Focus IBBY

Abstract

Focus IBBY Liz Page (bio) A Very Special Press Conference The Covid-19 pandemic is having an enormous effect on the IBBY schedule in 2020. The thirty-seventh IBBY World Congress, due to be held in Moscow, has been postponed until September 2021, book fairs have been turned into digital events, and many of our projects have been put on hold. The IBBY-Yamada projects that were reported in the previous issue of Bookbird have either taken place online or have been postponed to a later date. IBBY has also been innovating! The 2020 Bologna Book Fair press conference was held online. The conference was prerecorded, put together in Basel, and streamed on Monday, May 4. Nearly 3,000 people watched the conference on that day. After the event, each part of the conference was made into mini-clips that can be watched on the IBBY YouTube channel; they are still being viewed. The winners of the three 2020 IBBY awards were announced at the press conference by the jury presidents. Click for larger view View full resolution IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award 2020 The unanimous choice of the jury for the IBBY-Asahi Award 2020, Casa Cuna Cuenteros is a group of passionate volunteers who carry out reading and storytelling activities in a children's hospital in Buenos Aires. This group began to make storybooks available to many children and families, and regular storytelling sessions were held in various areas of the hospital. The stories they told were fun and inspired the children and adults alike. Soon enough, a change in attitude was noticed, and they saw many were enjoying reading and listening to stories. Active participation increased at all levels among people coming to the hospital, including the staff. They soon had a collection of books to read from and then even a small library at the hospital. The group has become known for their hard work and successes. They have been invited to provide training and workshops for volunteers as well as offer advice for the setting up of similar programs in other hospitals. The project has seen many heart-warming successes and has touched the lives of many children, teenagers, parents, families, and caregivers. It has also inspired many others to emulate it in other parts of the city and at other hospitals. www.casacunacuenteros.com Click for larger view View full resolution IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award 2020 The winners of the 2020 IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award are Marit Törnqvist from the Netherlands and Zhu Yongxin from China. Marit Törnqvist is a writer and illustrator who has developed reading programs for children that focus [End Page 86] not only on the story but also on the experience of reading and on encouraging children to narrate and illustrate their own stories. Zhu Yongxin is a well-known scholar who has devoted his life to continuous research and activities related to reading promotion, including training and programs for children in rural areas and children with special needs. www.marittornqvist.nl Click for larger view View full resolution Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2020 The winners of the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award are Jacqueline Woodson of the United States as author and Albertine of Switzerland as illustrator. Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1963, and shortly thereafter moved with her mother and siblings to Greenville, South Carolina, where she spent much of her early formative years in the care of her maternal grandparents. At age seven she moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she has since lived. In 2014, her autobiographical work Brown Girl Dreaming was the winner of the National Book Award and Coretta Scott King Award; it is also a Newbery Honor book. It is the centerpiece of her oeuvre, depicting her firsthand experiences of how African Americans were treated differently in the North and South, where her own path to becoming a writer is woven in with her life experiences. Woodson was a finalist for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award and won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. After serving as Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador...