(Click on event name for more information)

National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month~ USA

Book Week~ ongoing until Nov 9, Japan

28th Santiago International Book Fair~ ongoing until Nov 15, Santiago, Chile

The Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award Festival~ Nov 1, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Exhibition by Illustrators and Writers of Children’s Books~ Nov 3 – 27, Pretoria, South Africa

3rd Triennial of Estonian illustrations: The Power of Pictures~ Nov 3 – 30, Tallinn, Estonia

29th Indonesia Book Fair~ Nov 4 – 8, Jakarta, Indonesia

American Association of School Librarians National Conference~ Nov 5 – 8, Charlotte, NC, USA

2009 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children’s Books~ Nov 6 – Dec 6, Ishikawa, Japan

13th Annual Rochester Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 7, Rochester, NY, USA

National Young Readers Week~ Nov 9 – 13, USA

Northern Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 9 – 21, United Kingdom

27th Annual National Black Storytelling Festival and Conference~ Nov 11 – 15, Little Rock, AR, USA

TD National Reading Summit: Reading & Democracy~ Nov 12 – 13, Toronto, ON, Canada

International Conference on Children and Young Adults Literature: Postacards from no man’s land. Promoting teen literature~ Nov 13 – 14, Cagliari, Italy

The World of Children’s Book Publishing with Alvina Ling, Senior Editor Little, Brown Books for Young Readers~ Nov 14, Yokohama, Japan

The 16th Annual British IBBY/NCRCL MA Children’s Literature Conference: Going Graphic – Comics and Graphic Novels for Young People~ Nov 14, London, United Kingdom

Calgary Children’s Book Fair and Conference~ Nov 14, Calgary, AB, Canada

18th Annual Connecticut Children’s Book Fair~ Nov 14 – 15, Storrs, CT, USA

Children’s Book Week: Classic Canadian Reading~ Nov 14 – 21, Canada

Take Home an Original: The Art of the Picture Book~ Nov 14 – 24, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Govenor General’s Literary Award Winners Announced~ Nov 17, Montreal, QC, Canada

TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award Winners Announced~ Nov 17, Toronto, ON, Canada

Children’s Literature Assembly Events at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention~ Nov 19 – 24, Philadelphia, PA, USA

8th Annual International Children’s and Young Adult Literature Celebration~ Nov 21, Madison, WI, USA

National Library Board’s Asian Children’s Festival~ Nov 21 – 29, Singapore

Heart and Soul: Art from Coretta Scott King Award Books, 2006–2009~ Nov 21 – Apr 18, 2010, Chicago, IL, USA

USBBY Co-Sponsored Session at the NCTE Convention~ Nov 22, Philadelphia, PA, USA

CJ Picture Book Festival~ Nov 23- Dec 24, Seoul, Korea

CJ Picture Book Forum~ Nov 24, Seoul, Korea

Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books Featuring Artwork from Iconic Children’s Books~ Nov 24 – Feb 28, 2010, Amherst, MA, USA

Mother Goose in an Air-Ship: McLoughlin Bros. 19th Century Children’s Books from the Liman Collection~ Nov 24 – Apr 18, 2010, Amherst, MA, USA

Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse: Children’s Books & Magazines~ Nov 25 – 30, France

The Children’s Literature Fair of Seine-Saint-Denis~ Nov 26 – Dec 1, Montreuil, France

Inky Awards Ceremony~ Nov 26, Melbourne, Australia

Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival~ Nov 28 – 29, New Delhi, India

Guadalajara Book Fair~ Nov 28 – Dec 6, Guadalajara, Mexico

The Inkys are the award in Australia that reflects what teenagers want to read. Voted for online by the readers of Insideadog (a project of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria), there are three awards: the Golden Inky for an Australian book, the Silver Inky for an international book, and the Creative Reading Prize, won by a young person for a creative response to a book they love, in any format they choose.

Today, August 20, the 2009 Inky Awards have been launched online with the announcement of the award longlist by two of this year’s judges, Steph Bowe and Adele Walsh. Australian youth, their teachers and anyone else interested in Australian youth literature were encouraged to join in the free, interactive on-line launch – but if you missed it, you can still watch it by following the link at the end of Insideadog’s announcement here. It’s great to see The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki up for a Silver Inky!

On October 9 the shortlist will be announced and on-line voting begins. The winners will be announced on Thursday, November 26 at the State Library of Victoria. Everyone is invited to join in this free event, meet the winners, talk books and enjoy some special surprises!

The Centre for Youth Literature promotes reading as an active, pleasurable and essential activity for all young people. It also offers exciting and affordable book events for young people and professionals. Teenagers and children meet great writers and talented young actors – bringing reading to life. Professional learning programs and the biennial Reading Matters conference keep adults in touch with crucial issues and ideas in youth literature – read about events at this year’s conference in May here, here and here.

The Insideadog website is Australia’s number one website for teenagers about books. It’s chock full of features including news, book reviews, a writer-in-residence blog, author interviews, links, competitions and lots of opportunity for contributions from young readers! For anyone interested in youth literature, teens or otherwise, I highly recommend taking some time to browse this amazing site!

At Insideadog, the Australian website of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library Victoria (Australia), voting is underway for the Inkys awards for best Australian and international books of the year. The site, designed especially for young readers, solicits voting from 12-18-year-olds. Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is shortlisted for Golden Inky (best YA Australian book) and Looking for Alaska by John Green for the international Silver Inky award. Every week until the contest ends November 9, kids can click “Win Stuff” and answer an opinion question to enter a drawing for one of the shortlisted books. There are lots of other goodies at Insideadog, including guest authors who blog for a month, teen book reviews and discussions, and more book giveaways, plus audio downloads and first chapters to read online. Check it out and send the link to a Australian teen bibliophile!

Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu of Here and There Japan reports on a similar (and different) process for the Sakura Medal Awards. Her report for the SCWBI Tokyo newsletter (scroll down to page 11) provides more details about this great Japanese students’ choice award.