The Pencil by Susan Avingaq illustrated by Charlene Chua

When Susan's mother leaves their iglu to help a neighbour with a birth, she and her sister Rebecca and brother Peter are left in the care of their father. Play for the children includes having a jumping contest, a game of hide-and-seek and the two older girls practicing their letters on the frost surface of the ice window. But when Ataata pulls out the pencil from the special box of Anaana's things, everything changes. The pencil is already very short from Anaana's writing of letters to people in other camps, using whatever paper she might save including from tea boxes and sugar bags, but it is still gold. Anaana always said that we needed to be very careful with the pencil and that it wasn't a toy. Ataata also gives Susan a piece of paper and suggests she draw pictures for her brother. Though nervous, she draws seals and caribou and her family. Then Rebecca practices her writing, and Peter draws some scribbles and their father draws different inuksuit. The pencil gets shorter and Ataata has to sharpen it with his knife. Source: CanLit for Little Canadians

Authors Avingaq and Vsetula understand life in Nunavut, Canada, and embed in the story the importance of being responsible for belongings and caring for them wisely. A helpful glossary of the Inuktitut words (italicized on first reference within the story) is included in the backmatter. Kirkus

Listen to an audio sample here. This book (2019) is available here in Australia but sadly it will be well beyond the budget of most school libraries. 

While we were in Canada my friend and I tried to read lots of Canadian indigenous titles. The Pencil is one we found in library and it is a story that has lingered with me. My friend had talked about this book previously in this blog post. 

At the IBBY Congress in Ottawa IBBY launched their newest list: IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books in Indigenous and Endangered Languages.

This list links with International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032).

The Collection is both a celebration and a call to action. It invites readers, educators, publishers and institutions worldwide to discover the richness of books created in Indigenous and endangered languages, while encouraging the production and dissemination of new works. By highlighting stories rooted in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, it affirms that languages are not only to be preserved, but to be actively used, shared and continuously reimagined. The development of this Collection has been both an ambitious and deeply enriching process. The final Collection offers a journey across regions and traditions, showcasing how children, through more than 152 languages, engage with stories that reflect their realities, imaginations and identities.

Over 500 titles were submitted from around the world and 169 were eventually selected for this inaugural list representing 150 languages. You can see the full list with detailed annotations here. I previously talked about the book by David A Robertson from Cananda that is included on this list. He was a Keynote speaker at the IBBY Congress. 

Here are the criteria for the UNESCO IBBY List:

● Books for children and young people (picture books, novels, biographies, graphic novels and nonfiction) presenting high-quality standards in terms of text and/or illustration; 

● books published between January 2018 and December 2025; 

● books originally published in an Indigenous and/or an endangered language, and original bilingual books including at least one Indigenous and/or endangered language;  

● books expressing the intention of, or relation to, one or more of the 10 outputs of the Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages; and 

● books and publications that adhere to UNESCO principles and respect 

political neutrality. 

Here are a few of the Australian titles:

These books are not included in the IBBY UNESCO catalogue but they were some I read in the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver:

You can read more about these and many others here.

Caramba by Marie-Louise Gay

In the world of this story cats are supposed to fly but Caramba simply cannot.

"It worried him a lot. 'Every cat in the world can fly ... except me'."

"What could he say? That he was afraid to fly? That flying made him dizzy? That he had tried over and over again and failed every time?"

At first his friends Bijou and Bug tease him but then they offer to help. Unfortunately while giving Caramba the experience of flying, they let him go and he plunges into the ocean. BUT wait - Caramba does have a talent - he can swim.

"What are you doing?' cried Bijou. 'Cats can't swim! Everyone knows that!' 'Well I can,' said Caramba."

"Then Caramba leaped off a chair ... and landed in his grandpa's lap.

'Ay, Carama!' cried his grandfather. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm admiring your slippers,' muttered Caramba. 'They're very nice."

This would be a perfect book to read to your preschool or Kindergarten group - it celebrates difference and talents and self-belief, friendship and even kindness. Caramba was published in 2005 but there is a 2022 paperback edition that is still available OR better yet head into your public or school library because they might have this book along with other titles by Marie-Louise Gay - fingers crossed.

I have now discovered there is a sequel:

On the final day of my visit to Canada for the IBBY Congress in Ottawa this month we visited several libraries including The Greenboro Branch of the Ottawa public library service. They offer so many rich programs and even loan membership cards so families can visit museums and art galleries and even the National park for free. Now that's an idea I'd love to see adopted here. 

As we entered the library we spied a cart of library discards - books for just CAN$1 and my friend saw this book Caramba - she knows I love art by the Canadian illustrator Marie-Louise Gay.

