This annual list is one of the activities of USBBY, the US chapter of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young Readers, whose aim is to promote international understanding and good will through books for children and young adults. A goal very much in line with PaperTigers’ own.
And speaking of USBBY, the organization is currently seeking applicants for the 2011 Bridge to Understanding Award. The award recognizes a program that promotes reading as a way to expand a child’s world. Any organization (such as schools, libraries, clubs, scout troops), within the United States, that has a program for children using books and reading as a way of promoting an understanding of cultures/countries outside the United States is eligible to apply. The selection committee will consider such criteria as the number of children reached by the program and the impact on the community as demonstrated by publicity coverage or anecdotal evidence. To be considered for the 2011 award, the program must occur during 2010. Download an application, or visit the website for more information.
Doris Gebel, USBBY Board Member, has asked us to pass along the following information for the 8th IBBY Regional Conference to be held Oct 2 – 4 in St. Charles, Illinois. The conference is open to anyone interested in international children’s books, including educators, librarians, authors, and students. You do not have to be a member of USBBY to attend or reside in the USA. Everyone is welcome! Registrations will be accepted until all spots are taken.
This year’s conference Children’s Books: Where Worlds Meet will offer attendees a rare opportunity to interact with an unparalleled line-up of international authors and illustrators, and to explore global connections through children’s literature.
International speakers include Shaun Tan from Australia; Yohannes Gebregeorgis, founder of Ethiopia Reads; Arvind Kumar, book distributor extraordinaire from India; Ana Maria Machado, Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning author from Brazil; and others, from a total of fourteen countries on five continents. Carmen Diana Dearden from Venezuela, editor and publisher of Ediciones Ekaré, will deliver the prestigious Dorothy Briley Lecture.
Speakers from the United States include Katherine Paterson, David Wiesner, Anne Pellowski, and publisher/editor Arthur Levine. Naomi Shihab Nye will deliver the closing keynote address.
Stimulating and thought-provoking book discussions and small group sessions will provide opportunities to network with concerned professionals and to think about issues related to the use of international literature to build intercultural understanding. Fascinating traveling exhibits include the International Youth Library’s “Imaginary Library” of original artwork by celebrated illustrators from around the world, the 2008 IBBY Honour Books, and the 2008 IBBY Outstanding Books for People with Disabilities. These exhibitions will be explained through “gallery talks” by such guests as IYL Director Christiane Raabe, IBBY Executive Secretary Liz Page, and others.
The 8th IBBY Regional Conference is an opportunity to show commitment to promoting international understanding through children’s books, and to join an international community devoted to providing children around the world with equal access to quality literature. This event promises to be outstanding, and is not to be missed.
With thanks to Fiction is like a box of chocolates for highlighting this. I do so agree with what they say: “Some people have a talent, but few are as multi-talented and original as Shaun Tan.” After The Arrivaland now Tales from Outer Suburbia, what will he take our breath away with next?
The Children’s Book Council of Australia has just announced the winners of this year’s awards. I’ve spotted two of my favorite books of the past year among them: Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia (Winner, Older Readers Book of the Year) and Home and Away by John Marsden, illustrated by Matt Ottley (Honour, Picture Book of the Year). Read this rather sobering post from The Book Chook outlining the awards and highlighting possible changes afoot in Australian publishing and their potential effect on the many wonderful small independent publishers in Australia.
Just One More Book has this podcast about Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story by Yumi Heo.
Shelf Elf has a review of Mitali Perkins‘ Secret Keeper (you can also read PaperTigers’ review here).
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is proud to sponsor the longest running children’s festival in Australia: Children’s Book Week. Celebrating its 63rd birthday this year, Children’s Book Week will take place August 16th -22nd with the theme “Fuel your Mind”. Schools and public libraries from all over Australia will spend the week celebrating books and Australian authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians will offer a plethora of activities: author and illustrator visits, workshops, theatre acts, competitions, and storytelling relating to the theme in an effort to highlight the importance of reading.
CBCA is a volunteer run, not-for-profit organization comprised of individual members who are passionate about children’s and young adult literature. To help promote Children’s Book Week as well as their Book of the Year Awards, they offer a range of merchandise that can be purchased to decorate schools and classrooms for Book Week. This year Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan, winner of the 2007 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award for his book The Arrival, has designed the vibrant, eye-catching posters.
On Friday, August 15th, as a kick-start to Children’s Book Week, the CBCA will announce and present their 2008 Book of the Year awards in the following categories: Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Book, and the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. The shortlists for these awards were announced in April and at the same time the unique CBCA Junior Judges’ Project (JJP) was launched. The CBCA Junior Judges’ Project encourages children to do their own judging of the shortlisted books in the annual CBCA Book Awards, based on similiar criteria to those used by the CBCA Book of the Year judges. Once the Short List is announced, students guided by their teachers are encouraged to read the shortlisted books and, based on the judging criteria, select their Winner and two Honour Books in one or more categories and cast their votes online, either through their teachers or individually.
This year I gave my son a picture book for Christmas–nothing earthshaking about that until you consider that my son is in his early thirties and graduated from pictures to the printed word several decades ago. The book is one that my neighborhood bookstore has been selling to adults ever since it came to their shelves, and when I opened it I knew I had to give it to someone I loved. The book is Shaun Tan’s gorgeous book without words, The Arrival, and it is one that is featured on the PaperTigers gallery.
I have given picture books to adults for years, ever since I first began my life as a bookseller, and the illustrators that I yearn to give and to own are most often from Australia, a corner of the world that is covered quite wonderfully on Papertigers by Charlotte.
Just before I moved from the arena of children’s books to a life in SE Asia, a book came to me from Australia that has haunted my imagination ever since I opened it. It is a perfect example of how words and pictures magically combine to create a book that lives forever in the hearts and minds of readers–The Wolf by Margaret Barbalet, illustrated by Jane Tanner. No other book that I have found illustrates so vividly the crippling effects of fearing the unknown, and how facing that fear can turn it into something wonderful. Each picture is a painting, showing a family whose lives become imprisoned by their fear of the wolf who comes closer and closer to their house at night. When it is finally confronted by one of the children, it is revealed as a friendly, lonely creature who only wants shelter and love. Author and illustrator have blended their artistry to create a masterpiece that resonates to all age groups, on many different levels of understanding. If I could, I would give it to everyone I know.
And now–a plea for help–at the same time that The Wolf came into my life, another picture book from Australia also arrived in my workplace and I can no longer remember the title, author, or illustrator. The book however has proved to be unforgettable. It is the story of children playing an imaginary game in the backyard–the text shows the fantasy that the children have created while the full-page pictures show the reality of the game–the garbage can lids that are their shields and their dog who is the prey that they seek. It’s a brilliant depiction of the world of the imagination and I would love to find it again. Is there anybody out there who can steer me toward it?
As we come to the end of another year (already?!?), all children’s/ya book blogging eyes will be upon the Cybils 2007 finalists lists, which are due out on January 1st and 7th… what a great way to celebrate all that’s been happening in 2007 and bridge to all we have to look forward to in 2008.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – well, we’ll be featuring a review in our next update – I’ll put in the link when it’s available…
So now we wait with baited breath… We were a bit slow on the uptake with our own nominations for the Cybils this year but next year we’ll definitely be jumping on the band-wagon too – though choosing which books to nominate will likely be a struggle!
Before I sign off for this year, I just want to point you in the direction of Jen Robinson’s latest Literacy Round-Up – she highlights some wonderful initiatives in promoting literacy and reading aloud to small children, as well as providing much pause for thought, including Daphne Lee’s article about plans to label books in the UK with recommended age ranges… being based in the UK myself, I can see myself entering the fray there!
So, to all those of you who have supported us since the start of our PaperTigers blog in May this year, and to all those of you who have dropped in since (and maybe this is your first time), we wish you a Very Happy and Book-filled 2008!
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.
The fourth grade classroom of Educating Alice’s Monica Edinger sure is lucky to have such an inspiring and committed teacher. Immigration is their year’s theme, so she is working with students on different projects using Shaun Tan’s magnificent, wordless book The Arrival. She has been documenting the experience on Educating Alice and her classblog, featuring comments, podcasts, and photos.
Enjoy, vicariously, the loads of learning and fun they are concocting, or get ideas for how to use the book in your own classroom. They will be working with The Arrival for at least another week, so make sure to check her “In the Classroom” updates.
I’ve just come back from one month in Brazil (where I was, unexpectedly, pretty much incommunicado) to find that I missed the Australian stop of the multi-blog event One Shot World Tour, organized by the same group that put together the Summer Blog Blast Tour and this week’s Recommendations from Under the Radar. Some of the dishes served up at the several-course (Vegemite and all) Australian meal were: interviews with Margo Lanagan and Queenie Chan at 7 Imp Things and the YA YA YAs, respectively, and an exploration of John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series at Jen Robinson’s Page (see full OSWT schedule here).
I’d like to add my contribution, late as it may be, by pointing folks to award-winning Australian writer Susanne Gervay’s latest ya book, That’s Why I Wrote This Song, a cutting edge story set against the rock music scene, about sixteen year old girls connected through music as they search for identity. In a recent article contributed to PaperTigers, Gervay tells us: “[The book] embraces other mediums and technologies, in a collaborative work with my songwriter and musician daughter, Tory, who wrote the lyrics and rock music that are integral to the story (…). The story also has the dimension of film, as a young producer translated Tory’s song ‘Psycho Dad’ into a film clip.” The song and the video are available for downloading from the author’s website.
