"The IBBY Honour List is a biennial selection of outstanding, recently published books, honouring writers, illustrators and translators from IBBY member countries. The IBBY Honour List is one of the most widespread and effective ways of furthering IBBY's objective of encouraging international understanding through children's literature." Read more here.
Image source and pdf of IBBY catalogue: http://www.ibby.org/fileadmin/user_upload/HL_2018_RZ.pdf
In 2018, 191 books were nominated for the IBBY Honour List in one of three categories - writing, illustration and translation. In this post I will focus on 21 of the 59 titles in the illustration section. Our Australian honour book in 2018 was Teacup illustrated by Matt Ottley. Australia have been lucky to host the 191 books this year. They have been exhibited twice - once in Canberra in 2018 and recently in Sydney at Lost in Books a new shop in Fairfield. Next weekend the books will be displayed once more in Canberra at the Children's Book Council of Australia National Conference.
Country: Austria
Illustrator: Julie Volk
Title: Good morning, little Tram! Guten Morgen, Kleine
Strassenbahn!
Plot: A wordless picture book which follows the journey of a
tram and and its passengers.
Of Interest: Make sure you look for the lady who spends the
whole journey knitting.
I would like to see a copy of Julie's wordless Christmas book Stille Nacht, fröhliche Nacht.
Country: Belgium
Illustrator: Francoise Rogier
Title: Pig's Trick Un Tour de cochons
Plot: The three pigs know the wolf will come but they will
be ready this time!
Of Interest: Take a close look at the 'scratch card'
technique used for the illustrations. You can see more work from Francoise Rogier on this web site.
Country: Brazil
Illustrator: Odilon Moraes
Title: There and Here La e Aquil
Plot: A gentle story about divorce from the perspective of a
child who has to adapt to living in two different houses.
Of Interest: You can see the whole book here and even though
I don't understand the Spanish words you can feel the emotion as the flood
waters metaphorically cover the little girl's original home. This book is a
beautiful example of the power of white space.
Country: Canada
Illustrator: Sydney Smith
Title: Sidewalk flowers
Plot: Take a look at my review.
Country: China
Illustrator: Zhang Ning
Title: The turtle family goes to the sea Wu gui yi qu kan
hai 乌龟一家去看海
Plot: Spring is coming, the little turtle shells wake up
from hibernation and they want to see the sea. The sea is not far away? What
does the sea look like?
Of Interest: The illustrations in this book are very
special. They are made using collage from fabric which has been pulp, batik and
and tie-dyed. You can watch Zhang Ning making her book here.
Country: Colombia
Illustrator: Rafael Yockteng
Title: Two white rabbits Dos conejos blancos
Plot: In this moving and timely story, a young child
describes what it is like to be a migrant as she and her father travel north
toward the US border. They travel mostly on the roof of a train known as The
Beast, but the little girl doesn’t know where they are going. She counts the
animals by the road, the clouds in the sky, the stars. Sometimes she sees
soldiers. She sleeps, dreaming that she is always on the move, although
sometimes they are forced to stop and her father has to earn more money before
they can continue their journey.
Of Interest: In 2003 Rafael illustrated the International
Children's Book day poster for Brazil (see below). This IBBY Honour book is also available
in English.
Country: Croatia
Illustrator: Ivana Guljasevic
Title: Wooden skyscraper Drveni neboder
Plot: The moon tells a story about all the animals that live
in a tree. This book comes with a DVD.
Ivana also works in animation and has produced 30 short animated films.
Of Interest: You can see a film by Ivana here.
Country: Estonia
Illustrator: Piret
Raud
Title: Trooommmpffff or Eli's Voice Trooommmpffff ehk Eli
Haal
Plot: Eli finds a trumpet and she loves the sound it makes
but this trumpet belongs to Siim. What should she do?
Of Interest: I would like to read Piret Raud's book called
Princesses with a twist (Tiestmoodi printsessilood). She was the HCA nominee
for Estonia in 2016. Take a look at her web site.
Country: France
Illustrator: Adrien Parlange
Title: The Ribbon Le Ruban
Plot: Using minimal words each page incorporates a ribbon
into the scene. This is not a book mark it is a vital part of each picture.
"After being sewn for centuries at the top of the slice, the ribbon passes
down, to change your point of view, and also to your hands. Alternately snake
tongue, gymnast's ribbon, shoe lace or gold thread running from a kettle, the
wire undulates and prolongs the illustration out of the paper, all happy with his
new and multiple missions."
Of Interest: You can see the whole book in action here.
Country: Greece
Illustrator: Kelly Matathia Covo
Title: The greedy tortoise E aplisti chelona
Plot: The tortoise declares his shell is too small. He sets
off to find a new one and along the way his patient friend the hare offers
support and quiet counsel.
Of Interest: You can view six pages from this book here. The
tall format works so well as way to contrast the height of the hare against the
small tortoise.
Country: Israel
Illustrator: Naama Benziman
Title: The lost cricket or The cricket with a ticket
Ha-tzatzar ha-taiar
Plot: A cricket is lost and needs to find the way home but
no one will help him. Luckily as darkness falls he meets a kind firefly who
comes to his rescue.
Of Interest: Scroll through this site to see some of the
illustrations from this book.
Country: Italy
Illustrator: Mariachiara di Giorgio
Title: Professional Crocodile Professione Coccodrillo
Plot: Mr. Crocodile loves his job. Every morning he gets up
with an alarm. He brushes his teeth. He chooses the right tie to match his
outfit, eats a quick slice of toast, and heads off to work on a crowded train.
But what is his job? The answer may surprise you.
Of Interest: There is an English version of this book
available. Yes that seems odd because only the title needed to be translated.
Country: Lithuania
Illustrator: Ausra Kiudulaite
Title: Happiness is a fox (Fox on a swing) Laime yra lape
Plot: The story starts with a boy named Paul, who lives in a
cozy treehouse in a big city with his family. And then something unexpected
happens—Paul befriends a wise, friendly fox on a walk home from the bakery. The
fox gives Paul a space to think about what makes him happy and what friendship
means.
Of Interest: In English this book is called Fox on a Swing
and it won the 2019 Mildred L. Batchelder Award which is given to books in the US which have been translated into English. This the first time a book from Lithuania has received
this prestigious award.
Country:
Norway
Illustrator:
Mari Kanstad Johnsen
Title:
I'm going Jeg rommer
Plot:
The Bologna Ragazzi jury said "This wordless picture book tells the story
of a lonely girl who moves house and school and needs to find a way of making
friends. She finds a special rabbit, which she uses to help her make new
friends - a clever device, although she soon discovers that she can be a good
friend without anything special to help her. The pace of the pictures, and
hence the story, varies interestingly – sometimes fast, sometimes more
reflective. A very personal book, it makes its point with gentle humour."
Of
Interest: This is a wordless book and so can be enjoyed by any reader. You can see some of the pages here.
Country:
Peru
Illustrator:
Beatriz Chung
Title: The little girl La Pequena nina
Plot:
The little girl explorers her world with courage and curiosity.
Of
Interest: This book was written to break down the stereotypes that depict boys
and girls doing different things.
Country:
Slovenia
Illustrator:
Andreja Peklar
Title:
Ferdo the giant bird Ferdo - veliki ptic
Plot:
Ferda is a bird. He cannot speak but Ferda would like to make friends and he
would like to fit into society. This is very difficult. He unknowingly drinks the whole lake and
upsets all the residents. He needs to make up for his mistake.
Of
Interest: This is a wordless book with a powerful story that can be read on
many levels. Watch as the size of Ferdo changes reflecting the way he is
treated.
Country:
South Africa
Illustrator:
Irene Berg
Title:
Ink
Plot:
Tinka becomes aware of words, language and writing. She names her family
members one by one: her mum, her dad, her little brother Slip, sister Rosie and
baby Jas. She draws a paper doll resembling a girl like herself on a sheet of
newsprint. The paper doll is named "Ink". Tinka introduces her new
friend to all her favourite story books, because, "A book is like a
friend, with the best stories to tell".
Of
Interest: The author of this book Ingrid Mennen is Irene Berg's mother. This is
their second collaboration. Read an interview with Ingrid and Irene here.
Country:
Spain
Illustrator:
Miguel Cerro
Title:
After the rain Despues de la iluvia
Plot:
The forest is flooded. The animals need help but not from the fox. No one
trusts the fox but he does have a contribution to make. The forest animals just have to
let go of their distrust and prejudice.
Country:
Switzerland
Illustrator:
Evelyne Laube and Nina Wehrle (It's raining elephants)
Title:
Marta and me Marta & moi
Plot:
Marta draws a huge, colourful lion. Suddenly, the lion steps out of the
picture, he is alive and now becomes her loyal companion and best friend. With
the girl’s overflowing imagination, they experience many adventures. They
travel in a boat across the sea, play in the jungle, build a hut, bake a cake,
dance and yell, get mad at each other, and make up again.
Of
interest: It might be fun to compare this book with the classic Harold and the
Purple Crayon and the Bear books by
Anthony Browne. You can read about the team behind It's Raining Elephants here.
Country:
United Kingdom
Illustrator:
Viviane Schwartz
Title:
I am Henry Finch
Plot:
The finches do the same thing every day: they say good morning, they say good
afternoon and good night. That is, unless the beast comes - then it's chaos.
One night Henry Finch wakes up and does something different - he has a thought.
He has lots of thoughts and they inspire him to achieve! Next time the beast
comes, Henry is ready to turn his thoughts into action.
Of
interest: Every child will want to experiment with thumbprint illustrations
after reading this book. Here is a set of teaching ideas from the publisher.
Country:
United States
Illustrator:
Kevin Henkes
Title:
Waiting
Plot:
Five animal friends sit patiently on a windowsill, waiting and watching the
world outside. The owl waits for the moon; the pig waits for the rain; the bear
waits for wind; the puppy waits for snow; the rabbit waits for . . . nothing in
particular. Occasionally, gifts will appear on the windowsill, and a new friend
might arrive, but together they all wait. One day a cat with patches joins
them, and the windowsill friends receive a big surprise!
Of
interest: Kevin Henkes was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his book Kitten's
First Full Moon. His newest book is a novel for older students Sweeping up the
Heart.
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