The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is an international nonprofit organization committed to bringing books and children together. The headquarters of IBBY are located in Basel, Switzerland.
In 1952, Jella Lepman organized a meeting in Munich, Germany, called "International Understanding through Children’s Books". Many authors, publishers, teachers, and philosophers of the time attended the meeting and as a result a committee was appointed to create the International Board on Books for Young People.
A year later in 1953, IBBY was registered as a nonprofit organization in Zürich, Switzerland. The founding members included: Erich Kästner, Lisa Tetzner, Astrid Lindgren, Jo Tenfjord, Fritz Brunner, Bettina Hürlimann, and Richard Bamberger. IBBY established an international award called the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1956 and since then has continued to award it every two years.
IBBY has six key aims:
IBBY is composed of more than seventy national sections all over the world. It represents countries with well-developed book publishing and literacy programmes, as well as countries with only a few professionals doing pioneering work in children's book publishing and promotion.
IBBY's policies and programmes are determined by its executive committee: ten people from different countries and a president, elected by the national sections at a general assembly during the biennial IBBY congresses. They work on a voluntary basis. The daily management of IBBY's affairs is conducted from the IBBY secretariat in Basel, Switzerland.
The national sections are organized in many different ways and operate on national, regional, and international levels. In countries that do not have a national section, individual membership in IBBY is possible. The membership of the national sections include authors, illustrators, publishers, editors, translators, journalists, critics, teachers, university professors and students, librarians, booksellers, social workers, and parents. Annual dues from the national sections are IBBY's only source of regular income. Independent financing is necessary to support IBBY activities.
As a non-governmental organization with an official status in UNESCO and UNICEF, IBBY has a policy-making role as an advocate of children's books. IBBY is committed to the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the United Nations in 1990. One of its main proclamations is the right of the child to a general education and to direct access to information. IBBY worked to have the resolution include an appeal to all nations to promote the production and distribution of children's books.
IBBY also cooperates with many international organizations and children's book institutions around the world and exhibits at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and other international book fairs.
The Hans Christian Andersen Award is given biennially to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. The IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award is given biennially to a group or institution whose activities are making a lasting contribution to reading promotion programmes, and the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award is given biennially to two individuals who are working to promote the expansion and development of children’s reading. IBBY also compiles an IBBY Honour List of recommended works for children by outstanding writers, illustrators and translators selected by the IBBY national sections. It is published biennially and first shown as an exhibition during the IBBY Congress. [1]
Each year, an IBBY national section sponsors International Children's Book Day, held in the first week of April.
The IBBY-Yamada Fund supports projects for reading promotion, establishing libraries, teacher, librarian and parent training as well as workshops for writers, illustrators and editors of children's books. The IBBY Children in Crisis Fund was established in 2005 to help children affected by natural disasters, civil disorder or war. The fund seeks donations for projects that replace or create libraries/collections of appropriate children's books and provide bibliotherapy.
IBBY has established several collections of children's books, each with its own focus. The largest is the IBBY Collection of Books for Young People with Disabilities, located at the Toronto Public Library. Every two years, a selection of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities is compiled and catalogued. The Silent Books collection is a collection of children's books without words, created as a response to the need for books on the Italian island of Lampedusa, the destination for many refugees fleeing North Africa and the Middle East. Together with the IBBY Honor List selection, these collections are available as exhibitions.
IBBY has also supported the creation of two virtual collections of children's books: Children's Books in Europe, a collection of books in European languages; and Books for Africa/Books from Africa, highlighting books published in African languages.
The Jella Lepman Medal [2] was first awarded in 1991 to persons or institutions that have made a significant contribution to children's literature.
USBBY produces an annual USBBY Outstanding International Books List. [3]
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature ( ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly by IBBY.
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". The writing award was first given in 1956, the illustration award in 1966. The former is sometimes called the "Nobel Prize for children's literature".
Aidan Chambers is a British author of children's and young-adult novels. He won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Printz Award for Postcards from No Man's Land (1999). For his "lasting contribution to children's literature" he won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002.
Chris Raschka is an American illustrator, writer, and violist. He contributed to children's literature as a children's illustrator.
Lisbeth Zwerger is an Austrian illustrator of children's books. For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1990.
Cecil Bødker was a Danish writer and poet, most known for young adult fiction books about the character "Silas". For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing in 1976.
Bohumil Říha was a Czechoslovak writer best known for children's books. For his lasting contribution to children's literature he received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1980.
Elizabeth Ann Mrazik Cleaver was a Canadian illustrator and writer of children's books. For her contribution as a children's illustrator she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1972.
IBBY Canada is the Canadian National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People, a non-profit organization.
John Burningham was an English author and illustrator of children's books, especially picture books for young children. He lived in north London with his wife Helen Oxenbury, another illustrator. His last published work was a husband-and-wife collaboration, There's Going to Be a New Baby, written by John and illustrated by Helen for "ages 2+".
The International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich is a library that specializes in the collection of children and youth literature from around the world in order to make them available to the public, focusing on the international community. This library is the largest of its kind worldwide, and has been operating since June 1983, in Blutenburg Castle in the Munich district Obermenzing, before this time the library was located in Schwabing.
Phillipena Noël, best known by the name Ena Noël, was an inspirational school teacher and advocate for children's literature and library services to children and young adults. Ena Noël's name is synonymous in Australia with children's literature and with IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People.
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature is the official refereed journal of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). It is published quarterly and distributed by Johns Hopkins University Press.
International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is a yearly event sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), an international non-profit organization. Founded in 1967, the day is observed on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, April 2. Activities include writing competitions, announcements of book awards and events with authors of children's literature.
Ib Spang Olsen was a Danish writer and illustrator best known to generations of Danes for cartoons and illustrations, many of which appeared in children's publications. Those include a series of nursery rhyme books written by Halfdan Rasmussen, including "Halfdans ABC". He also wrote his own children's books, such as the whimsical tale of the seasons, The Marsh Crone's Brew. Olsen drew for newspapers, magazines, books, posters, television, and comics. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator Olsen received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1972.
The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) is a national section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) committed to bringing books and children together.
Jennifer Deirdre Jane Lanthier is a Canadian children's author and journalist. Since August 2016 she has been the Director, U. of T. News at the University of Toronto.
Manorama Jafa is an Indian author of more than 100 books for children, as well as feminist novels for adults, and academic research and writing on children's literature. She has served as Secretary General of the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children and as the Secretary General of the Indian National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2014, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2016.
Read with Me is a reading promotion project in Iran for disadvantaged children in marginal areas of big cities and those living in remote and deprived areas of the country. The project is designed and implemented by the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature in Iran.
The Jella Lepman medal is an award made to individuals and institutions that have made lasting contributions to children's literature. It is named after Jella Lepman (1891-1970), founder of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich. It was created in 1991 to celebrate her 100th birthday. It was reinstated in 2005.
Zohreh Ghaeni is a Children's literature expert, translator, lecturer, researcher and historian. She is the co-writer of the 10-volume research book on the History of Children's Literature in Iran. She is the head of the Read with Me project. She also served as the IBBY Executive committee member from 2016 to 2020.
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