IBBY 40th World Congress Ottawa, Canada 2026

IBBY Canada organised a fabulous four-day World Congress in August 2026 with keynotes, roundtables, panel sessions, workshops and poster sessions - this was my fourth IBBY Congress. I also attended two USBBY Conferences in the past. I always leave these events filled with admiration and awe of all the amazing work done by people from every corner of the world who work with children and reading and books. I so admire their passion and intelligence. (and their ability to switch between two or three or more languages).

Prior to the first day we were so privileged to hear about the IBBY Children in Crisis projects with: Patsy Aldana (former IBBY President, and former President of the IBBY Foundation and IBBY Trust),  Basarat Kazim (IBBY Pakistan), and Shereen Kreidieh  (IBBY Lebanon). I will talk about this session in more detail over the coming days.

Basarat Kazim (IBBY President) shared an inspirational short film - I asked her later if there might be a way to view and share this with a wider audience. This is not the film she shared but it is another showcasing her work in Pakistan. Basarat, in her role as president, delivered several inspirational speeches throughout the Congress especially around the theme "Listening to each other's voices".

OPENING CEREMONY 

During the opening ceremony we heard from Monica Ittusardjuat (Inuit) a Residential School survivor who grew up in a time when Inuit lived a subsistence way of life, moving camps and following animals where they were plentiful. Monica shared the story Lighting the Qulliq a wordless picture book showing a grandmother and granddaughter from long ago lighting a qulliq, an Inuit lamp that provides light and warmth to the Earth. It was a hugely emotional moment when she lit a qulliq on the podium.

In the second part of the Opening Ceremony we heard from Honourable Senator Kristopher Wells, PHD. Kristopher is an educator and champion of the 2SLGBTQI+ community who has used research and advocacy to help advance diversity, equity and human rights in his home province of Alberta, across Canada, and around the world. His focus was this year’s theme of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in children’s literature. As part of the 40th IBBY World Congress, we were given the catalogue (included in our conference bags) and we were able to peruse the exhibition titled Reading with Pride: Stories for Everyone. Reading with Pride features over 300 2SLGBTQ+ children’s picture books, originally collected by Senator Wells and expanded through a call to Canadian publishers. I did spy some Australian titles in the book display such as 'Who's your real mum' by Bernadette Green and 'My shadow is Pink' by Scott Stuart. You can hear Kristopher talking about the collection here.

Here is the conference bag and its contents including the Reading with Pride catalogue

Extra sessions and Closing Ceremony:

Sydney Smith Hans Christian Andersen winner 2024

Jon Klassen winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2026

Michel Chikwanine 

David A Robertson

Here are the sessions I attended (I will share more details about many of these in further posts):

PP 02 INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS AND LIBRARIES: BEST PRACTICES

Discovering Lifesaving Books Elena Perikleous Commissioner for the Protection of Children’s Rights, IBBY Cyprus 

Developing a Critical Analysis Framework for Picture Books About Children on the Move Tess Prendergast University of British Columbia, Canada 

An Expansion to the APALA Rubric to Evaluate AAPI Youth Literature (Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Literature) Filipino Diasporic Texts in Focus Cheeno Marlo D. Sayuno University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines 

An Exploration of Classic Children’s Literature through the Lens of Humanistic Education Nasser Yousefi Independent, Canada (texts: Pippi Longstocking, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Little Prince).

 PP 04 LISTENING TO VOICES IN NON-FICTION

Listening to the Sea: Exploring the Fascinating World of Ocean Wildlife with Non-Fiction Picture Books Sabine Fuchs Independent Researcher, Austria 

Books Without Borders: Representing Migration in Non-Fiction for Young Readers Ana Margarida Ramos University of Aveiro, Portugal 

The Power of Voice: Analyzing Puerto Rican Representation in Children’s Biographies Aura E. Gonzalez Robles Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Ruth J. Saez Vega Universidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Adriana N. Sotomayor Pérez The Ohio State University, US

PP 06 IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCES: BELONGING AND IDENTITY

 

Transnational Narrative and Poetic Justice in Children’s Novels by Asian Diaspora Authors in the West Fengxia Tan Nanjing Normal University, China 

Shaping Identity through Memory in Iranian Diaspora Children’s Picture books Maryam Mohammadkhani Independent Researcher/Writer, Canada 

From Looked-At to Heard: Voice, Power, and Immigration Narratives in YA Fiction Aleksandra Strelcova IBBY Lithuania

PP 12 LISTENING TO MIGRANT AND REFUGEE VOICES  

Lonesome Child Refugees – Too Uncomfortable Narratives? Jaana Pesonen University of Helsinki, Finland 

Forgotten Border Crossings: Rethinking Childhood, Belonging, and Unbelonging for North Korean Defectors Yoo Kyung Sung University of New Mexico, USA 

  

 PP 23 REIMAGINING CITIZENSHIP 

Voicing Citizenship: Children’s Civic Agency in Schools, Museums, and Literature Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak University of Wrocław. Poland

The Plural Identity of Brazilian Children’s Literature Maria Carolina Nunes Gobbo University of São Paulo, Brazil

  

Between Critical Hope and Moral Ambiguity: Picture books Mediating Cross-Conflict Youth Dialogue Chang Li University of Padova, Italy

DINNER

Hans Christian Andersen Award Dinner - Michael Rosen and Cia Gao.  Michael Rosen gave a fabulous speech - I do hope it is republished by IBBY either on their web page or in Bookbird. 

