Share a book on International Children’s Book Day

Have you ever enjoyed a book so much, you have wanted to tell everyone about it, rushed out to buy copies for family and friends or placed holds on copies of the author’s other titles? Research by Clarke et al. (2017) found that many Tasmanian adults enjoy sharing books as members of book clubs. IBBY Tasmanian members are providing a similar opportunity through ‘book sharing’ for young readers across Tasmania to talk about and promote their favourite books.

At last year’s IBBY Congress in Trieste, approximately 20 students from several European countries complained bitterly that adults were not sharing good books and that young adults themselves had little opportunity to share their favourites with other young adults. This led to a small group of enthusiastic IBBY/CBCA members deciding to encourage Tasmanian teachers, parents and grandparents to set aside 20 minutes on April 2 for students/children to share the books they love. Why that date? Wednesday April 2 is Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday also known as International Children’s Book Day.

Bradley (2018) champions recommendations from peers as the best way to inspire students to read. For suggestions on starting a culture of book sharing, Miller considers the importance of adults in sharing their own favourites but that ultimately “No matter how good we are at making book recommendations to a fifth grader, the best person to make a book recommendation to a fifth grader is another fifth grader” (Colby Sharp, 2017). 

Another idea drawn from Miller (2014) and expanded on by Jennifer Findley (n.d.) is book commercials along with other suggestions for providing opportunities for students to make personalised recommendations to their peers of the books that they have read and enjoyed. Further suggestions for celebrating books and reading can be found on BubbleUpClassroom. 

As well as providing young readers with the opportunity to talk about their favourite recent reads, IBBY, Tasmanian children and teenagers are invited to submit a brief paragraph (no more than 50 words) to promote their chosen book and convince others that the book is so good that they want others to read and enjoy it. There are some engaging examples of peer book recommendations on a recent CBCA Tas blog post: What are teenage boys reading for pleasure? Insights from a school library. For those who need some guidance the following prompts provide some pointers to get started: 

• Why did you enjoy the book so much?
• What did you find most thought-provoking or compelling about the storyline or characters? (Don’t re-tell the story!)
• What is the main reason you’d recommend this book to someone else/ what would be the main reason you'd give them to convince them to give it a read? 
• Who do you think would enjoy reading this book?

Email your submission to ibbyicbdau@gmail.com  

Please include the child’s given name, age, and location. Selected reviews will be added to IBBY Australia website. Submissions close Friday 11 April.

 

References

 

Bradely, L. (2018, 27 Feb). How to get your students to read more? Peer recommendations. KQED: In the Classroom. https://www.kqed.org/education/530724/how-to-get-your-students-to-read-more-peer-recommendations

 

Clarke,  R., Hookway, N. & Burgess, R.  (2017). Reading in community, reading for community: A survey of book clubs in regional Australia. Journal of Australian Studies,  41(2), 171-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2017.1312484

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317280010_Reading_in_Community_Reading_for_Community_A_Survey_of_Book_Clubs_in_Regional_Australia 

Colby Sharp. (2017, 25 October). The book Whisperer Donalyn Miller talks about books. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5aVS_Gmi1ls?si=nJVknMfu61cdDlMM 

Miller, D. (2014). Reading in the wild: the book whisperer’s keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits. Jossey-Bass.
[Held by Libraries Tasmania along with other books by this inspiring advocate for reading.]

 

Nella Pickup, reader, grandparent of readers, IBBY & CBCA TAS member 

Jennie Bales, CBCA Tasmania Social Media Coordinator, retired teacher librarian and adjunct lecturer.

Editor’s note: Although written submissions are limited to Tasmanian entries, anyone, anywhere, can set up a book sharing session – at school, at home, in a library, in a bookshop or with friends. Join in and celebrate International Children’s Book Day on April 2.

Why not share a favourite children’s book here?

Join the revolution! Giving every child good books

Nella Pickup recently attended the 39^th IBBY International Congress in Trieste Italy  with its theme to Join the revolution! Giving every child good books. Participating with over 630 delegates from 60 different countries Nella shares some key highlights to capture what she describes as “an awe filled experience.”   This global perspective provides inspiration and affirmation for our own commitment to children, books and reading.

