Please help the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) and the National Book Development Board (NBDB) in propagating the good news on the 1st National Children’s Book Awards. Deadline for nominations is  April 15, 2010.
General rules and guidelines can be found here and the nomination form here.

The creation of the National Children’s Book Award will name not just one top book or the usual tiered roster of winners, but a “Best Reads List” of a maximum of 10 titles year after year. Winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony in July.  For more information on this award and how it came to be read this article by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz

ETA: The  announcement will coincide with the National Children’s Book Day week. We will announce the Salanga (Writer) and Alcala (Illustrator) Winners on July 20. On July 24, we’ll have the Best Reads to celebrate.

Sandosenang Sapatos (A Dozen Pairs of Shoes), a Palanca award-winning story that has reaped numerous accolades here and abroad and has touched the hearts of many, is now a musical staged by the Valenzuela City Center for Performing Arts (VCCPA) in cooperation with the Valenzuela City Government and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

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Written by Luis Gatmaitan, M.D., Sandosenang Sapatos tells the story of Karina and Susie. They are the daughters of the town’s best shoemaker, but only Karina gets to wear the beautiful shoes their father makes. Susie can never wear shoes because she was born without feet—will her father, her family love her less? Susie is surprised by the discovery of her father’s incomparable love for her.  Sandosenang Sapatos celebrates the love and acceptance of a family in the face of adversity.

Artistic director Roeder Camañag says, “This is a story of hope grounded in reality. It’s something that will help fight the cynicism we see around us nowadays. It’s not a fairy tale; it’s fresh and relevant.”

Author Luis Gatmaitan is happy with the results. “It is a great honor for an author like me to see the story I’ve created come to life on stage, from the pages of a book to a musical.”

Click here to see photos from the play.

Luis  Gatmaitan, M.D. has authored and published more than 30 storybooks for children tackling relevant issues such as disability, senility, bereavement, coping with cancer, childhood diseases, and children’s rights in his stories. Inducted into the Palanca Hall of Fame in 2005, he has also been a recipient of the Catholic Mass Media Awards and the PBBY-Salanga Writers Prize.  In addition he  has chaired PBBY and KUTING. In 2005 IBBY named Sandosenang Sapatos an Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities.

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.

The author of There’s a Duwende in My Brother’s Soup, Tonyo’s Wishes and Cat Eyes, and co-editor with April Yap of Nine Supernatural Stories, Laura Saguisag’s newest book, Children of Two Seasons: Poems for Young People, was published in December of 2007, after winning the 2006 Writing for Children Chapbook Series, a writing competition organized by the Writing Program of The New School University, in New York, known for its commitment to creative writing. The poems in the book, illustrated by emerging Filipino illustrator Hubert Fucio, describe the everyday adventures, thoughts and feelings of young children, as well as their take on simple things such as animal sounds, grandparents’ stories, etc.

Held on January 7th at Fullybooked, a bookstore in Makati City, Philippines, Lara’s talk focused on exploring notions of childhood and “Filipino-ness” in Filipino’s children’s literature. When I asked Lara why this topic, she responded:

I spent the past three years writing in New York City. I was very excited to be there, but it slowly dawned on me that my idea of childhood was very different from that of my American peers, and how our writing for children was greatly affected by our different notions. Many of my classmates often thought I was writing “too young” for my intended age group, so I came to realize that that was because the children I knew in the Philippines seemed to me much more “dependent” than their American counterparts.

It may seem very obvious to state that children in the U.S. are different from children in the Philippines. I do feel, however, that many children’s book writers tend to assume that there is a “universal” kind of childhood (childhood as a happy time, free of labor and worries, a time for children to be protected), when, largely, this is a conception of childhood that began among Western middle-class families.

Lara, who is a Presidential Fellow at Rutgers University in New Jersey, NY, where she is completing her PhD in Childhood Studies, began her lecture with a simple question: “Who is the child?” Audience members came up with a variety of words, ranging from the expected (innocent, curious) to the unexpected (a little mischievous monster). Zarah Gagatiga, a children’s librarian in the Philippines, who attended the event, told me:

“Lara challenged participants’ notions by reminding them that childhood’s meaning is contextual and that society, history, culture, the environment, demographics, etc play a great role in a child’s being and becoming… she also pointed out that the stages which Piaget and Chall identified in children’s cognitive development and reading development, respectively, were based on middle-class American and European children, and that to solely use them for identifying, writing and publishing stories for children is risky.”

The question that followed, “Who is the Filipino Child?,” encouraged audience members to take a more in-depth look at Filipino literature, and, according to Zarah, that was a very worthwhile exercise:

“Comments on traditional themes in Filipino literature and the way books portray children and childhood came about and, true enough, it became apparent that Filipino writers perceive the Filipino child as someone who must be protected, taken care of; which results in a literature that is close to “sanitized.” “And how could it be any different?”, Lara asked, pointing out that one of the reason why these notions of childhood are collectively magnified is that this is the only literature produced for them. Lara ended her talk speaking about the need to critique the body of work available to Filipino children and with a hopeful stance, that Filipino Children’s Literature has reached, if not a golden, an enlightened age.”

And the audience wasn’t the only one to go home with food for thought. Lara herself was faced with a new challenge:

“Overall, this event taught me that since I have spent so much time outside the Philippines, I tend to forget that Filipino authors have their own philosophy of writing for children. It is very easy for me to lambaste the children’s books produced in the Philippines because they seem “weak” by American standards, but why should I measure them according to the standards of the West in the first place? Why not view and measure them according to our own standards; why not base my judgments on our Filipino values, our children’s dreams, our style of literature? This is the challenge I currently face.”

Thanks to both Lara and Zarah for kindly sharing their thoughts and experiences about the event. For photos of this event and a wealth of information on children’s literature, visit Zarah’s blogs (one and two). Be sure to let her know that PaperTigers sent you!