EXHIBITIONS

The congress also presented an exhibition for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2026 by some of the most distinguished voices in contemporary children’s literature, whose contributions have made a lasting international impact. Works by winners, author Michael Rosen (United Kingdom) and illustrator Cai Gao (China). Alongside them, the exhibition highlighted books by shortlisted authors: Ahmad Akbarpour (Iran), María José Ferrada (Chile), Timothée de Fombelle (France), Lee Geum-yi (Republic of Korea), and Pam Muñoz Ryan (United States). Along with the illustrators Beatrice Alemagna (Italy), Linda Bondestam (Finland), Gundega Muzikante (Latvia), Walid Taher (Egypt), and María Wernicke (Argentina). 

Other exhibitions - 2025 IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities: IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books in Indigenous and Endangered Languages; The IBBY Collection of 

Children’s Books from and about Palestine (A map for Falasteen); and 25 years of the Governor General's Literary Award Winners (Canada). The exhibitions were staged over three venues and so I sadly missed a couple - The Panda Awards and Folktales reimagined from UAEBBY.

Honour titles I have talked about here: Picasso and the Greatest Show on earth by Anna Fienberg (Australia); Simon sort of says (Canada); The eyes and the Impossible (translation to Dutch); Then and Now by Datsun Tran (Australia); Frindle Files (translation to Turkish); Not Nothing (USA); and Medusa (Translation to Greek). I also spied Silverborn by Jessica Townsend translated into Norwegian. 

On the Canadian Governor General's award stand I spied: The Probability of Everything (one of my top books); Stand on the sky; The Crazy man; Sweep the story of a girl and her monster; and Airborn (Kenneth Oppel).

Sessions I missed that I wish I had attended:

PP 11 WAR AND TRAUMA 

Listening to the Whispers: Giving Voice to Young People in the Midst of War Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Independent Author, Canada

Kan Yama Kan: Building Libraries, Bridging Voices, and Healing Through Books Marwa Al Aqroubi UAEBBY, UAE  

Stories of Hope: Literature Workshops for War-Witnessing Children amid Ongoing Instability in Tehran Hooria Rezaei Ruhr-University Bochum, German

PP 10 MIGRANTS: WORDLESS PICTUREBOOKS AND THE LAMPEDUSA PROJECT 

A Very Powerful Silence Deborah Soria Silent Books—Final Destination Lampedusa IBBY Project, Italy 

Listening to Silence: Building Bridges to Understanding with the IBBY Silent Books Collection Jared S. Crossley The Ohio State University, USA Lisa Pinkerton The Ohio State University, USA

The Narrative Aesthetics and Cross-Cultural Characteristics of Wordless Picture books Qingzhi Zhu Nanjing Normal University, China

I wrote heaps of notes but here are two quotes which resonated with me:

Small Stories Connect the Vast World. 

Delicious and Nutritious Children's books are Food for the Soul.

Canada 2026

I first visited Canada in 1994 and then again in 2012 and 2019. I have now returned from my fourth trip to this huge, and varied country. My visit this time allowed me, and another children's literature aficionado, to attend the 40th IBBY World Congress hosted by IBBY Canada in Ottawa.

Back in 1994 I set myself the target of collecting a picture book from every Province and territory. One of the books I picked up back then was O'Canada. The lyrics of this song, the Canadian nation anthem, hummed along in the background all through my most recent trip.

Here are a few observations about Canada some linked with a picture book (although not all of the books are Canadian).

Bookshops 

No surprise here - I visited heaps of bookshops in Vancouver; Victoria BC; Montreal; and Ottawa - here they are: Kidsbooks Vancouver; Munro's Books (Vancouver Island); Tanners Books (Sidney Vancouver Island); Kaboodles Toy store (Vancouver Island); Upstart & Crow (Granville Island Vancouver); Nooroongji Books (Granville Island Vancouver); Indigo (Montreal); Octopus Books (Ottawa); and one with books all in French which was so much fun Librairie du soleil d'Ottawa. (I will post pictures of some of the book treasures we found in these shops later). 

One of the most moving books I read in a library - we visited four or five - was this one:

Beavers, capybaras, sea otters and groundhogs (and squirrels too)

We didn't actually see a beaver or a capybara or a sea otter in the wild, but we did see them in a 'zoo' called The Montreal Biodome and we watched a wonderful film about a sea otter mum and her baby.

 Groundhogs on the other hand were everywhere on the campus at Carleton University - I didn't know groundhogs were even real. Oddly we did have to navigate lots of misinformation about them - at first I wondered if these little brown guys were chipmunks but we discovered chipmunks are tiny. Then someone told us they were muskrats or perhaps woodchucks. Anyway, we did some research, asked more questions and yes they were groundhogs (woodchuck is another name for a groundhog). On campus they are affectionately known as 'chonkers'.

We didn't see a beaver except on a live cam screen at the Biodome

I found this close up photo on the internet of a Groundhog- 

my photos are too far away - these guys are quite shy but they sure do munch a lot of grass

Capybara image source: Montreal Biodome.

Watch the trailer

At the Malahat Skywalk we also saw a young girl handing a red-tailed hawk - one of those moments to treasure. It made me feel very emotional being so close to such a majestic bird.

Art galleries

We were so lucky to find fantastic exhibitions that coincided with our visit for example at the Ottawa Art Gallery near our hotel we learnt about the life and work of Faith Fyles (1875–1961), the first woman to be appointed as a botanist with Canada’s Department of Agriculture. Someone needs to write a picture book about her.

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa had a very special exhibition by the Canadian impressionist artist Helen McNicoll.

Image source: National Gallery "In the shadow of the tree".

In Montreal there is a children's bookshop called Livres Babar

Sadly it was too far away for a visit this time.

At the Montreal Museum and Fine Art Gallery, we chanced upon an exhibition entitled 'From the functional to the Fabulous: 600 years of decorative arts and design'. They had chairs, computers through the ages, jewelry, and silver tea sets and so much more.

And in Vancouver we spent time at the Bill Reid gallery in preparation for our IBBY Congress which explored Canadian and other indigenous books for children and their creators. 

Suffragettes

The Famous Five statue in Ottawa

Read more here

Canada granted women the right to vote in 1917. Only women who were war widows or had husbands or sons at war were able to vote. Considerations for extending this right were linked to the desire of the nation to remain a “White Settler” land. In May 1918, women citizens (this did not include Indigenous women) were given the right to vote.

Check out my blog post about this book.

Maple trees and maple syrup

We did a fabulous tree walk in Stanley Park and saw some very, very old and very, very tall trees. Our guide was a young tree enthusiast and expert. We saw animal bones dropped by an eagle from a high tree nest, a woodpecker, and a robin feeding her babies in a tiny but precarious nest. Near the end of our walk Colin our guide pointed out a little berry on a plant (you can eat them) with the delightful name: Thimbleberry.

Lakes, rivers, canals and waterfalls

Canada has an abundance of freshwater, with about 20% of the world’s total freshwater resources and roughly 7% of global renewable freshwater supply. Freshwater shapes Canada’s geography, with over 2 million lakes, countless rivers and creeks, and nearly 9% of the country’s surface area covered by water. We walked along canals and beside lakes and saw several waterfalls including the famous Montmorency Falls in Quebec. We took a boat trip on the St. Lawrence River which is the second longest river in Canada and we were lucky to see the locks in action on the canal in Ottawa.

Montmorency Falls Quebec

Residential schools

In 2019 I read this book, Fatty Legs, and then at our conference David A Robertson talked about his book which shares the sad history of residential schools and is written for young children. Sitting in a museum (I think it was in Vancouver at The Bill Reid Gallery) I read Shi-shi-etko and The Secret Pocket. 

In Australia you might read this important book alongside The Burnt Stick by Anthony Hill.

Eagles

On a boat trip from Granville Island (Vancouver BC) we saw several of the famous bald eagles - they were actually very close.

Flower baskets and displays

It is summertime in Canada and every city had the most gorgeous street planter boxes and hanging baskets. 

More to come - conference highlights - I will talk about the richness of the 40th IBBY Congress in a few days including Michael Rosen; Sidney Smith and Jon Klassen! And we met Kathy Stinson, Margriet Ruuers, and saw Barbara Reid in the crowd. 

One more thing - I need to mention the BEST sandwich of the whole trip which we ate on the last day in Ottawa: Chicken avocado club: Brined Roasted Chicken + Cranberry Loaf + Avocado + Chipotle Aioli + Bacon + Smoked Cheddar + Lettuce + Tomatoes Served with choice of House Fries or Salad. YUM!

Speaking of food perhaps you are wondering - sorry we didn't eat Poutine nor did we sample a beaver tail (it's a pastry not the tail of a beaver).