealand

IRA: Heritage Language Literacy Development in SE Asia Conference~ Jul 22 – 23, Jakarta, Indonesia

Hong Kong Book Fair~ Jul 23 – 29, Hong Kong

13th Lima International Book Fair~ Jul 24 – Aug 3, Lima, Peru

22nd World Congress on Reading: Reading in a Diverse World~ Jul 28 – 31, San Jose, Costa Rica