PaperTigers is a proud sponsor of the 2012 Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC)  which will take place May 26 – 29 at The Arts House in Singapore.  Lots of exciting events are planned this year; check out the featured speakers and programme by clicking here and the 2012 AFCC trailer here. As well organizers have just released the following information about two Asian Book Awards for children’s literature!

Asian Festival of Children’s Content Announces 2 Asian Book Awards

Asian Content for the World’s Children

 Singapore, 27 April 2012– Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) 2012 announces two Asian Book Awards, Scholastic Asian Book Award and SingTel Picture Book Award.

The Scholastic Asian Book Award is a joint initiative of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) and Scholastic Asia to recognise excellence in Asian children’s fiction. In its 2nd edition, this award showcases the diversity of literary talent within Asia and inspires more Asian-themed books and stories.

The winning manuscript will receive a prize of S$10,000 at the award presentation ceremony on 29 May 2012 during this Festival. It will also be considered for publication by Scholastic Asia. The four nominations for the Scholastic Asian Book Award (SABA) 2012 are, Bungee Cord Hair by Ching Yeung Russell (US), Double Take by Katherine Seow (Singapore), Hidden in Plain Sight by Ang Su-Lin (Singapore) and The Locked Up Boy by  Pauline Loh Tuan Lee (Singapore).

The judges for the SABA 2012 are, Chief Judge Nury Vittachi (Hong Kong), Ken Spillman (Australia), Helen McAleer (United Kingdom), Sayoni Basu (India) and Naomi Kojima (Japan).

In 2011, the winning manuscript was from Uma Krishnaswami, titled, ‘Book Uncle and Me’. Uma will be giving a talk during the Parents’ Forum on ‘Using Multicultural Books to Teach Your Child About the World We Live In’. The first runner up was Marjorie Sayer for the novel ‘The Girl Mechanic of Wanzhou’. [N.B. Papertigers' former editor Aline Pereira was a judge for the 2011 award. Read about her experiences here and see photos from the event here].

Ovidia Yu’s story ‘The Mudskipper’ was the second runner up in the Scholastic Asian Book Award 2011 and will launch at this press conference. ‘The Mudskipper’ has reached the publication stage and will be available at the Festival. Based in Singapore, Ovidia Yu is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer whose plays have been performed locally and abroad. ‘The Mudskipper’ is her first book for children.

AFCC also introduces the inaugural SingTel Asian Picture Book Award. This Award will be presented annually for an outstanding unpublished picture book with a distinctly Asian theme offering a total of S$10,000 for the First Prize consisting of S$5,000 for an author and S$5,000 for an illustrator.

The first award will be given in AFCC 2013. Submissions are now open till 31st December 2012.

This Award aims to inspire the publication of and to propel public’s interest and support for more Asian-themed picture books.

This morning I got an e-mail from SCBWI member and children’s book writer Naomi Kojima about an on-line library of children’s picture books called One More Story.  This site is offering a free week’s trial of stories from their on-line library.  Their sample book is Pete’s Pizza by William Steig whom I just wrote a post on so I checked it out.  A very funny book and well presented indeed.  For those of you entering the world of reading to your children on-line and/or on the IPad or IPhone or other kind of tablets, this might be a good time to try this library out.  Naomi Kojima’s work is also available — check it out on the Orange Shelf; her title is Singing Shijimi Clams (Kane/Miller, 2006.)

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents:

SCBWI Tokyo Illustrators Exhibition 2011

Messages from our Hearts to Friends Not Yet Met

Time: Tuesday, September 6 – Sunday, September 11, 2011

Place: Galerie Malle, 4-8-3 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Messages from our Hearts to Friends Not Yet Met is an exhibition by eleven children’s book illustrators who live in Japan and are active internationally. Exhibitors are Akira Hamano, Michael Kloran, Naomi Kojima, John Kolosowski, Midori Mori, Shohei Nishihara, Paul Richardson, Daniel Schallau, Izumi Tanaka, Kazuko Unosawa and Yoko Yoshizawa. Each artist will exhibit several illustrations and works will be available for sale.

For more information contact Holly Thompson, Regional Advisor, SCBWI Tokyo by clicking here.

The inaugural Asian Festival of Children’s Content is set to take place May 6-9 in Singapore, and word is quickly spreading that this is a not-to-be-missed event!   The National Book Development Council of Singapore, which has been organizing the highly successful Asian Children’s Writers &  Illustrators Conference (ACWIC) for the past 10 years, has decided to take a slightly new approach this year by combining it with three new symposiums to form the Asian Festival of Children’s Content.  Jade Yong, Marketing Director for the festival tells us:

Writers, illustrators, school teachers, publishers, librarians, literary agents, distributors and retailers, translators, technology solution providers and other media professionals related to the world of children’s content will find this to be a  learning event that they cannot afford to miss. We are expecting about 300 to 400 delegates from all over Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North  America and Europe to attend the event.

Over 70 speakers will be at the festival, and some familiar names to PaperTigers’ readers include: Holly Thompson (Japan), Daphne Lee (Malaysia), Rukhsana Khan (Canada), Naomi Kojima (Japan), Uma Krishnaswami (USA), and  Christopher Cheng (Australia). Since, unfortunately, no one from PaperTigers will be able to attend the festival this year, we look forward to hearing from those of you attending! If you send us feedback, we will be happy to share your impressions, discoveries and/or photos with our readers.

The schedule for the festival has been released and  is as  follows:

Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference~ May 6-8, 2010

The Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference (ACWIC) will celebrate children’s books, provide access to children’s literature with Asian content, and promote the writing and publication of Asian children’s books. By providing great workshops and networking opportunities, this conference aims to actively promote and foster the exchange of ideas on the global market.

The conference is broken down into seven tracks:  New Media Technologies & Children’s Content, Alchemy of Writing, Illustrators’ Palette, Librarian’s Menu, Publishers’ Daily Bread, Marketing and Distribution—Creating Bestsellers, and ACWIC Highlights. The detailed scheduled is  here.

Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium~ May 8, 2010

The Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium (ACPS) will consist of workshops from leading players within the industry and interactive panel discussions led by professionals, all designed to foster knowledge, learning and strategies for building a successful children’s publishing industry.

Asian Primary & Preschool Teachers Congress~ May 8, 2010

The speakers and workshop leaders at the Asian Primary & Preschool Teachers Congress (APTC) will collectively provide an overview of comprehensive literacy instruction and showcase its best practices to educators, teachers and parents, to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Asian Parents Forum~ 9 May, 2010

Asian Parents Forum (APF) workshops will offer opportunities for parents and interested individuals to get professional advice, support and information on quality content, creative experience and potential, so that participants can become more confident and competent in promoting the reading habits and answering the learning needs of their children.

As you can see, the first Asian Festival of Children’s Content will cover all aspects and formats of children’s content inspired by and based on Asian sources. We encourage you to attend it, if you’re able and in the field. It should prove a wonderful opportunity for professional development and networking!

As I mentioned the other day, SCBWI Tokyo recently hosted an event titled Storyboards and Picture Book Dummies for Good Bookmaking with picture book author/illustrator Naomi Kojima. Born in Japan, Naomi spent her childhood years in the U.S. and studied sculpture at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Her first two picture books, Mr. and Mrs. Thief and The Flying Grandmother were published in New York soon after she joined a Massachusetts SCBWI chapter. Since then, her books have been published in the U.S. and Japan, and translated into French, Swedish, and Indonesian. Her other books include The Alphabet Picture Book and Singing Shijimi Clams which my daughter gave rave reviews to when she borrowed it recently from our local library.

Holly Thompson, Regional Advisor for SCBWI Tokyo, was kind enough to send some photos of the event (which was conducted in English and Japanese!) and writes:

Yes, Naomi Kojima gave a wonderful workshop for SCBWI Tokyo! She covered storyboarding and dummy making, and participants were given sample storyboards as well as text to divide and paste into notebooks to create dummies. Kojima shared several of her own storyboards including one for a new story she is currently developing. At the end participants had a chance to share the dummies they had created and to discuss their different approaches to dividing the text for effective page turns. In the second photo we are all holding books by Naomi.

Thank you for your continued interest in SCBWI Tokyo! We would be happy if you would share this with PaperTigers readers.

With over 22,000 members worldwide in over 70 regions, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is the largest children’s writing organization in the world and acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between all those involved with literature for young people. Twice a year the SCBWI brings together top professionals to share their knowledge at the annual Summer and Winter conferences. Each month regional chapters sponsor or organize events around the globe and often times these events are open to both members and non-members. (Some of the events are included on our PaperTigers’ Calendar of Events but you can click here to see the full list.) If an event catches your eye, contact a Regional Advisor for more information. Whether you are already established in the children’s industry, just starting to enter the world of children’s book writing and illustrating, or simply have a passion for children’s literature, I’m sure you will find a warm welcome.

Here are a few highlights in September:

JAPAN – This past weekend SCBWI Japan hosted Storyboards and Picture Book Dummies for Good Bookmaking with author/illustrator Naomi Kojima. Holly Thompson, Regional Advisor for SCBWI Tokyo, has kindly sent me photos from the event which I will post soon.

AUSTRALIA – Sunday the 20th

Breakfast with the Visiting SPRUNG Children’s Authors. Share coffee and croissants with visiting children’s authors and illustrators then walk up the road to enjoy a range of sessions at the Albany SPRUNG Writers Festival.

KOREA – Thursday the 24th – Sunday the 25th

The 6th Canadian Children’s Book Seminar at the Embassy of Canada located in Jeong-dong, Seoul. A few hundred children’s books from major Canadian publishing companies will be displayed. This event is not sponsored by SCBWI but Jenny Desmond-Walters, Regional Advisor for SCBWI Korea, found out about it and was kind enough to forward the information. If Jenny is able to attend I’m sure she’ll send us some photos. Stay tuned. Thanks Jenny!

PHILIPPINES – Saturday the 26th

Children’s Book Seminar at the University of the Philippines, Visayas (City Campus). Regional Advisor Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo tells me that this event will appeal to anyone published or aspiring to be a children’s book writer or illustrator.