Focus IBBY

Abstract

Focus IBBY Liz Page (bio) Hans Christian Andersen 2018 Award Ceremony at the 36th IBBY Congress 2018 Jury President Patricia Aldana introduced the evening and presided over the bestowing of the Andersen medals and diplomas. IBBY President Wally De Doncker helped in this task. Patricia Aldana’s Speech Welcome to this beautiful building in this most magnificent city of Athens for the very special evening when the 2018 winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award will be honored, as they deserve. I would like to welcome not only all the Congress participants, but also His Excellency Mr. Yasuhiro Shimizu, the Japanese Ambassador to Greece, and his wife, Mrs. Yoshimi Shimizu; and Mr. Vladimir Grigoriev, the Deputy Head for the Russian Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. I also want to take this opportunity to warmly thank Vassiliki Nika and her organizing committee for this fantastic Congress and especially for this impressive venue for this award evening. Before I do anything else, I would like to once again thank our generous and wonderful sponsors, Nami Island Inc., the Minn family, and Mr. Kang. I would like to invite Mrs. Lee Kye Young to the stage to say a few words on behalf of our generous and engaged sponsor of the most prestigious international award for children’s literature. I would also like to welcome five Andersen nominees that are with us today. Please come to the stage to receive your diplomas as I call your name: Vagelis Iliopoulos, author from Greece; Jeannie Baker, illustrator from Australia; Andreas Konstantinides, author from Cyprus; Farhad Hassanzadeh, author from Iran; and Gundega Muzikante, illustrator from Latvia. I would also like to invite Sunji Jamba from Mongolia to come to the stage to receive her brother’s diploma. Sadly Dashdondog passed away after he was nominated. It was an honor to chair this remarkable group of jurors from all over the world. They came from such diverse professional backgrounds and from very different countries and cultures. Yet the meetings and discussions were extremely harmonious and the process of selection remarkably consensual. It has been an honor to chair such a diverse jury and to see how people from around the world can respect, talk, listen, change, learn, [End Page 69] and even come to love one another. If only the rest of the world operated as IBBY does. The jurors in alphabetical order by country; please stand if you are here with us: Lola Rubio, Argentina, an editor and librarian (present) Yasmine Motawy, Egypt, a professor of children’s literature (present) Eva Kaliskami, Greece, a teacher (present) Yasuko Doi, Japan, an international children’s librarian in Osaka (present) Shereen Kreidieh, Lebanon, a children’s publisher (present) Dennis Beznosov, Russia, an international children’s librarian (present) Andrej Ilc, Slovenia, a publisher of adult and children’s books Reina Duarte, Spain, a children’s publisher María Beatriz Medina, Venezuela, the director of the Banco del Libro and a professor (present) Junko Yokota, USA, a children’s literature specialist (present) We met for four days in Basel, Switzerland, in January. The short list was selected there, as were the winners. The jury would like to emphasize the high quality of many of the submissions, especially those on the short list. The first criteria for the selection of the short list and the winners was the artistic excellence of the writing and of the art. Of great importance to the jury was the author’s or illustrator’s ability to connect to children—the use of voice; the credibility of the child’s world; the ability of children worldwide to connect to the work, even if it was very culturally specific and authentic to the creator and her or his culture. The jurors were also interested to explore the creators’ willingness to take creative risks. But ultimately, the selection of these short-listed authors and illustrators, the winners, and the fifteen books that the jurors recommend for worldwide translation was the belief that these works should be read by children all over the world, be accessible and meaningful to them, and enrich their lives and understanding—in IBBY language—build bridges in a time when so many are...