Highlights

An exhibition celebrating the life and work of Jella Lepman, created by artists from different countries and cultural backgrounds.

Michael Rosen's opening address: Literature as the driver for change.

Robert Piumini’s definition of poetry (supplied by children) 

• Poems are words which love each other.
• Poems are words which help the world not to fight with weapons.

Hearing Irene Vasco, joint winner of the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award talk about her fear when dealing with people like Pablo Escovar, and young disenfranchised guerrillas in the Columbian jungles, teaching them Spanish, the language of their oppressors, so they were able to participate in civil life, in the peace process and regain some of their human rights; and the profound sacred and cultural importance of keeping their own languages alive.

Marie Aubinais (ATD Fourth World’s Libraries) IBBY – Asahi Reading Promotion Award 9% of the French population is illiterate. The people in poverty who attend the street libraries give feedback which informs the project – dignity not handouts.

Villaggio per Crescere - a 20-year long project which has seen a decrease from 1 in 20 mothers to 1 in 2 mothers who read to their children. - what a fantastic outcome!

Australian contingent with Monica (2nd left)

Monica Munizaga, from Chile, talked about the Embroidery that thrills project used for people with visual disabilities to read through music, poetry and rhythm. The pieces are made by local villagers (many of whom are illiterate) who take the main bits of a story and embroider it - using various techniques for use by the visually impaired in their community.

Once Upon a border. Stories to imagine a world without frontiers – Mohamed Ba and Deborah Soria. What if the true purpose of borders is not to stop people but to keep their stories from coming out. With 117.3 million refugees worldwide, we should be asking not “what do you need” but “who are you and what is your story”.

IBBY colleague Margot Lindgren has written a comprehensive blog post about the conference that is well worth the read.

Nella Pickup

Reader, grandparent, member of IBBY Australia Inc. and CBCA Tas.

Australian delegates stand with a statue of James Joyce 
prior to the conference.

Editor's note: A timely post to remind us that improving literacy and reading are global issues. The work of IBBY helps us see the broader perspective. Consider joining IBBY Australia to be a part of this world wide community.

Happy International Children’s Book Day

With International Children’s Book Day fast approaching discover more about this special day and a fascinating display of books at Libraries Tasmania Launceston. 

 

Since 1967, the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) has celebrated Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, as International Children's Book Day (ICBD). Celebration aims to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

This year’s ICBD poster, sponsored by IBBY Japan, is a collaboration between writer Eiko Kadono and artist Nani Furiya. The theme is "Cross the Seas on the Wings of Imagination”. Download the poster and flyer to promote this special day.

Locally, Friends of the Library Launceston members, have joined IBBY to hold displays of treasured children’s books (including one from 1896), a selection of Libraries Tasmania’s collection of books by Tasmanian children’s authors and three Silent Books. 

What are Silent Books?

In 2012, when waves of refugees from Africa and the Middle East started arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa, IBBY launched the project “Silent Books, from the world to Lampedusa and back”. The project involved creating the first library on Lampedusa to be used by local and immigrant children. 

The second part of the project created a collection of silent books (wordless picture books) that could be understood and enjoyed by children regardless of language. These books were collected from IBBY National Sections. There are, to date, six collections of Silent Books — you can find them at https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/activities/silent-books

Each collection has a few Honour Books which are highly recommended. Honoured Australian titles are:

• Shaun Tan, The Arrival Lothian 2006 
• Gregory Rogers, The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard and Other Dramatic Tales, Allen & Unwin, 2015 
• Freya Blackwood, The Boy and the Elephant, HarperCollins, Sydney 2021

The display at Launceston Library will continue until 11 April. The Silent Books will join a concurrent display hosted at Ravenswood Library until May. 

Nella Pickup

CBCA Tasmania Life Member 

IBBY Australia Executive Committee Member

Friends of the Library Launceston (FOLL) member

International Children’s Book Day and Eudaimonic Happiness

April the 2nd is a special day – International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) organised by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). Nella Pickup encourages us all to revel in the long term happiness that reading to children can engenderÉ.Start reading!

New Scientist published a feature about the different types of happiness (Flood, 2023) informed by research undertaken by Robert Waldinger. The example given for eudaimonic happiness was a parent reading and rereading (and rereading) a favoured book to a child. Did the parent experience hedonic happiness (short term pleasure) at the moment of rereading? Probably not. But they would achieve eudaimonic happiness described as a long-term flourishing.  

Since 1967, on 2 April, Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, IBBY has celebrated International Children's Book Day (ICBD), a day designated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books. In 2023, IBBY Greece has created a beautiful poster, flyer and poem with the theme 'I am a book, read me'. Scroll down https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/activities/international-childrens-book-day to see the poster and read the poem on the poster or flyer.

Last week, my husband and I experienced our own eudaimonic happiness when our son, visiting from Brisbane, read books to our 2.5 year old grandson and quoted books that we had read to him three decades ago.

Experience happiness - both hedonic and eudaimonic. On April 2, celebrate ICBD – buy a children’s book (maybe even by an international author) and share it with someone special. 

Want to find out more about the international children’s book world? Join  IBBY Australia Inc. Australian members can view Katrina Nannestad as she celebrates this year's theme:

I am a book, read me

Reference

Flood, A. (2023, January 9). How to be happy, according to the longest-running study of happiness. New Scientist. [requires subscription for full access]

Nella Pickup

Happy parent/grandparent, retired librarian, reader, member of IBBY Australia Inc, and Children's Book Council of Australia, Tasmanian Branch

And the winner is….

The Ena Noël Award is IBBY Australia’s Encouragement Award for young creators of Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The Award started in 1994, and Nella Pickup provides us with an overview and the 2022 recipient which has just been announced.

The nominated creator must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and be under the age of 35 at the time the title (or titles) for which they are nominated was published. Many of the winners have become household names including Markus Zusak, Sonya Hartnett and Tasmania’s own Kate Gordon. Visit IBBY Australia for a complete list of recipients.

To be eligible for the 2022 Ena Noël Award, books had to be published in Australia between 1st July 2019–30th June 2021. The submission closing date was November 30^th, 2021 and judging was completed by the end of January 2022. 

The judging panel comes from varied backgrounds in children’s literature – creators, editors, publishers, librarians and booksellers and usually from different states, in 2022, from Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Panellists shared their notes and then met on Zoom. 

In 2022, the panel decided to release the shortlist.  These are the cream of young emerging Australian children’s and young adult book creators. Wish them a long literary future by purchasing their books.

Freda Chiu, A Trip to the Hospital (Allen & Unwin)

Kay Kerr, Please Don’t Hug Me (Text Publishing)

Gary Lonesborough, The Boy from the Mish (Allen & Unwin)

Jessica Miller, The Republic of Birds (Text Publishing)

Kamsani Bin Salleh, What do you call a baby…? (Magabala Books)

Kirli Saunders, Bindi Illustrated by Dub Leffler (Magabala Books)

And the Ena Noël Award medallist for 2022 is Gary Lonesborough, The Boy from the Mish (Allen & Unwin).

You can read more about Gary’s writing in this Kirkus review with Tom Beer.

Nella Pickup

CBCA Tasmania Life Member and IBBY Australia Executive Committee member

Hans Christian Andersen Award nominees for 2022

Every alternate year, IBBY (International Board of Books for Young People) recognises an author and an illustrator for their lasting contribution to the world of children’s literature.   For information about previous winners, current nominees and the Judges panel see https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/awards/hans-christian-andersen-awards

The Australian nominees for HCA 2022 are Margaret Wild for writing and Tohby Riddle for illustration. We all know their names but who are they and why did IBBY Australia nominate them for this prestigious award?

Margaret Wild

Margaret Wild began writing children’s books in 1983. For 16 years, she combined her own writing career with managing and commissioning children’s books with a range of publishers including Omnibus Books, ABC Books, Methuen and Angus & Robertson. Since 2000, Margaret Wild has been a full-time writer publishing over 100 books. Her range is wide - from lyrical books of everyday domestic issues for the very young to more complex works for old readers. Her themes of homeless, imprisoned, dying, lost and the aged and such social concerns as bullying, divorce and Alzheimer’s disease have been said to be unconventional for children’s books. 

Margaret Wild has also written verse and prose novels, including Jinx (2001) which has been translated into nine languages.  

Her awards for personal achievement include 2020 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature; 2011 Lady Cutler Award (CBCA NSW); 2008 Nan Chauncy Award for an outstanding contribution to children’s literature in Australia; and the 2001Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and literature.  

Tohby Riddle

Tohby Riddle created his first picture book in 1989. He has contributed cartoons to Good Weekend and The Sydney Morning Herald. A selection of his cartoons was published in What’s the Big Idea? (Penguin Viking, 2003). Riddle’s illustrations and writings have appeared in the NSW School Magazine, where he has been a member of the editorial staff, and was also editor for a time. 

His works include award-winning picture books, non-fiction and fiction for junior readers, television adaptations and a YA novel. His short stories have been anthologised in a number of collections. He has won and been shortlisted for many awards including: 1996 Winner of the IBBY Australia Noël Award for The Tip at the End of the Street (1996); 2001 Joint Winner of the Wilderness Society of Australia Environment Award (Picture Books Category) for The Singing Hat (2000); 2009 Winner Australian Publishers Association Design Awards Best Designed Picture Book Award for Nobody Owns the Moon (2008); 2009 Winner NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature for The Word Spy (with Ursula Dubosarsky) (2008); and 2011 Winner Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year: Older Readers Award for The Return of the Word Spy (with Ursula Dubosarsky) (2010). In 2016, The Greatest Gatsby: A Visual Book of Grammar was shortlisted for a Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Children’s Fiction) and was included on the International Youth Library’s White Ravens list. 

Tohby Riddle’s intertextual art is complex, engrossing and highly literate. What Tohby Riddle brings to his uniquely layered and perfectly calibrated illustrative art is utter integrity, brilliant wit, complex ideas, intellectual rigour and an ability to witness the world with a willingness to question and to challenge orthodoxies. 

Nella Pickup

IBBY Australia Executive Committee member

Enduring Love of Books

Join Johanna Baker-Dowdell and her personal insights as she interviews Dr Robin Morrow AM.

When I met Dr Robin Morrow it was like meeting an older version of my bookworm self.

Dr Morrow, who founded The Children’s Bookshop in Sydney, was holidaying in Tasmania, but made some time to meet me at Launceston Library, a venue we both thought fitting.

I was interviewing Dr Morrow ahead of International Children's Book Day, but our conversation extended beyond that topic to her appointment as the Australian representative on the International Board of Books forYoung People (IBBY) and the importance of books and reading for children.

She told me it was now as important as ever for children to have books.

"Tactile paper books are important, especially for babies and toddlers. They need to have the drama of turning the pages and examining the end papers,” Dr Morrow said.

Image credit: Paul Scrambler, published in the Examiner 30 March 2019.

"We have to fight to retain librarians in schools and the libraries people have access to so every kid has access to books."

Dr Morrow also told me how IBBY Australia helped pay for library vans that could drive on rubble to visit children not allowed to go outside after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

"They went in with librarians and storytellers to the children and it was the most wonderful thing. They even got children to tell them their favourite book that they had lost, because they'd lost everything, and they would try to get the actual book to that place. It's goosebumpy stuff.”

She is the first Australian IBBY judge for the Hans ChristianAnderson Award since Dr Maurice Saxby in the 1980s.

I mentioned my grandmother, who was a teacher librarian and involved with the NSW Education Department before she retired, had spoken about Dr Saxby when I was younger.

This led us on a different trail, in which I discovered Dr Morrow knew my grandmother well, as both had worked on different sides of the book industry in Sydney.

Working as a journalist in a smallish regional city in a small state means it is likely I will interview people I know, or who know my family, but it was a thrill to meet someone who held my grandmother in such high esteem.

Dr Morrow's own love of books started when her mother read to her as a child, but it was an "amazing English teacher" who fired up the passion for her future career.

"My theory is behind every keen book person there is someone. Sometimes it will be a bookseller or a librarian or a teacher or an aunt or a grandparent; somebody who just gives books, or drags you into the library,” she said.

For me this person was my grandmother.

By the time we finished talking I felt like I’d gained a great aunt as well as a kindred book spirit.

Johanna is a journalist and author of the book Business & Baby on Board.

Blog: http://johannabd.com/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JohannaBakerDowdell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohannaBD

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